Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Calculating the social cost of illegal drugs: a theoretical approach.
The use of illegal drugs generates a wide range of social harms depending on various ways, according to the policy definition of the problem. The challenge is the way to model the impact of illegal drugs use during a long time period considering the factors that affects the process. ⋯ For that reason, calculation of social cost related to the use of illegal could be introduced over time (t) as a proposed social measure to define the variability of social indicator on society. In this work, a theoretical approach for the calculation of social cost of illegal drugs is proposed and models over time are defined.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyComparison of automated and manual vital sign collection at hospital wards.
Using a cross-over study design, vital signs were collected from 60 patients by 6 nurses. Each nurse was randomly assigned for manual vital sign collection in 5 patients and for automated data collection in other 5 patients. ⋯ We found that 30% of vital sign records were transmitted to EMR with at least one error after manual data collection whereas there wasno transmission error with automated data collection. Allparticipating nurses stated that the automated vital sign collection can improve their efficiency and save their time for direct patient care.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
A guideline-based decision support system for headache diagnosis.
The ratio of correct diagnosis for primary headache has always been relatively low for general practitioners due to the unacquaintance with headache guideline in Chinese primary hospitals. This study proposed a computerized headache guideline method using SAGE module and developed a decision support system for headache diagnosis, which could be expected to help general practitioners of primary hospitals improve diagnostic accuracy. 282 previously diagnosed cases from EMR were used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the system, the result is: migraine 144/153 (94.1%), tension-type headache 89/100 (89.0%), cluster headache 10/11 (90.9%) and chronic daily headache 53/57(93.0%). The proposed system is in the starting phase of the implementation at the outpatient department of Neurology in Chinese PLA general hospital.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2013
Case-based reasoning in Intelligent Health Decision Support Systems.
Decision-making is a crucial task for decision makers in healthcare, especially because decisions have to be made quickly, accurately and under uncertainty. Taking into account the importance of providing quality decisions, offering assistance in this complex process has been one of the main challenges of Artificial Intelligence throughout history. ⋯ This paper deals with Intelligent Decision Support Systems that are integrated into Electronic Health Records Systems (EHRS) or Public Health Information Systems (PHIS). It provides comprehensive support for a wide range of decisions with the purpose of improving quality of care delivered to patients or public health planning, respectively.
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Population ageing is the demographic process that characterises the first half of the twenty-first century. Australia's population is already ageing and the states and territories are ageing at different rates. ⋯ In this paper we discuss how a spatially informed health information management system could support population ageing and the disconnected systems that address ageing. We illustrate this with examples from our work to show how spatial informatics can advance our understanding of and response to the implications of population ageing.