Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Computer Systems”

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.

At least 1,369 records · Page 76Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

Clinical effects of botulinum toxin A and phenol block on gait in children with cerebral palsy.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the treatment effectiveness of botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) and phenol blocks in managing lower limb spasticity and gait dysfunction in children with cerebral palsy. DESIGN: This is a case-controlled study that took place in a tertiary center's gait laboratory. A total of 27 ambulatory children with cerebral palsy spastic diplegia, aged from 3 to 7 yrs, and 20 normal children were recruited into this study. Sixteen children with cerebral palsy received BTX-A injections, and 11 received phenol motor point blocks. Gait analyses were assessed by a portable computer-assisted system (Computer DynoGraphy, Infotronic, The Netherlands). Both the BTX-A and phenol groups received gait analysis at 1 wk before and 2 mos after injection treatments. RESULTS: Significant improvements in gait variables of velocity and cadence were noted in children with cerebral palsy after BTX-A injections as compared with the phenol block group. Gaitline and cyclogram patterns also improved significantly in the BTX-A group. The adverse clinical effects of BTX-A injections were less severe as compared with phenol injections. CONCLUSIONS: BTX-A injections demonstrated superior treatment effects in improving gait variables and patterns in children with spastic diplegia as compared with phenol blocks. BTX-A injections also revealed fewer clinical side effects and were well tolerated by children with cerebral palsies.

Botulinum Toxins, Type A↗
PubMed2002

Accuracy of prescription medication reporting among active duty U.S. Army dental patients.

Dentist routinely ask patients about medication usage before dental treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine if active duty personnel relate accurate information about medications they have been prescribed in the 6 months before an annual dental examination. This study also examined whether patients knew the dosage of the medication they were prescribed. The information in this study was obtained from 100 active duty soldiers at their dental examinations. The data were verified through the Composite Health Care System computer information system. In this study, 35% of patients had been prescribed at least one medication. Fifty-one percent of the patients prescribed medication in this study accurately reported their prescription history in the 6 months before their dental examinations. Forty-five percent of the patients that reported being prescribed medication actually knew the correct dosage of the medication they were prescribed.

Dental Care↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Stereotactic irradiation therapy. Physical and dosimetric problems.

In stereotactic irradiation by external beams there are many problems involved with dosimetry of small fields, three-dimensional representation of dose distribution, radiobiological involvement of tissue response to total dose and fractionation. Dosimetric problems arise by critical dimension of dosimetric chambers and by difficulties of films calibration. The amount of data required for a correct three-dimensional simulation of isodose curves, tumor and anatomical structures require a very speed computer system, sophisticated computer graphic techniques and calculation algorithm. By use the linear quadratic model of cell survival, maps of combined dose and biological effect (isoeffect curves) are also obtained.

Brain Neoplasms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Dosimetric aspects in stereotactic radiotherapy using small shielded sources.

In stereotactic irradiation by external beams there are many problems involved with dosimetry of small fields, three-dimensional representation of dose distribution, radiobiological involvement of tissue response to total dose and fractionation. Dosimetric problems arise by critical dimension of dosimetric chambers and by difficulties of films calibration. The amount of data required for a correct three-dimensional simulation of isodose curves, tumor and anatomical structures require a very speed computer system, sophisticated computer graphic techniques and calculation algorithm. By use the linear quadratic model of cell survival, maps of combined dose and biological effect (isoeffect curves) are also obtained.

Humans↗
PubMed1995

Accountability for clinical preventive services.

Clinical preventive services are important in both the civilian and military health care systems. In the civilian sector, preventive services have been included in the movement for more accountability for health care services. Four civilian accountability models have at least some preventive services evaluation. DEMPAQ is a program developed for Medicare, and collects data both from claims records and from office medical records. PROSPER is an example of another type of model, and uses patient questionnaires to collect information. A third model, HEDIS, produces the popularly-called "report cards." HEDIS relies on administrative data generally available in managed care organizations. "Passports" is yet another model that offers the potential for perhaps the most efficient way to evaluate preventive services, but it is still developmental. None of these civilian models is directly applicable to today's military care system. However, the Composite Health Care System, a computer system widely used in military treatment facilities, offers a possible mechanism to provide local accountability for clinical preventive services that should be easy and efficient.

Ambulatory Care↗
PubMed1993

Breast cytology diagnosis with digital image analysis.

An interactive computer system has been developed for evaluating cytologic features derived directly from a digital scan of breast fine needle aspirate slides. The system uses computer vision techniques to analyze cell nuclei and classifies them using an inductive method based on linear programming. A digital scan of selected areas of the aspirate slide is done by a trained observer, while the analysis of the digitized image is done by an untrained observer. When trained and tested on 119 breast fine needle aspirates (68 benign and 51 malignant) using leave-one-out testing, 90% correctness was achieved. These results indicate that the method is accurate (good intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility) and that an untrained operator can obtain diagnostic results comparable to those achieved visually by experienced observers.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1995

Current trends with natural language processing.

