Bulletin

Issue: July/August 2007

News

‘Knowledge systems’ mean better health and business

New technologies for improved breast cancer screening and wireless tagging of hospital patients are being developed under a recently established Australian-Sino Association of Technological Enterprises (ASATE).

The association is headquartered at the Technology Enterprise Centre on La Trobe University’s Research and Development (R&D) Park. It comprises the La Trobe-based Business Systems and Knowledge Modelling research laboratory, headed by Associate Professor, Dr Rajiv Khosla; the Institute of Systems Management (ISM) affiliated with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University; and Jiang Yin City Technology Park in China.

The Business Systems and Knowledge Modelling Laboratory is a joint undertaking by La Trobe University’s School of Business and two companies on the R&D Park – Source Dynamix Asia Pacific Pty Ltd and Business Intelligence Technologies Pty Ltd – who are developing the patient tagging and breast screening technologies in association with La Trobe researchers.

The two companies provide stipends and scholarships, encouraging students to take up postgraduate research with cutting-edge, real-world applications, says Dr Khosla.

ASATE, he says, is also supported by the China Technology Department, the municipal governments of JiangYin and Wuxi, the Victorian Government and the Australian Industry Group which has a membership of 10,000 Australian companies. ASATE’s aim is to promote cooperation in R&D, technology transfer, education and training activities between Australia and China.

At the recent signing of a research and development memorandum of understanding between La Trobe and Jiang Yin government, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research, Professor Erich Weigold, said he looked forward to fruitful cooperation between the University, its R&D Park and China. Mr Zhu Ming- Yang, Secretary and the most senior official of Jiang Yin City and Wuxi, said he had been impressed by what he had seen of Australia and its econonomic development.

‘It is especially meaningful to be here at La Trobe University and have this level of cooperation with your University which we hope is just the beginning of greater things in the future, ’ he said.

Dr Khosla says Wuxi (a prefecture-level city sometimes referred to as ‘little Shangahi’) and JiangYin, in China’s southern Jiangsu Province, are two cities experiencing rapid economic growth. They are eager to sponsor and promote international R&D exchange through seeding finance and industry-matched funds in areas including health care, public health policy, business intelligence and intelligent transport systems.

‘Both the President and Vice-President of the Hong- Kong based Institute of Systems Management (ISM) are graduates of La Trobe University,’ says Dr Khosla. ‘ISM, like our laboratory, focuses on innovative technology development with applications to health care, medicine, business intelligence and e-commerce, and is an active research collaborator of ours. ISM is incorporated as a research institute in Jiang Yin City Technology Park and is facilitating the R&D cooperation between ASATE and Jiang Yin and Wuxi governments in China.’

Help to bring down health costs

The radio frequency identification (RFID) patient tagging and health care management system (see main story) is based on research by a La Trobe University School of Business PhD student.

Source Dynamix has provided a $20,000 scholarship to the student, Belal Chowdhury, who spends two days a week with the company working on the system. The system is part of a suite of health care products, including improved breast cancer screening technology, being designed for a 200-bed hospital in India.

Dr Khosla says the use of mobile technology – such as radio frequency identification, tracking and processing of health-related information – can help bring down spiraling health care costs, an issue that is of concern to governments world-wide.

‘Identity tagging of patients can also provide realtime, accurate information about vital signs and other physiological health and fitness indicators. Unlike existing hospital barcode systems, RFID smart tags do not need line-of-sight technology.

‘Besides helping prevent and reduce medical errors, the system can cut patient waiting times, lead to cost savings and increase productivity through improved supply chain efficiency and inventory management,’ says Dr Khosla.

The breast cancer screening technology project relates to film-less, or digital x-ray processing.

Founder and chairman of Source Dynamix Asia Pacific, Raghu Iyer, says: ‘Direct acquisition of mammographic images can increase the efficiency and quality of images as well as their ease of storage, retrieval and transmission.

‘The possibility of image enhancement, image reconstruction and computer aided image analysis may well help identify even smaller changes in breast tissue or enable the use of lower x-ray radiation doses.’

The full name of the La Trobe-based laboratory is the ‘Business Intelligence Institute - Business Systems and Knowledge Modelling laboratory’ (BII-BSKM).

The laboratory at present has five PhD students and others working for a Master’s degree by applied research.

It has industry partners in the information technology, health care and business intelligence sectors.

Research projects range from data mining, customer relationship management and human-centred enterprise resource planning systems to biometrics and image processing. The laboratory has also developed commercial IT products and sponsors international conferences and visitors.