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Science & Technology Park
 

Professor Jacques Marescaux will debate with local experts on recent and future innovations in surgical technologies and their relevance to Qatar

Doha, 17 March 2010: The "TECHtalks" event is organized by Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) and Qatar Robotic Surgery Centre (QRSC) in an endeavor to create a regional hub for advanced surgical technologies in Qatar. The event is to generate ideas and stimulate local and international collaboration in surgical practice. Specialists and general public can participate in the event that takes place on Monday 22 March at 19:00 in Four Seasons Hotel.

Prof. Marescaux, as a visionary surgeon and business leader, has always been at the forefront of technical advances in surgery. Prof. Marescaux is also the Founder and Chairman of IRCAD in France, a prestigious training centre in minimally invasive surgery that is also at the forefront of technology development in medical imaging, virtual reality and computer science applications in surgery.

Prof. Marescaux will demonstrate to the audience how applications of computer science are currently revolutionizing surgical practice. He will illustrate this by state of the art examples, including 3D modeling of patients and organs, "augmented reality" and advances in automation using robotic surgery. His lecture will be followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Mr. Sami Zeidan from Al Jazeera International. Local experts involved in the panel are Dr. Abdulla Al-Ansari, Chairman of Surgery at Hamad Medical Corporation, and Prof. Dr. Bakr Nour, Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.

Professor Jacques Marescaux is the Chairman of Digestive and Endocrine Surgery at the University of Strasbourg, and is notable for driving technology advancements and new techniques in the area of robotic and laparoscopic surgery. In 2001 Dr. Marescaux performed the world first trans-Atlantic robotic tele-surgery (the Lindbergh Operation), operating from New York on a patient in Strasbourg. In 2007 he succeeded in surgical gallbladder excision through Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES), without skin incision and without leaving scars.

The IRCAD centre is a pool of digestive cancer research laboratories, a research and development department in computer sciences and robotics, and a training centre in minimally invasive surgery. Its research efforts aim to facilitate computer-guided surgical procedures through the development of automation, virtual reality software meant for aiding the surgical treatment of tumors. An example of such is Virtual Patient Modeling software (VR-Anat) that uses patient-specific data to enable pre-operative assessment and the diagnosis and virtual planning software (VR Planning), which enables navigation and tool positioning within 3D images that can be reconstructed from any multimedia-equipped computer.