Leo Joskowicz with neurosurgical mini robot

The invention of the robot to help improve the safety and accuracy of neurosurgery has brought to Professor Leo Joskowicz working at Hebrew University (Israel) Kaye 2007 Innovation Award. Kaye founded in 1994, the award is awarded every year with the aim of encouraging the creativity of Hebrew University teachers and students to create technologies that are useful to society.

Although recent advances in neurosurgery have minimized invasion - create small cuts to insert needles, catheters or catheters, but there are drawbacks. That's because small incisions should limit direct vision to the area of ​​the brain to be treated, requiring the surgeon to be more skillful, assertive and accurate.

Joskowicz next to the winning robot.
(Photo: Sciencedaily)

The technique of keyhole surgery, based on tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the patient's brain, although bringing many benefits to patients, but misplacing the device during the operation may to hemorrhage and serious neurological complications. To overcome this limitation, Dr. Joskowicz and colleagues at the Hebrew University of Computer Technology developed a visual instruction system to automatically locate the area of ​​the brain that needs to be treated correctly. The system is essentially a mini robot that can be programmed with detailed information from a patient's brain scan before going to the operating table.

During surgery, the robot is attached directly to the device that fixes the head or skull area of ​​the patient. After self-positioning the surgery target, the robot is " stationary " in one place and acts as a " guide " to help the doctor insert the needle, probe or catheter to perform the surgery. The advantage of robots is to limit the feeling of pain for patients, compact size, ease of use and can be applied to many types of neurosurgery.

After taking a doctorate in computer science from New York University (USA) in 1988, Joskowicz worked for a long time at TJWatson research center of IBM Computer Group. Here he studied the design and support of orthopedic surgery with the help of computers.

In 1995, Joskowicz joined the Hebrew University Computer Science Institute. A year later, he founded a laboratory for medical and surgical photo processing with the help of computers. From October 2001, Joskowicz transferred to Leibniz Computer Science Research Center. He is also the author of more than 100 technical books and is regularly invited by consulting companies in Israel, Europe and the US.

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