Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Intelligent Systems

Associate Director, RODS Laboratory

Contact Info:

Research Interests

Dr. Tsui’s interests include Biosurveillance, grid computing, machine learning, time series analysis, spatial-temporal data analysis, neural networks, wavelet transforms, signal processing, data warehouse, and real-time systems. He is a member of DBMI's RODS (Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance) Laboratory.

Education

Dates Attended: 1993-1996
Name and Location of Institution: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Degree Received and Year: PhD, Electrical Engineering, 1996
Major Subject: Electrical Engineering

Dates Attended: 1990-1993
Name and Location of Institution: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Degree Received and Year: Electrical Engineering, 1993
Major Subject: Electrical Engineering

Dates Attended: 1984-1988
Name and Location of Institution: Tatung Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
Degree Received and Year: BS Electrical Engineering, 1988
Major Subject: Electrical Engineering

Publications

Journal Publications

Wu, T.J., Shih, F.F., Yen, M., Wu, J.J., Lu, S., Chang, K.C., Hsiung, C., Chou, J., Chu, Y., Chang, H., Chiu, C., Tsui, F.-C., et al., Establishing a nationwide emergency department-based syndromic surveillance system for better public health responses in Taiwan, BMC Public Health, 2008, 8:18.

Tsai MC, Tsui FC. Biosurveillance grid: evaluation of the distribution of biosurveillance data across multiple computers. MIA Annu Symp Proc. 2007 Oct 11:1138. PMID: 18694235

Tsai MC, Tsui FC, Wagner MM. An evaluation of biosurveillance grid—dynamic algorithm distribution across multiple computer nodes. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2007 Oct 11:746-50. PMID: 18693936

Que J, Tsui FC, Wagner MM. Timeliness study of radiology and microbiology reports in a healthcare system for biosurveillance. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006:1068. PMID: 17238687

Tsui FC, Espino JU, Weng Y, Choudary A, Su HD, Wagner MM. Key design elements of a data utility for national biosurveillance: event-driven architecture, caching, and Web service model. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2005:739-43. PMID: 16779138

Espino, J. U., Wagner, M., Szczepaniak, C., Tsui, F. C., Su, H., Olszewski, R., Liu, Z., Chapman, W., Zeng, X., Ma, L., Lu, Z. and Dara, J. Removing a barrier to computer-based outbreak and disease surveillance — the RODS Open Source Project. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, vol. 53 Suppl, no., pp. 32-9, 2004. PMID: 15714624

Wagner, M. M., Espino, J., Tsui, F. C., Gesteland, P., Chapman, W., Ivanov, O., Moore, A., Wong, W., Dowling, J. and Hutman, J. Syndrome and outbreak detection using chief-complaint data—experience of the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance project. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, vol. 53 Suppl, no., pp. 28-31, 2004.

Wagner, M. M., Tsui, F. C., Espino, J., Hogan, W., Hutman, J., Hersh, J., Neill, D., Moore, A., Parks, G., Lewis, C. and Aller, R. National Retail Data Monitor for public health surveillance. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, vol. 53 Suppl, no., pp. 40-2, 2004.

Tsui F.-C., Espino JU, Dato VM, Gesteland PH, Hutman J, Wagner M.M. Technical description of RODS: A real-time public health surveillance system. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 10(5): pp. 399-408, 2003.

Wagner MM, Robinson M, Tsui F-C, Espino JU, Hogan WR. Design of a national retail data monitor for public health surveillance. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 10(5): pp. 409-418, 2003.

Hogan WR, Tsui F-C. Detection of pediatric respiratory and diarrheal outbreaks from sales of over-the-counter electrolyte products. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 10(6):555-62, 2003.

