Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
Comparative StudyDirect versus indirect laryngoscopic visualization in human endotracheal intubation: a tool for virtual anesthesia practice and teleanesthesiology.
When performing the ABC's of care for the trauma patient, airway management is of paramount importance. Management of the airway is often difficult because medical personnel caring for the patient do not commonly intubate patients or manage airways. To accomplish endotracheal intubation, a direct line of sight must be accomplished through the mouth, pharynx and larynx to the glottic opening. ⋯ Indirect "virtual" laryngoscopy is an advanced technology method which will advance the development of teleanesthesiology practice. Videolaryngoscopy is an enabling technology for development of remote telementoring of trainee intubation skills curricula using video enabled distributed learning systems. This research was conducted following an approved University of Nebraska Medical Center institutional review board protocol.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
The contextual nature of usability and its relevance to medical informatics.
We report from three usability evaluations of health information systems that illustrate the value of seeing usability as a context dependent property of a product. We show how the definition of usability in ISO 9241-11 can be used as a guiding principle in the evaluation, specification and design of such systems. The contextual view on usability is particularly important for health information systems because of their great diversity concerning user groups, tasks, and work environments.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
The last challenges and barriers to the development of telemedicine programs.
Over the past several decades the concept of telemedicine has evolved to be more commonplace with many unique applications. These applications have been made possible by overcoming challenges and barriers that have been present for most of telemedicine's development. The application of telemedicine continues to undergo growth and scrutiny. ⋯ Future generations of telemedicine users will look back at this period as one of transition. The first 30 years or so of telemedicine implementation were fraught with barriers and challenges. The next 30 years will see and entirely different paradigm of practicing medicine, including consumerism and smart systems.
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Implementing a telehealth program from the technical standpoint can be an engineering and financial challenge due to associated costs such as hardware, software, networking, administration and human expertise. To maximize potential and minimize costs, it makes sense to leverage existing telecommunications infrastructures and tailor the program based on what is available. This is especially critical in developing nations where funding is often limited.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
ReviewDiversity in preoperative-assessment data collection, a literature review.
The appropriate anesthetic techniques and care during and after operation rely on data gathered during the preoperative assessment. Because various people are involved, standardization of this process is important. This paper provides a systematic literature review about which data items are collected in the preoperative assessment. ⋯ Our study showed a high diversity of data items in the preoperative assessment. Because of the diversity of patients and treatment options available one undisputed preoperative assessment data set is hard to define. However, to solve the problem of exchangeability of the information at least anesthesiologists should use a same core set of data.