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Perry
M. Miller, Ph.D.
Professor of Anesthesiology
and Molecular, Cellular & Developmental
Biology
Email: perry.miller@yale.edu
Room: TMC 40 Ste 3D
Phone: (203) 764-6715
Ph.D. M.I.T. 1973; M.D.
University of Miami 1978 |
Prof. Perry Miller is Director of the Yale Center
for Medical Informatics (YCMI) and of Yale's Biomedical
Informatics research training program. Biomedical
Informatics is a discipline at the intersection
of biomedicine and the computing and information
sciences. The field focuses on the creative application
of computers in clinical medicine, biomedical
research, and medical education. In clinical medicine,
the growing use of computers in patient care,
education, and research makes the field increasingly
important. In biomedical research, informatics
is rapidly becoming a critical component of virtually
all bioscience fields.
Projects at the YCMI include major initiatives
in clinical, neuro-, and genome informatics. In
these projects, the YCMI collaborates with faculty
and staff from many departments at Yale. Additional
information is available at the YCMI web site
(http://ycmi.med.yale.edu/).
Biomedical informatics research
training
Since 1985, Dr. Miller has been Director of Yale's
Biomedical Informatics Research Training Program,
supported in part by the National Library of Medicine.
This program currently supports trainees working
in clinical informatics, neuroinformatics, and
genomic/proteomic informatics. Dr. Miller is also
Co-Director of Yale's recently inaugurated interdepartmental
PhD program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics.
Planning for a National Center
of Biomedical Computing at Yale
Dr. Miller is the PI of a three year planning
grant which aims for the establishment of a national
center at Yale. Co-investigators in this project
are faculty from MCD Biology, MB&B, Computer
Science, Statistics, Biostatistics, and Genetics.
With the theme of "Harnessing Advanced Computing
Technologies for Biomedicine," the Center
will provide a focus for highly collaborative
research, training, and software dissemination
involving many academic units and research support
units within Yale University as a whole. There
are four research themes: a) heterogeneous biomedical
database design, b) multilevel approaches to facilitate
interoperation among biological databases and
software tools, c) integrative data mining for
genomics and proteomics, and d) high performance
distributed biocomputing.
Genomic and genetic informatics
Over the past 15 years, the YCMI has been involved
in a number of projects involving genomics, and
more recently proteomics. Current projects include
1) developing and maintaining a variety of databases
that are used actively within the laboratory of
Dr. Kenneth Kidd (Genetics), 2) working with Dr.
Michael Snyder and others in the Yale Center of
Excellence in Genomic Sciences (CEGS) and the
Yale Center for Genomics and Proteomics to develop
and refine databases for yeast and human gene
expression data, and tools to help analyze that
data, 3) working with several groups to develop
the Yale Microarray Database to provide University-wide
support for microarray experiments, and 4) working
with Dr. Kenneth Williams of the Keck Biotechnology
Center and the NHLBI Proteomics Center to develop
databases and tools for proteomics data, including
the analysis of mass spectrometer data.
Neuroinformatics
Dr. Miller directs the informatics components
of a collaborative Program Project involving Drs.
Gordon Shepherd (Neurobiology), Michael Hines
(Computer Science), and Prakash Nadkarni (YCMI),
supported as part of the national Human Brain
Project. The project is developing informatics
support for neuroscience research and computer–based
neural simulation using the olfactory system as
a model system.
Informatics in support of clinical
research
Since 1996, the YCMI has had a major project
to develop, refine, and use Trial/DB, a client-server,
Web–accessible database designed to support clinical
research projects. Trial/DB is currently being
used for a growing number of clinical trials and
clinical research projects at Yale. It is also
supported by two cooperative grants to Dr. Prakash
Nadkarni (Associate Professor, YCMI): a) to serve
as the special studies database for the NCI's
multisite Cancer Genetics Network, and b) to help
support the NIH's multisite Pharmacogenetics Network.
High performance computing applications
For more than a decade, Dr. Miller has worked
with Computer Science colleagues Martin Schultz,
Nicholas Carriero, and others to apply high performance
computation (HPC) techniques to problems in biomedicine,
ranging from sequence analysis and molecular dynamics
to cell image analysis. Current collaborations
with bioscience researchers focus on developing
a parallel main memory database system and a framework
for rapid application development environment.
Clinical informatics activities
The YCMI is also involved in a number of collaborative
clinical informatics activities. A longstanding
research activity has involved the development
of programs which bring computer-based advice
to the practicing clinician. One current project
directed by Dr. Richard Shiffman (Associate Director,
YCMI) involves developing GEM (Guideline Elements
Model), an XML-based standard to help organize
the creation and use of clinical practice guidelines.
Another recent clinical informatics project involved
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) which offer
a lightweight, mobile platform that can be used
at the point-of-care.
Recent Publications
Friedman CP, Altman RB, Kohane IS, McCormick
KA, Miller PL, Ozbolt JG, Shortliffe EH, Stormo
GD, Szczepaniak MC, Tuck D, Williamson J. Training
the next generation of informaticians: the impact
of "BISTI" and bioinformatics--a report
from the America College of Medical Informatics.
J Am Med Inform Assoc, 2004, 11:167-72.
Miller, P. L., Nadkarni, P., Singer, M.,Marenco,
L., Hines, M., Shepherd, G. Neuroinformatics research
at Yale in support of the Human Brain Project:
SenseLab. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 2001,
8:34-48.
Miller, P.L. The opportunities at the intersection
of bioinformatics and health informatics: A case
study. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 2000, 7:431-438.
Shifman MA, Srivastava R, Brandt CA, Li TR,White
K, Miller PL, Exploring portability of informatics
capabilities from a clinical application to a
bioscience application: A case study. J Am Med
Informatics Assoc 2004. (in press)
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