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| Medical Information Network Decision Support (MINDS™) System
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TechFinity has begun a new initiative in the area of
medical decision support and was recently awarded Phase I funding to develop a MINDS prototype that
will implement decision support for risk assessment and diagnostics of breast cancer.
The goal of the MINDS project is to combine the advancements in the Health IT industry with
TechFinity's information fusion and resource management framework, which has been applied to battle
management, command and control applications in the missile defense community and refined for use as a
general framework for information-based systems, will provide the foundation for the next generation of
medical decision support systems.
The driving force behind the need for the MINDS system is the fact that while the medical industry
continues to advance in knowledge and in capabilities for diagnostics and treatment, there is no common
framework that can facilitate widespread, standardized, turn-key utilization of these advances.
Important infrustructure elements such as health networks and electronic health records are the
predominant focus of Health Information Technology (HIT), but improved decision support methods are
needed to further the transition to individualized patient care and management of costs based on
patient needs and availability of resources.
The MINDS framework will be designed to provide a standardized way for doctors, researchers, and
manufacturers of medical equipment to join their efforts. |
| Missile Defense to MINDS Transition
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The rationale for linking medical decision support models and architectures to missile defense is
based on a number of similarities that can be drawn between the general aspects of both systems.
A brief description of several analogies between both types of systems will help to highlight the
viability of such a transition.
Modern missile defense systems are complex systems made up of a variety of systems including:
- Sensing platforms that collect information;
- Engagement platforms that take action;
- Databases that store system information and platform libraries (models that describe
the parameters and characteristics of the sensing and engagement platforms);
- Data fusion engines for data analysis and assessment;
- Resource managers that plan and optimize the utilization of sensing and engagement
platforms in connection with a mission goal; and
- Sophisticated communication and information networks that share data and information,
and provide information assurance (data security and integrity).
These elements of a missile defense system can be naturally mapped to corresponding elements
of a medical decision support system.
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| Missile Defense System Elements |
Medical System Elements |
| Sensing Platforms (Information Collectors) |
Clinical Studies, Medical Instrumentation, Screening and
Diagnostic Tests, Research and Experimentation |
| Engagement Platforms (Action Elements) |
Medicines, Treatments and Interventions, Diseases |
| Databases, Platform Libraries |
Databases, Patient Records,Disease Characterizations and Symptoms |
| Data Fusion Engines |
Screening and Diagnostic Processes or Algorithms, Risk Assessment and Prognosis Processes or
Algorithms |
| Resource Managers |
Treatment and Intervention Processes |
| Communication / Information Networks |
Electronic Health Records, Regional Health Information
Networks, HIPPA other regulations |
The MINDS system architecture encapsulates
applications that run in the system. Three general applications, which can be adapted to different
problem areas, are the Decision Support Research Tool (DSR), the Decision Support Assistant (DSA),
and the Decision Support Trainer (DST). The basic function of each application is
described as follows:
- The DSR is a research application that is used to perform analysis of patient group data and
generate models or functions that can be used by the DSA component. The DSR will generally be used
by researchers and system developers.
- The DSA is a tool for clinical and patient use to analyze an individual patient's data and
provide decision support to help doctors and patients in making decisions for screening,
diagnostics, and treatment. The ultimate end user of the DSA is a clinician and/or patient.
- The DST is a variation of the DSA that provides additional details in a tutorial-type
environment of how the DSA and DSR components perform their functions. The intended end users of
the DST are doctors who are being trained to utilize the tool.
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| MINDS Prototype for Breast Cancer
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| The MINDS protoype for Phase I will be focused on
demonstrating the basic function of the MINDS system through a tool that provides improved
decision support for breast cancer risk assessment and scheduling of future screening customized to
a patient's projected risk for developing breast cancer. |
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