Protti, Denis, ElectronicHealthcare, 5(4)
A study commissioned by Canada Health Infoway provides a comparative analysis of automation in general practice in 10 countries. The most common clinical application is the automation of medication prescriptions–even if it is not a mandatory requirement as it is in Norway.
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Ash, Joan S. et al, J Am Med Inform Assoc, 11(2)
Medical error reduction is an international issue, as is the implementation of patient care information systems (PCISs) as a potential means to achieving it. As researchers conducting separate studies in the United States, The Netherlands, and Australia, using similar qualitative methods to investigate implementing PCISs, the authors have encountered many instances in which PCIS applications seem to foster errors rather than reduce their likelihood.
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Juhra, Christian et al, ElectronicHealthcare, 8(3)
In 2008, approximately 4,500 people in Germany died in traffic accidents and around 71,000 people were badly injured. Altogether, yearly productivity loss caused by these injuries is estimated to be around 5 billion Euros. International and national studies revealed the trauma centre level of the primary hospital as the major predictor for trauma-related mortality. In 2006, the German Society for Trauma Surgery (DGU) called its members to form regionally based networks of hospitals engaged in trauma care. In April 2008, 45 hospitals in the north-west region of Germany, two hospitals from the Netherlands, and the local emergency services founded the “TraumaNetwork NorthWest (TNNW).” The major goals of these networks are: 1) To shorten the time between accident and admission to the appropriate hospital, 2) to create effective ways of communication, and 3) to implement common pre- and in-hospital standards for trauma care. In order to improve acute trauma care, we looked for new ways of communicating from hospital to hospital, as well as from emergency services to hospitals.
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Overberg, Regina et al, Psycho-Oncology, 16(10)
The study aims to elicit user requirements for internet-based applications disclosing fellow patients’ illness stories for the benefit of breast cancer patients. Twenty-six breast cancer patients, recruited via the Dutch Patient Organization for Breast Cancer, were interviewed about their preferences with regards to content, appearance, and search options concerning fellow patients’ illness stories online. The interviews were analysed quantitatively (SPSS) and qualitatively (NVivo). Participants were mainly interested in fellow patients’ experiences about how to cope with emotions, the impact of cancer in daily life, and physical discomforts.
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van der Sijs, Heleen et al, International Journal of Medical Informatics, 2010
Purpose
To evaluate the functionality of drug safety alerting in hospital computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems by a newly developed comprehensive test.
Methods
Comparative evaluation of drug safety alerting quality in 6 different CPOEs used in Dutch hospitals, by means of 29 test items for sensitivity and 19 for specificity in offices of CPOE system vendors. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for the complete test, and for the categories “within-order checks”, “patient-specific checks”, and “checks related to laboratory data and new patient conditions”. Qualitative interviews with 16 hospital pharmacists evaluating missing functionality and corresponding pharmacy checks.
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Niazkhani, Zahra et al, Methods of Information in Medicine, 49(1)
Objectives:
To assess the effects of a CPOE system on inter-professional workflow in the medication process.
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Trifiro, Gianluca et al, Detection and Prevention of Adverse Drug Events - Information Technologies and Human Factors, 2009
The EU-ADR project aims to exploit different European electronic healthcare records (EHR) databases for drug safety signal detection. In this paper we describe the project framework and the preliminary results.
Methods:
As first step we created a ranked list of the events that are deemed to be important in pharmacovigilance as mining on all possible events was considered to unduly increase the number of spurious signals. All the drugs that are potentially associated to these events will be detected via data mining techniques. Data sources are eight 8 databases in four countries (Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) that are virtually linked through harmonisation of input data followed by local elaboration of input data through custom-built software (Jerboa©). All the identified drug-event associations (signals) will be thereafter biologically substantiated and epidemiologically validated. To date, only Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) event has been used to test the ability of the system in signal detection.
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Sloot, Peter M. A., and Alfons G. Hoekstra, Briefings in Bioinformatics, 2009
The inherent complexity of biomedical systems is well recognized; they are multi-scale, multi-science systems, bridging a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. This article reviews the currently emerging field of multi-scale modelling in computational biomedicine. Many exciting multi-scale models exist or are under development. However, an underpinning multi-scale modelling methodology seems to be missing.
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de Veer, Anke J.E., and Anneke L. Francke, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2009
Background
A growing number of health care organizations are implementing a system of electronic patient records (EPR). This implies a change in work routines for nursing staff, but it could also be regarded as an opportunity to improve the quality of care.
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Damman, Olga et al, BMC Public Health, 9(1)
Background
To date, online public healthcare reports have not been effectively used by consumers. Therefore, we qualitatively examined how healthcare consumers process and evaluate comparative healthcare information on the Internet.
