Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

C Nøhr

Publications and source records attributed to C Nøhr.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

Evaluation of electronic health record systems.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this article is to present an overview of the various considerations to be made prior to evaluating electronic health record (EHR) systems. METHODS: From the methodological literature, a number of themes for decisions are presented and related to the contemporary EHR situation. Special attention is paid to a number of important methodological themes. RESULTS: Definitive checklists for evaluation of EHR systems can not be recommended, but seven key steps are listed to guide the design of evaluation projects. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the issues presented are not completely exhausted and the seven key steps might have to include iterative loops because of interdependencies between some of the steps.

Diffusion of Innovation↗

Shared experience in 13 local Danish EPR projects: the Danish EPR Observatory.

In 1996 a national strategy for the development of electronic patient records (EPR) for the Danish hospitals and primary care was launched. An element in the strategy was to support a number of regional EPR development projects. The EPR-Observatory has in the two recent years collected data from the regional projects, dealing with the expectations in four areas: 1) Impact on organisational issues, 2) Benefits of EPR, 3) Integration of EPR with other information systems and 4) security aspects of EPR. Among the observations an increasing teamwork and im-proved knowledge about the patient was found. What was expected, but not found, was resistance to EPR, as a result of changes in skills and power. The most obvious benefits are increased data accessibility and improved decision ma-king. The most considerable disadvantage is an enormous growth in discontent with the systems performance and the fact, that all the projects are delayed. Many different types of integration solutions are chosen, because of a lack of a common model for integration. Generally the projects find, that EPJ yields increased security, but logistical problems arise in having the systems running 24 hours 7 days a week. Economical benefits cannot be documented. This relates to the fact, that the regional projects are stand-alone projects. The ongoing growth in discontent with the EPR-systems and the fact, that all the projects are delayed must be subject to further exploration.

Attitude to Computers↗

Research needs and priorities in health informatics.

A Delphi study was accomplished on the topic "what is needed to implement the information society within healthcare? and which research topics should be given higher priority than other topics to achieve the desired evolution?", involving 29 international experts. The study comprised of four phases, (I) a brainstorming phase based on a open question; (II) an evaluation phase for mutual commenting; (III) a feedback phase allowing corrections/extensions; and (IV) a phase collecting the ratings of individual issues within a questionnaire synthesised from the previous phases. A total of 110 research items and 58 supplementary barriers were raised, divided into 14 topics grouped according to homogeneity. The emphasised research topics are business process re-engineering, the electronic patient record and connected inter-operating systems, (support for) evidence-based medicine and clinical guidelines, and education. Issues inherent to the healthcare domain often are the kernel of the research recommended. Similarly, methods and 'people'-issues are strongly emphasised among the research issues in general and among those for which the experts' joint opinion was rated as statistically significant. In contrast, only a minority of the research issues emphasised was related to technical issues.

Delphi Technique↗

Globalization and the cultural impact on distance education.

With the delivery of distance (or flexible) learning in today's society, the changing roles of both the teacher and the learner need to be seriously considered. This is particularly relevant with the use of new technologies to deliver courses in locations with entirely different cultural and academic traditions. International education of this kind currently faces difficulties in facilitating cross-cultural learning. While problems of limited communications technologies, lack of teacher training, inadequate competence of university administration and general cultural differences may be known, global changes call for the development of new pedagogies with new communication technologies in ways, which are sensitive to issues of cultural diversity.

Australia↗

Technological changes in the healthcare sector. A method to assess change readiness.

This paper describes the theory, method and recent results of a study developing methods for assessment of change readiness. The empirical focus is on development and implementation of clinical IT systems in the Danish healthcare sector. To assess change readiness, a questionnaire has been developed. The questionnaire has been tested in a hospital department as a part of a pre analysis related to development and implementation of an IT quality assurance system. The study shows a general positive attitude to the IT system and the organisational changes, related to the implementation and use of the system. It also supplies the project organisation with specific information, useful to the project organisation to continue the essential dialogue with the healthcare professionals during the change process. Furthermore it provides a useful tool for planning the ongoing developing processes. Several other healthcare organisations are at the moment entering the study.

