Optimisation of Real Time Analysis of Multimodal Monitoring Data and its Application to Computer Guided Management of critically Ill Patients

In an established environment of neuro-intensive care large quantities of data can be captured from bed-side monitors. This data contains a wealth of information about the pathophysiology of the critically ill patient however; the extraction of this information often requires sophisticated signal analysis. Such analysis is usually performed using universal data analysis packages like Matlab but requires engineering/mathematics expertise and is only available in off-line mode and as such in not applicable in a clinical setting. Our own software ICM+ (http://www.neurosurg.cam.ac.uk/icmplus), which is by now used in many clinical centres worldwide, attempts to bridge the gap between laboratory and clinical application. It collects data from bedside monitors, calculates in real time ‘secondary’ parameters defined using highly configurable signal processing formulae and produces continuously updated charts. This way complex information coming off the bedside monitors can be summarized in a concise fashion and presented to medical staff in a simple way that alerts them to the development of various pathological processes. The projects offered will include the following stages:

1.Development of new methodologies of analysis of physiological signals acquired in the Neuro Intensive Care, including time and frequency domain, stationary and non-stationary methods, linear and non-linear approaches.
2.Validation of the new methodologies against retrospective and prospective data from the Neuro Intensive Care unit
3.Implementation of the novel algorithms into ICM+ plugins, packaged as Windows dll libraries, so that they can be used in real time by the bed side These projects would suit graduates in Biomedical Engineering, but also potentially Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science.