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This report describes an innovative training program designed to foster entrepreneurship and professionalism in students interested in the field of medical informatics. The course was developed through a private-public interinstitutional collaboration involving four academic institutions, one private firm specializing in health care information management systems, and a philanthropic organization. The program challenged students to serve in multiple roles on multidisciplinary teams and develop an innovative hand-held solution for drug information [...]

This study quantified the ease of use for patients and providers of a microcomputer-based, computer-assisted interview (CAI) system for the serial collection of the American College of Rheumatology Patient Assessment (ACRPA) questionnaire in routine outpatient clinical care in an urban rheumatology clinic.

Both teachers and students benefit from an interactive classroom. The teacher receives valuable input about effectiveness, student interest, and comprehension, whereas student participation, active learning, and enjoyment of the class are enhanced. Cost and deployment have limited the use of existing audience response systems, allowing anonymous linking of teachers and students in the classroom. These limitations can be circumvented, however, by use of personal digital assistants (PDAs), which are cheaper [...]

Since 1999, the Nursing Terminology Summits have promoted the development, evaluation, and use of reference terminology for nursing and its integration into comprehensive health care data standards. The use of such standards to represent nursing knowledge, terminology, processes, and information in electronic health records will enhance continuity of care, decision support, and the exchange of comparable patient information. As part of this activity, working groups at the 2001, 2002, and [...]

The effective coordination of health care relies on communication of confidential information about consumers between different health and community care services. However, consumers must be able to give or withhold "e-Consent" to those who wish to access their electronic health information. There are several possible forms for e-Consent. In the general consent model, a patient provides blanket consent for access to his or her information by an organization for all [...]

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. The authors describe the kinds of [...]

Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) is touted as a major improvement in patient safety, primarily as a result of the Institute of Medicine's 1999 report on medical errors and the subsequent formation of the "Leapfrog Group" of companies to preferentially direct their employees' health care to those institutions that install such systems (as part of directives that "Leapfrog" feels will improve patient care). Although the literature suggests that such systems [...]

Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) may substantially improve health care quality and efficiency, but the available systems are complex and their heterogeneity makes comparing and evaluating them a challenge. The authors aimed to develop a conceptual framework for anticipating the effects of alternative designs for outpatient e-prescribing systems.

The aim of this study was to compare the clinical impact of computerized decision support with and without electronic access to clinical guidelines and laboratory data on antibiotic prescribing decisions.