Vanderbilt Initiative in Surgery & Engineering (ViSE) promotes collaboration

In the Fall of 2011, a team of engineers and surgeons came together to formalize collaborative efforts between their fields, to inspire innovative thinking in surgery and healthcare, and to clear the roadblocks for future colleagues. In a little more than two years, that team has done just that, and more.

The Vanderbilt Initiative in Surgery & Engineering, or ViSE for short, has acquired more than $20 million in active grants since its inception. It has inspired a number of projects that range in scope from image-guided surgery to medical image processing and analysis, rehabilitation and surgical robotics to wireless capsule robots. It has connected engineers and surgeons who are working to solve real problems in our operating rooms. It is, without question, making a difference in patient care, both inside and outside of Vanderbilt.

Hoping to encourage others to connect and collaborate, ViSE hosts a monthly Seminar Series, led by Engineering Professor Michael Miga. The series typically either brings in outside experts to lead a discussion on a particular topic or pairs a Vanderbilt surgeon with a Vanderbilt engineer to lead a presentation on a specific area of research/need.  ViSE currently has more than 30 Vanderbilt faculty, from the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering, as well as five full time staff members and 29 post docs and graduate students. It is led by a steering committee:

  • Benoit M. Dawant, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering 
       ViSE Steering Committee Chair and Center Director
  • Robert L. Galloway, Jr., Professor of Biomedical Engineering
       ViSE Steering Committee Member
  • S. Duke Herrell, III, Associate Professor of Urologic Surgery
       ViSE Steering Committee Member
  • Robert F. Labadie, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology
       ViSE Steering Committee Member
  • Michael I. Miga, Professor of Biomedical Engineering
       ViSE Seminar Series Chair
  • Robert J. Webster, III, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
       ViSE Steering Committee Member

Watch the video below to learn more.