Ahead of the pack.
Wisconsin is emerging as a national model for private-sector initiatives to meet demands for information on health care costs and quality.
Benchmarking↗
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Results for “Informal Sector”
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Healthcare isn't a Chevy. President's drive to list prices for care may crash with reality.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Consumer Behavior↗
Factors influencing health service knowledge among elderly Puerto Ricans.
An absence of relevant knowledge can produce inappropriate user patterns regarding available and suitable health services with detrimental consequences for health costs and mortality rates among others. This study of 466 non-institutionalized elderly Puerto Ricans is made up of ten questions: 8 background and 2 concerning knowledge of services. It is part of a larger study (173 questions) concerning the sociodemographic status of this population. The statistical tests of significance were Phi, Tau B and Cramer's V. The predisposing factor of zone of residence coupled with SES variables was a barrier to the obtaining of health information and equal access to all sectors of the health care system by the rural elderly. This has multiple social and public policy implications at the local and federal level.
Aged↗
[Pelvic inflammatory disease--prophylactic trends].
On the basis of his own observations and experience, compared with literary data from recent years, the author think that the most proper planning of prophylactic measures in connection with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) could be carried out after thorough study and good knowledge of risk factors and groups. Some with special medico-social significance are outlined among them: age groups up to 20,20--24 and 25--29 years; sexual education and behaviour, delivery and postpartal period, intrauterine diagnostic and therapeutic manipulations, intrauterine contraceptive devices, abdominal operative interventions with special significance of the operations for acute appendicitis and ectopic pregnancy; latent, clinically unsuspected, or accompanying other diseases PID. The necessity of effective cooperation between a gynecologist and physicians from other specialties (surgeons, internists, urologists, etc.) for timely establishment of a latent disease, examination of a sexual partner, ect. Important condition for effective work is improvement of the functional connections and bilateral information between polyclinic obstetric-gynecological sector gynecological ward.
Adolescent↗
[Necessity of independence: what kind of independence?].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Drug Industry↗
Airport 'gene shop' teaches a captive audience about genetic diseases.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
England↗
[Should occupational medicine physicians be linked to future computerized medical record networks?].
Upcoming reforms of the health care system place high expectations on computerized medical file networks to control medical expenditures. In France, information flow from the care delivery sector to the occupational medicine sector is often slow or incomplete. Company and social security expenditures or dysfunctions as well as patient incomfort may result. An analysis of occupational medicine practices and the needs of physicians working in this sector leads to several perspective proposals for improvement including access to future computerized medical file networks and the health data card Sesame.
Forecasting↗
Information technology as tool for change.
It looks that networking welfare thinking and implementations of network projects only follow the development of data transfer possibilities. It is a danger that seamless chain of care in health care is just a data transferring generator based on easy connections, only creating needs for new data transferring. This is an 'illusion of core skills' that does not extend to the development of the contents of services. Easy access to the system makes more contacts and need for more also clinical services. New needs for data transfer burden the personnel with unnecessary information and networking functional model does not emancipate them to use their substantial skills. It means more costs and it is also a danger that normal life will be medicated. Public sector cannot finance all these new possibilities and consequences of modern technology. Does all this create a new combination of public and private sector and push them to allocate responsibilities in developing work? If the public and private sectors do not find the balance in controlling this development, also actors outside health care get to influence the choices and health care loses its autonomy. It becomes a business means for companies producing data transfer and network services. From the prioritization point of view this is not a good vision for financing and delivery of health care services either in public or private sector.
Finland↗
Working towards a national health information system in Australia.
