PSU Magazine Spring 2003

atch any of the dozens of medical shows that have appeared on television over the past 40 years, and you'll see that in every one of them the action seems to revolve around a piece of high-tech equipment-usually the monitor that measures a patient's heart rate. When the monitor's jagged line spasms rhythmically, we know the patient is fine . The drama happens when it goes flat. Then, the alarms go off, the doctors and nurses rush in, fam– ily members are shoved aside, and the plot takes a sudden and dramatic tum. Monitoring equipment has been used by physicians for decades to watch how a patient is doing right By John Kirkland now, at this specific point in time. But an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science is working toward having this equipment look into the future. "It's kind of a Holy Grail," says James McNames, a Stanford graduate who joined the PSU faculty four years ago and is working closely with physi– cians at Oregon Health & Science Uni– versity (OHSU). "If we can predict a deterioration based on what is about to occur, the doctor can act proactively " Clinical monitors measure much more than a patient's heartbeat. Machines also measure respiration, the level of oxygenation in the blood, arte– rial blood pressure, and pressure inside 12 PSU MAGAZINE SPR[NG 2003 the cranium. Clinicians at OHSU have stored hundreds of hours of data from these types of monitors and are sharing the data with McNames as part of a joint mission to decipher more than what doctors are used to seeing. In the future , their work could result in bet– ter monitoring equipment, new prod– ucts that could enable patients to take care of themselves at home , and a more effective hospital environment. "Right now, a lot of the patient monitors have alarms, and they annoy the heck out of the nurses because they go off when there's not a problem. There's a lot of beeping going on," says McNames. He visualizes a day when an alarm would go off before a patient Patients could bring the device in to a clinic where the doctor could analyze the data and prescribe treatment. One project McNames is working on involves Parkinson's Disease. The disease is a baffling and complex neu– rological disorder that involves the loss of brain cells that produce a chemi– cal-dopamine-that helps direct muscle activity The dominant symp– tom is involuntary tremors. Eventually; sufferers can lose the ability to walk, talk, and perform simple tasks. One option for patients who are suffering through the later stages of the disease and are not responsive to drug therapy is to have an electrode placed in a region of the brain related to their Medical data reveals new insights. is about to experience a problem. "For example, if someone is going to have an acute increase in intracranial pres– sure, an alarm would sound. The nurse could come in and adjust the bed, or administer a dose or medication, or adjust the patient's breathing. There are all kinds of possibilities," he says. etter equipment-and better ways to analyze the data– could include monitors that take the patient out of the hospital set– ting. Sleep apnea patients, rather than spending a night in a sleep clinic, could use an inexpensive device in the comfort of their home to monitor their breathing patterns during sleep. tremors. Placed correctly, the electrode can immediately stop the tremors. "The trick is finding the correct region of the brain," says McNames. He and his colleagues developed a technique of plotting the electronic signals given by the electrode at differ– ent depths in the brain during surgery to pinpoint where it will do the most good without creating complications to the patient. "It's like real estate: location, loca– tion, location," says McNames. Development of this technique could have profit potential, so McNames submitted an invention disclosure to PSU, giving the Univer– sity an opportunity to patent it.