Aiping Yao Selected As URSI GASS 2017 Student Paper Competition Finalist

Congratulations to IT'IS Foundation PhD student Aiping Yao, who was selected as a finalist in the Student Paper Competition at URSI GASS 2017 for her work entitled "Robust experimental evaluation method for the safety assessment of implants with respect to RF-induced heating during MRI", co-authored by Earl Zastrow and Niels Kuster.

In the paper, a method for the experimental assessment of radiofrequency (RF) induced heating of medical implants is proposed. A numerically-derived high-resolution induced specific absorption rate (SAR) distribution over the region of high-heating is used to assist in the estimation of power deposition. The new method should improve the experimental accuracy of traditional SAR-based evaluations, which are conventionally limited by the extreme spatial gradient of the induced SAR within the high-heating region. Three different generic implants, each with a single electrode, were used to successfully validate the method against numerical simulations. Power deposition in the region surrounding the implanted electrodes estimated by the proposed method could be validated with <0.7 dB (17%) uncertainty. Although this study is limited to implants with a single electrode, it is anticipated that the proposed method will also be applicable to devices with multiple electrodes, a common characteristic of medical implants currently in clinical usage.

Aiping finished in the top 10 among 73 student paper competitors. These top 10 finalist papers were of exceptionally high quality, and the Commission Chairs of URSI Gass 2017 had the unenviable task of having to choose five of them for oral presentations – as there was a tie for 5^th and 6^th place, six presenters advanced to the final round. Although Aiping's paper was not chosen for presentation, she will be recognized at the meeting banquet with a certificate for “Honorable Mention”.