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: To develop a generic methodology for the online assessment of medical education materials available on the World Wide Web and to implement it for pilot subject areas.

To allow exchange of clinical practice guidelines among institutions and computer-based applications.

As controlled clinical vocabularies assume an increasing role in modern clinical information systems, so the issue of their quality demands greater attention. In order to meet the resulting stringent criteria for completeness and correctness, a quality assurance system comprising a database of more than 500 rules is being developed and applied to the Read Thesaurus. The authors discuss the requirement to apply quality assurance processes to their dynamic editing database [...]

Those who work in the area of vocabularies, like all researchers, bring some assumptions to that work. Such assumptions include both cultural notions and beliefs specific to particular social worlds within the broader society. In this article, assumptions and beliefs expressed by participants during the conference on "Implementation of Nursing Vocabularies in Computer-based Systems" are summarized. Questions are raised concerning the relationship between cultural notions and beliefs and nursing vocabularies.

Adverse drug events (ADEs) are both common and costly. Most hospitals identify ADEs using spontaneous reporting, but this approach lacks sensitivity; chart review identifies more events but is expensive. Computer-based approaches to ADE identification appear promising, but they have not been directly compared with chart review and they are not widely used.

The LOINC (Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes) vocabulary is a set of more than 10,000 names and codes developed for use as observation identifiers in standardized messages exchanged between clinical computer systems. The goal of the study was to create universal names and codes for clinical observations that could be used by all clinical information systems. The LOINC names are structured to facilitate rapid matching, either automated or manual [...]

Information has become a capital good and is focused on outcomes. Clinical guidelines are being developed to standardize care for populations, but patient preferences also need to be known when planning individualized care. Information technologies can be used to retrieve both types of information. The concern is that nurses are not adequately prepared to manage information using technology. This paper presents five strategic directions recommended by the National Advisory Council [...]

The goal of the project was to create recommendations and design specifications for a multimedia tool to enhance the informed consent process for clinical trials. The authors focused on the needs of patients with potential cognitive impairment.