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The IGT Symposium in Montréal offers a great opportunity to discover the latest advances in the field of image-guided therapy including computer-aided diagnostic interventions, treatment planning and clinical decision support systems, therapeutics, simulation and image-guided surgery, robotics, and surgical navigation.

Monday, June 3rd, 2024, | 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (EDT)

Join us for our fifth instalment of the IGT Symposium! Focused on institutional research highlights, we have a line-up of academic and industry experts in the field of image-guided therapy space who will discuss their current initiatives, discoveries, breakthroughs, and journeys to success!

Symposium Objectives

• Create an interactive forum to hear talks about new innovations in image-guided therapy
• Support the IGT academic community in commercializing their research results
• Address areas of healthcare where image-guidance is in use from cancer treatment, joint replacement, and cardiovascular care
• Explore cutting-edge technology, make connections with industry leaders and discuss institution and practice needs
• Network and exchange new research and ideas with industry leaders, clinicians, and researchers

IGT Symposium Agenda

Coming soon.

Guest Speakers

Dr. Marie-Ève Paquet
Dr. Marie-Eve Paquet completed her PhD in immunology in 2004 after working under the supervision of David Williams. Her research has focused on the molecular aspects of processing MHC class I antigen in emergency rooms and trafficking to the cell surface. She completed a post-doctoral training in Hidde Ploegh's lab at Harvard and the Whitehead Institute (MIT) where she used her expertise to develop genetically engineered mice to study the translocation processes of proteins from the ER to cytosol and explore the relationship between viruses and the immune system.

She then joined CERVO to create a viral vector platform focused on optogenetics. Dr. Paquet runs the Canadian Neurophotonics Platform viral vector core localized at the CERVO Brain Research Center. With her team, she now distributes quality vectors to more than 200 laboratories in 12 Canadian universities and 5 institutes as well as several other universities around the world. She is also a member of the executive board of the Canadian Science Platforms Network which was created to network, raise awareness, promote shared science platforms and influence their funding.

Dr. Udunna Anazodo
Dr. Udunna Anazodo's research focuses on developing non-invasive PET and MRI techniques for clinical applications in brain imaging, with emphasis on combining the strengths of PET and MRI to enable novel in vivo measurements of brain function.

Dr. Anazodo is the William Dawson Scholar and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. She is also a member of the Neuroimaging and Neuroinformatics research group at The Neuro. She joins The Neuro from the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ontario where she was Assistant Professor of Medical Biophysics.

Dr. Anazodo’s current research focus is on intelligent PET imaging for mapping brain health: from molecules to mind. Her lab combines positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to provide a multimodal imaging approach for detecting subtle and early changes in brain function, physiology and neurochemistry. Her priority is on the optimization of next-generation ultra-high-resolution PET imaging systems to permit molecular brain imaging with unprecedented spatial precision and sensitivity. Over the next five years, she plans on developing leading-edge intelligent PET image reconstruction and image analysis tools that leverage advances in machine learning to enable brain imaging in clinical populations at ultra-high spatial resolution and unmatched sensitivity.

Dr. Jeremy Brown
Dr. Jeremy Brown is an Affiliate Scientist at Nova Scotia Health, a Professor in Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Engineering, and a co-founder of multiple medtech start-ups. Currently, Dr. Brown is focused on developing the next generation of ultrasound imaging and therapeutic technologies. Working alongside a team of neurosurgeons, he has created a cutting-edge device aimed at improving cancer patient outcomes using minimally invasive surgical techniques. The tiny device, which measures 3mm x 3mm, is the world’s first high-resolution endoscopic surgical and imaging probe. It combines two different technologies; an ultrafast imaging platform which will allow surgeons to detect and reach brain tumours, and a therapeutic tool that will non-invasively vaporize tissues.

Steve Arless

Steve Arless, BSc’71 (Chemistry), returned to his alma mater, McGill University, in the Fall of 2016 as Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Surgery’s cutting-edge Surgical Innovation Program. More recently, he joined one of Canada’s fastest growing medical technology accelerators, Centech, as Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Academically speaking Mr. Arless completed an MBA at Concordia University in 2008 and then lectured there for several years thereafter.

After graduating from McGill, Mr. Arless worked for 17 years at Smith & Nephew Inc., serving as President/CEO for close to five years.

