José Millet Roig

UPV – Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

BET – Bioengineering Electronic and Telemedicine Group

Camino de Vera S/N

46023 Valencia. Spain

http://bet.upv.es

http://www.upv.es

jmillet@eln.upv.es

The Polytechnic University of Valencia is a 25 years old institution. The academic community comprises 30.280 members; 28194 are students in the two principal degree courses, 680 are post graduate students, 1.325 are teaching staff and 734 form the administrative and services body, 14.161 are students in short duration stage and 14.033 are in long duration stage. This university offers degrees and postgraduate degrees in Telecommunications Engineering, Civil Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Architecture and Computing Engineering

The Bioengineering, Electronic and Telemedicine Group (BET)  is R&D group within the university, being devoted to the field of medical bioingeneering and telemedicine. BET has a large experience on several research and development projects in the e-health field with fundings from European Commision ( IST, TEN-TELECOM initiatives)  Spanish and regional government (FEDER, PISTACABLE, Science and Technology Ministry, IMPIVA, IVESP, SVS) and also private companies.

Main activities carried out dealing with the e-health field are:

• Analysis, design and implementation of a telemedicine service for the whole University community using university network that allows videoconference, previous appointment via web, database integration, data sharing and remote biomedical data measurement

• Creation of a Multimedia Home Telemedicine Platform (MHTP), that allows customised telemedicine services for different specialities allowing videoconference through ISDN, CATV/HFC networks or IP, using TV as user interface and integrating different biomedical measurement devices

• Analysis, design and implementation of different biomedical measurement devices: ECG's, stethoscopes, foetal ECG's,... that can transmit measured data through different technologies (GSM, ISDN, CATV/HFC, IP)

• Collaboration contracts with different health insurance companies (ADESLAS, PREVIASA) and hospitals ( La Ribera, Clínico Universitario, 9 de Octubre, LA Fe, General de Castellón) in order to analyse, design and implement new home care telemedicine applications for their patients

• Work as consultant for Communications Secretariat - Ministry of Public Works, Telecommunications and Transport of Spain in the elaboration of the Spanish strategic plan for new technologies and advanced services and the report of technological analysis and services over cable networks in the field of telemedicine

• Data processing and Biomedical signal analysis

• Implantable defibrillators

• Dynamic electrocardiography systems

• Pattern recognition techniques applied in medicine, to help the diagnosis of strange diseases

• Image processing, genomic data mining

• Interconnection via broad bandwidth networks, industrial communications, voice, audio and video codification for the transmission by broad bandwidth networks, mobiles location, resources dynamic assignment and multiple access protocols (UMTS, GPRS, GSM).

• Theoretical modelling/simulation as well as experimental work to validate the novel techniques and demonstrators for different Fibre-to-Radio applications such point-to-multipoint video and data services (LMDS/MVDS), micro/picocellular mobile communications

• (MBS), mm-wave satellite and radar antenna remoting, hybrid fibre-radio/hybrid fibre coax (HFR/HFC) applications, etc.

• Hospital Information systems based on XML/XSL technology.

Most recent important European projects where BET has contributed with its experience are:

*BABEL TE 2002: Integrating Cultural Differences in Telematics Engineering.

*ATTRACT HC4002: Applications in Telemedicine Taking Rapid Advantage of Cable Television Network Evolution)

TEN-CARE (TEN-TELECOM- Telecommunications-based Home-Care Services For European Citizens)

AGORA 2000 “Innovative IST Platform and Services to support a democratic Regional/Urban Planning Process”, IST-1999-20982

HEALTH-MATE: “Personal Intelligent health mobile systems for Telecare and Teleconsultation” IST-2000-26154

CONFIDENT: “Confident Information Environment for the Independent Living of People with Severe Disabilities” IST-2000-27600

*HEALTHY-MARKET, “A Virtual Marketplace for the Implementation of Healthy Nutritional Plans”, IST-2001-33204

*ACTIVE HEALTH, “Active Environment for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention”, IST-2001-37857

*IDEAS in e-Health, “Integrated Distributed Environment for Application Service in e-Health”, IST 2001- 34614

* EU projects coordinated by BET

BET has also an office for multidisciplinary projects management attended by qualified people with expertise in the co-ordination of European and national projects.

BET researchers have  published in this field more than 20 technical papers in national and international journals, having participated in more than 100 seminars and congresses. Results of applications and services have been presented in international and national fairs ( ie. Telemedicine and Telecare International Trade Fair 2002 – Luxemburgo, Solucion.es TIC 2002-Valencia, FITEC – Barcelona,…)

The Bioengineering, Electronics and Telemedicina Group (BET) of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia can mainly provide its expertise in the A1 and T4 JPAs of the PATIMON NoE.

