Category: computer programming

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Interview with Art Wallace, MD PhD on Big Data and Medical Innovation

By Angel Zhou, Branson School


Mobile technologies, sensors, genome sequencing, and advances in analytic software now make it possible to capture vast amounts of information that could transform medicine. The question is: can Big Data make health care better?

In the upcoming Marin Science Seminar, “Big Data and Medical Innovation,” Dr. Art Wallace, Chief of Anesthesia Service at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and a Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at UCSF Medical Center, will discuss applications of Big Data in medicine and how Big Data has changed epidemiology, quality improvement, and drug discovery. Read the following interview to learn more about Dr. 

Wallace’s thoughts on Big Data and its impact on medical innovation.
Art Wallace, MD PhD

What is Big Data and what is its significance to medicine?  What makes Big Data different from other data that people work with in the healthcare industry?
Big Data is data that is acquired for other purposes that can be analyzed to understand processes, people, and systems. Big Data includes many things: cell phone records, super market purchase card records, credit card records, medical records, internet search terms, medication usage, hospital admissions, social security records, etc. This data can be used for epidemiology to identify associations between factors and outcomes.
Big Data gives additional power to identify factors associated with rare outcomes. I can now easily do a study in 1 million people using data collected for administrative purposes. Doing a study in 1 million patients used to be enormously expensive, now it just requires computer programming and epidemiologic analysis. Before Big Data, the cost of collecting data was prohibitive, so many studies could not be done. With Big Data, there is little to no cost of collecting the data, making the analysis the entire cost for large studies. The profoundly lower costs with Big Data techniques make studies that were previously impossible, possible at minimal cost.
How does Big Data impact professionals in the medical field? Can Big Data be used to improve healthcare?
We have identified factors associated with adverse outcomes, identified medication practices that are associated with increased mortality, identified medications that can reduce morbidity and mortality, and we have identified possible therapies for diseases that have no current therapy. We can reduce morbidity, mortality, cost, and assist in the development of new therapies.
  
Big Data can be used to reduce morbidity, mortality, cost, and improve efficiency. Big Data can be used to ask questions that are morally, politically, technically, socially, ethically, or legally impossible to answer with randomized trials. Big Data is being used to improve quality of life while lowering costs.
Describe how Big Data is reshaping the drug industry?
Big Data can be used to identify medications that reduce or increase risks. Post marketing testing can identify medications that have significant associated morbidity and mortality. For example, we identified a drug that increased mortality risk 5 fold (increased from 3 to 15% with drug use). This use of Big Data led to a medication being taken off the market. It had been used in Europe for 30 years, in the U.S. for 10 years, and it increased the risk of death from 3 to 15%. Big Data was used to identify a very serious risk to patients and led to the medication being taken off the market.
How will Big Data accelerate innovation in medicine?
Big Data will be used to identify new uses of medications. It will identify risk factors for morbidity and mortality. It will lead to further randomized trials.
What are the benefits and dangers of providing Big Data online as the “ever expanding cloud of information” becomes more accessible?
It is easy to identify people from their digital detritus. It is easy to identify very personal things about people from their data trails. Factors such as financial status, interests, sexual orientation, political beliefs, religious beliefs, health status, pre-existing medical conditions, drug and alcohol use, pregnancy status, and proclivities can all be assessed via Big Data. Big Data can be used to manipulate, track, and market to people. At the same time, Big Data can identify very serious risks to patients’ health. Scientific method is an approach; Big Data is a tool. Both can be used for good or bad purposes. Big Data is simply a new and extremely powerful scientific tool.   

Join us Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 to learn more about “Big Data and Medical Innovation” with Dr. Art Wallace from 7:30 – 8:30 PM Terra Linda High School, San Rafael in Room 207.

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Mission Control with Jay Trimble

by Gillian Parker, Tamalpais HS         
Have you ever wondered what happens down at mission control? Who supports astronauts from below? Jay Trimble leads the User Centered Technology Group at NASA Ames Research Center (NASA-Ames Website). The UCT Group is a collection of people with various specialties from  anthropology to computer science that work together to create software for mission control. Jay also led another team called Mars Exploration Rover Human Centered Computing Project, which worked on Mar Rover Operations. Read the following interview with Jay Trimble to find out more about mission control.
Jay Trimble

1. What are some of the projects that the User Centered Technology (UCT) Group at NASA Ames Research Center has worked on?
The UCT Group has focused on component software that allows users to build their own software with compositions, meaning users can essentially assemble their own software using drag and drop. The software is open source, it’s called Open Mission Control Technologies. You can learn more about the software at http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/OpenMCT/, or on GitHub at https://github.com/nasa/mct. The UCT group has also built software to assist scientist in archiving planetary science data. 


2. What is the process of making software at the UCT Group like?
The process for making software is focused on the users. We use a range of methods to connect with users and translate what we’ve learned into the design of the software. We observe users doing their work in their own environment. This is important because observing users gives you a perspective that you won’t get by talking to them, though talking to users is also important. We interview users as well to better understand their work. We develop prototypes and iteratively improve them. Ideas are communicated and tested visually before committing to code. 

3. How did the Mars Exploration Rover Human Centered Computing Project improve the process and technology of Mars Rover Operations?
For Mars Rover Operations we worked with the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). We were part of a team looking at science processes. We developed software that ran on large touch screens that allowed the scientists to plan several days out what they wanted to be doing. 

4. What are your favorite/ least favorite parts of your job?
My favorite parts of my job are being part of space exploration and the people I work with. My least favorite part of the job is the uncertainty of the federal budget process. 

