Department of Biomedical Informatics

Columbia University  

 

 



Celina Imielińska, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist in Biomedical Informatics and Computer Science

701 West 168th Street
HHSC-201
New York, NY 10032
(212) 305-1440
cei7001@dbmi.columbia.edu

Biosketch

Celina Imielińska, Ph.D. is an electrical engineer and computer scientist, and an Associate Research Scientist affiliated with Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Department of Medical Informatics, and Department of Computer Science. Dr. Imielinska is the Director of Research for Office of Education and Scholarly Resources. She has M.E. degree in electrical engineering from Politechnika Gdanska, in Gdansk, Poland; and M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, NJ. Her current interests are image segmentation, 3D modeling and visualization, and computational geometry. She is one of the founders of the VesaliusTM Project, an interdisciplinary effort at Columbia University to create a network-based, platform-independent electronic "course" in anatomy, where she took lead on technical problems of the medical image segmentation and 3D visualization. Dr. Imielińska received a National Science Foundation POWRE (Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education)  Grant in 1998. She was PI of the Columbia team on a completed,  NLM-funded sub-contract on the "Visible Human Project Segmentation and Registration Toolkit - Insight Toolkit" – www.itk.org, where she developed hybrid segmentation methods for medical images, together with Dr. Dimitris Metaxas and Dr. Jay Udupa, from University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Imielińska has been involved in a number of interdisciplinary research and development projects that integrate medical imaging, visualization, robotics and medicine. She has been implementing the Biomedical Imaging Informatics Curriculum at the Department of Biomedical Informatics to train interdisciplinary experts who will provide medicine with image-based and robotics-based systems that are clinically "needed", are "useful" for teaching and training, and will help reduce clinical error.

Current Projects  

The images represent various research projects conducted by Dr. Celina Imielińska, her colleagues at Columbia and other universities. The center diagram depicts three layers/categories around which the core of the Columbia University DBMI’s biomedical imaging informatics curriculum is designed. The rings represent the following three broad areas:

  1. Applications: image-based, robotics, and vision-based systems: Understanding technology to develop best-suited systems that the field of medicine needs.
  2. Evaluation: Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of systems that are image-based and robotics-based and evaluation of the skills of systems’ operators.
  3. Certification: Understanding the requirements of the American Board of Surgery (and other standards-setting organizations) for certification of medical professionals. Design and propose formal protocols for skills testing on approved image-based and robotics-based systems in medicine.

Brief descriptions of images presented with the Diagram that depict various projects in the area, and associated articles:

