TERENCE M. PETERS PhD, FAAPM, FCCPM, SMIEEE, FInstP, FACPSEM
OCCUPATION: Scientist, Imaging Research Labs, Robarts Research Institute;
Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Medical Biophysics; Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University of Western Ontario; London, Canada.
Adjunct Professor, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal Canada.
BORN: January 5, 1948 : Dunedin, New Zealand.
EDUCATION:Education & Training
| 1966 | Undergraduate Training Engineering Intermediate University of Otago Dunedin , New Zealand |
| March 1967 – Nov 1969 | Undergraduate Training B.E. (First Class Honours), Electrical Engineering University of Canterbury Christchurch , New Zealand Supervisor: Professor Richard H.T. Bates |
| Feb 1970 – June 1973 | Graduate Research: PhD, Electrical Engineering University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Thesis Topic: Image Reconstruction from Projections Supervisor: Professor Richard H. T. Bates |
January 1974 – April 1974 |
Post-Doctoral: Research Fellowship, Information Theory Group, Department of Microbiology, Biozentrum University of Basel , Switzerland Supervisor: Dr. P.R. Smith |
CERTIFICATIONS:
Scholarly and Professional Activities
Professional Society Memberships and Offices Held
| Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | |
| 1974 | Member |
| 1997 | Senior Member |
1980 – 1993 |
Association des Physiciens et Ingénieurs Biomédicaux du Québec |
| Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine – CCPM | |
| 1984 | Fellow |
| 1988 – 1996 | Professional Examination Committee |
| 1989 – 1996 | Board member |
| 1990 | Chair Symposium Committee |
| 1991 – 1995 | Chief Examiner |
| Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) | |
| 1978 | Founding Member |
| 1996 | Fellow |
| American Association of Physicists in Medicine | |
| Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists | |
| International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine | |
| Institute of Physics | |
| 1999 | Fellow |
| 1999 | Chartered Physicist |
CAREER:
Research Focus: Image-Guided Surgery
My long-term interest in Image-guided Surgery, was originally developed within the Brain Imaging Centre at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill. The focus of this work was to provide to neurosurgeons with tools to enable them to approach targets within the brain based on detailed information provided via imaging modalities such as anatomical, vascular and functional MRI, CT, DSA, PET, Ultrasound and electrophysiological information. The key to this work is to enhance the ability of the surgeons to follow their progress during procedures by using a hand held probe, or a surgical instrument, whose position is tracked by a computer. The position and orientation of the probe is then represented within a three dimensional image of the organ at all times during the operation.
At the Robarts, this research takes place in the VASST Lab (Virtual Augmentation and Simulation for Surgery and Therapy). The objectives of the various research projects in my laboratory are being addressed via the following project areas.
Image-guided Stereotactic Neurosurgery
The accuracy of frame-based stereotaxy is dependent on precise positioning of the frame, minimization of spatial errors intrinsic to the imaging modality used, the mechanical properties of the frame and the algorithm employed in the computation of the target(s). This algorithm depends on the accurate selection of fiducial points in the image. Errors in the selection of these points propagate through the computation to degrade the final result and are the largest source of application error. We have developed an algorithm that automatically identifies the fiducial markers and computes a transformation based on the volumetric configuration of the fiducial marker set, rather than on individual slices through the markers. A limitation of image-guided neurosurgical procedures that require data to be mapped to a patient image from an atlas, is that the atlases do no exactly match the morphology of the patient’s brain. A recent solution to this problem has been to use non-linear image warping techniques. Until recently, these approaches have been too slow to be of use in a clinical scenario. We have recently improved dramatically on these techniques, to increase their speed by a factor of around 60 times, (to 5-10 mins) thus rendering them viable in clinical practice.
Neurosurgical guidance with 3-D Ultrasound
Prior to my move to London, I had begun collaboration with the Imaging Research Laboratories at the Robarts to develop a real-time 3-D ultrasound system that combines 3-D MRI with 3-D ultrasound, to track morphological changes of tissue during surgery. Because the brain shifts position when a craniotomy procedure is performed, image-guided surgery systems that rely on the assumption that a pre-operative MR image accurately reflects the shape of the brain during surgery are insufficient for a broad range of neurosurgical tasks. This project has now completed its second phase, where the MRI image may be updated in real time on the basis of information gathered by the 3-D ultrasound system.
