URI forms Partnership in Physiological Measurements and Computing

A HEALTHY PARTNERSHIP-- Partnership members examine the workings of a cardiac ultrasound machine. From left are: Thomas Manfredi, URI professor of exercise science; Pete Scucces, an undergraduate biomedical engineering student; Leon Collis, a doctoral student in zoology; Biau Gong, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering; Ying Sun, electrical and computer engineering professor; and Robert Hill, biological science professor.

URI forms Partnership in Physiological Measurements and Computing

The lowliest thermometer and the most advanced magnetic resonance imaging device have one thing in common: they both take physiological measurements.

They are essential for studying physiological processes, human health concerns like aging, and the diagnosis of illness. Federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation expect the need for such devices to grow as engineering and computers play a greater role in physiological research and medicine.

Anticipating this need, the University of Rhode Island has formed an interdisciplinary Partnership in Physiological Measurements and Computing. The effort brings together 50 engineers, computer scientists, biologists, physicians, practitioners, and entrepreneurs--half of them URI faculty from eight different departments, and the other half external collaborators from local industry and hospitals, federal agencies and foreign institutes. The partnership applies advanced computing technologies and instrumentation to problems involving human or animal physiology.

The Partnership in Physiological Measurements and Computing is one of three announced by URI President Robert L. Carothers and Provost M. Beverly Swan following a competitive review process.

Provost Swan said that, "The President's Partnership Program has proven to be an important initiative for the University in its efforts to drive resources toward creating and sustaining areas of excellence. This partnership joins with those both previously and newly funded in promising to contribute to the quality of life for the citizens of the State of Rhode Island."

Forming the physiological measurement partnership was a natural, according to URI officials, because over several years, University scientists have been marrying computer technology to the study of physiology. This has led to novel approaches both to fundamental research in biology and to clinical diagnostics.

The five principal areas of research and education for the partnership are:

• Bioengineering and biomedical instrumentation;

• Research to aid people with disabilities with adaptive equipment, software programs, and more;

• Computational and experimental neuroscience research using computer-based instrumentation and imaging devices;

• Biomedical signal and image processing efforts involving application of digital signal processing techniques to biomedical problems; and

• Computer modeling of physiological systems to help the team gain new insights into the cardiovascular system, respiration, hearing and sight, among other things.

"We have 14 existing laboratories related to the partnership," said Ying Sun, URI professor of electrical and computer engineering, who joined with Thomas Manfredi, professor of exercise science and Robert B. Hill, professor of biological sciences, to lead the partnership.

The partnership is exploring new research tracks, as well as drawing on established expertise of individual URI scientists, such as 15 years of work by Sun on computer simulations of heart diseases and years of analysis of cardiac control by Hill. Their findings have been published in the American Journal of Physiology and Journal of Experimental Biology.

A computer, equipped to run Sun's equations, can measure coronary artery blockage with a high degree of accuracy and consistency. Heartlab in Westerly, one of the industrial members of the partnership, is also working to develop such tools.

The partnership also teaches URI students how to develop diagnostic tools and machines to help those with illness and disabilities. For example, undergraduate students in URI's biomedical engineering program have built the Personal Heart Function Monitor, PHENOM 2001, which can monitor a patient simply by clipping the device to the patient's finger. Students have also built devices to help those confined to wheelchairs at Eleanor Slater Hospital in Cranston, part of the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals.

"These kinds of agreements enable our hospital to provide quality clinical services to our patients, participate in meaningful research initiatives, and give students an opportunity to work in a health care setting to explore career opportunities," said Jim Benedict, chief operating officer of Eleanor Slater Hospital.

The partnership's website is http://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/sun/pmc.html.

By Dave Lavallee