A Technology-Based New Product and Company
ONE DOCTOR'S DREAM OF A
MEDICAL VERSION of the HAL computer from the movie 2001: A Space
Odyssey has culminated in a successful commercial product, the
MDX© Clinical Decision Support Technology. NASA's need was to have
a system to help astronauts diagnose their own illnesses during
long space voyages.
In 1987, Ralph Grams, M.D., a medical systems specialist at the
University of Florida's College of Medicine, started working with
Kennedy Space Center's Biomedical Office to develop a computer-based
medical information and diagnostic support system known as the Clinical
Practice Library of Medicine (CPLM). Now, 12 years later, Dr. Grams
has formed a new company, Martek Research, Inc., of Gainesville,
Florida, to market MDX© and Smart Charts©, Martek's two initial
and copyrighted products.
Potential market sources range from health maintenance organizations
(HMOs) and large clinical groups to the primary care physician in
solo practice. "We also see a role for our product with existing
electronic medical record (EMR) vendors who want the best decision
support system (DSS) and chart creation tools in the industry,"
Grams said.
The MDX innovation, contained in one PC-based CD–ROM, is described
as a computer-based physician decision support tool that provides
a comprehensive differential diagnosis based on patient signs, symptoms
and findings, using the traditional medical diagnostic strategy
of pattern recognition. This is the customary method by which a
physician compares the known with the unknown to see the degree
of fit and conformation. The CD–ROM contains a database of
textbooks and journals containing the industry standard patterns,
and this allows the MDX program to quickly search all known clinical
factoids for fit and conformation.
The use of intelligent medical records, or Smart Charts, could
potentially effect any patient who visits a physician or goes to
a hospital for treatment, Grams said. The MDX portion of the project
provides diagnostic support for tough clinical problems and would
be used in situations in which doubt or clinical questions are encountered
in the care plan. Both of these technologies can improve physician
productivity, enhance outcomes and reduce costs by providing reliable
primary care clinical decision support tools. The economic benefits
are evident when a doctor has legible, letter-perfect charts that
teach as well as document the patient care process in the exam room.
The competitive advantage of the MDX and Smart Charts innovations
rests with the databases, which are totally unique and very difficult
to duplicate. The size and scope of these medical files allow Martek
Research to provide superior clinical data during the patient care
examination and to direct and control the entire process. This is
a total change in style from the blank page and brain-dead systems
used in the past. The computer now knows more medicine than any
human could memorize in one's lifetime. The system has no limits
as to the size of this knowledge base and can grow and change with
the company's professional medical updates. The system supports
the simple, routine cases and is totally capable of handling the
most complex problems.
The MDX CD–ROM contains the largest structured medical database
in the world, according to Grams, and is capable of constant updates.
Reference texts and journals are the foundation for all these databases
so that the files are fully supported for any legal challenge. The
data do not represent any small groups' personal opinions, but display
the consensus finding of large clinical peer review panels that
publish their disease profiles in major referenced documents.
Martek has a publishing joint venture partner with Facts & Comparisons,
a St. Louis company that is a leading provider of authoritative
drug information to professionals and students in the health professions.
It is part of the Wolters Kluwer International Publishing Division,
which also includes Lippincott Williams and Wilkins of Philadelphia,
Adis Press of New Zealand and Ovid Technologies of New York, together
forming one of the leading international information providers to
health care professionals.
For more information, contact Lewis Parrish at Kennedy Space Center.
Call: 407/867-6373, E-mail: ParriLM@kscgws00.ksc.nasa.gov
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WEATHER
SATELLITES TRACK,
CONTROL DISEASE
Using
weather satellites to spot the early signs of rising sea
temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the phenomenon
called El Niño, scientists may be able to help save
East Africans and their livestock from Rift Valley Fever.
This mosquito-borne disease can cause death in livestock
populations and flu-like symptoms that can be fatal to humans.
In
the July 16 issue of the journal Science, researchers
from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland,
and the Department of Defense's Global Disease Infections
System, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington,
D.C., reported studying nearly five decades of satellite
data. They determined that rising sea-surface temperatures
in the western equatorial Indian Ocean, combined with an
El Niño in the Pacific, can lead to abnormally heavy
rains in East Africa. This favorable habitat for the mosquitoes
carrying the Rift Valley Fever virus can be predicted up
to six months in advance so pesticides can stem the mosquito
season before it starts.
Researchers
found that an El Niño episode alone does not ensure
an outbreak. According to the report, the decisive factor
is the warming of the Indian Ocean along with the Pacific,
which occurred in two of five El Niños over the last
17 years.
Satellites
help determine areas receiving the most rain and being greener
than normal. Aedes mosquitoes lay their eggs in moist soil
when floodwaters recede. The area refloods, and the young
insects hatch and feed on local livestock. The Culex, a
second mosquito prevalent during excessive rains, contracts
the virus from infected livestock and spreads it to humans.
For
more information, contact Lynn Chandler at Goddard Space
Flight Center.
Call: 301/286-5662.
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Innovation.
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