Studies in health technology and informatics
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Spinal curvatures alter measured stature and may influence the evaluation of skeletal maturity and growth based on stature measurements. ⋯ The findings of the present study indicate that height loss (in mm) occurring with a 10 degrees increase in mean Cobb angle (for two curves) would be 1.1+0.16 times the mean Cobb angle (in degrees). For example, for a Cobb angle change from 30 to 40 degrees, the expected height loss would be 1.1+35*0.16 mm=6.7 mm. This assumes that height loss occurs only as a result of altered curvature, without alteration in disc height associated with an increase in scoliosis.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
Open source electronic health record and patient data management system for intensive care.
In Intensive Care Units, the amount of data to be processed for patients care, the turn over of the patients, the necessity for reliability and for review processes indicate the use of Patient Data Management Systems (PDMS) and electronic health records (EHR). To respond to the needs of an Intensive Care Unit and not to be locked with proprietary software, we developed a PDMS and EHR based on open source software and components. ⋯ The developed system based on open source software components was able to respond to the medical needs of the local ICU environment. The use of OSS for development allowed us to customize the software to the preexisting organization and contributed to the acceptability of the whole system.
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What started in Berlin in May of 2000 as an idea to create the telemedicine program of Kosova in order to help the country rebuild the broken medical system and change the miserable face of medicine, has now spread to other countries in the Balkans. Today, June 29, 2007, as I am rewriting this chapter, ten doctors and engineers from Kosova, Montenegro and Macedonia graduated from a three weeks intensive course on telemedicine, e-health and medical electronic library. This international telemedicine fellowship is organized by the very entity that was created in Berlin 7 years ago: The International Virtual e-Hospital (IVEH). ⋯ Soon we will be traveling to Atalaya, Peru and other communities of Amazon River, then Africa. We will not stop. One country at a time!
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
Randomized Controlled TrialTransfer of systematic computer game training in surgical novices on performance in virtual reality image guided surgical simulators.
We report on a pilot study that investigates the transfer effect of systematic computer game training on performance in image guided surgery. In a group of 22 surgical novices, subjects were matched and randomized into one group training with a 3-D first person shooter (FPS) game and one group training with a 2-D non-FPS game. We also included a control group. ⋯ Furthermore subjects who underwent systematic FPS game training performed better in the MIST-VR than those training with a 2-D game. Our findings indicate a transfer effect and that experience of video games are important for training outcome in simulated surgical procedures. Video game training can become useful when designing future skills training curricula for surgeons.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2008
From guidelines to careflows: modelling and supporting complex clinical processes.
Research on computer interpretable clinical guidelines has largely focused on individual points of care rather than processes of care. Whether we consider simple aids like clinical alerts and reminders or more sophisticated data interpretation and decision-making, guideline developers tend to focus on specific tasks rather than processes like care plans and pathways which are extended in time. ⋯ We also briefly discuss the distinct theoretical frameworks which have grown up around them, notably Petri nets for workflow modelling and mathematical logics for guidelines. We conclude that these offer complementary views of clinical processes and that a key research challenge is find a way of unifying them.