Abstract

The students of the
Biomedical and Health
Informatics (BHI) Graduate
Program seek a capital
investment to support the
addition of computing
resources in the students'
Informatics Lab, building
upon the support provided for
this effort in last year's
STF grant. This capital
investment will continue to
provide students with the
resources to support solid
and innovative research
projects in the design,
construction and
implementation of health
information management tools.
It will also provide the
tools to help graduate level
students make a difference in
the health care community
through the focused outreach
and dissemination of high-
quality healthcare
information.

Background

The Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI)
Graduate Program is a new academic degree
program
in its third year of operation, and has already
seen three students successfully to graduation
with MS degrees. It is an interdisciplinary
program across seven schools and colleges of the
University of Washington: School of Dentistry,
College of Engineering, Information School,
School of Medicine, School of Nursing, School of
Pharmacy, and the School of Public Health and
Community Medicine. In addition to cooperative
work with the units named above, individual BHI
students are engaged in research projects
involving collaboration with other campus
departments (e.g., medical decision analysis
with
Psychology) and other medical institutions
(e.g.,
construction of a clinical outcomes database
with
the Veteran’s Administration Hospital), among
other collaborative efforts.

Our emerging discipline is engaged in the
conceptualization and development of computing
and information management tools, to address a
wide array of complex issues of health
information dissemination and management in
order
to support improved health care delivery.
Consequently, our faculty and students engage in
a broad range of studies including basic
research
into the development of tools for the spatial
representation of medical/biological knowledge,
computer tools to support clinical decision
making, acquisition and organization of vast
amounts of genomic data, and information
management of complex patient care data, all to
facilitate direct patient care delivery through
innovative clinical information systems that
improve clinician access to the most current
data
for best practice in their fields. In short, we
are engaged in research at every level to
improve
information quality and access, with the
ultimate
goal of applying that information to support
better and more rigorous medical science and
improved patient care outcomes. This goal is
approached through three distinct core tracks
within the department: informatics [genetics and
molecular biology applications],
biomedicine/healthcare [clinical informatics
applications], and computing.

In this context, all BHI students, regardless of
their background and specific focus, are
encouraged and required to develop and execute
projects embodying innovative approaches to the
refinement, presentation, and dissemination of
health care knowledge. As we emphasized in our
grant application last year, software
development
tools, high quality computer processing
equipment, and imaging technology (including but
not limited to streaming video technology
online)
are recognized to be extremely effective tools
to
support these aims. Thus access to the
technological tools needed to develop such
products will support a wide variety of research
by our graduate students in the diverse field of
biomedical and health informatics. The Committee
responded with significant support for these
goals, for which we are most appreciative, and
we
have made intensive use of these resources since
the award. As mentioned previously, BHI students
are enthusiastic about the prospect of
developing
projects with significant imaging components, as
a valuable supplement to the scientific,
clinical, and computing literacy elements
currently stressed by the program's curriculum.
Such research may occur in cooperation with
existing program initiatives, function as
standalone projects of benefit to targeted
populations, and/or represent an infrastructure
support base for innovative masters, doctoral,
and post doctoral student projects.

Now we would like to ask the Committee for
support for continued progress toward these
goals. In order to facilitate the continuing
ability of BHI students to take the initiative
in
developing a wide variety of imaging-oriented
medical informatics projects, as another cohort
has been admitted to the program and our student
population approaches critical mass, we seek
assistance from the Student Technology Fee
funding pool to build upon the progress to date
of the Medical Informatics Imaging Laboratory
(MIIL), and to continue to serve the increased
demand for resources of the new students, as
well
as the needs of the cohorts further along in
their curriculum.

Benefits

Much of this information remains the same as in
the previous grant application. As we previously
outlined, with development of the Medical
Informatics Imaging Laboratory, BHI students
will
have access to state of the art equipment to
carry out independent research projects of their
own design under faculty tutelage, as well as
contribute to improvements of existing
initiatives which contain a large imaging
component. In this way, we can enhance our
potential to make significant research
contributions to our field, as well as enhance
our career development by carrying out research
that is more extensive and significant than
would
otherwise be possible without equipment to
support advanced medical imaging projects. We
project that our students' potential research
products will make a significant contribution to
the field of biomedical and health informatics,
and to the improvement of patient care outcomes
in general, by improving the quality of health
information.

This applies to many types of projects, across
the broad range of medical informatics issues,
and for all kinds of users: subject matter
specialists, clinicians, teachers, students, and
the lay public. Examples might include software
simulations of anatomy and disease processes;
presentation and preservation of complex medical
data using sophisticated modeling; and creation
of real-time streaming video for telemedicine
applications. BHI projects involving fieldwork
and other situations in which documentation is
necessary would also be supported. These are
research projects which we have brought before
the committee before, and their importance
remains high, as the need for resources
increases
with the admission of new students to the
program.

