Moot Stresses Adoption Of Non-invasive Autopsy - The Asians

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Imagine if this case of Hollywood Star (Natalie Wood) case was conducted using Digital Autopsy

With digital autopsy:

* There will be no body exhumed for a second autopsy.

* No X-rays required to uncover a fracture

* No time wasted

* Respecting this Hollywood Star dead body without mutilating it

Source: http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2015/01/natalie-wood-death-forensic-expert-exhumation/

UK's second Digital Autopsy facility opens in Bradford, offering non-invasive post-mortem examinations.

State-Of-The-Art Digital Autopsy Facility opens in Bradford on May 30th 2014.

You can find some of the photos here on  FACEBOOK

Digital Autopsy : 3 Short Film

The Story of Life, because We Care.

Enjoy the 3 short film on Digital Autopsy (Click on the image)

        Digital Autopsy allows expert or forensic pathologist to do autopsy not just once, but they can redo and ask for second opinion. The raw data acquired from the CT modality make it possible as the exact raw data can’t be modified or disturbed. Data can be kept in database with implementation of security measure to be available at any time. This can be kept forever as an archive or for purpose of medical study and research. 

    Digital Autopsy becomes a complement workflow in autopsy procedure. Forensic Pathologist should practice digital autopsy which can aid them to come out with certain finding in the post mortem. With availability of crime scene data, photograph and reconstruction model, Forensic Expert can simulate and test the hypothesis for the manner of death of that particular case. Last but not least, Digital Autopsy can reduce the autopsy time session and give more descriptive and objective visual report. 

Launch of Digital Autopsy Facility in Sheffield

           iGene® Sdn. Bhd has successfully launched the world’s first Digital Autopsy Facility (DAF) network in Sheffield, United Kingdom. The £3million facility, first of the 18 state-of-the-art DAFs was launched on Wednesday 27^th November 2013 by Chief Coroner HHJ Peter Thornton QC and Sheffield City Council leader Julie Dore. This new facility in Sheffield, which is housed at the city's Medico-Legal Centre, is intended to pave the way for a series of DAFs nationwide which will cost iGene an approximate £50m.

        The news about the launch has been covered extensively in global media through various mediums including television, radio, and online coverage. The news of the launch has been covered in BBC News, Sky News, Bernama, Google, Daily Mail to name a few.
Below are some of the snapshots from selected news coverage:

BBC Look North News (Click on the image)

Al-Jazeera (Click on the image)

                              

Sky News TV

BT News (Click on the image)

                           
                               TV3- Buletin Utama                                            The Star UK (Click on the image)

CSI and Digital Autopsy (Awareness Video)

CSI and Digital Autopsy Animation Video (Click on the image)

The term AUTOPSY has already been adapted and is familiar in the world of Forensic Medicine. The CSI affect more or less influences in appreciative of common people in the field of Forensics Application. Autopsy, also known as post-mortem examination is usually performed by specialized medical doctor in order to determine the cause and manner of death. It normally includes surgery and invasive examination to the dead body. It can be done for either legal or medical purposes. 

DIGITAL AUTOPSY is a complementary approach to classical autopsy. Instead of cutting the cadaver, the dead body will be sent for scanning first, followed by rendering of the body DICOM data into 3D digital body. Forensic expert can perform digital autopsy on the body using the advanced medical visualization software system. If the result is found to be inconclusive, the body can undergoes autopsy in more targeted and educated manner. Digital Autopsy analyzes the 3D volume data generated from Medical Modern Imaging Modalities such as CT scanner or MRI Scanner with direct volume rendering techniques. The cadaver remains in a sealed body bag throughout the procedure to avoid loss of forensic evidences, or the spread of disease and bacteria.

Digital Autopsy applies special Forensic Workflow. It’s not just a Diagnostic Imaging Technology but has a specific focus in forensic investigation. Examining a dead body might not be as simple as the normal living patient. These are due to few points such as, the posture of body is not in anatomical position; dismembered organ or extremities; the body might undergo decomposition or skeletonization; and in case of exhumation the body will muddle up with soil, rock or sand which can appear as artifact in the 3D visualization. Thus, Forensic Experts need to have specific training in this field.  

There are some findings that are difficult to prove and visualize in conventional autopsy but can be easily seen in full body CT, such as air in the lung or within the body, pattern of fracture, detection of metal object, wound or bullet tract, examination of fracture in vertebra or inaccessible area, foreign object in digestive tract, hemorrhage to eye lens etc. 

