QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Research Innovation in ultrasound Specialist Scientific Consultant at Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT) and IHBI member, Professor Christian Langton makes medical ultrasound accessible to everyone. While Ultrasound is generally viewed as the poor relation within the medical imaging arena, the technology offers many significant advantages. Ultrasound utilises non-ionising radiation which improves safety for the patient and clinician, is highly portable, does not require specialised facilities and is relatively low-cost compared to other medical imaging technologies. Professor Langton explained that “it is universally accepted that the spiralling cost of high-technology healthcare cannot continue and is untenable for the Developed World, who have neither the funds nor healthcare system infrastructure to accommodate imaging techniques such as MRI. This is exacerbated by a tendency for a geographically diverse and rural population.” Professor Langton’s research interests predominantly focus on the ultrasound assessment of osteoporosis and associated bone fracture risk prediction. He was responsible for the development of the widely utilised Broadband Ultrasonic Attenuation technique for the assessment of osteoporosis. Professor Langton’s ex perience in this area uniquely places him to lead the Quantitative Ultrasound Imaging and Characterisation research group at IHBI which aims to put Australia back on the medical ultrasound map. Through his position at Fraunhofer IBMT, Professor Langton aims to create a formal Translational Innovation Pipeline, from concept through commercialisation to clinic. He hopes this will lead to the commercialisation of new quantitative ultrasound medical devices for the assessment of bone in a range of contexts – from the premature baby, to the surviving cancer patient suffering chemotherapy-induced bone loss, to the elder ly individual at risk of an osteoporosis fracture. QUT has established a formal partnership with Fraunhofer IBMT which oversees a range of collaborative research projects. Professor Langton is currently working with scientists at Fraunhofer IBMT to optimise an Ultrasound CT scanner, which utilises sophisticated computer simulation software to predict ultrasound beam profiles for various transmission parameters. The joint team is also working on the development of a novel twin-transducer/display thoracentesis clinical system in collaboration with chest physicians at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital. Professor Langton and his team at IHBI and Fraunhofer believe that with the increasingly elderly population and the need for cost and geographically effective health care, the future for ultrasound is bright.

Health Services Research IHBI’s Associate Professor Adrian Barnett

Statisticians collaborate to identify risks for unborn babies

Still births and birth defects are rare in developed countries like Australia and Germany, however the causes are often unknown. Researchers from IHBI and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg are examining whether exposure to environmental factors, particularly air pollution, has a significant effect on the health of a foetus. Approximately 0.6% of all pregnancies result in still birth, which is the death of a foetus inside its mother any time after 20 weeks gestation. The cause of these still births is largely unknown, however research under way at IHBI and the University of Freiburg aims to better understand the environmental causes of still birth. Associate Professor Adrian Barnett from IHBI and Dr Martin Wolkewitz from the Freiburg Center of Data Analysis and Modelling are using sophisticated statistical tools to measure environmental impacts on developing foetuses. “Environmental exposures are often overlooked when we’re examining why things go wrong with pregnancy,” says Associate Professor Barnett. The research to date suggests that exposure to air pollution does have an effect on the outcome of pregnancy. “We’re also examining if there are particular windows of time when exposure is the most damaging. It might be early in a pregnancy when the foetus is small and undeveloped, or it may be late in gestation when the foetus undergoes rapid growth,” says Associate Professor Barnett. The purpose of this research is to develop more sophisticated analysis techniques that can be used to examine environmental effects on pregnancy, including climate change. This will allow care-givers and pregnant women to be better informed about key times in a pregnancy when exposure to factors such as air pollution should be avoided. ihbi.qut.edu.au

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