Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
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J Clin Monit Comput · Jan 2000
Using an anesthesia information management system to prove a deficit in voluntary reporting of adverse events in a quality assurance program.
A deficit is suspected in the manual documentation of adverse events in quality assurance programs in anesthesiology. In order to verify and quantify this, we retrospectively compared the incidence of manually recorded perioperative adverse events with automatically detected events. ⋯ Using automatic detection, we were able to prove a considerable deficit in the documentation of adverse events according to the guidelines of the German quality assurance program in anesthesiology. Based on the data from manual recording, the results of the quality assurance of our department match those of other comparable German departments. Thus, we are of the opinion that manual incident reporting seriously underestimates the true occurrence rate of incidents. This brings into question the validity of quality assurance comparisons based on manually recorded data.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Jan 2000
Effects of digital filtering on the parameters of impulse-like eye movements.
Influence of two filtering modes were researched with electro-oculographically recorded impulse-like eye movements. Linear finite impulse response (FIR) and non-linear hybrid median filters were explored by considering gain and latency parameters that yield the most important information in the case of these eye movements. It is stated that carefully selected lowpass filtering can securely be run without considerable changes in parameter values in order to discard noise stemming from physiological or other reasons.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Jan 2000
Infrared transmission of electronic information via LAN in the operating room.
Recent advances in technology have brought many kinds of monitoring devices into the operating room (OR). The information gathered by monitors can be channeled to the operating ward information system via a local area network (LAN). Connecting patients to monitors and monitors to the LAN, however, requires a large number of cables. ⋯ In our trial, we found no evidence of EMI of IR modems with any of the medical devices we tested. Furthermore, IR modems showed similar performance to a wired system even in an electrically noisy environment. We conclude that IR wireless connectivity can be safely and effectively used in ORs.
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New developments in speech interaction technology warrant the assumption that some of the interaction problems at anesthesia workplaces can be solved using speech interaction. One application might be the documentation of the anesthetic procedure. ⋯ Modern speech recognition tools are still not advanced enough to facilitate the design of applications with an almost natural speech interface and widespread user acceptance. Nevertheless, many tasks in anesthesia have the necessary characteristics to be optimally supported by speech interaction. In contrast to earlier approaches to speech-interactive anesthesia workplaces, successful application today depends on the question of design rather than solely on that of technology. Many of the constraints and drawbacks of current technology can be overcome through appropriate design measures. The goals must focus first on identifying task areas in intensive care where speech-interaction can yield real benefit in terms of work efficiency, and second on developing and evaluating an ergonomic design of speech interaction. The intended users seem to look forward to the incorporation of speech interaction at the workplace.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Jan 2000
Representation and classification of breath sounds recorded in an intensive care setting using neural networks.
Develop and test methods for representing and classifying breath sounds in an intensive care setting. ⋯ Long term monitoring of lung sounds is not feasible unless several barriers can be overcome. Several choices in signal representation and neural network design greatly improved the classification rates of breath sounds. The analysis of transmitted sounds from the trachea to the lung is suggested as an area for future study.