Gesteland PH, Gardner RM, Tsui FC, Espino JU, Rolfs RT, James BC, Chapman WW, Moore AW, Wagner MM. Automated syndromic surveillance for the 2002 Winter Olympics. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2003 Nov-Dec;10(6):547-54. Epub 2003 Aug 4. PMID: 12925547

Zhang J, Tsui F-C, Wagner MM, and Hogan WR. Detection of outbreaks from time series data using wavelet transform. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2003:748-52. PMID: 14728273

Ma L, Tsui FC, Hogan WR, Wagner MM, Ma H. A framework for infection control surveillance using association rules. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2003:410-4. PMID: 14728205

Tsui F.-C., Wagner M.M., Dato V., and Chang J. Value of ICD-9 Coded Chief Complaints for Detection of Epidemics. Proc AMIA Symp. 2001:711-5. PMID: 11825278

Tsui FC, Espino JU, Wagner MM, Gesteland P, Ivanov O, Olszewski RT, Liu Z, Zeng X, Chapman W, Wong WK, Moore A. Data, network, and application: technical description of the Utah RODS Winter Olympic Biosurveillance System. Proc AMIA Symp. 2002:815-9. PMID: 12463938

Panackal AA, M’ikanatha NM, Tsui F-C, McMahon J, Wagner MM, Dixon BW, Zubieta J, Phelan M, Mirza S, Morgan J, Jernigan D, Pasculle AW, Rankin JT, Hejjeh RA, Harrison LH. Automatic electronic laboratory-based reporting of notifiable infectious diseases at a large health system. Emerging Infectious Diseases 8(7):685-691, 2002.

Lober WB, Karras BT, Wagner MM, Overhage JM, Davidson AJ, Fraser H, Mandl KD, Espino JU, Tsui F-C. Roundtable on bioterrorism detection: Information system-based surveillance. J Am Med Inform Assoc, 9(2):105-15, 2002

Gesteland PH, Wagner MM, Chapman WW, Espino JU, Tsui FC, Gardner RM, Rolfs RT, Dato V, James BC, Haug PJ. Rapid deployment of an electronic disease surveillance system in the state of Utah for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Proc AMIA Symp. 2002:285-9. PMID: 12463832.

Wagner MM, Tsui F-C, Espino JU, Dato VM, Sittig DF, Caruana RA, McGinnis LF, Deerfield DW, Druzdzel MJ, Fridsma DB. The emerging science of very early detection of disease outbreaks. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice 7/6: 51-59, 2001.

Tsui FC, Wagner MM, Wilbright W, Tse A, Hogan WR. A feasibility study of two methods for end-user configuration of a clinical event monitor. Proc AMIA Symp. 1999:975-8. PMID: 10566506

Wagner MM, Tsui FC, Pike J, Pike L. Design of a clinical notification system. Proc AMIA Symp. 1999:989-93. PMID: 10566509

Eisenstadt SA, Wagner MM, Hogan WR, Pankaskie MC, Tsui FC, Wilbright W. Mobile workers in healthcare and their information needs: are 2-way pagers the answer? Proc AMIA Symp. 1998:135-9. PMID: 9929197

Tsui FC, Wagner M, Thompson ME. Implementing NCEP guidelines in a Web-based disease-management system. Proc AMIA Annu Fall Symp. 1997:764-8. PMID: 9357728

Wagner MM, Pankaskie M, Hogan W, Tsui FC, Eisenstadt SA, Rodriguez E, Vries JK. Clinical event monitoring at the University of Pittsburgh. Proc AMIA Annu Fall Symp. 1997:188-92. PMID: 9357614

Tsui F.-C., Li C.C., Sun M., and Sclabassi R.J. Acquiring, Modeling, and Predicting ICP Signals in the Intensive Care Unit. Biomedical Engineering Applications, Basics, and Communications, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp 566-578, 1996.

Selected Conference Proceedings

Que J., Tsui F.-C., and Espino J. A Z-Score based multi-level spatial clustering algorithm for the detection of disease outbreaks Biosecure 2008 Dec, LNCS 5354, pp. 108-118.

Que J. and Tsui F.-C. A multilevel spatial clustering algorithm for detection of disease outbreaks, AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2008 Nov 6:611-5. PMID: 18999304.

Espino J., Hall K., White P., Washington D., Grant A., Hume A., Antonioletti M., Krause A., Jackson M., Tsui F.-C. and Heinbaugh W. Open-source Collaboration in Practice between RODS, NCPHI Research Lab, University of Edinburgh and Tarrant County Public Health, 2008 PHIN Conference.

Tsui F.-C., Que J, and Wagner MM. Ellipse-based Clustering Analysis Using a Time Series Algorithm. Advances in Disease Surveillance, 2007.

