An embodiment of the invention provides a method and apparatus for registering two medical images with one another. A first medical image including a representation of a biological organ of a subject or for a population is obtained and the surface of the organ is identified in the first medical image. The identified surface is then used to construct a 3D geometric surface model of the organ. The geometric model is used to derive a motion model that incorporates information on the physical material properties of the organ and external forces that cause the organ to move and deform. A second medical image including a representation of the organ of the subject (or another subject, in the case that the first medical image is an atlas image) is obtained and an alignment is determined between a first surface normal vector field for the organ surface, derived from the geometric model, and a second surface normal vector field for the organ surface, derived by filtering the second medical image. The alignment accommodates deformation of the geometric model in accordance with the motion predicted by the motion model. The first and second medical images can then be registered with one another based on said determined model-to-image vector alignment (MIVA).
