Transdisciplinary Collaboration with Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Herrell and other investigators from the School of Engineering and VISE hold two funded R01 research grants from the National Institutes of Health:

• Image-guided robotic kidney surgery. The NIH awarded an R01 grant to explore and study image-guided robotic nephron-sparing surgery for cancer removal. 
• Hand-Held surgical robot for prostate surgery. The NIH awarded a $2.1 million R01 grant to VISE for the creation of a less invasive robotic system for prostate removal through the urethra and dexterous reconstructive suturing. 

Dr. Herrell works closely with colleagues from VISE and the School of Engineering on improving medical devices and robotic surgery. This can lead to safer and quicker procedures with faster and less painful recovery.  A key area of research looks at developing ways to pair image guidance with the da Vinci surgical robot for kidney cancer and other surgeries.

Dr. Hsi works closely with VISE and the School of Engineering on developing new methods that use ultrasound to detect and characterize kidney stones. This may allow earlier and more accurate detection, leading to improved patient outcomes.

Our faculty actively partner and participate in research through VISE. We collaborate with colleagues from the School of Engineering and other departments to design surgical and medical devices to better treat and manage stone disease and perform endourologic procedures.

Our faculty and fellows also work with:

• MEDlab, a laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering department at Vanderbilt University 
• Biomedical Elasticity and Acoustic Measurement Laboratory (BEAM Lab), a laboratory in the Biomedical Engineering Department 

Both of these labs are part of VISE.

The research we conduct centers on surgical robotics and other devices to make surgery less invasive and with improved outcomes. Two specific projects include:

• Developing a “surgical GPS” for the da Vinci surgical robot to enable more accurate and less invasive kidney surgery (S. Duke Herrell, MD and Robert J. Webster III) 
• Creating robotic technology to make the HoLEP surgery used to treat enlarged prostate more easily transferrable to other surgeons (Dr. Herrell and Nicole L. Miller, MD) 
• Improving kidney stone detection and sizing through noveling beamforming methods. (Ryan S. Hsi, MD and Brett Byram)