Research

The “Institute for Biomedical Image Analysis (IBIA)” – founded in Mai 2002 – has it’s research field in methods of image processing and application in the biomedical domain, especially in image based diagnosis and therapy planning. In this broad scientific range of general interest it has a certain focus on dealing with the development of statistical models of human anatomy and physiological processes. In this particular track current major research topics of the IBIA are:

1) Development, investigation and application of algorithms and methods that allow the automatic creation of statistical models of shape and appearance in 2, 3 and 4 (time series) dimensions. This incorporates the following issues of medical image analysis:

• Segmentation using statistical prior knowledge

• Rigid and non-rigid registration

• Statistical methods for dimensionality reduction

• Statistical methods for classification and (nonlinear) regression

• Deep Learning

2)  Application of the developed statistical models of shape and appearance for diagnostic, therapeutic and interventional procedures. This covers especially the following topics:

• Assessment of pathogenetic factors using 2, 3 or 4 (3D + time) dimensional images (e.g. x-ray,ultrasound, CT, MR, PET, SPECT)

• Investigation of correspondences between specific diseases and specific properties (e.g. shape, inner structure, appearance) of an organ or organ part

• Prediction of relevant parameters for diagnostic or therapy planning using medical image data of patients

• Visualization of pathogenetic variations of shape and appearance among a population

These topics are realized in different projects in cooperation and close interaction with clinicians at the University Hospitals of San Francisco, Vienna and Innsbruck as well as with different scientific and industrial partners.