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The anonymization of medical records is of great importance in the human life sciences because a de-identified text can be made publicly available for non-hospital researchers as well, to facilitate research on human diseases. Here the authors have developed a de-identification model that can successfully remove personal health information (PHI) from discharge records to make them conform to the guidelines of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act.

To assess the acceptability and usage of a standalone personal digital assistant (PDA)-based clinical decision-support system (CDSS) for the diagnosis and management of acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in the outpatient setting.

This case study examined the utility of regular expressions to identify clinical data relevant to the epidemiology of treatment of hypertension. We designed a software tool that employed regular expressions to identify and extract instances of documented blood pressure values and anti-hypertensive treatment intensification from the text of physician notes. We determined sensitivity, specificity and precision of identification of blood pressure values and anti-hypertensive treatment intensification using a gold standard [...]

Clinicians are increasingly using handheld computers (HC) during patient care. We sought to assess the role of HC-based clinical reference software in medical practice by conducting a survey and assessing actual usage behavior.

This review describes recent experimental and focus group research on graphics as a method of communication about quantitative health risks. Some of the studies discussed in this review assessed effect of graphs on quantitative reasoning, others assessed effects on behavior or behavioral intentions, and still others assessed viewers' likes and dislikes. Graphical features that improve the accuracy of quantitative reasoning appear to differ from the features most likely to alter [...]

The VeriChip is a Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tag produced commercially for implantation in human beings. Its proposed uses include identification of medical patients, physical access control, contactless retail payment, and even the tracing of kidnapping victims. As the authors explain, the VeriChip is vulnerable to simple, over-the-air spoofing attacks. In particular, an attacker capable of scanning a VeriChip, eavesdropping on its signal, or simply learning its serial number can create [...]

To explore physicians' work practices in relation to their long-term use of a computerized physician order entry system (CPOE).

Nearly all general practice physicians (GPs) in the United Kingdom (UK) have electronic health record (EHR) systems in their practices compared with perhaps 15% of primary care physicians in the United States (U.S.). Based on interviews of 13 general GPs and review of current literature, the authors argue that the historical experience of widespread electronic health record uptake in the UK provides insight into features that might motivate broad adoption [...]

Confusion about patients' medication regimens during the hospital admission and discharge process accounts for many preventable and serious medication errors. Many organizations have begun to redesign their clinical processes to address this patient safety concern. Partners HealthCare, an integrated delivery network in Boston, Massachusetts, has answered this interdisciplinary challenge by leveraging its multiple outpatient electronic medical records (EMR) and inpatient computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems to facilitate the process [...]