A US team has developed novel techniques for implantable cameras that aim to improve patient outcomes.
Utilising evolving technology to enhance the design and functionality of the imaging device has led to a recent $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to integrate AI into a camera.
Like a smart camera for surgery, the device integrates new software and AI technologies to achieve better optics in a small area with minimal light.
The device can be inserted through the same incision used in surgery, avoiding the need for extra incisions. It is also free of tethering wires, which can cause interference and limit camera mobility.
The camera is operated remotely by a robot, providing surgeons with different view angles and feedback during the procedure.
Over the last decade, Jindong Tan, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and his team at the University of Tennessee Medical Centre have worked on developing the fully insertable wireless robotic imaging device for use during minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery.
He explained: ‘We are talking about fewer incisions, faster recovery time, less blood loss and things like that. Hopefully, it’s a camera that provides super vision for surgeons to achieve the best possible surgical outcome. Because during surgery, if you use the regular laparoscope, it could get blurry and folded up, and you need to take it out, which delays the surgery.’
The device has been primarily designed for the abdominal wall or chest area, but Tan’s team hopes to expand the scope to areas of the body with tighter spaces, such as the nose, small joints, or potentially the brain.
Dr Gregory Mancini a general surgeon trained in minimally invasive and robotic surgery, said: ‘The imaging technologies are really allowing us to be more precise, and if we’re more precise, then the patient has a better outcome. It’s going to allow surgeons to do more complicated things in a safer way. There are these very complicated things that we have had barriers to doing, and this is going to enhance our ability to do harder, more complicated surgeries with the same, high-quality results.’
Through advanced technology, the imaging device can be utilised in a more holistic way during surgery.
Tan said: ‘You need a vision for different parts of the surgery. Sometimes you need a global view, sometimes you need dedicated vision, and sometimes you need a vision from a certain side, certain perspective, or certain angle. The camera we are developing will embody that intelligence and those plans.”
Mancini and Dr Jonathan DeLong, a surgical oncologist at UTMD, have been providing feedback to Tan’s group from a surgeon’s perspective. They have enlightened the group on factors during surgery, such as humidity, light and temperature, that may impact the design.
The next step will be to input the information from prior surgeries preoperatively, allowing surgeons to use both the live image and the preoperative image simultaneously.
The team’s ultimate goal is to develop a functional imaging device that can be purchased and utilised by companies for widespread use in surgery.
