Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Interoperable electronic patient records for health care improvement.
Pressing needs of cost-effectiveness in healthcare and opportunities of emerging electronic health record technologies offer unprecedented chance for progress. Ongoing health care improvement and patient safety initiatives demand new information collection and communication technologies (e.g., Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, Joint Commission, National Patient Safety Foundation, public health surveillance). Particularly, desire for faster action and cost-effective health care drive unprecedented investments in electronic patient records worldwide. ⋯ Regional health information networks and other information sharing initiatives depend on the interoperability of systems. Ultimately, the recent flood of health information standards needs to be balanced with actual interoperability opportunities. It is anticipated that the current policy discussions on the "meaningful use" of electronic health records will have major beneficial technical and also reimbursement implications.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
The potential of 3-D virtual worlds in professional nursing education.
Three-dimensional (3-D) virtual worlds (VWs), such as Second Life, are actively being explored for their potential use in health care and nursing professional education and even for practice. The relevance of this e-learning innovation on a large scale for teaching students and professionals is yet to be demonstrated and variables influencing adoption, such as increased knowledge, self-directed learning, and peer collaboration, by academics, and health care professionals requires empirical research.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
Comparative StudyDirect versus indirect laryngoscopic visualization in human endotracheal intubation: a tool for virtual anesthesia practice and teleanesthesiology.
When performing the ABC's of care for the trauma patient, airway management is of paramount importance. Management of the airway is often difficult because medical personnel caring for the patient do not commonly intubate patients or manage airways. To accomplish endotracheal intubation, a direct line of sight must be accomplished through the mouth, pharynx and larynx to the glottic opening. ⋯ Indirect "virtual" laryngoscopy is an advanced technology method which will advance the development of teleanesthesiology practice. Videolaryngoscopy is an enabling technology for development of remote telementoring of trainee intubation skills curricula using video enabled distributed learning systems. This research was conducted following an approved University of Nebraska Medical Center institutional review board protocol.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
The contextual nature of usability and its relevance to medical informatics.
We report from three usability evaluations of health information systems that illustrate the value of seeing usability as a context dependent property of a product. We show how the definition of usability in ISO 9241-11 can be used as a guiding principle in the evaluation, specification and design of such systems. The contextual view on usability is particularly important for health information systems because of their great diversity concerning user groups, tasks, and work environments.
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It is well known that in most countries, there is a perennial shortage of specialists in neurosciences. Even the few available neurologists and neurosurgeons are clustered in the metros and urban areas. ⋯ At the same time there has been an unprecedented growth in ICT (Information and Communication Technology). In this article, the authors review the increasing use of telemedicine in neurosciences.