Estoril, 16 September 2025

SIGNET wins ITEA Award of Excellence for Exceptional Excellence for revolutionising MR-guided therapies

During the ITEA Award of Excellence ceremony at the ITEA PO Days, the ITEA project SIGNET was awarded the highest honour in the programme: the ITEA Award of Excellence for Exceptional Excellence. SIGNET stood out for its groundbreaking work in transforming complex image-guided medical procedures into personalised, AI-enhanced, MR-guided treatments and interventions that offer better outcomes for patients and greater efficiency for healthcare systems.

A shared language for smarter treatments

SIGNET's success is built around a series of AI-enabled solutions and COMRADE, a generic Common Open MR Remote Acquisition and Data Exchange interface between scanner and treatment devices. Thanks to these innovations, different MR-guided therapy devices are brought together and integrated with an MR system in a scalable manner. This standardised, vendor-agnostic interface allows real-time coordination of imaging, treatment controls and physiological data, making previously siloed systems work together as one.

Three validated use-cases brought these capabilities to life:

In cardiology, SIGNET enabled real-time, MR-guided integrated cardiac ablation by combining Imricor's catheter tracking, the NorthStar Mapping System, Adas3D’s 3D planning, Philips’ MR system, and advanced algorithms and processing techniques from Amsterdam University Medical Center. All these technologies were integrated and the proof of principle was shown in LifeTec Group's PhysioHeart platform, an isolated ex-vivo beating heart platform including electrophysiological behaviour.
In neurology, SIGNET supported both precise planning for stereotactic surgery and AI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for neurological disorders like depression, stroke and epilepsy.
In oncology, a robotic MR-guided biopsy system was demonstrated, allowing autonomous needle insertion with pinpoint accuracy and without manual intervention, which reduces the need for repeat visits and improves patient comfort.

Results that matter for patients, professionals and society

SIGNET's innovations have already reached Technology Readiness Level 5 (and, in certain cases, up to level 9), with great improvements demonstrated across all use-cases. In the biopsy workflow, procedure time was cut from over 60 minutes to under 20, while the number of biopsies required dropped from up to 14 to just one or two. In neurology, SIGNET halved the manual data handling steps needed. Motion-compensated imaging combined with breathing-guidance systems improved scan duration predictability by 60% and organ-at-risk delineation consistency by 50% in radiation treatment planning.

In addition to generating one patent, four invention disclosures and five upgraded products, SIGNET enabled a speed-up in Philips' SmartSpeed MRI image reconstruction.

Using our unique MR-compatible beating pig heart platform, we have successfully performed a ventricular ablation under real-time MRI guidance. This one-of-a-kind setup marks a significant milestone in interventional MRI and paves the way for new research and innovation in image-guided cardiac therapies.

Aart Nederveen, Professor of Applied MR Physics at Amsterdam UMC

Driving long-term excellence and global leadership

With SIGNET's focus on standardisation, AI integration and real-world applicability, long-term benefits are expected for individuals and for society at large. The project has already initiated four new collaborative initiatives, extending the scope to treatments beyond the three use-cases. By enabling quicker treatment with fewer hospital visits, SIGNET also contributes to reduced healthcare costs and to sustainability via lower carbon emissions.

This project has project participation from Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States and received funding from:

For interview requests, questions and additional information about SIGNET and ITEA, please contact:

SIGNET Contact person
Saurav Kumar Baidya
Philips
Saurav.Baidya@philips.com

ITEA Contact person
Régis Cazenave
ITEA Office
regis.cazenave@itea4.org

SIGNET project partners
https://itea4.org/project/signet.html

About ITEA
ITEA is the Eureka Cluster on software and systems innovation, enabling a large international community to collaborate in funded projects that turn innovative ideas into new businesses, jobs, economic growth and benefits for society.
https://itea4.org