Geometry for Anatomy (11w5018)

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Geometry for Anatomy" workshop from August 28th to September 2nd, 2011.

Medical Imaging is providing clinicians and scientist exceptional views of internal anatomy. In order to take a full advantage of the information provided in the images, first the surfaces of these intricate and complex anatomical structures must be extracted from these images by experienced doctors or resorting to highly-automated computer algorithms to improve efficiency and robustness. The shape and variability of anatomical structures must also be encoded in robust and expressive ways allowing for qualitative and quantitative information extraction. The focus of this workshop is the study of mathematical and computational geometric representations, processing, analysis, and visualization techniques of internal anatomical structures. New developments in these areas of research will continue to provide a noticeable impact on computer aided diagnosis, treatment evaluation, as well as building and analyzing database of normal and pathological anatomy. This will allow scientists to understand the relationship between anatomical shapes, diseases and therapy.

Researchers from the fields of computer graphics, computer vision, image processing, visualization, and medical imaging, as well as clinicians and industrial representatives will be invited for a meeting of minds through invited talks, panel discussions, and brainstorming sessions, under the unifying theme of geometry for anatomy. We believe the outcomes from such a meeting will not only advance the related research areas from a theoretical perspective, help establish communication links and promote immediate collaborations between the different research communities that are rather separate at the moment, but also help accelerate the transfer of technical knowledge gathered on geometry for anatomy into clinical practice for improved healthcare.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).