CBCU Research

Brian Rous

cbcuadmin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:37:25 +0000

Brian Rous is a practising Consultant Histopathologist with a strong interest in analysis of cancer information, medical coding technologies and electronic collection of pathology data. He has been Associate Medical Director at the Eastern Cancer Registry and Intelligence Centre since 2008. He has previously worked at Cambridge University Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies where he developed novel medical web applications. He has a background in molecular biology and has completed a PhD in at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge.

Selected publications

Rous B. A., Rashbass J. (2008) Service Implementation – Do Once and Share. Cancer Dataset XML Schema Action Team Final Report . Report for Department of Health Do Once and Share Projects

Rous B. A., Kus B., Rashbass J, (2006) Pathnet– A Novel Use Of Internet Technology For Post-Graduate Histopathology Education. Journal of Pathology. 208 S1, 11A.

Rous. B., Hughes, M. Rashbass J. (2005) Pathnet: a groundbreaking new addition to pathology training in a rapidly evolving specialty RCPath Bulletin 131:40–41.

Rous, B. (2005) IT: is this the next big histopathology revolution? ACP News, Autumn.
Tranberg, H., Rous, B.A. and Rashbass, J. (2003) Legal and ethical issues in the use of anonymous images in Pathology Teaching and Research. Histopathology 42, 104–110

Rous, B. A. & Rashbass J. (2002) What Can Internet Technology Add to Pathology Education? Histopathology 41 S2, 216 – 221.

Tel: +44 [0]1223 xxxxxx
Email: Brian.Rous@cbcu.nhs.uk

Web-accessible British National Formulary [WebBNF]

cbcuadmin — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 11:36:44 +0000

Browser-accessible British National Formulary with local formulary editor for creating and managing customised views of the BNF data.

Now in its 6th revision, the Web BNF is currently in use in over 50 hospitals and is publicly available at http://www.bnf.org. It allows creation and maintenance of multiple customised views [local formularies] per site, browser-based searching and display of BNF text and interactions information. Fully cached search results are featured for fast searching in high-volume use situations and integration and linking of MeReC Bulletins with electronic Medicines Compendium information

Further info

Team members: Richard Francis-Jones [Programmer], Eric Connor [BNF liaison at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society], Jem Rashbass
Technologies: Internet Information Server ISAPI DLL written in Delphi. Paradox database and Borland Database Engine for data storage. Currently migrating to Java and XML for use in future versions.
Funding: Commercial development contract with the Pharmaceutical Press.
Start: Current development [November 1998], first iteration [July 1997]

Montserrat Emergency Medical Support Link

cbcuadmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:17:13 +0000

Project to develop an Internet-based medical support link between the Accident & Emergency Department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital NHS Trust [Cambridge, UK] and the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

Further info

Team leaders: Jem Rashbass
External collaborators: Dr Peter Baxter, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge; Staff at the Montserrat Volcanic Observatory, Montserrat, Eastern Caribbean
Funding: Cable & Wireless Ltd
Started: Development and implementation: November 1997 – January 1998; Implementation time: January 1998 – June 1998

Website Checkers

cbcuadmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:10:34 +0000

The website checkers are a pair of programs that periodically check the status of documents on the web. The development included:

Developing a program that automatically connects to every URL [Uniform Resource Locator] in a database of teaching resources available on the Internet, and records in a database the response code from the server and the speed of the response
writing ASP [Active Server Page] scripts that query the database and produce a report showing those links that have given unacceptable responses
integrating statistics on site reliability into local websites
developing a second program that frequently checks the status of our own websites and sends an email notification to staff if ever a site fails to respond [for example if there has been a power cut].

The database tables have been created and a standalone program has been written that can check any URL at any time and checks all URLs once every night. The report pages are giving useful information, enabling us to improve the reliability of the resource database. The program to check our own sites is now running, and has successfully notified us of a failure during a ‘brown-out’ caused by a thunderstorm one weekend.

Further info

Team leader: Graham Phillips
Team members: Karen Wells, Kim Whittlestone
Technologies: ASP [Active Server Pages], Microsoft Access Database, Delphi
Funding: Core funding from CBCU
Start: April 1998

Smartcard-based Intranet Access

cbcuadmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:07:35 +0000

Secure password access to the Addenbrooke’s Clinical Intranet, using smartcard technology, for clinical students and teaching staff.

Further info

Team leader: Tim Rowsell [Former Clinical Database Manager]
Team members: Trevor Crisp [Remote Network Support Manager], Sally-Ann Hanitzsch [Secretary to IT Support], Geof Smith [Clinical Intranet Manager]
Funding: Core support from the NHS SIFT [Service Increment For Teaching] allocation to the CBCU
Started: July 1997. The initial phase of this project has been completed; subsequent development will be part of the JTAP Smartcard-accessible Database project.

Automatic Website Monitor

cbcuadmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:05:51 +0000

This software [which was a by-product of the Guidelines Co-ordinator project] automatically monitors a website and alerts the website administrator, via email, when it detects that pages have been altered. Such software can be used to monitor unexpected and/or unwanted changes, and thereby improve website security. It can also be used to improve efficiency, especially in a multi-developer environment, by helping developers to keep track of which files have been deleted, added or changed.

Different monitoring options, including monitoring time, frequency and analysis mode [e.g. content only, HTML tags only, or both content and tags], can be set according to specific requirements. The software detects changes to website files by computing and comparing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ checksum values of each file. A history of all changes and most-recent changes is listed in separate report files, which can be viewed in a web browser invoked from the software. Website monitoring settings specified by the administrator and checksum values are stored as binary files ['serialised' form], which can be loaded back in the memory as Java objects.

