Roland A. Görlitz

Development and validation of a real-time reduced field of view imaging driven by automated needle detection for MRI-guided interventions

Automatic tracking and scan plane control in MRI-guided therapy is an active area of research. However, there has been little research on tracking needles without the use of external markers. Current methods also do not account for possible needle bending, because the tip does not get tracked explicitly. In this paper, we present a preliminary method to track a biopsy needle in real-time MR images based on its visible susceptibility artifact and automatically adjust the next scan plane in a closed loop to keep the needles tip in the field of view. The images were acquired with a Single Shot Fast Spin Echo (SSFSE) sequence combined with a reduced field of view (rFOV) technique using 2D RF pulses, which allows a reduction in scan time without compromising spatial resolution. The needle tracking software was implemented as a plug-in module for open-source medical image visualization software 3D Slicer to display the current scan plane with the highlighted needle. Tests using a gel phantom and an ex vivo tissue sample are reported and evaluated in respect to performance and accuracy. The results proved that the method allows an image update rate of one frame per second with a root mean squared error within 4 mm. The proposed method may therefore be feasible in MRI-guided targeted therapy, such as prostate biopsies.

The Stroke Manager App—Individual and Mobile Support for Stroke Patients and Their Caregivers

Today, there is a smartphone app for almost everything. Even though “apps” for mobile health (mHealth) seem to be a promising approach to address individual needs of patients and caregivers that are affected by a chronic medical condition, they are still scarce and their benefits have not been studied. Since stroke is the archetype of a chronic disease, this paper proposes an mHealth concept for stroke patients and their caregivers that combines individual information with mobile IT and serious games to support the rehabilitation, therapy adherence, and secondary stroke prevention. Based on literature and initial expert interviews, current shortcomings of German outpatient settings have been identified. They are addressed through the mHealth-based Stroke Manager App (SMA). Its concept has been evaluated by an online survey and the prototype will be evaluated in a field study. In this paper the SMA, survey results and the field study’s evaluation framework is presented.

Umfassende Unterstützung pflegender Angehöriger durch die im regionalen Service Netzwerk verankerte easyCare Plattform

Die Familie ist Deutschlands groster Pflegedienst: ca. 70% der in hauslicher Pflege versorgten Pflegebedurftigen1 wird ausschlieslich von Angehorigen betreut (Pfaff 2011). Dabei steht auser Frage, dass nicht nur die meisten zu Pflegenden hausliche Betreuung mit bekannten Bezugspersonen vorziehen, sondern dies auch volkswirtschaftlich die bevorzugte Losung darstellt, da ambulante Pflege zu Hause als kostengunstiger gegenuber dem Pflegeheim gilt. Der Grundsatz der Pflegeversicherung „ambulant vor stationar“ druckt dabei einerseits die Intention der Gesundheitspolitik aus, die familiale Pflegebereitschaft zu fordern und anderseits die Vorstellung, dass man faktisch immer noch auf die Stabilitat eines Familiennetzwerkes informeller Helfer zuruckgreifen kann (Meyer und Dohner 2006).