Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
CIPROS--a checklist with items for a patient registry software system.
Patient registries are an important instrument in medical research. Their implementation uses complex software systems to meet the wide spectrum of challenges. ⋯ CIPROS supports developers to assess requirements of an existing system. It also supports the reporting of patient registry software system descriptions in papers and it can be a first step to create standards for patient registry software systems.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Validation of a computerized technique for automatically tracking and measuring the inferior vena cava in ultrasound imagery.
Accurate resuscitation of the critically-ill patient using intravenous fluids and blood products is a challenging, time sensitive task. Ultrasound of the inferior vena cava (IVC) is a non-invasive technique currently used to guide fluid administration, though multiple factors such as variable image quality, time, and operator skill challenge mainstream acceptance. ⋯ Addressing problems such as gaps in the vessel wall and intra-lumen speckle should result in improved performance in average and poor quality videos. Semi-automated measurement of the IVC for the purposes of non-invasive estimation of circulating blood volume poses challenges however is feasible.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Mid-term NEAT review: analysing the improvements in hospital ED performance.
Introduced with a promise to reduce overcrowding in the Emergency Department (ED) and the associated morbidity and mortality linked to bed access difficulties, the National Emergency Access Target (NEAT) is now over halfway through transitionary arrangements towards a target of 90% of patients that visit a hospital ED being admitted or discharged within 4 hours. Facilitation and reward funding has ensured hospitals around the country are remodelling workflows to ensure compliance. ⋯ Our findings reveal that, while most hospitals have made significant improvements to their 4 hour discharge performance in 2013, the underlying flow patterns and periods of poor NEAT compliance remain largely unchanged. The work identifies areas for targeted improvement to inform system redesign and workflow planning.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
A model for consent-based privilege management in personal electronic health records.
One of the biggest issues in the domain of standardized, regional, crossinstitutional, personal, electronic health records is the privilege management. While many health information exchange projects use IHE-based architectures there are still unsolved questions regarding the restricting parameters a patient can use in the electronic consent configuring access control. ⋯ The introduced model can serve as framework for health information exchanges using a consent-based privilege management. The set representation can help to understand the complexity of consent representations.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Analysis of operating theatre utilisation to drive efficiency and productivity improvements.
There is an urgent need in the acute health system to use resources as efficiently as possible. One such group of resources are operating theatres, which have an important impact on patient flow through a hospital. ⋯ It was found that day-long sessions (as opposed to separate morning or afternoon sessions), mid-week sessions, certain specialties (eg. neurosurgery sessions) and not doing the longest case first were most beneficial to theatre utilisation. Awareness of these findings is important in any redesign activity aimed at improving flow performance.