Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2006
Developing an interactive approach in teaching medical informatics.
A new masters program in medical informatics is proposed for development at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timisoara. Given the rapidly changing technology itself and its deployment in biomedical science, the master's program curriculum has to be multidisciplinary, comprehensive and coherent in conveying the concepts, as well as the interdisciplinary character, of medical informatics (MI). ⋯ Two teaching teams of four instructors have been assigned to one of two tracks in our pilot study: traditional instruction or interactive instruction. After one term we have gained important information about how the structural and instructional aspects of the pilot design may influence confidence and attitudes.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2006
Removal of paper-based health records from Norwegian hospitals: effects on clinical workflow.
Several Norwegian hospitals have, plan, or are in the process of removing the paper-based health record from clinical workflow. To assess the impact on usage and satisfaction of electronic health record (EHR) systems, we conducted a survey among physicians, nurses and medical secretaries at selected departments from six Norwegian hospitals. The main feature of the questionnaire is the description of a set of tasks commonly performed at hospitals, and respondents were asked to rate their usage and change of ease compared to previous routines for each tasks. ⋯ Even though the increase in use among clinicians after removing the paper based record were mainly in tasks where respondents had no choice other than use the electronic health record, the attitude towards EHR-systems were mainly positive. Thus, while removing the paper based record has yet to promote new ways of working, we see it as an important step towards the EHR system of tomorrow. Several Norwegian hospitals have shown that it is possible.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2006
Integrating medical and genomic data: a successful example for rare diseases.
The recent advances on genomics and proteomics research bring up a significant grow on the information that is publicly available. However, navigating through genetic and bioinformatics databases can be a too complex and unproductive task for a primary care physician. In this paper we present diseasecard, a web portal for rare disease that provides transparently to the user a virtually integration of distributed and heterogeneous information.
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This study aims to describe primary care professionals' self-reported attitudes towards evidence-based practice (EBP), attention to information sources, perceptions of the barriers to EBP and strategies to improve insight in EBP and patient care. An e-mail invitation with link to an Internet-based survey was sent to Belgian medical doctors (MDs), nurses and paramedics. Under paramedics, we've included emergency medical technicians, firemen and medical volunteers (Red Cross). ⋯ The most appropriate method for actual implementation of evidence-based practice at all levels of health care is to provide summaries of evidence, easily understandable protocols and web-based databases accessible from the working environment. Students should not only learn the skills related to EBP, but should be able to integrate knowledge effectively in the clinical setting and routine care. Above all, their supervisors themselves need to evolve from 'experience-based' to evidence-based practice'.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2006
Using SNOMED CT codes for coding information in electronic health records for stroke patients.
For a project on development of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for stroke patients, medical information was organised in care information models (templates). All (medical) concepts in these templates need a unique code to make electronic information exchange between different EHR systems possible. When no unique code could be found in an existing coding system, a code was made up. ⋯ However, for the scientific scales only 26% of the concepts could get a SNOMED CT code. Although the percentage of SNOMED CT codes found is lower than expected, we still think SNOMED CT could be a useful coding system for the concepts necessary for the continuity of care for stroke patients, and the inclusion in Electronic Health Records. Partly this is due to the fact that SNOMED CT has the option to request unique codes for new concepts, and is currently working on scale representation.