Optical Techniques in Pulmonary Medicine

Due to the high prevalence of lung diseases and the lack of available technologies to adequately evaluate the complex processes of the respiratory system, the use of optical techniques for studying, diagnosing, and treating the pulmonary airways has rapidly increased in recent years. While the application of optical technologies in pulmonary medicine is an emerging trend, scientists in this field are working towards developing new, and advancing existing, optical technologies for disease detection, diagnosis, and treatment, and for guiding and evaluating pulmonary interventions. In addition, these techniques are being utilized to study respiratory physiology and pathophysiolgy including airway structure and function relationships such as perfusion, ventilation, mechanics and re-modeling.

This conference will cover all aspects relating to optical based molecular, structural and functional imaging, diagnosis, and treatment of the lung. The goal is to bring together scientists and clinicians to discuss and progress current state-of-the-art optical diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, and to use the developed optical approaches to challenge and further develop our current understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of the respiratory system.