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Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Population programme paves the way for better flow of and use of population information.

The population program of DPRK is currently generating census data, a number of demographic and contraceptive research studies, and various IEC materials. However, these have not been widely disseminated. At the same time, policymakers and professionals engaged in population and development activities expressed the need for more information and materials to assist them in their tasks. To address these needs, the government represented by the National Coordinating Committee for Population Programs, proposed the establishment of a Population Information Center that will facilitate the collection, processing, dissemination, and use of population information and materials in order to support the work of the population personnel. In a fact-finding and project development mission undertaken with the assistance of the UNFPA (UN Population Fund), Beijing, UNDP (UN Development Programme) Pyongyang, and CST for East and Southeast Asia Adviser on Population Information, it was agreed upon that a Population Information Center be set up at the Grand People's Study House which serves as the central document information center in the country as well as correspondence university rendering re-education programs for the working people. The project document basically lays the foundation for a nationwide population information networking by building first the centerpiece of the network. It will develop the capability of the Grand People's Study House in collecting, organizing, analyzing, repackaging and disseminating population information as well as in managing a nationwide network. Four activities will be envisaged to achieve this goal. The first requires the establishment of the Population Information Center structure and organization. The rest necessitate the collection of materials and creation of a bibliographic database, the training of personnel in various information-handling tools and techniques and service provision, and facilitating dissemination of information through a repackaging and lecture series program.

Asia↗

Fees for information services to hospitals: a California experience.

The project was directed toward planning, developing, and implementing a subregional biomedical information network among the forty-three health care facilities (hospitals) of the four-county area served by Loma Linda University's health sciences library. The project coordinator contacted administrators and health care professionals in the forty-three institutions to present a plan for the network. The health care facilities were encouraged to support the continuation of the network through contract fees. The availability of specific information services was assured through contractual agreements. It was anticipated that the subregional network would be self-supporting after the twelve-month project period (December 1, 1976-November 30, 1977). The working territory (40,429 square miles) encompassed Mono, Inyo, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. The project resulted in nine of the forty-three hospitals signing annual contracts for library services. It is recommended that projects of this kind extend beyond a year's duration in order to educate health professionals concerning the value of access to biomedical literature in improving patient care.

California↗

Information-theoretic approach to network modularity.

Exploiting recent developments in information theory, we propose, illustrate, and validate a principled information-theoretic algorithm for module discovery and the resulting measure of network modularity. This measure is an order parameter (a dimensionless number between 0 and 1). Comparison is made with other approaches to module discovery and to quantifying network modularity (using Monte Carlo generated Erdös-like modular networks). Finally, the network information bottleneck (NIB) algorithm is applied to a number of real world networks, including the "social" network of co-authors at the 2004 APS March Meeting.

Algorithms↗

The HELIOS Medical Connection Services.

This paper presents the design and implementation of the HELIOS software component that deals with integration of medical applications in health information networks. The problem of interoperability between health information systems based on different data exchange syntaxes is first discussed. A meta-model, relying on CEN TC251 recommendations, is then presented as a possible solution to this problem and a message description language including these recommendations is proposed. Using this meta-model, the Medical Connection Services that comprises a generic message processing automaton, a resource manager and a mapper is able either to interpret messages expressed in a given syntax (e.g., EDIFACT, ASTM) and map them to the application objects or to automate the translation of the messages in another syntax. Special focus is given on the position of the Medical Connection Services within the HELIOS integration strategy (i.e., through data, presentation and communication). The problem of semantic heterogeneity is then discussed.

Computer Communication Networks↗

Interactive textiles for warrior systems applications.

The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize the basis of the U.S. Army's interest in Interactive Textiles and to describe some of the salient needs in the area of healthcare and E-Textiles and finally to indicate the current and near term market for interactive textile solutions. The basis of current Army, indeed DoD interest in Interactive Textiles including E-Textiles is found in the concept of Network-Centric Warfare. The individual soldier in this concept is often at the hub of a vast information network than shares information across platforms such as vehicles and aircraft as well as across echelongs of command from the font line to the rearmost command and control centers. In order to realize the advantages of such a war fighting concept, E-Textiles are required in a number of areas including soldier's uniforms, tentage and airdrop systems. With respect to healthcare, the Army's interest in E-Textile solutions lie in the areas of human performance monitoring (broadly defined to include physiological states such as blood pressure and hydration as well as the more difficult to measure states of attentiveness and cognitive functioning), wound detection and treatment, energy harvesting and flexible displays.

Biomedical Technology↗

Technology and automation in pharmaceutical care.

Pharmacy computer systems in the future will help pharmacists assess patients' medication needs, evaluate drug therapy, and manage patient information. Technology companies are developing systems for automatic dispensing and for distributing medications from nurses' stations in hospitals and long-term care facilities. Bar codes are being used in medication dispensing, verifying prescriptions, selecting patient brochures, and screening for drug interactions. Pharmacies in the future will rely on information networks to store, manage, and communicate patient information. Drug use review databases offer highly developed drug therapy screening.

