Research interests

• Nuclear medicine physics and instrumentation
• Quality assurance and standardisation
• Quantitative digital scintigraphy
• Digital image processing
  
  

Teaching

• Undergraduate

• Postgraduate
  
  

Profile

Helmar Bergmann is currently deputy director of the Center of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. Prior to that, he was director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Physics from 1993 to 2004, then director of the Center of Biomedical Engineering and Physics until 2009.

He studied physics and mathematics at Vienna University and graduated with a PhD in experimental nuclear physics (1970). He worked at the Division of Nuclear Medicine of the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Vienna (1970 - 1991) where he was responsible for the management of the instrumentation. Research included quantitative digital scintigraphy, especially studies related to the staging of brain tumours, and regional thyroid uptake studies.

In connection with his design and implementation of a shadow shield whole body counter in Vienna he spent a year as a Research Fellow of the Wellcome Trust at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton (1973/74) and with a British Council postgraduate grant at the Medical Physics Dept of the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh (1976), in connection with research in low level radioactivity profile scanning and its applications in rheumatology.

Since 1979 he participated in Advisory Group and Consultants Meetings of the IAEA and the WHO and carried out several expert missions on behalf of the IAEA in various parts of the world, with the general topics Quality Assurance in Nuclear Medicine and Digital Scintigraphy. Research concentrated then on quality control of nuclear medicine instrumentation, especially for gamma cameras and quality control of SPECT systems.  Further areas of research are gastric motility, factor analysis in co-operation with Dr. M. Samal from Charles University Prague, networks in nuclear medicine, and image guided therapy.

In 1992 he was appointed Professor of Clinical Physics and became a staff member of  the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Physics of the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna. In 1993, he was elected director of the department.

Since 1972, Helmar Bergmann has participated in the organisation of the biannual international symposia "Radioactive Isotopes in Clinical Medicine and Research", and was editor of the Congress Proceedings, up to now 19 volumes, jointly with professor R. Höfer and his successors.1987 he organised the 2nd European EFOMP scientific conference jointly with the Austrian and German Societies of Medical Physics. He was the European editor on the editorial board of  "Physics in Medicine and Biology" (1988-1993), member of the editorial board of the "Zeitschrift für Medizinische Physik" (1997-2000), he is member of the editorial board of the "European Journal of Nuclear Medicine" (since 1993), of the "ALASBIMN journal", and of the consulting editorial board of the "Zeitschrift für Medizinische Physik" (since 2001).

Some recent publications

• Birkfellner W, Stock M, Figl M, Gendrin C, Hummel J, Dong S, Kettenbach J, Georg D, Bergmann H.: Stochastic rank correlation: a robust merit function for 2D/3D registration of image data obtained at different energies. Med Phys. 2009; 36(8): 3420-3428
• Bergmann H, Minear G, Raith M, Schaffarich PM: Multiple window spatial registration error of a gamma camera: 133Ba point source as a replacement of the NEMA procedure. BMC Med Phys 2008; 8: 6

• Dong S, Kettenbach J, Hinterleitner I, Bergmann H, Birkfellner W: The Zernike expansion - an example of a merit function for 2D/3D registration based on orthogonal functions. Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv 2008; 11(Pt2): 964-971.

• Hummel J, Figl M, Bax M, Bergmann H, Birkfellner W: 2D/3D registration of endoscopic ultrasound to CT volume data. Phys Med Biol 2008; 53(16): 4303-4316.

• Spoerk J, Bergmann H, Wanschitz F, Dong S, Birkfellner W: Fast DRR splat rendering using common consumer graphics hardware. Med Phys 2007; 34(11): 4302-4308.

• Birkfellner W, Figl M, Kettenbach J, Hummel J, Homolka P, Schernthaner R, Nau T, Bergmann H: Rigid 2D/3D slice-to-volume registration and its application on fluoroscopic CT images. Med Phys 2007; 34(1): 246-255.

• Miholic J, Hoffmann M, Holst JJ, Lenglinger J, Mittlböck M, Bergmann H, Stacher G: Gastric emptying of glucose solution and associated plasma concentrations of GLP-1, GIP, and PYY before and after fundoplication. Surg Endosc. 2007; 21(2): 309-314.

• Stacher G, Lenglinger J, Eisler M, Hoffmann M, Goll A, Bergmann H, Stacher-Janotta G: Esophageal acid exposure in upright and recumbent postures: roles of lower esophageal sphincter, esophageal contractile and transport function, hiatal hernia, age, sex, and body mass. Dig Dis Sci. 2006; 51(11): 1896-1903.

• Schaffarich P, Dobrozemsky G, Dudczak R, Bergmann H: Evaluation of the performance of a gamma camera equipped with a 5/8" versus 1" thick NaI detector. Z Med Phys. 2006; 16(2): 134-139

• Hummel J, Figl M, Birkfellner W, Bax MR, Shahidi R, Maurer CR Jr, Bergmann H: Evaluation of a new electromagnetic tracking system using a standardized assessment protocol. Phys Med Biol 2006; 51(10): N205-10.

• Birkfellner W, Seemann R, Figl M, Hummel J, Ede C, Homolka P, Yang X, Niederer P, Bergmann H: Fast DRR generation for 2D/3D registration. Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv Int Conf Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2005; 8(2): 960-967.

• Bergmann H, Dobrozemsky G, Minear G, Nicoletti R, Samal M: An inter-laboratory comparison study of image quality of PET scanners using the NEMA NU 2-2001 procedure for assessment of image quality. Phys Med Biol 2005; 50: 2193-2207.

• Figl M, Ede C, Hummel J, Wanschitz F, Ewers R, Bergmann H, Birkfellner W: A fully automated calibration method for an optical see-through head-mounted operating microscope with variable zoom and focus. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 2005; 24: 1492-1499.

• Birkfellner W, Seemann R, Figl M, Hummel J, Ede C, Homolka P, Yang X, Niederer P, Bergmann H: Wobbled splatting - a fast perspective volume rendering method for simulation of x-ray images from CT. Phys Med Biol 2005; 50: N73-N84.

• Kettenbach J, Kronreif G, Figl M, Furst M, Birkfellner W, Hanel R, Ptacek W, Bergmann H: Robot-assisted biopsy using computed tomography-guidance: initial results from in vitro tests. Invest Radiol 2005; 40: 219-228.

• Hummel JB, Bax MR, Figl ML, Kang Y, Maurer CJ, Birkfellner WW, Bergmann H, Shahidi R: Design and application of an assessment protocol for electromagnetic tracking systems. Med Phys 2005; 32: 2371-2379.

• Kollmann C, Vacariu G, Schuhfried O, Fialka Moser V, Bergmann H: Variations in the output power and surface heating effects of transducers in therapeutic ultrasound. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2005; 86: 1318-1324.