User-Friendly System Dynamics Analysis Tools for Translational Mind-Body Research

描述（由申请人提供）：捕获动态系统过程的生物标志物可能在补充和替代医学（CAM）疗法的研究中特别有价值和信息，特别是同时针对多个生理系统的多组分身心干预。第一阶段SBIR应用的总体目标是开发一个用户友好的软件平台，该平台将能够量化系统动力学以及多器官系统之间的非线性相互作用，这将特别适合于复杂CAM干预的研究。为此，提议的项目组建了一个跨学科的团队，具有连接CAM研究、复杂系统分析、生理学和软件工程的专业知识。该项目将专注于以下两个具体目标：1)开发一个用户友好的软件平台，其中包含适合身心和CAM治疗的系统动力学分析工具箱。2)确定CAM干预调查生理数据分析软件平台的可用性和可靠性。这个项目的长期目标是建立一个创新的分析平台，它是健壮的，强大的，易于使用。这种新的分析环境将使CAM和心身研究人员能够应用最先进的定量工具进行系统级动态分析。这些新的分析工具将为CAM治疗提供特别有用的客观测量，从而加速转化CAM研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Biomarkers that capture dynamical system processes may be especially valuable and informative in the investigation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, particularly, multi-component mind-body interventions, that simultaneously target several physiological systems. The overall goal of this Phase I SBIR application is to develop a user-friendly software platform that will enable the quantification of system dynamics as well as nonlinear interactions among multiple organ systems that will be particularly suited for the study of complex CAM interventions. To this end, the proposed project assembles a cross-disciplinary team with expertise bridging CAM research, complex system analysis, physiology, and software engineering. The proposed project will focus on the following two specific aims: 1) to develop a user-friendly software platform containing a toolbox of system dynamics analyses with applications suitable for mind-body and CAM therapies. 2) To determine the usability and reliability of the software platform to analyze physiological data from investigations of CAM interventions. The long-term goal of this project is to build an innovative analysis platform that is robust, powerful and easy to use. This new analysis environment will enable CAM and mind-body researchers to apply state-of-the-art quantitative tools for system level dynamical analysis. These new analysis tools will provide objective measurements that are particularly useful for CAM therapies, and thus accelerate translational CAM research. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and mind-body research often deal with the most complex interventions that are better understood from a system perspective. However, CAM researchers lack necessary analysis tools that can provide objective, quantitative measurements about the system as a whole. We propose to develop a new class of computer tools to provide user-friendly and powerful methods to monitor and evaluate the efficacy of CAM interventions.