This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the International Workshop on Computational Challenges and Clinical Opportunities in Virtual Colonoscopy and Abdominal Imaging, held in conjunction with MICCAI 2010, in Beijing, China, on September 20, 2010. The 19 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 26 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on CT colonography CAD, abdominal imaging, and virtual colonoscopy.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Computational and Clinical Applications in Abdominal Imaging, held in conjunction with MICCAI 2011, in Toronto, Canada, on September 18, 2011. The 33 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 40 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on virtual colonoscopy and CAD, abdominal intervention, and computational abdominal anatomy.

"This book provides a comprehensive overview of machine learning research and technology in medical decision-making based on medical images"--Provided by publisher.

Colorectal cancer remains a major health issue for many developed regions around the world. The good news is that early detection has significantly improved overall survival rates and continues to do so. A number of prevention strategies contribute to this positive trend, and today a patient who undergoes a colonoscopy for screening purposes stands a much better chance of being effectively surveyed for prevention of colorectal cancer. Patients can rely increasingly on the improved datasets and technical advances that are being made in screening approaches and skills. With continued progress, particularly in the partnership between clinicians and computer scientists, the future for colorectal cancer surveillance looks increasingly positive for the development of improved tools and methods.

Data mining continues to be an emerging interdisciplinary field that offers the ability to extract information from an existing data set and translate that knowledge for end-users into an understandable way. Data Mining: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a comprehensive collection of research on the latest advancements and developments of data mining and how it fits into the current technological world.

Artificial neural networks may probably be the single most successful technology in the last two decades which has been widely used in a large variety of applications in various areas. The purpose of this book is to provide recent advances of artificial neural networks in biomedical applications. The book begins with fundamentals of artificial neural networks, which cover an introduction, design, and optimization. Advanced architectures for biomedical applications, which offer improved performance and desirable properties, follow. Parts continue with biological applications such as gene, plant biology, and stem cell, medical applications such as skin diseases, sclerosis, anesthesia, and physiotherapy, and clinical and other applications such as clinical outcome, telecare, and pre-med student failure prediction. Thus, this book will be a fundamental source of recent advances and applications of artificial neural networks in biomedical areas. The target audience includes professors and students in engineering and medical schools, researchers and engineers in biomedical industries, medical doctors, and healthcare professionals.

The book is a unique effort to represent a variety of techniques designed to represent, enhance, and empower multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional machine learning research in healthcare informatics. The book provides a unique compendium of current and emerging machine learning paradigms for healthcare informatics and reflects the diversity, complexity and the depth and breath of this multi-disciplinary area. The integrated, panoramic view of data and machine learning techniques can provide an opportunity for novel clinical insights and discoveries.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the International Workshop on Computational Challenges and Clinical Opportunities in Virtual Colonoscopy and Abdominal Imaging, held in conjunction with MICCAI 2010, in Beijing, China, on September 20, 2010. The 19 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 26 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on CT colonography CAD, abdominal imaging, and virtual colonoscopy.