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Results for “Computer Communication Networks”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Medical counseling through computer communication networks.

Medical counseling on the computer communication network will be used increasingly with wide-ranging concern of people about health and strengthening the role of medical care as social service. This study was designed to explore main problems/issues of network counseling and to suggest future prosperity of medical counseling. We analyzed questions and answers in the Association of Family Medicine in the KETEL since 1991, Medical counseling corner which is in the UNITEL since 1996, and Online counseling in VIRTUAL HOSPITAL since 1996, and classified the reason for encounter, systematic classification of counseling by ICPC, and answer content. Inquiry about symptoms was the most common reason for encounter, followed by treatment and prevention strategies, detailed information about diseases, and inquiry about laboratory tests. Systematic classification by ICPC showed common problems of skin, digestive, musculoskeletal and general & unspecified, which was a different look compared with common problems in primary care. The answer content presented a different look among three groups. Common answers were mainly to offer medical information, to recommend visiting a doctor, and to provide self-care remedies. Network counselling will supplement the incompleteness of medical interview with doctors, and make it easy to communicate various pieces of information between patients and doctors.

Computer Communication Networks↗

The hospital-physician computer communications network: an alternative application.

For more than five years hospitals have been developing computer communications networks as a physician bonding strategy because of their success in promoting hospital admissions and additional referrals to the sponsoring hospitals' specialists. An alternative, nonproprietary network may also be worthy of consideration because of the services and benefits it delivers to the total health care delivery system and to society as a whole--in addition to the advantages it offers the sponsoring hospital. An example of such a network is offered as an illustration.

Colorado↗

The French communicable diseases computer network: a technical view.

This paper describes an information system (IS) established in France in 1984 for the national surveillance of communicable diseases. This IS is based on a videotex server and a relational database management system. The videotex server is the IS front-end. It performs the following functions: interpersonal communications, synthetic information retrieval into an epidemiologic info-base and data entry owing to its specialized applications. The relational database management system allows the user to manage and consult an epidemiologic database updated in quasi-real time. Several specific tools have also been developed in order to enhance data representation and analysis and the decision support capabilities of the IS.

Algorithms↗

Nursing student information network: fostering collegial communications using a computer conference.

This article describes the development and implementation of a student-based computer information network in a university setting. A computer conference was established as a pilot project on two campuses in a large multipurpose, multicampus university school of nursing, and it was used to communicate information and facilitate collegial interaction among students, faculty, academic counselors, and administrators. The project demonstrates that computer conferences can be used to disseminate information effectively to diverse and geographically distant student populations. Such networks have the potential to enhance opportunities for collaborative learning experiences and student-faculty communication.

Communication↗

Physician networks.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Computer Communication Networks↗

HPCC and the National Information Infrastructure: an overview.

The National Information Infrastructure (NII) or "information superhighway" is a high-priority federal initiative to combine communications networks, computers, databases, and consumer electronics to deliver information services to all U.S. citizens. The NII will be used to improve government and social services while cutting administrative costs. Operated by the private sector, the NII will rely on advanced technologies developed under the direction of the federal High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program. These include computing systems capable of performing trillions of operations (teraops) per second and networks capable of transmitting billions of bits (gigabits) per second. Among other activities, the HPCC Program supports the national supercomputer research centers, the federal portion of the Internet, and the development of interface software, such as Mosaic, that facilitates access to network information services. Health care has been identified as a critical demonstration area for HPCC technology and an important application area for the NII. As an HPCC participant, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) assists hospitals and medical centers to connect to the Internet through projects directed by the Regional Medical Libraries and through an Internet Connections Program cosponsored by the National Science Foundation. In addition to using the Internet to provide enhanced access to its own information services, NLM sponsors health-related applications of HPCC technology. Examples include the "Visible Human" project and recently awarded contracts for test-bed networks to share patient data and medical images, telemedicine projects to provide consultation and medical care to patients in rural areas, and advanced computer simulations of human anatomy for training in "virtual surgery."

Computer Communication Networks↗

A computer network for the surveillance of communicable diseases: the French experiment.

The description and first results of the French Communicable diseases Network are reported. The network, initiated in November 1984, currently includes the National Department of Health, the local health offices and various clinical, biological, and epidemiological partners. Surveillance of influenza, viral hepatitis, acute urethritis, measles, and mumps is based upon reports from sentinel general practitioners throughout France who are equipped with terminals and can communicate their data on a 24-hour basis. The network distributes electronic bulletins summarizing the surveillance data, the regional statistics concerning other diseases, and epidemiological and administrative news. Electronic mail is used for data validation and enhances communication between the parties of the network.

Communicable Diseases↗

SITIE: a health care workstation integration architecture for epidemiologists.

SITIE is a workstation devoted to epidemiological data selection, analysis, and representation. Epidemiological data are collected using the French Communicable Diseases computer Network and stored in an Oracle database. Disease selection and spatial and temporal representations can be done using a user friendly graphic interface. SITIE automatically generates SQL requests to the Oracle database, extracts the data, processes it according to the user's choice, and represents the data. SITIE is built upon the AVS graphic package and allows the creation of new applications using previously developed modules linked together to form a network. SITIE can be viewed as a tool box for epidemiological data representations. Three example applications are detailed in order to make clear the way a new application can be built using SITIE. The reusability of modules is exemplified by a compound application.

