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The Message Behind the Signals: Researchers work at uncovering hidden data that can save lives.

Patient monitors, those machines in nearly every hospital room that display a continuous rhythm of jagged lines, give physicians a snapshot of a patient's condition in the present. But an assistant professor at PSU's College of Engineering and Computer Science is working toward having this equipment look into the future.

"It's kind of a Holy Grail," said James McNames, a Stanford graduate who joined the PSU faculty four years ago and is working closely with physicians at Oregon Health and Science University. "If we can predict a deterioration based on what is about to occur, the doctor can act proactively."

Prof. James McNames uses spectrograms, such as the one pictured, to study the relationship of respiration and heart rate.

Patient monitors measure a patient's heart beat, respiration, the level of oxygenation in the blood, arterial blood pressure and pressure inside the cranium. Clinicians at OHSU have stored hundreds of hours of data from this type of monitor, and are sharing them 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 better monitoring equipment, new products that could enable patients to take care of themselves at home, and a more effective hospital environment.

One project he is working on involves Parkinson's Disease, a baffling and complex neurological disorder that produces involuntary tremors. It occurs most often among the elderly. Eventually, sufferers can lose the ability to walk, talk and perform simple tasks.

An option for patients suffering through the later stages of the disease is to have an electrode implanted in the brain which, if placed correctly, can immediately stop the tremors. "The trick is finding the correct region of the brain," McNames said.

He and his colleagues developed a technique using electronic signals to pinpoint exactly where to place an electrode where it will do the most good without creating complications to the patient.

Aside from the Parkinson's research, most of McNames' work is done with children.

His chief colleague at OHSU, Dr. Brahm Goldstein, is a pediatrician and head of the Complex Systems Laboratory (CSL) near the pediatric intensive care unit. Working with Goldstein, McNames has brought in graduate and undergraduate PSU engineering students. The collaboration has included several senior capstone projects. "Their level of energy and interest and enthusiasm is just fantastic," Goldstein said. So good, in fact, that he's hired several students.

Goldstein and McNames are particularly interested in brain trauma and severe infections in children. Monitoring equipment can measure changes in the pressure inside the cranium of both children and adults who have had head injuries. If pressure rises too much, blood flow to the brain can be cut off, resulting in permanent brain damage or death. By analyzing the monitor signals, McNames and Goldstein want to find a way to predict a patient's deterioration so doctors can take preventative steps ahead of an emergency.

Although McNames' work is inextricably linked to OHSU, much of it happens on the PSU campus. He founded PSU's Biomedical Signal Processing Laboratory not only to head up his own research, but to provide students with a solid foundation in statistical data analysis and signal processing.

As important as their research may become in how doctors treat patients, precious few people in academia are involved in it. Said Goldstein, "We are one of the leading groups in the world. There are people at the University of North Carolina, University of Texas and a hospital in Toronto, but we are light years ahead of them in what we've done."

Contact: College of Engineering and Computer Science, 503-725-4631