Anita Schjøll Abildgaard

Gaining context for the research problem we’re trying to help solve

Last week, we hosted a Scithon in collaboration with Stryker, Augmented Vision and Freiburg University Medical Center. We put a group of medical engineers, IT experts, neurosurgeons and urologists in a room to discuss and research methods for advancing Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality in surgical settings. What made this particular group of Scithon Participants unique was the high level of expertise related to the research topic subject matter.  Even before beginning to research the feasibility of AR/VR surgical innovations, almost all of the doctors already had a good baseline of specific features or use cases that would be most beneficial to them.  And the views between neurosurgeons and urologists regarding the usability and implementation of innovative technology in the Operating Room varied greatly. It seemed clear that no matter the outcome of the day’s research, the feasibility of using AR/VR in the OR wasn’t the biggest obstacle to overcome.  So, before we outline the results of the research, we want to the highlight a few of the learnings from the discussions that took place over the course of the Scithon.  These learnings provided valuable context for the day’s research and gave us better insight into the pain points behind the research question.

Coming into the Scithon, it was interesting to see what types of technologies the doctors had begun to familiarize themselves with and which ones they preferred. One of the urologists touted his ‘bootstrapped’ method of incorporating Google’s Cardboard into his work while other teams of neurosurgeons already begun investigating how best to use Microsoft’s HoloLens. Other doctors expressed frustration at the speed of their colleagues’ ability to embrace and adapt to new technologies. And still, others, questioned the practicality of implementing a new technology that will need to be replaced in 3 years or even worse, could be obsolete in that same period of time.  Even with the ability to use groundbreaking technology, there are other issues creating barriers for implementation. Hospital budgets, time spent training doctors,  access to up to date research and data,  IT maintenance, etc are all factors in delayed or even non-use of state of the art technology.

How residents and doctors time is spent was a recurring theme mentioned throughout the day. The finite preciousness of doctor’s time is a never ending issue. Several participants stated it was difficult being able to attend today’s Scithon, let alone focus on their own research. The sacrifice of their time did pay off, as all they agreed that the Scithon was a valuable use of their time. It allowed for a ‘meeting of the minds’ type atmosphere facilitating extensive discussions among a range of medical specialties.    And many were interested in the long-term possibilities of using Iris.AI’s platform to expedite their institution’s research.  Ability to save time was a vital feature that all participants were interested in, regardless of specific technology.

We gained numerous insights from the medical technology provider and manufacturer group of participants as well.  We could relate to them as we were both in the position of watching, in real time, others using our products and platform.  The participants from Stryker shared a few industry insights like Microsoft’s shift from AR back to their primary Cloud based product offerings and how that might affect their future involvement with the AR field.  They also discussed a slight gap between product features and product implementation in the medical field, as some doctors had mentioned their products were too complex for what they needed. Simply put, the current technological solutions were overbuilt.  The feedback is at the forefront of their minds as they continue to create products for the medical community.
They say if you build it, they will come it. Well, now the question is, can they build it? Does AR/VR have a place in surgical settings and if so, how can it best be implemented?

Can Virtual and Augmented reality improve the medical training process?

Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality are changing the world as we know it, every day we are discovering new uses for these innovative technologies. The medical field is one that is especially excited to see the applications of VR and AR evolve, as the implementation of these frontier technologies could improve medical education considerably.  The nature of practical medical training has changed minimally over the last decades. However, the feasible application of VR & AR for medical education purposes could modernize the training process for medical students, requiring less training performed on patients. Understandably when education for treatment methods improves it allows for medical staff to address the needs of patients in an increasingly comprehensive manner. And it It is these notions that form the basis for our upcoming Scithon.

Next week researchers from the Division of Urotechnology, University Medical Center Freiburg, in cooperation with the Department of Augmented Vision, German Center for Artificial Intelligence, and the Stryker Stryker Leibinger GmbH & Co. KG, will gather to compete to find the best approach to implementing these technologies. VR & AR are ever growing fields, with new information published daily, so the teams will us Iris.AI to find the most relevant papers to this query. Because Iris.AI shortens the amount of time needed for research discovery, it enables teams to move to the next stage in research & development more quickly.  This correlates to identifying new solutions and avenues for treatment of patients more quickly which can ultimately save lives.
We are excited to put Iris to work on such a considerable task with far reaching results and benefits. We look forward to sharing these promising results with you next week.

Iris.ai gives students, researchers, and engineers alike, the tools to realize and actualize their (spatial) dreams. And in this case, dreams of making aerospace history.

Two months after SpaceX’s Dragon launch mission, Iris.AI hosted a science hackathon or Scithon as we like to call it, in partnership with the leading composite materials research institute Swerea SICOMP. At the Scithon, we challenged researchers to find solutions to this question, “Can you create a reusable rocket using composite materials?” A concept that SpaceX has been pursuing for 15 years while the research community has been exploring such possibilities for much longer than that. Yesterday’s historic launch was the first step in achieving that milestone by attempting to mimic the reusable nature, lifespan and quick turnaround of planes used for air travel.

