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The Challenge will take place from February to May 2024

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What is the Meditech Challenge – Vascular Surgery?

It’s an initiative that allows PhD and MSc students from the University of Trento to collaborate with young vascular surgeons to tackle challenges in the field of vascular surgery. Large companies in the medical tech field are involved as sponsors and mentors. A unique opportunity to explore future scientific and engineering careers in the medical tech sector.

What is Vascular Surgery?

Vascular surgery refers to open surgery and minimally-invasive procedures that treat a range of blood vessel problems. These include aortic aneurysms, peripheral artery disease, carotid artery disease and chronic venous insufficiency. To treat these diseases involves the implant of highly engineered prostheses and stents, the use of operating devices, and data acquisition machinery (X-ray and CAT-scan machinery).

What challenges and topics will you work on?

1. SMART PROSTHESES (STENTS)

CHALLENGE! New designs for metal stents and prosthesis that are more adherent to patient’s anatomy (aortic curve) and can detect failures (movements).

Mechanical engineering
Advanced materials
Computational fluidodynamics
Sensorization and IoT
Additive manufacturing
Biomaterials
Physics and mathematics
Predictive models

PROBLEM: Vascular surgery often operates aneurisms (abnormal and permanent dilation of the arterial wall) by implanting bypass prostheses based on a PTE / PTFE fabric tube and a shape-memory metallic stent that keeps the tube open by means of a radial force. Stents come in standard sizes: however, they need to fit to the anatomy of different patients, which may vary considerably across patients, and within the same patient across time, causing adherence problems over time. Also, the pressure applied by the blood stream may cause malfunctions (movements) of the prosthesis, which may require additional interventions.

IDEAS: Is it possible to conceive more personalized stents, with more adaptable sizes and radial force, and / or that could be tailored to patients’ anatomy right before the intervention, possibly involving additive manufacturing (3D printing)? Can the stent design be improved in a way that the blood stream is less affected (lower turbulence), e.g., by utilizing new materials that allows for a thinner thickness of the prosthesis (PTFE-carbon sandwich)? Is it possible to sensorize prosthesis in a way that they can detect changes in the blood stream pressure and therefore failures? What source of energy should such sensors harvest?

2. SOLUTIONS TO ENDOLEAK TYPE 2

CHALLENGE! New methods and materials to fill the aneurismal sac once the prosthesis is implanted (this avoids the sac to get filled with blood that become prone to thrombosis).

Mechanical engineering
Advanced materials
Computational fluidodynamics
Sensorization and IoT
Additive manufacturing
Biomaterials
Physics and mathematics
Predictive models

PROBLEM: A type II endoleak occurs when, after the implant of a prostheses, small peripheral arteries keep on supply blood to the aneurysmal sac, which becomes unstable and threaten the health of an operated patient. This problem has been addressed by preventive actions during the implant of the prosthesis, such as embolization of the sac with thrombogenic material (but this is not time-efficient) or by filling the sac with a polymer (but this proven to fail due to the mass of the material and mismatch of mechanical properties with the sac). Prostheses with peptide filaments functionalized with amino acids (with a great ability to coagulate blood) have been explored, but not industrialized.

IDEAS: Is it possible to fill the aneurysmal sac with biocompatible materials that allow to seal the arteries that supplying blood? Would hydrogel be suitable, or would it prove to be too heavy? Would aerogel be suitable, considered that its niches would be inhabited by clotted blood? Would compressed sponges be an option, and what could the activating trigger be? Would bidimensional materials attached to the prosthesis be suitable?

3. ROBOTS FOR VASCULAR SURGERY

Two Surgeons Observing High Precision Programmable Automated Robot Arms Operating Patient In Futuristic Hospital. Robotic Limbs Performing Advanced Nanosurgery, Doctors Looking At Vitals On Monitor
Two Surgeons Observing High Precision Programmable Automated Robot Arms Operating Patient In Futuristic Hospital. Robotic Limbs Performing Advanced Nanosurgery, Doctors Looking At Vitals On Monitor

CHALLENGE! New concepts for robots capable of implanting a prosthesis that could be employed for remote operations.

Mechanical engineering
Robotics
Computational fluidodynamics
Sensorization and IoT
Industrial Engineering
Augmented reality
Physics and mathematics
Artificial intelligence

PROBLEM: Implanting a prosthesis involves a high degree of dexterity and expert practical knowledge which involves operating a rotating coaxial systems made of objects that slide and rotate on each other: catheters, soft guides, rigid guides, tracks, and the stent/prosthesis. All needs to be inserted in the artery from one limb (e.g., the femoral artery), and guided up the body until they reach the right position (abdomen or aorta where the aneurysm is). To make things more complicated, arteries can make 90° bends, loops, and there are bifurcations. The haptic feedback provided by the guides to the surgeon is key. Is it possible to conceive a robot and command / feedback system suitable to allow the surgeon to perform a prosthesis installation operation remotely, maybe on standard / simple interventions? This would also solve the RX exposure problem (surgeons need to use live RX to see inside the patient and locate the prosthesis being implanted, and the various devices used for its installation).

IDEAS: There are early robotic solutions in the market (e.g., Magellan, Sentante, CorPath, Robocath, and another Chinese project based on biomimetic manipulation. Other products are little used due to poor ergonomics (joystick interface). A key challenge is ensuring haptic feedback to the interface that has adequate accuracy and instantaneousness (there are studies and experiments done with SEA – Series Elastic Actuators).

4. AUGMENTED SURGICAL INTERVENTION

CHALLENGE! New data-driven systems for supporting the planning and execution of the interventions to optimize outcomes and improve process efficiency.

Mechanical engineering
Robotics
Computational fluidodynamics
Sensorization and IoT
Industrial Engineering
Augmented reality
Physics and mathematics
Artificial intelligence

IDEAS: The model may automatically generate the intervention plan (phases, instruments) given the type of prosthesis to be applied (which could be suggested based on ML – Machine Learning algorithms based on history), possibly generating different plans associated with different risk/success/cost information. The system may combine economic and usability aspects with gamification logics to maximize eagerness for surgeon across the County to annotate and share data from own interventions (e.g., by bringing labelling into the operating room to save time).

PROBLEM: At present, the whole planning of the operation (phases, instruments, as well as the type of suitable prosthesis) is done by the surgeon in a custom way. Some software exists and offers suggestions on selecting suitable stent diameters, but do not give advice on planning the operation. APSS is able to make available timed data of the various phases of an intervention in Daicom format (images with information on times, doses of drugs administered). Is it possible to think of a software capable of supporting the surgeon in planning the intervention, based on a database of planned interventions (and related outcomes)?

Double exposure of Engineer or Technician man with business indu
Double exposure of Engineer or Technician man with business industrial tool icons while using tablet with monitor of computers room for oil and gas industrial business concept.

Are you a company?

Are you a company in the medical device engineering and development sector? You can sponsor the Meditech Challenge.

Participate

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young business man keyboarding on laptop computer with blank copy space screen while sitting in cafe,finger on trackpad of computer,shot touching laptop trackpad,vintage color,selective focus

Are you a student?

Apply your skills in data science, robotics, material engineering, physics and mathematics, to team up with young vascular surgeons and tackle challenges in the field of vascular surgery.

Partecipate

sanità-digitale-strategia-europea-dati
Sanità digitale – La strategia europea dei dati

Are you a resident doctor?

Share your knowledge on clinical practice of vascular surgery and team up with young engineers to ideate solutions to technical challenges faced by vascular surgeons.

Partecipate

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The Meditech Challenge – Vascular surgery is an initiative organised by HIT – Hub Innovazione Trentino in collaboration with

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