HEALTHINF 2009 Abstracts

Full Papers Short Papers
Full Papers
Paper Nr: 17
Title:

A DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND WORKFLOW TO HELP AT THE DIAGNOSIS OF HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY
Authors:

Jose Antonio Cotelo-Lema, Miguel R. Luaces, Lorenzo Montserrat and Diego Seco
Abstract: We present in this paper the architecture and some implementation details of a Document Management System and Workflow. This system is used to help in the diagnosis of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, one of the most frequent genetic cardiovascular diseases. The system allows a gradual and collaborative creation of a knowledge base about the mutations associated with this disease. The system manages both the original documents of the scientific papers and the data extracted from this papers by the experts. Furthermore, a semiautomatic report generation module exploits this knowledge base to create high quality informs about the studied mutations.
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Paper Nr: 32
Title:

COORDINATE-BASED META-ANALYTIC SEARCH FOR THE SPM NEUROIMAGING PIPELINE - The BredeQuery plugin for SPM5
Authors:

Bartlomiej Wilkowski, Marcin Szewczyk, Peter M. Rasmussen, Lars Kai Hansen and Finn Aarup Nielsen
Abstract: Large amounts of neuroimaging studies are collected and have changed our view on human brain function. By integrating multiple studies in meta-analysis a more complete picture is emerging. Brain locations are usually reported as coordinates with reference to a specific brain atlas, thus some of the databases offer socalled coordinate-based searching to the users (e.g. Brede, BrainMap). For such search, the publications, which relate to the brain locations represented by the user coordinates, are retrieved. In this paper we present BredeQuery – a plugin for the widely used SPM5 data analytic pipeline. BredeQuery offers a direct link from SPM5 to the Brede Database coordinate-based search engine. BredeQuery is able to ‘grab’ brain location coordinates from the SPM windows and enter them as a query for the Brede Database. Moreover, results of the query can be displayed in an SPM window and/or exported directly to some popular bibliographic file formats (BibTeX, Reference Manager, etc).
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Paper Nr: 45
Title:

ECG simulation with improved model of cell action potentials
Authors:

Roman Trobec, Matjaž Depolli and Viktor Avbelj
Abstract: An improved model of action potentials (AP) is proposed to increase the accuracy of simulated electrocardiograms (ECGs). ECG simulator is based on a spatial model of a left ventricle, composed of cubic cells. Three distinct APs, modeled with functions proposed by Wohlfard, have been assigned to the cells, forming epicardial, mid, and endocardial layers. Identification of exact parameter values for AP models has been done through optimization of the simulated ECGs. Results have shown that only through an introduction of a minor extension to the AP model, simulator is able to produce realistic ECGs. The same extension also proves essential for achieving a good fit between the measured and modeled APs.
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Paper Nr: 61
Title:

AN APPROACH TO ENFORCE CONTEXT-AWARE ACCESS CONTROL TO PROCESS-BASED HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS BUILD ON A GRID INFRASTRUCTURE
Authors:

Vassiliki Koufi, Flora Malamateniou and George Vassilacopoulos
Abstract: Healthcare is an increasingly collaborative enterprise involving a broad range of healthcare services provided by a number of geographically distributed and organizationally disparate healthcare providers. Grid technology has emerged as an integration infrastructure for shared and coordinated use of diverse data resources residing in the healthcare settings of a health district. Moreover, healthcare processes can be formed as compositions of web services that use grid database services to provide integrated healthcare information thus improving healthcare quality. Further improvement can be achieved by means of Grid portal applications developed on a wireless and mobile infrastructure as they provide to ubiquitous and pervasive access to healthcare processes at the point of care. In such environments, the ability to provide an effective access control mechanism that meets the requirement of the least privilege principle is essential. Adherence to the least privilege principle requires continuous adjustments of user permissions in order to adapt to the current situation. This paper presents an access control architecture for HDGPortal, a Grid portal application which provides access to workflow-based healthcare processes using wireless Personal Digital Assistants. The proposed architecture utilizes the xoRBAC component, which provides a role-based access control service that enables the enforcement of fine-grained context-dependent access control policies via context constraints. In particular, xoRBAC is integrated in our process-oriented healthcare environment which is build on top of a Grid infrastructure and is accessible through HDGPortal. Thus, the risk of compromising information integrity during task executions is reduced.
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Paper Nr: 63
Title:

An Advanced Home Eldercare Service
Authors:

Tarik Taleb, Dario Bottazzi, Nidal Nasser and Hammadi Nait-Charif
Abstract: With the increase of welfare cost all over the developed world, there is a need to resort to new technologies that could help reduce this enormous cost and provide some quality eldercare services. This paper presents a middleware-level solution that integrates monitoring and emergency detection solutions with networking solutions. The proposed system enables efficient integration between a variety of sensors and actuators deployed at home for emergency detection and provides a framework for creating and managing rescue teams willing to assist elders in case of emergency situations. A prototype of the proposed system was designed and implemented. Results were obtained from both computer simulations and a real-network testbed. These results show that the proposed system can help overcome some of the current problems and help reduce the enormous cost of eldercare service.
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Paper Nr: 70
Title:

Creating a LOC based portable Health-Care Platform using a universal Mobile NFC Host Environment
Authors:

Fazilatur Rahman, Babak Akhgar and Jawed I. Siddiqi
Abstract: This paper presents our recent plan to provide support for a portable diagnostic health care platform (namely POCEMON) based on Lab-On-Chip (LOC) concept. The idea is based on our achievements on creating a host environment that combines mobile phones/PDAs with the Near Field Communication (NFC) wireless technology to further support mobile diagnostic health care applications. NFC enabled mobile phone based host environment works as a reference platform regardless of the phone type and the nature of the services required. In connection to this, we will describe further insights on how this cutting edge technology may be leveraged in the health care sector providing efficient point-of-care diagnosis and major innovations of the proposed approach.
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Paper Nr: 75
Title:

A CAD system for IIF tests
Authors:

Paolo Soda and Giulio Iannello
Abstract: At the present, Indirect Immunofluorescence (IIF) imaging is the recommended method for the detection of antinuclear autoantibodies. IIF diagnosis requires to estimate the fluorescence intensity and to describe the staining pattern, but resources and adequately trained personnel are not always available. In this respect, an evident medical demand is the development of Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) tools that can offer a support to physician decision. In this paper we present a comprehensive system that supports the two sides of IIF tests classification. It is based on a cascade of two systems: the first labels the fluorescence intensity, whereas the second recognizes the staining pattern of positive wells. The analysis of its perspective performance shows the system potential in lowering the method variability, in increasing the level of standardization and in reducing the specialist workload by more than 80%.
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Paper Nr: 78
Title:

Towards an Automatic Diagnosis System for Acute Abdominal Pain: Support Vector Machines for the Diagnosis of Diverticulitis and Non-Specific Abdominal Pain
Authors:

Malin B. Åberg, Kajsa Nalin, Lars-Erik Hansson and Helge Malmgren
Abstract: The process of medical diagnosis is highly complex, and automatic decision support systems are appealing. In this study we investigate the feasibility of automating one such decision-making process, namely the diagnosis of patients seeking care for acute abdominal pain, and, specifically the diagnosis of acute diverticulitis. We used a linear support vector machine (SVM) to classify diverticulitis from all other reported cases of abdominal pain and from the important differential diagnosis non-specific abdominal pain (NSAP). Using a database containing 3 337 patients, the SVM obtained results comparable to those of the doctors. The distinction between diverticulitis and non-specific pain was substantially better for the SVM. Here the doctor achieved a sensitivity of 0.714 and a specificity of 0.963. When adjusted to the physicians results, the SVM sensitivity/specificity was higher at 0.714/0.985 and 0.786/0.963 respectively. Age was found as the most important factor for diagnosis, closely followed by C-reactive protein level and various pain indicators on the left hand side. Thus, the support vector machine is a promising tool in the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain.
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Paper Nr: 79
Title:

NFCARE - Possible applications of NFC technology in sanitary environments
Authors:

Alessandro Pozzebon and Giuliano Benelli
Abstract: In this paper we discuss the introduction of the NFC technology in the management of the assistance operations in the hospitals. NFC is a new short range communication system based on RFID technology. NFC systems can work like traditional RFID systems, where a master device reads some information from a slave device, but they can also set up a two-way communication between two items. In particular, NFC devices can be integrated on mobile phones, widely enhancing the intercommunication capabilities of the users. The introduction of NFC in sanitary environments can help to make safer all the assistance operations. Next to the realization of a NFC electronic case history, we also studied the realization of electronic medical prescription and the use of this technology for the exchange of patient data between doctors and between nurses, in order to avoid errors in the attendance operations. The final idea is to change a mobile phone into an interactive multipurpose assistant for people working in hospitals or in harness with patients.
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Paper Nr: 92
Title:

BACKTRAINER Computer-aided therapy system with augmented feedback for the lower back
Authors:

Dominique Brodbeck and Markus Degen
Abstract: Low back pain is an important problem in industrialized countries. Two key factors limit the effectiveness of physiotherapy: low compliance of patients with repetitive movement exercises, and inadequate awareness of patients of their own posture. The Backtrainer system addresses these problems by real-time monitoring of the spine position, by providing a framework for most common physiotherapy exercises for the low back, and by providing feedback to patients in a motivating way. A minimal sensor configuration was identified as two inertial sensors that measure the orientation of the lower back at two points with three degrees of freedom. The software was designed as a flexible platform to experiment with different hardware, and with various feedback modalities. Basic exercises for two types of movements are provided: mobilizing and stabilizing. We developed visual feedback - abstract as well as in the form of a virtual reality game - and complemented the on-screen graphics with an ambient feedback device. The system was evaluated during five weeks in a rehabilitation clinic with 26 patients and 15 physiotherapists. Subjective satisfaction of subjects was good, and we interpret the results as encouraging indication for the adoption of such a therapy support system by both patients and therapists.
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Paper Nr: 99
Title:

A VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATOR FOR TRAINING WRIST ARTHROSCOPIC SURGERY
Authors:

Fadi Yaacoub, Yskandar Hamam and Antoine Abche
Abstract: The minimally invasive approach of arthroscopy means less pain and faster recovery time for patients compared to open surgery. However, it implies a high difficulty of performance. In this paper, a functional prototype of a virtual reality simulator for training wrist arthroscopic surgery is introduced. This simulator allows medical students as well as surgeons to interact with anatomical structures by modeling and operating on virtual objects displayed on the computer screen. A 3-D virtual representation of the bones constituting the wrist of a patient is shown. Also, algorithms that model objects using the convex hull approaches and simulate real time collision detection between virtual objects during the training on the operation are presented. In addition, a force feedback device is used as a haptic interface with the computer simulation system. This leads in the development of a low cost system that is used by trainees with the same benefits as professional devices. In this regard, the wrist arthroscopy can be simulated and medical students can easily acquire the system and can learn the basic skills required with safety, flexibility and less cost.
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Paper Nr: 101
Title:

AMBIENT HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS - Using the Hydra Embedded Middleware for implementing an Ambient Disease Management System
Authors:

Heinz-josef Eikerling, Gernot Graefe, Walter Schneider and Florian Roehr
Abstract: Healthcare is an important aspect of ambient life. As the life expectation increases and thus diseases statistically become more frequent, the high-quality and cost-effective management of such diseases becomes a societal task. Within this paper we examine issues and requirements stemming from the implementation of disease management systems. Such systems critically depend on acceptance, cost-efficiency and other criteria that – through those requirements – are addressed by the Hydra multi-domain middleware. Hydra aims at the seamless integration of embedded systems such as bio-medical sensors and other domain-specific and generic equipment. We motivate and demonstrate the use of the middleware in the healthcare sector by means of a disease management system relying on the easy integration and proper configurability of applications running on the included measuring and controlling devices.
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Paper Nr: 104
Title:

COMPARISON OF ANALYTIC APPROACHES FOR DETERMINING VARIABLES
Authors:

Femida Gwadry-Sridhar, Michael Bauer, Benoit Lewden and Selam Mequanint
Abstract: Sepsis is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity and is often associated with increased hospital resource utilization, prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital stay. The economic burden associated with sepsis is severe. With advances in medicine, there is now aggressive goal oriented treatments that can be used to help these patients. If we were able to predict which patients may be at risk for sepsis we could start treatment early and potentially reduce the risk of mortality and morbidity. Analytic methods currently used in clinical research to determine the risk of a patient developing sepsis may be further enhanced by using multi-modal analytic methods that together could be used to provide greater precision. Researchers commonly use univariate and multivariate regressions to develop predictive models. We hypothesized that such models could be enhanced by using multi-modal analytic methods that together could be used to provide greater precision. In this paper, we analyze data about patients with and without sepsis using a decision tree approach. A comparison with a regression approach shows strong similarity among variables identified, though not an exact match. We compare the variables identified by the different approaches and draw conclusions about the respective predictive capabilities.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 2
Title:

Ophthalmologic Electronic Health Records System using HL7/CDA and DICOM: TeleOftalWeb

Authors:

Isabel de la Torre, María Isabel López, Miguel López and Roberto Hornero
Abstract: Electronic Health Record (EHR) refers to the complete set of information that resides in electronic form and is related to the past, present and future health status. Health Level Seven (HL7) and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) are intensively influencing EHRs standardization. This article describes the development, experience and evaluation of a web-based application, TeleOftalWeb 3.2, to store and exchange EHRs in ophthalmology. We apply HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) and DICOM standards. EHRs and fundus photographs are stored in a database Oracle 10g. The application has been built on Java Servlet and Java Server Pages (JSP) technologies. For security, all data transmissions were carried over encrypted Internet connections such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and HyperText Transfer Protocol over SSL (HTTPS). The application verifies the standards related to privacy and confidentiality. TeleOftalWeb 3.2 has been tested by ophthalmologists from the University Institute of Applied Ophthalmobiology (IOBA), Spain. Nowadays, more than one thousand health records have been included to verify the web application usability.
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Paper Nr: 7
Title:

MANAGING MEDICINAL INSTRUCTIONS

Authors:

Juha Puustjärvi
Abstract: The number of new medications increases every year. As a result also the amount of new instructions concerning new medication increases rapidly. A problem is how to ensure that the employers of the medicinal organizations are aware of the relevant medicinal instructions. In this paper, we restrict ourselves on this problem. In particular, we consider three complementary ways for the dissemination of medicinal instructions: (i) by providing keyword-based searching of instructions (ii), by providing ontology-based searching of instructions, and (iii) by integrating the instructions to employers´ day-to-day work tasks. Our argument is that integration is most preferable as medicinal instructions are provided just-in-time, tailored to their specific needs, and integrated into day-to-day work patterns. However, automating the integration of instructions to day-to-day work pattern is not an easy task. In our solution, day-to-day work patterns are described by BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) and BPMN’s association- notation is used for integrating the instructions to BPMN-processes. The integration of the tasks and instructions is based either on a medicinal ontology or a taxonomy. The ontology specifies the relationships of the day-to-day tasks and the medicinal instructions. The taxonomy is used for attaching metadata items for the tasks and instructions, and so the integration of the tasks and instructions can be done based on the similarity of their metadata descriptions.
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Paper Nr: 15
Title:

Data Visualization in a Personal Health Record using Rich Internet Application Graphic Components
Authors:

Francois Andry, Michelle Lee, Igor Kosoy, Goutham Naval, Liliya Puzankov and Daren Nicholson
Abstract: Patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes have to monitor complex sets of medical observations and behaviors. This includes blood glucose, weight, cholesterol, A1c, blood pressure, as well as diet, exercise and medication. We have developed a set of web-based highly interactive graphic modules that are integrated in a personal health record to provide an easy and pleasant way for patients to browse through their historical data. By using a Web 2.0 framework with technologies such as AJAX and Flash/Flex, coupled with a mechanism of loading data on demand, we minimized the amount of data passed between the server and the browser and we were able to build a highly interactive and responsive graphic user interface that displays two-dimensional graphs for diabetic patients. As a result, the patients are using their personal health record on a daily basis, resulting in a more accurate, complete and useful application.
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Paper Nr: 16
Title:

MOBILE APPLICATIONS IN THE GERMAN HEALTH INSURANCE SYSTEM TO IMPROVE THE MARKET POSITION
Authors:

Dirk Frosch-Wilke and Michael Malik
Abstract: Mobile end devices and applications play a growing role in business processes, especially in industry, commerce and service. But even in different branches, which are significant for their high intensity in competition – for example the German health insurance system –first preparations are taken to create an interface for the customer and thus advantages in competition. In many cases these projects are not included in the context of corporate strategy. This “paper” shows on the basis of a specific project with the health insurer IKK-Direkt, how mobile applications in the health sector can be introduced, so that technical restrictions are regarded and additional benefits to the customer are offered, consequently achieving a higher competitive position for the company.
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Paper Nr: 23
Title:

SECURING HEALTH INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURES THROUGH OVERLAYS
Authors:

Daniele Sgandurra, Fabrizio Baiardi and Dario Maggiari
Abstract: Confidentiality and integrity of information are among the critical problems to face when managing health information through ICT systems. Virtual Interacting Network CommunIty (Vinci) is a software architecture that exploits virtualization to share a healthcare ICT infrastructure among users with different security levels and reliability requirements. Vinci introduces several \emph{communities}, each consisting of users, some applications, a set of services and of shared resources. Users and applications with distinct privileges and trust levels belong to distinct communities. Each community is supported by a virtual network built by interconnecting virtual machines (VMs). The adoption of VMs increases the overall security level because we can use VMs not only to run user applications, but also to protect shared resources, control traffic among communities or discover malware. Further VMs manage the overall infrastructure and configure the VMs at start-up. Vinci supports the definition of security policies to protect information within and across communities. As an example, discretionary access control policies may protect files shared within a community, whereas mandatory, multilevel security policies may rule access to files shared among communities. After describing Vinci architecture, we present the VM templates and preliminary performance results.
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Paper Nr: 25
Title:

PREDICTING THE OUTCOME OF TUBERCULOSIS TREATMENT COURSE IN FRAME OF DOTS, From Demographic Data to Logistic Regression Model

Authors:

Sharareh N. Kalhori and Xiao-Jun Zeng
Abstract: About fifteen years after the start of WHO’s DOTS strategy, tuberculosis remains a major global health threat. Patients vary considerably in their performance in completing treatment course of tuberculosis. Defect in treatment completion have serious undesirable consequences. Although several studies have predicted outcome of treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis, few tools are available to identify high risk patients in finishing treatment course and getting cure prospectively. A logistic regression model proposed to predict the given outcome applying patient demographic characteristics related to just less than 10,000 tuberculosis patients diagnosed by Iranian health surveillance system in 2005. Several tests validate the developed model, X2 (6) = 351.902, P < 0.0001. Also, the model confirmed the significant role of considered factors, calculating the odds ratio of outcome occurring based on each category of variables and explaining the possibility of using the model in other similar patient population. In brief, to support the decision of how intensive the carrying out of DOTS should be for each patient, the predictive models like logistic regression could be useful.
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Paper Nr: 27
Title:

CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE INFORMATICS: Translating Information to Transform Health Care

Authors:

Arkalgud Ramaprasad, Ian Brooks and Annette Valenta
Abstract: Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) is a new and emerging academic discipline which seeks to reduce (a) the time-to-application of research to, and (b) the time-to-research of, health care problems. Translating information within and between the research and practice silos is central to CTS. The role of CTS Informatics (CTSI) can be stated as ‘translating information to transform health care’. We present an ontological analysis of the transformation of health care by CTSI. The five dimensions of the ontology are derived by parsing the above definition of CTSI. They are: (a) information, (b) semiotic translation, (c) spatial translation, (d) temporal translation, and (e) health care. Each dimension is defined by a taxonomy. Each sentence, formed by concatenating categories across the five dimensions using appropriate prefixes and conjunctive words and phrases, is a natural language descriptor of CTSI. The set of all such sentences is a closed description of CTSI.
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Paper Nr: 29
Title:

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF AN AMBIENT INTELLIGENT SYSTEM SUPPORTING DEPRESSION THERAPY
Authors:

Fiemke Both, Mark Hoogendoorn, Michel Klein and Jan Treur
Abstract: This paper addresses the design of an ambient intelligent system to support humans that follow “activity scheduling” therapy to recover from a uni-polar depression. The system consists of a personalized website and a mobile-phone based reporting a reminder system. To analyse the system, a previously developed dynamic model is used to simulate a client. It is illustrated by interactive simulation that the system is more effective than the plain internet-based therapy that is offered at the moment. In continuation of the work described in this paper a clinical trial is planned in the first half of 2009.
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Paper Nr: 33
Title:

Using a Classification Scheme to Facilitate Outsourcing of Radiology Services
Authors:

Uffe K. Wiil and Ulrik Schønnemann
Abstract: This paper deals with the issues involved in outsourcing radiology services. Based upon a field study of the work practices at the radiology department at Svendborg Hospital in Denmark, a novel solution (including a prototype of a computer supported reporting tool) that enables outsourcing of radiology services is introduced. The solution is based upon development of a classification scheme of possible radiology findings. Using predefined clinical findings for the radiology reports assure a high quality and enable automatic translation of radiology reports.
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Paper Nr: 34
Title:

CONSISTENT CORTICAL RESPONSES FROM SUBCORTICALY DELIVERED ELECTRICAL STIMULI
Authors:

Fivos Panetsos, Elena Diaz-de Cerio, Abel Sanchez-Jimenez, Juan Jose Navarro-Valls, Jose A. Vega and Idoia Diaz-Guemes
Abstract: Loss of vision is one of the most important challenges for science nowadays and a large amount of work has been done in the development and implant of visual neuroprostheses. The applicability of retinal implants is restricted either because healthy retinal neurons and/or optic nerve are not always available or because of problems related to the retinal implants themselves. At the present alternatives are restricted to cortical prostheses which in turn have several physiological and technical limitations. In our communication we describe a direct proof for the feasibility of subcortical visual prostheses that would solve several of the limitations of the cortical ones. Our approach consists in stimulating the visual cortex of intact animals by means of visual stimuli and then to generate similar responses by means of electrical stimulation of the lateral geniculate nucleus.
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Paper Nr: 38
Title:

A TAXONOMY OF INFORMATION NEEDS OF INFORMAL CARERS -An Empirical Investigation -
Authors:

Basil Alzougool, Kathleen Gray and Shanton Chang
Abstract: Researchers and practitioners are increasingly aware of the importance of the information needs of informal carers. However, little research has investigated their information needs comprehensively within the lived experience of being an informal carer. This paper presents a taxonomy of information needs of informal carers that assists in understanding their information needs more fully. This taxonomy divides information needs of informal carers into four major conceptual categories: (i) information needs related to the persons needing care, (ii) information needs related to the informal carers themselves, (iii) information needs related to the interaction between the persons needing care and informal carers; and (iv) information needs related to the interaction between informal carers and other parties. The usefulness of this taxonomy is demonstrated empirically using the results of eight case studies of carers of children with Type 1 diabetes. Evidence is provided to show how this taxonomy gives a multi-dimensional account of the information needs of informal carers. These results are important for those who work with such carers and for those who are concerned with addressing the information needs of informal carers in other healthcare contexts
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Paper Nr: 39
Title:

HIGH ANGULAR FIBER TRACKING ON THE GRID
Authors:

Jasper van Leeuwen and Anca Bucur
Abstract: The grid carries the promise of seamless access to vast amounts of various resources (e.g. computational, data, special instruments, human, etc.) in a reliable and secure manner and at low costs, at any time and from anywhere. In this context, an increasing body of research focuses on enabling complex healthcare applications to make efcient use of grid technologies and remote resources in clusters and grids, while satisfying the high requirements in the healthcare domain with respect to performance, reliability, cost-effectiveness, privacy and security. Our research aims at developing an architecture that enables computationally intensive healthcare applications to transparently use powerful remote resources for signicant performance improvement, while being used in actual clinical environments. In this paper we apply our grid-enabled architecture to High Angular Fiber Tracking (HAFT), an imaging application with very high computational requirements. We parallelize the HAFT application and evaluate its performance in terms of response time and scalability. Finally, we deploy the application at the Amsterdam Medical Centre, in The Netherlands, and validate it (and the underlying architecture) together with clinical users and on real patient data.
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Paper Nr: 40
Title:

Using Audemes as a Learning Medium for the Visually Impaired
Authors:

Steve Mannheimer, Mexhid Ferati, Donald Huckleberry and Mathew Palakal
Abstract: In this paper we demonstrate the importance of short, nonverbal sound symbols—called “audemes”—in the encoding and recalling of text-based educational materials. Working over the course of a school year with blind and visually impaired pre-college students, we explored their capacity to remember individual audemes, audeme sequences, and associate these sounds with educational content for long-term memory. Through interviews and tests, we also explored the intuitive or imaginative processes by which students create rich narratives that enable them to remember and make sense of complex audemes and series of audemes that are inherently abstract or open to interpretation. Further, we explored the mnemonic power of positive affect in audemes, and the greater mnemonic power of audemes that use sounds with direct thematic association to the information to be encoded. Our results showed that audemes can be an effective alternative medium for learning and recall in visually impaired population. The ultimate goal of our work is applied: The implementation of an “acoustic interface” which offers visually impaired users a way to manipulate a touch-sensitive computer screen to cue sound symbols to navigate a complex database of knowledge.
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Paper Nr: 46
Title:

Adaptive Services for Elderly People and Caregivers in ‘Assisted Living’ Homes
Authors:

Stéphane Betgé-Brezetz, Xavier Andrieu, Sophie Piekarec, Marie-Pascale Dupont, Guy-Bertrand Kamga and Arnaud Vergnol
Abstract: This paper presents an innovative medical grade telecommunication system (combining professional and consumer equipments) and its service platform extended with a personalization technology to automatically adapt the services to the end-user disabilities, preferences, and context. This system has been developed in the scope of an ‘assisted living’ home and several applications have been demonstrated upon it (e.g., activity proposition, reminders, and alerts). Such demonstrations have highlighted the added value of the adaptation technology to enhance the quality of life of elderly people as well as the efficiency of the caregivers’ work.
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Paper Nr: 48
Title:

Understanding needs and requirements in
applications for identifying
clinically relevant similarities
between patients with liver related diseases
Authors:

Kristina Groth and Christina Engström
Abstract: We present a field study at a surgical clinic of what data that is relevant in order to identify clinically relevant similarities. We have observed discussion meetings in which different medical specialities decide how to treat patients with severe diseases in the liver. Our study also includes interviews with medical personnel, and examination of two data sources, the electronic patient records and the local quality liver registry used within the clinic. Our findings include a model of data that can be useful when searching for clinically relevant similarities between patient cases, as well as requirements on the functionality of an application that can identify clinically relevant similarities.
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Paper Nr: 55
Title:

DESCRIPTION LOGIC FOR AUTOMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF MAMMOGRAM REPORTS
Authors:

Amel Boustil and Zaidi Sahnoun
Abstract: In this paper, we present a system for automatic classification of mammography reports, based on a radiological OWL DL ontology. The later describes radiological signs and categories of the BI-RADS classification established by American College of Radiology (ACR) in the OWL DL language. Our system is designed firstly to formalize content of mammogram reports written in free text driving by the ACR Ontology, then to infer relevant classes and corresponding attitude by using subsumption classification. Classification in our work is based on description logic by using OWL DL ontology and description logical reasoning system.
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Paper Nr: 56
Title:

A NEW SOFTWARE TOOL FOR MANAGING AND QUERYING THE PERSONAL MEDICAL DIGITAL IMAGERY
Authors:

Liana Stanescu, Dumitru D. Burdescu, Marius Brezovan, Cosmin S. Spahiu and Anca Ion
Abstract: The paper presents an original software tool for creating, updating and querying medium sized digital multimedia collections. The software tool represents a relational database management system kernel that uses traditional data types (numbers and character strings) and Image data type to manage visual information. An element of originality is the graphical interface that allows building content-based visual queries using color and texture characteristics. These characteristics are automatically extracted from images when they are inserted in the database. The color information is represented by color histograms resulted by transforming the RGB color space into HSV color space and quantifying it to 166 colors. The texture information is represented by a vector with 12 values resulted from the method that uses Gabor filters. The software tool has the advantage of being platform independent, it has a low cost and it is easy to use by the medical personnel. It is ideal for managing personal multimedia digital collections from medical domain.
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Paper Nr: 58
Title:

TOWARDS INTEROPERABILITY IN E-HEALTH SYSTEMS: A Three-Dimensional Approach Based on Standards and Semantics
Authors:

Jose M. Gómez-Pérez, Pablo Serrano, Leonardo Lezcano, Manuel De Buenaga and Ana Iglesias
Abstract: The interoperability problem in eHealth can only be addressed by means of combining standards and technology. However, these alone do not suffice. An appropriate framework that articulates such combination is required. In this paper, we adopt a three-dimensional (information, concept, and inference) approach for such framework, based on OWL as formal language for terminological and ontological health resources, SNOMED CT as lexical backbone for all such resources, and the standard CEN 13606 for representing EHRs. Based on such framework, we propose a novel form for creating and supporting networks of clinical terminologies. Additionally, we propose a number of software modules to semantically process and exploit EHRs, including NLP-based search and inference, which can support medical applications in heterogeneous and distributed eHealth systems.
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Paper Nr: 60
Title:

THE NATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR IT (NPFIT) IN ENGLAND: How Can Clinicians be Encouraged to Use the Choose and Book Service?
Authors:

Reza Rabiei, Allen Hutchinson and Peter A. Bath
Abstract: In recent years, there has been increasing attention towards developing person-based electronic information systems in different countries. In England, the Choose and Book Service, a key component of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in England aims to offer patients the facility to choose and book their hospital appointments at a time, date and place convenient for them. However, anecdotal evidence suggests limited uptake and use of this service by clinicians. However, there has been limited evaluation of the service. The aim of this research was to explore clinicians’ perceptions of the Choose and Book service. A qualitative approach, using in-depth, semi-structured interviews was used to collect data from clinicians. Framework Analysis was used to analyse the data. A main sub-theme emerging from the analysis was encouragement for the clinicians. Although both GPs and consultants were positive about the benefits of Choose and Book for patients, they saw no or limited advantages for themselves. Clinicians noted a number of factors that would help to encourage them to use the Choose and Book service. Deployment of information systems does not mean that users will necessarily use it in their practice. Depicting a broader picture of benefits for different user groups, improving the usefulness and the reliability of information systems and rewarding users are among the approaches that could help to encourage users.
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Paper Nr: 65
Title:

ARCHETYPE ALIGNMENT: A TWO-LEVEL DRIVEN SEMANTIC MATCHING APPROACH TO INTEROPERABILITY IN THE CLINICAL DOMAIN
Authors:

Jesus Bisbal and Damon Berry
Abstract: Semantic interoperability between electronic health record systems and other information systems in the health domain implies agreement about the structure and the meaning of the information that is communicated. There are still a number of similar but different EHR system approaches. Some of the newer approaches adopt the two-layer model approach where a generic reference model is constrained by archetypes into valid clinical concepts which can be exchanged. The meaning of the concepts that are represented by an archetype can be conveyed by embedding codes from a commonly recognised terminology at appropriate points in the archetype. However, as the number of archetypes multiply it will become necessary to match archetypes from different sources to facilitate interoperability. This paper describes an approach that supports semantic interoperability between heterogeneous two-level health information systems by identifying similarities between archetypes. The approach identifies relationships between ontological terms which have been embedded in pairs of archetypes as a means of matching these terms. The matched terms can then in turn be used to identify similarities between archetypes. The limited contextual scope of an archetype simplifies this matching process.
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Paper Nr: 68
Title:

POA_S@UDE: A New Collaborative Tele-Ultrasonography System over PLC
Authors:

Alecio D. Binotto, Valter Roesler, Cirano Iochpe, André Campos da Cunha, Ronaldo Husemann and Carlos E. Pereira
Abstract: Access to medical care is sometimes difficult to be reached by citizens living in distant and underserved areas. The problem increases on high complexity medical cases that are not preventively identified. The recent advance of broadband communication, like Power Line (PLC), combined with state-of-the-art multimedia compression methods allowed reaching isolated areas that lacks of intra/internet connections. This paper presents the results of the POA_S@UDE Project, a research that aimed the improvement of patient quality of life in distant urban communities from high-complexity hospitals, focusing on obstetric ultrasonography (U/S) examinations during prenatal period. Statistics show an obstetric examination miss rate higher 60% at the Restinga peripheral district (100,000 inhabitants) in Brazil. The main reason is the time and financial difficulties to go to central hospitals to perform regular examinations; added with the time gap of 4 months between an exam request and its realization by the referral hospital. Based on that, we introduce a collaborative tele-U/S system over a PLC hybrid network based on multimedia data. The specialist doctor assists, guides, and interacts in real-time with the remote doctor who operates the U/S equipment. At Restinga, during a pilot of 3 months, the examination waiting time was decreased to 1 month and the miss rate of prenatal examinations to 30%.
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Paper Nr: 69
Title:

IMPLEMENTATION OF RESTRICTION AND VALIDATION RULES
Authors:

Olegas Vasilecas and Evaldas Lebedys
Abstract: The paper discusses implementation of restriction and validation rules. Restriction rules based and validation rules based data cleaning approaches are discussed. The differences between restriction rules and validation rules are distinguished. The paper presents a method for automated data validation rules implementation in data cleaning procedures.
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Paper Nr: 72
Title:

DIFFERENTIATED ACCESS TO EHRS FROM EMERGENCY MOBILE UNITS, CONSULTING ROOMS AND HOSPITALS
Authors:

Giacomo Leonardi and Cristina De Castro
Abstract: In this paper, a model is proposed for the support of anamnesis through Electronic Health Records (EHRs). These data are stored on a hybrid LDAP-SQL system, available on the Internet and accessed from Emergency Mobile Units (EMUs), consulting rooms and hospitals. Each of such scenarios corresponds to different network technologies, i.e. UMTS on EMUs, DSL in consulting rooms, WiFi and wired/fiber within a hospital. Furthermore, EHRs can be queried using heterogeneous devices, such as mobiles, PDAs, laptops and desktops. In consequence, it is important to reach the best trade-off between quality/quantity of data and reception rate. To this purpose, this paper proposes a possible methodology for choosing, scaling and adapting the data format (and consequently dimensions and response time) to actual necessities and technologies at disposal. Analytical calculations are also presented showing the download time in each scenario.
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Paper Nr: 76
Title:

BSN Middleware: Abstracting Resources to Human Models
Authors:

Pedro Brandão and Jean Bacon
Abstract: In the sensor network area, BSNs encompass a particular set of restrictions and conditions that separate them from normal WSNs. More so than WSNs, BSNs would profit from different types of sensing information and the sensor network itself provides more opportunities for different applications to use the same resources. However, the heterogeneity of sensor HW devices and the myriad of different applications that try to use them are an obstacle to its development. A problem is the need to address specific characteristics of the HW without abstractions that 1) provide the freedom to access the needed information while 2) complying to a set of requirements and 3) optimizing resource usage according to a set of metrics. We propose a middleware approach for abstracting lower level details from applications. We enrich the approach by building models in the middle layer fed with data from the sensor network and query-able from the application layer. Furthermore: a) applications should be able to set requirements to be met in providing the information, b) several applications should be able to share the same resources, c) the resources should be optimized so as to meet the requirements and prolong the lifetime of the BSN.
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Paper Nr: 80
Title:

COMPUTER AIDED LUNG SOUND ANALYSIS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY TO ASSESS ITS POTENTIAL AS A NEW OUTCOME MEASURE FOR RESPIRATORY THERAPY
Authors:

Alda Marques, Anne Bruton and Anna Barney
Abstract: A barrier to assess the relative effectiveness of respiratory therapies has been insufficient accurate, reliable, and sensitive outcome measures. Lung sounds provide useful information for assessing and monitoring respiratory patients. However, standard auscultation is too subjective to allow them to be used as an outcome measure. In this paper, Computer Aided Lung Sound Analysis (CALSA) characterising crackles’ Initial Deflection Width (IDW) and Two Cycle Deflection (2CD) is proposed as a potential objective, non-invasive, bedside outcome measure to assess the response to alveolar recruitment and airway clearance interventions. A preliminary ‘repeated measures’ experimental study was conducted. Seventeen participants with cystic fibrosis were recruited from out-patient clinics. Demographic, anthropometric and lung sound data were collected. The intra-subject reliability of crackles’ IDW and 2CD was found to be ‘good’ to ‘excellent’, estimated by the Analysis of Variance, Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, Bland and Altman 95% limits of agreement and Smallest Real Difference. Inter-subject reliability analysis confirmed the expected between-subject variability. It is concluded that crackle IDW and 2CD detected by CALSA are reliable and stable measures. In future, CALSA may be useful for assessing and monitoring respiratory interventions in clinical settings.
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Paper Nr: 83
Title:

How to Preserve Patient's Privacy and Anonymity in Web-based Electronic Health Records
Authors:

Daniel Slamanig and Christian Stingl
Abstract: In recent years, demographic change and increasing treatment costs demand the adoption of more cost efficient, highly qualitative and integrated health care processes. The rapid growth and availability of the Internet facilitate the development of eHealth services and especially of electronic health records (EHRs) which are promising solutions to meet the aforementioned requirements. Considering actual web-based EHR systems, patient-centric and patient moderated approaches are widely deployed. Besides these initiatives there is an emerging market of so called personal health record platforms, e.g. Google Health. Both concepts provide a central and web-based access to highly sensitive data of EHRs. Additionally, the fact that these EHR systems may be hosted by not fully trustworthy providers necessitates to thoroughly consider privacy issues. In this paper we define security and privacy objectives that play an important role in context of web-based EHRs. Furthermore, we discuss deployed solutions as well as concepts proposed in the literature with respect to this objectives and point out several weaknesses. Finally, we introduce a system which overcomes the drawbacks of existing solutions by considering an holistic approach to preserve patient's privacy and discuss the applied methods in detail.
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Paper Nr: 85
Title:

A Tool for endoscopic capsule dataset preparation for clinical Video event detector algorithms
Authors:

Sérgio Lima, José Soares, J. S. Cunha and Miguel Coimbra
Abstract: In all R&D projects there's at least one phase of model verification and accuracy, and when we are working with visual information (such as pictures and video) this phase should be emphasised. When working with medical information and clinical trials the truth of automatic results must be accurate. This work is based on the need of a huge and well annotated dataset of pictures retrieved from endoscopic capsule. This datasets should be used to learn the computer vision algorithms focused on endoscopic capsule video processing, and event detection.
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Paper Nr: 86
Title:

A SIMPLE METHOD OF CORTICAL BONE THICKNESS EVALUATION BASED ON RADIOGRAPHIC IMAGES FOR OSTEOPOROSIS INVESTIGATION
Authors:

Przemyslaw Mackowiak, Ryszard Stasiński and Tomasz Kulczyk
Abstract: In the paper a method of automatic extraction of cortical bone based on dental panoramic radiographs is described. The method is intended for use as the first contact tool in osteoporosis population screening. Its components have very low computational complexity, and can be found in every image processing software package. The upper and lower boundaries of mandibular cortical bone have been determined in a series of panoramic images, and results have been evaluated by a radiologist. The technique works either very precisely, or clearly wrong (for heavily cluttered images), which proves its usefulness for an untrained user.
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Paper Nr: 87
Title:

A SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR THE BING: BRAIN IMAGE NETWORK GRID
Authors:

Micael Pedrosa
Abstract: This paper presents a detailed architecture model for the Brain Imaging Network Grid (BING) that will be the main IT infrastructure of the recently created Portuguese Brain Imaging Consortium. The proposed architecture follows a service oriented philosophy and is designed to empower medical data sharing and processing, specifically brain images. Allowing the use of computationally intensive methods like feature extraction and retrieving of structured information, this system will take advantage of Grid computing new paradigm. In BING context, Grid infrastructure is the right option to provide the ability to seamless aggregate distributed computational power, extensive storage resources and high-bandwidth networking. The goal is to develop a system that simultaneously can provide basic data services, allow collaborative research between geographically distributed partners (e.g. analysis processes, workflows) and make use of the Grid computational power.
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Paper Nr: 88
Title:

INFORMATION VISUALIZATION OF DRUG REGIMENS FROM HEALTH MESSAGES
Authors:

Brant Chee, Richard Berlin and Bruce Schatz
Abstract: The Internet has become a popular venue for people to search for and discuss topics related to health. We present a method to extract information from informal health message groups to extract social networking information about the drug regimens people use and the communities people form. We present preliminary results from a visualization tool enabling health care professionals to create hypotheses about drug regimens within a particular community. We also present a second visualization tool enabling people in a health conversational community to find other people who are most similar to them based on the drugs they take.
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Paper Nr: 90
Title:

ADAPTATION DRIVEN CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Authors:

Lai Xu, Jian Yang, Athman Bouguettaya and Paul de Vrieze
Abstract: In solving the global obesity epidemic the realization has come that it is mainly an issue of behavioural change. Benefits have been shown in personalizing the information that induces these changes. At the same time obesity is a heavily researched field in which new discoveries are made every day. This brings the need for maintainability of these personalized information channels. In this paper we propose architecture for a maintainable system for the provision of tailored documents for obesity patients.
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Paper Nr: 91
Title:

Context-Driven Ontological Annotations in DICOM Images: Towards Semantic PACS
Authors:

Saikat Mukherjee and Manuel Möller
Abstract: The enormous volume of medical images and the complexity of clinical information systems make searching for relevant images a challenging task. We describe techniques for annotating and searching medical images using ontological semantic concepts. In contrast to extant multimedia semantic annotation work, our technique uses the context from mappings between multiple ontologies to constrain the semantic space and quickly identify relevant concepts. We have implemented a system using the FMA and RadLex anatomical ontologies, the ICD disease taxonomy, and have coupled the techniques with the DICOM standard for easy deployment in current PAC environments. Preliminary quantitative and qualitative experiments validate the effectiveness of the techniques.
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Paper Nr: 96
Title:

A monitoring toolkit for a distributed clinical data integration engine
Authors:

Vânia Santos and J. S. Cunha
Abstract: The Rede Telemática da Saúde (RTS) is a telematic network connecting health care providers in the Aveiro region (Portugal), aiming at supporting the continuity of care. Using the RTS, health care professionals and institutions can securely share clinical data. RTS makes use of an integration engine, which accesses the scattered data sources to create a virtual unified view of patients’ information. While the RTS is deployed over a wide-area private network, the variety of bandwidth links, supporting systems and applications using the same infrastructure, can impact the QoS in multiple ways. In this paper, we describe the development of a toolkit for monitoring the performance of the distributed integration process. With these analysis mechanisms, it is possible to detect bottlenecks and introduce optimizations in the system, especially in the integration engine module. Its deployment in the production environment assists the maintenance team in the routine operations of RTS health telematic network.
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Paper Nr: 98
Title:

BRAZILIAN HEALTH-RELATED CONTENT WEB SEARCH PORTAL: Presentation on a method for its development and preliminary results

Authors:

Felipe Mancini, Anderson Diniz Hummel, Alex J. Falcão, Cristina Lucia Feijo Ortolani, Thiago Martini da Costa, Fabio Teixeira and Ivan Torres Pisa
Abstract: The increase in the amount of available information on the world wide web is inexorable, which, on one hand, provides the web user with more information. On the other hand, however, web searches become increasingly more difficult to handle due to the increasing number of retrieved documents. The present study is a proposal of development for a Brazilian search portal specific for health-related content. The aim of such development is to provide web users, mainly the non-specialist ones, with the largest number possible of web pages relevant to their search terms and inferred search intentions. The proposed search portal integrates web mining-based filters and a decision-making support tool. The preliminary study results show that among the algorithms tested to incorporate a filter module specific for health-related content - artificial neural networks, logistic regression and nearest neighbor clustering (NNC) -, the application of NNC resulted in the automated web health-related content classifier with the best performance for sensitivity and specificity 0.92 and 1.00 respectively.
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Paper Nr: 100
Title:

MEDICAL DEVICE PERFORMANCE IN IEEE 802.11 NETWORKS - Evaluating IEEE P11073.1.1 Use case Scenarios in Wireless LANs
Authors:

Amjad Soomro and Ruediger Schmitt
Abstract: We study in this paper use of IEEE 802.11 wireless technologies for medical devices. The simulated use cases are derived from the ones specified in IEEE P11703.1.1 document. We consider the use cases where a WLAN using IEEE 802.11 is providing connectivity to medical, voice (VoIP) and IT applications simultaneously. This use case is interesting to hospitals because it provides potential cost savings. We model IEEE 802.11e QoS features and we use a wireless channel model with high and stable SNR to observe MAC protocol behavior. Our results indicate that QoS of medical and VoIP devices is met when they operate in dedicated channels, that is, without any IT and in good channel conditions. The inclusion of background IT load, affects QoS of both medical devices and VoIP. We quantify the performance improvement for medical devices when using IEEE 802.11 voice category and compare it with using best-effort category. The power consumption of wireless devices is not considered in this work.
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Paper Nr: 102
Title:

TOWARDS AN AUTOMATED NOSOCOMIAL INFECTION CASE REPORTING
Authors:

Jimison Iavindrasana, Gilles Cohen, Adrien Depeursinge, Henning Müller, Rodolphe Meyer and Antoine Geissbuhler
Abstract: The prevalence survey is a valid and realistic surveillance strategy for nosocomial infection surveillance but it is resource and labor-consuming. Querying the hospital data warehouse with a set of relevant features and applying a classification algorithm on the results can reduce the amount of cases to be evaluated by the infection control practitioners. The objective of this work is to provide a framework to build a nosocomial infection model with a set of pre-selected features with Fisher’s linear discriminant algorithm. Application of the methodology to two datasets provides promising results. It permits to predict respectively an average of 41.5% and 43.54% positive cases including respectively 65.37% and 82.56% true positive cases. The proposed framework can be applied to other classification algorithms, which are planned as future work.
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Paper Nr: 106
Title:

SPOKEN LANGUAGE INPUT FOR A PATIENT NOTE SYSTEM
Authors:

Sasha Caskey, Kathleen McKeown, Desmond Jordan and Julia Hirschberg
Abstract: In developing a system to help CTICU physicians write patient notes, we hypothesized that a spoken language interface for entering observations after physical examination would be more convenient for a physician than a more traditional menu-based system. We developed a prototype spoken language interface, allowing input of one type of information, with which we could experiment with factors impacting use of speech. In this paper, we report on a sequence of experiments where we asked physicians to use different interfaces, testing how such a system could be used as part of their workflow as well as its accuracy in different locations, with different levels of domain information. Our study shows that we can significantly improve accuracy with integration of patient specific and high coverage domain grammars.
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Paper Nr: 107
Title:

Integrating ICTs to PBL Methodology with Application in the Field of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
Authors:

Valdecir Bertoncello, Flávio Bortolozzi and Ana Paula Rodrigues
Abstract: This study is an analysis of a support system for learning the Gynecology and Obstetrics discipline in a Medicine course using the PBL methodology. Its objective is to point out a computer model that can measure the similarity index between the patient’s anamnesis as done by the student and the solution proposed by the professor. The study also presents concepts of the PBL methodology and its several applications, as well as the techniques used in learning with the use of this methodology. Additionally, it shows the actual iteration of ICTs with the PBL methodology. It is this hoped that the investigative analyses and the implementation of this system offers students possibilities to experience in anticipation the daily routine of their future profession, with the aim of aiding them in the teaching-learning process by creating the conditions to help the instructor in evaluating the student’s performance, while giving the student the chance to debate the solution proposed by the professor.
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Paper Nr: 112
Title:

Simulation as a Decision Support Tool: Estimating the Impacts of using RFID technologies within Biobanks
Authors:

Sylvain Housseman, absi nabil, Stéphane Dauzère-Pérès, Paul Hofman and Christian Chabannon
Abstract: The costs and benefits of introducing auto-identification are difficult to evaluate. The Return On Investment (ROI) may be calculated on manufacturing environments but for some service providing systems, like hospitals, it may be very hard and inaccurate to judge the relevancy of a new layout only through financial entries. New information and communication technologies and devices appear rapidly. This study aims to quantify the benefits of introducing new devices at different levels in a complex socio-technical system: a biobank (storage, transformation and exchanges of biological samples) using a Discrete Event Dynamic Systems (DEDS) simulation model as a quality measurement tool. We will describe pertinent measurement possibilities adapted to the Supply Chain for Health services (SCH), and particularly to biobanks, and the way we implemented them. The originality of this paper consists in the process modeling, made to be easily (and ideally automatically) modified so users can test many different configurations and scenarios, and the quality indicators that are particularly adapted to health services.
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Paper Nr: 116
Title:

eHealth: Transporting Information to Transform Healthcare
Authors:

