Referent Tracking
PI: Werner Ceusters (Dept of Psychiatry)
Barry Smith (Dept of Philosophy)
Funding (Sponsor/Grant information)
Center of Excellence in Bio-informatics and Life Sciences

This projects involves carrying out fundamental and applied research and software application development with the goal of allowing better use to be made of both (1) data pertaining to particular patients residing in electronic health records on the one hand, and (2) patient-independent data of the type that is typically found in biomedical research databases on the other. This is achieved through a new paradigm called Referent Tracking under which it is possible to refer explicitly to all the concrete individual entities relevant to the accurate description of each patient's condition, therapies, and outcomes through the assignment of unique identifiers. This paradigm is expected to allow biomedical and bioinformatics researchers to exploit the wealth of information that is stored in patient data repositories. At the same time it is designed to offer clinicians new and higher quality types of evidence for the appropriateness of given diagnoses or therapeutic hypotheses through seamless access to the research data generated by biologists and bio-informaticians.

Rapid Pediatric Psychiatric Consultation -Quality Assurance Protocol-
P.I. Dr. Dubovsky
Co-Investigators: Drs. Jennifer Haak, David Kaye, Bruce Miller, Beth Smith, James Waxmonsky.
Externally Sponsored Research: Tower Foundation ($100, 000.00) & Blue Cross of WNY
The shortage of child psychiatrists is particularly acute in Western New York. A consultant may be able to help to meet the needs of the large number of psychiatric problems being treated in primary practices. The overall goal of this early intervention project is to demonstrate the clinical benefits and cost efficacy of a consultation service (comprehensive psychiatric evaluation) for high-risk children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders and treated in pediatrics and family medicine setting. 

The Reliability of a Telepsychiatry for a Neuropsychiatric Assessment
P.I. Dr. Anselm George
Co-Investigators: Drs. Sudha Krishnaswamy, Calvert Warren, Vijay Amarendran, Vrushali Gersappe
Unfunded Research

The purpose of this study is to measure the reliability of telemedicine when used to conduct the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS) assessments. The AIMS is the standard instrument to assess tardive dyskinesia, a long-term side effect of psychotropic medications. We will compare the AIMS assessments of four independent raters, two of them observing the patient face to face and the other two via video equipment, to determine if the video examinations are as reliable as the face to face examinations.

Prevalence of Bipolar Disorder in Family Practice
P.I. Dr. Griswold  & Co P.I. Dr. Linda Pessar
Consultant: Dr. Dubovsky
Bipolar disorder is under-recognized and inadequately treated in primary care, resulting in worsening of symptoms, decreased levels of functioning, and increased risk of suicide. This project is using a practice-based research network to estimate the prevalence of bipolar disorder in family practice. Simultaneously, a diagnostic instrument called the M.I.N.I is tested for its usefulness in primary care. The overall goal of this project is to identify appropriate screening methods in order to make early and correct diagnosis of the bipolar spectrum of disorders in primary care.


Prediction of Psychiatric Diagnosis with SPECT Brain Imaging: a Prospective Clincal Trial
P.I. Dr. Dubovsky
Co-Investigators: Drs. Nabi and Baker
The primary objective of this study is to compare high resolution SPECT with the "gold standard" diagnostic method in psychiatry- a validated structured diagnostic interview in identifying bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, ADHD, and unipolar depression in a clinical. A diagnosis (or diagnoses) made with a validated formal diagnostic interview administered by a trained interviewer will be compared with a psychiatric diagnosis made by SPECT blind to clinical data.
The primary outcome measure is concordance of the SPECT diagnosis with standardized interview diagnoses.