IMASCAP – Augmented surgery: 3D imaging and guided navigation software for artificial shoulders

IMASCAP is a young start-up from Brittany that specializes in computer-assisted shoulder surgery. It is bringing to market an innovative software package that simplifies and optimizes the insertion of artificial shoulders (replacement arthroplasty). Thanks to its innovative algorithms, the software allows reproduction of images in three dimensions, planning of the operation and navigation guided by live 3D images via an optical and infrared localization system. Using this pre-surgical planning software reduces the duration of surgery and the risks of failure, and thus of extra suffering for the patient.

At the origin of the creation of IMASCAP is the SCAPTEC project (ANR Emergence Tech), supported by Chafiaa Hamitouche, a Professor at Télécom Bretagne. His team, within the Laboratory of Medical Information Processing (LaTIM), develops algorithms for computer-assisted surgery systems. For this project, the researchers worked on five different scientific advances: automatic, precise and robust segmentation of the bone structures of the shoulder; resistance to the effects of osteoarthritis; robust recalibration with the initial position automatically achieved; robust automatic and geometric characterization of the scapula; and last but not least the integration of cinematographic information in the planning of movements.

The development of this software was the result of collaboration between the Brest Faculty of Medicine, the Brest University Hospital Center, Inserm and Télécom Bretagne. The Brittany graduate school is part of the Télécom & Société Numérique Carnot Institute.

IMASCAP is a start-up founded in 2009 by Jean Chaoui, a Doctor in Biomedical Engineering, and incubated by Télécom Bretagne.