Right now a big thing in radiology is IR(Interventional rads) which is where I want my focus to be. Most of the design research in DR(diagnostic) is very interesting, but improving MRIs isn't a huge area of interest as someone who is primarily an MD. Rather then improving a specific modality, I want to focus on either improving current interventional procedures. A "dream" of mine/say is too allow the use of radio-frequency ablation(RFA) on vascular neurological tumors. The current issue is that removal of tumors this way doesn't relieve mass effect so it wouldn't be a cure, however it could certainly act as a way to reduce tumor size which would absolutely aid neurosurgeons in making them both easier to resect and extending the life of the patient in the case that pure surgical isn't an option. I hope this gives you an idea of my interests.

The RFA in the brain would require the ability to quickly and efficiently change the output of radio-frequency energy(sorry if these are not proper terms, my knowledge is kind of limited on the inner workings on RF energy from a procedural standpoint) depending on the patient. It would need to be very direct and effective and cause very limited damage to surrounding tissues. Another option is for a neurosurgeon to open the patient up and put a needle or something straight into the tumor, rather adjacent via the angiogenetic vascularization, and "heat" the tumor away. The key with my idea is maintaining a balance between the power of RF-energy to destroy cancerous tissue while not damaging healthy tissue significantly. A bit part of the issue is where I will be using more of my MD skill set. I have to design the procedure in such a way that I can properly map out the vascularlization.

I hope this gives you an idea of the kind of products I would like to design. So I suppose advanced thermodynamics would be necessary. This is one of my ideas, however I think RFA is one of the best ideas in medicine right now, it is very "advanced", and I think it is great tech. I need the engineering background to edit current devices and know how to edit them in a way that will make the tech work in different organ systems, I want to apply this is to more diseases and techniques, currently the tech is only basically used in cardio, hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic canc. bile-duct cancers. Either way, I think this gives you an idea.