Virtual Environments for minimally-invasive cardiac surgery
On October 1, 1999, the world's first beating-heart robot assisted Minimally Invasive Coronary Artery Bypass (MIRCAB) was successfully performed at the London Health Science Centre, London, Canada. MIRCAB eliminates invasive procedures that are employed in conventional bypass surgery such as sternotomy and cardiac arrest, reducing risks and trauma to patients. A major limitation of minimally-invasive surgical techniques is that the direct view of the surgical target is either not available, or only accessible via an endoscope. To support procedures such as coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG), and other minimally-invasive cardiac interventions (intra cardiac ablation, valve repair), we are developing the tools to present realistic dynamic models of the heart, representing the actual position and motion of the patient heart, along with models of the actual surgical tools, to the surgeon in the operating room.
Optimization of imaging strategies for minimally-invasive neurosurgery
A major problem in current Image-Guided Minimally Invasive Neurosurgical procedures, such as the Thalamotomy and Pallidotomy, is that the target area is not directly visible in the pre-operative MRI images. The thalamotomy involves the resection or ablation of a specific area within the Thalamus, the Ventralis intermedius nucleus, or Vim nucleus. However the pre-operative MRI image shows the entire Thalamus as a single grey structure. As a result, the surgeon must use electrical stimulation to determine the target areas exact location. We have developed new image acquisition and analysis techniques to permit us to rapidly acquire T 1 and T 2 maps of the entire brain in a clinically-acceptable time, and to use them to help delineate the various functional sub-structures of the thalamus. It is hoped these images will decrease the amount of time the patient spends in surgery, and increase the procedure success rate.
Image-guided neurosurgery in the deep brain
The goal of image-guided surgery is to minimize exploratory surgery and the size of the surgical incision through the judicious use of modern non-invasive imaging technology. Surgical procedures for therapy of disease manifested in the deep brain (i.e. Parkinson’s Disease, chronic pain and essential tremor) are carried out using minimally-invasive stereotactic techniques. Surgical targets are not directly visible on pre-operative images, so additional information from anatomic atlases or electrophysiological exploration must be used to localize the target regions. Because electrophysiological exploration is invasive, we were motivated to develop a combined database and atlas of electrophysiological responses, obtained from the population of patients who had undergone similar surgical procedures in the past, as a guide to the positions of surgical targets in new patients. This research focuses on the clinical validation of these techniques, and on new approaches for improving these surgical procedures. We developed a new electrophysiological database (EPD), which has been integrated with our neuro-navigation system and received preliminary exposure and acceptance in the operating room. Our ongoing research takes the development of this system to the next logical step through the comprehensive clinical validation of the database/atlas/navigation system, as well as developing and validating a complementary methodology for non-invasively mapping deep brain structures using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This work will have direct impact on patient care through the minimization or elimination of invasive exploratory procedures from the surgical treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.
Publications [Up to 15]:
- Deoni SC , Ward HA, Peters TM, Rutt BK. Rapid T2 estimation with Phase-cycled variable nutation steady-state free precession. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Aug;52(2):435-9 2004.
- Wierzbicki M., Drangova M, Guiraudon G, Peters T. Validation of dynamic heart models obtained using non-linear registration for virtual reality training, planning, and guidance of minimally invasive cardiac surgeries. Medical Image Analysis. Vol 8 (3), 387-401, 2004.
- Deoni SLC, Peters TM, Rutt BK Determination of optimal angles for variable nutation proton magnetic spin-lattice, T1, and spin-spin, T2, relaxation times measurement. Mag Res Med, 2004 51(1): 194-9
- Deoni SLC, Peters TM, Rutt BK. Quantitative diffusion imaging with steady-state free precession. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2004, 51(2) 428-433.
- Deoni SLC, Rutt BK, Peters TM. Rapid Combined T1 and T2 Mapping using Gradient Recalled Acquisition in the Steady State. Magnetic resonance in Medicine, 2003 Mar; 49(3):515-26.
- Audette MA, Siddiqi K, Ferrie FP, Peters TM. An integrated range-sensing, segmentation and registration framework for the characterization of intra-surgical brain deformations in image-guided surgery. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 89 226-251, 2003.
