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在补充和替代医学（CAM）治疗的研究中可能特别有价值和信息，特别是同时针对几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个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，拟议的项目组装了一个跨学科的团队，具有桥接CAM研究，复杂系统分析，生理学和软件工程的专业知识。拟议项目将集中于以下两个具体目标：1）开发一个用户友好的软件平台，其中包含一个系统动力学分析工具箱，适用于身心和CAM疗法。2)确定软件平台的可用性和可靠性，以分析CAM干预研究中的生理数据。该项目的长期目标是建立一个创新的分析平台，是强大的，强大的，易于使用。这种新的分析环境将使CAM和身心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提供对CAM治疗特别有用的客观测量，从而加速CAM的转化研究。 公共卫生相关性：补充和替代医学（CAM）和身心研究往往涉及最复杂的干预措施，从系统的角度更好地理解。然而，CAM研究人员缺乏必要的分析工具，可以提供客观的，定量的测量系统作为一个整体。我们建议开发一类新的计算机工具，以提供用户友好和强大的方法来监测和评估CAM干预措施的疗效。

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.