Studies in health technology and informatics
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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.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Observational StudyClinical documentation improvement for outpatients by implementing electronic medical records.
This observational study was conducted before and after implementing an electronic medical record (EMR) system to evaluate the change in outpatient workflow by implementation of EMR and the effectiveness of clinical documentation improvement (CDI). The number of hours for patient care increased by 89.2% (p < .05) and the hours for writing medical records after consulting decreased after implementation of EMR by 27.3% (p < .01). ⋯ The necessary change in the information management process occurred after using the CDI indicator. We recommend that the "working hours of health professionals" and "handling hours for information resources" should be used widely as CDI indicators to improve workflow when implementing EMR.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
An open-source, mobile-friendly search engine for public medical knowledge.
The World Wide Web has become an important source of information for medical practitioners. To complement the capabilities of currently available web search engines we developed FindMeEvidence, an open-source, mobile-friendly medical search engine. In a preliminary evaluation, the quality of results from FindMeEvidence proved to be competitive with those from TRIP Database, an established, closed-source search engine for evidence-based medicine.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Combining patient journey modelling and visual multi-agent computer simulation: a framework to improving knowledge translation in a healthcare environment.
This article focuses on a framework that will investigate the integration of two disparate methodologies: patient journey modelling and visual multi-agent simulation, and its impact on the speed and quality of knowledge translation to healthcare stakeholders. Literature describes patient journey modelling and visual simulation as discrete activities. ⋯ The test-bed is ambulatory care and the goal is to determine if this approach can improve health services delivery, workflow, and patient outcomes and satisfaction. The multidisciplinary research team is comprised of expertise in patient journey modelling, simulation, and knowledge translation.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
A personal health information toolkit for health intervention research.
With the emergence of mobile health (mHealth) apps, there is a growing demand for better tools for developing and evaluating mobile health interventions. Recently we developed the Personal Health Intervention Toolkit (PHIT), a software framework which eases app implementation and facilitates scientific evaluation. ⋯ PHIT can be used to facilitate research, interventions for chronic diseases, risky behaviors, sleep, medication adherence, environmental monitoring, momentary data collection health screening, and clinical decision support. In a series of usability evaluations, participants reported an overall usability score of 4.5 on a 1-5 Likert scale and an 85 score on the System Usability Scale, indicating a high percentile rank of 95%.