THE TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMME / Project Monitoring Form
Project Quarterly Progress Report

COMPETITION PRIORTY

SAPHE: Smart and Aware Pervasive Healthcare Environments


DTI Project No: TP/3/PIT/6/1/15243

Q7 Report

Period 1 October to 31 December 2007

commercial restricted

Date: 16 January 2008 Ref: SAPHE/PLR/Q7/V1
Vs: 1.0

Responsible Author: Hannah Wells

Project Leader: Guang-Zhong Yang

Monitoring Officer: Guy Hirson

Circulation: All Project Partners

Monitoring Database

Project Quarterly Progress Report
Template Issue 3.0 / 18
DTI TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMME
Project Quarterly Progress Report Q7
Project Title: SAPHE / Date: 16 January 2007
Ref: SAPHE Project Quarterly Progress Report Q7 V1.doc
Version: 1.0

Project Partners’ Report

Note: The Project Lead organisation must complete a Partner Quarterly Report in addition to this Document.

Overall Progress and Key Achievements

Provide an assessment of the composite project achievements (lead and partners contributions) since the last progress report. Detail the project key achievements during the reporting period. Highlight any exceptions and provide recommendations to Monitoring Officer/Contractor as necessary.
Q7 has been another productive quarter for the SAPHE project, with the main focuses on facilitating the installation of the first integrated SAPHE system (WPB&) at Imperial College, and defining the scope of the SAPHE trial (WPC1). This quarter has seen a high level of engagement and contribution from the main project partners, Imperial, BT, Philips and Dundee, with support from the two SMEs involved with the project, although their input has been limited in Q7 due to labour shortages (see notes in Exceptions below).
Technical progress on the SAPHE project in Q7 has involved:
The completion of WPB1, System and Service Specification and the release of D07, now titled ‘System Technical Specification, as Issue 1.0. A dedicated CISCO security device has been procured and deployed on the network platform; the VPN has been successfully tested with the Philips set-top box and also for connectivity to Imperial College and Dundee University. The development of the Low Power Radio (LPR) and Ultra Low Power Radio (ULPR) at Philips has continued with significant improvements in Q7. Imperial College have also completed and begun the manufacture, testing and design of the revised design for the e-AR sensors.
WPs B3 and B4, for SAPHE Body Sensing and Environmental Sensing have both completed their first working prototypes, for testing, for D08 ‘SAPHE Sensing Prototype’, the specification documentation is now available. Additional data collection experiments using the e-AR sensors using 10 subjects performing activities for COPD monitoring have been conducted by Imperial College, and the results of these are being analysed as part of WPB5. BT have reported excellent progress in their integration of Jennic devices (as part of WPB4) and development is nearly complete. Successful testing has been undertaken interfacing a Jennic co-ordinator to the STB and receiving data from an end device. Testing has shown good range performance of the modules with a ceramic antenna.
WPB5-B7 have also reported progress on the ongoing development of the database and data analysis for the SAPHE system, the first integrated system installation is well underway at Imperial College’s IBE, as a result of cooperation between Philips and Imperial engineers. Dundee have dedicated a portion of Q7 towards the development of concepts for a Live Drama Forum in WPB5 to help communicate the integrated SAPHE system to Healthcare Professionals, to glean user feedback on the shortfalls of the system, before trial systems go into development. Two deliverables are now planned for WPB6 Service Specification, these are: Pre-D13 ‘Trial Operational Specification’ and D13 ‘Full Service Vision’.
Trial development on the SAPHE project in Q7 has involved:
Internal meeting of the SAPHE trial committee in September to glean feedback from Andrew Sixsmith on the experience of the Community Matrons of the Liverpool PCT in dealing with ‘high dependency patients’. A trials scoping document has been prepared and presented to the Liverpool PCT staff in October to gain their feedback on the SAPHE trial approach. The trial scoping document is currently in circulation within the SAPHE consortium and being revised to meet the needs and requirements of the CMs based on their feedback and experience. Materials are being prepared (based on the SAPHE technical specification and the trial scope) for submission to the Ethics Committee. Ethical approval for use of the e-AR sensors in other trials has already been granted.
Finally, a letter is being submitted to the TSB to substantiate the changes in budget allocation to Imperial, BT’s and Philips budgets. Whilst it is being requested that these partners move some of their budget allocations between budget lines (e.g. from Labour to Subcontracts), the overall budget for the project will not be affected .
A further request to extend the project duration by an additional 3 months (to May 09) is also included in the letter, to enable the consortium to complete thorough trials and perform a satisfactory subsequent analysis of the results, especially of the trial, within the project duration. This extension is not expected to affect the project finances, as all partners had a significant underspend in the first 4 months of the project, due to timings involved with the project start and recruiting staff. The funds that have been ‘shelved’ in the final quarter will be spent during the project extension period (Mar – May 09), and no further grant funding will be sought from TSB, outside the original grant offer.

