UCLA pioneers neurosurgical computer technology
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 6, 1997 9:00 p.m.
Friday, March 7, 1997
TECHNOLOGY:
Researchers use new equipment to document, remotely monitor
brain activityBy Kathryn Combs
Daily Bruin Contributor
As the year 2000 quickly approaches and medical technology
advances at a quickening pace, UCLA stands at the forefront by
implementing its own advances.
In January, UCLA researchers, in collaboration with Nicolet
Biomedical Inc., installed a variety of computer monitors and
Internet equipment in the neurosurgical intensive care unit at
UCLA.
The new system includes prototype neuromonitors supplied by
Nicolet Biomedical, an American vendor of neurodiagnostic
equipment. The equipment allows doctors and nurses to examine the
physiological activity of the patient and the actual activity of
the patient’s brain.
"(Up until now) there has been a lack of direct monitoring of
the brain itself," said Dr. Marc Nuwer, a professor of neurology at
UCLA.
"The public has always thought that we were able to monitor the
brain. We’re now able to do what the public thinks we should have
been doing all along," he added.
According to UCLA doctors, approximately 20 percent of
brain-injured patients have seizures that would be left undetected
without this kind of equipment. Before this technology was
available, information regarding the patient’s overall health
status had to be manually charted.
"The new equipment has got the new software with the ability to
store large quantities of information and to be able to look at it
efficiently and in a paperless fashion," said Delores Quinonez, a
registered electroencephalography (EEG) technician with the
neurosurgical intensive care unit at UCLA.
She commented further that this technology uses trending
software, which analyzes patient data in eight- and 24-hour slots
and shows trends in patient brain activity.
"Basically it’s digital technology and the differences are that
we have the capability to monitor 32 channels of brain-wave
activity,"said Quinonez.
Researchers at UCLA have been in the process of developing this
integrated system for 11 years and say that the process was not
free of problems.
"It’s just now that we’ve been putting in commercially available
software. Before we were working with much slower and older
equipment and we’re still developing the guidelines and software
needed to implement what we’ve been learning," Nuwer said.
Dr. Valeriy Nenov, professor of neurology at UCLA, was one of
the researchers who worked closely with Nicolet Biomedical to
develop the specific software desired by clinicians and doctors at
the UCLA neurosurgical intensive care unit.
"This is an intensive care unit where patients have to be
monitored and nobody can be there all the time," Nenov said.
"The fact is that often in the ICU, there are often 6 to 7 beds
running," he added.
The new system also allows physicians and nurses to have
Internet remote access to current and updated patient data via the
World Wide Web.
"The necessity is to allow physicians to use the technology and
to allow nurses and doctors to have real time remote access to the
patient data, continuously acquired by the newly installed
monitors," said Nenov.
According to Nenov, this has been a dream for many
neurosurgeons, who work in an environment where constant patient
monitoring is required.
"The interest for remote access of this data is growing as
people learn about it more and more,"he said.
The use of the World Wide Web to monitor current patient status
has raised issues of patient confidentiality. However, Dr. Nenov
said that neurologists "ensure (the) security of (the) data
transfer," so confidentiality has not yet been a problem.
"This is a whole new ball game (and) is something that needs to
be discussed on various levels," he said.
So while technicians are still working out the final bugs in the
system, researchers say they are pleased with what the system has
to offer for the future of neurosurgical intensive care units.
Newer called this another example of UCLA’s foresight in the
development of advanced medical technology. "This is a direction
that all neurological ICUs will take in the future," he noted.
