Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Open source and healthcare in Europe - time to put leading edge ideas into practice.
Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) is a process of software development, a method of licensing and a philosophy. Although FLOSS plays a significant role in several market areas, the impact in the health care arena is still limited. FLOSS is promoted as one of the most effective means for overcoming fragmentation in the health care sector and providing a basis for more efficient, timely and cost effective health care provision. ⋯ The workshop will further refine this strategy and elaborate avenues for FLOSS-HC from scientific, business and end-user perspectives. To gain acceptance by different stakeholders in the health care industry, different activities have to be conducted in collaboration. The workshop will focus on the scientific challenges in developing methodologies and criteria to support FLOSS-HC in becoming a viable alternative to commercial and proprietary software development and deployment.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Psychometric properties of the self-assessment of nursing informatics competencies scale.
The objective of this study was to examine the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and responsiveness of the Self-Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies Scale (SANICS). Combined BS/MS nursing students (N=336) completed the 93-item scale, which was based upon published and locally-developed nursing informatics competency statements. ⋯ This study provided preliminary evidence for the factor structure, internal consistency reliability and responsiveness of the 30-item SANICS. Further testing other samples is recommended.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Quality assessment of medical education and use of information technology.
Extensive and fast advancements in biomedical sciences created a significant delay in receiving relevant and updated information in medical practice - physicians use old techniques and treat patients incorrectly. Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the Bologna Declaration on 18 September 2003, and in the light of this new approach to university education, and the process of joining The European Union, the authors set the following aims: to determine the current level of knowledge among medical students at the Medical Faculty of the University of Sarajevo, to determine the level of knowledge among medical students before their enrolment at the faculty, and to find out students opinion on their needs for further education. ⋯ Professional papers are rarely used. At present, the availability of learning material is insufficient at the faculty library.
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We live our lives in digital networks. We wake up in the morning, check our e-mail, make a quick phone call, commute to work, buy lunch. Many of these transactions leave digital breadcrumbs--tiny records of our daily experiences. ⋯ It is crucial that behavior-logging technology not be forced on anyone. But legal statutes are lagging behind data collection capabilities, making it particularly important to begin discussing how the technology will and should be used. Therefore, an additional focus of this chapter will be the development of a legal and ethical framework concerning the data used by reality mining techniques.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Needle bending in a VR-puncture training system using a 6DOF haptic device.
The use of virtual reality techniques opens up new perspectives to support and improve the puncture training in medical education. In this work a 3D VR-Simulator for the training of lumbar and ascites punctures has been extended to support the bending of the puncture needle. For this purpose the needle is designed as an angular spring model. ⋯ Proxy based haptic volume rendering is used to calculate the proxy movement. This way it is possible to integrate original CT-patient data into the rendering process and generate forces from structures that have not been segmented. The bending technique has been integrated in a VR-training system for puncture interventions and shows good results concerning update rate and user acceptance.