September Democratising Healthcare through Technology

Prof Pádraig Cantillon-Murphy, Principal Investigator at CÚRAM, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork, Ireland and visiting faculty at IHU Strasbourg has been awarded ERC Proof of Concept funding for his Saor Track proposal.

How would you describe what you do?

I’d describe myself as a ‘reluctant researcher.’ I’d wanted to be a teacher ever since primary school, through secondary school and even when I got to third level. I love the concept of leading others into knowledge. The analogy I use is that knowledge is like ‘the rag that wipes the window clean’ so that others can see more clearly - so the transition to becoming a researcher was a natural one for me. I started with teaching basic undergraduate courses and now mentor PhD students. To be honest, it’s the PhD students and post-doctoral students that drive me to be as active as I am in my research.

What is your research about?

We are trying to make surgery better, for clinicians, patients and hospitals. The role of engineering has increased significantly in importance in this context over the last 15 years. Surgery is such a complex procedure, with multiple inputs and most surgeons use multiple screens and imaging techniques to help guide them.

We’re working on image-guided surgery with magnetic navigation or tracking technology where line-of-sight is not available. It allows the surgeon to visualise all the tools and devices in the context of the patient on the table and provides highly accurate tracking of instruments, tools and cameras inside the patient. Magnetic tracking also reduces dependence on X-Rays or radiation imaging which were originally designed as a diagnostic tool but ended up as a tracking tool to locate the position of catheters and stents for example. Magnetic navigation is a much safer way to be able to track these devices and provides a better outcome for patients.

How are you doing this?

In our lab, we build small sensors and systems that detect their position. We can track their position inside a patient to within less than 1 mm or 1 degree of error and orientation. Wireless tracking already has broad applications in society, from goal-line technology to Lego robotics, and opens up a broad range of clinical applications where high-accuracy position navigation is currently not feasible. High-accuracy, wireless tracking can transform existing clinical applications of magnetic tracking such as electrophysiology (EP) mapping of the beating heart by dramatically reducing wire clutter in the OR, and simplifying the clinical workflow. We have focussed on solving technical problems like the cost of sensors - in the past, the technology was so expensive, it was limited to high-value procedures in cardiology and neurology leaving it less likely to benefit many patients.

What difference will this project make?

This ERC proof of concept funding will allow us to focus specifically on applying this  technology to colonoscopies. ‘Camera in capsules’ is a technology that’s been around for the last 20 years, but has not really been adopted by hospitals because you can’t guarantee that something won't be missed. Even though the camera technology has greatly improved, it still requires someone to review long hours of footage. Now AI can help with this problem, but the issue is that even when a problem is identified, we have no idea of its location. Our proposal is to use magnetic navigation to track the camera capsule, so that for every timepoint of footage we know its exact location. This provides an added layer of assurance and confidence for clinicians and patients. 

Why is this important?

The EU has a major challenge with gastrointestinal diseases such as colon cancer, which is placing a significant burden on European healthcare systems as populations age. Our technology, ‘Saor Track’, will use wireless position navigation design integrated with existing camera solutions to provide highly accurate localisation of abnormalities within the colon, resulting in more precise and faster diagnosis. This project builds on ground-breaking innovations from our previous ERC Deep Field project, allowing us to demonstrate the feasibility of high-accuracy position navigation in capsule endoscopy for the first time. This work represents the culmination of 10 years of research in magnetic navigation at Tyndall and UCC.

How important is collaboration with other disciplines?

Collaboration has been key to this project and CÚRAM the Research Ireland Centre for Medical Devices has been central to building networks and relationships between researchers, industry and clinicians. I worked closely with Ronan Cahill, Chair of Surgery at the Mater in UCD on a number of projects. It  allows us to translate the research from the laboratory to the clinical setting where its needed. We have a very exciting runway for this project. The team is very passionate about democratising healthcare. What we want to achieve is genuinely cost effective accessible healthcare that enables people of all means to benefit from a diagnosis.

What changes have you seen in Ireland’s research environment in recent years?

This project and these type of collaborations are enabling a new generation of Irish-trained innovators and entrepreneurs to see that this type of technology can be both created and manufactured in Ireland. We already have a start-up company coming out of the laboratory building around this work. We have gotten much better at translating the research from bench to bedside in Ireland. Government investment and the development of cohesive structures in the university sector has helped the research community to feel that these types of studies can be done here rather than having to go abroad any longer.