Natural Language Processing in the medical domain becomes more and more powerful, efficient, and ready to be used in daily practice. The needs for such tools are enormous in the medical field, due to the vast amount of written texts for medical records. In the authors' point of view, the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) is achieved neither with Information Systems of all kinds nor with commercially available word processing systems. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is one dimension of the EPR, as well as Image Processing and Decision Support Systems. Analysis of medical texts to facilitate indexing and retrieval is well known. The need for a generation tool is to produce progress notes from menu driven systems. The computer systems of tomorrow cannot miss any single dimension. Since 1988, we've been developing an NLP system; it is supported by the European program AIM (Advanced Informatics in Medicine) within the GALEN and HELIOS consortium and the CERS (Commission d'Encouragement á la Recherche Scientifique) in Switzerland. The main directions of development are: a medical language analyzer, a language generator, a query processor, and dictionary building tools to support the Medical Linguistic Knowledge Base (MLKB). The knowledge representation schema is essentially based on Sowa's conceptual graphs, and the MLKB is multilingual from its design phase; it currently incorporates the English and the French languages; it will also continue using German. The goal of this demonstration is to provide evidence of what exists today, what will be soon available, and what is planned for the long term. Complete sentences will be processed in real time, and the browsing capabilities of the MLKB will be exercised. In particular, the following features will be presented: Analysis of complete sentences with verbs and relatives, as extracted from clinical narratives, with special attention to the method of "proximity processing" as developed in our group and the rule based approach to language description to resolve the specific surface language problems as well as the language independent semantic situations. Comparison of results for English, French, and German sentences, showing the commonalities between these languages and, therefore, the re-usable features and the language specific aspects. Generation of noun phrases in English and French, showing the opportunities for translation between these two languages. Application of the analyzer to build a knowledge representation of ICD under the form of conceptual graphs and presentation of the possibilities of a natural language encoding of diagnosis. Strategies for query processing through a sample of abdominal ultrasonography reports, which have been analyzed and stored under the form of conceptual graphs. Feeding in and browsing of the Medical Linguistic Knowledge Base and other Dictionary Building Tools, using the perspective of an international initiative to converge towards a multilingual universal solution, valid for the medical domain. The demonstration platform is Microsoft Windows 4 on a PC, with Microsoft Visual Basic as the GUI and Quintus Prolog as NLP tools language. The same programs were originally developed for Unix-based workstations and are available on multiple platforms under Motif and X11. .

European Union↗
PubMed1998

[Effective use of a laboratory database: quality assurance and laboratory workflow applications].

Recent laboratory information systems have usually adopted a client server system. Computing tools which can provide easy access to a database using simple language are now strongly needed. These functions are provided in an End User Computing (EUC) system. An EUC is defined as follows: 1) General end users can easily access the database of the laboraotry system and extract objective data stored in database. 2) The extracted data will be easily converted to files that can be processed by commercially available software. In this paper, we demonstrate the examples how to use the EUC for a quality assurance system and analyses of laboratory workflow. In the case of quality assurance, we demonstrate the setting of reference intervals from stored laboratory data concerning health care examination programs at our university. Secondly, we developed a system of monitoring quality control data, and set parameters for delta checking and actual zone QC method. We can estimate and design an outline of laboratory workflow from extraction of the time currently required for each task. We can measure the turn-around time for laboratory testing and rate of requests for laboratory tests received from physicians via order entry system. Moreover, we can estimate and simulate the waiting time and time required for analyses by outpatient clinics. These time monitoring systems reflect the design of laboratory workflow such as the labor and equipment time required in laboratory work. These uses of laboratory data are currently expanding further and further in the fields of education and laboratory research. We believe that information technology will facilitate future advances of laboratory medicine.

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗
PubMed2005

[Possibilities of data acquisition, recording and processing based on the system for continuous intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure monitoring designed at the Department of Neurosurgery of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow].

OBJECTIVES: To describe computer system for intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring and for infusion testing (IT), and to present current possibilities of analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure signal. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION: Computer system for pressure signal measurement and acquisition consists of three sensors: for ICP, infusion pressure during IT, and blood pressure measurements. Electric signal from the sensors is transmitted to Temed RMN-201M cardiomonitor, and next after enhancement is subjected to Data Shuttle DS-12-8-5B-AO analog to digital converter. Digital output signal is recorded and analysed'on standard personal computer. Original Windows-compatible software was developed to control the system. The program consists of three blocs: configuration, measurement and readout, and enables selection of voltage range for each of the signal channels, measurement resolution, sampling frequency, calibration and zeroing of the sensors, visualisation of pressure signals on graph, data storage in text format and automatic analysis of IT. Main characteristics of the system include: high sampling frequency (up to 500 Hz), simultaneous data recording from all signal channels, and access to terminal cistern with one puncture needle on IT. Laboratory and clinical tests confirmed high precision of the developed system. ICP CURVE ANALYSIS: The developed software allows for evaluation of the main parameters, of CSF dynamics, prediction of IT course before a steady state is reached as well as spectral analysis of pressure signal. CONCLUSIONS: Computer measurement system developed at our department is clinically useful and allows for high precision signal acquisition necessary for advanced scientific analyses of hydrocephalus and intracranial pressure.

Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure↗
PubMed2003

The Military Health System Computer-based Patient Record.

The Composite Health Care System II (CHCS II) is the Military's electronic Computer-based Patient Record, a clinical information system that will generate, maintain, and provide secure online access to a comprehensive and legible health record. In moving to CHCS II, the Department of Defense (DoD) is making the quantum leap from paper based medical records to computer based patient record (CPR). The CPR will enable DoD health care to meet its strategic goals for the 21st century and is paramount to providing comprehensive patient-focused information.

Humans↗
PubMed1995

The computer-aided facial reconstruction system.

A computer imaging system was introduced into the facial reconstruction process. The system, which consists of the image processing unit for skull morphometry and the image editing unit for compositing facial components on the skull images, was an original construction. The image processor generates the framework for building a face onto the digitized skull image. For reconstructing a facial image on the framework, several possible data sets of facial components suitable for the skull morphology are selected from the database by operating our original application software. The most suitable cutout samples of facial components are pasted up over the framework in accordance with the anatomical criteria. The database of facial components consists of 24 contours, 18 eyes, 9 eyebrows, 27 noses, 9 lips and 16 hairstyles. After provisional reconstruction, the facial image is retouched by correcting skin colors and shades with an 'electronic painting device'. The resulting image is a great improvement on images made by the conventional clay and drawing method, both in the operational aspect and in the flexibility of creating multiple versions. The present system facilitates a rather objective and rapid approach and allows us easily to generate a range of possible faces. The computer-aided facial reconstruction will lead to an increase in chances of positive identification in practical cases.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

System maintenance, problems, and enhancements.

The procedures required for software and hardware maintenance of a pharmacy computer system, and methods of dealing with operational and administrative problems of such systems, are described. Maintenance of software and hardware purchased from a vendor is usually provided by the vendor under contract. Repair maintenance is required for programs that do not run, produce incorrect results, or run too slowly. Update and revision maintenance is required when user requirements exceed the limits and design of the original program. Typical problems encountered with computer systems include slow computer response time, performance of maintenance personnel, turnover in user personnel, legal liabilities and restrictions, reliability of hardware and software, downtime, security, and changing configuration of equipment. Successful management of predictable and unpredictable problems with computer systems is accomplished through systematic review of the potential problem area and prospective planning.

Computers↗
PubMed2000

Hand-held computer operating system program for collection of resident experience data.

OBJECTIVE: To describe a system for recording resident experience involving hand-held computers with the Palm Operating System (3 Com, Inc., Santa Clara, CA). PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Hand-held personal computers (PCs) are popular, easy to use, inexpensive, portable, and can share data among other operating systems. Residents in our program carry individual hand-held database computers to record Residency Review Committee (RRC) reportable patient encounters. Each resident's data is transferred to a single central relational database compatible with Microsoft Access (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA). Patient data entry and subsequent transfer to a central database is accomplished with commercially available software that requires minimal computer expertise to implement and maintain. The central database can then be used for statistical analysis or to create required RRC resident experience reports. As a result, the data collection and transfer process takes less time for residents and program director alike, than paper-based or central computer-based systems. CONCLUSION: The system of collecting resident encounter data using hand-held computers with the Palm Operating System is easy to use, relatively inexpensive, accurate, and secure. The user-friendly system provides prompt, complete, and accurate data, enhancing the education of residents while facilitating the job of the program director.

Computer Communication Networks↗
PubMed1998

Integrating computer prediction systems with in vitro methods towards a better understanding of toxicology.

Structure Activity Relationships (SARs) or Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSARs) form the basis of most computer prediction systems in toxicology. The underlying premise of SARs and QSARs is that the properties of a chemical are implicit in its molecular structure. For an SAR or QSAR to be valid and reliable, the dependent property for all of the chemicals covered by the relationship has to be elicited by a mechanism which is both common to the set of chemicals as well as relevant to that dependent property. Similar principles must also be applied to the development of in vitro alternatives to animal tests if those methods are to be reliable. A number of ways in which computer prediction systems and in vitro toxicology can complement each other in the development of alternatives to live animal experiments are described.

Animal Testing Alternatives↗