One of the major administrative dilemmas facing the Australian national health care system is the need to reform practices associated with massive data-information overload. The current system is burdened with paper-based administrative forms, patient record files, referral notes and other manual methods of data organisation. An integrated computer-based information system may be perceived as an attractive solution to such burdens. However, computerisation must not be seen as a panacea with the possibility of exacerbating information overload and accentuating privacy concerns. Recent surveys in Australia [1] and the US [2] indicate a perceived causal link between computers and privacy invasion. Any moves toward a national health information system must counter this perception through macro-level education schemes of affected parties and micro-level mechanisms such as the establishment of hospital privacy officers. Such concerns may be viewed as a subset of the wider privacy debate, and information policy development should address such considerations to develop policies to prevent unauthorized access to personal information and to avoid the extraction and sale of sensitive health data. Conservative in nature and slow to change the health care sector may be forced to adopt more efficient work practices through the increasing proliferation of information technology (IT) in health care delivery and an escalating emphasis upon accountability and efficiency of the public health care dollar. The economic rationalist stance taken by governments in Australia and other nations generally will also force health care workers to adopt and develop more efficient information management practices, health indicators and best practice care methods than presently employed by this sector The benefits of a national health information system are far reaching, particularly in developing a more effective health care system through better identifying and understanding community health care trends and in applying IT to the efficient collection of data for the development of more appropriate performance measures and statistical indicators. A coherent and integrated approach is called for in the design of a national health information system which incorporates the necessary and requisite security features to meet privacy concerns. Protecting information privacy poses complex political, economic, technological, legal and social problems for systems developers and health care providers alike [2]. According to Brannigan [3] there are three components involved in the formulation and implementation of privacy: public policy (What level of privacy does society want?); legal structure (Does the law adequately provide for society's privacy requirements?); and technical (how much privacy can technical tools provide, at what cost, and with what effects on the system?). Examining technical tools alone, it is apparent that the necessary technologies are available in Australia to provide the security of medical records required by public policy. Such tools may include encryption, user and data authentication methods, authorisation schemes and mechanisms for the prevention of data inference. While none of these available measures are infallible, it is suitable for most applications where the encryption mechanism can provide protection for a given length of time. Australia needs to develop a coherent national health information infrastructure policy to ultimately avoid fragmented, duplicated and incompatible systems that rely on different standards and protocols. Such a policy will only work by addressing the key issue of patient privacy within a technological framework. The application of IT to health care systems is a sensitive social experiment affecting many professions including general practitioners, medical administrators, politicians, lawyers, computer specialists, privacy advocates and patients whose records will ultimately reside in the system. (abstract trun
Australia↗
Evaluating digital libraries in the health sector. Part 1: measuring inputs and outputs.
This is the first part of a two-part paper which explores methods that can be used to evaluate digital libraries in the health sector. In this first part, some approaches to evaluation that have been proposed for mainstream digital information services are examined for their suitability to provide models for the health sector. The paper summarizes some major national and collaborative initiatives to develop measures for digital libraries, and analyses these approaches in terms of their relationship to traditional measures of library performance, which are focused on inputs and outputs, and their relevance to current debates among health information specialists. The second part* looks more specifically at evaluative models based on outcomes, and models being developed in the health sector.
Benchmarking↗
New clinical implementations: late but worth the wait?
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Budgets↗
ICT and OTs: a model of information and communication technology acceptance and utilisation by occupational therapists.
There is evidence to suggest that health professionals are reluctant to accept and utilise information and communication technologies (ICT) and concern is growing within health informatics research that this is contributing to the lag in adoption and utilisation of ICT across the health sector. Technology acceptance research within the field of information systems has been limited in its application to health and there is a concurrent need to develop and gain empirical support for models of technology acceptance within health and to examine acceptance and utilisation issues amongst health professionals to improve the success of information system implementation in this arena. This paper outlines a project that examines ICT acceptance and utilisation by Australian occupational therapists. It describes the theoretical basis behind the development of a research model and the methodology being employed to empirically validate the model using substantial quantitative, qualitative and longitudinal data. Preliminary results from Phase II of the study are presented. The theoretical significance of this work is that it uses a thoroughly constructed research model, with potentially the largest sample size ever tested, to extend technology acceptance research into the health sector.
Adult↗
Traditional healers in Swaziland: toward improved cooperation between the traditional and modern health sectors.
The paper describes applied research efforts, requested by the Swaziland Ministry of Health and funded by U.S. AID, aimed at providing an information base for new government policies regarding traditional healers in Swaziland. Information reported relates to: health care manpower in the traditional sector; treatment seeking behavior in a pluralistic medical setting; traditional health beliefs and practices; payment practices; patterns of patient referral; attempts to establish an association of healers; attitudes of healers toward paraprofessional training; and possibilities for specific types of cooperation between modern and traditional health sectors.
Allied Health Personnel↗
Data sharing and dissemination strategies for fostering competition in health care.
