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The support of the Informatics Research Initiative of Enterprise
Ireland is gratefully acknowledged.
Principal Investigator
Prof.
Gerard Lyons
Dr. Des
Chambers
Senior Researchers
Dr.
Michael Madden
Dr.
Micheal McGettrick
Hugh Melvin
Dr. Finlay
Smith
Postgrad Researchers
Edward
Curry
Ann Tighe
Páraic
Quinn
Albert
MacSweeny
Research Context
 Cardiovascular disease is the
most common cause of death in the western world. Evidence
from the US shows that cardiovascular disease accounts for
the greatest volume and unit cost
diagnostic, intervention and maintenance procedures in the
American hospital system. The
recently published Irish Government Health Strategy identifies
cardiovascular disease as “the
single most important cause of mortality in this country.”
Within the next decade a further
300,000 coronary care patients will seek medical investigation,
treatment and monitoring in
Ireland alone. Most such patients need acute intensive care,
optional cardiovascular surgery /
post-OP care and individual rehabilitation or medication control.
The prospect of managing
these patients with greater in-hospital and post-operative
mobility, creates an opportunity to
reduce health care costs, free-up in-patient facilities and
provide for better long-term care in
the community for at-risk patients. The PRIMA project specifically
addresses the needs of
these patients through the development of intelligent mobile
monitoring devices, with
centralised monitoring and response management. However, the
technology being developed
is equally applicable to the gathering and analysis of biometric
data related to other medical
conditions, where mobility in patient management is desirable
and possible.
The aim of this project is to
research, design, test and evaluate a prototype intelligent
agent
based system for portable/remote monitoring and management
of at-risk patients. The project
is a collaboration between a leading technical team from NUI
Galway and medical experts
from the Mater Hospital Dublin. While primarily focused on
people with cardiovascular
diseases, the technology being developed here could be applied
to different patient categories
both inside and outside a hospital environment for remote
biometric monitoring and
diagnostics using wireless ad hoc network connections.
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