Multimodal and multiscale medical engineering

Abstract

In the medical field, several modalities such as CT, MRI, ultrasound, PET, endoscopy, and microscopy are commercially available and clinically in use. However, in many cases those modalities are used independently. In some modalities there are very high resolution machines for a special or research purpose but the similarity or non-similarity of signals between different resolution machines have not been clarified yet. The authors are studying technologies related to multiple modalities and multi-scale devices under a project entitled “Multimodal Medical Engineering.” In this article, we introduce our current research activities on three main topics: ultrasound, MRI and optics (pathology).