Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2012
The use of linked registries to assess long-term mortality of ICU patients.
Clinical registries are frequently used to monitor and analyze the quality of health care by assessing the in-hospital mortality. However, long-term mortality is often ignored as it is rarely recorded in such clinical registries. In this study linkage of a clinical registry and administrative database is used to assess the longterm mortality of a large ICU sample. ⋯ In this study we have focused on the general ICU population, though linkage of clinical and administrative databases can also be used to perform analyses in specific diagnostic ICU populations or for non-ICU patients. In this study 71.4% of the clinical records could be linked with the administrative database. Future studies should focus on improving linkage of different registries.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2012
Implementation of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) with Clinical Decision Support (CDS) features in Riyadh Hospitals to improve quality of information.
In this paper, we have conducted a preliminary study of the applied Clinical Decision Support (CDS) features in adopted Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems. The study was conducted in three hospitals in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. ⋯ CPOE systems allow physicians to enter their medication orders electronically, but many of the applied CPOE systems do not contain alerts to advise physicians of potentially dangerous interactions caused by incorrect medications. Hospitals are advised to enhance the role of CDSS with the CPOE to reduce medication errors, improve patients' safety and increase information quality.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2012
Analysis of body growth parameters in girls with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: single thoracic idiopathic scoliosis versus single lumbar idiopathic scoliosis.
Abnormal pattern of growth has been reported in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients. However, the sequential changes of growth in different curve types of AIS have not been properly studied. The present study aimed to investigate the body growth characteristics of girls with single thoracic idiopathic scoliosis and lumbar idiopathic scoliosis in China. 339 AIS girls and 3914 healthy girls, aged 10~17yr, were included. ⋯ The standing and sitting height between thoracic and lumbar AIS girls were similar during the pubertal period. Compared to healthy girls at the same age, thoracic and lumbar AIS girls had a significantly higher corrected standing, sitting height and leg length. In addition, thoracic AIS girls are leaner than healthy girls.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2012
Viability of healthcare service delivery alternatives for the Australian mining sector.
The changing and demanding nature of the mining workforce in rural and remote Australia brings unique challenges to the delivery of healthcare services. In an attempt to control costs whilst delivering cost effective and quality healthcare, new models of delivery must be considered. ⋯ A cost-benefit framework is analysed comparing three models of service provision using travel to a major location, locum services and remote health monitoring. Ultimately, new models of care must be considered to address the issues of increasing workforce turnover, to cater for rising healthcare costs, and to improve the health of such communities.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2011
ReviewEvaluation of telephone triage and advice services: a systematic review on methods, metrics and results.
Telephone triage and advice services (TTAS) have been increasingly used to assess patients' symptoms, provide information and refer patients to appropriate levels of care (attempting to pursue efficiency and quality of care gains while ensuring safety). However, previous reviews have pointed out for the need for adequately evaluating TTAS. ⋯ To review TTAS evaluation studies, compile methodologies and metrics used and compare results. Systematic search in PubMed database; data collection and categorization by TTAS features and context, type of evaluation, methods, metrics and results; critical assessment of studies; discussion on research needs. 395 articles screened, 55 of them included in the analysis. In conclusion, several aspects of TTAS impact on healthcare systems remain unclear either due to a lack of research (e.g. on long term clinical outcomes, clinical pathways, safety, enhanced access) or because of huge disparities in existing studies on the accuracy of advice, patient compliance, system use, satisfaction and economic evaluation. Further research on TTAS impact is required, comprising multiple perspectives and broad range of metrics.