Where now with clinical computer systems?
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The concept of the healthcare smart card is being discussed by more and more countries all over the world since the late eighties. After a long period of pilots, health cards are now an important part of the French health telematics. How did this happen? This paper highlights the prerequisite for a large implementation.
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We report on an evaluation of MAGIC, a system that automatically generates briefings of patient status after coronary bypass surgery, completed in the Cardio Thoracic Intensive Care Unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Through enhancements in system design, robustness and speed, we compared information obtained by nurses against two briefings, one automatically generated by MAGIC and one provided by physicians upon the patient's arrival to the ICU. Our results show that MAGIC and the physician briefing provide a substantial increase in the amount of information than is available prior to the patient's arrival and that the information MAGIC provides is accurate. In many aspects, MAGIC out-performs the physician briefing; information is reported earlier and is always available. We conclude that MAGIC provides the CT ICU staff early on with a better assessment of the patient's status than in current practice and allows them to better prepare for the patient's arrival.
We present the results of a preliminary evaluation of KNAVE-II, a distributed knowledge-based computational framework for visualization, interpretation, and exploration of longitudinal clinical data and of multiple levels of concepts derivable from these data. KNAVE-II uses a distributed architecture to access at run-time clinical time-oriented data, a domain-specific knowledge base containing properties of the clinical data, and a knowledge-based problem-solving method for computing on-the-fly interpretations of these data. The purpose of the evaluation was to compare efficiency and user satisfaction when answering clinical queries of variable complexity about clinical time-oriented data using KNAVE-II, versus using methods available in standard clinical settings: paper chart or electronic spreadsheet (ESS). Subjects answered high-complexity queries significantly faster using KNAVE-II than when using paper or ESS. User satisfaction with KNAVE-II was significantly superior compared to satisfaction using paper or ESS, based on a standard usability scale. Users also explicitly ranked KNAVE-II as superior to paper and the ESS.
This paper has been submitted by Tom Marley. Tom was a member of the project team which produced ENV 13606 Part 1: and acted as liaison to the Part 4 project team. Tom is currently writing up the document on General Purpose Information Components.
Increasing cooperation among health professionals--within and across organizations--require a suitable sharing of clinical information from heterogeneous (electronic) documentation. Information originates from healthcare activities and may be organized within record systems in relation to health issues, episodes of care, episodes of illness, etc. Implementation of record systems depends on tasks and attitudes within each particular healthcare environment, that determine (i) the balance among functions of the record system, e.g. supporting human memory and decision making, supporting workflow management, recording circumstances about stored data, (ii) the particular organization of a record, (iii) the details of clinical statements that should be explicit or understood. In this paper we present a set of features of record systems and of their context that affect sharing of clinical information.
WG 11 is one of the Working Groups of the EDISANTE Association. First, his mission was to define message models with two parts: The envelope of the message, including a header, the characteristics of the transmitter, of the receiver, and of the patient concerned. The contents of the message, including medical data which could be exchanged between different middleware. This second part was halted by the " Réseau Santé Social", public network for all the healthcare professionals, who want to have a structured content for his "medical message format". The prupose of EDISANTE is essentially to promote the use of EDI in health care. In a second time, this association decide to include work about envelope in a larger domain concerning all exchanges in medical domains, so the GT 11 centred his action on content.
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OBJECTIVE: To collect and analyze prescription errors for parenterally-administered cytostatic drugs, to identify causes from results obtained, and to suggest feasible solutions to prevent them. METHOD: In our hospital, parenterally-administered cytotoxic drugs are prepared in the Pharmacy Department, where 100% of prescriptions are validated with the help of a software program. Prescription errors detected at validation over a 2-year period of time were recorded in a specific form to facilitate analysis. RESULTS: In all, 292 possible errors were detected and 183 were confirmed; most resulted from dosing errors, followed by incorrect treatment duration. Other errors detected included: dose or drug omitted, wrong administration route, wrong patient, and wrong medication. The following measures were suggested: improvement of the data processing system at the Pharmacy Department, implementation of an electronic prescription system, continuous updating of cytostatic therapy protocols, and inclusion of cytostatic prescription recommendations within Pharmacotherapeutic Guidelines. CONCLUSION: Most common errors included doses above or below the correct ones, with the primary cause being poor handwriting in manual prescriptions. Active recording of prescription errors is essential if an analysis of real causes in our setting is to be undertaken, as well as to making proposals and implementing definite solutions.
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Changes in life expectancy, healthy life expectancy and health seeking behaviour are having an impact on the demand for care. Such changes could occur across the whole population, or for specific groups. Changes for specific groups will be particularly affected by policy initiatives, while both these and wider changes will be affected by people's levels of engagement with their health and the health service itself. Levels of education, income and media coverage of health issues are also important. These factors could also encourage an increase in people caring for themselves and their families or community. People are now expecting a patient-centred service with safe high quality treatment, comfortable accommodation services, fast access and an integrated joined-up system. The uptake of integrated Information and Communication technologies (ICT) will be crucial. Healthcare Compunetics, the combination of computing and networking customised for medical and care, will provide the common policy and framework for combined multi-disciplinary research, development, implementation and usage.
Congress enacted Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996 to limit the ability of an employer to deny health insurance coverage to employees with preexisting medical conditions. The law also directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop privacy rules, including, but not limited to, the use of electronic medical records. This law has increased patient privacy, but in doing so has added to the financial burden, including personnel costs in health care. Nurses stand at the forefront in the resolution of the dilemma of patient privacy versus health care expediency. The purpose of this article is to assist nurses and other health care professionals to better understand their responsibilities regarding HIPAA regulations. First, responses to HIPAA regulations by covered entities to date, along with responses which are still needed, will be described. It will be noted that HIPAA is a work in progress and not a specific act. Next, future initiatives having HIPAA implications will be presented. In conclusion, the need for all covered entities and their personnel to look broadly at HIPAA as initiating a new way of work in health care will be emphasized.
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BACKGROUND: The following objectives were studied in the implementation of computerization in the registration of clinical histories: gather all the information obtainable from the patient, be able to up-date the information once introduced, use of the information by health care personnel, automatic carrying out of all routine reports, elaboration of hospital indexes, follow the conventional model of clinical history as much as possible and reasonable price. METHODS: The study was carried out in a 40-bed department of internal medicine in a county hospital. A mixed system of partial coding was used combined with free texts, the latter being with no limit of space. The clinical histories were structured in 9 groups which covered from personal data to complementary explorations. A personal computer compatible "AT" was employed. The program was designed and analyzed by internal medicine doctors using CLIPPER and language "C". RESULTS: The thousand one hundred histories were opened with the space occupied in the disc being of 7 Megabytes. Following the premise of: "write all data only once", the obtaining of all type of documents, indexes and listed was automatized facilitating the knowledge of the working of the department directly. Adaptation by medical personnel was good. CONCLUSIONS: The model presented achieved the previously mentioned aims of information gathering and up-dating, use of the information by hospital personnel, automatization of routine reports and indexes, the following of conventional models and economic feasibility. Computerization should not be imposed, must not represent more work and advantages should be obtained by its use.
Significant events are unfolding in the field of eHealth in Europe. eHealth has been a strategic priority of the European Commission in both the eEurope 2002 and 2005 Action Plans. But how are developments on the national level progressing? The authors contrast the status-quo of eHealth in the EU-15 with the latest trends and key action priorities in the EU-25 after the Union's latest enlargement in May 2004. The initiatives and actions of the European Commission are presented vis-à-vis those of national Member States, particularly in terms of strategic priorities and implementation actions. The review is accompanied by an analysis of expert feedback on eHealth drivers and barriers.
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