Saor Track: A New Science on Screen Animation – Now Available Online!
Professor Pádraig Cantillon-Murphy, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, UCC and Tyndall who leads SaorTrack, worked closely with Clifford Parrott and Christina O Shea of Clare-based animation company Magpie 6 Media to create a one minute animation which captures the complex technology behind this new innovation and how it can impact on patients’ lives.
Magnetic tracking technology is the gold standard for in vivo navigation when line-of-sight is unavailable. It reduces the reliance on radiation imaging and allows for precise instrument tracking within patients. High-accuracy wireless tracking could enhance clinical applications like electrophysiology (EP) mapping and enable new uses, such as capsule endoscopy, which currently lacks anatomical localisation. The ERC-funded SAORTRACK project will validate a wireless magnetic navigation design for cardiology applications, such as EP mapping. This design integrates with existing technology to accurately localise colon abnormalities, enabling quicker diagnoses. The project will also demonstrate high-accuracy positional navigation in capsule endoscopy for the first time, building on innovations from the ERC Deep Field project.
In Europe, 332+ million people live with a digestive disorder, accounting for 10% of all hospital discharges. Consequently, demand for digestive disease screening is predicted to increase as Europe’s population ages. Endoscopies or colonoscopies are used to diagnose digestive disorders, but both are limited by the length of the instrument leaving large lengths of the gastrointestinal tract inaccessible. Capsule endoscopy, which uses a small swallowable camera pill to visualise the patient’s gut, is popular with patients but has not replaced diagnostic endoscopy due to insufficient location accuracy and video coverage.
Saor Track addresses this by using the first on-chip sensor for magnetic navigation with advanced wireless communication to provide real-time location tracking inside the intestines.
Click here to watch the animated video.
SAORTRACK is funded by the European Research Council as part of a Proof of Concept Award (project ID 101189344) and by CÚRAM, the Research Ireland Centre for Medical Devices.
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