Medical Group Technology

Products commercialized by the Calgary Scientific, Inc. Medical Group (CSIMG) rely on core technologies that are developed and patented by Calgary Scientific, Inc. The CSIMG Research Team adapts these core technologies and originates additional technologies as needed to build advanced medical imaging and analysis applications. Highlights include:

Real-time, Interactive 3D Exploration on Standard Desktop and Laptop Computers

Competition amongst video card manufacturers to capture a larger share of the ever-increasing gaming market has driven rapid and impressive improvements in graphics technology available on standard desktop and laptop computers running on the Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Today, graphics processing units (GPUs) that can be installed in standard personal computers are powerful enough to enable real-time, multidimensional visualization of data sets up to several hundred megabytes in size. With colleagues in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we have employed the recent advances in GPU power to develop a technique for rendering 3D images from 2D data. This technique allows us to render CT, MR and other very large medical image data sets at fully interactive rates, using common and relatively inexpensive “gaming” graphics cards. This allows clinicians and researchers to interactively explore the image data in a full 3D environment, rather than looking at pre-calculated 2D projections. [Learn more…]

Ongoing Innovation Leading to Industry-First Applications

The Calgary Scientific and CSIMG Research teams are comprised of talented scientists, mathematicians and engineers who drive leading edge technology into patentable intellectual property. We already hold or have pending patents covering areas that include time/frequency analysis, image registration and segmentation and efficient volume rendering based on gradient quantization techniques. The stimulating and convivial R&D environment we maintain nurtures new ideas and has already given rise to several industry-first applications such as the Lens View with fly-through scrolling, which helps eliminate guesswork by offering interaction with a sharp, magnified, super-sampled region of interest, while maintaining unobstructed global context.

Usability Considered as Critical as Functionality

In striving to make products that make a difference, we understand the need to make them as accessible as possible, to as many medical practitioners as possible. Considerations, in this regard, include affordability, availability and ease-of-use. We hold, as one of our primary product development objectives, becoming the ease-of-use benchmark. In addition to developing powerful and innovative tools, we view the design of a clean, elegant and intuitive interface as integral to advancing our technological edge.

Patented Lens View with fly-through scrolling helps eliminate guesswork by offering interaction with a sharp, magnified, super-sampled region of interest while maintaining unobstructed global context.

The industry-first Edge Enhancement tool highlights tissue interfaces that assist in detection of subtle pathology in organs such as the lung above, vasculature, inner ear and intestine.