Scripted demonstrations: a screening tool for ED computer software system selection.
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Choice Behavior↗
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Results for “software tools”
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.
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Genome-wide loss of heterozygosity and copy number alteration in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma using the Affymetrix GeneChip Mapping 10 K array.
BACKGROUND: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a common malignancy worldwide. Comprehensive genomic characterization of ESCC will further our understanding of the carcinogenesis process in this disease. RESULTS: Genome-wide detection of chromosomal changes was performed using the Affymetrix GeneChip 10 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array, including loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and copy number alterations (CNA), for 26 pairs of matched germ-line and micro-dissected tumor DNA samples. LOH regions were identified by two methods--using Affymetrix's genotype call software and using Affymetrix's copy number alteration tool (CNAT) software--and both approaches yielded similar results. Non-random LOH regions were found on 10 chromosomal arms (in decreasing order of frequency: 17p, 9p, 9q, 13q, 17q, 4q, 4p, 3p, 15q, and 5q), including 20 novel LOH regions (10 kb to 4.26 Mb). Fifteen CNA-loss regions (200 kb to 4.3 Mb) and 36 CNA-gain regions (200 kb to 9.3 Mb) were also identified. CONCLUSION: These studies demonstrate that the Affymetrix 10 K SNP chip is a valid platform to integrate analyses of LOH and CNA. The comprehensive knowledge gained from this analysis will enable improved strategies to prevent, diagnose, and treat ESCC.
Aged↗
Using high tech tools to create microcomputer software.
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Computers↗
General practitioners' perceptions of the pharmaceutical decision-support tools in their prescribing software.
OBJECTIVES: To explore how Australian general practitioners use pharmaceutical decision-support (PDS) systems; to determine GPs' perceptions of the deficiencies and strengths of these systems; and how they believe they can be improved. DESIGN AND SETTING: Qualitative analysis of discussion from three focus groups of GPs (from one rural and two urban Divisions of General Practice) between April and May 2002. PARTICIPANTS: 22 GPs selected to include users of the five most popular prescribing/clinical practice software products available in Australia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Advantages and disadvantages of using PDS software; ideas for improving PDS systems; attitudes to electronic evidence-based guidelines. RESULTS: GPs believed that important interactions may be missed because of desensitisation resulting from too many alerts (which also intrude on workflow); that interaction alerts need to be severity graded and only significant ones should appear; and that improved computer-user interface design could enhance the usefulness of PDS systems. CONCLUSIONS: Our results will provide useful feedback to government, software vendors and software developers on the needs and expectations of end users and on the development of agreed software standards.
Attitude of Health Personnel↗
[Microbeads and flow cytometry: how and why put the "-metry" in immuno-cytometry?].
In current practice of immunophenotyping, flow cytometers are mainly used as cell counters. These instruments which measure fluorescence intensity on each individual cell with high sensitivity can also count molecules on cells. "Putting the - metry into cytofluorometry" means measuring the expression level of molecules of biological interest on (in) target cells. Candidate molecules are numerous due to the many membrane receptors which biological function depends on the number of accessible molecules. Any modulation of the expression level brings valuable information to the biologist, beit associated to physiological differentiation, pathological state or therapeutic intervention. In order to take the best from such measurements in clinical biology, full reliability is mandatory in terms of time-to-time, platform-to-platform and lab- to-lab reproducibility. One should ban "arbitrary units" as currently provided by the instruments to switch to real units. This paper tends to review the most important features conditioning a reliable quantitation of cellular antigens, with data expressed in terms of number of molecules per cell. In addition to staining tools (antibody-based reagents) and data treatment softwares, calibration tools are mandatory. They are not all equivalent. Fluorescent beads with internal fluorescence are very useful for instrument quality-control but they can not interchange with immunological calibration systems which measure the number of antibody molecules that can bind onto the cells. Numerous application examples illustrate the interest of this "quantitative" dimension of Immunocytometry. Generalization of this approach would help getting a wider access to clinical biology.
