Virtual Bio-Instrumentation: Biomedical, Clinical, and Healthcare Applications in LabVIEW

Product Author Bios

Jon B. Olansen began his career as a NASA flight controller, supporting 32 Space Shuttle missions. He obtained his Ph.D. as a National Instruments Fellow at Rice University, where he specialized in biomedical experimentation in electrophysiology and cardiovascular hemodynamics. He has since returned to NASA, representing the Astronaut Office in the design, development, and operation of human life sciences experiments destined for the International Space Station.

Eric Rosow has over 16 years of experience in biomedical engineering and life science applications of virtual instrumentation. He is Director of Biomedical Engineering at Hartford Hospital, where he introduced virtual instrumentation into the hospital environment. He is also a co-founder of Premise Development Corporation, a software company for the biomedical and healthcare industries, and has co-developed numerous virtual instrument solutions for leading healthcare institutions throughout the world.

Table of Contents

Preface.

I. PRELIMINARIES.

II. RESEARCH APPLICATIONS.

III. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS.

IV. MEDICAL DEVICE DEVELOPMENT APPLICATIONS.

V. HEALTHCARE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS.

VI. ADVANCED TOPICS.

Preface

Preface

Over the last decade, the graphical programming revolution has empowered engineers to develop customized systems the same way the spreadsheet has empowered business managers to analyze financial data. This software technology has resulted in another type of revolution—the virtual instrumentation revolution, which is rapidly changing the instrumentation industry by driving down costs without sacrificing quality.

Virtual instrumentation can be defined as

A layer of software and/or hardware added to a general-purpose computer in such a fashion that users can interact with the computer as though it were their own custom-designed traditional electronic instrument.

The major benefits of virtual instrumentation include increased performance and reduced costs. Because the user controls the technology through software, the flexibility of virtual instrumentation is unmatched by traditional instrumentation. The modular, hierarchical programming environment of virtual instrumentation is inherently reusable and reconfigurable.

Virtual instrumentation applications have encompassed nearly every industry, including the telecommunications, automotive, semiconductor, and biomedical industries. In the fields of healthcare and biomedical engineering, virtual instrumentation has empowered developers and end-users to conceive of, develop, and implement a wide variety of research-based biomedical applications and executive information tools. These applications fall into several categories, including clinical research, equipment testing and quality assurance, data management, and performance improvement.

This book opens the boundless potential of virtual instrumentation (VI) into the wide variety of disciplines that exist within the biomedical domain. The power of virtual bio-instrumentation (VBI) is demonstrated not only through the interfacing of VI with traditional medical instruments and devices but also by effectively leveraging other technologies, including the Internet, machine vision, ActiveX components, and integrated database applications. We use specific examples within this book to highlight VBI applications in the laboratory and clinical environment, connectivity to patient information systems, computerized maintenance and management systems (CMMS), and business intelligence and decision support applications. Each VBI application consists of detailed descriptions and, in many cases, interactive demonstrations of how virtual instrument solutions have been conceived and developed to meet specific end-user requirements within the biomedical and healthcare arena. Collectively, these applications support better, faster, and data-driven decisions, thereby enhancing clinical outcomes and reducing costs to the participating healthcare institutions.

As practicing biomedical engineers and virtual instrumentation "evangelists," we wrote this book to inform and, hopefully, inspire you about the ever-expanding capabilities of virtual instrumentation systems within the biomedical and healthcare fields. Many traditional books on bio-instrumentation concentrate on theoretical principles--this book focuses entirely on real-world applications. We refer to these applications as virtual bio-instrumentation, or VBI. Throughout each section and chapter, you'll discover many practical biomedical applications that have been created with LabVIEW. Each example will provide detailed explanations of its design, implementation processes, and utility. We particularly emphasize methods for measurement, analysis, presentation, and distribution of biomedical and health system information. Throughout this book, we have striven to identify common challenges associated with the measurement, analysis, and presentation of information; and we provide you with practical solutions and proven problem-solving techniques from experienced scientists, engineers, clinicians, and healthcare administrators.

Regardless of your application or your experience with LabVIEW, it is our sincere wish that, through this book and the virtual instrument (VI) examples contained on the accompanying CD-ROMs, you will gain insight and appreciation for the many ways in which virtual instrumentation can be applied to the biomedical and healthcare industry.