The AVERT-IT HypoNet System: A Distributed Infrastructure for the Automated Collection of the BrainIT Core Dataset

Abstract

Background: The Brain Monitoring with Information Technology (BrainIT) group is a web-based infrastructure supporting the open collaboration and data sharing between clinicians and scientists having a research interest in the management and monitoring of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The automatic collection and updating of periodic physiological and treatment patient data has been identified as a major requirement in the evolution of the tools required to compile and maintain the BrainIT resource. To this end, the HypoNet application has been developed as part of the follow-on FP7-EU project Avert-IT, which integrates with several leading patient monitoring systems - including Draeger Infinity Gateway, Datex-Ohmeda, ADI LabChart - and automatically uploads them to a central, secure and anonymised database, representing the BrainIT standard schema. Material and Methods: The HypoNet application has been developed using version 6 of Java. It consist of three components: "ClinicalIAPI", which registers the patient into the study upon admission and completion of consent forms. "Clinical Client" , which integrates with the local hospital monitoring system and uploads the data to a local Avert-IT standardised database (implemented using SQL Sever) at specific intervals; and "AvertITIDFetch" which pusches the anonymised data to an aggregated central repository at the National e-Science Centre in Glasgow University using Java Web Services (part of the v6 stack). The application architecture is showen in Figure 1. For optimal performance and security, each centre has a standardised harware/software setup of a Sun Fire X4140 sever, running Windows Server 2008, secured using advanced firewall and anti-virus technology. [...].