SUPCAM

"New cost effective and minimally invasive endoscopic device able to investigate the colonic mucosa, ensuring a high level of navigation accuracy and enhanced diagnostic capabilities"

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Colon diseases are one of the most interesting chapters of public health. Every year millions of people around the world are undergoing colonoscopy or other colon investigations. Although optical Colonoscopy is currently considered the standard diagnostic methodology for the evaluation of intestinal colic disease, it is however an invasive examination with important limitations in terms of risks and patient acceptability. In this framework, the SUPCAM project aims at developing a new cost effective and minimally invasive biomedical device able to investigate the colonic mucosa, ensuring a high level of navigation accuracy, enhanced diagnostic capabilities as well as a substantial reduction of discomforts typical of current diagnostic practices. The SUPCAM concept is based on the development of a endoscopic capsule whose structure and innovative design allow to safely and accurately guide it along the colonic lumen from the outside, through an electromagnet, completely wireless. The main goal of SUPCAM is to provide a new mechanical configuration of the endoscopic capsule able to allow the medical examination through an external system with an elementary structure, economic, with small footprint and usable at outpatient level, but ensuring an accurate vision of the colonic mucosa. The development of this innovative video capsule with magnetic control will have significant advantages for the patients, reducing clinical risk, improving tolerance and acceptability and considerably enlarging the diffusion of colo-rectal cancer screening on the territory, with consequent benefits for the whole social healthcare system. SUPCAM project will help the 34,500 SMEs active in EU in the biomedical sector to enter in endoscopic market with an innovative product, maximising their economical benefits as well as extending their target markets, strengthening their role in a sector where large companies play a major role.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Optical colonoscopy is the standard method for diagnosing various colon diseases. EU researchers are in the process of developing a revolutionary device to replace standard colonoscopy procedures.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Millions of citizens undergo colonoscopy every year. The invasive nature of the procedure, however, comes with significant infection risks and is not always suitable for patients.

Based on this, scientists on the EU-funded http://www.supcam.eu/ (SUPCAM) project are developing a novel medical device to easily and minimally invasively monitor the colon. The proposed device consists of an endoscopic capsule that will be guided along the lumen of the colon from the outside, through an electromagnet. This wireless design will still provide a detailed picture of the mucosa of the colon even in outpatient settings.

During the first part of the project, partners have successfully defined the technical requirements and target specifications for the system design. They have identified suitable material for the capsule body, ensuring transparency to light, biocompatibility and resistance to sterilisation.

Several features of the overall architecture have been specified including the vision system, locomotion, telemetry and the power supply. The control electronics of the device had to be miniaturised to achieve the necessary small dimension for the whole device. Development of the image transmission and acquisition systems as well as image handling software is currently underway.

The SUPCAM device will enhance diagnostic capabilities while offering a substantial reduction of the discomfort typically associated with current diagnostic practices. At the same time, its cost-effectiveness and simplicity will broaden its use, hopefully contributing to the prompt diagnosis of many colon-related diseases including cancer.