ramtin shams
Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar
“Registration and fusion of medical images such as MRI, CT and Ultrasound is an invaluable tool for planning and execution of medical procedures. Intra-operative scanners lack the precision of pre-operative scanners. We aim to combine pre- and intra-operative imaging information in real-time, which can greatly enhance the quality of intra-operative images and be used to improve the accuracy of surgical procedures such as removal of tumors.”
Ramtin Shams, a PhD student at the Australian National University, has received a 2008 Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship. Ramtin, a graduate of Sharif University of Technology, Tehran with a Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering, will continue his research in medical image analysis at Harvard University from June 2008.
Ramtin’s research project is entitled Real-time registration and fusion of pre-operative and intra-operative medical images for computer assisted surgery. Registration and fusion are the process of aligning and combining various images acquired by different imaging technologies, which often depict information of a complementary nature.
“This process is widely used in medical applications to assist in diagnosis, treatment planning, evaluation of surgical and therapeutical procedures and image guided surgery. Existing applications are however mostly limited to registration of images prior to the surgical procedure.”
“My aim is to develop an intelligent scanner, which is able to produce high quality 3D pictures of the patient’s anatomy in real-time. Existing real-time scanners produce low quality images.
I intend to use image registration and fusion of high quality pre-operative scans with lower quality images taken during the operation, to produce high quality images in real-time and allow the surgeon to have a virtually transparent view of the patient.”, Ramtin explains.
Ramtin hopes the research results are used in operating rooms, helping save lives. To achieve his research goals Ramtin needs access to state-of-the-art imaging and massively multi-processing equipments and his Fulbright will give him the opportunity to access cutting-edge facilities.
Ramtin intends to establish links with American-based scholars in the area of medical imaging and neuroscience, helping his research, and allowing him to expand his collaboration network and become closer to the medical imaging industry in the U.S.
Throughout his studies to date he has received a number of awards including an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) (2007) and the Department of Info. Eng. Scholarship (2007).