Abstract 

Scoliosis is the most common spinal disease among adolescents, normally accompanied with 3D deformity of spine, affects about 3.5%-5% of kids, and about 20% of them tend to suffer from progressing curvature that requires wearing braces or undergoing surgery. Most patients observe an onset from age 10 to 17, and females are eight times more likely than males to progress to a curvature that needs treatment.  As teenagers grow rapidly, regular and continual monitoring of scoliosis are essential, and such check-ups are usually done with X-ray imaging, the current gold standard for scoliosis diagnosis, but it has radiation hazard. Thus, scoliosis patients cannot have X-ray scans too frequently, meaning their conditions cannot be monitored as closely as they should be. Furthermore, X-ray can only reveal the spinal curvature in 2D, while scoliotic deformities are typically 3D in nature.

In light of this, our team has developed Scolioscan, using 3D ultrasound imaging technique for scoliosis assessment. Due to the radiation-free nature of ultrasound, Scolioscan can be used from accurate screening, frequent follow-up, treatment outcome measurement, and real-time visual feedback during non-surgical treatment of scoliosis. In addition, Scolioscan also has potential for predicting scoliosis progression. In addition, the team has successfully developed a portable version of the system with a palm-sized probe, designed to be brought to communities, such as schools, for accurate screening. A typical scan for a spine takes around 30 seconds, providing 3D analysis of spinal deformity and muscle conditions. The system has been commercialised and over 50,000 scoliosis patients so far have been scanned using Scolioscan.

Biography 

Professor Yongping Zheng, Henry G. Leong Professor in Biomedical Engineering, is currently a Chair Professor of Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and he is also the Director of Research Institute for Smart Ageing and Director of Jockey Club Smart Ageing Hub. Professor Yongping Zheng received the BSc and MEng in Electronics and Information Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China. He received PhD degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in 1997. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Windsor, Canada, he joined PolyU as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Professor in 2008 and Chair Professor in 2019 respectively. He was the Associate Director of the Research Institute of Innovative Products in PolyU from 2008 to 2010. He served as the Founding Head of Department of Biomedical Engineering during 2012-2020. Prof. Zheng’s main research interests include biomedical ultrasound and smart aging technologies. A number of his inventions have been successfully commercialized, including 3D ultrasound imaging for scoliosis assessment.