MICCAI 2016 Daily - Tuesday

Ralph Anzarouth: Wiro Niessen, you are the president of the MICCAI Society: what is MICCAI and what is its purpose? Wiro Niessen: The concept of MICCAI is the conference in which we develop, evaluate, validate, and implement technology that utilizes imaging data to the benefit of medical, research, and healthcare. In the end, the overall aim is to optimally use imaging data for all of the stages in the disease process. This includes detecting disease early through better prognostics and better diagnostics, utilizing imaging data to plan the correct therapy, and carrying it out as planned. This also means utilizing imaging data in combination with technologies in the operating room, in order to optimize the treatments. After treatment, this eventually involves imaging data to do the follow up treatment monitoring. If I would summarize , it’s to develop those techniques and fully explore imaging data in the whole trajectory from disease detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Ralph: Do you think that MICCAI today is fulfilling this role? Wiro: Yes. Of course, you can always improve and do things better. We are really a community of people that make the next step in technology and bring the newest technology toward biomedical applications. Sometimes it is still far from implementation and application in the hospital. Relatively, we are very few clinicians in the conference, but we do have many people who have very close links to hospitals that have implemented systems. Many of the developments that originate from MICCAI Society and conferences are making a big impact in the field and in society. Ralph: How do you evaluate the quality of relations between MICCAI and the industry today? Do you think it’s good? What do you think could be done to improve the ties between the two? Wiro: The connection is very good. The level of interest in the healthcare sector of many high tech companies is increasing. Next to the traditional players in medical imaging technology like Philips, GE, CVPR Daily: Thursday “ We need an ecosystems in which you can jointly develop ” A Word fromWiro 14 MICCAI Daily: Tuesday