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The Greifswald University Hospital in Germany conducts a research project called "Greifswald Approach to Individualized Medicine (GANI_MED)", which aims at improving patient care through personalized medicine. As a result of this project, there are multiple regional patient cohorts set up for different common diseases. The collected data of these cohorts will act as a resource for epidemiological research. Researchers are going to get the possibility to use this data for their study, by utilizing a variety of different descriptive metadata attributes. The actual medical datasets of the patients are integrated from multiple clinical information systems and medical devices. Yet, at this point in the process of defining a research query, researchers do not have proper tools to query for existing patient data. There are no tools available which offer a metadata catalogue that is linked to observational data, which would allow convenient research. Instead, researchers have to issue an application for selected variables that fit the conditions of their study, and wait for the results. That leaves the researchers not knowing in advance, whether there are enough (or any) patients fitting the specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. The "Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2)" framework has been assessed and implemented as a prototypical evaluation instance for solving this issue. i2b2 will be set up at the Institute for Community Medicine (ICM) at Greifswald, in order to act as a preliminary query tool for researchers. As a result, the development of a research data import routine and customizations of the i2b2 webclient were successfully performed. An important part of the solution is, that the metadata import can adapt to changes in the metadata. New metadata items can be added without changing the import program. The results of this work are discussed and a further outlook is described in this thesis.
The aim of this master’s thesis is the design and implementation of a dedicated software system, for planning and implementation of occupational therapy intervention and research studies, in a driving simulator environment. In the first part, the concept based on user requirements is presented. It consists of architectural patterns and guidelines with the main focus on utility and application security. The result of this part is the design of a web application which supports integration in a clinical as well as a research environment. The second part presents the reference implementation of the previously introduced concept. It was developed under a case study in a research facility which hosts a driving simulator. A close cooperation and the influence the researcher’s experience led into a product which provides advanced usability for the target users. In conclusion, the thesis validated the concept indirectly under a testing phase of the reference implementation. It provides the base for a follow-up project to refine the software product and extend the concept to different fields of application.
An architectural concept for implementing the socio-technical workflow of Digital Pathology in Chile
(2014)
Virtual Microscopy opens up the possibility to remotely access high quality images at large scales for scientific research, education, and clinical application. For clinical diagnostics, Digital Pathology (DP) presents a novel opportunity to reduce variability [Bauer et al., 2013] due to the reproducible access to Whole Slide Imaging, quantitative parameters (e.g. HER2 stained membrane) [Al-Janabi et al., 2012], second opinion and Quality Assurance [Ho et al., 2013]. Despite of the mentioned advantages, the challenge remains to incorporate DP into the pathologists workflow within a heterogeneous environment of systems and infrastructures [Stathonikos
et al., 2013]. Different issues must be solved in order to optimize the impact of DP in the daily clinical practice [Daniel et al., 2012] [Ho et al., 2006]. The integration needs precise planning and comprehensive evaluation for adopting this technology
[Stathonikos et al., 2013]. This thesis will focus on an organizational development approach based on a Socio-Technical System (STS). The socio-technical approach covers: (i) the technical issue: tissue-scanner, NDP.view, NDP.serve, analysis software, and (ii) the social issue: pathologists, technicians. In order to improve the integration, a joint optimization (of i and ii) is necessary. The developed STS approach will optimize the integration of DP towards improved workflows in clinical environments. The improved workflows will reduce the pathologists turnaround time, improve the certainty of the diagnostics, and provide a more effective patient care within the covered institutions. An overt multi-site Participatory Observation, Questionnaires, and Business Process Modelling Notation will be used to analyse the existing pathological workflows. Based on this, the system will be modelled with the 3lgm2 Toolkit [Winter et al., 2007] under consideration of various technical subsystems that are present in the clinical environment. Afterwards, the interfaces between subsystems and its possible interoperabilities will be evaluated, taking into account the different existing standards and guidelines for image processing and management, as well as business processes in DP. In order to analyse the existing preconditions a questionnaire will be evaluated to establish a robust and valid view. In addition, the overt participatory observation will support this elevation, giving a deeper insight on the social part. This observation also covers the technical side including the whole pathological process. The socio technical model will then reveal measurable potential for optimization with incorporated DP (e.g. higher throughput for slides). The organizational development approach consists of a Socio-Technical System based on overt multi-site participatory observations, questionnaires, business process modelling and 3LGM2, will optimize the use of Digital Pathology in the daily clinical practice and raise the acceptance to incorporate integrate the new technology within the dayly workflow through the user centred process of incorporation.
