ARCHIVAL AND COMPRESSION OF EEG RECORDS

THE LONG-TERM OBJECTIVE IS TO PROVIDE HOSPITALS AND MEDICAL PERSONNEL WITH RELIABLE AND COST EFFECTIVE MEANS TO STORE LARGE VOLUMES OF PATIENT CLINICAL ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY (EEG) RECORDS, AND TO QUICKLY SEARCH FOR, AND RETRIEVE SPECIFIC RECORDS. THE SPECIFIC AIMS OF PHASE I ARE: 1) TO INVESTIGATE METHODOLOGIES FOR CAPTURE, PROCESSING, ARCHIVING AND RETRIEVAL OF EXISTING CLINICAL EEG RECORDS, AND (2) TO DEVELOP A WORKING PROTOTYPE OF SUCH A SYSTEM. THE SYSTEM WILL USE OFF-THE-SHELF COMPONENTS WHERE POSSIBLE CONSISTING OF A MICROCOMPUTER, PAGE SCANNER, AND OPTICAL STORAGE DEVICE. SOFTWARE WILL BE DEVELOPED TO SCAN EEG DATA AND ASSOCIATED PATIENT RECORDS AND COMPRESS FOR EFFICIENT STORAGE. GRAPHICAL ROUTINES WILL BE USED TO REVIEW DATA WHICH CAN THEN BE PLOTTED ON A PRINTER. WAVEFORM EXTRACTION WILL ALLOW ADDITIONAL STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES WILL BE USED FOR DETERMINATION OF THE BEST COMPRESSION METHODS AND STORAGE FORMATS FOR DIFFERENT KINDS OF MEDICAL RECORDS (WRITTEN, TYPED, STRIPCHART) AS WELL AS A WAY TO INTEGRATE THESE DISPARATE DATA TYPES ONTO A COMMON STORAGE MEDIUM. COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL IS SIGNIFICANT GIVEN THE LARGE NUMBER OF PAPER EEG RECORDS TAKEN EACH YEAR THAT MUST BE STORED FOR LONG TIME PERIODS.