Cytological Techniques↗
Implementing personal digital assistant documentation of pharmacist interventions in a military treatment facility.
OBJECTIVE: To describe the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in documenting pharmacists' clinical interventions. SETTING: Evans Army Community Hospital (EACH), a 78-bed military treatment facility, in Colorado Springs. PARTICIPANTS: Pharmacists on staff at EACH. PRACTICE DESCRIPTION: All pharmacists at EACH used PDAs with the pilot software to record interventions for 1 month. The program underwent final design changes and then became the sole source for recording pharmacist interventions. The results of this project are being evaluated every 3 months for the first year and yearly thereafter. PRACTICE INNOVATION: Visual CE (Syware Inc. Cambridge, Mass.) software was selected to develop fields for the documentation tool. This software is simple and easy to use, and users can retrieve reports of interventions from both inpatient and outpatient sections. The software needed to be designed so that data entry would only take a few minutes and ad hoc reports could be produced easily. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of pharmacist interventions reported, time spent in clinical interventions, and outcome of clinical intervention. RESULTS: Implementing a PDA-based system for documenting pharmacist interventions across ambulatory, inpatient, and clinical services dramatically increased reporting during the first 6 months after implementation (August 2004-February 2005). After initial fielding, clinical pharmacists in advanced practice settings (such as disease management clinic, anticoagulation clinic) recognized a need to tailor the program to their specific activities, which resulted in a spin-off program unique to their practice roles. CONCLUSION: A PDA-based system for documenting clinical interventions at a military treatment facility increased reporting of interventions across all pharmacy points of service. Pharmacy leadership used these data to document the impact of pharmacist interventions on safety and quality of pharmaceutical care provided.
Computers, Handheld↗
Development of standards for the design of educational software. Standards Committee for Dental Informatics.
The ready availability of computers, combined with the advent of sophisticated software development tools, has resulted in a proliferation of dental instructional software. The quality of these products varies widely. Working Group 5 of the Standards Committee for Dental Informatics has published an initial set of guidelines to help course designers develop high-quality instructional materials. In the future, these guidelines will evolve into standards. This article summarizes the guidelines and considers future actions that may be taken once the standards are in place.
Computer-Assisted Instruction↗
Informatic tools for proteome profiling.
In recent years, the practice of proteomics research has experienced a dramatic shift within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry with the widespread implementation of novel applications. The areas of interest extend all the way from discovery of novel drug, vaccine, and diagnostic targets, characterization of protein-based products, toxicology, and identification of surrogate markers of activity in clinical research, to the ability to provide information on the mechanisms of drug action. The power of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis as well as advances in mass spectrometric techniques combined with sequence database correlation have enabled speed and accuracy in identification of proteins in complex mixtures. This article surveys currently available software and informatic tools related to these methods for proteome profiling. The broad acceptance of these technologies, however, has not been accompanied by significant advances in the informatics and software tools necessary to support the analysis and management of the massive amounts of data generated in the process. In this context, this article also discusses the importance of relational databases for protein identification data management.
Biotechnology↗
Architectural design and tools to support the transparent access to hospital information systems, radiology information systems, and picture archiving and communication systems.
The fragmentation of the electronic patient record among hospital information systems (HIS), radiology information systems (RIS), and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) makes the viewing of the complete medical patient record inconvenient. The purpose of this report is to describe the system architecture, development tools, and implementation issues related to providing transparent access to HIS, RIS, and PACS information. A client-mediator-server architecture was implemented to facilitate the gathering and visualization of electronic medical records from these independent heterogeneous information systems. The architecture features intelligent data access agents, run-time determination of data access strategies, and an active patient cache. The development and management of the agents were facilitated by data integration CASE (computer-assisted software engineering) tools. HIS, RIS, and PACS data access and translation agents were successfully developed. All pathology, radiology, medical, laboratory, admissions, and radiology reports for a patient are available for review from a single integrated workstation interface. A data caching system provides fast access to active patient data. New network architectures are evolving that support the integration of heterogeneous software subsystems. Commercial tools are available to assist in the integration procedure.
