Interactive Craniofacial Normative Database (Phase II)

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over the last two decades, craniofacial anthropometry has found increasing application in clinical genetics and oral maxillofacial and reconstructive plastic surgery. Quantitative measurements have rendered the diagnosis of dysmorphic features both objective and reliable, a boon to geneticists and surgeons alike. In addition, surgical planning has benefited from these metrics which are useful in the assessment of postoperative success. Both of these developments have been facilitated by the publication of Farkas' Anthropometry of the Head and Face, which first appeared in 1981 and which has been expanded and updated over the last 20 years. This craniofacial surface measurement system has become a popular standard reference, providing the most extensive normative database extant for North America. Nevertheless, because there is no commercially available computerized database at the present, it is currently necessary for the user to rely on cumbersome hard-copy look-up tables with little access to combined functions of variables. Our objective within this STTR is to make the use of these norms more user-friendly by creating a computer-based interactive craniofacial measurement database for them. Our Phase 1 project successfully created a CD-ROM version of this software, entitled FaceValue, and this was highly rated by users. In Phase 2 we will implement all options for this package, and create a second, Web-based format. The final product is designed to (1) facilitate ready access to look-up tables conditioned on patient demographics, using a menu-driven, landmark-based graphic user interface; (2) permit computation of standardized measures for patients, including the creation of functions not currently available but which will be configured by the user; (3) provide flexible output options from pre-existing databases and craniofacial 3D scanners, (4) generate reports for anthropometric protocols, conditioned on professional specialization, (5) implement data security and encryption methods, and (6) export derived scores to databases for documentation and statistical analysis.