Dr. Aslı Okur Kuru

Dr. rer. nat. Aslı Okur Kuru currently at Johnson & Johnson MedTech as Medical Imaging Lead Robotics & Digital Solutions Further Profiles Google Scholar ResearchGate LinkedIn Xing

Dissertation

Challenges in Deployment of Advanced Radioguided Surgery Solutions Abstract: Radioguided surgery is a well-established clinical discipline. However, the devices or systems are not necessarily optimized for the particular needs of the target clinical application. This thesis addresses several challenges associated with the deployment of new technologies or concepts for radioguided surgery in different clinical scenarios on the concrete example of Freehand SPECT, a novel 3D nuclear imaging and navigation system. This includes the analysis of the clinical workflow, definition of the supporting functions of the technology and its modification towards integrated applications. Download: http://mediatum.ub.tum.de?id=1485240

Research Interests

• Radioguided Surgery
  
• Nuclear Imaging
  
• Surgical Workflow
  
• Intraoperative Usability
  
• Medical Augmented Reality
  

Education

• 2011 - 2019
  Technische Universität München - Munich, Germany
  Graduated as Dr. rer. nat. (equivalent to a PhD) in Computer Science, with magna cum laude.
  Research at the Chair for Computer Aided Medical Procedures & Augmented Reality.
  Research funded by CAMP, Nuclear Medicine and Gynecology.

• 2004 - 2010
  Technische Universität München - Munich, Germany
  Studies in Computer Science (minor Mathematics)
  Graduated as Diplom-Informatikerin Univ. (equivalent to a M.Sc. in Computer Science), with distinction.
  Diplomarbeit (DA): Automated Segmentation of Sentinel Lymph Nodes from Freehand SPECT Images of Breast Cancer Patients
  Systementwicklungsprojekt (SEP): Robust Laser Surface Reconstruction
  Interdisziplinäres Projekt (IDP): Erweiterung eines stationären Navier-Stokes-Lösers at the Chair of Scientific Computing (SCCS)

• 1996 - 2004
  Deutsche Schule Istanbul - Istanbul, Turkey

Teaching

• Praktikum Project Management and Software Development for Medical Applications (2015SoSe)
• Praktikum Project Management and Software Development for Medical Applications (2012SoSe)
• Proseminar History of Computational Science, Vision, and Medical Science (2012SoSe)
• Proseminar History of Computational Science, Vision, and Medical Science (2011SoSe)

Student Projects

• Learning-based Surgical Workflow Detection from Intra-Operative Signals by Ergün Kayis (Master Thesis)
• Investigation of the logfiles of freehand SPECT acquisitions for usage characteristics and surgical phase determination by Richard Voigt (IDP/Klinisches Anwendungsprojekt)
• Radiation exposure and protection in radionuclide-guided surgery by Radu Diaconescu (IDP/Klinisches Anwendungsprojekt)
• Patient Data Privacy in ORUse Framework by Kristina Bayer and Peter Maximilian Hirschbeck (IDP/Klinisches Anwendungsprojekt)
• Development of a Matlab analyzation toolkit for 3D lookup tables by Chen Hsuan Shih (IDP)
• Development and Evaluation of a Remote User Interface for Intra-operative Imaging Devices by Max-Emanuel Hoffmann and Tobias Konsek (IDP)
• Analysis of freehand SPECT reconstructions for phantom scans in different configurations using I-125 seeds and a low energy gamma probe by Kanishka Sharma (IDP/Klinisches Anwendungsprojekt)
• Lightweight Framework for Medical Workflow Video Analysis by Johannes Klein (IDP/Klinisches Anwendungsprojekt)
• Modeling and implementing accoustic feedback of a Bluetooth gamma probe by Andrei Mituca (IDP)
• An introduction to OR-Use, a systematic usability data acquisition framework for the operating theatre by Max-Emanuel Hoffmann (Bachelor Thesis)

Publications

Research

Intra-operative Human Computer Interaction and Usability Evaluations Computerized medical systems play a vital role in the operating room, yet surgeons often face challenges when interacting with these systems during surgery. In this project we are aiming at analyzing and understanding the Operating Room specific aspects which affect the end user experience. Beside operating room specific usability evaluation approaches in this project we also try to improve the preliminary intra-operative user interaction methodologies.

Advanced Robotics for Multi-Modal Interventional Imaging (RoBildOR) This project aims at developing advanced methods for robotic image acquisitions, enabling more flexible, patient- and process-specific functional and anatomical imaging with the operating theater. Using robotic manipulations, co-registered and dynamic imaging can be provided to the surgeon, allowing for optimal implementation of preoperative planning. In particular, this projects is the first one developing concepts for intraoperative SPECT-CT, and introduces intraoperative robotic Ultrasound imaging based on CT trajectory planning, enabling registration with angiographic data. With distinguished partners from Bavarian industry, this project has a fundamental contribution in developing safe, reliable, flexible, and multi-modal imaging technologies for the operating room of the future.

Freehand SPECT for Sentinel Lymph Node Localization Nuclear medicine imaging modalities assist commonly in surgical guidance given their functional nature. However, when used in the operating room they present limitations. Pre-operative tomographic 3D imaging can only serve as a vague guidance intra-operatively, due to movement, deformation and changes in anatomy since the time of imaging, while standard intra-operative nuclear measurements are limited to 1D or (in some cases) 2D images with no depth information. To resolve this problem we propose the synchronized acquisition of position, orientation and readings of gamma probes intra-operatively to reconstruct a 3D activity volume. In contrast to conventional emission tomography, here, in a first proof-of-concept, the reconstruction succeeds without requiring symmetry in the positions and angles of acquisition, which allows greater flexibility and thus opens doors towards 3D intra-operative nuclear imaging.

In-PSMA Radioguided Surgery With the advent of 68Ga-HBED-PSMA PET hybrid imaging techniques, even small and atypical localized metastatic lesions of prostate cancer can be visualized. However, these lesions might not be easy to localize intraoperatively. The aim of project is to evaluate intraoperative detection of metastatic lesions using a gamma probe and freehand SPECT after injection of radioactive-labelled PSMA-ligands in correlation with postoperative histological findings.