Madigan, Battelle Work Together On Imaging System

Madigan Army Medical Center and the Battelle Memorial Institute are working on a new imaging system that would allow doctors to examine threedimensional images of internal injuries.

The technology is aimed at trauma patients and battlefield casualties.

Officials of Madigan and Battelle, which operates the Pacific Northwest Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, signed an agreement Wednesday to develop the new imaging system and other technologies.

The Department of Defense has awarded the project $5.2 million.

The project aims to create threedimensional images from twodimensional images using holographic technology, said Mike Lind, who works in the technical partnership division of Battelle.

A hand-held probe scans the body to produce images recorded in a computer. The black-and-white images then are “stacked” and colored to make it easier to view different body tissues, Lind said.

The technology will allow the images to be “edited,” he said. For example, doctors looking at a fetus can delete abdominal muscles to allow a better picture of the baby.

Eventually, doctors will able to analyze blood flow and check bone structure and organ functions.

Battelle and Madigan also have joined forces to help produce an interactive computer program that can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic headaches.

Such a program would allow a patient to work at his own pace, said William Clayton, a Madigan neurologist.