For the November meeting of the Toronto APL SIG, we are varying  the format a bit. The meeting  will be on SATURDAY, Nov. 21, from 1-5 p.m. at the U. of T (please note the date change!). SIG members are encouraged to attend what promises  to be an interesting special-focus symposium.

Five speakers will talk on "Challenges in Medical and Biotechnology
Software". Although this meeting is at a university, all speakers
will be talking about actual, successful commercial software. And
although only 2 of the 5 systems are coded in APL, 4 out of 5 speakers
are APL experts - so should be able to give a unique perspective.
Just by chance, the 5th speaker is the co-creator of a language called
"RAPL", so one could say this is a 100% APL meeting!

Of special interest to SIG members may be the fact that several of the speakers' firms are actively looking for software people - experts and new graduates. They will be setting up tables and chatting with interested attendees after the meeting. Bring your business cards...
 

This meeting is also special in that it's co-sponsored by CITO, the Communication and Information Technology Organization. CITO is funded by Ontario industry and government to act as a catalyst and link between high-tech companies and universities. They have a high-powered list of corporate members, so there may be a chance to meet some interesting new colleagues from other Ontario software houses.

See you there on SATURDAY afternoon, 1-5, Nov 21 1998. If you're
interested in helping with meeting setup/takedown, publicity,
and/or dining with some of the speakers afterwards, please send
e-mail to Clement Kent at <clementk@acm.org>.
 

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Saturday, November 21 1998, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
room 1105, Sanford Fleming building,
Taddle Creek Road, University of Toronto

The Toronto APL SIG of the ACM and CITO present a symposium:

"Challenges in Medical and Biotechnology Software"

Builders of software for medical & biotech applications face
special challenges, ranging from technical to commercial to regulatory.
The Special Interest Group for APL of the Association for Computing
Machinery, and the Communications & Information Technology Organization
present a symposium featuring speakers actively involved in the creation
of leading edge medical software. Applications to be discussed include:

• - medical device manufacturing
• - medical imaging
• - robotics and laboratory automation
• - User Interface design
• - doctor credentialing

 

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Title:

"From Chips to Drugs: Challenges unique to building Medical Software"

Abstract: Adapting existing software for medical uses can be costly and time-consuming. Many of the challenges are due to the unique  quality, traceability, and regulatory requirements of medical users, which impose special costs on the software builder.

These issues are illustrated with experiences from adapting and enhancing a large software package, used for control of computer chip factories, to the needs of manufacturers of heart pacemakers.

Mr. Kent can be reached at: <clementk@acm.org>

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Related Links:

The Imaging Research Labs of the Robarts Research Institute on pacemakers:
http://www.heartlab.rri.on.ca/vendors/medtronic.html

Medtronics (medical device manufacturer):
http://www.medtronic.com/brady/brady.html

Medtronics Micro-Rel (manufacturer of medical device chips and circuits):
http://www.careermosaic.com/cm/micro-rel/mrl.html

Promis Systems Corp, Toronto (manufacturer of software for chip manufacture):
http://www.promis.com/lit1.html
 

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Title:

"Components: the new paradigm for Imaging Software"

Abstract: ISG produces software used in imaging applications, primarily medical imaging such as MRI and CAT scans. As part of their new product directions, ISG is embracing component technology on NT servers using COM and Active-X controls, and moving away from unitary Unix applications.

This talk will focus on the architecture being developed, and how developers can create components to plug into the framework, in the context of the MMR (Multi-Mode Renderer) major component.

Mr. Fraser can be reached at: <mfraser@isgtec.com>

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Related Links:

ISG Technologies:
http://www.isgtec.com/prodserv.html

Silhouette:
http://www.isgtec.com/silhouette.html

Note: tomographic imaging is a subject of intense academic and practical research and innovation. The links below will give you  just a taste of the many existing and new uses to which this technology is being put:

ECG-Gated Cardiac Computed Tomography (Imaging Research Labs of the John P. Robarts Research Institute):
http://www.irus.rri.on.ca/~icunning/cct/cct.html

Positron Emission Tomography Group at UBC:
http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~pet/

The Philips Tomoscan CT product line (some CAT scanners):
http://www.pmsna.com/products/ct.html

Recent advances in medical tomography - Infrared Optical Tomography:

http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/S.Arridge/ToastOverview.html

If you are interested in finding out about non-medical applications of computer-based tomographic imaging try some of the sites below:

Tomography for Mining - CanMet Experimental Mine, Natural Resources Canada:
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/mms/canmet-mtb/valdor/cm_030.htm

Electrical Impedance Tomography Project (University of Waterloo, for Oil Field Recovery Processes):
http://data.ctn.nrc.ca/on/content/type3/org72/div99/listings/r2225.htm

Seismic Tomography of the Mantle:
http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~wu/SeismTomog.html

Center for Geophysical Investigation of the Shallow Subsurface:
http://kihei.idbsu.edu/~billc/TomoDocs/tomography.html

The Ocean Acoustics Lab of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:
http://www.oal.whoi.edu/tomo2.html

Articles and References on Ionospheric Tomography:
http://karlsberg.usask.ca/~andreas/ionotomo/index.html

Neutron Tomography:
http://hahn.e21.physik.tu-muenchen.de/tumphy/e/E21/Projects/Tomography/houches05.html

National Nondestructive Testing Centre's industrial computed tomography system:
http://www.aeat.co.uk/ndt/tomohawk/tomohawk.html

_______________________________________________________________
Title:

"POLARA(tm) - software for automating high throughput screening and Genomics applications"

Abstract:

CRS Robotics builds software and systems used in laboratories around the world in genomics projects (e.g. the Human Genome Project) and in high-throughput laboratory screening of potential drugs for pharmaceutical companies. They have created a language called RAPL - Rapid Automation Programming Language - which is in turn used to build robotics applications. Mr. Delorme will speak about one such application.

