(06.10.2018) On October 4, 2018 and as part of Innovation Expo 2018 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands’ state secretary for economic affairs Mona Keijzer presented innovation awards to the no. 1 EU Eurostars projects over the past three years.  The Dutch SME DEAM BV received such award on behalf of the Mariana lung cancer treatment project, for which Ceetron is project coordinator. This Mariana project is a European-wide collaboration between businesses, research organizations, and universities: Ceetron and SINTEF from Norway, University of Cork and Smart Electronics Ltd from Ireland, and DEAM and TUDelft from the Netherlands.

The Mariana team is developing an advanced system for taking biopsy samples through the lungs from the deepest and most difficult to reach regions, at the exact location where an X-ray indicates abnormal activity. The conventional procedure is to reach these areas with needles, from the outside and between the ribs. The Mariana system prevents complications with the conventional procedure, such as a collapsed lung, and reduces the chance of oversights (and therefore incorrect diagnoses) when taking the biopsies.

In a Mariana procedure, the specialist navigates steerable tubing to the right place via a patient-specific virtual lung model, which is aligned with the lungs of the patient on the operating table. The end of the tubes is carefully followed by an electromagnetic tracking system and projected onto the virtual model. For the specialist it is like gliding through the lungs, to exactly the right location.

We are proud of this work in Ceetron, which is clearly outside our traditional CAE space.  We see it as a manifestation of the interest in the medical community in combining traditional medtech with FEA and CFD simulation technology from CAE.  Do not hesitate to contact me at grim.gjonnes@ceetron.com if you are coming from the medical community and would like to explore synergies, at a strategic level, with CAE space.

Grim