Harper University Hospital Research to advance surgery to the next level

The largest award given by the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor provides $3.4 million in funding for a Wayne State University project to advance computer-assisted surgery research. Lead Researcher Lucia Zamorano, MD, a member of the Harper University Hospital neurological surgery team and director of Computer Assisted Surgery and Gamma Knife, intends for this unique research project to bring together an inter-disciplinary team.

This "Integration of Bioengineering and Biocomputing to Advance Michigan Computer-Assisted Surgery Research" has an objective to develop infrastructure and a critical mass of multidisciplinary investigators to advance computer-assisted surgery. "This research project brings together computer engineers, bioengineering experts and neurosurgeons. This will take surgery to the next level by greatly improving surgical outcomes with advanced computation to improve accuracy during surgery," explains Zamorano.

Zamorano explains that patients with brain tumors and lesions and even epilepsy patients will benefit during this computer-assisted surgical research. "Our short-term goals will be to improve surgical outcomes, our long-term idea is to build a national program dedicated to research and training that will allow researchers to continue improving computer-assisted surgery for many years to come."

This grant will also support Harper University Hospital's implementation of the most revolutionary and only Intraoperative MRI imaging equipment in the state of Michigan. The iMRI will assist researchers by modeling surgery in real time.

For an appointment or more information, call 888-HRC-2588