Biomedical subjects

J H Hohnloser

Publications and source records attributed to J H Hohnloser.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

Cisplatin based chemotherapy in testicular cancer patients: long term platinum excretion and clinical effects.

Patients with advanced testicular cancer (TC) have a very good long-term prognosis owing to cisplatin-based polychemotherapy. Platinum is believed to be excreted at a rapid rate via urine within weeks after chemotherapy. As a new, highly sensitive method has become available detecting even natural background platinum levels in body fluids, this study was set up to analyze urinary and serum platinum levels in long-term survivors of testicular neoplasm after cisplatin based polychemotherapy and to correlate clinical data with urinary and serum platinum levels. Urinary platinum concentrations were measured in 64 healthy controls (C) and 22 male patients (TC) 150 to 3022 days after the last application of i.v. cisplatin using voltammetry after UV-photolysis. In the latter group (TC), serum platinum levels were measured as well. Clinical data were analysed as to long-term organ toxicity. Mean urinary platinum levels were 2700 times higher in the patient group (TC) than natural background noise (p < 0.0001). There was a decline of urinary and serum platinum levels over time, being significantly above normal even 8 years after cisplatin exposure. The only significant variables related to the urine platinum concentration were a) the interval between the last i.v. cisplatin application and time of study and b) the total dose given. Not significant were the number of chemotherapy cycles, pre-therapy renal disease, patient age, tumour resection before/after chemotherapy, site of pre/post therapy resection, clinical staging, histological subtypes or tumour markers. Post-therapy renal disease or peripheral nerve damage were not significantly associated with urinary platinum levels. Our data indicate that even 8 years after cisplatin based chemotherapy 500 times elevated urinary and serum platinum levels can be measured in testicular cancer patients. No organ toxicity related to long-term platinum excretion could be detected. This may be due to our small sample size.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Improving clinician's coded data entry through the use of an electronic patient record system: 3.5 years experience with a semiautomatic browsing and encoding tool in clinical routine.

This report presents data on clinicians' use of a browsing and encoding utility. Traditional and computerized discharge summaries during three phases of coding ICD-9 diagnoses were compared: phase I (no coding), phase II (manual coding), and phase III (computerized semiautomatic coding). Our data indicate that only 50% of all diagnoses in a discharge summary are encoded manually; using a computerized browsing and encoding utility this rate may increase by 64%; when forced to encode diagnoses manually users may "shift" as much as 84% of relevant diagnoses from the appropriate section to other sections, thereby "bypassing" the need to encode. This effect can be partially reversed by up to 41% with the computerized approach. Using a computerized encoding help can ensure completeness of encoding data (from 46 to 100%). We conclude that the use of a computerized browsing and encoding tool by clinicians can increase data quality and the volume of documented data. Mechanisms bypassing the need to code can be reversed.

Diagnosis↗

PubMed1996

Coding clinical information: analysis of clinicians using computerized coding.

Data are presented of a controlled experiment with a computerized browsing and encoding tool. Eighteen practicing clinicians extracted medical concepts from two narrative exercise cases using two approaches, traditional and computer-assisted use of ICD-9. Our results indicate that by using a computerized coding tool the completeness of coding can be improved by up to 55%, that by enforcing mandatory as opposed to optional modifier codes results in lower rates of incomplete coding (0 and 55%, respectively), higher rates of correct coding (41 to 92%) and no change in incorrect code, and that manual coding takes twice as long than coding with the help of the computerized coding tool. Clinicians need 59% more time for processing the whole set of codes than is suggested by the sum of individual codes. We conclude that the use of a computerized coding tool can save time and result in higher quality codes. However, the real time spent on coding may be underestimated when looking at individual coding times, instead of the whole task of processing a clinical scenario.

Disease↗

PubMed1996

Improving coded data entry by an electronic patient record system.

Data are presented on the use of a browsing and encoding utility to improve coded data entry for an electronic patient record system. Traditional and computerized discharge summaries were compared: during three phases of coding ICD-9 diagnoses phase I, no coding; phase II, manual coding, and phase III, computerized semiautomatic coding. Our data indicate that (1) only 50% of all diagnoses in a discharge summary are encoded manually; (2) using a computerized browsing and encoding utility this percentage may increase by 64%; (3) when forced to encode manually, users may "shift" as much as 84% of relevant diagnoses from the appropriate coding section to other sections thereby "bypassing" the need to encode, this was reduced by up to 41% with the computerized approach, and (4) computerized encoding can improve completeness of data encoding, from 46 to 100%. We conclude that the use of a computerized browsing and encoding tool can increase data quality and the percentage of documented data. Mechanisms bypassing the need to code can be avoided.

Data Collection↗

PubMed1995

Experiments in coding clinical information: an analysis of clinicians using a computerized coding tool.