• Perform and evaluate a questionnaire and a participant observation of pathologists work days in private & public institutions
• Create and evaluate a 3lgm2 model
• Model the current pathological process (viewpoint of pathologist & technical assistant) & perform and evaluate a contextual inquiry to elevate the pathologists requirements & expectations towards the system
• Test the future WF according the model parameters.
This project will detect unsuspected interrelations and interdependencies within the socio- technical workflow with a pathology laboratory. The observation will reveal the action conformity as well as the environment in which the process has to be embedded. Furthermore it will establish an optimized workflow for a specific clinical environment to prepare the implementation of DP. Additionally it will be possible to
quantify digitized images in order to improve decision making and lastly to improve patient care. In the future it will be possible to extend automated image analysis in order to support clinical decision support. Depending on acceptance, this can lead towards an automated clinical decision support for cases with low complexity.
Initial results of an ongoing research in the field of reactive mobile autonomy are presented. The aim is to create a reactive obstacle avoidance method for mobile agent operating in dynamic, unstructured, and unpredictable environment. The method is inspired by the stimulus-response behavior of simple animals. An obstacle avoidance controller is developed that uses raw visual information of the environment. It employs reinforcement learning and is therefore capable of self-developing. This should result with obstacle avoidance behavior that is adaptable and therefore generalizes on various operational modalities. The general assumptions of the agent capabilities, the features of the environment as well as the initial result of the simulation are presented. The plans for improvement and suitable performance evaluation are suggested.
Spinodal Zr0.4Hf0.6Ni1.15Sn half-Heusler thermoelectrics are synthesized and aged. The complex microstructure due to the spinodal decomposition is investigated by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). By Rietveld refinements, it is confirmed that excess Ni atoms in the arc-melted and spark-plasma-sintered half-Heusler matrix prefer to form nanoscale/ submicron Heusler precipitates via spinodal decomposition and growth during the aging at 1173 K. Such phase separation changes the band gap of semiconductors, reduces the thermal conductivity drastically and improves the performance of thermoelectrics. As a result, a more than 50 % improvement of the ZT value on the unaged specimens was achieved.
Background: Stroke rehabilitation is a complex process that requires collaboration between stroke patients
and various health professionals. One important component of the rehabilitation is to set goals collaboratively with health professionals. The goal setting process can be time-consuming. In many cases, it is complicated for the patient and difficult to track for the health professionals. A simple user interface that supports patients, their family members and health professionals can help both sides to make the goal setting and attainment process easier.
Objectives: The aim is to design and develop a software for the goal attainment process of stroke patients with milder disabilities that facilitates goal setting process and the traceability of the goal progress for patients and health professionals.
Methods: Based on previous evaluated results, the web interface was developed and improved. Using this knowledge, a goal setting interface was added. To analyze the the goal setting process, goal attainment scaling (GAS) was included as well as parts of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) core set for stroke. The results were discussed afterwards in focus groups and evaluated based on two stroke patients, one family member and health professionals.
Results: We developed an interactive prototype, that can aid the rehabilitation at home by inserting
problems with ICF codes and different kinds of goals, creating new activities and tracing goal progress by reviewing the different goals. With the help of the GAS the outcome of the patient’s goals are visualized by a line chart presenting the positive or negative outcomes of the stroke rehabilitation.
Conclusion: The interactive prototype showed that it can support stroke patients during their rehabilitation
at home. A usability test indicated that the goal setting and attainment process was perceived as useful for patients and their family members. Small improvements have to be made to simplify use and error handling. For health professionals, the prototype could also simplify the documentation process by using ICF in the prototype, and also improving collaboration when using the tool for coordination.