His innovative talent led him to CryoCath Technologies Inc., a catheter-based cryoablation technology for the treatment of Atrial Fibrillation, which he nurtured from a start-up to commercial success, serving as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from 1996 to 2006, ultimately resulting in a successful exit to Medtronic. He maintained his interest in the diagnosis of and minimally invasive therapies for rhythm disorders of the heart, assuming the position of CEO of Cleveland-based CardioInsight, from 2009 to 2012, with the Company ultimately being acquired by Medtronic.

Mr. Arless then moved on to becoming the Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board (2015-2019) of Soundbite Medical, a Montreal-based shockwave technology company, also in the field of cardiovascular disease therapy.

While at SoundBite, he also initiated a MedTech business incubator and accelerator program at Centech/ETS (Ecole de Technologie Superieure) as well as accepting the position as Professor of Practice within the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University. He continues to work in these two teaching and mentoring capacities.

Most recently (March, 2020), Mr Arless founded and currently leads (as former CEO and current Executive Chairman) ViTAA Medical Solutions, an AI-driven digital health company using cardiac-gated CT imaging data to aid physicians in the better management of patients with AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysms).

His most notable award was Ernst & Young’s 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year in the life science category.

Dr. Hassan Rivaz
Dr. Hassan Rivaz is an Associate Professor and a Concordia University Research Chair at the ECE Department with a joint appointment at the PERFORM Centre. He is also the Founding Director of the IMPACT Lab: IMage Processing And Characterization of Tissue.

Dr. Rivaz is an Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging (TMI, since 2017), IEEE Trans. Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (TUFFC, since 2018), and IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology (OJEMB, since 2021).

He is a member of the Organizing Committee of IEEE EMBC 2020 in Montreal, IEEE ISBI 2021 in Nice, and IEEE IUS 2023 in Montreal.

He has served as an Area Chair (AC) and Program Committee (PC) of MICCAI for 6 years since 2017, and was an AC of IPCAI 2022. He co-organized tutorials on advances in ultrasound imaging at IEEE ISBI 2019 and IEEE ISBI 2018. He also co-organized the CURIOUS 2018, CURIOUS 2019 and CuRIOUS-SEG 2022 Challenges on registration of ultrasound and MRI in neurosurgery, and the CereVis 2018 Workshop on Cerebral Data Visualization, all in conjunction with MICCAI.

Dr. Julien Cohen-Adad
Prof. Cohen-Adad is an MR physicist and software developer with over 15 years of experience in advanced MRI methods for quantitative assessment of the brain and spinal cord structure and function. He is an associate professor at Polytechnique Montreal, adjunct professor of neuroscience at the University of Montreal, associate director of the Neuroimaging Functional Unit (Univ. Montreal), member of Mila (Univ. Montreal) and he holds the Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Along with his colleagues Prof. Nikola Stikov, Prof. Alonso-Ortiz and Prof. De Leener, he is co-directing the NeuroPoly Lab (www.neuro.polymtl.ca), which includes about 30 graduate students and research associates. Prof. Cohen-Adad’s research is highly cited (Google Scholar). As a leader in the field, he organized multiple workshops at international conferences (https://spinalcordmri.org/workshops.html). He is a frequent guest lecturer on advanced MRI methods and he regularly serves as consultant for various companies (e.g. Biospective Inc., NeuroRx, IMEKA) and academic (Harvard, U. Toronto, UCL, UCSF, etc.) for setting up MRI acquisition and image processing protocols.

IGT Session Presentations

To be announced

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INOVAIT is the pan-Canadian network dedicated to advancing image-guided therapy technologies with AI. The network is led by the Sunnybrook Research Institute and supported by the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund.

INOVAIT est le réseau pancanadien dédié à l'avancement des technologies de thérapie guidée par l'image avec l'IA. Le réseau est dirigé par le Sunnybrook Research Institute et soutenu par le Fonds stratégique pour l’innovation du gouvernement du Canada.

The image-guided therapeutics symposium is a great opportunity to learn about current research and latest advances within the field of biomedical and diagnostic imaging, artificial intelligence, and image-guided therapeutics.

The scientific conference brings together scholars from the clinical and research communities who are interested in emerging diagnostic and therapeutic health technologies. Canadian researchers and scientists are encouraged to contribute to and help shape the conference through submissions of their research abstracts and poster presentations. Prizes are awarded for top contributors to the field of image-guided therapeutics and diagnostics.

With its high-quality talks, the symposium provides an exceptional value for students, academics, and industry researchers. The day is an excellent opportunity to network and identify opportunities for collaboration and partnership. It also serves as a showcase for new innovations and breakthrough technologies for industry partners.