Berne, 23 October 2007
Picture of the month: Bernese research team uses statistical models for medical imaging
Knowledge about the average skeleton improves surgical procedures
Although everyone's anatomy is unique, medicine recognizes that there is something akin to the "average skeleton" for certain groups of people. Under the leadership of Dr Miguel Gonzalez Ballester, researchers at the Institute of Surgical Technology and Biomechanics at the University of Berne's MEM Research Center are using statistical and modelling methods to determine characteristic skeletal properties. These offer a technically uncomplicated way –relatively speaking – of providing surgeons with accurate information on patients' bone forms. As the picture shows, the project has involved averaging a vast number of individual pieces of data. The aim of the model yielded by this data is to deliver information about individual variations in bone form that is precise enough to enable non-hightech hospitals to perform minimally invasive surgery.
Modelling an "average" hip joint using a large number of individual items of data makes it easier to accurately define the characteristics of a particular patient's hip joint without the need for intrusive or expensive technical procedures.
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Contact
Dr. Miguel Angel Gonzalez Ballester
MEM Forschungszentrum
Institut für Chirurgische Technologie und Biomechanik
Universität Bern
Stauffacherstrasse 78
CH-3014 Bern
Phone: +41 (0)31 631 59 59
Fax: +41 (0)31 631 59 60
E-mail:
Miguel.Gonzalez@MEMcenter.unibe.ch