Interviews

Key players from different backgrounds assess the impact of the results and achievements of the AMIE project.

Tom Blackie, AMIE Project Director (formerly AMIE Technical Director), Head of Operations for ORL

The project manager

Q: What has been AMIE's greatest business accomplishment?

All of the partners have benefited through their partnership in AMIE. Each has advanced their own particular area of expertise, whilst all have obtained very early first-hand experience of user reactions towards advanced multimedia systems. This exposure has enabled the partners to refine their product portfolios and target new business opportunities.

There is no doubt in my mind that the greatest single business accomplishment has been the support and creation of new spin-off companies from ORL. Results from AMIE have been fed into ORL's spin-offs ATML and TSL. This has stimulated growth around Cambridge, for Olivetti Telemedia and ultimately brings wealth creation for Europe. New jobs have been created, significant venture capital investment has been and will continue to be made. ATML and TSL between them now employ around 75 people and have raised over 40 million US dollars. This level of growth and investment is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, and will no doubt serve as a model for future exploitation of research results.

Q: What result is commercially available?

The hardware and software components in use in the AMIE pilot are available from the respective partners, often as a commercial version with enhanced features compared to the deployed prototypes. Should a potential customer need a system that integrates several components, all of the partners are empowered to assemble the required group of components and skills, from across the organisations if necessary. Each instance will be considered on its own merits and may result in an offer tailored to the needs of the individual customer.

Q: What was the greatest challenge that the project had to overcome?

It's difficult to identify any single challenge as there have been several throughout the life of the project, both technical and organisational. At the outset the partners had several possible trial scenarios which could have been addressed; it was a difficult task to pick the one which would stretch the talents of the designers, provide the best demonstration of the technology whilst still meeting the objective to provide a revolutionary new system for use by real end-users. One major factor which did provide cause for concern was the withdrawal of a key project partner after the first six months of the project. This left a significant hole in the project and the management sought hard to find an alternative solution for the multimedia authoring tool kit and the multimedia database server both of which the partner should have provided. However I'm glad to say that the partners overcame those difficulties and I do believe that the end results are a very creditable solution. The management and operation of the field trial also proved to be a difficult and time consuming task. Without the efforts and enthusiasm from St. James's Hospital, particularly in support of the trial, the end result of the project would not have been as successful. In summary there have been many technical and managerial issue to overcome. It is a great achievement that the project has met its goals and provided an operational system for trial use by end-users. All of the partners are to be congratulated for their dedication and efforts directed towards overcoming the problems and completing the project.

Q: What is in store for the future of AMIE?

The partners are already discussing ways in which they can co-operate and work together in the future. It is likely that a major multimedia system pilot project will be undertaken which will build on the current state-of-the-art AMIE technology. It is conceivable that this will be proposed as a follow-on project in the ESPRIT Fourth Framework Programme. The partners' main future goals are to:

Address the areas where the AMIE trial system has identified shortcomings
Develop more comprehensive applications
Conduct further and extensive system trials
Propose, influence and converge with emerging multimedia standards
Continue dissemination and promotional activities to generate new markets and stimulate growth in the multimedia systems arena

Alan Chaney, AMIE Exploitation Manager (formerly AMIE Project Director), Managing Director of Telemedia Systems Limited

The business expert

Q: What are the main reasons why somebody would adopt the result?

The AMIE hospital scenario provides an excellent example of the way in which the skillful use of high technology products can provide an immediate cost and efficiency benefit. The results from AMIE highlight the way in which network multimedia technology may be used to improve business and enterprise communications.

Q: How does the result compare with similar products on the market?

The technology embodied in AMIE is way ahead of any similar offering. The discarding of the conventional "client-server" architecture opens up a wide range of possibilities in the applications arena for communications, data storage and retrieval together with computer supported cooperative working (CSCW).

Q: What are your plans for exploiting and marketing the result?

The results of AMIE may be exploited both directly and indirectly. Technology licencees are being sought in the commercial sector.

Q: What is currently available and on what business terms?

The fundamental system architecture and its use of modular components and sub-systems has provided an excellent foundation from which to build and develop complex multimedia systems. All of the partners are able to offer these existing components and sub-systems, some of which have already undergone further developments. Individual components can be purchased or licensed from the relevant partner. For integrated versions and whole systems any of the partners may be approached and are able to offer solutions tailored to specific requirements. The business terms are open to negotiation and will be on a standard commercial footing.

Q: What is the significance of the result for the companies in the project?

The companies have benefited enormously from the involvement in this project. Each has gained marketable expertise in those aspects of the technology which they have contributed. There is also the possibility of their collaboration to provide an integrated whole.

