Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2010
Medical education & health informatics: time to join the 21st century?
This paper reports a component of a larger study, Informatics: enhancing the Clinical Experience? (ICE), which explored the impact on the therapeutic relationship of the implementation and use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in British Columbia, Canada. As anticipated, EMRs were found to negatively affect the relationship in many clinics. ⋯ This led to an interesting finding; that as a result of this difficulty few family care providers actually chart when their patients are with them, preferring to build rapport and chart at a later time. Consequently three recommendations are made: 1) Improve medical education in the area of charting (paper & EMR-based) with the patient present; 2) Explore the affect different technologies and skills have on the ability of providers to chart with the patient present and 3) Develop an understanding that unless the technology and training improve Canadian family medicine will never gain the asserted benefits of EMRs, and that other incentives are needed if Canada is to meet its target of delivering Electronic Health Records (EHR) to 100% of all Canadians by 2015.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2010
The use of virtual reality for a human classical conditioning procedure.
The present study investigated the use of a VR stereoscopic figure as conditioned stimulus (CS). A differential conditioning procedure was applied on 67 participants, where a VR stereoscopic figure (CS+) was paired with electric shock and other VR stereoscopic figure (CS-) was presented without shock. ⋯ Besides, the presentation of the CS+ evoked an active expectancy of the unconditioned stimulus (US). The use of VR stereoscopic figures as CSs seems feasible to design innovative experimental paradigms.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2010
Comparative StudyKey common determinants for adoption of wireless technology in healthcare for India and Pakistan: development of a conceptual model.
This study explores the perception and views of healthcare professionals in the subcontinent (India and Pakistan) towards the wireless handheld technology in the healthcare setting. A mixed methodology was adopted to explore the determinants of the wireless handheld devices in the healthcare setting. Interviews were conducted with 30 healthcare professionals to explore the initial themes. ⋯ Factor analysis through SPSS showed that any development of technological solutions for handheld devices would benefit, by considering the clinical, technological, and operational influences of the wireless technology in addition to clinical influences, clinical preference, training, and technical support. The study culminated in the development of an initial conceptual framework. The scope of this study is restricted to wireless handheld devices such as the smart phones, handheld PCs and PDAs.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2010
The IT-infrastructure of a biobank for an academic medical center.
For high quality research in biomedicine an operable biobank is essential. In order to make optimal use of the material and the huge amount of data a sustainable IT-infrastructure is indispensable. Therefore, we developed a concept for the IT-infrastructure of a biobank for an academic medical center. ⋯ Our results indicate that the IT-infrastructure plays a pivotal role in successfully establishing a biobank. Several aspects of the IT-infrastructure are similarly found in other areas as, e.g. data protection and storage and quality management. Finally, we conclude that although a research database is not required for operating a biobank, the need for it will definitely emerge, especially with regard to personalized medicine and high-throughput gene expression analysis.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2010
Combining vital events registration, verbal autopsy and electronic medical records in rural Ghana for improved health services delivery.
This paper describes the process of implementing a low-cost 'real-time' vital registration and verbal autopsy system integrated within an electronic medical record within the Millennium Village cluster in rural Ghana. Using MGV-Net, an open source health information architecture built around the OpenMRS platform, a total of 2378 births were registered between January 2007 and June 2009. ⋯ Building additional clinics to reduce distance to facility and using the CHEWs to refer women for delivery in the clinics are possible explanations for the success in the vital registration. The integration of vital registration and verbal autopsies with the MGV-Net information system makes it possible for rapid assessment of effectiveness and provides important feedback to local providers and the Millennium Villages Project.