How Analytics Could Be Used in CTE Research

by | Dec 9, 2024 | Healthcare

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Boston University’s alumni magazine recently highlighted some of the work being done at the university’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center. The center conducts “high-impact, innovative research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other long-term consequences of repetitive brain trauma.” Researchers look into the disease by examining the brains of athletes, military personnel, first responders, and others affected by head trauma.

The type of clinical data gathered by researchers at Boston University is being done in labs and healthcare facilities everywhere. Here’s some of what is happening at BU, and how data and analytics can help in similar instances.

Diagnosing CTE

Dr. Ann McKee made her first discoveries around CTE in 2008 as part of her research at BU’s medical school. As director of the CTE Center, her work has changed the way people think about head injuries.

Currently, CTE can only be diagnosed after someone has died. To do their work, researchers at BU rely on brain donations, which must happen quickly after someone has died. According to the alumni magazine, BU’s CTE Center has received more than 1,500 brains over its 15 years in existence, and of those about 70% show evidence of CTE. The donated brains are each sliced in half, and one half is used to study the tissue, while the other half is frozen to use for study in the future.

 

 

Gathering data

So far, the only way to confirm that someone has CTE is by studying the brain tissue under a microscope. Pathologists look for an abnormal form of the protein tau, which can grow and tangle healthy brain cells. It is through studies like this that researchers determined that someone didn’t need to be diagnosed with a concussion to have CTE – it is hits to the head that cause the disease.

The other big data-gathering part of CTE research is the brain donor’s health history. This is done by studying medical records and a history of what sports they may have played, as well as what kinds of head injuries they might have suffered. In addition to the medical records, interviews with survivors of the donor are conducted to gather as much information as possible.

How analytics can be used

There aren’t many shortcuts an analytics solution can offer to the kind of clinical research that takes place at BU’s CTE Center. What analytics can do, though, is present to researchers the data they have gathered in a different way, perhaps offering them a different perspective on their work. A comprehensive analytics solution can combine data from different sources – one lab on campus, another lab in another building, perhaps – and present the information as one singular truth that can help with decision-making.

Sometimes an analytics solution can make all of the other work involved in running a lab easier so that quality research can be conducted. Whether it’s financial reports, scheduling for employees or for spaces, or the kinds of regulatory reporting that often accompany medical work, an analytics solution can make that work easier and more efficient, making sure people aren’t spending too much time on other tasks that take them away from the lab work they are doing.

At BU, researchers keep in close touch with donors’ families, first to collect necessary information, and then to keep them informed about the results that have come out of their loved one’s donation, both in terms of personal information and how the donation has impacted the wider field of research. An analytics solution can help keep track of all of that information, which is constantly growing and can become overwhelming.

Though there has been a lot of progress made in the field of CTE research over the past decade-plus, there is still much work to be done. A new study is working to find indicators of CTE in 1,000 living participants, with the hope that eventually the disease can be diagnosed during someone’s lifetime. Researchers have tons of data on some of the symptoms that could show the presence of CTE, but they are looking into whether there are ways it can be confirmed through something like a blood test. Then researchers might be able to work on ways to intervene and treat the disease. In order to get to that point, they will rely on the many pieces of data they’ve collected, and that an analytics solution could be used to help make sense of.

John Sucich
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