Mr John Ainsworth - personal details

Prior to my stint in academia I worked in the telecommunications/data networking industry for 10 years, fullfilling a variety of roles including software engineer, software architect, project manager, and consutling engineer. I have worked on numerous telecommunications systems and I have practical  experience of designing and developing distributed, fault tolerant systems. I  have deep knowledge of all major networking protocols and some fairly esoteric stuff too such as SS7, ISUP, SIGTRAN, DPNSS, UMTS IMS, SIP, etc.

I have dabbled with Grid computing.

For the last 6 years I have focused on health informatics, and have lead the development of openCDMS, an open source study/trial data collection system, to the point where it is in wide spread prodcution use both in the UK and internationally.

I have been the software architect on the e-Lab programme within NIBHI, providing technical leadership in the NWeH and CLAHRC projects.

I am currently active in m-Health, and  a memebr of the executive of the Manchester Mobile Health Innovation Centre (MMHIC).

I am firmly committed to improving the quality of medical research and hopefully in turn the health of the population, through free software.

• BSc (Hons) Physics
• MSc Cognitive Science

I am a researcher in the Health Methodology Group in the School of Community Based Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, with interests in Medical Informatics and Public Health Informatics. The most accurate description of what I do is engineering; I apply compoting technology to health care. I am the Chief Technical Architect and Deputy Director for the North-West Institiute for Bio-Health Informatics (NIBHI) and the General Manager of openCDMS.

I am affiliated with numerous projects, typically leading on some permutation of engineering, technology and project management