Further info

Team leader: Yun-Jung Kim [Software Developer]
Technologies: Java, MVC [model-view-controller] interface architecture
Funding: CARET
Start: August – October 2000

Pharmacy Intranet

cbcuadmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:02:39 +0000

Provides access to pharmacy documents, finance reports and formulary information online. Also tracks prescriptions through in-patient pharmacy and helps manage staff leave.

Further info

Team leader: Nick Jones [Software Developer]
Technologies: Office Web Components, Dreamweaver Ultradev, ASP [Active Service Pages], SQL Server
Funding: Addenbrooke’s Pharmacy
Start: September 2001

Virtual Anatomy

cbcuadmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:59:05 +0000

The Virtual Anatomy project is exploring how the medium of real-time 3D could be used to create novel resources for anatomy education.

3D medical visualisation software is almost always based on a model of inspection whereby an object can be remotely rotated and magnified as if at arm’s length. Instead, we are looking at the possibility of using immersive environments and interactivity of the type found in computer games as a way of actively engaging students with the complex spatial features and relationships involved in anatomical knowledge.

We have developed some first prototypes using a simple model of the digestive system and the Zanzarah game engine, kindly donated by Funatics Development. These allow users to follow the digestive system from oesophagus to colon by controlling an animated Lara-Croft-like character

Currently, we are investigating the following research questions:

How can surface data sets that are suitable for real-time environments be extracted from Visible Human and radiological volume data?
What type of production process that combines data processing, anatomical identification and visual representation is needed to create pedagogically useful 3D models?
What types of interaction, navigation and games-like engagement might be educationally valuable?
How does spatial knowledge gained in such virtual environments translate into the real world?
How do such virtual environments compare with picture atlases, post-mortem videos and other educational resources?

Further info

Team leaders: Gavin Baily, Jonathan Mackenzie
Team members: Jem Rashbass, Brian Rous, Anna Skilbeck
Collaborators: David Lomas Radiology Department, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Ian Parkin [Anatomy Department]
Technologies: VTK [the Visualization Toolkit], Virtools and Zanzarah software
Funding: CARET
Start: September 2001
Paper accepted for presentation on 16–18 July, 2003, at IV03, the 7th International Conference on Information Visualisation

Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine

cbcuadmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:51:33 +0000

Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine [www.expertreviews.org] is an online-only journal featuring an ever-increasing collection of high-quality review articles written specifically for the journal and covering the latest developments in molecular medicine. The journal’s electronic format facilitates the dissemination of information, designed for teaching, research and reference purposes, to a wide, international audience.

Molecular medicine is a fast-growing area of research that encompasses many scientific and clinical disciplines covered by the journal: gene therapy, drug design, vaccines, pathogenesis, epidemiology, genomics, genetic testing, diagnostics and techniques. The journal should be of interest to biomedical researchers, clinicians, students and researchers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Reviews are published on the website continually, and in two different formats. A web-based/HTML version allows fast searching and viewing, and hypertext linking through to fully abstracted references and associated features [including figures, photographs, tables, animations, molecular models, discussion groups and list of useful resources]. All articles are also provided in a reprint [Adobe Acrobat PDF] version, for higher quality printing. The journal website also hosts pages of relevant links to other websites and a glossary.

Since January 1999, the journal has been published by CUP [Cambridge University Press] in association with the Clinical and Biomedical Computing Unit.

Further info

Editorial team: Louise Walsh [commissioning editor], Carolyn Elliss [editor], Debbie Collison [web editor], Rosemary Boddington
Technologies: HTML [Hypertext Markup Language], Microsoft Access, ASP [Active Server Pages], Adobe Acrobat PDF [Portable Document Format], Flash Shockwave animations
Funding: Cambridge University Press
Start: September 1997

Electronic Health Record

cbcuadmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:38:50 +0000

The national implementation of Electronic Health Care Records is a hot topic within the UK government and the UK National Health Service. The population’s understanding of what an electronic health care record represents and how they will interact with it is mainly determined by its exposure in the media. Ultimately the acceptance of the longitudinal eHCR by the population will be dependent on its ability to reflect the wishes of the population. On an operational level it must also be simple enough to be deployed to the NHS user community. CBCU in conjunction with the OPERA group at Cambridge University Computer Labs identified that electronic health care records on a national scale will require a new thinking in the field of scalability, authorisation, security policy and expression of an individual’s preferences.

Initial research has shown that existing authorisation techniques do not scale to the levels required by a national system. Existing systems do not allow the organisations responsible for the health care episodes to define the local access policies.

This project is addressing these issues by applying distributed policy definition and authorisation theories. These theories have been developed by the Cambridge University Computer Labs over the past 15 years. To date the project has implemented a demonstrator authorisation framework that illustrates the operation of the system in a distributed environment.

The architecture of the authorisation framework enables individual health care episodes to be aggregated into a complete health care record for the subject patient. This record is then accessible by any suitably authenticated user, and the content of the visible record is controlled by user/data level authorisation policies that may be defined by the organisations responsible for each constituent health care episode.

CBCU is continuing to work with primary service providers to develop this framework into a longitudinal eHCR system.

Further info

Team leader: Ian Boston [Software Developer]
Team members for CBCU: Tim Mills, John Norman [Director of CBCL], Jem Rashbass; for OPERA: Ken Moody, Jean Bacon, David Eyers, Walt Yao
Technologies: x509 Certificates, J2EE [Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition], Web Services, Message Oriented Middleware, SOAP [Simple Object Access Protocol], XML [Extensible Markup Language], XSLT [Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations], HTML [Hypertext Markup Language]
Funding: Research Grant
Start: March 2002