Seeing the body in three dimensions allows specialists to better detect potential problems, as well as evaluate current treatments. UI Hospitals and Clinics has created a new center designed to lead the way in 3D technology.

The Iowa Comprehensive Lung Imaging Center at The University of Iowa is home to an advanced, multi-slice CT scanner. This highly-advanced equipment, as well as the image processing and analysis from experts, offers clearer images of the human lung – better than anything previously available.

"Now we work in this 3D space, so it’s like looking at a view of anything. If you see it with three dimensions you get a lot more information, appreciated much more," says Geoffrey McLennan, Ph.D., UI lung specialist.

Although there are many advanced treatments for lung disease, there are no current methods to test their success. So specialists here are building a computer model of the normal lung, based on information from the CT scans. Then they can compare patient lung scans against the normal lung model to detect disease and follow available treatment options.

"Our work here is multi-fold, in terms of trying to build the scanners that will scan the patients, but also trying to just assess interventions that will help in various ways," says Eric Hoffman, Ph.D., UI physiologist.

Specialists also process information from the human genome project, collaborating with experts from medical centers all over the world.

A $7.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health helped fund this new lung imaging center.

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Geoffrey McLennan, Ph.D.

Eric Hoffman, Ph.D.

National Institutes of Health