Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2011
A pilot study on understanding the journey of advanced prostate cancer patients.
To understand the journey of advanced prostate cancer patients for supporting development of an innovative patient journey browser. ⋯ The results have provided a foundation to the architecture of the proposed technology solution. The outcomes of this study are incorporated in design of the proposed patient journey browser system. A basic version of the system is currently being used at the advanced prostate cancer MDT meetings.
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This paper describes the deployment of a platform to enable processing of currently uncharted high frequency, high fidelity, synchronous data from medical devices. Such a platform would support the next generation of informatics solutions for neonatal intensive care. We present Artemis, a platform for real-time enactment of clinical knowledge as it relates to multidimensional data analysis and clinical research. Through specific deployment examples at two different neonatal intensive care units, we demonstrate that Artemis supports: 1) instantiation of clinical rules; 2) multidimensional analysis; 3) distribution of services for critical care via cloud computing; and 4) accomplishing 1 through 3 using current technology without a negative impact on patient care.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2011
Acquisition of technical skills in ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia using a high-fidelity simulator.
Despite the increasing popularity of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA), structured training programs during residency are often lacking. The lack of a regional block area, lack of expertise, and lack of structured training programs have limited hands-on experience in residency programs. ⋯ Despite some improvement in the second trial with the simulator, the ability to maintain visualization of their needle (p<0.05), align needle with probe (p<0.05), and angle their needle approach (p<0.05), as well as reduce needle passes (p<0.05) did not improve. The results show students had difficulty learning skills requiring more coordination and fine motor control.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2011
A student-centred electronic health record system for clinical education.
Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are an increasingly important feature of the national healthcare system [1]. However, little research has investigated the impact this will have on medical students' learning. As part of an innovative technology platform for a new masters level program in medicine, we are developing a student-centred EHR system for clinical education. A prototype was trialed with medical students over several weeks during 2010. This paper reports on the findings of the trial, which had the overall aim of assisting our understanding of how trainee doctors might use an EHR system for learning and communication in a clinical setting. ⋯ Medical students in this pilot study identified a number of educational, practical and administrative advantages that the student-centred EHR system offered over their existing ad-hoc procedures for recording patient encounters. Findings from this preliminary study point to the need to introduce and instruct students' on the use of EHR systems from their earliest clinical encounters, and to closely integrate learning activities based on the EHR system with established learning objectives. Further research is required to evaluate the impact of student-centred EHR systems on learning outcomes.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2011
Information and communication needs of healthcare workers in the perioperative domain.
Perioperative work requires the collaborative efforts of a multitude of actors. Coordinating such collaboration is challenging, and coordination breakdowns may be very expensive and jeopardize patient safety. ⋯ While just-in-time notifications sufficed for some, others were dependent on projections to provide high quality and efficient care. Finally, information on current status and support in projecting the future unfolding of events could improve actors situated coordination capabilities.