Digital Autopsy allows expert or forensic pathologist to do autopsy not just once, but they can redo and ask for second opinion. The raw data acquired from the CT modality make it possible as the exact raw data can’t be modified or disturbed. Data can be kept in database with implementation of security measure to be available at any time. This can be kept forever as an archive or for purpose of medical study and research. 

Digital Autopsy becomes a complement workflow in autopsy procedure. Forensic Pathologist should practice digital autopsy which can aid them to come out with certain finding in the post mortem. With availability of crime scene data, photograph and reconstruction model, Forensic Expert can simulate and test the hypothesis for the manner of death of that particular case. Last but not least, Digital Autopsy can reduce the autopsy time session and give more descriptive and objective visual report.

iGene featured in the news video during the 9th WIEF 2013 in London.

The World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) was held in London on Tuesday, 29th October 2013. Where more than 1,500 delegates from 85 countries were gathered for the gigantic opportunities in exploring businesses and investments, and harmonizing global opportunities.


On the first day of this three days event, iGene® Sdn. Bhd. launched the world's first network of Digital Autopsy centres in United Kingdom. Where it is a network of 18 state-of-the-art Digital Autopsy facilities for the United Kingdom, the first of its kind in the world.

This video is from the original video produced by WIEF Foundation TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGiMGX0Lvf8&feature=youtu.be during the second day of the 9th WIEF 2013. Where Mr. Matt Chandran and iGene's representative can be seen at the end of the video (minutes 3:19 to 3:23).

This second video is from TV3 News on 30th of October 2013 http://www.tv3.com.my/beritatv3/tajuk_utama/WIEF_Jadi_Platform_Penting_Bagi_Dunia_Islam.html. Where Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak launched the iGene Digital Autopsy Facility in United Kingdom during the event. (minutes 2:15 to 2:24).


I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts- Bill Gates.

I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts. Bill Gates
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/innovation.html#3eeCY8M3O7rzfxO8.99

I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts. Bill Gates
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/innovation.html#3eeCY8M3O7rzfxO8.99

I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts. Bill Gates
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/innovation.html#3eeCY8M3O7rzfxO8.99

Digital Autopsy and iGene highlighted in Reuters.

Infovalley Group Chief Executive Mathavan Chandran poses at his office in Kuala Lumpur, June 24, 2013.

By Jeremy Wagstaff

SINGAPORE | Tue Aug 20, 2013 5:11pm EDT

(Reuters) - Malaysian entrepreneur Matt Chandran wants to revive the moribund post-mortem by replacing the scalpel with a scanner and the autopsy slab with a touchscreen computer.

He believes his so-called digital autopsy could largely displace the centuries-old traditional knife-bound one, speeding up investigations, reducing the stress on grieving families and placating religious sensibilities.

He is confident there's money in what he calls his Autopsy as a Service, and hopes to launch the first of at least 18 digital autopsy facilities in Britain in October, working closely with local authorities.

Around 70 million people die each year, says Chandran, and around a tenth of those deaths are medico-legal cases that require an autopsy. "That's a huge number, so we're of the view that this is a major line of services that is shaping up around the world," he said in an interview.

The poor common perception of autopsies has undermined their commercial appeal. "Unfortunately, because the process of the post-mortem is seen as gruesome, one tends to ignore that," says Chandran.

Humans have been cutting each other open for at least 3,000 years to learn more about death, but the autopsy has never been widely embraced outside TV crime dramas. Surgeons in 18th century Britain, for example, robbed graves for corpses to dissect, some even commissioning murders when supplies dried up.

By the 1950s, the autopsy was at its zenith, with pathologists performing post-mortems on more than 60 percent of those who died in the United States and Europe - helping uncover more than 80 major, and perhaps thousands of minor, medical conditions.

But the number of autopsies has fallen steadily: Today, fewer than 20 percent of deaths in Britain are followed by autopsy, and most of these are ordered by coroners in cases where the cause of death is unclear or disputed.

The fall has been blamed on a growing distaste for a procedure regarded by some as crude and outdated - a feeling fanned by the public discovery in Britain in 1999 that medical institutions had been retaining organs and tissue after post-mortems for decades.

Digital Autopsy forensic application, a three-dimensional capabilities to view and dissect inside and outside of the digital body in high definition visuals, on a multi touch screen representing a digital mortuary table at the INFOVALLEY office in Kuala Lumpur June 5, 2013.

