Stephen R. Aylward, Ph.D. is Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at Kitware. Kitware was established in 1998 and provides software research and development services in medical image analysis, computer vision, simulation, and scientific visualization. Kitware’s services build upon the open source software that it manages, e.g., 3D Slicer, CMake, VTK, ITK, and ParaView. These systems are downloaded over 100,000 times per month. Prior to joining Kitware, Dr. Aylward was a tenured associate professor in Radiology at UNC. Currently, Dr. Aylward is also an adjunct associate professor in computer science at UNC, a Fellow of the MICCAI Society, chair of the MONAI deep learning system advisory board, and an associate editor for multiple journals. As PI on multiple NIH grants, his research is currently focused on point-of-care ultrasound applications, image registration in the presence of large pathologies, and vascular network characterization for disease assessment.

MONAI talk

Dr. Prateek Prasanna is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Stony Brook University and directs the Imaging Informatics for Precision Medicine (IMAGINE) Lab. He is also a member of the Institute of AI-driven Discovery and Innovation at Stony Brook University. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, USA in 2017. Prior to that, he obtained his master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA in 2013 and bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Calicut, India in 2010. Dr. Prasanna’s research focuses on building clinically translatable machine learning tools that leverage multiple data streams of imaging, pathology, and genomics to derive actionable insights for enabling better treatment decisions. His research has involved developing companion diagnostic tools for thoracic, neuro, and breast imaging applications and has won several innovation awards and received recognition from the Ohio Secretary of State and House of Representatives. One of the core focuses of his lab is to integrate machine generated inferences with expert clinical reads to make clinical workflows more efficient and effective.

Fabian Emura is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at Universidad de La Sabana, Bogotá D.C., Colombia. After graduating from Universidad del Valle, he completed a general surgery fellowship at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Later in Japan, he completed a doctoral program in GI tumor biology at the University of Tsukuba and a 3-year fellowship in interventional GI endoscopy and GI surgery at the National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo. In 2006 Dr. Emura founded the EmuraCenter LatinAmerica, an international reference facility where training in advanced endoscopic techniques has been provided to more than 240 gastroenterologists from the Americas. He later developed the core curriculum program of Gastroenterology at Universidad de La Sabana, and became the head of the division. Throughout his career, Dr. Emura has been actively involved in clinical investigation related to GI tumors, particularly endoscopic early diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and image enhanced endoscopy. He has pioneered global implementation and teaching of systematic upper GI photodocumentation, polyp classification, ESD, and since 2006 has introduced and funded an annual gastric cancer screening program in Colombia through the Emura Foundation for Cancer Research benefiting more than 1900 low socio-economical class patients.

Dr. Valdes-Sosa is the General Vice-Director for Research of the Cuban Neurosciences Center, which he cofounded in 1990. He studied medicine at the University of Havana, and graduated in 1972. He also studied Mathematics in 1973. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1978. Dr. Valdes-Sosa is also Member of the Editorial Boards of the following journals: Neuroimage, Medicc, Audiology and Neurotology, PLosOne Frontiers, Neuroimage and Brain Connectivity. His work includes statistical analysis of electrophysiological measurements, neuroimaging, nonlinear dynamical modeling of brain functions and Software and electrophysiological equipment development.