JPA A1: Communication patient – physician

BET has a wide experience in applications which are oriented to the remote interaction between practitioner and patients and between health care professionals using communication networks. A number of products can me mentioned: Tele-home care platform over high bandwidth networks, Teleasisitance System for distributed campus wide environments, Personal Telemonitoring System device for biomedical signal capture, processing and transmission over wireless networks, ASP platform for teleconsultancy and telemonitoring over internet/intranet, and other peripherals and tools. Technology and generic services are videoconference over IP (H.323) and ISDN (H.320); Cable Modem, DSL and ISDN communication networks, GPRS and Bluetooth wireless communication, EJ2EE and MS .NET web-internet technology, Open Software in the health care domain. The BET division are currently being involved in knowledge management and data mining technology domains applied in the health care sector.

The users groups targeted by the BET are those involved in the care of chronic and acute ill people, disabled and elderly, including professionals, social carers, therapist, patients, relatives and professionals and informal assistants. BET is working actively on several research and development projects in the e-health field funded by the EU Research Programme ( BABEL, ATTRACT, TEN CARE, D-LAB, CONFIDENT, HEALTHMATE, HEALTHY MARKET, ACTIVE HEALTH & IDEAS in e-HEALTH).

JPA T4: signal processing, classification, recognition

BET can provide to PATIMON expertise on advanced biomedical signal processing, mainly based on the electrocardiogram. From the analysis of the electrocardiogram it can be automatically detected a large number of cardiovascular diseases, which is useful for monitoring patient at high risk outside hospitals. Our developed algorithms are really diverse, depending on the application itself, from the study and analysis of ventricular tachycardias, ventricular fibrillation to atrial arrhythmias as atrial flutter or atrial fibrillation. The techniques employed consist of multidimensional statistical signal processing, considering spatio-temporal models, independent component analysis, neural networks, which can provide or enhance some characteristics of raw data. Frequency and time-frequency analysis provide also very useful information.

From the outputs given by signal processing blocks, some parameters (which depende on the final application) are measured. The correct definition of relevant parameters is crucial for the success in solving the problem. With the values of the parameters, a final classification block will decide among the state of the patient, whether presents normal sinus rhythm, or has suffered a cardiac disease, or even the system can predict the risk of a cardiovascular disease so that the system and/or the doctors should remain alert. In order to improve sensibility/specificity ratios, classification algorithms based on the latest statistical advances as support vector machines, neural networks, etc. are employed.

It should be pointed out that the algorithms can work either on a 12-lead standard ECG or on a signal recorded in a Holter device.

BET Group has also experience in the development of clinical decision support systems, using an inductive approximation to learn the characteristics of the problem and adapt the system to resolve it.

Using biomedical signal processing in addition to pattern recognition systems an intelligent patient monitoring can be install in a particular situation and environment

We propose a two-level monitoring system:

-         The environment level: which is useful to integrated the home sensor system to control the correct situation in the home of the patient. This system is developed as a simple virtual machine with a easy programming language that allow the installer to adapt the system to the situation at the patient home.

-         The biomedical signal pattern recognition: which is useful to control the correct situation of the patient, monitoring its vital signals to prevent any crisis episode. This level is adapted by the use of machine learning procedures like statistic methods, neural networks, hidden Markov models, etc. and is based in the prevention of rich situations by the identification of the pattern that causes it.

BET Group is currently developing CDSS to characterize soft tissue tumours beging/malignant and histologists characterization by the use of a magnetic resonance imaging protocol. The group is working in health and nutrional prevention system and other diseases characterization.

Dr. Jose Millet Roig

José Millet was born in 1968. Bachelar in Applied Physics, Electronics and Computers by Universidad de Valencia (1991) and Ph.D. by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Spain.

Assistant Lecturer (91-94) in the EUIT Industrial, UPV. Lecturer (94-present) in Radio communication and  Biomedical Signal Processing in the Telecommunication Engineering School, UPV.

His research focuses on signal acquisition and processing, real-time biomedical acquisition, transmission & reception systems, biometric and artificial neural network (applied to cardiovascular systems), defibrillation systems, XML standards.

He has participated in EU funded projects as technology provider in BABEL and ATTRACT. He has collaborated of several projects from the Spanish Research Council (CICYT 97-1260-602-02), Valencian Development Programme (IMPIVA,UPV, IVESP, etc.), Institutions (Ayuntamiento de Valencia) Factories and enterprises (GH-EDLIN, MERCE Electromedicina, TEMEL Ingeniería Biomédica).

He has published more than 30 technical papers in national and international journals and has participated in several seminars and conferences.

Professor Antonio Mocholi Salcedo

Antonio Mocholí was born in 1959. He is Electrical Industrial Engineer and has the Ph. D. in Industrial Engineer by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Spain.

Assistant Lecturer (84-86), Analogue and Digital Devices, ETSI Industrial, UPV. Lecturer (86-00) in Optical Communication Systems & Medical Instrumentation in the Telecommunication Engineering School, UPV. University Professor since 2000 until present.