  1. ITK - Visible Human Project Segmentation and Registration Toolkit,  and Integrated System for Quantification of Adipose Tissue From Whole Body MRI Scan. The ITK www.itk.org is an open source repository of tools for segmentation and registration of the Visible Human and radiological data already attracting international community of users. Under the auspices of the ITK, the collaboration between Columbia (led by Dr. Imielińska and Dr. Molholt) and University of Pennsylvania (Dr. Metaxas and Dr. Udupa) produced the Hybrid Segmentation Engine that consists of component modules for automated segmentation of radiological patient and the Visible Human data. Integrated System for Quantification of Adipose Tissue From Whole Body MRI Scan, is a project that Dr, Imielinska set up with Dr. Andrew Laine and Dr. Steve Heymsfield, among others, to build an integrated imaging system to improve the overall performance of acquisition, segmentation, quantification and analysis of adipose tissue obtained from whole body MRI scans.
  2. Vesalius ProjectTM. The mission of the Vesalius ProjectTM,, the Visible Human Project, at Columbia, that Dr. Imielińska founded together with Dr. Molholt and Ewa Soliz in 1996, is to systematically develop 3D anatomy models, from the Visible Human datasets, and incorporate the visualizations into network-based segments of the anatomy curriculum at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. This is a long term and tedious task that requires strong interdisciplinary collaboration among experts in the areas of image processing, computer graphics, 3D visualization, anatomy, cognitive psychology, computational linguistics and multimedia, all of whom have had a role in this project. We have introduced the electronic anatomy curriculum in a broad and systematic fashion. Anatomist Dr. Judith Venuti used 3D visualizations obtained from the Visible Human data in lectures on male pelvic anatomy, and starting spring of 2002 semester the foot anatomy lesson has been taught by Dr. Ahmet Sinav from the Vesalius Project Foot Anatomy Atlas .
  3. Framework for Evaluating Image Segmentation Methods. In a collaborative project with Dr. Jay Udupa from Medical Image Processing Group at the Department of Radiology at University of Pennsylvania, Drs. Imielińska, Laine and Molholt of Columbia, and Dr.  LeBlanc from University of Toronto, are working to create framework for evaluating image segmentation methods. We propose to design, develop, implement, test, evaluate, and deploy a framework, complete with methods, image data, and software, for comprehensively evaluating algorithms that are developed for segmenting a wide range of medical images. Our hypothesis is that such a framework, and the associated image data and software, will provide basic scientists as well as biomedical investigators with a common, and readily deployable, usable means for establishing standard references suitable for their applications.
  4. Development of a Training Tool for Endotracheal Intubation: We develop techniques for reconstruction and 3D modeling of human anatomy to be used in an augmented reality tool designed to train medical practitioners to perform endotracheal intubation. The challenge is to create realistic 3D models of anatomical structures that “participate” in the endotracheal intubation (ETI), that can be manipulated in real-time in interactive environments. This work is done by Dr. Imielińska and Dr. Kerner at Columbia, together with the ODALab at School of Optics, University of Central Florida, where Dr. Jannick Rolland, the leading expert in optics and augmented reality,  and her colleagues developed the Ultimate Intubation Head (UIH) to train medical practitioners’ hand-eye coordination in performing endotracheal intubation with the help of augmented reality methods.
  5. Modeling of the da Vinci Robotic Surgical for Training, Evaluation and Quantification of Surgical Skills. In this project, Dr. Imielińska collaborates with Drs. Robert Ashton and Joseph DeRose, (cardiothoracic surgeons from St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University), and Dr. Tony Jebara, (Assistant Professor from Department of Computer Science), on the challenges of quantitative benchmarking of surgical skills assessment. This work has long-term ramifications for certification of basic surgical skills and advanced robotic surgical skills.
  6. Medical Simulation. Dr. Imielińska  collaborates with experts including medical doctors, computer scientists, biomedical engineers, cognitive psychologists, programmers and technicians to create 3D, high fidelity, computational environments for modeling applications in surgery, as well as multiscale modeling of trauma injury focusing on head injury. The head trauma project is a collaboration with Dr Andrzej Przekwas and his team at CFDRC Corp.
  7. Objective Quantification of Perfusion-Weighted Computer Tomography in Cerebral Vasospasm After Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage. In the   project that Dr. Imielińska set up originally together with Dr D’Ambrosio, Dr Rosiene, Dr. Sughrue, Dr. Liu, and Dr. Connolly; that was joint later by Dr. Buitrago and Dr. Parra, a new clinical protocol was proposed, aided by a novel computer-based method designed to objectively quantify perfussion CT (PCT) data. This methodology symetrically orients imaging data, automatically divides the cerebral hemispheres into anatomically correct vascular territories, and analyzes perfussion parameters such as blood flow (CBF). This algorithm obviates the need for manual region of interest (ROI) identification and eliminates volume averaging from data analysis, two of the major inherent limitations to current PCT methodology. We have a pending patent.

 

New Effort

             CAnVaS:Center for Analysis, Visualization and Simulation. All of the projects

            that Dr.  Imielińska has been involved in the last few years will be tied together to a

            new effort that she will lead: the CAnVaS (Center for Analysis, Visualization and

            Simulation), that in turn will be a part of the future Columbia Health Sciences

            Simulation Center. The mission of the CAnVaS is to establish an environment at

            Columbia for translational research from medical imaging, computer vision and

            robotics technology to medical applications, that will differ from biomedical

            engineering and computer science, in one key aspect: projects

            defined under the CAnVaS will be medically/clinically-centered unlike typically

            engineering-centered efforts in biomedical engineering. The CaNVaS will foster a

            close collaboration between clinicians, compute scientists, biomedical engineers,

            and cognitive psychologists.

