Micro-systems design for medical applications

/webdav/site/si/shared/KeyAreas_MedicalMicrosystems.jpg

One area is the design of micro-systems for drug delivery, controlling the amount and timing of drug delivery, which may be dynamically changing with the environment and the patient. Such micro-systems require the combination of micro-fluidic and micro-mechanic techniques with embedded control and data processing. Another area involves the support for micro-surgery, again combining the data acquisition and control that can be provided by a micro-system either in situ or remote. In these two areas, data security and dependability are extremely critical. As a specific example of challenging research to pursue, the design of dependable and verifiable systems will strongly benefit the medical profession by providing means for verifying on-line the execution of surgical integrated-system-assisted protocols.