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This paper aims to summarize the radiological interventions that can be used by obstetricians and gynecologists.

E-health systems apply in all hospital sectors in the world; interventional radiology (IR) now includes transcatheter and percutaneous techniques that can be applied to various organ systems, including the female reproductive system and pelvis. Interventional radiologists can now offer many services to obstetricians and gynecologists. With the advent of new procedures and refinement of existing techniques, there are now a number of procedures that can be used to treat both vascular and non-vascular diseases. This review summarizes the radiological interventions that can be used by obstetricians and gynecologists.

This review is intended to help gynecologists and obstetricians understand the role of IR in their specialty. Many valuable vascular and nonvascular interventional services can be provided by radiologists for both obstetric and gynecological indications. Many of these IR procedures are minimally invasive with less risk to the patients.

IR is now being used to treat some conditions encountered in obstetrics and gynecology, in particular, uterine leiomyomas, placenta accreta, postpartum hemorrhage and pelvic congestion syndrome. Moreover, with the help of IR, radiologists can also manage several nonvascular pathologies, including drainage of pelvic abscesses, fallopian tube recanalization, image-guided biopsy and fluid collections involving ovarian lesions. The major challenges faced when performing obstetric IR procedures are reduction of radiation exposure for the patient and fetus and preservation of fertility. This review highlights the role of IR in the treatment of various vascular and nonvascular pathologies encountered in obstetrics and gynecology.

The purpose of the paper is to provide healthcare organisations with an example of how the implementation of new interventional procedures and NICE guidance can be improved by adopting a synergistic approach.

The paper shows that following the introduction of the Interventional Procedure Programme (NICE) and the issue of Department of Health advice in 2003, it was considered that the hospital's process for implementing new interventional procedures should be revised and would be more effectively managed by integrating with the well established process for implementing NICE guidance. The strategy for implementing NICE guidance and the new interventional procedure ratification process at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Trust are outlined and describe individual and corporate roles and responsibilities that promote local ownership.

The paper provides information on how the Trust incorporated the national perspective into a local model, which ensures a well‐coordinated multidisciplinary approach to introducing innovative clinical practice safely.

This paper demonstrates a useful tool that may be adapted by other healthcare organisations and clinical governance professionals responsible for implementing new interventional procedures into local practice. The role of the Interventional Procedure Governance Committee in supporting the application, review, ratification and monitoring processes is explained.

The paper identifies a practical approach, ensuring that practice follows recommendations within guidance already published by NICE or are reported to the Interventional Procedure Programme if the procedure is not already included within the work programme.

The purposes of this paper are (1) to explore the overall development of AI technologies and applications that have been demonstrated to be fundamentally important in the healthcare industry, and their related commercialized products and (2) to identify technologies with promise as the basis of useful applications and profitable products in the AI-healthcare domain.

This study adopts a technology-driven technology roadmap approach, combined with natural language processing (NLP)-based patents analysis, to identify promising and potentially profitable existing AI technologies and products in the domain of AI healthcare.

Robotics technology exhibits huge potential in surgical and diagnostics applications. Intuitive Surgical Inc., manufacturer of the Da Vinci robotic system and Ion robotic lung-biopsy system, dominates the robotics-assisted surgical and diagnostic fields. Diagnostics and medical imaging are particularly active fields for the application of AI, not only for analysis of CT and MRI scans, but also for image archiving and communications.

This study is a pioneering attempt to clarify the interrelationships of particular promising technologies for application and related products in the AI-healthcare domain. Its findings provide critical information about the patent activities of key incumbent actors, and thus offer important insights into recent and current technological and product developments in the emergent AI-healthcare sector.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for analysing and modelling detailed workflow of image‐guided interventions to facilitate simulation and the re‐engineering process for the development of new procedures in multi‐modal imaging environments.

The methodology presented includes a literature review on workflow simulation in surgery, focussing on radiology environments, an assessment of simulation tools, a data gathering and management framework and research on methods for conceptual modelling of the processes.

