Contact:

Prof.dr. J. Dankelman (j.dankelman@tudelft.nl),

Prof.dr. B.H.W. Hendriks (benno.hendriks@philips.com)

About the Project

Smart electrosurgical instruments: Positive margins in tumor surgery remain a widespread problem in clinical practice. Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) is a photonic technology that has previously been proven to accurately distinguish tumor and healthy tissue based on surface measurements.This project aims to determine the technical feasibility and clinical requirements for electrosurgical instruments with real-time tissue feedback based on DRS during surgical interventions in order to avoid critical structures and to obtain clear margins during tumor resections. The idea is to integrate optical fibers in the existing and widely used electrosurgical knife, which consists of a pencil holder and a blade electrode. The work consists of workflow analyses and experiments. Based on the former the role of DRS in clinical practice can be specified. The main object of the experiments is to find out if DRS is still usable when a layer of coagulated tissue due to electrosurgical activity is present as well as to define design criteria for the integration of the optical fibers in the electrosurgical instrument.

Your Responsibilities

At an inspiring interface of medical and technical world, we are developing technologies aimed at providing relevant clinical information for physicians and thereby, improving clinical outcomes. You will participate in the forefront of research developing smart electrosurgical instruments to characterize tissues inter-operatively and to determine the usability of tissue sensing based on DRS during surgical procedures. To this end, you will contribute to novel approaches of optical techniques for real-time tissue feedback during surgical procedures, which has the potential to significantly improve patient’s lives.

Topics addressed are instrument design, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Monte Carlo simulations, and performing experiments in a (pre-)clinical setting. Your responsibilities cover but are not limited to review of state of the art literature and performing experiments on ex-vivo tissues, data analysis from DRS system, evaluation and documentation of results in internal reports and report in detail on your scientific and experimental work.

Your Profile

We are looking for a motivated individual for an internship or Master thesis. You are a Master level student in Engineering (Biomedical, Electrical), Technical Medicine, Physics, Mathematics or comparable with specialization in image processing.

To be successful in your internship, you

• Have a biomedical background

• Have a solid and proven background in programming (Matlab, C++, or comparable)

• Mathematical understanding of complex applications is a prerequisite

• Have a systematic and thorough way of working

• Take responsibilities and act on these

• Are enthusiastic, focused and have a result-driven mind-set

• Possess good communication skills and strong research skills

• It is advantageous if you additionally have a certain level of experience in optical techniques and experience working in a clinical setting.