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Schoen, Cathy et al, Health Affairs, 28(6)
This 2009 survey of primary care doctors in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States finds wide differences in practice systems, incentives, perceptions of access to care, use of health information technology (IT), and programs to improve quality. Response rates exceeded 40 percent except in four countries: Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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Kleiboer, Annet et al, Telemedicine and e-Health, 15(7)
There were two objectives of this research. First was to establish the utility of online digital assistance (ODA), a generic software-based method designed to support behavioral training (BT) in migraine. The second was to test whether ODA can produce additional effects in BT. Utility (feasibility and acceptability) was based on 44 patients with migraine who received ODA as an adjuvant to BT delivered to small groups by lay trainers with migraine at home. ODA tracking files were used to determine ODA feasibility. Acceptability was assessed by a structured interview. To examine ODA effects, 31 patients with migraine who received ODA during BT and at 6 months’ follow-up were compared with a matched group of 31 participants who received BT only.
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Visser, Jacqueline J.W. et al, J Telemed Telecare, 15(6)
We evaluated the implementation of a video consultation service in a regional community of paediatric physiotherapists. Twenty-two paediatric therapists in primary care settings and a rehabilitation centre participated in this study. The implementation comprised three phases: introduction, learning and consultation. Evaluation of the implementation focused on the participants’ satisfaction with regard to the implementation procedure, the education received, the technical helpdesk support and the usage of the application once put into practice. The introduction phase was very short (only two sessions) but the learning phase took much longer; it took 12 months for 21 therapists to complete the learning phase. Only 14 of the 21 therapists entered the actual consultation phase. Participants were generally satisfied with the education received and judged the helpdesk to be sufficient. The helpdesk was contacted 36 times by 14 participants. Within the 12-month study period, the therapists performed 24 video consultations. The average time to compose a question was 115 min and the average time to answer it was 43 min. Implementation of a video consultation service is possible but takes more time than initially foreseen and only about two-thirds of the professionals actually adopted it into routine practice.
van Doormaal JE et al, J Am Med Inform Assoc, PrePrint
Objective
This study will evaluate the effect of a Computerized Physician Order Entry system with basic Clinical Decision Support (CPOE/CDSS) on the incidence of medication errors (MEs) and preventable adverse drug events (pADEs).
Design
Interrupted time-series design.
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van der Sijs, Heleen et al, J Am Med Inform Assoc, PrePrint
Time-dependent drug-drug interactions (TDDIs) are drug combinations that most often result in a decreased drug effect due to co-administration of a second drug which inhibits its absorption or affects metabolism. Such interactions can be prevented by separately administering the drugs after an appropriate intervening time interval. Our study attempted to reduce drug administration errors due to overridden TDDIs in a care provider order entry (CPOE) system. In four periods divided over two studies, logged TDDIs were investigated by reviewing the time intervals prescribed in the CPOE and recorded on the patient chart.
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Kleiboer, Annet et al, Telemedicine and e-Health, ahead of print
There were two objectives of this research. First was to establish the utility of online digital assistance (ODA), a generic software-based method designed to support behavioral training (BT) in migraine. The second was to test whether ODA can produce additional effects in BT. Utility (feasibility and acceptability) was based on 44 patients with migraine who received ODA as an adjuvant to BT delivered to small groups by lay trainers with migraine at home. ODA tracking files were used to determine ODA feasibility. Acceptability was assessed by a structured interview. To examine ODA effects, 31 patients with migraine who received ODA during BT and at 6 months’ follow-up were compared with a matched group of 31 participants who received BT only.
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Ramaekers, Bram L.T. et al, Telemedicine Journal and E-Health, 15(6)
In many healthcare systems, the outcomes of care for patients with heart failure (HF) are in need of improvement. By applying telemonitoring, this study aimed to assess its short-term impact on patients’ disease-specific knowledge, adherence, and depression. As part of a larger trial (N = 1,023, 17 centers), this study reports preliminary findings among 101 patients from three Dutch hospitals. Patients were randomized to receive care using telemonitoring or standard care. Data concerning patients’ disease-specific knowledge, adherence to pharmacological and nonpharmacological recommendations, and depression were collected by postal questionnaires. In this study, data collected before randomization and 3 months afterwards were analyzed.
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Peute, Linda W. et al, International Journal of Medical Informatics, Article in Press, Corrected Proof
Objective
To investigate the human, social and organizational issues surrounding a Computerized Physician Order Entry system for Laboratory ordering (CPOE-L) implementation process and to analyze their interrelated effects on the system implementation failure in an academic medical setting. Second, to provide lessons learned and recommendations on to how to manage challenges of human, social and organizational nature surrounding CPOE-L implementations.
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Bot, Mariska et al, J Med Internet Res, 11(3)
Background:
In November 2006, an email-based health promotion program for pregnant women was implemented nationally in the Netherlands. The program consisted of emails containing quizzes with pregnancy-related questions tailored to the number of weeks of pregnancy. Emails were sent out once every 4 weeks, up to a maximum of nine emails.
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van der Meer V et al, Ann Intern Med, 151 (2)
Background:
The Internet may support patient self-management of chronic conditions, such as asthma.
Objective:
To evaluate the effectiveness of Internet-based asthma self-management.
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