About Us

A large and growing family of medical interventions involves the placement of some linear surgical instruments. Typical examples include needle based aspirations, injections, local ablation therapies, brachytherapy, but “virtual needles” like high energy X-ray and laser beams are also commonly applied. The majority of these interventions today are performed percutaneously (i.e., across the skin). Recently, a rapidly growing variety of these procedures have been deployed via alternative access routes from within body cavities (rectum, sinus, throat), as well as the vascular and gastro-intestinal systems. Typical guidance methods are computed tomography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, and fluoroscopy. Our lab focuses on development of enabling technology for image-guided percutaneous and intra-cavity procedures. An important aspect of our research is translation of these systems and technologies to clinical trials, through partnership with world-class clinical experts and industry partners in Canada, U.S.A, and beyond.

Multidisciplinary Environment

Our research subject is highly interdisciplinary, spanning across computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and clinical sciences, primarily radiology, radiation oncology and surgery within. Students and postdocs in the Perk Lab come from these disciplines and thus are often co-advised by multiple faculty members and collaborators. Our research program leverages an extensive network of clinical and engineering collaborators worldwide. As I often put it to my students: “If you learn only from me, then you will know only as much as I know, and that is not progress.”

Specific skills taught include medical image analysis (segmentation, registration), motion analysis, pattern recognition, machine learning, physical interfaces (mechatronics, surgical robots, force and position sensors), therapy planning and optimization, system engineering (computer graphics, user interface design, clinical ergonomics). Students take part in implementation, integration and validation, supported by professional research engineers. While tackling fundamental scientific problems, students also participate in translating their technologies to clinical trials on human subjects. These activities expose them to medical imaging, medical physics, anatomy, oncology, surgery and many hands-on problems arising from the clinical sciences.

Close partnership with industry helps to infuse a practical perspective, so that our research projects are not only scientifically novel, technologically innovative and clinically relevant, but also envision commercialization. The Perk Lab has filed over 20 patents and inventions. Students were co-inventors in 80% and lead inventors in 50% of these, learning about the life cycle of intellectual property in practice.

Strategic and Collaborative Opportunities

Image-guided computer-assisted surgery is an inherently interdisciplinary subject. The Perk Lab specializes in translational clinical engineering research that connects with numerous clinical specialties. The Perk Lab is regarded as a world leader in open source image-guided intervention research software and systems, which places my outfit in a unique position to interact with researchers literally around the globe and engage in a wide spectrum of collaborations.

A recent Computer-Integrated Surgery Graduate Exchange Program between the computer-integrated surgery programs at Queen’s and Johns Hopkins allow Perk Lab students to move between the two universities. Students, depending on their particular projects and availability of research funding, can be located at either side and are mentored by multiple faculty, with full transparency between the two locations of the Perk Lab. They can take courses and carry course credits, in both ways. This is a unique opportunity for Perk Lab students who can benefit from working with a vast network of partners in world’s best hospital and biomedical engineering program at Johns Hopkins.

The Perk Lab is a charter member in an array of collaborative groups, centres and consortia, both domestically and internationally. Dr. Fichtinger is a faculty member in Computing, Surgery, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Queen’s and in Computer Science and Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University. These appointments continue to afford the Perk Lab with a wide variety of interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities, some of those outlined below: (Click to learn more)

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