In “How engineers can help doctors save lives,†Dr. Nataraj described the human body as a complex dynamic system that cannot be fully understood by conventional medical diagnostics. Given the diversity of the human race, it is difficult to define “normal,†and as a result millions of patients are incorrectly diagnosed each year, leading to unnecessary treatments and death.

Dr. Nataraj believes engineers can offer a solution. “Physics, mathematics and computer algorithms can be used effectively and intelligently to make this situation a whole lot better.â€

During his talk, Dr. Nataraj discussed these ideas and shared results from research he is conducting with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

In collaboration with CHOP doctors, he is applying a machinery diagnostic approach to studying data on periventricular leukomalaci, a mysterious neurological damage that occurs in neonates.

Please here to watch the talk and click here to read the original article published in the VU College of Engineering News Room

An article in the year book of International Medical Informatics Association has studied 1254 papers on the medical decision making systems and mentioned only 25 papers. In the category of decision support systems for a complex clinical conditions only 5 papers were mentioned, including a paper co-authored by Dr. Jalali and Dr. Nataraj with collaboration from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

The paper was entitled "Prediction of periventricular leukomalacia occurrence in neonates after heart surgery" and published in the IEEE ournal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.

Please click here to read the report.

Please click here to watch the video

Dr. Nataraj has been selected to be one of the speakers for the TEDx event at Villanova on October 23rd, and will be speaking on “How Engineers Can Help Doctors Save Lives†.

Please click here to register: TEDx event at Villanova

Abstract:

Conventional medical diagnostics isn’t working and needs help. The reasons are: the human body is a very complex dynamic system, there is a lot of diversity among humans, and it is difficult to define ‘normal’.

But, this where we engineers can come to the rescue! Physics, mathematics and computer algorithms can be used effectively and intelligently to make this situation a whole lot better, and prevent millions of missed diagnoses, unnecessary treatments and deaths.

This talk will discuss these ideas and share results from our research in which we are collaborating with doctors to study a mysterious neurological damage that happens in neonates.