Humans↗

The challenges and rewards of integrating diverse neuroscience information.

The design of database models and schemas for storing, cross-referencing, and retrieving neuroscience information faces issues that are similar but more complex than most of the other biomedical disciplines, such as genomics and proteonomics. Specifically, the visualization and manipulation of very large and diverse image data, such as digital brain atlases and functional magnetic resonance images, play a unique role in neuroscience while much of the associated information is textually recorded. Nongraphical information can include the annotation of large brain structures ranging from anatomical regions to intracellular structures, the description of cellular functional properties, and their various interrelationships, such as fiber connections. It is necessary that the heterogeneous and distributed types of data be cross-referenced to each other so that this diverse information can be efficiently retrieved, shared, and exchanged among the different neuroscientific disciplines. Continued advances in computers and Internet technologies appear to indicate that increasingly large data sets will be maintained on local or regional file servers and that informational interoperability will be achieved using a networked information system infrastructure. The authors and others have proposed and implemented models of semantically organized information systems that utilize centrally stored and highly structured archival information to index, cross-reference, and retrieve diverse, Web-based data sets.

Brain↗

Intranets: the latest trend in the development of broad health networks.

Frustrated by high costs, many organizers of community health information networks are tuning to low-cost, easy-to-implement Internet technologies and protocols. Of the 22 broad network initiatives still under way, about half are either planning to build intranets or incorporating Internet technologies on some form.

Community Networks↗

The evolution of a clinical database: from local to standardized clinical languages.

For more than twenty years, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Nursing Informatics (UIHC NI) has been developing a clinical database to support patient care planning and documentation in the INFORMM NIS (Information Network for Online Retrieval & Medical Management Nursing Information System). Beginning in 1992, the database content was revised to standardize orders and to incorporate the Standardized Nursing Languages (SNLs) of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA), Nursing Diagnosis Extension Classification (NDEC), Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC), and Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC). This paper reports the results of the database revision as well as recent usage data, new user selection methods for clinical content, and the advantages of a database utilizing SNLs.

Databases as Topic↗

On-line documentation of patient care orders.

The INFORMM NIS (Information Network For Online Retrieval & Medical Management Nursing Information System) provides on-line documentation of patient care orders. These orders, generated by the nurse or the physician, prescribe direct patient care and do not include interdepartmental orders such as laboratory, radiology, or pharmacy. The order charting functions support charting efficiency by defaulting previous responses so that the user enters only updates to earlier findings or new data. Available in tables maintained by NIS staff, charting responses provide decision support by suggesting valid results for each order. Using point-of-care devices, nursing staff chart patient data that are immediately available for review by all authorized members of the health care team. These data are printed automatically on computer-generated chart forms every twenty-four hours, but may be printed also on demand. Additionally, the patient data report, containing patient data entered on-line in the sixteen or twenty-four hours immediately preceding the print request, provides a summary that is useful for nurses' report and physicians' rounds.

Documentation↗

Evaluation of online documentation.

The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) implemented an online documentation system for patient care orders in 1994-1996. Developed entirely in-house, the INFORMM NIS (Information Network for Online Retrieval & Medical Management Nursing Information System) features order-generated task lists, defaulted charting responses, computer-generated chart forms, and graphical data displays. To measure the impact of automation on user perceptions, and documentation compliance, completeness, time, and location, a team of nursing and information systems representatives captured data before and after implementation. Staff surveys show more positive user perceptions. Documentation results indicate increased compliance and completeness, and a decrease or no change in time. Online documentation occurs mainly at unit workstations.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Developments in health informatics within the standards associations of Australia and New Zealand.

Activities to support the development and adoption of Standards in health informatics are now well started. The Standards Association of Australia formed a committee (IT/14) on Medical Informatics which met for the first time in February 1991: early in 1992 it changed its name to reflect a broader concern with "Health Informatics" rather than the rather narrower interpretation that many had chosen to place on the term "Medical Informatics". The Standards Association of New Zealand held the inaugural meeting of persons interested in constituting committee SC606 on Health Informatics in August of this year. A growing program of active collaboration between Australia and New Zealand was formalised in July of this year, whereby standards will for the most part be jointly developed and adopted regionally, and whereby the separate committees will be merged wherever practicable to form a single head Joint Technical Committee (JTC) for each domain of involvement. The focus in Australia and New Zealand is at present very much on the need for standards to implement national health information networks. The progressive definition of network standards is prompting increased interest in the standards implemented within the systems and installations that must connect to the networks. The initial implementation of a national health information system in New Zealand is scheduled for 1st July 1993: detailed plans for an Australian health communications network are well advanced although no date for its implementation has been proposed. This paper outlines the general structure of the standards committees in the Antipodes, and of their various sub-committees. It will also outline broad terms of reference of these groups, and the major areas of current interests, activity and developments.

Australia↗

Electronic information retrieval in nursing.

