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This is the website of Dr Robert Free’s informatics group which is based within the Department of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester, and located in the respiratory theme of the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre.

The main focus of the group is on technology building for clinical and precision medicine and technology-driven research. This includes: experimental development of solutions to help with the collection and handling of data by creating new tools, pipelines and data standards; and using data-driven approaches such as AI and machine learning to improve technologies and extract knowledge from existing clinical data to make real differences to clinical practice.

For access to the github repository containing available tools please go to https://github.com/rcfgroup.

Projects

LabPipe

A platform created to streamline data handling in metabolomics data collections, with a clinical focus.

qISA

A data standard for breath sample data and metadata designed to facilitate provenance and quality assurance

CAP-AI

A research project looking at the role AI could play in the management of pneumonia patients.

ClinicLE

An informatics framework for flexible patient-centric clinical data collection and management tools.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous informatics tools to help with clinical and precision medicine-based research

People

Group Lead

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Dr Robert Free

Research Fellow in Biomedical Informatics

  • Data-driven tools for improving collection and integration of biomedical data.
  • Use of AI/machine learning and visual approaches to enhance informatics tools.
  • Analysis of clinical data sets to extract new knowledge, in particular looking at pneumonia and TB.

Researchers

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Dr Bo Zhao

Research Associate in Biomedical Informatics

  • Data-driven tools for improving collection and integration of biomedical data.
  • Use of AI/machine learning and visual approaches to enhance informatics tools.
  • Analysis of clinical data sets to extract new knowledge, in particular looking at pneumonia and TB.

Recent Publications

A proposed data standard for breath sample data and metadata

Background Data management in breath research is underdeveloped. While general metabolomics data standards exist, these do not include …
Project Slides

Assessment of breath volatile organic compounds in acute cardiorespiratory breathlessness: a protocol describing a prospective real-world observational study

Introduction Patients presenting with acute undifferentiated breathlessness are commonly encountered in admissions units across the UK. …
PDF Project

Cohort Profile: Extended Cohort for E-health, Environment and DNA (EXCEED)

PDF Project

Implementation of a specialist pneumonia intervention nurse service significantly lowers mortality for community acquired pneumonia

Objectives: Evaluate clinical outcomes associated with implementing a specialist pneumonia intervention nursing (SPIN) service, to …
Project

LabPipe: A Modular Informatics Toolkit for Sample Collection and Data Integration

Background The EMBER (East Midlands Breathomics Pathology Node) project is a multi-disciplinary project which aims to discover how …
Project Poster

Contact

  • rcf8@le.ac.uk
  • 0116 2583911
  • NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre - Respiratory, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, LE3 9QP, United Kingdom