Computer Communication Networks↗

A distributed, scalable, community care network architecture for wide-area electronic patient records: modeling and simulation.

Principal systems issues relative to computerizing patient medical records that are yet to be addressed in the scientific literature include (1) the characteristics of networks, i.e. bandwidth and capacity, and their impact on the performance of the system, (2) the architecture and the underlying algorithm of the system, (3) the location and migration of medical records, (4) scalability of the system, and (5) the nature of the performance variation under heavy and light use of the network. Key parameters that affect performance include the number of patients, doctors, frequency of patient visits, and the number of electronic queries and record entries initiated during a patient-doctor interaction episode. This paper presents AMPReD, a Distributed, Scalable, Community Care Network Architecture that aims to provide Real-Time Access to Geographically-Dispersed Patient Medical Records. The AMPReD model includes stationary hospitals and medical clinics, mobile clinics, migrating doctors as well as patients, the communications network, and the patient medical record database. AMPReD's goals include (1) the accurate modeling of the propagation of medical records and (2) providing real-time access to patient medical records from anywhere in the system. To achieve these goals, an asynchronous, distributed algorithm must be developed that achieves concurrent access of multiple, autonomous databases. AMPReD is modeled and simulated for a representative community care network on a network of workstations configured as a loosely-coupled parallel processor, for different parametric combinations of number of doctors, patients, and number of queries or record entries generated corresponding to every patient-doctor interaction episode. AMPReD defines and obtains key performance measures including the idle times of the doctors, patient waiting times, the access times of queries as functions of their sizes, and the growth of the databases. In addition, AMPReD also measures the deviation of the actual time required for a patient-doctor interaction episode from the scheduled interaction interval, as a function of the network load. For the representative system selected, performance measures indicate that the network, utilizing 1/2T1 links, and the database system poses no bottleneck to the system even where the number of doctors and patients within a 30 minute interval are chosen at 192 and 200 respectively. A T1 is a standard, digital, transmission link that is rated at 1.44Mbits/sec.

Algorithms↗

Adoption of security and confidentiality features in an operational community health information network: the Comox Valley experience--case example.

Since 1993, a budding community health information network (CHIN) has been in operation in the Comox Valley in Canada. A general hospital and three multi-doctor clinics are linked electronically. The clinics operate without paper charts using a comprehensive clinic information system. The link is provided by RSALink, a commercial message exchange service, based on Health Link, a system developed at the University of Victoria (McDaniel et al., Can. Med. Inform. 1 (1994) 40-41; McDaniel, Dissertation, University of Victoria, Canada, 1994). Health Link is a highly adaptable message exchange service with rich functionality. Despite this, the system is used exclusively to receive laboratory results transmitted by the hospital's laboratory system (RSAStat). The results are deposited in the patient data base of a commercial clinic information system (CliniCare). This case is instructive because the users' selection of services available through Health Link allows us to observe the preferences in this informational sophisticated environment. Laboratory data transmission is appreciated as highly beneficial. The reliability, security and ample privacy protection and authentication features of Health Link, in contrast, are used in a black box mode and are not consciously exploited. This is consistent with our experience of the use of other systems which have operated for a substantial time, essentially without serious protection features. Our experience suggests that security and confidentiality features are exploited only to the extent that they do not require additional effort or conscientious intervention. This puts the system provider in the difficult position of either offering interactive systems that nobody will use, or providing automated features that nobody is aware of and that are therefore not used to full advantage--if at all.

British Columbia↗

An assessment of practice support and continuing medical education needs of rural Pennsylvania family physicians.

Family physicians provide the greatest proportion of care in rural communities. Yet, the number of physicians choosing family practice and rural practice has continued to decline. Undesirable aspects of rural practice, such as professional isolation and a lack of or inadequate resources, are assumed to be associated with this decline. This article reports on the practice support and continuing medical education needs of rural family physicians. A mail survey was conducted in 1993 on a purposive sample of family physicians in 39 of 67 rural-designated or urban Pennsylvania counties with low population densities. The physicians identified needs that included patient education materials and programs, community health promotion, federal regulation updates, technical assistance with computers and business management, database software and a videotape lending library, a drug hotline, and mini-fellowships on clinical skill development. A majority of respondents were willing to participate in clinical educational experiences for students and residents. Some physicians indicated a lack of interest in access to information through telecommunications, e.g., video conference referrals and consultations. Overall, findings revealed that family physicians need and are receptive to a variety of practice support and continuing education programs. A practice support program coupled with policy coordination among public and private organizations is likely to lessen complaints by rural primary care physicians.

Clinical Competence↗

Protecting patient privacy and data quality in a community health information network.

The healthcare industry is under mounting pressure to cut costs without reducing the quality and quantity of healthcare services. One method to streamline operations is to implement community health information networks (CHINs). This article describes ways in which CHINs can offer subscribers improved efficiency, decreased costs, and improved patient care. It also addresses the fact that membership in a CHIN, if not controlled, greatly increases legal risks. Details on how many of these risks can be minimized or avoided are provided.

Antitrust Laws↗