Finally, there is an additional proposal for a
student project—-the development and maintenance
of a medical image repository. This project
would
serve multiple purposes: the development of the
repository in the acquisition and storage of
images would fill a niche which is sorely
lacking, that of high-quality primary data (data
from biological/clinical sources) that relate
anatomical structures at the macroscopic and
microscopic levels to genetic, proteomic, and
molecular applications at one end of the
spectrum, and hands-on medical applications at
the other. Please note that we are approaching
this problem from an informatics standpoint,
which means concentrating on the information
content of images. This differentiates our
purposes from those of other laboratories, whose
purpose is to generate lower-level images as
needed on an ad hoc basis. By contrast, we are
proposing a more structured approach, which
focuses on systematically creating libraries of
relevant images with the image content foremost
in mind. By doing so, we can leverage the
content
of those images, and the applications which deal
with them, to meet the needs of users in a much
more efficient and productive way. We hope in
this way to foster collaboration with basic
medical science departments, by providing them
with informatics solutions to manage the vast
amounts of data their bench science is
generating. In order to develop such an
information-based approach to images, however,
the first step is the systematic capture of such
images. This is our rationale for requesting the
microscopes, macrophotographic equipment, and
cameras detailed in this year’s proposal. These
devices can fill the entire range of images of
anatomical structure from macroscopic (visible
to
the naked eye) through microscopic (such as
histological, or tissue, images), at a variety
of
resolutions. The information-oriented
construction of such a repository, and the
development of the associated software
applications for the manipulation of image
content and the publication and dissemination of
such images, would fill a niche not met by the
other laboratories working with images, and,
through the selection of subject content, would
greatly enhance the potential for collaborative
effort with departments working in basic medical
science, where such departments have specific
needs for managing their information content.

The planning and development of these
applications also affords the possibility of
students collaborating on projects with groups
such as the Clinical Informatics Research Group
(CIRG), or the Structural Informatics Group
(SIG), which also make extensive use of images in
their projects. The specifics of the images may
differ among each of the core BHI areas--
visualizing protein folding, 3D molecules, or
biochemical interactions for informatics,
displaying lesions and other pathologies with the
correct amount of color and other detail for
clinical informatics, evaluating whether the
resolution of an inexpensive digital camera is
sufficient to bring teleradiology to underserved
areas for public health informatics, just to name
a few examples--but the larger questions of image
capture, manipulation, and display are the same
across the disciplines. The issues of
annotating images, or performing content-based
searches on them, whatever their specific
content, recur frequently in the contexts of all
of our groups. It therefore makes sense to build
upon and extend such previous work. And the range
of imaging research possibilities
(from clinical to basic science, joined with a
common thread of computing and information
science), means that students in all the core
areas of our program will have the opportunity to
benefit from this technology, and the
possibilities of research collaboration that
arise from it.

These are, of course, only a sample of the
research possibilities for expanding the
effectiveness and field of options for student-
generated initiatives through development of a
basic imaging infrastructure for the students of
the BHI Graduate Program. Therefore, we seek to
build upon the process (begun last year) of
giving BHI students access to basic imaging
infrastructure and development software tools to
support creative research, by requesting the
items detailed below—with which we will continue
the process of establishing our student directed
Medical Informatics Imaging Laboratory.

Student Access

The graduate program in Biomedical and Health
Informatics has a dedicated computer laboratory
to support and further the research of the
students in the program, and strongly encourages
the use of the space to promote collaboration on
courses and projects. All registered graduates,
as well as students collaborating on BHI
research
projects, have access to the lab 24 hours/day.
The room is constantly in use by program majors,
who use the available equipment to conduct
research, carry out course work, write papers,
hold meetings and videoconferences, and work
together with other students.

Because some of the students' research involves
confidential patient data, access to the lab is
restricted to students working on courses or
research for the program. However, students are
encouraged to disseminate the results of their
work through publication of papers,
presentations
to other medical professionals and the public,
and through open-source availability of the
software code they write, Therefore, even though
students who are not registered in our program
or
not taking our classes do not have direct access
to the Informatics Lab itself, the larger
university community and the public benefits
from
the research activities conducted in the lab.

We will add the new resources to our existing
database of equipment and to the reservation
calendar for the equipment available to check
out. When a piece of equipment is checked out
the
person taking it will be required to sign a form
with the checkout date, the return date and the
name of the equipment. We have all student
information necessary to track down equipment if
it is not returned on time in proper condition.

Available Resources

The currently available financial resources
devoted to technology for the Biomedical and
Health Informatics Graduate Program computer lab
are dictated by the University Initiative
funding
that was applied for and granted when the
graduate program was started. The technology
budget is not large and is finite, as we are
restricted by initial amounts that were
submitted. We have been able to purchase some
core equipment but also rely on some donated
computers and computers that were headed for
surplus from other departments.