Computer Systems↗
An image visualization tool in mammography.
The poor detectability of diagnostic mammographic features, due to their low contrast, is dealt with by a software visualization tool. The tool is domain specific to medical imaging and consequently mammographic imaging, and it is envisaged as part of medical image visualization and manipulation stations. Domain specificity is served by the tool conformance to DICOM 3.0 part 10 image format specifications, specifically PAPYRUS 3.0, window width/level display adjustments of image dynamic range of up to 16 bits, and application of visualization operations to user-defined regions of interest in addition to global operations. The software has been designed and implemented according to an object oriented approach in Visual C++. The tool user interface is friendly, based on a widely used windowing paradigm, the Microsoft Foundation Class library version 4.2, which provides interface items, such as windows, dialogue boxes, lists, slide bars, buttons, etc. The visualization functionality offered by the tool relies on the following three categories of image processing algorithms: dynamic range adjustments by pixel intensity transformations, contrast enhancement and noise suppression by spatial domain direct manipulation of image pixels or by manipulation of wavelet coefficients. The first two categories of algorithms are implemented in real time. Initial use of the tool has demonstrated its potential in improving the detectability of diagnostic mammographic image features.
Algorithms↗
Multimedia system based on programmed instruction in medical genetics: construction and evaluation.
A multimedia system used as an auxiliary didactic tool for teaching medical genetics, HGEN, is based on non-linear programmed instruction and multimedia. HGEN was implemented in layers for PC compatible using MULTIMEDIA TOOLBOOK and DELPHI. It includes basic medical genetics concepts (inheritance patterns and cytogenetics) and it is based on multiple choice questions with images, diagrams and animations. The student-program interaction occurs by choosing an alternative in a question and receiving a specific answer as feedback and additional information. Links send the students to a glossary, to short descriptions of diseases used as examples, or to references for further studies. In order to evaluate the performance of the HGEN the authors used two questionnaires: (a) about the students' background in using computers; and (b) the system efficiency as a didactic tool, the software quality and user satisfaction. HGEN was used by 63 students from three medical schools and it was considered efficient as a learning tool (100%). Furthermore the implementation of a navigation map for frequencies analysis of followed path enable the study to detect structure and content inadequacies that could be correct for version 1.1 and proved to be an efficient tool to optimize a didactic software.
Computer-Assisted Instruction↗
Bioinformatics: smartest software is still just a tool.
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Algorithms↗
Assessing the tooth-restoration interface wear resistance of two cementation techniques: effect of a surface sealant.
This study compared (1) the tooth-restoration interface width of conventional and "resin coating" cementation techniques, (2) the toothbrushing wear resistance of the two interfaces and (3) this study evaluated the influence of a restoration surface sealing on toothbrush wear resistance on both cementation technique interfaces. Mid-coronal buccal surfaces of 40 bovine teeth were ground to obtain a flat enamel surface. For each specimen, a 3 mm x 4 mm x 3 mm dimension rectangular cavity was prepared. The teeth were divided into four groups. Two groups (RC) received a "resin coating" (ED Primer + Tetric Flow) prior to cementation. The remaining two groups (NC) served as non-coated groups. All teeth were restored with composite inlays (Z250) fabricated by the indirect method and were cemented with dual cure resin cement (Panavia F). After finishing the margins, one group from each of the cementation techniques (RC+S and NC+S) had the tooth-restoration interface protected with a restoration surface sealant (Biscover). The specimens were subjected to 100,000 brushing abrasion cycles. The tooth-restoration width was obtained using a Hommel Tester T 1000-basic profilometer and Turbo Datawin NT 1.34 Software (microm). The interface wear (vertical loss/microm and area/microm2) was calculated with Image Tool 3.0 Software. Data were analyzed with Student t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey test (alpha=0.05). Mean interface width for the NC group was 67 microm and 72 microm for the RC group. The student t-test showed no significant differences between groups (p=0.53). ANOVA showed significant differences (p<0.01) in vertical loss among groups (NC: 49.30 microm; NC+S: 7.90 microm; RC: 27.15 microm; RC+S: 4.74 microm). Also, ANOVA showed significant differences (p<0.01) in worn areas among groups (NC: 2,008 microm2; NC+S: 128 microm2; RC: 1,580 microm2 and RC+S: 88 microm2). No differences were found in tooth-restoration interface width and worn area between conventional and "resin coating" techniques. "Resin coating" interface presented reduced vertical loss. Restoration surface sealing provided reduced wear in tooth-restoration interface for both techniques.