Arkalgud Ramaprasad, Joy Keeler and Sridhar Papagari
Abstract: The ‘e’ in eBusiness, eCommerce, eGovernment, and eHealth represents the transformation of the traditional domains by the current ability to transport information using information and communication technologies. In this paper we present an ontological analysis of the transformation of health care by eHealth. The five dimensions of the ontology are derived by parsing the definition of eHealth as ‘transporting information to transform health care’. They are: (a) information, (b) spatial transportation, (c) temporal transportation, (d) semiotic transportation, and (e) health care. Each dimension is defined by a taxonomy. Each sentence, formed by concatenating categories across the five dimensions using appropriate conjunctive words and phrases, is a natural language descriptor of eHealth. The set of all such sentences is a closed description of eHealth.
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Paper Nr: 121
Title:

HEALTH – MIC: Worth the Effort? The argument for an R and D agenda in support of Healthcare Management Informatics and Computing
Authors:

Chris Bain
Abstract: In this paper I make the case for a research and development (R and D) agenda in support of the evolving discipline of healthcare management informatics and computing (HMIC, pronounced “Health-mike”). The aim of the discipline is to provide healthcare managers the information technology (IT) tools they need to address the health needs of our communities, with the often inadequate resources they have at their disposal. Given the needs of our communities in relation to healthcare, the establishment of this agenda and subsequent work towards the relevant goals are critical to improving our healthcare systems, particularly in the Western world.
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Paper Nr: 123
Title:

COMPANION: SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY FOR SURVIVORS OF SUICIDE
Authors:

Elizabeth L. Rue, Ann Mitchell, Hassan Karimi, Piyawan Kasemsuppakom and Duangduen Roongpiboonsopit
Abstract: This position paper presents a conceptualization of a model of a survivor of suicide’s (SOS) social support network. By knowing the actors in a SOS’s social support network, information can be customized and delivered directly to them at the time of their greatest need. This has the potential to improve the current treatment available for survivor’s of suicide and positively influence the bereavement process, bereavement-related outcomes, and health-related quality of life for everyone in the social support network. We will briefly describe suicide survivorship, present our model of the social support network, and COMPANION – our location based mobile support system designed to connect social support network members. We believe this will enable use to describe the communication use and patterns of the SOS’s social support network and positively impact their health related quality of life.
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Paper Nr: 124
Title:

A Distributed Adaptation Model for Ambient Assistive Living Applications
Authors:

Maria T. Segarra and Françoise André
Abstract: Ambient assistive living applications are generally intended to allow older people to easily access medical and emergency services, and maintain social and relatives contacts. In order to improve performance, elderly related data may be distributed among the medical staff and/or the relatives. However, access to such data may require different properties such as confidentiality or urgency depending on the actor accessing data, the computing environment used to access them, and their nature. Therefore, ambient assistive living applications should be designed as adaptive software and include the necessary mechanisms to dynamically modify their behavior. In this paper, we propose a model for dynamic adaptation that clearly separates adaptation from business logic and that can be customized by applications designers in order to satisfy adaptation needs. The model is based on a set of mandatory functionalities that manage basic adaptation operations and an optional functionality that can be used to distribute adaptation mechanisms.
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Paper Nr: 127
Title:

Acquisition, annotation and interactive exploration of stereo images with virtual reality
Authors:

Mohammed Haouach, Karim Benzeroual, Gilles Venturini and Christiane Guinot
Abstract: We present in the paper a system called Skin3D that integrates all hardware and software to extract information from 3D images of skin. It is composed of a lighting equipment and acquisition-based stereoscopic cameras, a camera calibration using genetic algorithms, virtual reality equipment to restore the images and interact in 3D with them, a set of interactive features to annotate images, annotations and share these 3D hypermedias. We present a comparative study and an application of Skin3D on faces skin.
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Paper Nr: 130
Title:

MEDICAL TUTORIAL: PORTING OF A CLINICAL PORTAL BETWEEN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS
Authors:

Emanuele Baj, Paolo Locatelli, Gianni Origgi and Silvia Bragagia
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to discuss the application of a methodology for the structured evaluation of the porting of an eHealth solution. In particular a web Information System in the area of Medical and Nursing Informatics, the portal developed by an Healthcare Organization for supporting clinical management processes, is taken as practical example of such a process. A procedure used for the evaluation of reuse in public administration is brought forward and, through the example, it is shown how it could be applied to Healthcare Management Systems.
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Paper Nr: 132
Title:

MULTI-MODAL PLATFORM FOR IN-HOME HEALTHCARE MONITORING (EMUTEM)
Authors:

Wided Souidene, Hamid MEDJAHED, Jérôme Boudy, Dan ISTRATE, François Delavault, Jean-Louis Baldinger, Imad Belfeki and François Steenkeste
Abstract: This paper describes a multimodal platform dedicated to in-home healthcare monitoring. This platform consists in three heterogeneous and complementary systems which are designed to provide a sense of safety and connectedness for those being monitored. In this article we present a detailed description of the multiple sensors used to remotely monitor elderly or a patient health. These are: a set of microphones suitably placed in the home, a wearable device and a set of infrared sensors. This platform is remotely used by the medical staff in order to help them to take the right decision about the patient and/or elderly situation. It has a couple of great advantages. First, its good acceptance by the end-users since it is less intrusive than other healthcare systems. Second, it is reliable and robust since it performs the fusion of outputs of three complementary healthcare systems.
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Paper Nr: 134
Title:

An Extensible Biomarker Curation Approach and Software Infrastructure for the Early Detection of Cancer
Authors:

Andrew Hart, Sean Kelly, Heather Kincaid, Dan Crichton, Kristen Anton, Steve Hughes, John Tran and Chris Mattmann
Abstract: Modern research requires collaboration among geographically distributed scientists. This collaborative model is transforming scientific discovery by enabling sharing and validation of data across institutions. Modern informatics infrastructures are being developed to support cancer research, endowing scientists with the ability to capture and share data with remote collegues. A critical challenge presented by such infrastructures is the development of a curation model for the science data. While considerable emphasis has been placed on developing grid infrastructures, few are addressing the curation aspects crucial to creating a useful scientific knowledge-base. The United States National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) is a distributed network of research institutions focused on the discovery of cancer biomarkers. In this paper, we describe our work building a data collection and curation infrastructure on top of the existing EDRN bioinformatics data grid. The approach involves normalizing curated data through the use of a common information model for cancer biomarker research. We argue that such a model is critical to ensuring that data can be combined into an integrated knowledge system. Furthermore, we argue that human curators with backgrounds in both informatics and science play a critical role in the overall value of the EDRN knowledge-base.
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Paper Nr: 136
Title:

Automated Risk Detection: What are the key elements needed to create a multi-source, pattern-based risk detection system?
Authors:

Ian Blunt, Adam Roberts and Xavier Chitnis
Abstract: The Healthcare Commission, the national regulator for health care in England, uses an innovative risk detection system to target its inspections of National Health Service organisations. At the core of the system is a tool that enables: gathering of information from a huge variety of sources, and of varying types; mapping this information to the regulatory framework; and analysing this information in a comparable way to detect patterns that could indicate risk. The tool has demonstrated itself to be flexible and reliable, and its risk estimates have been consistently proven to be effective at discovering failure compared with non-targeted inspections.
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Paper Nr: 12
Title:

A COMPUTERIZED TESTING SYSTEM FOR SCREENING DEMENTIA IN COMMUNITY-BASED SETTINGS

Authors:

Masashi Inoue
Abstract: We have developed a computerized testing system for screening dementia in community-based settings. The system was assembled with a touch-panel display and computer devices unified into one case. This made the hardware a very compact, light and easy to carry unit. Two test programs were implemented in the system, one for primary screening and the other for close examination. The primary screening program, which was intended to screen persons who are suspected of having dementia in community-based settings, consisted of 4 test tasks. The close examination program was designed to diagnose the dementia and was composed of 10 test tasks. Throughout the whole process, users were guided not only by text prompts but also by voice instructions. In the test process, the system presents questions by text, figures and/or voice. Then the system shows the choice icons on the computer display and requires the subject to touch the correct icon. By this method, even aged persons could easily operate the system. Results of the primary screening program yielded maximum sensitivity and specificity values of 96% and 86% for the total score, respectively. By applying this system to community-based settings, we have detected 55 persons as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 74 persons as suspicious of suffering from dementia out of 998 elderly residents.
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Paper Nr: 18
Title:

IT SUPPORT FOR THE AUSTRALIAN SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH BANK
Authors:

Frans Henskens, Carmel Loughland, Mukta Aphale, David Paul, Jacqueline Richards, Paul Rasser, Vaughan Carr, Stanley Catts, Assen Jablensky, Patricia Michie, Bryan Mowry, Christos Pantelis, Ulrich Schall and Rodney Scott
Abstract: Schizophrenia represents one of the most perplexing and challenging problems confronting both researchers and health-care providers today. An Australian coalition of researchers has commenced construction of a resource termed the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank (ASRB), which intends to support a wide spectrum of schizophrenia research studies. Software has been written to implement of a series of clinical assessment instruments, and a purpose-built Globus Grid constructed to provide secure aggregation and storage of the collected data. This paper describes the design, technology selections and implementation of the extant computer infrastructure, and discusses planned extensions and enhancements.
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Paper Nr: 20
Title:

Integrating R Models with Web Technologies
Authors:

