Palm-sized Scolioscan Air facilitates screening anywhere, anytime
The research team has recently applied the novel technology to a portable palm-sized Scolioscan Air they further developed, which weighed only 5 kg. "With this innovation, we can now literally bring the device and mass screening service to the youngsters anywhere, anytime. It would facilitate the implementation of school-based scoliosis screening to detect and treat spinal curvatures before they become severe enough to cause chronic pain or other health issues among adolescents," said Professor Zheng. "Moreover, when providing non-surgical treatment for scoliosis patients, healthcare personnel can use Scolioscan Air to conduct real-time assessment, so as to optimise the treatment outcome."
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Scolioscan Air consists of three hardware components: i) a palm-sized wireless ultrasound probe with an optical marker mounted at its bottom; ii) a depth camera; and iii) a laptop or tablet computer with dedicated software. The compact optical marker and depth camera replace the spatial sensor used in Scolioscan and thus help dramatically downsize the device.
In addition, the technology for 3D ultrasound image reconstruction, visualisation and measurement, including a fully automatic curvature measurement method and 3D spinal deformity analysis software, developed by the team earlier can also be applied to Scolioscan Air.
The newly developed optical 3D spatial tracking method for Scolioscan Air achieves a high degree of accuracy, which is comparable with Scolioscan. Moreover, the technological compatibility makes Scolioscan Air readily available for commercialisation for popular use. With dramatically reduced material cost, size and weight compared with other scanning systems, Scolioscan Air can be carried within a suitcase.
Scolioscan has been registered as a medical device in different countries since 2016, including European Union and Australia. A total of 23 patents globally for the related technology have been awarded to, or filed by, PolyU and the collaborating company. The clinic-based systems have been installed in clinics in Hong Kong, Macau, the Mainland, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, etc; and have been used for scoliosis scanning for over 4,000 patients.
Members of the PolyU research team of Scolioscan Air include Mr MENG Qiang, Mr Derek YANG De, Mr Joseph HUI Chi-ho, and Mr Henry WONG Yiu-hang.
SOURCE The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)
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