OBJECTIVES: To introduce the concept of common models for data sharing and dissemination, highlight the current operational, technical, and political issues surrounding existing data sharing and dissemination initiatives in a health care market, and suggest an ideal model for future data initiatives. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: A literature review and case studies of existing data sharing and dissemination initiatives that promote the collection and use of comparative information on provider cost and quality. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Three broad types of common models for data sharing and dissemination have evolved over the past decade or so: (1) provider-initiated initiatives developed through collaboration among providers of health care; (2) purchaser-initiated activities driven by a coalition of purchasers; and (3) indirect collaboration-data-sharing initiatives between providers and purchasers with a significant facilitating or regulating role by a third group of stakeholders. The success of a data-sharing and dissemination strategy is determined by how the complex operational, technical, and political issues are addressed. General principles by which a health data initiative might abide include the following: standardized databases as the physical foundation, indicators that reflect the changing market; linkages between and across data sets for comprehensive and complete data; economic value; policy relevance; use of evolving technologies to collect, integrate, and disseminate data; and stakeholder support. CONCLUSIONS: Regulatory solutions alone will not overcome the complex political and technical challenges to data sharing and dissemination. The "ideal" model or process nurturing a market for health care information will incorporate compromise and negotiation to address the issues of data ownership and proprietary concerns, therefore securing the necessary political and financial support of the private sector.
Cooperative Behavior↗
Comparison of facility and research diagnoses in first-admission psychotic patients.
OBJECTIVE: The present study investigated the concordance of clinical and research-based DSM-III-R diagnoses in community, public, and university hospital first-admission patients. In addition to demographic characteristics, information and criterion variance were assessed as explanations for the diagnostic disagreements. METHOD: As part of the Suffolk County (New York) Mental Health Project, 223 first-admission subjects with a psychotic disorder were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, and consensus diagnosis was made by two project psychiatrists. Clinical diagnoses were abstracted from discharge summaries obtained subsequent to the research diagnoses, and reasons for disagreement between the two diagnoses were determined. RESULTS: Moderate overall agreement between facility and research diagnoses was found, with highest agreement with the university facility, lowest with the public facilities, and intermediate agreement with the community facilities. Demographic variables were not significantly associated with diagnostic discordance. Apparent reasons for diagnostic disagreement included evidence of variability in information available to clinicians and research psychiatrists (N = 39 or 48% of cases with disagreement), as well as in clinical judgment in the application of DSM-III-R criteria (N = 42 or 52% of cases with disagreement). CONCLUSIONS: Considerable differences between facility and research diagnoses remain, especially in the public and community sectors; these differences can be attributed to information and criterion variance. Longitudinal follow-up is necessary to establish the predictive validity of the initial clinical and research diagnoses. Future research should also address other possible reasons for these discrepancies.
Adult↗
Ten questions worth asking about mobile computing.
"Mobile," or perhaps "nomadic," are the watchwords for the style of information management fast coming to the healthcare sector. No, mobile technology in healthcare is not to be confused with cellular-phones. Mobile computing goes where the user goes ... to the patient.
Catalogs, Commercial as Topic↗
Process and dynamics of traditional selling wild edible mushrooms in tropical Mexico.
BACKGROUND: More than twelve temperate-inhabitant Mexican ethnic groups are considered to be mycophilic and to have extensive traditional mycological knowledge. In contrast, inhabitants of tropical lands have been studied only superficially and their mycological knowledge is less well known. In this paper, we report the results of an ethnomycological research in markets of a wide area of the Mexican tropics. Our aims were to describe the dynamics related to the traditional selling process of wild mushrooms and to determine the tendencies of informants toward mushrooms (mycophily vs. mycophoby). METHODS: We visited 25 markets of 12 different settlements in the states of Oaxaca, Tabasco and Veracruz and collected information by participant observation as well as by 291 non-structured and semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: Mushroom selling was observed in four towns in Oaxaca and in two in Tabasco. Women represented 81.82% of sellers, while indigenous people (Chinantecos, Chontales, Ch'oles and Zoques) comprised 68.18%. Mushroom commercialization took place in secondary mobile markets and only in peasant stands. Mushroom collectors gather the resource in places with secondary vegetation, farmed areas and cattle fields. Because of land tenure restrictions mushroom sellers did not normally collect mushrooms themselves. In Oaxaca, we observed economic dynamics not based on capitalism, such as exchange, reciprocity and barter. CONCLUSION: The sale of some wild edible mushrooms, the large amounts of commercialization of Schizophyllum commune, the complicated intermediary process, as well as the insertion of mushrooms into different informal economic practices are all evidence of an existent mycophily in a sector of the population of this region of the Mexican tropics. Among our informants, urban mestizo people were mycophobic, rural mestizo people were non-mycophilic and indigenous people were true mycophilic.
Agaricales↗