Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
ReviewEthical aspects of using medical social media in healthcare applications.
The advances in internet and mobile technologies and their increased use in healthcare led to the development of a new research field: health web science. Many research questions are addressed in that field, starting from analysing social-media data, to recruiting participants for clinical studies and monitoring the public health status. ⋯ Through a literature review, the current awareness on ethical issues in the context of public health monitoring and research using medical social media data is determined. Further, considerations on the topic were collected from members of the IMIA Social Media Working group.
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The greatest source of delay in patient flow is the waiting time from the health care request, and especially the bed request to exit from the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED) for hospital admission. It represents 70% of the time that these patients occupied in the PED waiting rooms. Our objective in this study is to identify tension indicators and bottlenecks that contribute to overcrowding. ⋯ This model allowed us to identify sources of delay in patient flow and aspects of the PED activity that could be improved. It must be enough retailed to produce an analysis allowing to identify the dysfunctions of the PED and also to propose and to estimate prevention indicators of tensions. Our survey is integrated into the French National Research Agency project, titled: "Hospital: optimization, simulation and avoidance of strain" (ANR HOST).
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Development and evaluation of a memory clinic information system.
To describe the requirements, development and evaluation of a cognitive disorders and older persons' clinical and research application, outlining the conceptual and practical challenges. ⋯ The development of a system needs to take in account existing data collection methods and other information systems used. The GreyMatters system can be considered a supplementary or complementary health record that sits alongside the main Trust information system. Integrating data from multiple systems enhances utility to clinical and research users.
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The pHealth 2014 Conference is the 11th in a series of scientific events bringing together expertise from medical, technological, political, administrative, and social domains, all related to the provision of personalized health services. Aspects such as cooperation between primary, secondary and tertiary health care establishments, the inclusion of social care, home care and lifestyle management, practical experiences with local or regional telemedicine services, management of chronic diseases, Quality assurance challenges, health games, terminologies and ontologies, data management and visualizations, medical decision support, monitoring of environmental and living conditions of citizens using mobile wearable or implementable technologies as well as social and ethical issues of health (care) provision are to be addressed by almost 40 speakers from various parts of the world. Keynotes, invited talks, and oral presentations discuss foundations and principles, requirements and solutions for pHealth. ⋯ The editors are also grateful to the dedicated efforts of the Local Organizing Committee members and their supporters for carefully and smoothly preparing and operating of the conference. They especially thank all team members of the eHealth Research and the management of the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien for their continuous involvement in the organization and realization of the conference. Bernd Blobel, Stefan Sauermann, Alexander Mense Editors.
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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.