IT in Health Care

CITRIS researchers are creating new ways to improve and deliver healthcare using IT, from developing tiny monitors that can remotely detect pathogens, diagnose diseases and monitor the state of a patient to dealing with the issues of data privacy and security of electronic medical records (EMRs).

People are living longer than ever'adults over the age of 65 are expected to make up 20% of the U.S. population by 2030. The change in demographics will require a change in health care to meet the unique demands of the elderly. In this area, CITRIS has several research projects, including Information Technology for Assisted Living at Home (ITALH), which involves the implementation of sensor networks that will automatically alert emergency workers via a cell phone when a person falls. With proper security and privacy precautions, the data eventually gathered by these types of sensor networks, such as heart rate and blood sugar, could be made available to doctors to use for everything from diagnostics to research.

Another way to improve dramatically patient care is through telemedicine, a field that can transmit expert clinical knowledge to where it is needed. Healthcare is advancing so rapidly that it is extremely difficult for doctors to manage patients and keep up with the growing body of scientific literature. For that reason tools under investigation at CITRIS, such as smart reminders, which would automatically provide doctors with helpful information from patients' known drug reactions to relevant studies, will likely catch on.

Electronic medical records, which are being studied through multi-disciplinary CITRIS research, will save money as well as improve patient care. Studies have shown that going to an all-EMR would potentially save the U.S. $77 billion annually. As these systems become more pervasive'nearly 25 percent of U.S. physicians used full or partial EMRs in their office-based practice in 2005'they provide unique challenges in security and privacy that are being addressed by multi-disciplinary CITRIS work.

Several projects and courses are underway within the new CITRIS focus of health care. Building the Connections conference series (Connections I, Connections II, and Connections III) as well as on-going research and on the many strengths of the CITRIS researchers.

Healthcare projects in CITRIS include

• Assisted Living at Home
• Medical Imaging
• Secure Patient Portals to Electronic Health Records -- in collaboration with TRUST and Vanderbilt University.

New courses in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley include

• Design of Health Technologies
  
• Medical Image Processing.

CITRIS is collaborating with QB3: California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research in developing further research projects in the area of health care.

For further information

• Paging Dr. IT (August 2006 newsletter article)