Three-dimensional images facilitate medical diagnoses

A three-dimensional computer image of a human head rotates on the screen. Major areas can be detected accurately, even by laymen. Using this image, doctors can diagnose problems, such as tumours, more accurately. What is more, the patient will be able to understand more clearly than ever before the operations that are needed to maximise their chances of recovery. The image is created from the results of several scans, including a CT scan. A programme by Magdeburg-based Dornheim Medical Images GmbH uses the wealth of cross-sectional images and the highlighted areas of the brain to display the individual's anatomy. The image created is like a medical educational model.

Director Lars Dornheim explains just a few of the possibilities that such visualisations open up. "Exact measurements can be taken without artefacts, occlusions and poor selectivity; something that classic tomographic data does not allow," he says. Linear and angular measurements, volume, access routes, prostheses and more can be calculated automatically with just a few clicks of the mouse. The computer science graduate assures us that the possibilities for clinical applications are enormous, and that these developments are only the beginning. He sees the electronic medical record as a major milestone: They will make a doctor's job noticeably easier in the future, as they will be able to retrieve images from previous years, and could document the development of a healing process, at practically the touch of a button.

"We have found a niche with our company," adds director Jana Dornheim. The image analysis of photographs of natural objects is only the beginning. She goes on to explain that it could be used, for example, in the analysis of microscopic images and of X-rays. "Some of its potential applications are currently in clinical testing. Even outside of the medical field, such solutions have long since become part of everyday life." She is referring to a video, taken on a motorway. Special software can distinguish between vehicle types, and track details, without shadows, trees, or other external factors getting in the way.

An exciting project is currently in the construction phase at Dornheim Medical Images. Together with another Magdeburg medical equipment company, they are working on computer-assisted skin-cancer screening. "Until now, this has primarily been done by a doctor," says Lars Dornheim. "Using a photographic process and evaluation with the appropriate software, two effects are achieved. The monitoring of affected skin areas is carried out objectively, and the diagnosis time is shortened." Other applications are conceivable, and even smartphones could play a role. The mobile jacks-of-all-trades have long since had app-features for specialised solutions.

The two Magdeburg entrepreneurs are extremely enthusiastic about their area of expertise. They see digital visualisation as an industry of the future, and their home town as the best for innovations. Digital visualisation has been taught as a subject at the Otto-von-Guericke University since 1996. Since then, nearly 300 students have successfully completed their digital visualisation studies with a Diplom, and more than 70 have received master's degrees in the subject. The Bachelor's degree programme, introduced in 2006, has also been successfully completed by around 60 young people. 15 years ago, Jana Dornheim was one of the first female students to choose this as her degree subject, while Lars Dornheim studied mathematics and computer science. Both of them were active at university, collaborating on various projects, especially in the medical field.

In 2009, they took a step towards independence, and founded Dornheim Medical Images GmbH. "Today we see the fact that we came straight out of research as one of the reasons for our success," say the two company owners. There is still a reserve of scientific developments which never made it to, or were too late to the practical stage. However, they still have not lost their links with the University. On the contrary, their employees are almost exclusively Otto-von-Guericke graduates. Ýou know the students' abilities, and can form links through internships and collaboration on projects at an early stage. Four are currently completing a combined degree, which allows them to achieve a virtually ideal combination of practice and theory.

A positive side-effect, of which Lars Dornheim is sure, is that these professionals remain in Saxony-Anhalt. "We don't want young graduates to leave the area, even if they are originally from Saxony or North Rhine-Westphalia," he says. Of the company's 25 employees, about half are permanent. The others are still completing their studies, or work part-time. Through their contact with the University, whose campus is just a few hundred meters away from their office building, the Dornheims know 'the cream of the crop'. They rely on this potential in order to keep enlarging their company.


Author/photo: Klaus-Peter Voigt

Contact:
Dornheim Medical Images GmbH
Listemannstr. 10
39104 Magdeburg
E-mail: info.ignore@dornheim-medical-images.de
Web: www.dornheim-medical-images.de