Unfortunately, due to the extraordinary situation, the BMT cannot take place in Leipzig and our planned celebrations during the event will have to be cancelled. However, we are very pleased that the BMT can be carried out at all. Moreover, we could win the Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn as conference-opening speaker. In addition, Saxony’s Minister of Science Sebastian Gemkow will pay tribute to our fifteen years of operation in a special video message.
Since 2005, ICCAS has been working in close cooperation with the Leipzig University Hospital and other relevant scientific institutions on smart operating room technologies. ICCAS' strength lies in the interaction of computer scientists and engineers with physicians. Our research addresses amongst others the optimization of surgical workflows, personalized medicine, intraoperative multimodal imaging techniques, image-guided focused ultrasound, MR-guided interventions and artificial intelligence and 5G-technologies for medical applications. Over the past 15 years, ICCAS has attracted some 45.8 million euros in external funding and generated over 600 publications. Our institute is an established and certified partner for medical engineering companies. Its research findings facilitate the work of clinical personnel, increase treatment safety and lead to more economical processes in everyday clinical practice. ICCAS supports the medical disciplines in meeting the current challenges of digitization and raises their profile at state, federal and international level. Research findings are transferred via clinical departments, teaching and research institutions in cooperation with numerous partners at national and international level.
A special concern of us is to incorporate the perspective of clinicians more strongly in the scientific work. That is why we have integrated leading clinicians in the BMT-program to cochair the sessions and present their exciting clinical work as invited speakers. We thank all partners and funding institutions involved in our work and are looking forward to welcome you at the first virtual BMT 2020 and hopefully at a later date at ICCAS in Leipzig.
The conference chairmen
Andreas Melzer and Thomas Neumuth
Director ICCAS Vice Director ICCAS