CIMIT blog

Saving Heart Attack Victims With Computer Science

ScienceDaily (September 28, 2011) — Newly discovered subtle markers of heart damage hidden in plain sight among hours of EKG recordings could help doctors identify which heart attack patients are at high risk of dying soon.

Read full story at sciencedaily.com >>

This research was funded by the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, the National Science Foundation, Quanta Computer, and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. The paper is titled "Computationally Generated Cardiac Biomarkers for Risk Stratification Following After Acute Coronary Syndrome." Ongoing research is supported by the American Heart Association.

2nd Annual AMA-IEEE Medical Technology Conference on October 16-18, 2011

The American Medical Association (AMA) and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology (EMB) Society are pleased to announce the Second AMA-IEEE Medical Technology Conference in Boston, MA, on October 16-18, 2011 at the Park Plaza Hotel and Towers. The meeting will take place just before the Connected Health Symposium.

The 2011 conference will be devoted to Healthcare IT, a discipline at the intersection of information and computer science, engineering, and healthcare. The conference will examine resources, devices and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, display, and use of information in health and biomedicine including healthcare informatics applications such as clinical decision support.

The conference will be inaugurated by a keynote lecture at an evening reception on Sunday, October 16. The following two days will feature plenary and poster presentations focusing on the challenges  and solutions involving healthcare informatics and quality patient care. Breakout Sessions will be highly interactive and solutions-orientated. This is an unparalleled opportunity to share your knowledge with a respected audience of engineers, physicians, and other healthcare professionals as well as network with your peers in the industry. The themes are:

• Healthcare Reform and Health IT Adoption
• Workflow (administrative & clinical) and Health IT
• Clinical Decision Support and Individualized Medicine
• Improving the Outcomes and Quality

The Keynote and Plenary Speakers will set the tone for a very dynamic conference.

CIMIT Forum Presents "Improving Healthcare via Systems Engineering: Examples & Lessons from the Field" on October 11

Contact: CIMIT Forum Administrators
Email: cimit_forum@partners.org

The CIMIT Forum is designed to stimulate discussion, promote the exchange of ideas and information, and provide an arena where interdisciplinary discussion can lead to breakthroughs in biomedical engineering and patient care. The Forum is open to the public and no registration is required.

Date and Time

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Forum Title

Improving Healthcare via Systems Engineering—Examples and Lessons from the Field

Summary

Problems with healthcare processes are well known and pervasive, at all scales and in across all dimensions—cost, access, safety, quality, effectiveness. Among other approaches, a 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering proposed much broader and methodical use of the systems engineering and operations research methods routinely used to optimize other complex industries.

This presentation will provide an overview of the systems engineering field and illustrate its use in healthcare at micro through policy levels, and discuss how it is best applied to both delivery system design problems and medical decision making questions. Several examples will be used to illustrate potential applications, the general approach and process of doing this type of work, and how it both differs from and compliments traditional process improvement methods.

Presenter

James Benneyan, PhD
Director of the Center for Health Organization Transformation
Professor of Industrial Engineering & Operations Research
Northeastern University

Location

Northeastern University
Egan Engineering/Science Research Center, Raytheon Ampitheater
120 Forsyth Street
Boston, MA 02115

The Egan Center is located just north of Ruggles Station T stop and the Renaissance Parking Garage. The Raytheon Amphitheater is located on the ground floor of the Egan Engineering/Science Research Center, Egan 240.

Directions

» Directions to Egan Engineering/Science Research Center
» Northeastern University Campus Map

Parking

Visitors may park at the Renaissance Parking Garage at 835 Columbus Avenue, Boston MA 02115. There is a fee to park in this facility.
» Directions to Renaissance Parking Garage

Any recording—video, audio, or photography—of the Forum without permission of CIMIT and the presenter is prohibited. Presentations may be videotaped by CIMIT.

Research Paper Based on Work Supported by CIMIT Wins First Hojjat Adeli Award for Outstanding Contributions in Neural Systems

Being the first, this award represents new milestone in 30-year history of World Scientific which publishes over 120 scientific journals

CIMIT Contact: Steve Schachter, MD, Chief Academic Officer
Email: sschacht@partners.org

A research paper based upon work supported by CIMIT has been selected as the best paper published in the International Journal of Neural Systems (IJNS) during the two-year period 2009-2010 and is the winner of the first inaugural Hojjat Adeli Award for Outstanding Contributions in Neural Systems.

Written by Ali Shoeb (MIT), John Guttag (MIT), Trudy Pang (BIDMC) and Steven Schachter (BIDMC and CIMIT), the paper entitled "Non-invasive Computerized System for Automatically Initiating Vagus Nerve Stimulation Following Patient-Specific Detection of Seizures or Epileptiform Discharges" demonstrates the feasibility of using a computerized system to detect the onset of a seizure and, in response, initiate vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in patients with medically refractory epilepsy.

