Key Leadership

Timothy Broderick, MD

Director, Advanced Center for Telemedicine and Surgical Innovation

Associate Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering

timothy.broderick@uc.edu

Chuck Doarn, MBA

Deputy Director, Advanced Center for Telemedicine and Surgical Innovation

Research Associate Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering

charles.doarn@uc.edu

Brett Harnett

Associate Director for Experimental IT, Advanced Center for Telemedicine and Surgical Innovation

Assistant Research Professor of Surgery
brett.harnett@uc.edu

Overview

The Advanced Center for Telemedicine and Surgical Innovation (ACTSI) is a research collaboration between the University of Cincinnati’s surgery department, the U.S. Army and other federal agencies aimed at developing and testing robotic surgery and telemedicine procedures to improve care for injured soldiers—and someday, civilians.    

The program was developed in response to U.S. military personnel’s increasing exposure to hostile environments—and the consequences that limit performance and threaten health:   trauma, biological, chemical and radiation injuries, and physical and psychological stresses.

ACTSI, which is led by telemedicine experts at UC, received its initial $1 million in funding from the Department of Defense in March 2007. The center works with the Center for Surgical Innovation, a core facility for research and education housed in UC’s surgery department, and other resources to conduct telemedicine and robotics research.

Research Focus

ACTSI is a stand-alone program that focuses on telesurgery and telemedicine tools for enabling better care on the battlefield. Working closely with the U.S. Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technologies Research Center (TATRC), the UC team is conducting research that will help improve care in remote places like the battlefield.

Recent projects include:

·         NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 12: Doarn served as principal investigator for NASA’s 12^th undersea mission, which took place in May 2007. The mission focused on further refining surgical technologies to be used in long space voyages. Aquanauts tested two remotely controlled surgical robots in a variety of advanced medical experiments, including robotic telesurgery on simulated patients. Broderick served as an aquanaut.

Technology applications developed and refined during the NEEMO 12 mission will help surgeons overcome interplanetary communication lag time and could improve the care of astronauts on future missions to the moon and Mars. Read more by clicking here.

·         High-Altitude Platforms for Robotic Telesurgery (HAPsMRT): In June 2006, the UC team led the first test of a prototype communications platform for mobile telesurgery: the High-Altitude Platforms for Mobile Robotic Telesurgery (HAPsMRT).

This two-phase telesurgery experiment took place between Simi Valley, California—a desolate and arid area surrounded by hills and plains—and Seattle, Washington.

The HAPsMRT model—developed in collaboration with TATRC and the University of Washington—uses an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or “drone,” as the communications connecting point between a surgeon in one part of the country and a patient located hundreds of miles away. Read more by clicking here.

·         NASA’s “Vomit Comet”: As part of an ongoing collaboration with NASA, Broderick has participated in several virtual reality simulation experiments on NASA’s “Vomit Comet.” In September 2007, he will be part of a team testing a surgical robot known as the M7 in this microgravity environment.

·         Lap Mentor Surgical Simulation: ATCSI recently acquired the LAP MENTOR surgical simulation system. The UC team will integrate the system, developed by Simbionix, in upcoming research projects exploring haptics (sense of touch) in robotic surgery. The system will also be utilized for laparoscopic surgical training in the surgery department’s simulation laboratory.

Collaborators and Partners

U.S. Army/Telemedicine and Advanced Technologies Research Center

NASA

University of Washington

HaiVision

SRI International