Respiratory diseases impose a huge burden on global health, and approximately 380 million respiratory diagnostic tests are performed each year globally. Crucially, existing respiratory diagnostic technologies lack the ability to measure lung function with the resolution and sensitivity required to detect the onset of disease at an early stage, or to adequately monitor disease progression.
X-ray Velocimetry (XV), invented in Australia, delivers richly detailed information to clinicians, capturing subtle regional variations in lung function. This is achieved using 4-dimensional measurements of lung motion, via technology translated from imaging methods and processing algorithms that originated in Engineering fluid dynamics laboratories. Recent advances in ventilation, perfusion and lung structure analysis from CT imaging, using both ‘classical’ image processing technologies and deep learning, complement the dynamic functional ventilation information provided by XV and further extend the opportunities to understand and address lung disease. This presentation will provide an overview of these latest technologies and recent applications.
Jonathan Dusting
Jon Dusting is an expert in advanced dynamic imaging measurement technology to biomedical applications, in particular lung health. As Chief Research Officer at 4DMedical, Jon at the centre of the development of the company’s lung function analysis products. Following completion of his PhD in Engineering at Monash University in 2006, Jon held research positions at Schlumberger Cambridge Research, Kings College London, and Imperial College London, before joining 4DMedical in the Los Angeles office in 2018. Jon returned to Australia in November 2020 to lead an MRFF project to develop a new 4D lung imaging scanner and establish a research and manufacturing facility in Port Melbourne. More recently, Jon has been based at the 4DMedical headquarters at Melbourne Connect, where his team focusses on the development of software technology for 4D characterisation of lung ventilation and perfusion.