27 April 2005
Student Innovations at University of Dundee
Photo opportunity: 1.00pm, Thursday 28 April, Jam Factory, Applied Computing Division,
University of Dundee.
Final year students from the University of Dundee's Department for Applied Computing will be
demonstrating their latest software innovations tomorrow, including a programme that could be used
to record phantom pain and a new computerised hospital prescribing system.
Aleksei Andrejev has been working on a programme that could help the medical profession and
amputees themselves better understand the phenomenon of phantom pain. Phantom pain is often
experienced by amputees in the limb they no longer have. There is evidence that the brain remaps
after amputation and patients may feel sensations in the phantom limb when touched in other parts
of their body. For example people who have lost an arm may feel sensations in the absent hand when
their face is touched.
Aleksei, originally from Estonia, has developed a program that can record these sensations on a 3D
model of the human body. By using a computerised mapping technique, the sensations can be more
accurately pinpointed than relying solely on the amputee's sense of where the sensation is. The
data could also potentially be used for statistical analysis allowing medics to gain a better
understanding of this medical anomaly.
Katie Went has developed a prototype of a computerised prescribing system that could be used in
hospitals to improve the drug treatment process. Currently, within NHS hospitals, this process is
generally handwritten and errors are made each year as a consequence of illegible or incorrect
prescriptions.
On taking advice from a clinical advisory team, Katy's final working prototype allows doctors to
create new prescriptions for hospital patients and for the nurses to record the actual
administration of these drugs to the patients - all of which was previously carried on paper.
Following a demonstration of the final prototype at Ninewells Hospital Dundee, NHS Tayside has
proposed financial support to extend the project. Katie plans to continue her studies at the
University of Dundee by starting a postgraduate degree after graduating.
For further information, please contact: Janet Hughes, Applied Computing Division, University of
Dundee. (01382) 345195, Fax: (01382) 345509, Email: jhughes@computing.dundee.ac.uk
By Angela Durcan, Press Officer 01382 344768, out of hours: 07968298585, a.durcan@dundee.ac.uk | 
