KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Advanced Applications of Medical Imaging

Prof. Seong Ki Mun
Arlington Innovation Center for Health Research, Virginia Tech, USA

Abstract

Modern medical images allow use to visualize the not only the structure of biological systems, but also the biochemical and physiological process that underlies disease in human. Just about all parts of electromagnetic way spectrum are now used for signal detection and image formation. In recent years we have seen the explosion of advanced applications of medical images in telemedicine, drug trials, image guided surgery, neuroscience, cancer therapy and molecular imaging just to name a few. In this review presentation, three areas of application will be highlighted as examples of images enabling new insights into telemedicine, sleep research and emergence of particle therapy as a next generation cancer therapy. The radiological images are the first successful application of telemedicine. Today radiological images travel around the world for telemedicine applications as well as research projects. The combined use of EEG, high resolution 7T MRI and high resolution PET imaging is allowing us to explore the biochemical processes associated with varying phases of sleep. The particle therapy is a new promising technology for radiation treatment of tumors with great deal of precision that depends on not only new accelerator technology but also the integration of images of high specificity and special resolution. These are three of many examples of how images are enabling advances in diagnosis, neuroscience and oncology.

Biography of the Keynote Speaker

Seong K. Mun, PhD, Director of Arlington Innovation Center for Health Research and Professor of Physics, has joined Virginia Tech in 2008 after 25 years at Georgetown University Medical Center. Currently he is engaged in a number of new biomedical research programs including 7T MRI and PET imaging for sleep research, patient centered medical home a new model for primary care services, ultrasound imaging and particle therapy. The Center has a masters program in biomedical technology development and management. Over the years, Dr. Mun’s research deals with diagnostic imaging, chronic illness management, home monitoring, telemedicine, disease surveillance, surgical instrumentation, robotics for casualty assessment and cancer therapy. At Georgetown he also served as Associate Vice President for Special Programs managing congressional relations.
Dr. Mun went to the US in 1964 for high school in Redlands, California. In 1970 he returned to Korea for his military service. He received his doctoral degree in physics in 1979 from the State University of New York, Albany. His postdoctoral fellowships include training in medical physics at the University of Colorado Medical Center and MRI research in Nobel Laureate Dr. Lauterbur’s lab at the SUNY, Stony Brook. In the early 80’s, he led the development of one of the first 1.5T high field whole body MRI systems at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.