Mission
The Interventional Radiology (IR) lab conducts multidisciplinary translational research in image-guided, minimally-invasive interventional therapies, while developing novel methods of integrating imaging into interventional procedures as well as drugs and devices to define new paradigms of "molecular interventions."
Vision
The IR Lab strives to be a leading IR research lab by developing and translating clinically relevant interventional tools from the basic lab bench test bed to initial validation studies in patients, while supporting the translational and clinical research and training programs of the CC and NIH Institutes.
Goals
- To design, develop, and deploy an Operating Suite of the Future in the NIH Clinical Center with multimodality image navigation, image-guided robotics, and seamless transition from one imaging modality to another. This unique facility is the world's first multimodality procedural suite of its kind. It combines many different types of imaging and treatment tools and uses them all together simultaneously to potentially better deliver personalized medical care by closing the gap between diagnosis and therapy.
- Bench-to-bedside development of "medical GPS" technology and systems for navigation of smart medical devices (like guidewires, catheters, needles, endoscopes, ultrasound cameras, ablation devices, surgical instrumentation, scalpels) that reference pre-operative images (CT, MRI, PET scans) to enable real-time feedback and use of imaging during minimally invasive procedures and surgery.