Medical Context

Image guided surgery is today at the beginning of a new era, with convergence of surgery and interventional radiology to develop hybrid minimally invasive techniques for improved patient care, quality of life and cost effective health care. Newly developed interventional therapy and surgery can benefit from the fast improvement of medical imaging techniques with US, CT, MRI, PET scanners. If a robotic system like the DaVinci is now a standard for helping surgeons in minimally invasive surgery, there is no equivalent system for interventional therapy and surgery. A limited number of devices exists, but they lack versatility with respect to all existing imaging modalities, do not provide safety, intuitiveness and ease of use for physicians in the operating room. This main issue is at the center of the SPIRITS project.