5. What do you see in the future of the UCT Group, and space-related technology in general?
That’s a very broad question. My group is working on a Lunar Rover Mission to conduct surface exploration in polar regions to prospect for water and other resources. That’s our focus at the moment. We are also continuing to work with JPL on software for monitoring solar system exploration spacecraft. I think space technology in general in focused on moving us beyond low Earth orbit and out into the solar system. 
6. How did you decide your career path?
I decided my career path based on my interest in the space program that began in grade school when we were landing on the Moon. 

Come to the Marin Science Seminar on Wednesday May 21 at Terra Linda High School, San Rafael; Physiology Lab 207 from 7:30-8:30 to learn more
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High Tech Mannequins

by Gillian Parker, Tamalpais HS   
Oftentimes it is nerve-wracking or even dangerous for new medical staff to carry out certain procedures on real patients. At the VA Medical Center in San Francisco, the Simulation Center has high tech mannequins to help train staff in a low-risk environment. These mannequins simulate a normal patient and allow new staff to practice various procedures like chest tube insertion and IV catheter insertion, among others. They can also be hooked up to monitors that are often used to observe patients.

     Abi Fitzgerald practices one day every week in the emergency department at the SFVA as part of her one year fellowship in advanced clinical simulation. She is an RN and achieved her MSN at San Francisco State University. Read the following interview with Abi Fitzgerald to find out more about her experience with the simulators!


1. What is the best part about having the high tech mannequins to practice on?
    
    The manikin’s ability to simulate human functions allows clinicians to practice going through the physical motions assessing patients in both emergent and non-emergent situations, as opposed to verbally walking through the process.  This develops muscle memory and skills for recognizing normal vs. abnormal breath sounds, heart sounds, mental status, neurological functions and more.  

2. How would medical staff be trained without these medical robots?
    They could practice on actors, in which case the abnormal functions such as wheezes or heart murmurs are difficult to simulate.  They would also practice on real patients, which they still currently do, but using a manikin allows them more freedom to perform procedures and other tasks that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to do on a live patient. Working with manikins allows students and clinicians to refine their skills before working with actual patients.
3. What procedures have you performed on the simulators? Could you describe some?
This year the VAMC sim lab acquired a few new simulators that have allowed us (the simulation fellows) and the clinicians who train on them, to become more familiar with a lot of new procedures.  We now have an endovascular trainer which simulates procedures that take place in the cath lab such as non-open heart valve replacements.  This is when the doctors access the heart valve through a long wire and tube that is inserted in the leg and follows the artery all the way up to the aorta and into the heart where they can replace replace a heart valve using fluoroscopic imaging. We also have a new manikin that simulates ultrasounds and displays a three dimensional virtual reality image on a computer screen.   
4. Are there any flaws/negatives to the simulators?
   
The cost of acquiring the simulators and the repair costs can be high, but the quality of training and knowledge gained are very much worth it.  Additionally, ongoing research projects have resulted in the acceptance of grant proposals which has made the acquisition of some of the simulators possible. 
5. What are some things that the simulators can’t fully prepare you for?
  Even though we do our best to make simulated scenarios as real as possible, there are always some elements such as smells and unexpected outcomes that can be difficult but not impossible to simulate well.

Come to the Marin Science Seminar on Wednesday, May 14th, 7:30-8:30 to hear Abi Fitzgerald and Richard Fidler talk about medical education robots at Terra Linda High School in Room 207, 320 Albion Way, San Rafael, CA 94903
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Educational Video Games: No Longer a Contradiction

by Claire Watry, Terra Linda HS
The definition of a video game according to Merriam-Webster is: an electronic game played by means of images on a video screen and often emphasizing fast action. The definition does include the phrases “must contain violence,” “must be uneducational” or “guaranteed to turn children into zombies.” Video games are often stigmatized as a waste of time, and few realize that video games can actually be educational and help children’s learning rather than hindering it. With proper implementation, educational video games have the potential to transform traditional education and propel students into high-profile jobs in the tech-savvy world.

Video games are an innovative way to engage students in science. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution experimented with alternative methods of teaching science and created the video game Vanished where students are presented with the scenario that in the future all historical records are destroyed, and are asked by the people of the future to investigate the causes of this catastrophe by researching and recording data about present-day Earth. The game incorporates problem-solving and analytical skills in an interactive way of exploring science in the hopes that science is seen as an “engaging process of mystery and discovery” rather than the sadly common perception that is a boring process full of memorization. Vanished gives the students a hands-on experience by requiring them to go out into their neighborhoods to research and record what they experience instead of  just memorizing vocabulary and looking up the answers on the internet. Although the trial run of Vanished is over, researchers hope to use the game as a model to create interactive educational tools for teaching science.

A leader in the use of education video games in the classroom is the Redwood-City-based GlassLab (Games, Learning, and Assessment Lab). The goal of the video games is to engage the students in an interactive manner and stimulate their interest in the fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). For their first project, GlassLab took the commercially-successful SimsCity video game and modified it to be educational. The science-based video game titled SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! challenges middle-school students to run a successful town by considering the environmental impacts their actions have while maintaining employment levels and citizen happiness. For example, in the game a city will run out of electricity and the students must then solve the issue and return power to the city. The video game engages the students’ critical thinking and allows them to gain valuable insight into real world problems and potential solutions. The game follows lesson plans and assesses the students’ progress by tracking their progression through the various scenarios. Check out the video below to learn more about SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!.



For more information about GlassLab visit http://glasslabgames.org/.
Learn more about educational gaming at “The Making of an App—The First Official Rube Goldberg Invention Game” with David Fox, of Electric Eggplant, Marin County –Wednesday, September 25th, 2013, 7:30 – 8:30 pm, Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, Room 207.

Links:
Claire Watry

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