Updated: Feb 1, 97
Group 5. Rehabilitation, Integrated Instrumentation and Biosignals

Furthermore, biosignals and images resulting from diagnostic examinations produce the largest physical amount of data available about the patient. Digital signal processing is a fundamental technology for analysing and interpreting physiological and other medical data and presenting information to professionals. The following projects have been grouped into this line:

BRITER	Biosignals integration & telecommunication services in rehabilitation
CAMARC-II	Computer Aided Movement Analysis in a Rehabilitation Context
ESPIS	EEG Signal Processing and Interpretation during Sleep
ESTEEM	European Standardised Telematic Tool to Evaluate EMG Knowledge-Based
IMPACT	Integrated Microscopy for Pathology Activities and Computer Technology
IREP	Integrated Rehabilitation Programme
MAGNOBRAIN	Biomagnetic Methodologies for Non-invasive Investigation of the Brain
OEDIPE	Open European Data Inter-change and Processing for Electrocardiography

Their results have been:

The projects have built pilots incorporating distributed data bases, communication networks, workstations incorporating several media, make use of knowledge based techniques and incorporate decision support principles, interface instruments and build a user interface. Data protection and security issues were addressed as well.

On the functional side the CAMARC project dealt with analysis of posture and movements for the purpose of diagnostics and treatment monitoring. IREP was concerned with the implementation of rehabilitation protocols and ESTEEM with the comparison and evaluation of EMG systems and methods. For these purposes they all built a data base with reference material. The projects openly exchanged experience and knowledge related to data base organisation, network construction, user interface and knowledge based support.

The development of integrated instrumentation was addressed by IMPACT. Its fields of application were Clinical Pathology and Anaesthesia & Intensive Therapy, respectively. IMPACT has integrated IT&T technology into the daily routine of microscope investigation in the laboratory. Two projects, ESPIS and OEDIPE, dealt with biosignals analysis and transmission. ESPIS aimed at the development of a workstation for the analysis and interpretation of EEG signals. OEDIPE had the objective to implement techniques for the analysis, storage and interchange of the ECG signal. MAGNOBRAIN had the objective to develop a methodology for the non-invasive investigation of the brain, integrating the analysis of medical signals and images with a mathematical model of the brain and the reference to a normative database for interpretation.

Prototypes fully tested after a pilot phase were the outcome of the projects in this line. The strong presence of the industry in the consortia, both as partners and as sponsoring partners, is expected to shorten considerably the time-to-market of the developed systems.

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