We present data from a controlled experiment with computerized browsing and encoding tool. Eighteen practicing clinicians were asked to extract medical concepts from narrative exercise cases using two approaches--traditional and computer-assisted use of ICD-9. Our results indicate that completeness of coding can be improved by up to 55% using a computerized coding tool; enforcing mandatory as opposed to optional modifier codes results in lower rates of incomplete coding (0 vs 55%), higher rates of correct coding (41 to 92%), and no change in the number of incorrect codings; and manual coding takes 100% longer than coding with the help of the computerized coding tool. Furthermore, clinicians need 59% more time for processing the whole set of codes than is suggested by the sum of individual codes. We conclude that use of a computerized coding tool can save time and result in higher quality coding However, de facto time spent on coding may be underestimated when looking at individual coding times instead of looking at the whole task of processing a clinical scenario.

Computers↗

PubMed1995

Coding medical concepts: a controlled experiment with a computerised coding tool.

In clinical routine there is a growing need to encode medical concepts with available standard coding systems. The coding process can be time consuming and may significantly add to daily paperwork, particularly regarding patients with multiple diagnoses and in busy clinical environments with a high turnover of patients. We have developed a generic computerised encoding tool--the PADS encoder--to ensure rapid, correct and complete coding of diagnoses in daily routine. The tool is integrated into an electronic patient record system (PADS, Patient Archiving & Documentation System) and takes full advantage of the user friendly Macintosh interface. The tool was tested in a controlled experiment by 18 clinicians who encoded a total of 666 medical concepts in each protocol (study protocol vs. control). The following positive findings were significantly associated with the use of the computerised coding tool: the number of correctly encoded medical concepts was higher (99.55% vs. 86.1%), coding errors were lower (0% vs. 10.81%), more modifier codes were encoded correctly (increase by up to 43%), less coding errors were made (decrease by up to 43%), the overall rate of correctly encoded and complete main and modifier codes was increased by 31.27% (97.29% vs. 66.02%), coding time was reduced by 50%. This paper presents data to suggest that a computerised coding tool can produce more complete data of higher quality and can save time compared with the traditional approach to encode medical concepts.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed1995

4.5 years of experience with an electronic patient record system at the University of Munich: PADS (Patient Archiving & Documentation System).

We demonstrate an Ethernet based local area network (LAN) with clinical workstations (Apple Macintosh). The patient archiving and documentation system (PADS) represents a computerized patient record system presently used in a university hospital's ICU, CCU, and oncology unit [1]. Since 1990, over 100 users have documented more than 6,000 patient admissions, equaling 30% of all inpatient admission in our hospital. Taking full advantage of the macintosh based graphical user interface (GUI), our system enables nurses and doctors to perform the following tasks: admission, medical history taking, physical examination, generation of problem lists and follow up notes, access to laboratory data and reports, and the semiautomatic generation of a discharge summary including full word processor capabilities. Furthermore, the system offers rapid, consistent, and complete automatic encoding of diagnoses following the International Classification of Disease (ICD - 9 CM; WHO). The system has links to other educational programs such as cardiac auscultation and image analysis. A MEDLINE literature search through a CD-ROM based system can be performed from within the system. CD-ROM based medical textbooks can be accessed as well. Users can customize their working environment and use any commercially available macintosh programs from within the main application. Additional options include: automatic background monitoring of users learning behavior, analyses and graphical display of numerous epidemiological, and healthcare related problems. Furthermore, sound and digital video can be recorded in our system. E had initially developed a relational database 4GL development tool in the rapid prototyping phase, and have since completed the next step of development: rewriting the complete application using C++ and Oracle. The user interface has hardly changed, maintaining the "look & feel" of the initial application and introducing the performance of a professional relational database management system (RDBMS). This system represents one in a line of modular departmental models which are being integrated to form a decentralized hospital information system (HIS) at the University of Munich. The proposed theater-style demonstration will walk the audience through the system simulating a true patient admission and work up.

Germany↗

PubMed1994

Data quality in computerized patient records. Analysis of a haematology biopsy report database.

This paper addresses the problem of data quality in electronic patient records using a computerized haematology biopsy report system as an example. Physicians extracted five parameters from a traditional free text cytology report and encoded these parameters thus producing a computer processable report. The parameters were 1) the organ biopsied, 2) quality of specimen, 3) cytological diagnosis including 4) a modifier code for the main diagnosis code (i.e. status post chemotherapy, Y-code) and 5) an additional key describing the degree of remission obtained after chemotherapy of acute leukemias. From the various steps involved in generating the electronic record we selected two critical ones: encoding of free text terms by physician staff; entering of the coded terms into a computer by lab staff. We analyzed the rates of correct, incorrect and missing codes for each of the five parameters. Our findings indicate that in this model of an electronic patient record: 1) there is significant inaccuracy of physicians during the process of encoding the free text report with error rates between 3.2 and 28% and omission rates up to 64%. 2) lab staff entering these coded data into the computer introduce additional errors (0-7.8%) but rarely miss correctly encoded data (0-0.9%). 3) introducing a revised coding system data quality improved significantly (p < or = 0.001) with a fivefold increase of correct and a 75% reduction of missing codes. 4) the clinical relevance of the diagnoses encoded as perceived by clinicians is a significant factor affecting error and omission rates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Positive efficiency findings using computer assisted ICD-encoding: 3.5 years of experience with the computerized patient record system PADS (Patient Archiving & Documentation System).

