Project developing medical uses for next-generation Internet

The UW is one of two dozen sites in the nation where advanced work on medical uses of the “next-generation Internet” will be done.

School of Medicine researchers have received a High-Technology Medical Award from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to develop innovative medical applications that demonstrate ways to use capabilities of the next-generation Internet.

The awards, 24 around the country, are part of a multi-agency Federal research and development program on the next-generaltion Internet. Goals are to develop advanced networking technologies and revolutionary applications that make use of them, and then to demonstrate these capabilities on test systems (testbeds) that are 100 to 1,000 times faster than the Internet we use today.

The NLM projects are being funded with the goals of improving our understanding of how the next-generation Internet can affect health care, health education and health research systems in areas such as cost, quality, usability, efficacy and security.

The awards made this fall represent the first phase of a three-phase funding plan. The NLM expects to provide further funding for implementation and demonstration of successful projects.The initial funding for the UW contract is $86,000 for work through June 1999.

“Some of the applications under consideration by the project team have been identified through existing regional telemedicine testbed projects: MINDscape, Digital Anatomist, Emergent Telemedicine and Streaming Video,” said Dr. Brent K. Stewart, associate professor of radiology and principal investigator for the award.

He also noted that the project team is seeking additional applications from clinical and research faculty. These applications should address at least two of these next-generation Internet capabilities: quality of service, medical data privacy and security, nomadic computing, network management, and intrastructure technology as a means of collaboration. Suggested application statements can be sent to Stewart by e-mail at bstewart@u.washington.edu.

Dr. Sherrilynne S. Fuller, acting director of informatics in the School of Medicine and co-principal investigator for the award, noted “the strategic importance of this award to the University and peer recognition of the School’s excellence in research and development of high-performance computing and communications applications. The future of health sciences education and clinical care throughout the WWAMI region depends upon rapid adoption of next-generation information technologies to solve critical information access and management problems. This contract provides a vital planning framework and a basis for future research.” The WWAMI region includes Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.

Other investigators participating in the contract, with their departments, are Dr. James Brinkley of Biological Structure, Dr. David Chou of Laboratory Medicine, Dr. Steve Corbato of Computing and Communications, James Hoath of Medical Centers Information Systems, Dr. Ira Kalet of Radiation Oncology and Debra Ketchell of the Health Sciences Library and Information Center.

More information on the project is available through the team’s Website at http://fibonacci.rad.washington.edu/research/ngi/ngi_base.htm