- Finnis KW, Starreveld YP, Parrent AG, Sadikot AF Peters TM. A three-dimensional atlas of subcortical electrophysiology for the planning and guidance of functional neurosurgery. IEEE Trans Medical Imaging, 22:1, 93-104, 2003.
- Atkinson JD, Collins DL, Bertrand G, Pike GB, Peters TM, Sadikot AF. Optimal location of thalamotomy lesions for tremor associated with Parkinson disease: a probabilistic analysis based on postoperative magnetic resonance imaging and an integrated digital atlas. J Neurosurgery, 96:5, 854-966, 2002.
- Gobbi DG, Peters TM, Generalized 3D non-linear transformations for medical imaging: An object-oriented approach in VTK. Computerized Medical Imaging & Graphics, 27(4):255-65 2003.
- Dey D, Gobbi DG, Surry, KJM, Slomka PJ, Peters TM. Automatic fusion of freehand endoscopic brain images to three-dimensional surfaces: creating stereoscopic panoramas. IEEE Trans on Medical Imaging, 20, 23-30, 2002.
- Lukas LA, Surry KJM, Peters TM. Temperature dosimetry using MR relaxation characteristics of poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogel (PVA-C). Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 46:1006-1013 2001.
- Chiu AM, Dey D, Drangova M, Boyd WD, Peters TM. 3-D image guidance for minimally invasive robotic coronary artery bypass (MIRCAB), Heart Surgery Forum 3(3): 224-231, 2000.
- Peters TM. Image-guided surgery: From X-rays to virtual reality. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: 27-57, 2000.
- Comeau RM, Sadikot AF, Fenster A, Peters TM. Intra-operative ultrasound for guidance and tissue shift correction in image-guided neurosurgery. Medical Physics, 27(4): 787-800. 2000.
- Audette MA, Peters TM. An algorithmic overview of medical surface registration techniques for medical imaging. Medical Image Analysis 4(3): 201-217, 2000
AWARDS:
Honors and Awards
January 1970 – 1973 |
Senior Scholar, University of Canterbury |
January 1973 |
R. D. Neale Memorial Prize, University of Canterbury. |
1984 |
Fellow of Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine. (FCCPM) |
May 1992 |
The Syliva Sorkin Greenfield Award presented by the AAPM for the best paper in the journal Medical Physics in 1991. Multi-modality Image Integration for Stereotactic Surgical Planning. Medical Physics 18: 167-177, 1991: CJ Henri, L Collins, TM Peters |
December 1996 |
Award of Merit, Intra-operative Ultrasound Imaging in Image-Guided Neurosurgery. 82nd Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of RSNA, Chicago, IL: R Comeau, A Fenster, T Peters. |
1996 |
Fellow, Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine. |
March 1996 |
March-May Visiting Erskine Fellow, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand |
January 1997 |
Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. |
May 1997 |
The Sylvia Fedorak Award presented by the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists for the best paper in 1996 by a Canadian medical physicist, “Three-dimensional Reconstruction of Cerebral Vasculature. Theory and Methodology. Medical Physics 23: 197-204, 1996, C.J. Henri and T.M. Peters |
January 1999 |
Fellow, Institute of Physics. |
January 1999 |
Chartered Physicist ( Institute of Physics - UK) |
August 1999 |
Dean’s Award of Excellence, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, The University of Western Ontario, London Advanced Imaging Group, Team Award |
June 2000 |
Best Poster Prize for “3-D Image Guidance for Minimally Invasive Robotic Coronary Artery Bypass (MIRCAB)” by AM Chiu, D Dey, M Drangova, WD Boyd, and TM Peters. Presented at the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, Atlanta, GA: June 7-9, 2000 |
March 2003 |
Fellow, American Association of Physicists in Medicine |
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION ACTIVITIES:
1990 |
Executive Committee VBC Conference, Atlanta |
1995 |
Program Committee, IEEE EMBS, Montreal Coordinator: Workshop on Fourier Transforms |
2002 |
Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention MICCAI 2002 Tokyo – Co-Chair |
2003 |
MICCAI 2003 Montreal – General Chair |
2004 |
MICCAI 2004 St Malo France – Co-Chair |
2002 - |
MICCAI Society – Board Member |
2004 - |
MICCAI Society - Treasurer |
FAMILY:
Spouse: Jacqueline Williams
Children: Emma Peters, Claire Duerden, Carla Peters, Emma Duerden