This project will be conducted at the Cardiovascular Imaging & Dynamics laboratory (KU Leuven, located within the Medical Image Research Center (MIRC) at university hospital Gasthuisberg, Belgium). Within the MIRC, the post-doctoral researcher will work closely with engineers, physicists, clinicians and medical scientists, fostering collaboration within a dynamic research team.
Project context
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction remains difficult to diagnose because clinicians lack a reliable non invasive measure of myocardial stiffness, a key determinant of diastolic function. This project builds on a long standing research effort within our research group to advance cardiac shear wave elastography as a non-invasive method to quantify myocardial stiffness. Over the past years, we have been developing and refining the technique within our lab, and this post-doctoral project continues that trajectory by focusing on further automating the pipeline using AI where appropriate, in order to prepare the technique for validation in large patients cohorts and integration into clinical workflow.
Project description
Shear wave elastography visualizes the heart using high frame rate ultrasound (up to 5 kHz – 100x the frame rate of conventional echocardiographic imaging), to detect shear waves that travel along the cardiac wall. Shear waves can be induced naturally by mitral or aortic valve closure. An interesting property of these waves is that their propagation speed is intrinsically linked to the operational stiffness of the tissue in which they propagate. In current practice, however, the measurement of wave speed is highly operator dependent. Subjectivity in these measurements arises primarily from the operator’s role in acquiring and analyzing data, resulting in variability of the measurement and thus interpretation. Causes for this variability can be differences in probe positioning and shear wave analysis settings, directly affecting the sensitivity and specificity of the technique. While operator experience and training are important for ensuring consistency, the primary focus of this project is on optimizing the shear wave analysis workflow by minimizing all user interactions. In this way, we want to make this novel technique more practical in routine clinical practice.
To address this need, we aim to automate the workflow to significantly improve the efficiency, accuracy, and reproducibility of shear wave elastography post-processing, a critical step toward clinical translation. This project leverages our long standing expertise in cardiac shear wave elastography and a unique dataset of ~1 600 subjects acquired since 2018, providing the foundation for developing and validating data driven components within the automated pipeline. The developed automated analysis pipeline should comply with the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) in order to facilitate technology transfer to medical device companies.
Responsibilities
You will lead the design and development of AI-driven medical image processing algorithms to automate the clinical workflows related to shear wave elastography while actively collaborating with a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, physicists, and engineers.
Additionally, you will drive the valorization of research outcomes through ensuring MDR compliance and performing clinical validation
Profile
You have a PhD degree in medical image processing and practical experience in AI-based analysis
You are familiar with classical image/signal processing techniques and machine/deep learning
You have good programming skills in Matlab and Python and are familiar with software development
You are proficient in English (equivalent to B2 level)
Being familiar with the Medical Device Regulation and its implications for software development is a plus as is being acquainted with (the principles of) echocardiography
You are enthusiastic and result oriented
You can work independently and have a critical mindset
You are a team player and communicate well
Offer
We offer a 1-year post-doc position, with the possibility of extension, and market conform wages in a large, multidisciplinary research center in the heart of Europe, equipped with state of the art research infrastructure. The project will start the latest on October 1st, and the effective start date of the post-doctoral researcher will be determined mutually.
Interested?
Submit documents such as motivation letter, your CV, and (optional) recommendation letters. Also include transcripts of your BSc, MSc and PhD diploma's containing information on the education program and evaluation. For more information, please contact prof. Jan D’hooge ([email protected]) or Dr. Annette Caenen ([email protected]).
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