Attitude to Computers↗

The Danish EPR Observatory. Assessing organisational impact from EPR implementation.

The EPR Observatory has studied 13 local Danish electronic patient record (EPR) projects through 2 years. The focus has been on expectations and experiences in relation to organisational changes. The main conclusions are that the healthcare professionals, working with the development, implementation and/or use of EPR, are in a very important and difficult process settling up with old traditions and cultures tied to the healthcare professions. Especially the healthcare professionals, working with EPR, shows interest and readiness to participate in new ways of collaboration and to work with highly structured data in structured frameworks. EPR is at this point of time only diffused in few relatively small and isolated healthcare organisations, and the preliminary assessment in the study only outlines the perspectives for what will happen on a wider scale when EPR systems get more diffused.

Denmark↗

An architecture for bridging between research and practical use in health informatics.

Health informatics is a true interdisciplinary research discipline combining computer engineering, health science and fields dealing with organisation and communication issues. Much of the research published within the area has a common goal: to develop optimal information systems for better access to relevant data, information, and knowledge in the health care sector. As a respond to existing discontinuity between research and practical use, we present an architecture for an interdisciplinary virtual organisation promoting synergy across health informatics environments including research, industry, clinical, and educational settings. A set of key lessons learned from a practical implementation of the architecture are reported.

Computer Communication Networks↗

Research needs and priorities in health informatics--early results of a Delphi study.

A four-phased Delphi study has been performed on the topic of "research needs and priorities to implement the Information Society within Healthcare". This contribution presents the outcome of the first three phases. The biggest surprises are that 'Telemedicine' is relatively lower ranked than expected, and that 'Business Process Re-engineering' is the highest ranking topic, as judged from the number of issues and barriers raised by the expert panel.

Delphi Technique↗

Strategic planning of the master programme in health informatics at Aalborg University: targeting and updating the programme, to meet explicit customer needs.

Education is essentially giving people new skills and qualifications to fulfil certain tasks. In planning and managing educational programmes it is crucial to know what skills and what qualifications are needed to carry out the tasks in question, not to mention the importance of knowing what tasks are relevant to carry out. The programme in health informatics at Aalborg University produces health informatics professionals. The students are developing skills in solving informatics problems in health care organisations. The programme has been running for 3 years now and to maintain the perception of the aim for the programme a number of activities have been launched. In the following, the programme will be presented, the activities to obtain information on how to keep the programme targeted and updated will be described and the changes that are going to be introduced will be outlined.

Denmark↗

Problem oriented project work in a distance education program in health informatics.

At Aalborg University, an important part of the distance education program within Health Informatics is problem oriented project work. Traditionally, distance education has been characterized by one-way communication and self study whereas the problem oriented project study form is based on cooperation and dialogue. In this paper, we describe the way in which we have implemented the problem oriented study form in a program within Health Informatics which is based on distance learning. First, we describe the program with regard to student, structure, aim, and activities. Second, we introduce the problem oriented project study form and present the basic principles behind this approach. Third, we explain important concepts and distinctions within the area of distance education. Finally, we describe the way in which we try to put the ideals of the problem oriented project work into practice. The use of a computer conferencing system is essential but in our experience, it is not in itself sufficient to provide the necessary support for the student project work.

Denmark↗

Keeping education in health informatics on the right track.

The programme in health informatics at Aalborg University has been running for three years and is about to be revised and extended to a full masters programme. In this paper the programme is presented and the systematic activities to obtain the basis for the revision are described.

Curriculum↗

The evaluation of expert diagnostic systems. How to assess outcomes and quality parameters?

Improvement of the quality in health care and the assessment of health outcomes of medical technologies have attracted an increasing attention in the implementation phases. In this paper 10 recent evaluation studies are reviewed to investigate to what extent they reflect the structure, process, and outcome of the conceptual framework. It is found that all the evaluation studies focus on structure measures. But if computer programs to support medical decision making are to be considered in the planning process of the health care system, the evaluation studies must strive to evaluate process and outcomes measures as well. A proposal for a framework for this kind of exploratory and evaluative research is outlined.

Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted↗