Studies in health technology and informatics
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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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Developing a surgical simulation is a very complex task, requiring various components and usually the involvement of multiple people. As the complexity of the simulator increases, the functionality and the functional semantics of the components become very challenging to manage. In order to mitigate these issues, in this work we introduce a novel language that facilitates the development of surgical simulations and also supports semantic embedding in the surgical simulation development without extra programming effort.
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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
The single source architecture x4T to connect medical documentation and clinical research.
Clinical trials often require large and redundant documentation efforts, because information systems in patient care and research are separated. In two clinical trials we have assessed the number of study items available in the clinical information system for re-use in clinical research. ⋯ Based on this analysis we have designed and implemented an architecture for an integrated clinical trial documentation workflow. Key aspects are the re-use of existing medical routine data and the integration into current documentation workflows.
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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.