Digital Health
Interventional Technologies
This theme focuses on delivering more individualised, less invasive, and more effective interventional technologies to meet clinical priorities. These technologies (both wearable and implantable) will promote ambulatory treatments to help overcome barriers to care access. The theme draws on R&D activities in imaging systems, material science and 4D printing, communication technology, big data collection and analysis. The interventions are and will be scalable and drive economic growth and health outcomes, and result in more spinout companies taking the technology to a global market from NZ as well as positively impacting NZ patient outcomes and workforce development.
Research and Technology
In minimally invasive surgery, there is a need for stereotactic and robotic assist devices, integrated 3-D imaging and intuitive, and artificial intelligence-based consoles for surgical planning. In the field of intensive care, personalised responses to real-time monitoring data are vital to reduce costs and improve outcomes for patients.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s Role
Our research team has expertise in surgical techniques and physiological modelling which is the basis for the new technologies developed.
Developments already in use or being clinically trialled in Aotearoa NZ and internationally include:
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methods of controlling blood sugar levels in intensive care patients – SPRINT and STAR
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a blood glucose control system for extremely pre-term infants under 1.5kg birthweight – GRYPHON
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a model-based system for controlling ventilator settings in intensive care and thus markedly improving the duration of hospital stay and the outcome for the patient – CURE
Surgical expertise and computer modelling techniques are also being used to develop improved, personalised planning prior to liver surgery, an area where the mobility of the organ and individual patient variations present considerable difficulty in conventional surgery.
Data can be collected and used to construct 3-D images of blood-flow dynamics in surgical scenarios at various levels of detail, including systemic circulation, intra-hepatic vasculature and locally within each liver segment. These research areas rely heavily on the associated technical skills of the CMDT team in image acquisition, remote monitoring, design and manufacturing.
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