Denis Delorme holds HB.Sc and MSc. degrees in Computer Science (1992 and 1994 respectively) from the University of Western Ontario. After a brief stint in interactive entertainment he joined CRS Robotics full time at the end of 1994 as a senior programmer bringing with him 3 years of CRS-sponsored summer and internship experience. Since that time he has worked on several analytical laboratory systems for CRS specializing in software architecture design and implementation, and instrument driver development. He is now  a laboratory automation project manager responsible for both the management of customer systems and the development of  new products.

Mr. Delorme can be reached at: <ddelorme@crsrobotics.com>

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Related Links:

CRS Robotics, Laboratory Automation Division:
http://www.crsrobotics.com/LAB_AUTO/labauto_app.htm

Paper:Advances in the Automation of High Throughput Drug Screening
http://www.crsrobotics.com/LAB_AUTO/labauto_tech_1.htm

Whitehead Institute of MIT - Genome Sequencing Project Automation and Development Home Page
http://www-seq.wi.mit.edu/automation/

Human Genome Project - an introduction
http://www.gene.com/ae/AB/IE/Intro_The_Human_Genome.html

Biotech Revolutions - Smaller, faster, better: the three revolutions in drug making.
http://www.gene.com/ae/AB/BA/genomics/

The Institute for Genomic Research:
http://www.tigr.org/
 
 

_________________________________________________________________
 

Title:

"User Interfaces for Medical Software - Different Strokes"

Abstract:

Software used in medical areas often must work on several levels, with several types of users. For example, the same application may be used in a production environment and in the research laboratory.

It's very important that the User Interface be able to deal appropriately with users' needs in each environment. The UI for the production environment must be simple, streamlined, economical of keystrokes, mouse clicks, and options. But the research user needs flexibility, many options, and the ability to ask "what if?" questions.

An example of how to design and implement such a multi-form UI will be given based on a PC application used with laboratory equipment for ELISA analyses.

Mr. Mysz can be reached at <LarryMysz@aol.com>

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Related Links:

Note: ELISA assays are an enormous and ever-growing field. These are just a few links for the uninitiated.

Using the ELISA Assay for Disease Detection
http://biotech.biology.arizona.edu/labs/ELISA_assay_students.html

Mr Campbell's Kidney - Leicester Labs Online Experiment: The ELISA Assay.
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/lab/elisa/elisa1.html

ELISA Assay Development:
http://www.resgen.com/new/
_________________________________________________________________

Title:

"Provider Credentialing - managing masses of information"

Abstract:

Do you remember the man in London, Ontario this year who was
representing himself as a heart surgeon but was found to have faked his
credentials from medical school onwards, for years?

The task of Provider Credentialing involves the study of all aspects of a physician's life history -- education, training, qualifications, certifications, employment, experience, liability insurance, litigation, suspension, delinquency, meeting attendance -- as well as more subjective information such as the opinions of peers.

This information must be gathered and verified when a provider first applies for privileges at a care institution and then re-checked on a regular basis to ensure that the provider is still in good standing. All research involves "Primary Source Verification" which means that it cannot be obtained from a previous employer's records, but must be retrieved from the schools, hospitals etc. where the training or accreditation occurred.

This amounts to a vast amount of information for each provider, much of it in a "many-to-one" relationship with the provider. For example, to find which providers attended grad school in Boston, MA involves searching the "Address" table for addresses in Boston, the "School" table for pointers to those addresses, the "Provider.Education" table for grad school records pointing to those schools and finally following those records to their parent "Provider" records.

There are also many types of data involved which have to be represented differently in the GUI. Special transforms are necessary to associate these complex GUI objects with their database counterparts.

This paper describes the layered approach with which we attacked these problems. We built a database layer called STS (SQL Table Suite) that manages the interrelationships of the tables in the SQL database. We built a second layer called SRS (STS Record Sets) which manages the interaction between the GUI and the STS layer. Finally, we "educated" the GUI layer so that the SRS layer can directly associate GUI fields with database record fields.

Having built this layered approach, it is trivial to add new GUI forms and new tables and fields to the database without having to write ANY additional supporting code. As credentialing requires more and more historical and ongoing data collection, the benefits of the underlying structure increase. In addition, new database-intensive applications can be built on the same foundation.

Mr. Lee can be reached at chris.lee@softmed.com

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SoftMed Systems:
http://www.softmed.com/