There are many drug interactions and to know every single interaction is impossible. In Uganda, a country located in East Africa, patients often do not get a patient information leflaet when a physician prescribes drugs because they only get the drugs without packaging and information inside. Even in developed countries many poeple die because of drug interactions.
This work aims at developing a clinical decision support system for different kinds of drug interactions: 1) drug-drug interaction,
2) drug-food interactions,
3) drug-condition
interactions and
4) drug-disease interactions.
This system must be integrated into an
existing hospital information system called electronic Health Management Information System (eHMIS).
In the first part of this thesis different kinds of clinical decision support systems are described to find out which one is the best for eHMIS. The two different types are knowledge-based and non knowledge-based systems. The second part of this thesis, the data base of eHMIS is extended to have a full
knowledge base for the new module which contains drug-drug interactions, drug-food interactions, drug-disease interactions as well as drug-condition interactions. Therefore new tables were created and filled with data of several data bases with drug interactions. The last part is about designing the clinical decision support system for drug interactions
with the knowledge base of eHMIS, including the implementation considering the integration into the existing system. To know how health professionals in Uganda work
with an electronical health system as well as their other work ows was important. The system now runs in a hospital in Kampala, the capital of Uganda and in a health center level three in Mifumi, a village located in the east of the country.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of patients are affected by treatment failure or adverse drug reactions, many of which could be revented by pharmacogenomic testing. To address these deficiencies in care, clinics require
automated clinical decision support through computer based systems, which provide clinicians with patient-specific ecommendations. The primary knowledge needed for clinical pharmacogneomics is currently being
developed through textual and unstructured guidelines.
In this thesis, it is evaluated whether a web service can annotate clinically relevant genetic variants with guideline information using web services and identify areas of challenge. The proposed tool displays a formal representation of pharmacogenomic guideline information through a web service and existing resources. It enables the annotation of variant call format (VCF) files with clinical guideline information from the Pharmacogenomic Knowledge Base (PharmGKB) and Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC).
The applicability of the web service to nnotate clinically relevant variants with pharmacogenomics guideline information is evaluated by translating five guidelines to a web service workflow and executing the process to annotate publically available genomes. The workflow finds genetic variants covered in CPIC guidelines and influenced drugs.
The results show that the web service could be used to annotate in real time clinically relevant variants with up-to-date pharmacogenomics guideline information, although several challenges such as translating variants into star allele nomenclature and the absence of a unique haplotype nomenclature
remain before the clinical implementation of this approach and the use on other drugs.
eHMIS is a Ugandan Hospital Information System (HIS), which targets the Sub-Saharan market. In its first version all forms were programmed statically and adaptations were done by code modifications. In 2014 the development of a second version of eHMIS based on Java started.
This work aims at introducing dynamic forms to this new version. While forms that are significantly important to the workflow of the application will remain static, others are replaced by forms that are dynamically designed by the user. By that, the application will become more flexible and local and situational tailoring will be possible without inducing extra costs.
In this thesis the design, implementation and testing of dynamic forms in eHMIS is discussed. The architecture is based on the questionnaire resource of FHIR®. The module enables the user to create questions and group them into sections and questionnaires. For each question the type of answer expected and other constraints can be defined. A user interface covering all functions was designed, so that no programming skills are required. In a first step dynamic forms were integrated in the application's workflow for recording symptoms, though other fields of application are possible. For testing, a usability experiment was conducted in Tororo Hospital in Eastern Uganda, using the thinking aloud method. Results were analysed and evaluated to detect usability problems and gain a general impression of user satisfaction.
A considerable amount of research in the field of modern robotics deals with mobile agents and their autonomous operation in unstructured, dynamic, and unpredictable environments. Designing robust controllers that map sensory input to action in order to avoid obstacles remains a challenging task. Several biological concepts are amenable to autonomous navigation and reactive obstacle avoidance.
We present an overview of most noteworthy, elaborated, and interesting biologically-inspired approaches for solving the obstacle avoidance problem. We categorize these approaches into three groups: nature inspired optimization, reinforcement learning, and biorobotics. We emphasize the advantages and highlight potential drawbacks of each approach. We also identify the benefits of using biological principles in artificial intelligence in various research areas.