Wellcome Trust Centre for Surgical and Interventional Sciences (360G-Wellcome-203145_Z_16_Z)

Image-guided Intervention (IGI) has enabled greater surgical precision resulting in reduced tissue trauma, co-morbidity, complications, and hospitalisation time. However, significant limitations arise from the challenging use of IGI systems, and their predominant reliance on preoperative anatomical images. Disrupting existing IGI, we will deliver pathologically, anatomically, and physiologically optimal surgery by combining diagnostic-quality imaging/sensing with ergonomic smart instruments. The Wellcome Trust Centre for Surgical and Interventional Sciences (WTC-SIS) will launch a new phase in which anatomical cues, which have driven interventional therapies for centuries, are augmented by physiological and pathological insight. Three fundamental research themes will link the WTC-SIS interdisciplinary groups: Physiological navigation, focusing on fusing anatomical, physiological and pathological information for real-time guidance/monitoring. Clinician experience, focusing on optimising the clinical team cognitive/ergonomic workload. Precision instrumentation, focusing on designing interventional devices that both sense physiological/pathological information and interact with tissue. WTC-SIS will serve as a hub-and-spoke translational catalyst for indication-specific externally-funded projects across surgical domains. A single unified Centre (hub) will provide all relevant skills and know-how, from scientific expertise to good manufacturing principles. This will drive rapid translation in our clinical satellites (spokes) and industry engagement through the development of a Health Technology Assessment programme.