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Chapter Activities - 2017
September

On September 14, 2017, IEEE EMBS Atlanta hosted Dr. Helen Mayberg speaking on the subject of "Next Generation Strategies to Refine and Optimize DBS for Depression."

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is an emerging treatment strategy for patients with intractable depression with selection of the subcallosal cingulate (SCC) as a stimulation target based principally on converging findings from resting-state PET studies of conventional antidepressant interventions. At present, surgical implantation of DBS electrodes relies on high resolution structural images to localize the SCC grey matter-white matter border followed by trial-and-error behavioral testing of chronic stimulation at individual contacts. Clinical response may however be optimized by more precise targeting along specific white matter tracts as evidenced by recent diffusion tensor imaging and tractography analyses of DBS responders and non-responders. Catalyzed by availability of next generation devices that allow ongoing recordings of local field potentials in the targeted circuit of interest, recent work now combines multimodal neuroimaging with real-time behavioral and electrophysiological measurements, providing a more precise method to identify the optimal target location and stimulation parameters for individual patients. Strategic integration of neuroengineering innovations and selective animal models offers potential complementary perspectives to fully delineate critical pathways and mechanisms mediating antidepressant effects of SCC DBS and inform on the pathophysiology of treatment resistant depression more generally.

Helen Mayberg, MD is Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Radiology, and the Dorothy Fuqua Chair in Psychiatric Imaging and Therapeutics at Emory University. Her research has characterized neural systems mediating major depression and its recovery, defined imaging-based illness subtypes to optimize treatment selection, and introduced the first use of deep brain stimulation for treatment resistant patients. Dr. Mayberg received a BA in Psychobiology from UCLA and a MD from University of Southern California, and then completed her neurology residency at the Neurological Institute of New York, and fellowship training in nuclear medicine at Johns Hopkins. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors, and has authored more than 200 publications, and participates in a wide variety of advisory and scientific activities across multiple fields in neuroscience.

The IEEE EMB Society is grateful to Dr. Mayberg for giving this lecture.

April

On April 20, 2017, IEEE EMBS Atlanta hosted Dr. Jon Duke speaking on the subject of "Health Analytics: Translating Global Data Into Precision Medicine."

Precision medicine involves optimizing the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease through more precise definition of the genetic, clinical, behavioral, and environmental factors that contribute to an individual's health. While the idea of more personalized healthcare delivery has been around for several decades, we are only now beginning to converge the necessary data, computational power and methods, and interoperability mechanisms to turn precision medicine into a reality. In this seminar, Dr. Duke will trace recent advances in global clinical research networks and interoperable health platforms that are ushering in this new era.

Dr. Jon Duke is Director of the Center for Health Analytics and Informatics at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and Georgia Tech College of Computing. He completed his medical degree at Harvard Medical School and a master's in human-computer interaction at Indiana University. Dr. Duke's research focuses on advancing techniques for identifying patients of interest from diverse data sources with applications spanning research, quality, and clinical domains. Dr. Duke has led over $21 million in funded research for industry, government, and foundation partners. He led the Merck-Regenstrief Partnership in Healthcare Innovation and was a founding member of OHDSI, an open-source international health data analytics collaborative. In addition to numerous peer-reviewed publications, his work has been featured in the lay media including the New York Times, NPR, and MSNBC.

The IEEE EMB Society is grateful to Dr. Duke for giving this lecture.

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