 

 

Selected Recent  Publications  

  1. I. Kaya, A.P. Santhanam, C. Imielińska, , J. Rolland, “Modeling Air-Flow in the Tracheobronchial Tree using Computational Fluid Dynamics”, in press.
  2. N.R. Hippalgaonkar, A.D. Sider, F.G. Hamza-Lup, A.P. Santhanam, G. Beretta, C. Imielińska, , J. Rolland, “Generating Classess of 3D Virtual Mandibles for AR Applications”, in press.
  3. A.P. Santhanam, C.M. Fidopiastis, C. Imielińska, , J. Rolland, “Modeling Real-Time 3D Lung Deformation for Medical Visualization”, in press.
  4. X. Liu, C. Imielińska, , A. Laine, W.S. Millar, E.S. Connolly, A.L. D'Ambrosio, “Asymmetry Analysis in Rodent Cerebral Ischemia Models", in press.
  5. D.S. Wilson, J. Mocco, A.L. D'Ambrosio, R.J. Komotar, J. Zurica, C.P. Kellner, D.K. Hahn, E.S. Connolly, X. Liu, C. Imielińska, , E.J. Heyer, “Post-Carotid Endarterectomy Neurocognitive Decline is Associated with Cerebral Blood Flow Asymmetry on Postoperative Magnetic-Resonance Brain Scans", accepted Neurological Research, Jan 2007.
  6. J. Domanski, C. Imielińska, , K. Skalski, K. Kwiatkowski, T. Sowinski, “Evaluation of Automated Segmentation of Hip Joint in Revision Arthroplasty", Conf. Proceed. Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, CARS 2007, Berlin.
  7. F.G. Hamza-Lup, A.P. Santhanam, C. Imielińska, , S.L. Meeks, J.P. Rolland, “Distributed Augmented Reality with 3-D Lung Dynamics - A Planning Tool Concept", IEEE Trans. Inf. Technol. Biomed. 2007, Jan; 11(1):40-46.
  8. C. Imielińska, A. Przekwas, X.G. Tan, “Multiscale Visual Analysis of Trauma Injury”, Invited paper J. of Information Visualization, Vol. 5(4), p. 279-289, 2006.
  9. X. Liu, C. Imielińska, , A. Laine, E.S. Connolly, A. D'Ambrosio, “Symmetry Identification Using Partial Surface Matching and Tilt Correction in 3D Images", IEEE EMBS, Aug. New York, 2006.
  10. X. Liu, R.T. Ogden, C. Imielińska, , A. Laine, E.S. Connolly, A. D'Ambrosio, “Statistical Bilateral Asymmetry Measurement in Brain Images", IEEE EMBS, Aug. New York, 2006.
  11. X. Liu, C. Imielińska, , X. Liu, E.S. Connolly, A. D'Ambrosio, “Automatic Correction of the 3D Orientation of the Brain Imagery”, ISSPIT, Aug 27-30, Vancouver, Canada, 2006.
  12. C. Imielińska, A. Przekwas, X.G. Tan, “Multiscale Modeling of Trauma Injury”, International Conference on Computer Science (4):822-830, 2006.
  13. J.K Udupa, V.R. LeBlanc, Y. Zhuge,, C. Imielińska, , H. Schmidt, L.M. Currie, B.E. Hirsch, J. Woodburn, “A Framework for Evaluating Image Segmentation Algorithms”, Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics 30 (2), 2006: 75-87.
  14. J. Rosiene, X. Liu, C. Imielińska, , J. Ferrera, J. Bruce, J. Hirsch, A. D'Ambrosio, “Structure-Function Relationships in the Human Visual System Using DTI, fMRI and Visual Field Testing: Pre- and Post-Operative Assessment in Patients with Anterior Visual Pathway Compression”, MMVR 14:464-466, 2006.