About Award

In August 2011, World Scientific established the Hojjat Adeli Award for Outstanding Contribution in Neural Systemswith a cash prize of $500 to celebrate the IJNS's increasing impact among the leading journals and its ground-breaking position among all World Scientificjournals, and to honor the extraordinary leadership and impactful, inventive research contributions of its Editor-in-Chief, Hojjat Adeli. This Award will be given annually to the author(s) of the best paper published in the previous volume year. The recipient of the award is selected by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with members of the Editorial Advisory Board.

The EntreTech Forum Presents "Technology Transfer: The 'Golden Egg' of Innovation for Successful Commercialization" on September 20, 2011

Michael K. Dempsey, CIMIT's Entrepreneur in Residence and Accelerator Program Leader, will be one of the forum panelists

CIMIT Contact: Michael K. Dempsey, Entrepreneur in Residence
Email: mdempsey1@partners.org
Event Website: http://www.entretechforum.org/mm_sept2011.html

Are you part of a startup, spin-out or development team looking to the transfer-technology process from industry, university, and government research areas to commercialize a technology or idea?

The process of transferring technology has opened up new fields in medicine, engineering and information systems fostering innovation. To those engaged in the tech-transfer process a rich source of developing technologies and ideas becomes available to commercialize profitable and multi-million dollar ventures.

How do startups, inside or outside of research organizations bring developing technologies to market? How do startups and investors value and assess ideas to launch new technologies? What is the process for development teams to engage in launching a venture? What examples of successfully commercialized ventures can early startups look to for ideas and guidance with challenging issues? How do you effectively assess market viability of an idea? What are the process and pitfalls of working with universities, private and governments’ research areas?

On September 20 from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m., the EntreTech Forum will delve into the process of Technology Transfer to answer these questions and more. Startups from all fields are encouraged to join us. We will discuss innovation in medical technology as a case study to illustrate the transfer process through to commercialization. The forum’s panel will draw from leaders in industry, academic and government fields. The panel’s goal is to help startups better understand, utilize and leverage their experience in commercializing the technology transfer process. Please join us at the Emerging Center at Foley Hoag the Bay Colony Corporate Center in Waltham for what will be an informative and interactive discussion.

View complete event details and register online >>

CIMIT Announces 2012 Young Clinicians Award Program

$50,000 will be awarded to an individual at each CIMIT Consortium hospital

CIMIT Contact: Steve Schachter, MD, CIMIT Chief Academic Officer
Email: sschacht@bidmc.harvard.edu

The Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) will sponsor the Young Clinician Award (YCA) program for the 2012 calendar year:

• Nomination packets due November 15, 2011
• Recipients notified December 1, 2011
• Funding available to recipients January 1, 2012

The YCA recognizes outstanding clinicians within CIMIT Consortium eligible hospitals, early in their careers, who are engaged in the development of novel and transformative healthcare innovations enabled by technology. Eligible recipients are clinicians at the academic ranks of Fellows, Instructors, and Assistant Professors. As in previous years, one Young Clinician Award for $50,000 (total costs) will be made to an individual at each CIMIT Consortium eligible hospital as a 1-year award.

The 2012 YCA program will focus specifically on innovations that improve the diagnosis or treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders, especially post-traumatic stress disorder and the sequelae of traumatic brain injury, or that reduce care fragmentation within and across care environments for patients with neurological and psychiatric conditions to improve clinical outcomes, for example by facilitating real-time medical decision making.

As in previous years, CIMIT Site Miners are responsible for nominating up to two candidates from their institution for consideration of receiving the Young Clinician Award.

The Site Miners' one or two nominees will be required to submit a nomination packet to Steve Schachter, MD, by November 15 consisting of the following:

1. Statement of interest from the candidate given the 2012 YCA focus, their related accomplishments, and why the candidate believes the award would be beneficial to their career (1-2 pages)
2. Letter of recommendation from the candidate’s Chief of Service
3. The candidate’s current CV
4. The candidate’s research proposal (3-5 pages) with the following parts:
   · Clinical problem and potential patient impact
   · Technology background and IP status
   · Research team and outline of investigational plan
   · Budget narrative and statement of animal/human use intentions 

The packets from nominee(s) will undergo an internal review at CIMIT. The review will evaluate the extent to which the:

• Nominee is a “rising star” who holds promise as a clinical leader in their field
• Research aligns with CIMIT NeuroHealth initiative. Additional alignment with the CIMIT Integrated Clinical Environments (ICE) initiative is encouraged
• Research work is collaborative in nature
• Research promises great impact on patient care 

Packets received from individuals who were not nominated by a CIMIT Site Miner will not be considered.

Based on the internal CIMIT review, one nominee from each CIMIT Consortium eligible hospital will then be selected as the Young Clinician Award recipient for that institution.