In daily routine there is a major discrepancy between what physicians do and what they document. From a medical information processing point of view amongst the more important functions physicians perform in their daily routine is the encoding of diagnoses using a standard vocabulary such as ICD-9. This paper presents evidence that through the use of the ICD-encoding module of a computerized patient record system (PADS, Patient Archiving and Documentation System) user compliance can be improved. "Bypassing" mechanisms can be partly reversed (up to 43%), more coded diagnoses are documented (by 51%) and those diagnoses documented are more complete (increase by 57%).

Germany↗

PubMed1992

PADS (Patient Archiving and Documentation System): a computerized patient record with educational aspects.

Rapid acquisition and analysis of information in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) setting is essential, even more so the documentation of the decision making process which has vital consequences for the lives of ICU patients. We describe an Ethernet based local area network (LAN) with clinical workstations (Macintosh fx, ci). Our Patient Archiving and Documentation System (PADS) represents a computerized patient record presently used in a university hospitals' ICU. Taking full advantage of the Macintosh based graphical user interface (GUI) our system enables nurses and doctors to perform the following tasks: admission, medical history taking, physical examination, generation of problem lists and follow up notes, access to laboratory data and reports, semiautomatic generation of a discharge summary including full word processor capabilities. Furthermore, the system offers rapid, consistent and complete automatic encoding of diagnoses following the International Classification of Disease (ICD; WHO, [1]). For educational purposes the user can also view disease entities or complications related to the diagnoses she/he encoded. The system has links to other educational programs such as cardiac auscultation. A MEDLINE literature search through a CD-ROM based system can be performed without exiting the system; also, CD-ROM based medical textbooks can be accessed as well. Commercially available Macintosh programs can be integrated in the system without existing the main program thus enabling users to customize their working environment. Additional options include automatic background monitoring of users learning behavior, analyses and graphical display of numerous epidemiological and health care related problems. Furthermore, we are in the process of integrating sound and digital video in our system. This system represents one in a line of modular departmental models which will eventually be integrated to form a decentralized Hospital Information System (HIS).

Computer User Training↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Building a cytology report database: a computer-assisted system for documentation, evaluation and hospital-wide recall of haematological biopsy reports.

Owing to an increasing number of biopsies from different organ systems in our institution and referring institutions there was need to develop a computer-based system to improve documentation, analysis and reports of pathological findings, as well as speed of transmission of information in a clinical haematology/oncology unit. As terminals connected to a central minicomputer are located on all wards of our hospital, we have now provided a faster way of moving information from the cytology reporting site to all hospital departments. Using the hospital's minicomputer we developed an easy-to-use system based on five different codes for each cytological specimen: organ biopsied, quality of specimen, cytological diagnosis including information as to status of patient (i.e. pretherapy), and an additional code describing the degree of remission obtained after chemotherapy of acute leukemias. After microscopic analysis of the specimen these five codes are read into a terminal; minutes after the diagnosis is made, a short version of the report can be accessed from all wards in the hospital.

Biopsy↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Coding medical concepts: a controlled experiment with a computerized coding tool.

In medicine there is a growing need to encode medical concepts with the available standard coding systems. The coding process can be time intensive and may significantly add to daily paperwork. We have developed a generic computerized encoding tool--the PADS (patient archiving and documentation system) encoder--to ensure rapid, correct and complete coding of diagnoses in daily routine. The tool is integrated into an electronic patient record system and takes full advantage of the user friendly Macintosh interface. The tool was tested in a controlled experiment by 18 clinicians who encoded a total of 666 medical concepts in each protocol (study protocol versus control). We present data demonstrating that a computerized coding tool can produce more complete data of higher quality and save time compared with the traditional approach: (a) the number of correctly encoded medical concepts was higher (99.55% versus 86.1%); (b) coding errors were lower (0% versus 10.81%); (c) more modifier codes were encoded correctly (increase by up to 43%); (d) fewer coding errors were made (decrease by up to 43%); (e) the overall rate of correctly encoded and complete main and modifier codes was increased by 31.27% (97.29% versus 66.02%); and (f) coding time was reduced by 50%.

Abstracting and Indexing↗