Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2016
A Service Design Thinking Approach for Stakeholder-Centred eHealth.
Studies have described the opportunities and challenges of applying service design techniques to health services, but empirical evidence on how such techniques can be implemented in the context of eHealth services is still lacking. This paper presents how a service design thinking approach can be applied for specification of an existing and new eHealth service by supporting evaluation of the current service and facilitating suggestions for the future service. We propose Service Journey Modelling Language and Service Journey Cards to engage stakeholders in the design of eHealth services.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2015
Review Meta AnalysisIdentification of Patient Safety Risks Associated with Electronic Health Records: A Software Quality Perspective.
Although Electronic Health Records (EHR) can offer benefits to the health care process, there is a growing body of evidence that these systems can also incur risks to patient safety when developed or used improperly. This work is a literature review to identify these risks from a software quality perspective. ⋯ This work elucidates the fact that EHR quality problems can adversely affect patient safety, resulting in errors such as incorrect patient identification, incorrect calculation of medication dosages, and lack of access to patient data. Therefore, the risks presented here provide the basis for developers and EHR regulating bodies to pay attention to the quality aspects of these systems that can result in patient harm.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2015
The Prognostic Scale CRASH in the Treatment of Children with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.
The aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness and validity of prognostic scale CRASH which is calculated using on-line resources and which may serve as a decision support for physicians in treating severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children. This retrospective study was conducted using clinical and physiological data of 168 hospitalized pediatric patients with severe traumatic brain injury (GCS score less than or equal to 8). CRASH scale was used for calculating the severity of patients' state and for prognosing death outcomes at 14 days and at 6 months using the on-line resource. ⋯ The study has also shown that the scale has a satisfactory calibration ability in the option of 14 days with CT (χ2 equal 8.7 and p-value equal to 0.368). Calibration ability for other options was unsatisfactory. Thus, CRASH scale with CT scan has turned to be useful for assessing death outcomes at 14 days in children with severe TBI.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2015
Implementation of Data Drive Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate parameters on a Pediatric Acute Care Unit.
The majority of hospital physiologic monitor alarms are not clinically actionable and contribute to alarm fatigue. In 2014, The Joint Commission declared alarm safety as a National Patient Safety Goal and urged prompt action by hospitals to mitigate the issue [1]. It has been demonstrated that vital signs in hospitalized children are quite different from currently accepted reference ranges [2]. Implementation of data-driven, age stratified vital sign parameters (Table 1) for alarms in this patient population could reduce alarm frequency.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2015
What are the Costs of Improving Access to Specialists through eConsultation? The Champlain BASE Experience.
Excessive wait times and poor access to care are among the most significant problems facing health care service delivery in Canada and beyond. We implemented the Champlain BASE eConsult service in the region of Ottawa, Canada to increase access to specialist care. We have collected ongoing utilization data and provider surveys over a three year period, providing a unique opportunity to explore the economic aspects of this multispecialty eConsult service. ⋯ This is one of the first studies to examine costs across a multispecialty eConsult service. We saw a marked decrease in the cost per eConsult over each annual period. Future research is needed to identify and examine similar outcomes that may lead to cost savings.