Recurring Meeting of Cleveland Clinic Core Team
Date: September 24, 2015
Time: 2:30 PM EST
Means: In person meeting
Attendees:
- Ahmet Erdemir
- Tammy Owings
- Tara Bonner
- Callan Gillespie
Agenda:
There was no set agenda for this meeting. The goal was to identify actionable items to start integrating force measurements and ultrasound imaging.
Immediate Action Items:
- Ahmet
- Start populating wiki page on data labeling strategy.
- Tammy
- Collect sample ultrasound image sets for visualization of different locations and their deformation.
- Identify desirable features for the usability of ultrasound probe - force transducer assembly.
Tara, Callan & Robb
- Collect sample ultrasound image with ECG data to evaluate how ECG is embedded in the images.
- Identify ECG channel specifications in the ultrasound system.
- Contact the ultrasound system company to explore triggering through the foot switch.
- Identify expected force ranges during indentation of extremities for selection of a force transducer.
Notes:
- Ahmet informed the team that he has started accumulating project related information on the wiki and asked the group to do the same. He also set up recurring meetings of the core team and with the collaborators.
- Ahmet, Tammy, Tara, and Callan met with Russ Fedewa (Department of Biomedical Engineering - Cleveland Clinic) to learn about the ultrasound system they have. Russ mentioned availability of various transducers and demonstrated how to use the machine.
- The team identified action items to purse integration of force measurements with ultrasound imaging, in particular with the system available through Russ Fedewa.
- The system accepts ECG signal as input. Tara and Tammy (and possibly Robb) will plug in the ECG to see how the signal is collected and displayed with images. This step will indicate the requirements of post-processing to temporally align ultrasound image sequence with the force data collected. The force measurement system can send a reference signal to be collected through the ECG input of the ultrasound system. Specifications of the ECG input channel and the auxiliary ECG input channel, e.g., range, need to be identified. Alternatively, the foot switch of the ultrasound system may be used to time synchronize data collection. Tara will contact the company to acquire more information in that regard.
Ahmet also asked the team to identify the range of forces that we will likely measure during indentation of extremities. This will depend how hard the probe is pressed; the amount of compression should result in a deformation at a level of 50% original thickness of the tissue layers. The magnitude of the force will also depend on the probe cross-sectional area. Identification of expected force magnitude range will allow appropriate selection of a force transducer while maximizing its resolution. Tara (and Robb & Callan) will also try to make a decision on the type of data acquisition system for force transducers. In response to Tara's comment, Ahmet asked her to specify a laptop for collecting data from force transducers.
- Ahmet asked all team members think about various designs for isolating the ultrasound probe, where a force transducer can be attached to the ultrasound probe and a holder. From a usability perspective, Tammy will need to decide how to hold this assembly. Ahmet also noted that switching of the ultrasound probe should be facilitated as different probes may be needed during the experimentation depending on the depth of the tissue.
- Ahmet asked Tammy to collect some sample ultrasound images including those during compression of the tissue. These will help understand expected nature of the data and will allow evaluation of data transfer workflow from the ultrasound machine.
- Ahmet mentioned that he will start working on a data labeling strategy, which will be documented on the wiki.
- There will be no meeting next week. Recurring meetings will be on Tuesdays at 2:30 PM US Eastern time, starting October 6, 2015. John-Eric Jelovsek, from the Multidisciplinary Simulation Center - Cleveland Clinic, will join the group for the October 6, 2015 meeting.