Rafaela Timóteo awarded at Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge 2023
Celebrating Innovation and Impact in Augmented Reality for Oncoplastic Breast Surgery
In a remarkable achievement, Rafaela Timóteo, a former Master’s student from Instituto Superior Técnico, secured second place at the prestigious Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge 2023 Master Student Award. The recognition comes in honour of her outstanding work in interactive technologies, particularly her groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) application for oncoplastic breast surgery.
Rafaela Timóteo’s winning “Augmented reality environment for oncoplastic breast surgery” project revolves around developing a revolutionary AR application named BREAST Plus. This application, designed to enhance pre-operative planning for breast reconstruction surgery, was showcased on the Microsoft HoloLens 2 headset. The studies were supervised by the Interactive Technologies Institute researcher Daniel Simões Lopes and Champalimaud Foundation breast surgeon David Pinto.
The critical innovation of BREAST Plus lies in its ability to provide detailed and accurate information about the vascular network of the inferior abdominal wall. The application assists surgeons in marking the location of perforator vessels on the patient’s abdominal skin by displaying a high-fidelity 3D digital anatomical model. This model, equipped with clear visibility of perforator vessels, can be aligned with the patient in the operating room.
During the development phase, Rafaela Timóteo collaborated closely with two breast reconstruction surgeons to incorporate their insights and requirements into the user interface. The final interface features a report-like menu, utilising computed tomography angiography (CTA) imaging information. It allows surgeons to manipulate the digital model easily, aiding in manual alignment with the patient’s body.
Rafaela also published a paper regarding the patient’s skin deformation from the CTA scanning position to the operating room position, which revealed “a relevant deformation that can lead to an inaccurate display of the digital models. These results show a need to consider and correct these errors in future digital models”, said the researcher.
The Fraunhofer Portugal Challenge, organised by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, aims to recognise research that aligns with the philosophy of ‘Proposing Futures. Impacting lives.’ The Master Student Award expressly acknowledges outstanding ideas presented by MSc students and researchers, emphasising practical utility and based on graduation theses.
Rafaela Timóteo’s accomplishment highlights her work’s significant impact on the augmented reality field in surgical procedures. Currently pursuing a PhD at the Lisbon School of Medicine, Rafela Timóteo continues her research collaboration with the Champalimaud Foundation and the Interactive Technologies Institute, showcasing a commitment to advancing cutting-edge technologies in the medical field.
Timóteo, R., Pinto, D., Martinho, M., Gouveia, P., Lopes, D. S., Mavioso, C., & Cardoso, M. J. (2023). Skin deformation analysis for pre-operative planning of DIEAP flap reconstruction surgery. Medical engineering & physics, 119, 104025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2023.104025