  15. P.K. Tulipano, W. Millar, C. Imielińska, , X. Liu, J. Rosiene, M. Sughrue, A. D'Ambrosio, “Quantification of Diffusion Weighted Images (DWI) and Apparent Diffusion Coefficiant Maps (ADC) in Detection of Acute Stroke”, Proc. SPIE Medical Imaging, Vol. 6143:6130T, 2006.
  16. X. Liu, C. Imielińska, , J. Rosiene, M. Sughrue, E.S. Connolly, A.L. D'Ambrosio, “Enhanced Technique for Asymmetry Quantification in Brain Imagery”, Proc.SPIE Medical Imaging, Vol: 6144:61446W, 2006.
  17. X. Liu, C. Imielińska, , J. Rosiene, “A Novel Symmetry Based Image Processing Paradigm for Assessing Bilateral Symmetric Medical Images”, AMIA Fall Conference, Washington DC, 2005.
  18. C. Imielińska, J. Rosiene, Y. Jin. et al. “Ground Truth for Evaluation of Ischemic Stroke Hybrid Segmentation in Rat Model of Temporary Middle Cerebral Artery”, accepted to CARS 2005, 1281, pp. 74-79, Berlin, June 2005.
  19. Rosiene J., , C. Imielińska, Liu, X, Keating S., “Dilation Based Modeling of Perfusion dataset”, AMIA Annu. Symp. Proc. 2005:1098.
  20. C. Imielińska,. X. Liu,J. Rosiene, et al. “Towards Objective Quantification of Perfusion-Weighted Computed Tomography in the Setting of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Quantification of Symmetry and Automated Delineation of Vascular Territories”, J. of Academic Radiology, 12(7):874-887, 2005.
  21. Ro CY, Toumpoulis IK, Ashton RC Jr, C. Imielińska, Jebara T, Shin SH, Zipkin JD, McGinty JJ, Todd GJ, DeRose JJ Jr, “A Novel Drill Set for the Enhancement and Assessment of Robotic Surgical Performance”, MMVR, 2005: 111:418-421.
  22. C. Imielińska, P. Molholt, “ Incorporating 3D Virtual Anatomy into Medical Curriculum”, CACM, pp.49-54, Feb.2005.
  23. X. Liu, C. Imielińska,, J. Rosiene, et al. “A Novel Quantification Method for Determining Previously Undetected MR Perfusion Changes in Patients with Cognitive Deficits following carotid Endarterectomy”, SPIE 2005, Medical Imaging. Vol. 5747. Feb. 2005.
  24. C. Imielińska,. Y. Jin, X. Liu, B. Zacharia, et al. “Evaluation of Ischemic Stroke Hybrid Segmentation in a Rat Model of Temporary Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion Using Ground Truth from Histologic and MR data”, SPIE 2005, Medical Imaging. Vol. 5747. Feb. 2005.
  25. J. Rosiene, X. Liu, C. Imielińska, “Ray Casting Approach for Boundary Extraction and Fourier Shape Descriptor Characterization”, SPIE 2005, Electronic Imaging, Jan. 2005.
  26. A.P. Santhanam, S.N. Pattanaik, C.M. Fodopiastis, F. Hamza-Lup, J.P. Rolland, C. Imielińska, “Physically-Based Deformation of High-Resolution 3D Models for Augmented Reality Based Medical Visualization”, AMI-ARCS, Rennes Sept. 2004.
  27. J.M. Venuti, C. Imielińska, P. Molholt, “New Views of Pelvis Anatomy: Role of Computer-Generated 3D Images”, . Clinical Anatomy, 17(3):261-271, 2004..
  28. Imielińska C., X. Liu, M. Sughrue, E. Hagiwara, E.S. Connolly, A. D’Ambrosio, “Objective Quantification of Perfusion-Weighted Computer Tomography in the Setting of Acute Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage”, Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, pp. 34-43,   June 2004.