Electronic information networks are explored in terms of the political and economic impact of such concepts as the National Information Infrastructure. The relevancy of electronic information retrieval to nursing is discussed as it applies to current health-care information management. Electronic information sources applicable to nursing are described along with examples of how they may be utilized. Network functions, such as bulletin boards, Freenets and literature searches, are explained and the implications for evolution of health-care delivery are summarized.

Communication↗

Evolution of computer-based information systems and networks to support integrated health care delivery systems.

As health care delivery systems become more integrated with an emphasis on community wellness and prevention, well-developed information infrastructures will be needed to support their activities. The article introduces several previously published independent models for the evolution of integrated delivery systems, computer-based patient records (CPRs), and health information networks as well as a summary model that illustrates the relationship among these entities and their somewhat parallel development.

Chronic Disease↗

The buzz outside the clinics: conversations and contraception in Nyanza Province, Kenya.

When women talk with each other about family planning outside the clinic, are they really only spreading myths and rumors? If nurses give good information about family planning, why do women go and talk with other women? Why would a woman instructed by a nurse at a workshop want to talk to the workshop cleaner as well? To answer these questions, findings are used from a household survey and in-depth interviews that examine the role of informal social interaction in influencing the use of contraceptives in rural Kenya. The women in the study area are found to be ambivalent about family planing, and they supplement providers' instructions with the experiences of women whose bodies and circumstances are similar to their own. Family planning programs could improve their effectiveness by viewing clients and providers not only as individuals but also as members of informal networks that are meaningful to them.

Adult↗

An exploratory survey of the applications of telemedicine in Ghana.

We examined the use of telemedicine at two major medical institutions in Ghana. Doctors and administrators were surveyed to assess their knowledge of computers and familiarity with telemedicine. The use of modern telecommunications and information technology products within the health service was also examined. Thirty questionnaires were distributed to staff at the two hospitals, one urban and one rural. Twenty were returned (a response rate of 67%). Although most of the respondents were computer literate, they were less familiar with telemedicine applications. Only a minority of the respondents were participating in an information-sharing network, transmitting information by fax or telephone, or had Internet access. Financial constraint appeared to be the major barrier to establishing information-sharing networks. Other constraints were technological and organizational. The respondents expressed an interest in using telemedicine, having access to health-care databases and specific telemedicine applications such as tele-education and videoconferencing. Staff in the urban hospital were more likely to be familiar with telemedicine and more likely to have access to information technology than those in the rural hospital.

Ghana↗

Diagnostic screening for contact allergy to mercaptobenzothiazole derivatives.

BACKGROUND: A patch test with an allergen mix used as screening test should be highly sensitive so that allergic patients are not missed. A previous analysis based on patch test data from 1990 to 1993 has shown that the mercapto mix lacked sensitivity. Chemical analyses on the stability of the mix components led to a new composition of the mix in 1995. METHODS: The authors analyzed retrospectively patch test data from the Information Network of Departments of Dermatology to evaluate the sensitivity of the newly formulated mercapto mix and mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) for detecting contact allergies to the 3 MBT derivatives contained in the present mix. RESULTS: The new mercapto mix had a sensitivity of only 0.60, whereas MBT had a significantly higher sensitivity of 0.69. However, even this means that more than 30% of the patients allergic to MBT derivatives are missed. The combination of MBT and mercapto mix had a sensitivity of 0.77 for detecting contact allergies to the MBT derivatives. CONCLUSION: The German Contact Dermatitis Research Group decided to test both mercapto mix and MBT within the standard series, and to apply the 3 single components of the mix in case of a positive reaction to the mix or MBT.

Allergens↗

Association between occupation and contact allergy to the fragrance mix: a multifactorial analysis of national surveillance data.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the role of potential (occupational) risk factors for fragrance contact allergy (FCA). Most studies assessing the range of contact sensitisation in various clinical populations found the fragrance mix, a good screening tool for the detection of FCA in general, to be one of the leading allergens. The role of occupational exposure to fragrances is, however, yet unclear. METHODS: Firstly, crude analyses of the prevalence of FCA in various occupational fields including all 57,779 patients patch tested in the participating centres of the Information Network of Departments of Dermatology (IVDK) between January 1992 and December 1998. Secondly, a multifactorial Poisson regression analysis of these patients, including several potential risk factors. RESULTS: (a) The proportion of patients with FCA varied greatly between different occupational groups from 2.5% to 17.4%, (b) the highest occupational risk of FCA was associated with work as a masseur or physiotherapist, metal furnace operator, potter or glass maker etc, or geriatric nurse, (c) non-occupational factors that influenced risk of FCA included atopy, female sex, several sites, in particular the axillae, and increasing age. CONCLUSIONS: Occupations with a high risk of FCA were identified as targets of preventive action--that is, the substitution of scented products with fragrance free materials with which to work (skin disinfectants, cleaning solutions, personal care products) wherever possible.

Adult↗