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ITAG

. INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

. ANESTHESIA &       EXPERIMENTAL SURGERY

OUR LABORATORY IS DEDICATED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE CUTTING-EDGE BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES.

ITAG: Bienvenue

WHAT WE DO

.  INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
.  AUTOMATED SYSTEMS
.  SURGICAL SIMULATORS
.  ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR SURGICAL COMPETENCES 
.  ROBOTIC & TELE-ANESTHESIA 
.  NOVEL BIO-MED INSTRUMENT 
.  DEEP LEARNING

ITAG: Bienvenue

ABOUT US

ITAG was created to combine ingenuity, innovation and scientific creativity for the advancement and the development of medical technology, the well-being and safety of patients, and the training of future professionals whose talents and knowledge will serve and contribute to continue to revolutionize the healthcare environment in all its aspects.

ITAG laboratory specializes in the development of advanced and innovative biomedical technologies. Surgical simulators, decision support systems, automation of medical procedures, competences simulators evaluators, robotics, just to name a few.


As a pioneer, our laboratory is at the origin of more than 5 world firsts: McSleepy, Transcontinental Anesthesia, McSleepy meet DaVinci : first completely robotic surgery, KIS: Kepler Intubation System, Magellan: first robotic ultrasound-guided nerve block. 


We have the pleasure to count many collaborators in some of the most renowned European and American University hospitals and we do welcome international students and fellows.


ITAG has added another string to its bow by developing surgical simulators. In collaboration with the Departments of Experimental Surgery and Plastic Surgery (since 2012),and more recently with the specialty of Bariatric Surgery (2021), simulators have been developed to allow medical residents to perfect certain techniques and practices. The MAMO (Montreal Augmentation Mammoplasty Operation) and the Bariatric Surgery simulators are the most on demand at the moment.

ITAG also develops tracking systems and mobile applications to complement the experience of our surgical simulators.

Several of our inventions are patented. They are also intended to be used outside institutional walls in order to better serve their purposes.

DIRECTOR

Dr THOMAS M. HEMMERLING 

The ITAG laboratory was established at McGill in 2006, but its history began long before that, under the leadership of Dr. Thomas M. Hemmerling MD. DEAA. MSc.

Dr Hemmerling has received his MD Degree from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Saarland (Germany), in 1980. He is an associate professor of the Department of Anesthesia and Division of Experimental Surgery at McGill University, and is affiliated to the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Montreal (Montreal, Canada). He is an associate editor (section Technology) for the Anesthesia & Analgesia Journal and Head of the Research Committee Chair for the STA - Society for Technology in Anesthesia.


https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas-Hemmerling

ITAG: À propos de nous
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McSleepy

World’s first totally automated administration of anesthetics. Nicknamed “McSleepy,” the system drugs for general anesthesia and monitors their separate effects completely automatically, with no manual intervention.
Using these three separate parameters and complex algorithms, the automated system calculates faster and more precisely than a human can the appropriate drug doses for any given moment of anesthesia. “McSleepy” assists the anesthesiologist in the same way an automatic transmission assists people when driving. As such, anesthesiologists can focus more on other aspects of direct patient care. An additional feature is that the system can communicate with personal digital assistants (PDAs), making distant monitoring and anesthetic control possible. In addition, this technology can be easily incorporated into modern medical teaching programs such as simulation centers and web-based learning platforms.

Sat-Map

Sat-Map is an inexpensive software-based tool that utilizes ultrasound (US) imaging and an online platform to provide accurate regional fat distribution and volume estimations in plastic surgery. It was developed as a companion tool in order to help improve surgical planning, measuring and executing the transfer of fat tissues, thus optimizing patient outcomes from liposuction-based procedures. Ultimately, Sat-Map brings forth an innovative scientific touch to the artistic aspect of aesthetic and reconstructive surgeries.

