Interventional telemedicine for noninvasive neuroradiosurgery: Remote-site high-performance computing, mathematical optimization, and virtual scenario simulation

Interventional Telemedicine may have potential utility in providing connectivity and access to specialized high performance computing and advanced software resources in support of clinical procedures in the field of Minimally-Invasive Surgery and Stereotactic Linear Accelerator (LINAC) Radiosurgery. Such interventions may benefit from application of nonlinear quadratic inverse solution methods designed to provide the capability to reverse optimize a ‘best case’ treatment plan. The formidable decision-making challenges posed by increasingly complex optimized data and progressively versatile LINAC delivery systems require volume visualization of projected treatment data and imaging anatomy via photorealistic rendering and virtual scenario simulation techniques. Both these new directions are heavily dependent on access to specialized high performance computing platforms solely accessible via broad-bandwidth network connectivity. This pilot project presents resimulation of retrospective radiosurgical case data using inverse solution optimization models running on workstation clusters and then volume rendered and simulated on the Princeton Graphics Engine Supercomputer. Evidence for effective utilization of such optimization and virtual simulation methods running on remotely accessed, distant high performance computing resources is discussed in view of the potential for long-term clinical investigation and eventual development of Interventional Telemedicine as a clinically practical approach for providing support to remote or non-urban radiosurgery centers in the industrialized and developing world.