Ron Summers

Feasibility of Imaging Photoplethysmography

Contact and spot measurement have limited the application of photoplethysmography (PPG), thus an imaging PPG system comprising a digital CMOS camera and three wavelength light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is developed to detect the blood perfusion in tissue. With the means of the imaging PPG system, the ideally contactless monitoring with larger field of view and the different depth of tissue by applying multi- wavelength illumination can be achieved to understand the blood perfusion change. Corresponding to the individual wavelength LED illumination, the PPG signals can be derived in the both transmission and reflection modes, respectively. The outcome explicitly reveals the imaging PPG is able to detect blood perfusion in a illuminated tissue and indicates the vascular distribution and the blood cell response to individual wavelength LED. The functionality investigation leads to the engineering model for 3-D visualized blood perfusion of tissue and the development of imaging PPG tomography.

Information science in 2010: a Loughborough University view

This article presents issues relating to the future direction of the information science discipline. A 10-year time horizon is chosen so that predictions will not be influenced unduly by change in the information environment. To know where the discipline is going relies on knowledge of where it has been; this trajectory is investigated in terms of its historical development. The scientific basis of information science is addressed, together with issues relating to an all encompassing definition for the term “information.” Moving from theory into practice raises further issues, and an acknowledgment is made to the gradual change from its genesis as an academic discipline in the 1950s to its practitioner base in the 1990s. It is suggested that the wheel will turn full circle by 2010, during which time a lot of effort will be expended unifying methodologies that underpin different perspectives of the multifaceted term, information. Core activities are suggested, and indication made to exemplar application areas that allow the best practice to be identified. Management issues, such as performance measurement, are also alluded to. The conclusions drawn show that information science will make a significant contribution to other disciplines (e.g., manufacturing, business, healthcare), and that a number of opportunities and challenges will present themselves.

Remote simultaneous dual wavelength imaging photoplethysmography: a further step towards 3-D mapping of skin blood microcirculation

This paper presents a camera-based imaging photoplethysmographic (PPG) system in the remote detection of PPG signals, which can contribute to construct a 3-D blood pulsation mapping for the assessment of skin blood microcirculation at various vascular depths. Spot measurement and contact sensor have been currently addressed as the primary limitations in the utilization of conventional PPG system. The introduction of the fast digital camera inspires the development of the imaging PPG system to allow ideally non-contact monitoring from a larger field of view and different tissue depths by applying multi-wavelength illumination sources. In the present research, the imaging PPG system has the capability of capturing the PPG waveform at dual wavelengths simultaneously: 660 and 880nm. A selected region of tissue is remotely illuminated by a ring illumination source (RIS) with dual-wavelength resonant cavity light emitting diodes (RCLEDs), and the backscattered photons are captured by a 10-bit CMOS camera at a speed of 21 frames/second for each wavelength. The waveforms from the imaging system exhibit comparable functionality characters with those from the conventional contact PPG sensor in both time domain and frequency domain. The mean amplitude of PPG pulsatile component is extracted from the PPG waveforms for the mapping of blood pulsation in a 3-D format. These results strongly demonstrate the capability of the imaging PPG system in displaying the waveform and the potential in 3-D mapping of blood microcirculation by a non-contact means.

An overview of cardiac morphogenesis.

Accurate knowledge of normal cardiac development is essential for properly understanding the morphogenesis of congenital cardiac malformations that represent the most common congenital anomaly in newborns. The heart is the first organ to function during embryonic development and is fully formed at 8 weeks of gestation. Recent studies stemming from molecular genetics have allowed specification of the role of cellular precursors in the field of heart development. In this article we review the different steps of heart development, focusing on the processes of alignment and septation. We also show, as often as possible, the links between abnormalities of cardiac development and the main congenital heart defects. The development of animal models has permitted the unraveling of many mechanisms that potentially lead to cardiac malformations. A next step towards a better knowledge of cardiac development could be multiscale cardiac modelling.

A national survey of computerized decision support systems available to nurses in England

AIM To examine the characteristics of computerized decision support systems (CDSS) currently available to nurses working in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. METHOD A questionnaire survey sent to a stratified random sample of 50% of all NHS care providers (Trusts) in England, asking respondents to provide information on CDSS currently used by nurses. RESULTS Responses were received from 108 of the 277 Trusts included in the sample. Electronic patient record systems were the most common type of CDSS reported by Trusts (n = 61) but they were least likely to have features that have been associated with improved clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS The availability of CDSS with features that have been associated with improved patient outcomes for nurses in the NHS in England is limited. There is some evidence that the nature of the Trust affects whether or not nurses have access to CDSS to assist their decision making. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT The implementation of CDSS is increasing throughout the NHS. Many CDSS are introduced without adequate evidence to support its introduction and there is little evaluation of the benefits once they are implemented. Policy makers and nursing management should consider whether the introduction of CDSS aids nurse decision making and benefits patient outcomes.

Mobile healthcare in the home environment.

Mobile healthcare provision in the home environment presents many challenges. Patients are becoming more informed about the management of chronic conditions and the use of technology to support the process is rising. Issues such as system interoperability, cost, security and training all have to be addressed to ensure effective use of mobile devices within the home healthcare arena. An aging population will impact upon traditional healthcare delivery methods

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition-The roles of cell morphology, labile adhesion and junctional coupling

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a fundamental process during development and disease, including development of the heart valves and tumour metastases. An extended cellular Potts model was implemented to represent the behaviour emerging from autonomous cell morphology, labile adhesion, junctional coupling and cell motility. Computer simulations normally focus on these functional changes independently whereas this model facilitates exploration of the interplay between cell shape changes, adhesion and migration. The simulation model is fitted to an in vitro model of endocardial EMT, and agrees with the finding that Notch signalling increases cell-matrix adhesion in addition to modulating cell-cell adhesion.

An information-driven approach to pharmacogenomics

Effective information management of the pharmacogenomics discipline presents many unique challenges. Genetic and genomic data generated via high-throughput methods need to be integrated with phenotypic data which are defined at multiscale levels, ranging from the molecular to the clinical level. Repositories storing these data are distributed and vary in terms of syntax and semantics which result in issues concerning data exchange and integration. The application of the emerging semantic web offers a promising solution to these interoperability issues.

Ontology-driven development of a clinical research information system

Clinicians at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust have developed a clinical information model that enables detailed patient data to be gathered in clinics, stored in a patient record, linked with samples in a Biobank and then used to identify and select patient cohorts for research studies. The objective has been to enable the assembly of cohorts based on any plausible combination of clinical and laboratory features. The model is represented as an ontology, coded in OWL/XML and is itself built upon an ontology-based information architecture. The model can be used to generate the runtime configuration and operational data structures for a clinical information system, which has been implemented using an open source toolkit developed at City University, London.

Interoperability of bioinformatics resources

Purpose – This paper aims to supply an introduction to the bioinformatics discipline for information professionals, outlining how current information management issues are hampering the effective integration and interoperability of resources.Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is to outline some of the more challenging issues to illustrate their consequences, such as syntactic and semantic heterogeneity, data storage formats and media, and the existence of inconsistencies in information content in bioinformatics resources. A discussion of these topics indicates how semantic web concepts and technologies, together with e‐science initiatives, can be used to address these problems.Findings – The paper reveals that, if one considers the use of semantic web technologies such as XML and ontologies for the development of information standards that allows integration of different information systems, these systems could then be placed into applications such as web services and GRIDS tailored for biol...