The literature review reveals that few authors attempted to analyse the phases within image‐guided interventions, and those that did, only did so partially. The framework developed for this work intends to fill the gap found in the survey. It allows the maintenance and management of large amounts of data, one of the most critical factors when modelling detailed workflow. In addition, selecting the appropriate simulation software plays an important role, saving time in later stages of the project.

The framework presented for endovascular interventions can be extended to other types of image‐guided interventions. Moreover, modelling the workflow processes in a modular way facilitates the re‐engineering process when integrating different imaging modalities during the same procedure.

A day conference at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on 14 November 2000 brought together engineers engaged in development of robotic aids, and surgeons, some of whom are currently using robotic assistance in their work. The meeting provided a valuable opportunity for sharing of experience. Chairman of the event was Dr Patrick Finlay, who, as founder of Armstrong Healthcare, has been a pioneer in the development of medical robotics. Dr Finlay himself spoke about the Pathfinder image‐guided robot for neurosurgery. The aim of this is to free the surgeon and patient from the rigid stereotactic frame which has been necessary to secure the required 1mm precision of positioning for a tool tip. Mr Rory McCloy described his use of robots in laparoscopic surgery. A delicate drilling operation on flexible bone tissue in the ear was described by Professor Peter Brett, and among other presentations were three relating to 3D image capture for surgery.

This paper discusses the benefits that arise from the use of a robot arm for guiding neurosurgical operations. The design and operation of the PathFinder, safety issues and the accuracies that can be obtained and the use of a robot held camera for system calibration are described.

Based on an interview with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, which is currently building a new facility to include an intelligent operating room (OR). UCLA’s goals for the intelligent operating room are to lead the development of the latest robotic and computer‐assisted medical and biomedical devices and technology, to have a flexible broad intelligence of space planning, and to have a paperless yet seamless data exchange of patient and doctor information. UCLA’s planning strategy, a multidisciplinary collaborative approach to patient care, is based on a partnership between academic engineers, practicing clinicians, practicing physicians, and manufacturing industry. By creating an intelligent OR, the UCLA Medical Center hopes to improve patient satisfaction, retain and attract the best surgeons, and eventually, through the continued incorporation of image‐guided surgery, be able to decrease surgeon variability.

In the optimisation of processing parameters for additive manufactured parts using, e.g. selective laser melting (SLM) or electron beam melting, the measurement of the part densities is essential and of high interest. However, there is no common standard. Different institutes and system providers are using their own principles and guidelines. This study investigates the accuracies of the three measurement principles: Archimedes method, microscopic analysis of cross sections and X‐ray scanning.

A total of 15 test samples on five density levels (densities between 90 and 99.5 per cent) were produced using the SLM process. The samples are analysed regarding the accuracy of the measurement principles and their reproducibility taking into account influencing parameters like the buoyancy of a sample in air (Archimedes method) or different magnifications of a cross section.

The Archimedes method shows a very high accuracy (±0.08 per cent for high densities) and repeatability (±<0.1 per cent) on all density levels. In contrast to the Archimedes method, taking a micrograph of a specific cross section allows to influence the resulting density and the coefficient of variation reaches values>4 per cent. However, for low porosities, mean densities are comparable to the results of the Archimedes method even though calculated densities are typically somewhat too high. The advantage of the image guided analysis (2D and 3D) is getting more information about the distribution, size and form of pores in the part.

The findings do not only refer to metallic parts but generally to all parts having a specific porosity. The study is a contribution to the American Society for Testing and Materials initiative F42 “Additive Manufacturing Technology” and especially to the subcommittee “test methods”.

This study adopted the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) because of its sophisticated imaging techniques in eliciting mental models. Scholars across disciplines have been exploring paradigms beyond positivism due to the question about the adequacy of quantitative measures to capture complete accounts and to deal with vital problems. The marketing literature also advocates the need of a new methodology to examine consumers’ underlying thought and behavior that might help alleviate the industry's inability to translate research findings directly into practices. This study elicited tourists’ mental models, which were depicted on an integrated consensus map with three metaphoric themes. Marketers might translate these metaphoric themes directly into practices. The results of this study strongly support the use of qualitative methodology, more specifically the ZMET, as a means for obtaining the underlying tourists’ behavior that often remain far beyond the reach of traditional research methods.