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| |  The
History of BLIPS™
The
British Lupus Integrated Prospective System, or BLIPS™ as it is known, is the
result of 10 years of collaboration between British Isles Lupus Assessment Group
(BILAG) and ADS-Limathon Limited.
Since 1984, the BILAG group has been monitoring thousands of
patients with the autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Many
authoritative clinical papers have emanated from the group and they have
documented a complex index for assessing and controlling the disease. For ADS,
the project started out in 1996 as a simple data migration of a legacy BILAG
database into MS Access 2.0. Blips Version 1.0 was born. Currently at Version
4.0 and now powered by Microsoft Access XP, it has evolved over ten years, to
become a highly sought after tool for Lupus researchers worldwide.
BLIPS Version One was released
exclusively to the Bilag group in 1998 as a direct replacement for their old DOS
BILAG database. It included a completely new GUI interface for the BILAG index
– monitoring of eight clinical systems – mucocutaneous, immunological,
vascular, haematological, cardiovascular, biochemical neurological,
musculoskeletal, and added new functionality recording of medication drugs and
laboratory results. The software calculation algorithm was validated for the
BILAG group by Birmingham University, by checking against their database
containing 12,000 assessments.
BLIPS Version Two
in 1999 added two further
internationally recognised indices – SLICC and SF-36. Graphing of results was
introduced to the functionality, and the product became a network client-server
application.
BLIPS Version 3.0 was released worldwide in 2000
allowing non-BILAG clinics to obtain the tool. Version 3.0 included two more indices, SLAM-R and Selena Sledai. It was recoded in Access 97
and a 100-page user guide and helptext were added. BLIPS 3.0 is now in use in
major universities and hospitals throughout the UK, USA and Canada and as far a
field as China, Korea, Australia and the Philippines. During
2003-2005 several clinical studies were conducted using BLIPS 3.0
BLIPS Version 4.0 was released first released in a
bespoke Clinical Study version in November 2005.
It has since been used introduced in more studies in
2006. Changes included improved security and
audit trail for FDA CFR21 compliance. Demographic data screens were replaced
with Patient IDs. Sign off reports were introduced, along with the ability to
automatically email them to the Study Control centre. A system admin function
was introduced to allow Study Organisers to define which functionality would be
available to clinics during trials. Further development has enabled BLIPS
4.0 to be released in June 2006 as a standard product release, rather than
restricting it to Clinical Studies. The software calculation
algorithm was again validated by the BILAG group and
by an independent software testing consultancy.
BLIPS Version 5.0 is the latest release which came
in 2008.
This added a further index - The BILAG 2004 Index -
which is a major revision of the original BILAG index. Major clinical
improvements to the index have meant that data collected from previous versions
of BLIPS will not be compatible with the new index. Version 5 supports The BILAG
2000 and the BILAG 2004 index and users can chose to use either or both.
BLIPS
is now in use in over 30 countries around the world, and since release around
200 users have registered their copies.
BLIPS in the Future
In a separate development,
ADS-Limathon have been working with Ionasys
Incorporated and have developed a web enabled version of BLIPS, known as i-BLIPS.
Based on the BLIPS 4.0 calculation algorithm, the product retains many of the
familiar features of BLIPS, but instead of being MS Access based, it is written
in Java, and runs TOMCAT and a MYSQL database, located on a hosted server. This
will be initially aimed at Clinical Studies but it may also prove valuable to
collaborating clinics such as BILAG and SLICC. It provides the Study Organisers
all the major benefits associated with internet applications, including a
central database and a simple front end deployment in Internet Explorer. No
installation on the users PC is required. After the user has been registered in
the database, it is a simple task of entering the web address, and logging on
with a user name and password.
i-BLIPS
Version 1.0
has been now been validated for clinical trial use
and was released in October 2007.
i-BLIPS contains the following indices : For lupus -
BILAG 2000, BILAG 2004, SLICC, Selena Sledai, SLAM-R; and for myositis -
MITAX, MDI, MMT; plus demographic, medication, and laboratory results
databases. A new and important feature in i-BLIPS is the ability to recalculate
a complete set of assessments by patient or by site, if data is entered
retrospectively. Users may specify and purchase only the indices and
functionality required. i-BLIPS is now live on
commercially hosted enterprise servers based in USA, and is accessed from all
over the world by internet. Already it is being used on a major worldwide
clinical trial involving close to a hundred sites.
Gordon Hamilton, August 2008
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