DIGITAL MAKEOVER

Chandran, 45, wants to change all this by simply connecting his company iGene's 3D imaging software to any standard medical CT or MRI scanner. An expert can then inspect the virtual cadaver in 3D, removing layers of cloth, skin and bone with a mouse or by gestures on a tabletop touchscreen.

The advantages, Chandran says, are considerable.

The digital evidence remains intact and can be reviewed; experts can more easily spot and identify fracture, foreign objects such as bullets, and the tips of knife wounds; and grieving families can swiftly learn how their loved ones died and without having to cut open the body.

iGene isn't the first to run a scanner over a corpse. Radiology has been used on skulls for 30 years, and Israel first introduced the concept of a virtual autopsy in 1994. The U.S. military started conducting CT scans of all soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004 in addition to traditional autopsies.

The results have been encouraging. Researchers from University College London concluded that in fetuses and individuals aged 16 and younger, a minimally invasive autopsy incorporating an MRI scan identified the same cause of death as 90 percent of traditional autopsies.

A staff member carries out a CT scan on a corpse at a mortuary at Hospital Kuala Lumpur in Kuala Lumpur July 3, 2013.

COMMERCIALISE

But iGene is, Chandran says, the first to package the process and offer it commercially as a suite of services that stretches from the moment of death to the delivery of a post-mortem report.

His company provides a software suite that uses existing medical scanners from the likes of Siemens, General Electric, Toshiba and Philips. These form the heart of iGene's digital autopsy facilities which the company plans to build close to UK mortuaries. The first will open in October in the northern English city of Sheffield.

A spokesperson for Sheffield City Council confirmed it was working with iGene on such a centre, but declined to give details. Chandran says his company will spend around $77 million to build and run the facilities and will make its money from those cases where a coroner demands a post-mortem. About 200,000 deaths require autopsies each year in Britain, he said.

Next of kin will be given the option of a classical autopsy, paid for by the state, or a digital autopsy, costing about 500 pounds ($780) and paid for by the family.

SKEPTICS

Not everyone believes the digital autopsy is ready for prime time. Some question whether it can spot some diseases. And even a pioneer like Guy Rutty, chief forensic pathologist at the University of Leicester and the first to use CT images as evidence in a criminal trial, says that while demand may be growing there are limits to what a digital autopsy can do - particularly determining where and in some cases when a patient died.

"There are centers providing such services, but others have been more cautious and are still at a research stage," he said in an email interview.

Chandran and his team are undeterred. They say the digital autopsy facility combines with other non-invasive diagnostic tools such as angiography and toxicology.

Pramod Bagali, chief operations officer of iGene's parent company InfoValley, says the system is "a complementary method, not a complete replacement" to traditional autopsies, but could handle 70 percent of routine cases. The others could be done digitally to start with and then a decision could be made about whether to open up the body. "It's not replacing one flawed system with another," he says.

Crucially, iGene offers a business model that overcomes concerns that scanning corpses is expensive, says Chandran. He estimates his UK operation will be profitable within three years. But that, he says, is just the start. By then, he says, he hopes to have built at least 10 more facilities in his native Malaysia, with interest also from the Middle East, Latin America and elsewhere in Asia.

"The potential for this is global," said Mark Rozario, CEO of Agensi Inovasi Malaysia, a government body which this year bought a 20 percent stake in iGene for $21.5 million.

SUPPORTERS

Chandran and his supporters see this as the beginning of his innovation, not the end of it. The digital autopsy facilities are nodes in a broader ecosystem Chandran likens to Apple Inc's iTunes.

Michael Thali, a Swiss academic who has been promoting a "virtual autopsy" for more than a decade, said he tried and failed to get the scanner makers interested in developing such services. Now an adviser to iGene, Thali says this leaves open the field to other companies to deliver improvements in the chain of examination.

"The future will be for smaller companies who are bringing a service for this niche," he says. "The most important thing is that you have a real chain based on IT."

This is some way off - and may never happen.

Milos Todorovic, lead analyst at Lux Research and a specialist in medical innovation, says that while iGene's approach is intriguing, it faces hurdles - not least the fact that the company is starting from scratch in an expensive business. "A lot of things would have to fall into place for them to be able to succeed with something like this," he said.

That isn't stopping Chandran from dreaming big - including the idea of scanning the living as part of any regular medical checkup. "Just like a birth certificate starts with the birth of a baby, the end of a person's life will end with a report in which the 3D body of a person is captured," he said. "In that way we can archive every person born on this planet."

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

Article Source : Reuters, Aug 20, 2013. 
Pictures by Reuters/Bazuki Muhammad

Edited by Ahmad Fakri