Acrylates↗
[A study of multimedia computer assistant instruction of forensic autopsy].
A study of software system for forensic autopsy teaching was carried on with multimedia computer and authour tool. This software system can meet the need of morphological instruction by combining the theory of forensic medicine with its practice. It also indicates that the multimedia computer is playing an impotant role in forensic medicine.
Computer-Assisted Instruction↗
Digital radiography in dentistry: what it should do for you.
Digital radiology will become an important part of dental practice. Manufacturers should develop more sophisticated tools, including software for digital subtraction; image processing routines for the diagnosis of caries, periodontitis and periapical disease; tools for three-dimensional viewing of the teeth and supporting structures; and analysis of bone trabecular pattern for early detection of systemic disease. Hardware improvements should include increased dynamic range and sensitivity to radiation, and improved resolution. Sensors should be made the size of film, and components should be interchangeable across manufacturers. The true opportunity offered by digital imaging, computer-aided diagnosis, should continue to develop with particular attention to development of tools that add value for solving diagnostic problems and ease of use for the dentist and patient.
Dental Equipment↗
The Stanford Microarray Database: implementation of new analysis tools and open source release of software.
The Stanford Microarray Database (SMD; http://smd.stanford.edu/) is a research tool and archive that allows hundreds of researchers worldwide to store, annotate, analyze and share data generated by microarray technology. SMD supports most major microarray platforms, and is MIAME-supportive and can export or import MAGE-ML. The primary mission of SMD is to be a research tool that supports researchers from the point of data generation to data publication and dissemination, but it also provides unrestricted access to analysis tools and public data from 300 publications. In addition to supporting ongoing research, SMD makes its source code fully and freely available to others under an Open Source license, enabling other groups to create a local installation of SMD. In this article, we describe several data analysis tools implemented in SMD and we discuss features of our software release.
Animals↗
The HELIOS Image Related Services.
The HELIOS Software Engineering Environment is a tool for the construction of medical ward information systems. This paper describes the image processing tools which are a part of this system. The Image Related Services can be used both as ready-to-use end-user tools and as software modules for the construction of integrated multimedia applications. The tasks and architecture of the end-user tools and their integration into the HELIOS architecture are described. It is shown how the available image processing functionality can be used to build up new applications.
Computer Communication Networks↗
In-house access to PACS images and related data through World Wide Web.
The development of a hospital wide PACS is in progress at the University Hospital of Geneva and several archive modules are operational since 1992. This PACS is intended for wide distribution of images to clinical wards. As the PACS project and the number of archived images grow rapidly in the hospital, it was necessary to provide an easy, more widely accessible and convenient access to the PACS database for the clinicians in the different wards and clinical units of the hospital. An innovative solution has been developed using tools such as Netscape navigator and NCSA World Wide Web server as an alternative to conventional database query and retrieval software. These tools present the advantages of providing a user interface which is the same, independent of the platform being used (e.g. Mac, Windows, UNIX), and an easy integration of different types of documents (e.g. text, images). A strict access control has been added to this interface. It allows user identification and access rights checking, as defined by the in-house hospital information system, before allowing the navigation through patient data records.
Computer Communication Networks↗