Title: Issues of Clinical Relevance

Abstract: The ability to acquire and store radiological images digitally has made this data available to mathematical and scientific methods. With the step from subjective interpretation to reproducible measurements and knowledge, it is also possible to develop and apply models that give additional information which is not directly visible in the data. In this context, it is important to know the characteristics and limitations of each model. Four characteristics assure the clinical relevance of models for computer-assisted diagnosis and therapy: ability of patient individual adaptation, treatment of errors and uncertainty, dynamic behavior, and in-depth evaluation. We demonstrate the development and clinical application of a model in the context of liver surgery. Here, a model for intrahepatic vascular structures is combined with individual, but in the degree of vascular details limited anatomical information from radiological images. As a result, the model allows for a dedicated risk analysis and preoperative planning of oncologic resections as well as for living donor liver transplantations. The clinical relevance of the method was approved in several evaluation studies of our medical partners and more than 2900 complex surgical cases have been analyzed since 2002.

Speaker: Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Prof. Dr. rer. nat., born in Bruch near Cologne in 1945, studied mathematics, physics and economics in Bonn from 1965 until 1971 and worked at the Institute for Applied Mathematics at the University of Bonn for six years. After his Doctorate in mathematics in 1973 and his Habilitation in 1977 he taught as an Assistant Professor at the University of Bonn and was appointed a Chair in Mathematics at the University of Bremen in 1977, where he was one of the founders of the Institute for Dynamical Systems. He is Director of the Center for Complex Systems and Visualization (CeVis) at the University of Bremen since 1992. He was Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz between 1985 and 1991. Since 1991 he is also Professor of Mathematics and Biomedical Sciences at the Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. In 1992 he was elected as a member to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 1995 he founded the Center for Medical Diagnostic Systems and Visualization (MeVis) GmbH, which he chairs as President and CEO. He was visiting professor at universities in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, USA, Mexico and Italy. He is the author of several award-winning books and films which have contributed to make Fractal Geometry and Chaos Theory public all over the world. He is the co-editor of eight international scientific journals. He was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz erster Klasse (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of the first class) for his achievements in science and research in computer aided radiology and surgery by the President of Germany Roman Herzog in 1996. His scientific expertise is in dynamical systems, numerical analysis, computer graphics, scientific visualization, image and data analysis and processing, and computer aided image based medical diagnosis and therapy planning. In December 1999 he was awarded the Karl Heinz Beckurts-Prize 1999, a national research award in Germany. In April 2005, Heinz-Otto Peitgen got the Werner Körte medal in Gold from the German Organisation of Surgery and the Magna Cum Laude Award of European Association of Radiologists. In February 2006, he was introducted in the Hall of Fame of Florida Atlantic University together with Benoit Mandelbrot. In September 2006, he was awarded with the German Prize of Innovation Company Foundation in the category of visionary.