Studies in health technology and informatics
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This paper will describe a suite of surgical simulators that we have designed and implemented to run on the WWW. The procedures that have been modelled include simulations of ventricular catheterisation, and lumbar puncture. We will present a detailed overview of implementation and operation of these simulators, and indicate results from early use. The advantages and disadvantages of our approach will be discussed.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2000
AUDIX: a knowledge-based system for speech-therapeutic auditory discrimination exercises.
AUDIX is a knowledge-based multimedia system for auditory discrimination exercises. The aim of AUDIX is to provide patients with a computer-based therapy system which they can use between sessions with the human therapist, at home on an 'on-demand' basis. It is centered around computer based cognitive rehabilitation therapy whereas most existing programs in this area are only used for assessment. ⋯ The system provides computer-based auditory discrimination training. Through the knowledge-based design the domain dependent therapy knowledge is separated from the system core and provides a way for the therapist to add new knowledge, as new stimuli, or to create a new knowledge base to provide special exercises for an individual patient. The AUDIX architecture is described and the advantages of computer-based therapy are discussed.
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In this article, we present an Interventional Cardiology Training System developed by the Medical Application Group at Mitsubishi Electric in collaboration with the Center for Innovative Minimally Invasive Therapy. The core of the ICTS is a computer simulation of interventional cardiology catheterization. This simulation integrates clinical expertise, research in learning, and technical innovations to create a realistic simulated environment. ⋯ The haptics device controls the tool and provides appropriate feedback when contact with a vessel wall is detected. When the catheter is in place, a contrast agent can be injected into the coronary arteries; blood and contrast mixing is computed and a visual representation of the angiogram is displayed by the x-ray renderer. By bringing key advances in the area of medical simulation--with the real-time x-ray renderer for instance--and by integrating in a single system both high quality simulation and learning tools, the ICTS opens new perspectives for computer based training systems.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2000
Healthcare knowledge acquisition: an ontology-based approach using the extensible markup language (XML).
The healthcare enterprise requires a great deal of knowledge to maintain premium efficiency in the delivery of quality healthcare. We employ Knowledge Management based knowledge acquisition strategies to procure 'tacit' healthcare knowledge from experienced healthcare practitioners. ⋯ We present a healthcare Tacit Knowledge Acquisition Info-structure (TKAI) that allows remote healthcare practitioners to record their tacit knowledge. TKAI employs (a) ontologies for standardisation of tacit knowledge and (b) XML to represent scenario instances for their transfer over the Internet to the server-side Scenario-Base and for the global sharing of acquired tacit healthcare knowledge.
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Measurement of arterial compliance is of interest in evaluating patients with atherosclerosis and other diseases which affect the vessels. Arterial compliance is the relation between changes in transmural pressure and volume of an arterial segment, where a high compliance signifies large changes in volume per change in transmural pressure. The relation between changes in transmural pressure and volume is far from linear as compliance increases progressively with decreases in blood pressure. ⋯ Using this method on normal subjects has shown that the arterial compliance decreases with increasing age and that females have lower compliance than males primarily due to a smaller diameter of their arteries. It has also been shown that patients with essential (diastolic) hypertension have compliances which are higher or equal to those of normal subjects, and that patients with systolic hypertension have lower arterial compliances than normal subjects. The former finding is in contrast with pulse wave velocity measurements, where diastolic hypertension was associated with low arterial compliance.