  29. Imielińska C., J. Udupa, D. Metaxas, Y. Jin, E. Angelini, T. Chen, Y Zhuge, “Hybrid Segmentation Methods”, book chapter in “Insight Into Images: Principles and Practice for Segmentation, Registration, and Image Analysis”, ed. T. Yoo, A.K. Peters LTD, 2004.
  30. Santhanam A.P., S.N. Pattanaik, J. Rolland, C. Imielińska, J. Norfleet, “Physiologically-Based Modeling and Visualization of Deformable Lungs”, Pacific Conference on Computer Graphics and Applications, 507-511, 2003.
  31. Jin, Y., C. Imielińska, A. F. Laine, J. Udupa, W. Shen, S.B. Heymsfield, “Segmentation and Evaluation of Adipose Tissue from Whole Body MRI Scans”, MICCA.I 2003 Conference, pp. 635-642, Montreal, Nov. 2003
  32. Davis, L., J.P. Rolland, F. Hamza-Lup, Y. Ha, J. Norfleet, and C. Imielińska, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: A Unique Technology Enabling a Continuum of Virtual Environment Experiences,” Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol. 23 (2), pp.10-12, March 2003.
  33. J. Rolland, L. Davis, F. Hamza-Lup, J. Daly, Y. Ha, Glenn M., J. Norfleet, C. Imielińska, R. Thumann, “Development of Training Tool for Endotracheal Intubation: Distributed Augmeted Reality”, MMVR 2003, 94:288-94, San Diego.
  34. W. Shen, Z Wang, M. Punyuanita, J. Lei, A. Sinav, J. Krall, C. Imielińska, S. Heymsfield, “Adipose Tissue Quantification by Imaging Methods: A Proposed Classification System”, Obesity Research, Vol 11, No. 1, Jan 2003.
  35. J. Rolland, C. Meyer, L. Davis, F. Hamza-Lup, J. Norfleet, C. Imielińska, K.F Kerner, “Merging Augmented Reality and Anatomically Correct 3D Models in the Developemnt of a Training Tool for Endotracheal Intubation”, (Electronic) Proceedings ISBI 2002.
  36. L. Davis, F. Hamza-Lup, J. Daly, Y. Ha, S. Frolich, C. Meyer, G. Martin, J. Norfleet, K. Lin, C. Imielińska, J.P. Rolland, “Application of Augmented Reality to Visualizing Anatomical Airways”, SPIE, Vol. 4711, pp.400-405, 2002.
  37. E. Angelini, C.Imielinska, Y. Jin, A. Laine, “Improving statistics for hybrid segmentation of high-resolution multichannel images”, SPIE Medical Imaging, Vol. 4684(1), pp.401-411, 2002.
  38. J.K. Udupa, V.R. Leblanc, H. Schmidt, C. Imielińska, K.P. Saha, G.J. Grevera, Y. Zhuge, P. Molholt, L. Currie, Y. Jin, “A Methodology for Evaluating Image Segmentation Algorithms”, SPIE Medical Imaging, Vol. 4684(1), pp.266-277, San Diego, 2002.
  39. Y. Jin, C. Imielińska, A. Laine, “A Homogeneity-Based Speed Term for Level-set Shape Detection”, SPIE Medical Imaging, Vol. 4684(1), pp. 383-390, San Diego, 2002.
  40. Imielińska, C.; Metaxas, D.; Udupa, J.; Jin, Y.; Chen, T., “Hybrid Segmentation of Anatomical Data”, MICCAI 2001 Conference, Vol. 2208(1), pp. 1048-1057, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Oct. 2001.
  41. Imielińska, C.; Downes, M; and Yuan, W., "Semi-Automated Color Segmentation of Anatomical Tissue", Journal of Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 24(2000), 173-180, April, 2000.