British Lupus Integrated Prospective System

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus) is a chronic autoimmune disease that can be fatal, though with recent medical advances, fatalities are becoming increasingly rare. As with other autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks the body�s cells and tissue, resulting in inflammation and tissue damage. SLE can affect any part of the body, but most often harms the heart, joints, skin, lungs, blood vessels, liver, kidneys, and nervous system. The course of the disease is unpredictable, with periods of illness (called flares) alternating with remissions. Lupus can occur at any age, and is most common in women, particularly of non-European descent. Lupus is treatable symptomatically, mainly with corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, though there is currently no cure.

The BLIPS software program was designed in collaboration with the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group (BILAG) as a Windows based database for doctors, clinicians and researchers to acquire patient health and laboratory data and monitor patients response to drug treatments. Although designed for the study of Lupus, this program has much wider uses monitoring patient health and well being against drug dosage and clinical analysis. BLIPS database software for SLE utilises five internationally recognised patient indices - BILAG, SLICC, SF-36, SLAM-R, Selena Sledai, and computes the patients scores along with storing vital laboratory results and medication administered.  Since LUPUS crosses multiple human systems the BLIPS software can also be used to monitor patients with disease or disorders in the multiple systems Mucocutaneous, Neurological, Musculoskeletal, Cardiovascular and Respiratory, Vasculitis, Renal, Haematological, Immunological

i-BLIPS is the internet based version of the BLIPS desktop product. While BLIPS is a desktop client - server system best suited for local area networks, i-BLIPS allows users all over the world to collaborate on single studies in a central database accessed through their internet browser. One of the biggest advantages of i-BLIPS over BLIPS is the ease of installation. Being internet browser based, there is no user installation. The application is server based which means that the user simply opens their internet browser, calls the web site, logs in, and enters data, from any PC, anywhere in the world.

i-BLIPS has all the assessments available in BLIPS ( BILAG, SLICC, SF-36, SLAM-R, Selena Sledai ) plus it introduces the new BILAG 2004 index  First published in 2004 by the BILAG Group this index has been undergoing clinical validation and refinement at Birmingham University for four years.  BILAG-2004 measures disease activity (scored from A to E) in nine systems: constitutional, mucocutaneous, neuropsychiatric, musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory, gastrointestinal, ophthalmic, renal and hematologic. The index produces an overview of disease activity rather than a global score; where necessary, the highest score obtained on any of the systems assessed is taken as the overall score.The final version is now available as a database developed exclusively by ADS-Limathon Ltd and is included in i-BLIPS. Other new additions to the range of SLE assessments in available in i-BLIPS are the Lupus QOL index and the Long Term Outcome assessment. i-BLIPS extends its reach beyond lupus for the first time and makes available the ERA database for the study of Early Rheumatoid Arthritis, plus three assessments for study of the muscular disease of Myositis - the MITAX index, MMT (Manual Muscle Testing) and MDI (Myositis Damage Index)

i-BLIPS can be configured to be used by a single physician, at a single clinic, or for multiple users at the clinic. Alternatively, several collaborative lupus research groups in specific countries are already using the power of i-BLIPS to pool the studies from multiple clinics in a bid to increase the understanding of this auto-immune disease. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies are running Clinical Studies on a global scale with hundreds of sites around the world collecting and scoring patient assessments in i-BLIPS, when trialling new drugs to combat the lupus disease.

The Power Behind i-BLIPS �

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