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Effective response to natural or man-made disasters (i.e., terrorism) is predicated on the ability to communicate among the many organizations involved. Disaster response exercises enable disaster planners and responders to test procedures and technologies and incorporate the lessons learned from past disasters or exercises. On May 31 and June 1, 2002, one such exercise event took place at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in Jacksonville, North Carolina. During the [...]

A multipoint videoconference was webcast live to an audience who could communicate with conference panelists and each other via chat. The videoconference, webcast, and chat were done entirely over the Internet. Seven panelists at four conference sites that had Internet2 connectivity and were located in different time zones within the continental United States discussed the topic of "Evaluating Health Professions Education and Information Resources on the Web." This discussion was [...]

Handheld computers have become a valuable and popular tool in various fields of medicine. A systematic review of articles was undertaken to summarize the current literature regarding the use of handheld devices in medicine. A variety of articles were identified, and relevant information for various medical fields was summarized. The literature search covered general information about handheld devices, the use of these devices to access medical literature, electronic pharmacopoeias, patient [...]

Although patient safety is a major problem, most health care organizations rely on spontaneous reporting, which detects only a small minority of adverse events. As a result, problems with safety have remained hidden. Chart review can detect adverse events in research settings, but it is too expensive for routine use. Information technology techniques can detect some adverse events in a timely and cost-effective way, in some cases early enough to [...]

Speech recognition promises to reduce information entry costs for clinical information systems. It is most likely to be accepted across an organization if physicians can dictate without concerning themselves with real-time recognition and editing; assistants can then edit and process the computer-generated document. Our objective was to evaluate the use of speech-recognition technology in a randomized controlled trial using our institutional infrastructure.

Many groups are developing computer-interpretable clinical guidelines (CIGs) for use during clinical encounters. CIGs use "Task-Network Models" for representation but differ in their approaches to addressing particular modeling challenges. We have studied similarities and differences between CIGs in order to identify issues that must be resolved before a consensus on a set of common components can be developed.

To identify key features contributing to trainees' development of expertise in microscopic pathology diagnosis, a complex visual task, and to provide new insights to help create computer-based training systems in pathology.

Relatively little is known about how to use the Internet to promote health behavioral change. This article describes a multiple-contact Internet smoking cessation program with an 8-week web-based course, online tools for self-monitoring of behaviors, and computer-tailored e-mail messages timed to enrollees' quit efforts. In a pilot study in 49 smokers, we found that enrollees returned to the website a median of 2 times and completed an average of 2 [...]

Delivery of excellent primary care-central to overall medical care-demands that providers have the necessary information when they give care. This paper, developed by the National Alliance for Primary Care Informatics, a collaborative group sponsored by a number of primary care societies, argues that providers' and patients' information and decision support needs can be satisfied only if primary care providers use electronic medical records (EMRs). Although robust EMRs are now available [...]

Qualitative studies can help us understand the "successes" and "failures" of telemedicine to normalize within clinical service provision. This report presents the development of a robust conceptual model of normalization processes in the implementation and development of telemedicine services.