Impact

EXPECTED IMPACT

SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM SCIENTIFIC, TECHNOLOGICAL, AND/OR SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACTS

Short-term scientific and technological impacts:

1. A set of internationally-recognised standards for dielectric and thermal measurements of biological tissues and their reporting. These standards will define the procedures required
   to produce accurate dielectric and thermal data, and to calculate the associated measurement uncertainty. An emphasis on the reporting of measurement meta-data (including sample
   temperature, time from excision, animal species, sex of animal model, age of animal model, etc.). This meta-data will allow for disparate datasets to be compared, validated, and merged.
2. An open-access database of the broadband dielectric and thermal properties of diseased or inflamed tissue, along with those of healthy tissues of interest. This database will complement
   existing but limited datasets of healthy tissues. Data representative of human, in vivo tissues will be the focus of the database, as opposed to previous datasets in which measurements were
   conducted on cadavers or long-excised samples without compensation for these effects.
3. Improved safety standards for thermal-based EM technologies, based on more accurate and more complete dielectric and thermal properties of human tissues.
4. The development of new lines of research into novel therapeutic EM applications (e.g. the use of nano-agents to improve heating efficiency), and the optimisation of existing HT, MWA,
   and RFA TP based on more accurate estimates of the dielectric and thermal properties of human tissue.
5. Identification of clinical needs and develop innovative ideas for new medical devices stemming from these needs, through a significantly a stronger level of mutual interaction
   between clinicians and scientists working in the device-development field.
6. Novel therapeutic EM devices would address many of the clinical conditions with the largest burden of care (and therefore largest addressable markets) in Europe. The results will inform
   an evidence-based international consensus statement. All proposed standards and guidelines emerging from this work will be made publicly available to allow independent scrutiny, and future
   development of the standards and guidelines.
7. MyWAVE is led by an ECI from an ITC and involves seven ITCs at proposal stage. This will have an unprecedented effect on the EM medical device research community in these
   countries, as well as in the local industry.