Mingrui Zhang, Joan Francioni, Tim Gegg-Harrison, Zhifu Sun, Ping Yang, Scott Olson and Nan Meng
Abstract: We describe a software framework designed to shorten the translation of research models from theory to clinical practice. The framework integrates research and clinical practice into a single software architecture. Specifically, we present a Survival Probability Predication Architecture (SPPA), which is an extensible software platform allowing researchers to experiment with their statistical models and make rapid delivery of these models to clinical practice without a lengthy software development cycle.
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Paper Nr: 24
Title:

Changing perspectives on informatics? A comparison of three national Electronic Health Records
Authors:

Bettine Pluut and Arre Zuurmond
Abstract: Participatory approaches to health care are getting increasingly popular in Western countries. But are the perspectives on informatics changing as well? Because not every patient (always) can or wants to actively participate in his health care process, differentiation in medical encounters is needed. We use the term ‘relational responsibility’ to refer to a process in which doctor and patient are responsive to each other’s norms, values and ideas, especially with respect to their role division. Health informatics can support or restrict this differentiation by giving patients access to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and/or converging those records with Personal Health Records (consumer oriented informatics). When we look at the policies on the national EHRs in Canada, Denmark, and The Netherlands we find that the orientation towards informatics is still mainly provider-oriented. Even when policy makers emphasize the importance of patient participation and are aware of the potential of health informatics in this context, they have not given priority to translating this into the design of their EHR. This means that for the upcoming years EHRs will support one traditional role division: the one in which the health care professional is in the lead and is the better-informed party.
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Paper Nr: 30
Title:

AMIE: Towards Ambient Intelligence for the Ageing Citizens
Authors:

Julia Kantorovitch
Abstract: This research presents a system, currently under development, which aims at providing an intelligent ambient able to improve the quality of life and delivering customized support to elderly people in need of assistance, according to their own specific situation, and in a non-intrusive and respectful way.
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Paper Nr: 37
Title:

A SURVEY OF AUDIO PROCESSING ALGORITHMS FOR DIGITAL STETHOSCOPES

Authors:

Fabio Hedayioglu, Sandra Mattos and Miguel Coimbra
Abstract: Digital stethoscopes have been drawing the attention of the biomedical engineering community for some time now, as seen from patent applications and scientific publications. In the future, we expect ’intelligent stethoscopes’ to assist the clinician in cardiac exam analysis and diagnostic, potentiating functionalities such as the teaching of auscultation, telemedicine, and personalized healthcare. In this paper we review the most recent heart sound processing publications, discussing their adequacy for implementation in digital stethoscopes. Ourresults show a body of interesting and promising work, although we identify three important limitations of this research field: lack of a set of universally accepted heart-sound features, badly described experimental methodologies and absence of a clinical validation step. Correcting these flaws is vital for creating convincing next-generation ’intelligent’ digital stethoscopes that the medical community can use and trust.
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Paper Nr: 42
Title:

EXPERIMENTS OF LIFE MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR ELDERLY　PEOPLE LIVING IN RURAL AREAS
Authors:

Jun Sasaki, Keizo Yamada, Yutaka Funyu and Michiru Tanaka
Abstract: The authors’ project has been developing some life monitoring systems for elderly people living alone in rural areas. The developments and experiments of the life monitoring systems were carried out in Kawai village, Shiwa town and Tono city in Iwate prefecture. Based on these experiences, this work describes the information obtained and the issues which need to be resolved in the construction of a useful and successful life monitoring system.
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Paper Nr: 47
Title:

IMPROVEMENT OF BUSINESS PROCESS SURGERY USING SIMULATION
Authors:

Nadja Damij and Talib Damij
Abstract: This paper discusses the possibility of finding a better solution for the problem of business process im-provement using simulation technique. Most of problems of organisations are originated in fact that their business processes are neither well defined nor particularly efficient. Business process modelling is done by identifying a certain business process, defining its activities, and using a modelling technique to develop its model. Process improvement is carried out by precise analysis of the process, suggesting changes and im-provements, and giving solutions for existing problems. To achieve this, we concentrate our work on ana-lysing and simulating the business process discussed. This means that the simulation results need to be ana-lysed and understood in order that the analyst is able to suggest necessary changes. A complete understanding of the results of process simulation is an essential precondition to move forward with busi-ness process improvement. The problem of conducting a surgery is used as an example to carry out business process improvement using simulation technique.
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Paper Nr: 53
Title:

REUSABILITY IN PATIENT REGISTRIES - Implementation of a Generic Extensible Web-based Patient Registry System
Authors:

Eric Tröger, Robert Wilke, Eberhart Zrenner and Elena Prokofyeva
Abstract: Usually patient registry systems are developed in very specific scientific contexts where the reusability is considered a topic of minor concern. To improve reusability as well as to achieve better separation between the data definition step and the technical implementation of the patient registry, a generic approach has been chosen to automatically generate application components based on the data definition. This is done by using the ODM standard format as meta-model and applying XSL transformations to create and configure system components. Components required among several patient registries are implemented once and reused.
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Paper Nr: 54
Title:

A CONCEPTUAL DATA MODEL FOR DISEASE SURVEILLANCE, MONITORING AND PREDICTION IN NIGERIA
Authors:

Peter Idowu, Lucy Bastin and Dan Cornford

Abstract: Despite the fact that Sub-Saharan Africa is a region characterised by high rates of several deadly diseases, there is relatively little consistent or reliable data that can be used for surveillance, monitoring and management of these diseases in the region. In order to alleviate the problem of patchy and inconsistent epidemiological data, a well structured, interoperable spatial data model for diseases surveillance and monitoring is proposed in this paper. The model is motivated by HIV/AIDS monitoring and prediction in Nigeria. We initially review some of the existing health data models which we modify and extend to develop a conceptual data model for disease surveillance, monitoring, management and, potentially, prediction. The data model captures information required for the development of diseases surveillance systems. The model is developed using the Unified Modelling Language and we aim to make the model an open standard in order to promote collaboration and encourage researchers in developing nations to contribute to the maintenance of the data model. The model will be implemented in XML, and will be applied to a system using service oriented architecture with a focus on HIV/AIDS surveillance and monitoring in Nigeria.
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Paper Nr: 57
Title:

QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS FOR READING CENTRES - Methods to Improve Quality and Compliance Using Computerised Systems
Authors:

Gunnar Lotz, Eberhart Zrenner, Eric Troeger, Robert Wilke, Tobias Peters and Torsten Strasser
Abstract: Reading centres are a concept to enhance the results and the acceptance of clinical trials. Computerised systems provide the possibility to improve reading centres in a significant way. However ophthalmic reading centres often do not fully use the potential of computerised systems. In this paper we show some of the advantages sophisticated software can provide over traditional methods like e-mail. The improvements can be structured in the following categories: Decreasing the chance of human mistakes; optimizing data exchange and data flow; enforcing SOPs and complex workflows; further improvements. Large parts of the proposed methods were successfully implemented in a proof of concept system for the Tuebingen ERG Reading Centre that can serve as a reading centre in large ophthalmologic multi-centre clinical trials.
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Paper Nr: 59
Title:

IT IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT:What Is the Impact of Technology?
Authors:

Haleh Ayatollahi, Peter A. Bath and Steve Goodacre
Abstract: Emergency Department Information Systems (EDIS) are commonly used to improve access to patient information at the point of care. While such systems hold great promise, there has been little research evaluating the impact of these systems. To investigate the Emergency Department (ED) staff perceptions of the impact of computerised information systems in this department, a qualitative study was conducted. In this study, data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews with the ED staff. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and data were analysed using framework analysis. In total, 34 interviews were conducted. The results showed that the impact of information systems could be categorised as individual impact, organisational impact, and impact on patient care. The impact of technology could be positive (e.g., improving the accessibility of information) or negative (e.g., interrupting staff workflow due to system downtime). The results suggest that although clinical information systems are designed to influence clinical practice positively, the likelihood of the negative impacts should not be underestimated. Evaluation studies are needed to investigate the impact of technology as a measure for system success or failure.
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Paper Nr: 71
Title:

Open Platform for eHealth Services
Authors:

Jaime Martín, Ralf Seepold and Natividad M. Madrid
Abstract: This paper reviews the state of art of e-health applications and technologies. These solutions usually are proprietary and lack interoperability between them. Our approach describes a system architecture that provides capabilities to integrate different telecare, telemedicine and domotic services in a smart home gateway hardware independent. We propose a rule system to define the user behaviour and monitor relevant events. Several use cases and data model for the system are presented.
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Paper Nr: 84
Title:

THE CAPLA MODEL FOR MULTI-CULTURAL ADAPTATION of learning ressources for Alzheimer's disease.
Authors:

Nathalie Bricon-Souf and Jean-Marie RENARD
Abstract: To share medical courses about Alzheimer’s disease, used by French doctors, with Malian doctors, we have to perform cultural adaptation of the learning resources. We present the CAPLA model for adaptation. We introduce why cultural adaptation is indispensable to transform useful resources for France into useful resources for Mali. We introduce the notion of variability and why we think that the explicit knowledge of the variability is useful. We describe the typology of the variability for our medical and multi-countries e-learning situations and how it can help to index the variability of the content of the medical courses. Then, we use the notion of “documentarisation” and “re-documentation” issued from “socio-semantic web” concepts to describe the collective activity of adapting a course. Using the context is still difficult and we propose to detect the manifesting aspects of context, thanks to the variability knowledge. The Alois Software is described, it implements the CAPLA model, it helps to annotate the variability of a course. We show how we use the XML openDocument descriptions obtained from the presentation documents (Impress or Powerpoint) to help people to adapt their courses: thanks to the knowledge we have on the context and the variability, we can mark all the slides that need an adaptation and we can indicate the reason why this adaptation is needed. Next step is to use this knowledge for pervasive and ubiquitous learning.
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Paper Nr: 89
Title:

AN ARCHITECTURAL PLATFORM TO PROVIDE INTEGRAL CARE FOR COGNITIVE IMPAIRED CHILDREN THROUGH NEUROPEDAGOGICAL METACOGNITION
Authors:

Paula Prata, Carla Verônica Machado Marques, Cleonice Weber, Mariana Souza and Carlo E. Tolla de Oliveira
Abstract: Some children require special education due impairment from deafness, blindness, abuse or mental disabilities. This necessity must be carefully tracked, early and throughout their lives so to provide assistance at critical life stages. An integrated education can largely benefit from a consistent architecture, where many specific needs are catered for, while maintaining a fair base of commonalities. This work describes a meta-architecture which has been employed to develop several neuropedagogical portals. This architecture offers fine grained neuroinformatic data acquisition and processing, online educational game development support with neuropsychological profiling. Neuropedagogical education offers a scientific approach to the development of leaning abilities and the proposed architecture encompasses a guide to achieve metacognitive design as an important asset in the installation of a rule-forming epistemic mind.
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Paper Nr: 93
Title:

APPLICABILITY OF MOBILE PHONES FOR TELE-DERMATOLOGY
Authors:

Christian Scheibböck, Stephan Dreiseitl and Michael Binder
Abstract: Examination in dermatology is primarily based on visual inspection. Since this visual information can be stored and transmitted easily through digital images, tele-consultation and tele-diagnosis are predestined methods especially in the field of dermatology. Nowadays mobile phones represent the most important communication tool around the world. To study how the process of acquiring, transmitting and diagnosing images can be implemented by using cheap and widely available devices, such as mobile phones, we conducted several experiments at the Medical University of Vienna. Material and Methods: In a study patients were asked to take one or more photos of their dermatoses with the camera of a mobile phone. Images were transmitted electronically by using the MMS function of the phones. All participants were examined routinely at the outpatient department, establishing the gold standard diagnosis. Three different phone models were evaluated with regard to colour fidelity, illumination effects, and terms of resolution. Images for tests were produced at not standardized conditions. Results: In all three phones high resolution images are compressed. Resolution was skilled down to 640x480 while sending via MMS. Colour fidelity was different depending on the manufacturer. Colour fidelity increased proportional with increasing illumination.
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Paper Nr: 94
Title:

AN MRP-BASED ARCHITECTURE TO PLAN RESOURCES AND TO MANAGE WAITING QUEUE IN HOSPITAL SYSTEMS
Authors:

Claudia Pepe, Stefano Riemma and Raffaele Iannonw
Abstract: In the last decades, the interest in the development of healthcare planning and control systems is quickly spreading. Hospitals quality improvement, in fact, is actually a continuous process mainly aiming at improving the professional services rendered to patients, not only in terms of effectiveness of cures but also in terms of efficiency of supplying services system. For a long time, researchers have discussed about how the benefits in terms of reduction of waiting times and waiting queue, obtained by the IT application in manufacturing, can be achieved also in hospital systems without forgetting that healthcare supplies the basic good: health. Resources coordination according to patients who are in hospital, allows the reduction of “slacks” at resources due to discharge delays, late-start surgeries and slow laboratories turnaround. Therefore a resources planning system has been implemented in order to reduce the high waiting times and increase resources utilization in hospitals. The paper describes the methodology to create a dependent demand starting from patients needs and proposes the implementation of an MRP procedure for hospitals. The PDTs (Diagnostic Terapeutic Path) for each patient in hospital are generated. All the PDTs are used to calculate resources, materials and facilities requirement in short-mid term, after having linked resources to the services that hospitals are equipped to provide (BORM – Bill of Resources and Materials). In this way the MRP procedure is able to plan resources, facilities, materials and HR in accordance with the real “demand of patients” and highlight potential overloads and problems.
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Paper Nr: 103
Title:

THE USE OF GRID STORAGE PROTOCOLS FOR HEALTHCARE APPLICATIONS
Authors:

Elisabetta Ronchieri and Flavia Donno
Abstract: Grid computing has attracted worldwide attention for a variety of domains. Healthcare projects focus on data mining and standardization techniques, the issue of data accessibility and transparency over the storage systems on the Grid has seldom been tackled. In this position paper, we identify the key issues and requirements imposed by Healthcare applications and point out how Grid Storage Technology can be used to satisfy those requirements. The main contribution of this work is the identification of the characteristics and protocols that make Grid Storage technology attractive for building a Healthcare data storage infrastructure.
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Paper Nr: 109
Title:

Expressive Speech Identifications based on Hidden Markov Model
Authors:

Syaheerah Lebai Lutfi, Juan Manuel Montero Martinez, Juan Manuel Montero Martinez, Roberto Barra Chicote, Juan Manuel Lucas Cuesta and Ascención Gallardo-Antolín
Abstract: This paper concerns a sub-area of a larger research field of Affective Computing, focusing on the employment of affect-recognition systems using speech modality. It is proposed that speech-based affect identification systems could play an important role as next generation biometric identification systems that are aimed at determining a person’s ‘state of mind’, or psycho-physiological state. The possible areas for the deployment of voice-affect recognition technology are discussed. Additionally, the experiments and results for emotion identification in speech based on a Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) classifier are also presented. The result from experiment suggests that certain speech feature is more precise to identify certain emotional state, and that happiness is the most difficult emotion to detect
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Paper Nr: 125
Title:

ICT SUPPORTED COMMUNICATION IN HEALTHCARE: BENEFITS AND RISKS
Authors:

Herman Lodder and Bertie Zwetsloot-Schonk
Abstract: Supporting communication in healthcare by ICT enables actors (healthcare professionals and patients) to “decouple” on the place/time context of the communication process. On the one hand decoupling makes a more flexible and efficient organization of care processes possible, on the other hand it imposes preconditions to a number of features of the communication process and also to the standards being adopted.
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Paper Nr: 126
Title:

EVALUATING GLOBAL LINK STRUCTURE OF THE WEB FOR FOCUSED CRAWLING IN THE GENOMICS AND GENETICS DOMAINS
Authors:

Ari Pirkola
Abstract: A focused crawler is a program that fetches Web pages that are relevant to a pre-defined domain. In this paper we consider focused crawling in the domains of genomics and genetics. Crawling is often started with seed URLs that point to central North-American and European universities, research institutions, and other organizations in North-America and Europe. We investigate how strongly this central region of the Web is connected to other large geographical regions of the Web: Australia (top level domain .au), China (.cn), and five South-American countries (.ar, .br, .cl, .mx, and .uy). We consider what implications the observed global link structure has for the selection of seed URLs for focused crawling. The results showed that the proportion of out-links from the North-American and European region to the other regions is low whereas pages in the other regions often point to the central region. We also found that two focused crawling processes, one started from the central region and the other from another large region, overlap only to a small extent. Overall, the results suggest that the effectiveness of focused crawling can be improved considerably if crawling is started with a geographically heterogeneous seed URL set.
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Paper Nr: 128
Title:

Distributed Multiagent Approach for Hydrocephalus treatment and management Using Electronic Shunting
Authors:

Nayel Al-Zubi, Abdel Rahman Alkharabsheh , Waleed Al-Nuaimy and Lina Momani
Abstract: Hydrocephalus is a common chronic condition that results in excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) inside the skull, often leading to brain damage. The treatment and management of hydrocephalus remain a challenging issue, especially for diagnosis, improving current shunt treatment, and predicting shunt success. Current diagnosis procedure depends mainly on the surgeons' observation of the clinical symptoms, neuroimages and instantaneous of intracranial pressure recording. These lack accuracy in diagnosis and predicting the outcome. Dominant treatment relies on passive mechanical shunts; these also exhibit virous problems. Adding to that, the lack of communication between the community surgeons and a limited understanding of the hydrodynamics of this disease have limited the effectiveness of hydrocephalus treatment. This paper proposes a new approach to improve the treatment and management of hydrocephalus through a multiagent cognitive system over a distributed network of hydrocephalus patients with intelligent shunting system. This approach will not only develop autonomous treatment method for hydrocephalus, but also it defines a method for information acquiring and analysis to better understanding hydrocephalus and assess shunt functionality.
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Paper Nr: 131
Title:

DEVELOPPING AN E-COMMERCE MODEL (B2E) WITHIN A MULTI-SITE UNIVERSITY HEALTH CARE CENTER: A SOLUTION TO PROMOTE KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION EXCHANGE
Authors:

Lise Pouliot, marie-claire richer, Charles Sounan and Stella Lopreste
Abstract: Information management in hospitals is one of the biggest challenges to employee development and organizational performance. In our current health care context, information and communication technologies (ICT) are essential to information distribution, sharing and management. In an environment such as the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), a B2E e-commerce network represents the passage from traditional to virtual modes of exchange with the establishment’s 12,000 employees. This paper argues that an e-commerce model can create significant opportunities for creating, sharing and applying interprofessional knowledge and information in an easy and accessible manner.
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Paper Nr: 135
Title:

Biomedical Ontologies and Grid Computing as New Resources for Cancer Registries
Authors:

Giulio Napolitano, Alejandra González Beltrán, Colin Fox, Adele Marshall, Anthony Finkelstein and Peter McCarron
Abstract: Cancer registry information systems need to deal with several data sets annotated with different coding systems. Designing, maintaining and linking these datasets involves dealing with semantic issues, tackling the shortcomings exhibited by coding systems as well as considering an appropriate computing infrastructure. We argue that biomedical ontologies and a Grid service infrastructure, together with a clear separation between semantic and coding models, can prove beneficial to cancer registries in terms of accuracy of knowledge modelling, interoperability and knowledge sharing with other registries and related data sources, automation of information retrieval. A real-life example is illustrated and a brief review of related projects is provided. We conclude that a formal semantic layer, which is the basis of large scale meaning-oriented projects such as the Semantic Web, is the key to the provision of a uniform, science-based view across cancer registries and related systems.
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