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Nerve Map

Ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blocks (UGPNB) are used to administer anesthesia to certain nerve regions of the body to reduce the feeling of pain before or after surgical procedures by guiding a needle toward a nerve of interest and injecting an anesthetic into the surrounding area. One of the most critical components of ultrasound-guided nerve blocks is the accurate detection of a nerve within an ultrasound image. Classifying the various types of tissue in a noisy, greyscale ultrasound feed is a daunting task. Therefore, a deep learning software solution is proposed to address these limitations by actively highlighting nerve regions in real-time ultrasound feeds. So far, the software is capable of automatically locating the Femoral Nerve and the Transversus Abdominis Plane, however, we are advancing towards adding additional important nerve regions.

MAMO

Surgical residents' exposure to aesthetic procedures remains limited in residency training. The development of the MAMO - Montreal Augmentation Mammoplasty Operation simulator aims to provide an adjunctive training method and assessment tool to complement the evolving competency-based surgical curriculum.
The MAMO allows to perform face, content, and construct validations of the MAMO simulator for subpectoral breast augmentation procedures and assess the reliability of the assessment scales used.

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Bariatric Simulator

Having nearly tripled since 1975, the incidence of obesity continues to increase globally. As a substantial future component of the patient population, high-level training in the management of obese surgical patients is becoming increasingly important.  This increasing demand in the field of bariatric surgery - a surgical subspecialty focused on operations that can help obese individuals lose weight - has led our group to formulate novel solutions to this training problem via medical simulation. In this specific project, we have aimed to construct and validate a bariatric-specific laparoscopic surgical task trainer. Our goal is to highlight the potential for simulation as a tool to improve bariatric surgical education and positively impact future patient outcomes. Once established, we hope to further expand the scope of our task trainer by simulating specific complex procedures and branch out into new surgical subspecialties such as urology or gynecology.

ITAG: Projets

PROJECTS

HERE IS A SELECTION OF PROJECTS DEVELOPED & PRESENTED ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE BY ITAG.

WORLD FIRSTS

  • 2013 - The Magellan™. First robotic ultrasound-guided nerve block in humans.

  • 2011 - Kepler Intubation System™ (KIS) : First intubation robot.

  • 2010 - McSleepy™ meets DaVinci; first-ever all-robotic surgery and anesthesia.

  • 2010 - Transcontinental Anesthesia.

  • 2008 - McSleepy™ A completely automated anesthesia system.



PAST & ONGOING

  • Ultrasound-guided nerve block using Deep Learning (Nerve-Map™)

  • Optimization of surgical technique by objective quantification and reconstruction of adipose tissue volume (Sat-Map™)

  • Face, content and construct of a novel bariatric laparoscopic task trainer (Bariatric Simulator™)

  • MAMO - Montreal Augmentation Mammoplasty Operation simulator. A novel part-task trainer for plastic surgery.

  • The Fluidometer™ : A new intra-operative fluid management aid.

  • Automatic ultrasound nerve detection (Nerve-GPS)

  • Nerve imaging for automatic nerve detection software testing

  • Improvement of nerve block accuracy and software analysis using robot assistance

  • Comparaison of endotracheal intubation performance of medical students and anesthesia residents using a novel adjustable airway mannequin.

  • Influence of age on the performance of anesthesiologists.

  • Face, content and construct validation of a novel breast reconstruction training environment.

  • Evaluation of performance of medical students and plastic surgery residents in skill games and its correlation with performance on female breast part-task trainer.

  • HSS : A novel hybrid system for conscious sedation

  • Decision support systems in Anesthesia & Medicine

ITAG: Texte

STUDY PROGRAMS

Our laboratory welcomes students and fellows of various academic backgrounds for Master, PhD, Internship and Fellowship projects. We recruit in particular, but not limited to, in the fields of medicine, electronic & computer engineering and experimental surgery.

International candidates are also considered and accepted.


In order to maximize the development of our projects, we encourage students to apply for scholarships.


Do not hesitate to contact us for further information.


ITAG is an inclusive and bilingual (French and English) environment.

ITAG: Texte

PARTNERSHIP & COLLABORATION

If you are interested in a collaboration and partnership with the ITAG laboratory, please contact us via the form below, we will be pleased to contact you as soon as possible.

ITAG: Texte

CONTACT US

Thank you for reaching out to us!

ITAG: Contact
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