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To measure the accuracy of automated tuberculosis case detection.

Research groups within the Human Brain Project are developing technologies to help organize and make accessible the vast quantities of information being accumulated in the neurosciences. The goal of this work is to provide systems that enable this complex information from many diverse sources to be synthesized into a coherent theory of nervous system function. Our initial approach to this problem has been to create several small databases. While addressing [...]

A research prototype Physician Workstation (PWS) incorporating a graphical user interface and a drug ordering module was compared with the existing hospital information system in an academic Veterans Administration General Medical Clinic. Physicians in the intervention group received recommendations for drug substitutions to reduce costs and were alerted to potential drug interactions. The objective was to evaluate the effect of the PWS on user satisfaction, on health-related outcomes, and on [...]

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is implementing an Integrated Advanced Information Management System (IAIMS) using a fast-track approach. The elapsed time between start-up and completion of implementation will be 7.5 years. The Start-Up and Planning phases of the project are complete. The Implementation phase asks one question: How does an organization create an environment that redirects and coordinates a variety of individual activities so that they come together to provide an [...]

This case study details the set-up and implementation of the PathNet autocoder (Cerner Corporation) in a busy anatomic pathology laboratory. After initial start-up, procedures were developed to improve the system's performance. Four classes of software coding errors were identified, and an index was developed to measure the number of cases between errors (CBE). Through modifications in the program, the CBE increased sharply by the end of the six-month study period [...]

Patient conditions and events are the core of patient record content. Computer-based records will require standard vocabularies to represent these data consistently, thereby facilitating clinical decision support, research, and efficient care delivery. To address whether existing major coding systems can serve this function, the authors evaluated major clinical classifications for their content coverage.

Electronic medical record systems (EMRSs) currently do not lend themselves easily to cross-institutional clinical care and research. Unique system designs coupled with a lack of standards have led to this difficulty. The authors have designed a preliminary EMRS architecture (W3-EMRS) that exploits the multiplatform, multiprotocol, client-server technology of the World Wide Web. The architecture abstracts the clinical information model and the visual presentation away from the underlying EMRS. As a [...]

The enhanced availability of health information in an electronic format is strategic for industry-wide efforts to improve the quality and reduce the cost of health care, yet it brings a concomitant concern of greater risk for loss of privacy among health care participants. The authors review the conflicting goals of accessibility and security for electronic medical records and discuss nontechnical and technical aspects that constitute a reasonable security solution. It [...]