Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Improving emergency medical dispatching with emphasis on mass-casualty incidents.
Dispatching ambulances is a demanding and stressful task for dispatchers. This is especially true in case of mass-casualty incidents. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate if and to what extent the dispatch operation of the Red Cross Salzburg can be optimized on such occasions with a computerized system. ⋯ Consequently, the problem is solved by using the Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search. Evaluation results indicate that the system outperforms a human dispatcher by between 2.5% and 36% within 1 minute of runtime concerning total costs. Moreover, the system's response time in case that a plan has to be updated is less than 1 minute on average.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
An integrated approach to safety-driven and ICT-enabled process reengineering: methodological advice and a case study.
Patient safety is a central concern inside any healthcare environment. With the progress of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), new solutions have become available to support care and management processes. Analyzing process risks helps identifying areas of improvement and provides ICT-solutions design with indications on what portions of the process need primary interventions. ⋯ Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (INT), offers a good example of process reengineering driven by the purpose of increasing patient safety, enabled by new technologies. A pillar of the evolution of ICT process support at INT is based on Radio Frequency Identification technologies, implemented to identify and trace items and people across processes. This paper will present an integrated approach, based on process reengineering methodologies and risk assessment studies, and methodological advice applied to a case of surgical kits management procedures.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Design and Validation of 3D Printed Complex Bone Models with Internal Anatomic Fidelity for Surgical Training and Rehearsal.
Physical models of complex bony structures can be used for surgical skills training. Current models focus on surface rendering but suffer from a lack of internal accuracy due to limitations in the manufacturing process. ⋯ In a face validation experiment, otolaryngology residents drilled a cadaveric bone and its corresponding printed model. The printed bone models were deemed highly realistic representations across all measured parameters and the educational value of the models was strongly appreciated.
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Advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) enable new personalized health care concepts which are often characterized by four "P" terms, i.e. personalized, predictive, preventive and participatory. However, real world implementations of the complete 4P spectrum hardly exist today. ⋯ Smart devices and enabling elements like Near Field Communication (NFC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology already exist and increasingly will be a mainstream element of our lives. This future vision paper attempts to assess if and how the Internet of Things for personalized health (IoT4pH) can help to facilitate the 4P healthcare paradigm and discusses related challenges and opportunities.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2014
Hospital nurses' and physicians' use of information sources during their production of discharge summaries: a cross-sectional study.
Hospital nurses' and physicians' production and exchange of accurate information between levels of care are crucial for ensuring safe and seamless care for patients in transition. We report on a study in which we explored hospital providers' use of information sources when they prepared discharge information for colleges in the community health-care sector. In this cross-sectional study, 510 nurses and 236 physicians responded through a questionnaire. Our findings show that nurses and physicians use different information sources in patient records when they produce their discharge summaries.