King CC, Wu TS, Hsiao CY, Shih FY, Yen MY, Liu DM, Lu SW, Chang CM, Liu CT, Mei LI, Chang H, Corwin A, Tsui F.-C., and Wagner MM. Comparison of Chief-Complaint vs ICD-9 Data Used in an Emergency Department-based Hospital Syndromic Surveillance System in Metropolitan Taipei, Taiwan. Advances in Disease Surveillance, 2007.

Sabhnani MR, Neill DB, Moore AW, Tsui F.-C., Espino JU, Wagner MM. Detecting anomalous patterns in pharmacy retail data. Proceedings of the KDD 2005 Workshop on Data Mining Methods for Anomaly Detection, 2005.

Sabhnani MR, Neill DB, Moore AW, Tsui F.-C., Wagner MM, and Jeremy U. Espino. Monitoring pharmacy retail data for anomalous space-time clusters. Advances in Disease Surveillance, 2006.

Espino, J. U., Wagner, M. M., Tsui, F., Su, H., Olszewski, R. T., Lie, Z., Chapman, W., Zeng, X., Ma, L., Lu, Z. W. and Dara, J. The RODS Open Source Project: Removing a Barrier to Syndromic Surveillance. Medinfo, pp. 1192-6, 2004.

Tsui F.-C., Espino JU, Wagner MM. The Timeliness, Reliability, and Cost of Real-time and Batch Chief Complaint Data. Proceedings of National Syndromic Surveillance Conference, Boston, MA, Nov. 3-4, 2004.

Liu Z, Chrysanthis P, Tsui F.-C. A Comparison of Two View Materialization Approaches. Proceedings of ACM SAC, Nicosia, Cyprus, Mar. 14-17, 2004

Espino JU, Wagner MM, Tsui F.-C., et al. Removing a barrier to syndromic surveillance: open sourcing the RODS system. Proceedings of the National Syndromic Surveillance Conference, New York, New York, Oct. 20-24th, 2003

M.M. M’ikanatha, J. Espino, W. Pascule, O. Ivanov, Tsui, F. and et al. Integration of an Automated reporting system in infectious disease surveillance in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Proceedings of National Syndromic Surveillance Conference, New York, New York, 2002.

Book Chapters

Tsui F.-C., Espino JU, Wagner MM, et al., Chapter 13 Case detection algorithms. In: Wagner M, Moore A, Aryel R, editors. Handbook of Biosurveillance. New York: Elsevier; 2006.

Grants

1U38HK000063-01 Tsui (PI) 09/30/08 - 09/29/10
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
PA-OH BIG: Building a Regional Biosurveillance Grid for Pennsylvania and Ohio
The major goal of this project is to support the BioSense Initiative by developing a software platform for biosurveillance staff and researchers that allow them to measure the sensitivity, specificity, detection timeliness, and smallest detectable outbreak of a surveillance system.
Role: PI

460000897 (08-0672)       Tsui (PI)       05/01/08 - 12/31/08
Houston Department of Health
The Houston RODS System Expansion of Functionality
The major goal of this project is to determine the ability of the Bayesian Aerosol Release Detector (BARD) to address the problem of early detection of bioterrorism attacks where bioterrorists release a biological agent into the atmosphere as an aerosol.
Role: PI

R01 PH000024-01       Wallstrom (PI)       09/30/07 - 09/29/09
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Disaster Planning and Management
The major goal of this project is to support the BioSense Initiative by developing a software platform for biosurveillance staff and researchers that allow them to measure the sensitivity, specificity, detection timeliness, and smallest detectable outbreak of a surveillance system.
Role: Co-investigator

1 RO1 PH000026-01       Hogan (PI)       09/30/05 - 09/29/09
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Improving detection of outbreaks due to aerosol attacks
The major goal of this project is to determine the ability of the Bayesian Aerosol Release Detector (BARD) to address the problem of early detection of bioterrorism attacks where bioterrorists release a biological agent into the atmosphere as an aerosol.
Role: Co-Investigator

IIS-0325581       Cooper (PI)       09/15/03 - 08/31/09
National Science Foundation
Bayesian Modeling for Biosurveillance
The major goal of this project is to develop algorithms for the analysis of public health surveillance data.
Role: Co-Investigator

Lab Personnel

Graduate Students:

Jialan Que, M.S.

Software Developers:

Kevin Bui
Jeremy Espino, M.D., RODS Open Source/IT Director
Howard Su, M.S.