Barrow Ruptured Aneurysm Trial

The Challenge

The Barrow Neurological Institute is one of the most prestigious Neuroscience Institutes dedicated to raising the bar of knowledge in the treatment of brain and spine disorders. In 2003, Dr. Robert Spetzler, arguably the most notable neurosurgeon in the world, commenced a research initiative to determine the efficacy of various treatment methods for the care of patients with ruptured brain aneurysms. The challenge was to create a paperless research data entry and data retrieval infrastructure that could be scaled to multi-institution, multi-national levels. This solution had to tightly respect the federal restrictions on patient privacy and information security (HIPAA regulations). The research scientists challenged us to avoid local storage of data on any handheld device, even if such a device were used for paperless data entry.

Our Solution

Our team designed a solution that met and exceeded the challenge placed before it. To avoid local data storage on handheld devices, we proposed a wireless model that was always online so that data were immediately ushered to secure servers upon acquisition. While this met the requirement to avoid local data storage, it introduced concerns of wireless network availability. As a result, the architecture was expanded to operate on both 802.11 WIFI and cellular networks, the latter providing near universal coverage at major neuroscience centers where this study may occur. Finally, to be compatible with both handheld devices and cellular phones, our user interface adjusted itself on-the-fly so as to accommodate the screen size of the device under use. This avoided the need to endlessly scroll as one moved from the desktop to a handheld device or to a Windows Smartphone. In the end, our solution effortlessly self-adjusted to each device to optimize user experience. Our product was deployed into production late in 2004 and is used actively today at Barrow Neurological Institute. In 2005, the project scope was broadened by our client, and we are currently designing the next generation of this product.