Research Centre wins funding for clinical collaboration

A grant of A$221,145 from The Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) International Science Linkages programme will support the e-Health Research Centre’s involvement in the AMIDA project (Augmented Multi-party Interaction with Distant Access).

AMIDA commenced in October 2006 and aims to improve the way clinical specialists work in teams with communication technologies that support the way people naturally interact.

A key component of the research will be to capture, analyse and model the many communication elements that comprise a complex group interaction – whether the participants are co-located or distributed. These may include speech, audio, video, slides, handwriting and white board notes.

“These models will be used to develop better technologies to support productive interaction in groups working in clinical settings,” Research Leader at the e-Health Research Centre, Dr Iain McCowan, said.

“Clinical networks are important in the delivery of health services. Our focus is on the evaluation of leadership and cohesion in clinical teams through automated measures and models of group dynamics.”

The project involves specialists in human factors, human computer interfaces, speech recognition, audio and visual content analysis, and software engineering.

As a partner in AMIDA, the e-Health Research Centre is collaborating with a consortium of 12 international research partners coordinated by the University of Edinburgh (UK) and the IDIAP Research Institute (Switzerland).

“The project involves specialists in human factors, human computer interfaces, speech recognition, audio and visual content analysis, and software engineering.”The DEST Science Linkages programme supports Australian scientists to collaborate with international partners on leading edge science and technology in order to contribute to Australia’s economic, social and environmental wellbeing.

The e-Health Research Centre is a joint venture between the CSIRO ICT Centre and the Queensland Government.