Special Issue on 2023 Augmented Environments for
Computer-Assisted Interventions (AE-CAI): Guest Editors’ Foreword
Welcome to this Special Issue of Wiley’s Healthcare
Technology Letters (HTL) journal dedicated to the 2023 edition of theAugmented Environments for Computer-Assisted Interventions
(AE-CAI) , Computer Assisted and Robotic Endoscopy (CARE) , andContext-aware Operating Theatres (OR 2.0) joint workshop. We are
pleased to present the proceedings of this exciting scientific gathering
held in conjunction with the Medical Image Computing and
Computer-Assisted Interventions (MICCAI) conference on October
8th, 2023 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Over the past several years, the satellite workshops and tutorials at
MICCAI have experienced increased popularity. This year’s workshop
brings together three communities that joined forces for the first time
in February 2020 for a MICCAI 2020 Joint Workshop, in light of our
common interests in image guidance, navigation and visualization for
computer-assisted interventions and have continued this joint venture
legacy every year since.
The 2023 edition of AE-CAI | CARE | OR 2.0 was a joint
event between the series of MICCAI-affiliated AE-CAI workshops founded
in 2006 and now on its 17th edition, the CARE workshop
series, now on its 10th edition, and the OR 2.0
workshop now on its 5rd edition. This year’s edition
of the workshop featured 20 accepted submissions and reached more than
70 registrants, not including the members of the organizing and program
committees, making AE-CAI | CARE | OR 2.0 one of the
best received and best attended workshops with more than a decade-long
standing tradition at MICCAI 2023.
Computer-Assisted Interventions (CAI) is a field of research and
practice, where medical interventions are supported by computer-based
tools and methodologies. CAI systems enable more precise, safer, and
less invasive interventional treatments by providing enhanced planning,
real-time visualization, instrument guidance and navigation, as well as
situation awareness and cognition. These research domains have been
motivated by the development of medical imaging and its evolution from
being primarily a diagnostic modality towards its use as a therapeutic
and interventional aid, driven by the need to streamline the diagnostic
and therapeutic processes via minimally invasive visualization and
therapy. To promote this field of research, our workshop seeks to
showcase papers that disseminate novel theoretical algorithms, technical
implementations, and development and validation of integrated hardware
and software systems in the context of their dedicated clinical
applications. The workshop attracts researchers in computer science,
biomedical engineering, computer vision, robotics, and medical imaging.
The workshop was hosted as a single track, in person, event, where all
accepted papers were featured as a podium presentation as part of three
sessions: Endoscopy Applications, AR/VR/MR Applications, andSurgical Data Science . To foster networking and discussion, all
authors were provided with the opportunity to present their work as a
poster presentation in addition to their podium presentation.
In addition to the presentations of contributed papers, we were
delighted to welcome two top notch keynote lecturers. Dr. Danny Goel, an
orthopaedic surgeon at the University of British Columbia, as well as
Founder and CEO of Precision OS, spoke on transforming global medical
education with spatial computing, enabling a new era of technology in
healthcare. Dr. Gabor Fichtinger, Professor at Queen’s University School
of Computing, spoke about the use and power of point-of-care
ultrasound-guided therapies and interventions in the global health
context.
All manuscripts submitted to the joint AE-CAI | CARE |
OR2.0 2023 joint workshop were held up to journal standards, as the
ultimate objective was to publish accepted work in this Special Issue of
Wiley’s Healthcare Technology Letters journal. This year’s joint
workshop received 28 manuscripts spanning a strong geographic
representation from Europe, North America and Asia. The review process
was rigorous and involved a double blind evaluation of each manuscript
by three to five external reviewers. Following the first round of
review, eight manuscripts were accepted pending minor revisions, ten
manuscripts were accepted pending major revisions, three manuscripts
were recommended for major revision and resubmission followed by another
round of review, and the remaining 7 manuscripts were rejected. All
authors were required to submit a response to reviewers for all
manuscripts, along with a revised manuscript indicating all edits and
changes in response to the reviewers’ critiques.
Once revised, all resubmitted manuscripts entered a second round of
review conducted by the Program Committee, Workshop Chairs, as well as
the Wiley’s HTL Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief to ensure that all
reviewers’ critiques were properly addressed in the revised manuscripts
and that the quality of the revised manuscripts was appropriate for
journal publication. All author responses and revised manuscripts were
revisited and assessed by the Joint Workshop Program Committee and
Associate Editors, while also seeking the original reviewers’ opinion on
the authors’ responses and revisions for manuscripts that underwent
major revision and resubmission, as needed. Throughout the review
process, three additional manuscripts were withdrawn by the authors,
leading to eighteen manuscripts accepted for publication in this special
issue and forwarded to the journal for production.
On behalf of the 2023 AE-CAI | CARE | OR 2.0 Joint
Workshop Organizing Committee, we would like to extend our sincere
gratitude to all authors, presenters, and attendees for their scientific
contribution, enthusiasm, and support. We also extend special thanks to
all reviewers for providing detailed and timely critiques of the
submitted manuscripts. We also express our sincere thanks to our Keynote
Lecturers for taking time on a Sunday to be with us and deliver their
presentations. We also acknowledge the support we received from the
MICCAI 2023 Conference Organizing Committee and the MICCAI Workshop and
Satellite Events Committee, as well as Wiley’s HTL Editorial Office for
supporting us in maintaining the high quality of the workshop through
outstanding research contributions that fostered exciting discussions at
the event.
Last but not least, we acknowledge our generous sponsors. We thankNorthern Digital Inc. (NDI) , and Intuitive Surgical for
their continued support. Our sponsors’ generous contributions have
enabled us to recognize our authors for their much-deserved dedication
and scientific enthusiasm through several paper awards, as well as
offset registration costs for student authors from developing countries.
In closing, a big thank you on behalf of all awardees and registrants,
and, once again, sincere congratulations to all award winners listed
below!
The following manuscripts appearing in this Special Issue have been
recognized with an Outstanding Paper Award at the 2023 edition on the
AE-CAI Workshop in Vancouver!
Jasper Hofman et al. from Orsi Academy for their paper entitled