Before launch, SpaceX engineers pointed out that there are a thousand ways to fail, but only one way to succeed and identified the areas of possible failure; manufacturing error and material fatigue and wear out.  The areas identified by SpaceX were a generalization of the known obstacles at the time of the Scithon; composite performance issues at extreme temperatures, limited durability against UV exposure and space radiation, and chemical resistance issues with rocket fuels.
Over the course of the Scithon researchers uncovered hundreds of papers to support their claims around creating reusable rockets. One of the conclusions reached suggested that nanostructured coatings provide better high-temperature performance and corrosion protection, based on this paper on the development of radiation shielding of composite space enclosures as a core element of their solution.

The Falcon X launch was supported by multitudes of research, some of which is similar to the conclusions of the Scithon teams.  Two factors aiding to the success of the mission were the ability to quantify the catalytic properties of reusable thermal elements and simulating data for the design of high-temperature composites, method designed by NASA.  And both of these principles relate to the conclusions reached by one of the Scithon teams.

The success of Falcon X coupled with the Sciton results argues that using Iris.AI individuals with no direct background expertise were also able to conduct innovative and groundbreaking research, often reaching similar conclusions to those of dedicated scientists, engineers, and researchers.

Addressing the challenge of achieving healthier lifestyles

Last week, we were at the  Lapland University of Applied Science, in Finland, where  we held a Science Hackathon in collaboration with Hotus and Skhole Oy. The goal of this intensive day long research sprint was to identify the most effective interventions to sustain healthy lifestyles in healthcare. During the sprint, teams of students and researchers collectively sourced over 200 research papers. As a single source, Iris.ai accounted for more than half of all papers. The final results showed that the more time the team spent using Iris.ai, the better it performed during the Scithon.

Each year noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) kill roughly 38 million people, according to World Health Organization estimates. We are well informed about the cause of those deaths, which are driven primarily by four major lifestyle factors: 1) tobacco use, 2) lack of physical activity, 3) the harmful use of alcohol and 4) unhealthy diets. Howeve, we lack extensive information on the most impactful health care interventions to prevent NCD’s.

Working in collaboration with WHO, Hotus, the nursing research foundation, and Skhole, a healthcare eLearning platform, strive to produce reputable evidence-based frameworks and teaching materials to better inform clinical decision-making. NDC’s are one of the major areas of focus for both organisations. Therefore, to accomplish impactful frameworks, researchers devote countless hours to analyzing hundreds of research articles, a daunting task for human minds. The artificial intelligence of Iris.ai is optimized for precisely such tasks. This created a great opportunity to co-host a Scithon.

“Our plan is to create a nursing guideline and evidence summaries related to impacting lifestyles in healthcare. I think that the results from the Scithon are a great starting point for that work. We will use the material as one of the sources for the drafting process.”  — Virpi Jylhä  Researcher, Hotus Nursing Research Foundation

At the Scithon, seven teams comprised of cross-disciplinary students, researchers and professionals gathered to identify impactful measures that enable healthy lifestyles. The teams were asked to use Iris.ai exclusively for the first hour and then were welcome to use any outside research tools of their choice. To find the best possible solutions to the problem statement, the teams were evaluated on both qualitative and quantitative fronts. Judges looked at the team’s research strategy, as well as the quality of their findings and insights (e.g., Did they follow current research trends? Was their conclusion well-supported?). Additionally, the number of papers they found, as well as the relevance of those papers, was factored into their scores.  

“What surprised me and the other judges was the versatility and the scope of the results. The teams managed to find a wide range of relevant knowledge within a short period of time.” –Virpi Jylhä  Researcher, Hotus Nursing Research Foundation

The winning team, Mindhack, concluded that change is a process, not an event. The team is comprised of  Annika Lehmus-Sun, a Master student at the University of Helsinki, Johanna Töyräs, a student Nurse at the Lapland UAS and Niko Männikkö, Ph.D. Candidate at the  University of Oulu. They asserted that both proper stress management and healthy gut bacteria contributed to a healthier lifestyle. A substantial portion of their conclusion was based on research from Plos One on the combined impact of lifestyle changes in body weight and Jama Internal Medicine’s paper on meditation programs for psychological well-being and stress.

Coming in second was Team Etelä-Savon Digiloikkarit, consisting of team members Santeri Seppälä, Licentiate of Medicine, Mikko Lampi, M.Cs. Information Systems, Anu Salpakoski, Doctor of Health Science, and Pirjo Hilama, a Master student at the University of Eastern Finland.  Rounding out the top three was Anagrammi Imperfektissä whose team members included Aarni Karjalainen, Markus Sillanpää and Ville Vilén, all students at Lapland UAS.

Based on the efforts of the seven teams, it was evident that more the maps the team created, the better they fared in the competition. On average teams spent a quarter of the allotted time using Iris.AI, with the winning team spending over half of their time, on the tool. The overall average number of papers found by all teams was about 30 and when looking at the top three teams the average jumps to 48 papers. In total, over 85 research maps were created during the Scithon. The winning team generated the highest number of maps, 18, further proving that the increased use of Iris.ai increases research productivity.