Project description
Steps towards the final clinical adoption of (FUTURA)
Focused ultrasound surgery is a revolutionary non-invasive surgical approach, relying on thermal effects and mechanical cavitation. However, it has certain setbacks, including limitations in accuracy, precision, repeatability and a strong reliance on medical skills. The EU-funded FUTURA2020 project aims to forward the integration of the versatile and flexible robotic platform, which was developed during the FP7 European project FUTURA, to overcome these limitations, into routine clinical applications. Utilising robotics, image guidance, machine learning and navigation techniques, this platform can be validated on large animal models to demonstrate high robustness, adaptability and precision of therapy, and for attracting investors who are needed to support the next developments towards human pilot trials and certification.
Objective
FUTURA2020 aims to exploit the 3-year S&T results of the FP7 European project FUTURA (www.futuraproject.eu) which has been flagged up as a success story and was presented during the European Robotics Forum 2017. FUTURA2020 represents a fundamental step in the path for bringing the robotic platform for Focused Ultrasound Surgery (FUS) developed in FUTURA to the user hands and to the patient bed. FUS is the paradigmatic example of non-invasive surgical approach: it relies on thermal effects and mechanical cavitation produced by focused US beams, without skin incisions or ionizing radiation. However, FUS suffers from an important drawback, i.e. the limited flexibility in therapy delivery, which narrows the applicability to non-moving and non-essential organs, mainly under MR imaging. Considering robotics, image guidance, machine learning and navigation techniques as the tools to overcome these limitations, FUTURA has developed a versatile and flexible robotic platform able to guarantee high robustness, adaptability and precision of therapy, as well as improving safety and acceptability of multifunctional robotic platforms in the surgical theatre. FUTURA2020 has the concrete objective of increasing the TRL of the developed platform from 5 to 7. The FET Launchpad support will be devoted to perform preclinical in-vivo tests on animals and to activate an industrial oriented process More specifically, the in-vivo trails will boost the credibility of the results obtained up to now: they will solicit interest also from investors, who are needed for supporting the next developments towards human pilot trials and certification. In this endeavour, the FUTURA2020 coordinator will gather the best skills also available in the previous FUTURA Consortium, with ad hoc tasks. Even if the FET Launchpad support is financially limited, it is the most appropriate and timely action for making a not incremental step for the final clinical adoption of FUTURA
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinesurgery
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesnuclear physics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringrobotics
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesacousticsultrasound
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
56127 Pisa
Italy