A Carle Illinois College of Medicine student is developing a new method aimed at improving abdominal surgery outcomes by detecting unseen scar tissue from previous operations. The new protocol combines special magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the abdomen and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect problematic bands of internal scar tissue in patients who have had previous surgeries. Once implemented, the practice could help reduce complications from re-operations and improve surgical planning.
CI MED student Shonit Nair Sharma says 90% of abdominal surgeries result in internal scar tissue that restricts organ mobility. These adhesions are not directly visible with current medical imaging methods, limiting surgical planning when the patient needs further abdominal surgery. To bridge the preparation gap, Sharma is building a new pre-surgical workflow system called ScarSense, using cutting-edge technology to detect adhesions indirectly through their effects on tissue movement.
“By integrating advanced imaging with AI, ScarSense provides a scalable and cost-effective method for adhesion detection that can enhance surgical planning, reduce complications, and improve patient outcomes,” Sharma said. “ScarSense applies a diffusion-based AI model to cine-MRI motion data to improve preoperative prediction of adhesion burden,” he said. Cine-MRI captures movement through a series of images that allow doctors to observe how tissues function.
Sharma is working on the AI model for the system in collaboration with an electrical and computer science expert from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where Sharma earned his PhD. The team aims to pilot the new workflow at Carle Health.
If broadly adopted, the new system could yield financial benefits. Sharma and his teammates predict their workflow could save the health care system over $1.3 billion annually when implemented in surgeries to treat small bowel obstruction, a common adhesion-related complication.
The team’s solution won first-place honors at the Midwest Healthcare Management Conference at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in August.
Team members on the project include: Suwan Kim, MS, of MIT; Dr. Vitaliy Dushnov of Carle Health; Puneit Dua, PhD, MBA, of CI MED; and Dr. Darryl Fernandes of CI MED and Carle Health.