Exceptions

Cardionetics did not have specific input towards any of the particular WPs in this quarter, although their attendance at all project meetings has enabled valuable input towards the project progress, and they continue to be fully engaged with the SAPHE project overall.
Docobo also did not have any specific input towards any of the WPs in this quarter, however, it has been agreed that from Q8, Robert Smith from Docobo will be joining the weekly management calls that take place on Wednesdays. A number of opportunities for Docobo to engage with those WPs associated with the trial (WPC1-C3) are being identified. Partners at Docobo have experienced a particularly high workload in the past year, which has prevented them from dedicating labour to the SAPHE Project, although engagement and interest from this partner with the project remains good.

Recommendations


Technical Progress

Provide a summary of the technical progress achieved in the period against the Second Level Plan on a work package by work package basis for each active work package.

Highlight deviations from the Second Level Plan, add reasons and actions to recover the situation.

Repeat for each active work package:

Work Package Number: WPA4 – Gap Analysis (BT Lead)
Actual Starting month: May 06
Predicted / Actual End month: Feb 09
Work Package Objectives:
·  The requirement analysis will be correlated with the results of the CIC and UbiCare projects to identify technology gaps which will feed into initial service and system specifications. During the course of the project, the Gap analysis will be repeated using inputs from prototypes and evaluation of initial user trials to identify major areas for improvement of the system and means to effect such improvements.
Description of work this period
BT (see also WPC1)
A meeting was held with Liverpool PCT and City Council on 16th October 2007 to discuss the scope and design of the SAPHE trial. The trial design, engagement plan and functionality were presented and agreed with. The main PCT concerns were over the level of commitment in time required from Community Matrons. It was suggested by the PCT that some of the funding that is available from the project to support the PCT’s participation in the trial be used to secure an administrative assistant to support the CMs in their use of the SAPHE system, particularly the collation and input of care record data from other systems.
Progress towards the Deliverables for this Work Package
Deliverable D06 - SAPHE Prototype Architecture Analysis (workshop) – due Jun 07: Workshop on Architecture was held 15 June 07 to identify and address all issues in preparation for the end-to-end demonstrator for end July. A workshop to articulate and prioritise requirements for the SAPHE system and trial was also held on 17 Sep 07, a further workshop was held on 16 Oct 07 with the Liverpool PCT staff. These workshops will agree the trial system design and will constitute the A4 deliverable D06: SAPHE Prototype Architecture Analysis
Summarise any variations from the Second Level Plan, giving reasons and action to recover situation if necessary.
- variations
- reason
- recovery plan
Description of planned activity for next quarter
§  Docobo – Advisory inputs (when requested) into existing and emerging technology solutions; and trial design and management.
§  Imperial – Ongoing research and analysis of existing and emerging technology solutions and commercial service offerings. Primarily this involves providing an understanding of needs, implementation challenges, and integration of SAPHE system into current care system.
Work Package Number : WPB1 System and Service Specification (BT Lead)
Actual Starting month : Jun 06
Predicted / Actual End month : Jul 07 / Oct 07
Work Package Objectives:
·  Detailed technical and performance specification for the monitoring elements of the system and the ways in which they will interact. Detailed specification of the services required to deploy and manage large scale healthcare monitoring – includes communications, logging, training of personnel, etc.
Description of work this period
BT
Deliverable D07, now titled ‘System Technical Specification’ (see Q6 report), has been released as Issue 1.0.
A dedicated CISCO security device has been procured and deployed on the network platform. This provides a dedicated hardware solution for the management of the VPN for greater reliability. The device also supports the use of OpenSSL security as an alternative. The VPN has been successfully tested with the Philips Set-top box and also for connectivity to Imperial College and Dundee University.
