Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Needle bending in a VR-puncture training system using a 6DOF haptic device.
The use of virtual reality techniques opens up new perspectives to support and improve the puncture training in medical education. In this work a 3D VR-Simulator for the training of lumbar and ascites punctures has been extended to support the bending of the puncture needle. For this purpose the needle is designed as an angular spring model. ⋯ Proxy based haptic volume rendering is used to calculate the proxy movement. This way it is possible to integrate original CT-patient data into the rendering process and generate forces from structures that have not been segmented. The bending technique has been integrated in a VR-training system for puncture interventions and shows good results concerning update rate and user acceptance.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Open source and healthcare in Europe - time to put leading edge ideas into practice.
Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) is a process of software development, a method of licensing and a philosophy. Although FLOSS plays a significant role in several market areas, the impact in the health care arena is still limited. FLOSS is promoted as one of the most effective means for overcoming fragmentation in the health care sector and providing a basis for more efficient, timely and cost effective health care provision. ⋯ The workshop will further refine this strategy and elaborate avenues for FLOSS-HC from scientific, business and end-user perspectives. To gain acceptance by different stakeholders in the health care industry, different activities have to be conducted in collaboration. The workshop will focus on the scientific challenges in developing methodologies and criteria to support FLOSS-HC in becoming a viable alternative to commercial and proprietary software development and deployment.
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Interdisciplinary communication in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is complicated by the dynamic workflow of clinicians, instability of patients, and highly technological therapies, equipment and information systems. Many countries have examined methods to improve clinician communication and to understand common patient care goals. ⋯ We found that the clinicians studied value the availability of time sensitive information when it impacts their decisions and workflow and trust RNs' judgment of clinical information and situations. Future work should include analyses of RN perceptions of interdisciplinary communication in the ICU.
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Our main objective is to detect adverse drug events (ADEs) in former hospital stays. As ADEs are rare, that supposes to screen thousands of electronic health records (EHRs). For that purpose, we need to define a data model that has two main objectives: (1) being able to describe hospital stays from various hospitals (2) being tuned so as to prepare the data mining process: as ADEs are not flagged in the datasets, the data model must be optimized for ADE detection. ⋯ It is compatible with many hospitals. It deals with diagnoses, drug prescriptions, lab results and administrative information. It allows for data mining and ADE detection in EHRs.
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A study of Australian nurses on their use of information technology in the workplace was undertaken by the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) in 2007. This study of over 4000 nurses highlighted that nurses recognise benefits to adopting more information technology in the workplace although there are significant barriers to their use. It also identified gross deficits in the capacity of the nursing workforce to engage in the digital processing of information. ⋯ This project is being developed in collaboration with the ANF and the Queensland University of Technology. This paper will discuss the methodology, development and publication of the Australian Nursing Informatics Competency Standards Project which is currently underway and due for completion in May 2009. The Australian Nursing Informatics Competencies will be presented at the conference.