An Indian American scientist, who has developed a tool that will have a positive impact on the healthcare industry, has been given the 'Inventor of the Year' award by Siemens AG president and chief executive Dr Klaus Kleinfeld.
Dr R Bharat Rao, senior director, engineering research development, Computer-Aided Diagnosis and Therapy Group at Siemens Medical Solutions, was given the prestigious award by Kleinfeld in Malvern, PA.
Rao, a native of Tamil Nadu, was recognised for his pioneering work in developing an automated data collection and analysis tool known as REMIND (Reliable Extraction and Meaningful Inference from Nonstructured Data), which enables caregivers to utilise disparate healthcare information to personalise patient care plans and enhance patient outcomes.
The award has been presented annually since 1995 to 12 Siemens employees worldwide. "This year Rao is the only one of the two persons from the US to receive the award, and the only scientist of Indian origin here, the rest being from outside the US," a Siemens Medical Solutions official told rediff.com.
"Much of the data in the healthcare system is not in a format that can be readily accessed or applied at the point of care," said Rao. "For example, key clinical information is stored as written text in patient records, discharge summaries, progress notes and radiology reports."
Without requiring any manual entry or change in workflow, REMIND integrates patient data with medical information and current treatment guidelines. Through a sophisticated algorithm, REMIND then analyses the data and extracts key nuggets of information that will help clinicians make more informed treatment decisions. The information can be utilised for applications such as alerts, case management, and adherence to treatment guidelines.
Rao's vision is to organise the vast amount of diagnostic images, patient records, best practices and treatment outcomes to help personalize care. Rao feels REMIND will provide ways to review years of data to find patterns of treatment, as well as identify people eligible for clinical trials.
"We are not replacing the doctor with computer-aided diagnosis. The word 'aided' is specifically important in healthcare. We've come to accept that other aspects of our lives, such as the cars we drive or the airplanes we travel in, will have some elements controlled by computers, but it is much harder to accept that computers can assist doctors so that they can provide better, more accurate care," Rao said after getting the award.
With close to half a million employees in 192 countries, Siemens AG has submitted more than 8,800 invention reports and 5,700 patent applications in the past fiscal year alone. Overall, Siemens holds a total of 53,000 patents.
"At Siemens, we recognise that one of our most important competitive advantages are the employees who help the company continue our tradition of innovation. With REMIND, Dr Rao has developed a tool that will have a positive impact on the healthcare industry, and deliver significant advantages to our customers," said Tom McCausland, president, Siemens Medical Solutions USA.
Rao received his undergraduate training from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and then earned master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois. Rao began pursuing his data mining project at Siemens after graduation and has been working on it for several years now.
