June 29, 2007

Meet Robopsy

A team of MGH radiologists and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate students won top honors in the 2007 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition May 16. Jo-Anne Shepard, MD, director of Thoracic Radiology, and Rajiv Gupta, MD, PhD, director of the Ultra-high Resolution Volume CT Lab, teamed up with Conor Walsh and Nevan Hanumara, MIT mechanical engineering doctoral candidates (shown above from left) under professor Alex Slocum, PhD, to design a robot that aids clinicians in performing tumor biopsies. The team won $30,000, which they will use to form a company to produce and market their device, called Robopsy, a robotic, remote-controlled needle inserter.

A needle biopsy is a minimally invasive procedure used to obtain tissue samples in order to make a diagnosis. The idea for Robopsy came to Gupta while he was observing biopsies — typically performed manually — while he was a radiology resident at the MGH. In the fall of 2004, Gupta presented his idea for Robopsy to the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) and to Slocum's Precision Machine Design class, which has a standing relationship with CIMIT. MIT students accepted Gupta's challenge and used a $4,000 CIMIT grant to build a prototype. The team created a business plan for their invention, which was then entered in the MIT competition. Robopsy was the grand prize winner in the venture category.

A second generation prototype of Robopsy is currently being tested. It is hoped that the use of this device will reduce biopsy procedure time by 30 minutes and decrease patient risk. Says Shepard, "Radiologists are increasingly asked to biopsy smaller and more challenging lesions. Robopsy was developed to improve the precision of needle placement in a more time-efficient way. We hope that ultimately it will improve patient care." Gupta adds, "CIMIT, MIT and the MGH were able to create this device collaboratively. Robopsy was a true team effort."