Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2015
Making an APPropriate Care Program for Indigenous Cardiac Disease: Customization of an Existing Cardiac Rehabilitation Program.
Cardiovascular disease is a major health problem for all Australians and is the leading cause of death in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. In 2010, more then 50% of all heart attack deaths were due to repeated events. Cardiac rehabilitation programs have been proven to be effective in preventing the recurrence of cardiac events and readmission to hospitals. ⋯ To address these barriers, CSIRO developed an IT enabled cardiac rehabilitation program delivered by mobile phone through a smartphone app and succesfully trialed it in an urban general population. If these results can be replicated in Indigenous populations, the program has the potential to significantly improve life expectancy and help close the gap in health outcomes. The challenge described in this paper is customizing the existing cardiac health program to make it culturally relevant and suitable for Indigenous Australians living in urban and remote communities.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2015
New technologies applied to surgical processes: Virtual Reality and rapid prototyping.
AYRA is software of virtual reality for training, planning and optimizing surgical procedures. AYRA was developed under a research, development and innovation project financed by the Andalusian Ministry of Health, called VirSSPA. ⋯ They are used for surgical planning support, intraoperative reference or defect reconstruction. In this paper, some of these tools and some real cases are presented.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2015
ECHO Ontario Chronic Pain & Opioid Stewardship: Providing Access and Building Capacity for Primary Care Providers in Underserviced, Rural, and Remote Communities.
Chronic pain is a prevalent and serious problem in the province of Ontario. Frontline primary care providers (PCPs) manage the majority of chronic pain patients, yet receive minimal training in chronic pain. ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) Ontario Chronic Pain & Opioid Stewardship aims to address the problem of chronic pain management in Ontario. ⋯ We discuss how ECHO increases PCP access and capacity to manage chronic pain, the development of a community of practice, as well as the limitations of our approach. The ECHO model is a promising approach for healthcare system improvement. ECHO's strength lies in its simplicity, adaptability, and use of existing telemedicine infrastructure to increase both access and capacity of PCPs in underserviced, rural, and remote communities.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2015
Le Bon Samaritain: A Community-Based Care Model Supported by Technology.
The effective care and well-being of a community is a challenging task especially in an emergency situation. Traditional technology-based silos between health and emergency services are challenged by the changing needs of the community that could benefit from integrated health and safety services. Low-cost smart-home automation solutions, wearable devices and Cloud technology make it feasible for communities to interact with each other, and with health and emergency services in a timely manner. ⋯ Le Bon Samaritain model is scalable, community-based and can help people feel safer, less isolated and more integrated in their community. It could be the key to reduce healthcare cost, increase resilience and drive the change for a more integrated emergency and care system.
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Determining the priority of attention in an Emergency Room (ER) has always been a difficult issue. Priority is determined with a simple triage system as people arrive at the hospital. It is important to establish how long they can wait for treatment. ⋯ With this software, we decreased significantly:1) the length of the triage system process, 2) the waiting time of patients in the waiting room, 3) the number of complaints and 4) the number of patients who walk away. In conclusion, the NSET improves and helps to define more accurately a patient's risk. NSET helps in the emergency department triage.