Head of the Electronic Engineering Department since 1993. Editor in chief of the proceedings of CASEIB. He is member of several Spanish and international societies related to Electronics, Optical communications systems and Bioengineering.

Dr. Montserrat Robles Viejo

Montserrat Robles was born in 1951. She received the Master’s degree in Physical Science from the University of Valencia, Spain (1983) and the Ph.D in Physical Sciences from the Polytechnic University of Valencia in 1994.  In 1982 she started working as an Assistant Professor and since 1998 as an Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of  Valencia (UPV). As a leader of the Medical Informatics Group (MIG) at this same university, she has headed several research projects supported by the Spanish Research Funding Agency CICYT and other EU institutions. Her research interests include: Medical Imaging (Processing, perfusion, diffusion and functional), Hospital Information Systems (integration of departmental systems and standard CTN251 ENV 13606 for architecture of health records) and pattern recognition. She has published more than forty papers on these topics in international conference proceedings.

Dr. José Joaquín Rieta: Belongs to the official lecturer staff of the Electronic Engineering department in the Polytechnic University of Valencia, developing his teaching responsibilities since 1994 at the Polytechnic High School of Gandía. He received the Tech. degree in Image and Sound from the Polytechnic University of Madrid in 1991, the M. Eng. degree in Telecommunication from the Polytechnic University of Valencia in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Signal Processing in 2003. As lecturer he has imparted several subjects related to Electronic and Biomedical Instrumentation, Analog Systems, Data conversion Systems and Control Engineering, and has been the author of several docent publications in that area. He belongs to the Bioengineering, Electronic and Telemedicine (BeT) research group where is the responsible of the biomedical signal processing division. His research interests include statistical signal and array processing applied to biomedical signals, specially focused in cardiac signals, blind signal separation techniques, and the develop of clinical applications to study and characterize the atrial activity inside the challenging problem of atrial fibrillation.

Vicente Traver (Ph.D. Student. More than 4 years of research experience):

Born in 1974. Bachelor in Telecommunications Engineering by Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (1998) and actually doing his Ph.D. studies and being Project Supervisor (10 times). Assistant Lecturer: Power Electronics (1999) and Telemedicine systems and services (2000-), UPV.

He has participated in different EU funded projects within the IV and V Framework Programme: BABEL (TE2002), ATTRACT (HC4002), TEN -CARE (TEN-TELECOM), D-LAB (IST 1999 - 12502) , AGORA (IST 1999 – 20982) , CONFIDENT (IST 2000 -27600) and HEALTH MATE  (IST 2000 -26154) and Spanish funded projects as PISTACABLE, dealing most of them with health care and social services making use of Information Communication Technologies.

He has published more than 20 technical papers in national and international journals and has participated in several seminars and conferences (CASEIB'98, IEEE-EMBS 98, ESEM'99, INFORSALUD 99, International Symposium on Telemedicine 2000, MEDICON 2001, AMIA2001, Telemed 2002...). His research is focused on the provision of home health care services through telematic media. Thus, he has been concretely involved in the deployment of the University Telemedicine System, design of Multimedia Home Telemedicine Platform, specification and development of home care software and hardware applications for different target groups and assessment tasks on the use of telecommunication networks (CATV/HFC networks, ATM - specially on service classes ABR, UBR and GFR, xDSL, GPRS, UMTS) for telemedicine service provision

Francisco Castells (Ph.D. Student):

Born in 1976. Master Telecommunications Engineering, by Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (2000).

He has worked as System Engineer in Alcatel SEL AG, Stuttgart (July 2000-December 2001).

From March 2002 he has been involved in research activities within the research group BET (Bioengineering, Electronics and Telemedicine). He has also published several papers in national and international conferences (IEEE Computers in Cardiology, ICASSP, Iberamia, Spanish Society of Cardiology,...).

Currently he is Assistant Lecturer At the Electronics Engineering Department in Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, where he is also carrying out his PhD studies.

Salvador Vera (Ph.D. Student):

Born in 1976. Master in Design, Model and Production, whose thesis was focused on an Universal ASP Telemedicine Platform, by Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (2001). Electronic Engineer by Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (1999) and Automatic Engineer by Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI (2000). He is currently carrying out his PhD studies in Health Management.

He has participated in several EU projects based on telemathic applications for health; ATTRACT (HC4002), TEN -CARE (TEN-TELECOM), CONFIDENT (IST 2000 -27600), HEALTH MATE  (IST 2000 -26154), IDEAS in e-HEALTH (IST 2001 – 32502)  and Internet platforms for services to citizen; AGORA (IST 1999 – 20982) and HEALTHY-MARKET (IST-2001-33204).

He has also participated in Spanish funded projects for tele-care as PISTACABLE.

He has published several technical papers in national and  international journals and has participated in several seminars and   conferences (International Symposium on Telemedicine 2000,CASEIB 2001) and his work is focused to project management, and he has being Project Manager Assistant in HEALTHY-MARKET and IDEAS in e-HEALTH.