Currently, the product has been used in more than thirty clinical trials in the Department of Neurosurgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, involving cerebral hemorrhage, pituitary adenomas, gliomas, meningiomas, craniopharyngiomas, and many other diseases.
According to Professor Wang Renzhi, Director of the Neurosurgery Department at Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) and a doctoral supervisor, "Neurosurgeons not only require a high degree of accuracy in locating the lesion, but also need to understand the relationship between the lesion and the surrounding blood vessels and nerves, so as to avoid damaging these important tissues during surgery. In the past, we only used our experience to reintegrate two-dimensional CT or magnetic **** vibration images of the patient into the brain to form a three-dimensional image. In fact, this learning process is very long and requires a lot of long-term experience. The surgical navigation we developed with Tencent*** is simple, convenient and easy to use, and can help clinicians solve many practical problems."
It is understood that the use of traditional surgical navigation in our country is very low, this is because: the traditional surgical navigation system of the core technology, components are dependent on imports, often millions of dollars in costs is difficult to make this technology really benefit the grass-roots hospitals; the traditional surgical navigation equipment is bulky, the learning and operation of the threshold of the high, the use of the time-consuming, it is difficult to really in the emergency and other real-world scenarios of the application.
In order to fundamentally solve these problems, the R & D team spent three years, the surgical navigation subversive innovative design, not only significantly reduces the cost, but also saves the preparation time, and compared with foreign products have the same degree of accuracy, to complete the surgical navigation system of the localization of the alternative. The new navigation in the premise of higher precision, compressed its cost to one-tenth of the traditional surgical navigation products, filling the gap in the domestic market.
Based on the cutting-edge algorithm capability of Tencent AI Lab and the years of clinical accumulation of neurosurgery department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the home-made surgical navigation system can assist doctors to improve the diagnosis and treatment efficiency in many aspects such as pre-operative and intra-operative.
Pre-operatively, based on artificial intelligence and imaging technology, the surgical navigation system can automatically segment and reconstruct magnetic **** vibration, CT and other images and visualize them in 3D, and through the algorithmic capabilities of Tencent's AI Lab, it can generate a customized three-dimensional "transparent brain" with a single click, which is convenient for doctors to make surgical plans and explain to patients and families. The system is designed to provide a customized three-dimensional "transparent brain" that allows doctors to develop surgical plans and explain surgical options to patients and their families.
The entire system integrates optical localization and SLAM tracking. Through optical localization, the surgical navigation system can track surgical instruments in real time; through real-time localization technology (SLAM), the system can observe the location of lesions from multiple angles without the need for a head frame and reference frame.
Intraoperatively, SLAM tracking enables augmented reality navigation without the need for headstands and reference frames. In the case of a glioma patient, for example, the doctor moves the camera, and the system can show the patient's intracranial 3D structure in real time in relation to the scalp, assisting the doctor to quickly develop the incision.
With the help of a depth camera, integrated deep learning and vision algorithms, the system can realize high-precision one-click alignment between virtual space and real space, and match the generated 3D "transparent brain" 1:1 with the actual situation of the patient for intraoperative navigation.
Data shows that the alignment accuracy can reach sub-millimeter level. The improved algorithmic capability can shorten the alignment time of traditional surgical navigation from nearly half an hour to a few seconds, allowing patients to seize valuable treatment time.
In the actual application scenario, the system can also be adapted with AR glasses according to the doctor's needs to observe the brain from multiple viewpoints and clear the blind spots in the field of vision.
In the future, in addition to neurosurgery, Pentacenter, emergency department, can use the surgical navigation system. The system can also be used for classroom teaching to enhance the ability of primary care services.
Tencent already has a number of layouts in the medical and life sciences fields. during the 2020 outbreak, Tencent's AI Lab had jointly released with Academician Zhong Nanshan's team a research result using AI to predict the probability of COVID-19 patients' conditions progressing to critical condition, which was published in a Nature subissue. Currently, Tencent is integrating computer vision, machine learning, deep learning and other technologies with medicine across borders, assisting doctors in disease screening, diagnosis and treatment, improving the diagnostic accuracy of clinicians and saving more patients' lives.