Hellenic Complex Systems Laboratory
Hellenic Complex Systems Laboratory (HCSL) is an independent virtual research laboratory, established in 1993, dedicated to the evaluation and reduction of uncertainty in complex systems.
Through a transdisciplinary framework, HCSL develops original clinical, laboratory, research, and educational tools for assessing and addressing uncertainties inherent in complex processes.
Scientific Focus
- Analytical quality control (QC) in laboratory medicine.
- Measurement uncertainty and diagnostic accuracy.
- Bayesian methods for medical diagnosis.
- Clinical and statistical computation.
- Complex systems methods.
Software
HCSL has developed freely available software tools, implemented as Wolfram computable notebooks, for diagnostic accuracy and measurement uncertainty, Bayesian medical diagnosis, and laboratory quality control. All software is archived on Zenodo with DOIs and in Software Heritage.
Notable Achievements
- 1993: Introduced a genetic algorithms (GAs) based approach to the design of statistical QC procedures, representing the first application of evolutionary computation to QC (see HCSL Publications on GAs based QC).
- 2009: Developed a theoretical framework and algorithm for optimizing statistical QC of analytical processes, integrating analytical system reliability and the risk of analytical error (see HCSL Publications on QC, Reliability and Risk).
- 2020: Developed a software tool for exploring the relation between diagnostic accuracy and measurement uncertainty subsequently proposed as a tool of interest by the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM)(see HCSL Publications on Diagnostic Accuracy).
Recognition
- The founding HCSL work on GAs based statistical QC (Hatjimihail AT. Genetic Algorithms Based Design and Optimization of Statistical Quality Control Procedures. Clin Chem. 1993;39(9):1972–1978) was presented at the prestigious 25th American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Oak Ridge Conference on Advanced Analytical Concepts and Systems, one of a select group of papers accepted from submissions worldwide.
- The EFLM Task Group on Analytical Performance Specifications based on Outcomes has proposed the HCSL Relation software tool as a resource that could help inform clinicians, guideline developers, and the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry about the impact of analytical performance on test accuracy and clinical decisions (Horvath AR, et al. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2024;62(8):1485–1493).