Maria Angela Franceschini: Clinical neuro-monitoring with NIRS-DCS

In this plenary session, Maria Angela Franceschini of the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging (USA) discusses clinical neuro-monitoring. She describes her group's work developing MetaOX, a tissue oxygen consumption monitor which has been tested in neonatal intensive care units to monitor hypoxic ischemic injury and therapeutic hypothermia. The device is being evaluated in Africa to study the effects of malnutrition on brain development and hydrocephalus outcomes in newborns.

Maria Angela Franceschini is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School with specific training and expertise in the development of non-invasive optical techniques and applications in neuroscience, neurology, and brain health. She has been a member of the Optics Division of the Martinos Center at Massachusetts General Hospital since 2000.

As a pioneer in the field of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), she has made substantial contributions to the development of NIRS instruments and to the modeling and testing of diffusion theory to describe light propagation in turbid media. She has successfully applied the technology to a large range of functional neuroimaging and clinical neuromonitoring applications.