Creare is currently developing technology for extracting important diagnostic and therapeutic data from physiological signals. Our work involves development and testing of innovative algorithms for recovering clinically relevant information from noisy or complex signals and fusing data from multiple sensors and diagnostic images. Areas of emphasis currently include cardiac electrophysiology, neurological effects of hyperbaric oxygen, and alertness monitoring.

One example of our work in cardiac electrophysiology is development of tools to assist in mapping of complex arrhythmias. Creare is developing a novel system for endocardial mapping that combines anatomical information from x-ray images of the heart with functional information provided by recording catheters placed in the patient’s heart. This system provides animated, three-dimensional images of the movement of electrical wavefronts within the heart. It is designed especially to assist in mapping of complex arrythmias in patients with surgically corrected congenital heart disease. Creare’s system has been evaluated using a variety of patient data.

Another example of our signal processing work is the development of a method for warning divers of impending seizures due to hyperbaric oxygen toxicity. This condition results from exposure to excessively high partial pressures of oxygen, and can lead to seizures because of its influence on the central nervous system. We developed a novel signal processing algorithm capable of detecting and characterizing subtle changes in a diver’s electrocardiogram several minutes prior to seizure onset. The resulting algorithm has high predictive accuracy and a low rate of false alarms. In fact, it is the first accurate method for predicting impending seizures that can be used by working divers.