Tim Glauert, AMIE Technical Director, Senior Software Engineer at Telemedia Systems Limited

The technical expert

Q: What are the main technical innovations in the result?

The AMIE project involves the integration of a number of different pieces of technology and so there are a number of innovations in the result. The system is built on underlying network technology which includes a wired ATM network and a radio network using the DECT standard. There are three innovative devices directly connected to the ATM network: The first is a "disc brick" which is a high-capacity, high-reliability file-server for multimedia data, such as the medical images used by the AMIE system. The other two innovative devices are the "video bricks" and "audio bricks". These are video and audio peripherals that are connected directly to the network and they provide the video-conferencing capability for the AMIE system. Finally, the main application draws all these elements together into a single system that allows doctors to view, share and discuss a variety of medical information in an integrated and consistent way, whilst physically in the same location or at a remote site.

Q: How does the result compare in technical terms with similar products on the market?

That's a hard question to answer because there really aren't any similar products in the market! There are some systems that provide part of the functionality of AMIE but nothing that delivers such a complete solution. As far as the components are concerned, there are competitors for some of these but in most cases the technology developed within the AMIE project is ahead of the competitors.

Q: What is the current stage of development of the result and what are your plans for further technical development of it or for developments in related areas?

A number of the components of the AMIE system have already been developed into commercial products: The DECT radio networking card obtained type approval and a CE mark at the end of 1995 which allows it to be sold throughout the European Union. The network multimedia technology, the "video bricks" and "audio bricks", have been commercialised by Telemedia Systems Limited and they are already selling second-generation products based, in part, on the AMIE technology. During the project the ORL prototype ATM networking infrastructure components were commercialised by the ORL spin-off company ATML. So was the network file server, the "disc brick", which has been on the market for over a year. In fact, the trial AMIE system that was installed at St. James's Hospital actually used these commercial products rather than the prototypes developed as part of this project.

Q: What kind of a technical environment is needed for using the result?

The main thing you need is a high-speed, low-latency network, and that basically means ATM. Although this is not a widespread technology at the moment, it is growing fast and can easily be added to an existing network. Once the appropriate network is in place, the various components of the AMIE system can be connected directly to that network. The trial system at St. James's Hospital used a projection screen to display the information and this was found to be a very valuable and impressive aid for presentations, especially as it gave a similar feel to the analogue projector that was previously used by the doctors. Other than that, the system uses standard PC equipment and can be installed in any location where a PC might be found.

Dr. Peter Crean, Consultant Cardiologist, Department of Cardiology, Crest Directorate, St. James's Hospital, Dublin 8

The user

Q: Have you much previous experience with computer systems?

I have no extensive training in the use of computer systems although I have always used these for preparation of documents and reports and obviously in the use of the every day running of the inpatient care in tracing patient notes, results etc. I have not been involved with designing specific computer programs except for using data base analysis for statistics of studies which we carry out in our Department.

Q: What is your overall reaction to the system?

I think that this is an excellent system which combines a number of different investigation techniques and allows them to be reviewed at the same time without resorting to looking at each different test, i.e. an exercise test, an echocardiogram and an angiogram or a nuclear scan, usually using different modalities. This is easy to use, provides excellent images and an outstanding amount of detail.

Q: What do you think are the main advantages of this system?

The main advantages appear to be:

The high quality of the image resolution.
The ability to provide a number of different imaging techniques and details recording patient information in the one format, i.e. on a large computer screen. To date the system allows the use of patient notes, ECG, exercise testing, pressure tracings, nuclear scans, echocardiograms and angiograms to provide a complete profile of patient results. This is an excellent advantage in that it doesn't require to turn to looking at a video, to taking out part of the patient notes, to look at their ECG or exercise test or pressure tracings and then to look at a video format of an echocardiogram, as these are all on the one computer. They can be reviewed rapidly in succession and all of the information then used to decide on the best treatment for the patients.

Q: Do you feel this system can aid clinical diagnosis?

Yes, by integrating all of the information on one format on a computer system. It means that all of the data can be reviewed at the same time. It means that there is less likelihood that a particular and important piece of information i.e. chest X-ray may be missing at an appropriate decision making conference. To date we have tried this in use for evaluating patients who have coronary artery disease and we are reviewing all of the relevant clinical information and the results of their tests at the one time. It allows for rapid decision making based on all the current available data for that patient."

Q: How does the system compare to the current system?

This system incorporates all of the usual methods which we currently use to evaluate the patients. However it offers the main advantage, that these are provided in a single format, are all available at the time of the conference and therefore speed up the appropriate diagnosis and treatment for the patient. The image quality provided from the echo, the angiograms, the ECG etc. is excellent.

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