Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2000
Design principles of a clinical information system for intensive care units (ICUData).
The aim of this project was to develop a cost-effective, standard-based and scalable clinical information system for use in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The development started in 1998 at the University Giessen, Germany. ⋯ The implementation of the system in two further ICUs is scheduled for the year 2000. The following article describes some of the principal design goals of the system, including the medical vision that drove its interface design, and focuses on the technological underpinnings of the overall system architecture.
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To optimise the development and implementation process of an electronic patient record, attitudes toward computers in health care and satisfaction with paper records of nurses and physicians of a department in an academic hospital were determined. For this purpose participants received two questionnaires. ⋯ Users who considered themselves as experienced computer users had more positive attitudes. Inexperienced users were more satisfied with the nursing paper record, while no significant differences existed for the paper medical record.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2000
AUDIX: a knowledge-based system for speech-therapeutic auditory discrimination exercises.
AUDIX is a knowledge-based multimedia system for auditory discrimination exercises. The aim of AUDIX is to provide patients with a computer-based therapy system which they can use between sessions with the human therapist, at home on an 'on-demand' basis. It is centered around computer based cognitive rehabilitation therapy whereas most existing programs in this area are only used for assessment. ⋯ The system provides computer-based auditory discrimination training. Through the knowledge-based design the domain dependent therapy knowledge is separated from the system core and provides a way for the therapist to add new knowledge, as new stimuli, or to create a new knowledge base to provide special exercises for an individual patient. The AUDIX architecture is described and the advantages of computer-based therapy are discussed.
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This paper will describe a suite of surgical simulators that we have designed and implemented to run on the WWW. The procedures that have been modelled include simulations of ventricular catheterisation, and lumbar puncture. We will present a detailed overview of implementation and operation of these simulators, and indicate results from early use. The advantages and disadvantages of our approach will be discussed.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2000
Opportunities for improving quality in the health care industry.
This paper discusses the current state of health care quality and describes some of the factors that are hindering efforts to move toward evidence-based practice. The President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality spent one year looking at the state of health care quality and developed a set of recommendations to tackle the serious quality problem in the health care industry. The Institute of Medicine has started an initiative, Quality of Health Care in America Project, which is addressing many of the quality of care areas identified by the President's Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality. This paper discusses the work of these two groups and concludes with key issues in the advancement of quality health care.