The space devoted to the informatics computer
lab
is extremely limited, and because of this
limitation, we have applied for new computers
with flat screen monitors, laptops and handheld
computing devices in this grant. These would not
only aid immensely in the research and projects
being worked on by the students, and allow for
new projects and research, but would give us
more
space in the informatics computer lab. Currently
students are sitting elbow to elbow in our lab,
in room T277, and the extra room we would gain
from smaller and more streamlined technology
would be invaluable.

The support for this equipment is completely
funded and in place. There is an Informatics
Computer Lab manager, Laurel Rees, currently
employed and in place that would be responsible
for setting up and maintaining the equipment.

There is also funding available for a student
service position that could assist with the
additional equipment purchased with this grant.
The department of Medical Education has a part
time network support person that is available to
help in the informatics computer lab when needed.

Finally, in this proposal, we are requesting
some optical equipment (microscopes and cameras)
which require care and maintenance after use in
order to preserve their useful life in good
condition. Because this type of item is not
within the scope of what the STF funds, we have
sought to obtain the funds from a different
source. We have obtained support from a private
donor for the necessary items (lens cleaner
solution, compressed air canisters, cloths,
etc.). The donor has agreed to contribute these
items for the care of any of the optical
equipment we may receive through an STF grant.

Installation Timeline

Funding received from STF Mar- April 2003.

Procurement in May 2003 through August 2003

Implementation of MIIL will start when the first
equipment arrives and will continue through the
summer to be fully in place by fall 2003.

Departmental Endorsement

We fully support this proposal, which will
benefit the students in each track of the BHI
graduate program. The equipment requested in this
proposal will further the infrastructure of our
informatics lab, and enable the students to carry
out cutting-edge research.
--Peter Tarczy-Hornoch, Head, DBHI
--Wendy Kramer, Program Manager, DBHI


The field of biomedical and health informatics
depends heavily on technology
to represent and optimally use medical and
biological knowledge. This proposal for funding
will provide graduate students in biomedical and
health informatics with the necessary tools to
carry out first rate research projects in the
field. I give my highest endorsement to this
proposal.
--Jason N. Doctor, Ph.D. Assistant Professor,
MEBI

Student Endorsement

I am a second year student in the biomedical
informatics program, and am glad to say that the
Student Technology fee grants have helped
tremendously in my research. The wireless
devices that were made available to us through
the grant were immensely helpful in enabling me
to publish two papers and present a poster at the
American Medical Informatics Association Annual
symposium in Texas. The continued support of the
Student Technology Fee committee would go a long
way in ensuring quality student research, hence I
heartily endorse the present grant proposal which
has been initiated by my colleagues.
--Syed Zia ul Haq

I am a student in the BHI graduate program, and
I support the proposal for attaining XMLSpy
software (see http://www.xmlspy.com/ ), and in
particular, I believe there is added-value in
the Enterprise edition beyond the Professional
edition. XMLSpy is a software package for
editting and producing documents and elucidating
the structure and presentation of web-based
information utilizing XML, XSL, XPath, and other
evolving backbone technologies, languages, and
methods that are growing under the direction of
the W3C. Meaningful participation in web
development technologies and the semantic web is
only possible with software packages such as
XMLSpy, and this sort of activity is crucial to
our Medical Informatics group, in my
opinion. Alternative user-friendly open-source
solutions are either non-existent or are limited
in their capabilities.
--Richard C. Phillips, MD

I think the four new dell desktops are cool and
very useful, and people now prefer to use them
instead of the old ones, so it would be great if
we can upgrade all of them in the lab. I
personally benefitted a lot in my coursework and
research from the software we got last year
through the grant, including S-plus and MatLab.
--Kai Wang, BHI student

I am a graduate student in my third year in the
BHI program. The focus of my research is on
developing sound and complete symbolic models of
anatomical structures across species. I am
developing these models in order to better
understand practical questions, such as why some
substances cause or cure disease in animals but
not in humans, and how well we can understand
human disease through animal models as a
consequence of the similarities and differences
in their anatomical structures. My research has
benefitted greatly from the resources made
available through the STF grant last year, and
the technology proposed in this year's
application would also go a long way toward
supporting my research. Especially as I move from
the actual symbolic modelling of those species
similarities and differences into visualizing and
interpreting the content of corresponding images,
the processes of image capture, storage, and
manipulation will be a crucial underlying element
of my medical
informatics research. This element is one which
the proposed imaging technology will greatly
enable. I strongly support this proposal for the
benefit it will bring to my research, and the
research of other students in the program.
--Ravensara Travillian, NLM Informatics Research
Fellow

Items

Below are the items making up the current proposal. The asterisk (*) beside items signify that they were approved by the committee. This however was not implemented correctly for our database before 2005, so earlier years may not show this.

Click an item's title to view details on that item, or show all item details.