Innovative technology and research from the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s College London will be exhibited at the largest science festival in the UK, New Scientist Live, between 7 and 9 October at ExCeL London.
The exhibition, ‘Hospital of the Future’ will welcome visitors to delve deeper into the healthcare engineering field through real medical images, interactive and immersive demos along with live explanations.
On show will be the latest advancements in the field including medical imaging, surgical instrumentation, surgical robotics, virtual reality, AI enabled technologies, surgical planning, healthcare applications of 3D printing, radioneuclide imaging and computational cardiology. Visitors can step inside a virtual surgery, become immersed in a virtual heart, control surgical robots, learn how to remove brain tumours and even see how pacemakers are implanted onto the heart. Visitors can also plan brain surgery with clinical software, experience the sensation of touching organs, use novel ultrasound imaging techniques to see inside the human body, control a novel soft robot, and more.
Head of School at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences Professor Sebastien Ourselin said the School’s return to New Scientist Live 2022 shows how engaging the work of the School is for the general public.
“We were invited back to share our stories around new technological developments for healthcare engineering and all that is happening in the field to benefit patients, as well as our healthcare professionals undertaking procedures,” Professor Ourselin said.
“It is also an exciting space for young audiences to immerse themselves in science and explore their curiosity about the vast and ever-evolving field of the engineering behind healthcare treatment pathways.”
A neuro-navigation system and a stealth station will be generously lent by partner Medtronic. The StealthStation S8 neuro-navigation system facilitates intra-operative image guidance and visualisation of complex cranial (brain) and spinal anatomy. Additionally, StealthStation platform acts a central hub in integrating other critical intra-operative technologies used in a neuro-spine operating theatre such as microscope, ultrasound, robotics, imaging, monitoring and other associated surgical accessories.
As well, there will be a Versius robot arm lent by CMR Surgical (CMR) with a VR element, showing 360-degree videos of a surgery being performed so that the user can see what it is like in an OR where Versius is being used. It will also take participants through a Versius virtual reality training where the user can go through the steps of setting up a system using VR, and discover how to incorporate VR into training pathways.
The Hospital of the Future exhibition at New Scientist Live will showcase the breadth of education and research at the School, along with longstanding industrial and hospital partnerships that are integral to accelerating the translational pathway of our medical technologies.