J Med Syst
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Recent trends in healthcare delivery have led to a gradual shift in the conceptualisation of healthcare information systems towards supporting healthcare processes in a more direct way. The move towards integrated and managed care, which requires designing healthcare processes around patient needs and incorporating efficiency considerations has led to an increased interest in process-oriented healthcare information systems based on workflow technology. ⋯ Moreover, workflow technology promotes a component-oriented development whereby the process logic is separated from application logic. This paper presents an approach to capturing process logic requirements for healthcare workflow systems with a view to design a system that is easily adjustable to process changes and to evolving organizational structures at a reasonable cost.
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Limited staff and equipment within surgical services require efficient use of these resources among multiple surgeon groups. In this study, a set of hierarchical multiple criteria mathematical programming models are developed to generate weekly operating room schedules. ⋯ Because of computational difficulty of this scheduling problem, the overall problem is broken down into manageable hierarchical stages: (1) selection of patients, (2) assignment of operations to surgeon groups, and (3) determination of operation dates and operating rooms. Developed models are tested on the data collected in College of Medicine Research Hospital at Cukurova University as well as on simulated data sets using MPL optimization package.
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Wireless LANs using radio waves have recently gained popularity for installation in hospitals. Because electromagnetic waves transmitted from mobile telephones have been shown to cause interference with medical electronic equipment, prudence would seem necessary when introducing radio wave communication devices into hospitals. Therefore, we tested the effect of wireless LAN communication on medical electronic equipment and the effect of electronic equipment on wireless LAN communication. ⋯ The communication speed of the wireless LAN was temporarily reduced only when a microwave oven was located close to and facing the access point. Because output in Japan is limited to a maximum of 10 mW wireless LAN following the IEEE802.11b standard should be able to be installed safely in Japanese hospitals. However, wireless LAN access points should not be installed near microwave ovens.
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In this study, telemedicine and the use of advanced telemedicine technologies are explained. Telemedicine is the use of modern telecommunications and information technologies for the provision of clinical care to individuals at a distance, and transmission of information to provide that care. Telemedicine can be used for decision making, remote sensing, and collaborative arrangements for the real-time management of patients at a distance. ⋯ The challenges existing in telemedicine development in different countries are given. Technological, political, and professional barriers in applications of telemedicine are defined. An investigation of telemedicine applications in various fields is presented, and enormous impact of telemedicine systems on the future of medicine is determined.
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Turkey has a big pharmaceutical industry-of the drugs consumed there, 90% are manufactured domestically. Eighty percent of this manufacturing is run by foreign companies. In this study, the performance of the Turkish pharmaceutical industry in terms of the technology and production is examined and compared with that of some other countries, and the importance of the essential drugs list and national drug policy is discussed. At the end of the study, strategies are suggested toward meeting the main current challenges in the Turkish pharmaceutical industry.