Interventional Systems finished the implementation of the IraSME project “E-GantryMate: Compact MR-compatible device for MRI-guided percutaneous needle interventions”.
The project kick-off meeting took place in October 2019 at the company’s office in Wattens, Austria. It aimed at expanding and motorizing the MR-compatible manual targeting device previously developed by INS between 2015 and 2019.
The project ended this Spring with a final meeting in Freiburg, Germany. Here, the Department of Radiological Diagnostics and Therapy of the Medical Faculty of the Albert Ludwigs University conducted the final testing of the project’s prototypes.
About the project
As part of the IraSME program-funded project, Interventional Systems developed a robotic assistance system, to which UKLFR contributed with MRI navigation and ITP with related markers and instruments. Preclinical application testing was performed by ACMIT. Project management was carried out by CEMIT.
The combined expertise of all project participants resulted in a system that allows minimally invasive percutaneous procedures, such as biopsies or targeted drug delivery, to be performed more safely and quickly inside a closed MR scanner than under X-ray guidance.
To date, there is no small, user-friendly, reliable, and fully MR-compatible robotic targeting system for percutaneous interventions that can be used directly inside the bore of an MR tomograph – i.e., in strong magnetic fields – and monitored with real-time MR imaging.
Project participants
Interventional Systems led the consortium comprised of Austrian and German companies: ACMIT Gmbh, CEMIT, Innovative Tomography Products GmbH (ITP), and the University Medical Center Freiburg, Radiology – Medicine Physics (UKLFR).
The E-GantryMate project was funded in Austria by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs (“Bundesministerium für Digitalisierung und Wirtschaftsstandort”, BMDW) and in Germany by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (“Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie”, BMWi).
The executive organization in Austria was the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (“Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft”, FFG) – program line “COIN Networks international, IraSME” – and the AiF Projekt GmbH – program “Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM)-cooperation” in Germany.
