NUMA has experience working on projects for complex biomedical applications including multi-physics simulations for the ablation treatment of tumours in the liver and other organs. These biomedical devices use heat deposition to burn out tumours. Relevant physical models included bioheat transfer, electromagnetic simulations at microwave and radio frequencies, phase change problems and advanced cell death models.
We can provide both numerical simulation expertise and code development depending on the needs of the customer.
The figure on the right shows the energy deposited in the tissue by a microwave ablation medical device. The simulation is based on an axi-symmetric model with non-linear tissue material properties.
Microwave ablation devices can deposit large amounts for energy which makes them very useful for treatment of tumours in the lung and organs with high perfusion or cooling. On the other hand, the large energy deposition can lead to over treatment and subsequent organ damage.
ClinicIMPPACT is an EU (FP7) funded project focused on the development of a software environment for the simulation of the radiofrequency ablation of tumours in the liver. The work included the creation of a user-interface for the doctors to upload the patient CT/MRI data and setup a simulation of the procedure. NUMA’s role was to develop a hardware (GPU) accelerated simulation solver that could predict a 15-minute clinical protocol within 1 minute. This fast simulation time was needed for the tool to be useful in the clinical procedure due to the limited time available for the doctors to plan the treatment. The project also focused on a 50-patient clinical trial to the test the software in a real life clinical environment.
NUMA also provides a finite element and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation service to assist in the design, development and testing of biomedical devices. We have experience working with a range of customers from local start-ups to international companies with bases in Ireland and the US.