|
|
@neuristIntegrated Biomedical Informatics for the Management of Cerebral Aneurysms Aims The primary objective of the project is to assist clinical decision-making in the Management of Cerebral Aneurysms by providing an objective measure of risk, based on all available data, and thus reduce patient anxiety and unnecessary treatment by identifying those individuals who do not have high risk of rupture. Currently treatment of cerebral aneurysms is offered to almost all patients because, despite the misgivings of the clinical practitioners, there is insufficient evidence to support a non-intervention decision. As well as improved patient management and anxiety reduction, the potential economic benefit in Europe is enormous: taking into account the prevalence of the disease [1-5%], the annual rupture rate [0.2-1%], and the average treatment and 1st-year follow-up costs of patients [50kEuro], it is estimated that, in Europe only, unnecessary (and thus inappropriate!) interventional or surgical procedures cost in the order of thousands million Euros per annum (Johnston et al 2000, Roos et al 2002). Within this context, @neurIST aims to develop, integrate and exploit the knowledge and expertise of a wide group of renowned European and international experts to produce as core deliverable a set of integrated software information retrieval, processing and management suites. It is our vision that the demonstration of the benefits of this integration in the context of the management of cerebral aneurysm will not only prove effective in the short term for this disease, but will also provide a platform for, and stimulate extension to, other disease processes. Support @neurIST is a major international study, funded by the IST division of the Sixth Framework Programme of the EU. Contact Links |