Overview
The global aging crisis poses a set of complex needs including multimedia data management for clinical research. The University of Southern California-Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center partnership administers a Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for successful aging into and with disability entitled Optimizing Participation Through Technology (OPTT-RERC). Through its multiple projects, the RERC produces a significant amount of imaging, biomechanics and physiological data (such as MRI, kinetics and survey items), which reside on various devices, such as PACS and clinical forms.(Figure 1) Integrating these data can be challenging. Additionally, study participants may be enrolled in multiple projects but their datasets are anonymized with different protocols. Therefore, there is a need to reconcile these identical participants.
Figure 1 Technology used in the rehabilitation research
Method
An imaging informatics-based system is developed to support OPTT-RERC and five ongoing projects including multimedia data integration for knowledge discovery. The nexus of new technologies, rehabilitation research and the inherent challenges of multidisciplinary collaborations provide a relevant platform for discussion.
The system utilizes principles from imaging informatics including the utilization of the IHE patient information reconciliation profile in a new multidisciplinary frontier research area.
Conclusion
The multimedia ePR system has been implemented with data query and display function. Multimedia data from different sources, such as waveforms, biomechanical data and imaging data are integrated for online viewing and download. Future work includes evaluation of the system and the development of the computational models for individualized treatment plan.