Fraunhofer – Continuous Multi-sensor near-infrared 3D scanning system for patient monitoring in radiation treatment

EARTO Innovation Awards 2022 – Impact Delivered Category

The growing life expectancy also leads to increasing numbers of cancer patients. The health care system therefor needs innovative solutions to handle the rising number of patients more efficient and effective.

Innovation: EARTO member Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft – Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF), together with Varian Medical Systems developed an innovative 3D-based system for patient monitoring in radiation treatment. This optical measurement system tracks the patient’s body position accurately with submillimetre precision. The 3D data rate is 20 frames per second. Three individual sensors continuously contribute to an adequate view of the patient even in the presence of occlusions. Easy system calibration and irritation-free and eye-safe operation make the system comfortable both to the clinic staff as well as for the patient.

Impact Delivered: The innovation leads to improved patient setup accuracy, enabling higher radiation doses and fewer treatments. Furthermore, radiation exposure to healthy surrounding tissue, and radiation-based imaging can be reduced and replaced with harmless and irritation-free optical imaging. This innovation is currently in clinical evaluation and is expected to reach the market within the next year. It has a worldwide target market.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is a German RTO, which has a clearly defined mission of application-oriented research, with a focus on key technologies of relevance to the future.

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