The Apache ActiveMQ JMS broker has also been successfully tested on the STB communicating with the network platform. Store-and-forward capability has been tested to allow buffering of messages by the STB in the event of network outage.
WPB1 has now completed.
Progress towards the Deliverables for this Work Package
Deliverable D07 – Service Requirement for large-scale deployment – due Jun 07 – Deliverable D07, now titled ‘System Technical Specification’ (see Q6 report), has been released as Issue 1.0.
Summarise any variations from the Second Level Plan, giving reasons and action to recover situation if necessary.
- variations
- reason
- recovery plan
Description of planned activity for next quarter
N/A as this WP is now completed
Work Package Number : WPB2 SAPHE Common Architecture (Philips Lead)
Actual Starting month : Mar 06
Predicted / Actual End month : Jun 08
Work Package Objectives:
·  Design and development of common node architecture for SAPHE, including hardware and communications and operating software. Particular emphasis will be placed on low-power RF design, development of analogue STSOM neural networks, network self-configuration and security issues. The work package will also extend into the design and specification of WAN interfaces.
Description of work this period
Philips
Low Power Radio (LBR)
Legobrick radio nodes distributed to Imperial. Worked out new protocol for LBR
Verified Imperial BSN can speak to LBR and transmit data over the air to receiving LBR (EAR Sensor)
Ultra Low Power Radio (ULPR)
RF circuits taped out both as individual blocks and fully connected together. This is the first tapeout in a new process. Silicon expected back in Feb. Documentation and plan for RF test circuits started. Complete digital baseband design frozen and laid out, but problems with third party memories delayed actual tapeout of this block. System test software completed, ready for testing the returned silicon. Hardware design documentation started. First silicon demonstrated to be completely working, and power consumption measured to be a maximum of 750uW (250uW less than our budget of 1mW), confirming our design and asynchronous tools. MAC protocol design on hold while system specifications are developed.
BT
The common data protocol based on bin-x has been implemented within the ZigBee communications between sensor and STB. Further work is needed on the STB processing and forwarding of the data of the data to the network platform.
Imperial
Continued investigation of wireless standards (similar to 802.15.4) for common architecture, based on BSN node, performance testing for assessment underway. Completion of revised design of e-AR sensor, and subsequent manufacture, assembly and testing of revised e-AR sensor (see also WPB7)
Progress towards the Deliverables for this Work Package
Deliverable D04 - SAPHE Common Architecture Prototype - released March 07
Deliverable D12 – SAPHE Final Architecture – due June 08 – no specific progress against this deliverable to report at this point
Summarise any variations from the Second Level Plan, giving reasons and action to recover situation if necessary.
- variations
- reason
- recovery plan
Description of planned activity for next quarter
§  Philips – ULPR testing: Test new Silicon RF circuits; Start digital IC testing; ULPR development: Tapeout digital circuits; Complete system specification; Start MAC protocol design;
§  BT - Completion of common protocol processing and forwarding by the STB from ZigBee sensors to the network platform
§  Imperial - Development of SAPHE node based upon extensions of UbiMon BSN
Work Package Number : WPB3 SAPHE Body Sensing (Imperial DoC Lead)
Actual Starting month : Jul 06
Predicted / Actual End month : Aug 08
Work Package Objectives:
·  Use of common node technology for on-body sensing of activity and medical conditions. Autonomic sensing network with self-reconfiguration, self-healing, and context aware analogue implementation with STSOM neural networks.
Description of work this period
Imperial
§  Ongoing work on design and incorporation of sensors into wearable prototypes based on the developed e-AR earpiece.
§  Development of middleware to support system integration and communications.
§  Data collection experiments performed using 10 subjects performing multiple activities for COPD monitoring.
Philips
Design and testing of 3rd generation mobile hub complete. New version has longer battery life, several days, and is half the size. Also added mini USB charging.
Progress towards the Deliverables for this Work Package