The Informatics Review Vol. 5 No. 3 - Feb 1 2002 Current Reviews in Clinical Informatics

Automation of the Patient Medical Record: Steps Toward a Universal Patient Record On-line textbook that describes how a universal patient record can be built. Such a system changes medical care from a focus on short-term care to one oriented to long-term, preventive-care. It removes patient care from being the province of the single physician to that of the responsibility of many different healthcare care providers, possibly located anywhere in the world.

Online Health Informatics Continued Education Course
The objective of this course is to foster advanced learning by systematically reading the current scientific literature in the field of healthcare informatics (computer applications in medicine and allied health sciences). Students will be required to read one paper per week, which will be chosen from the current literature by the instructor and discuss it in the group using the email list. Learning is evaluated by a multiple choice quiz.

Health records: delivery of laboratory test results by Internet posting
This bill would permit test results to be delivered in electronic form if requested by the patient and if deemed appropriate by the health care professional who requested the test. This bill would require that patient consent to receive laboratory results by Internet posting or other electronic form be obtained in a manner consistent with the administrative purposes referred to above. The bill also would prohibit the disclosure of specific laboratory test results by Internet posting or other electronic manner regardless of authorization by the patient. None of the following clinical laboratory test results and any other related results shall be conveyed to a patient by Internet posting or other electronic manner:
(1) HIV antibody test.
(2) Presence of antigens indicating a hepatitis infection.
(3) Abusing the use of drugs.
(4) Test results related to routinely processed tissues, including skin biopsies, Pap smear tests, products of conception, and bone marrow aspirations for morphological evaluation.

Patient-Privacy Issue Gets A Doctor's Care
Tang wants federal regulations for patient-data privacy to protect all patient health-care information; he says the regulations under HIPAA don't go far enough to assure patients' privacy.

Pragmatic randomised trial to evaluate the use of patient held records for the continuing care of patients with cancer.
The patient held record is valued by some patients and professionals but has no significant impact on the quality of life of patients or NHS resource use. It has a positive impact on quality by helping patients feel more in control and prepare for meetings with healthcare staff. Patients who find it useful tend to be younger and have more professionals involved in their care

Analysis of adherence to peak flow monitoring when recording of data is electronic
Peak flow monitoring is widely recommended in international asthma guidelines. However, suspicions about the accuracy of conventional pen and paper records were confirmed when studies with electronic spirometers showed poor adherence and falsification of data. Use of an electronic device ensures collection of accurate, rapidly accessible spirometric data. This is of little benefit if rates of adherence are low. In the present study, selection of a user friendly electronic device and close integration of this technology into the study design seem to have contributed to adherence rates that challenge current cynicism about the feasibility $---$ and hence the clinical usefulness $---$ of peak flow monitoring.

An official publication of the Edumed Institute a not-for-profit educational and research institution which operates the Brazilian Distance Education in Medicine and Health Consortium
Edumed News is a new on-line newsletter and web site which aims at publishing news items, announcements of conferences, publications, products, on-line courses, etc., pertaining to the subject of distance education in the health sciences and medicine. The applications of information technologyto the area, such as telehealth and telemedicine, virtual reality, health informatics, etc., are also included whenever they are related to
education.

Intel's Philanthropic Peer-to-peer program: United Devices Anthrax Research Program
The United Devices Anthrax Research Project will use a technique known as virtual screening to analyze one of the protein components produced by the anthrax bacteria. The modeling, the same as used in the Intel-United Devices Cancer Research Program, will screen billions of molecules against the protein to find molecules that might stop the process that makes anthrax lethal. To join medical researchers in their efforts to come up with new treatments for devastating diseases, all you need is a PC and Internet access. Virtually any desktop or laptop PC can take part in finding a cure.

Regional Conference on Medical Librarianship: Building the Virtual Health Sciences

of the Eastern Mediterranean

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONFERENCE

To enhance networking, and resource sharing initiatives and activities among health sciences libraries in the Region and the Islamic countries;
To formulate the Tehran Declaration on Information for Health.

Report of a case of cyberplagiarism--and reflections on detecting and preventing academic misconduct using the Internet
The Internet is an invaluable tool for researchers and certainly also a source of inspiration. However, never before has it been so easy to plagiarise the work of others by clipping together (copy & paste) an apparently original paper or review paper from paragraphs on several websites. This is the first in-depth report of an incident where significant portions of a web article were lifted into a scholarly article without attribution. In detecting and demonstrating this incident, a tool at www.plagiarism.org , has proven to be particularly useful. Plagiarism could be easily detected by journal editors and peer-reviewers if informatics tools would be applied. There is a striking gap between what is technically possible and what is in widespread use.

Performance league tables: the NHS deserves better
League tables are frequently used to depict comparative performance in sport and commerce. However, extension of their use to rank services provided by healthcare agencies has attracted resistance, criticism, and anxiety. In this article we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of league tables and suggest that an alternative technique, based on statistical process control, could be introduced in their place.

Other issues from Volume 5 -- 2001

1 -- Jan 1

5 -- Mar 1

9 --- May 1

13 -- Jul 1

17 -- Sep 1

21 -- Nov 1

2 -- Jan 15

6 -- Mar 15

10 -- May 15

14 -- Jul 15

18 -- Sep 15

22 -- Nov 15

3 -- Feb 1

7 -- Apr 1

11 -- Jun 1

15 -- Aug 1

19 -- Oct 1

23 -- Dec 1

4 -- Feb 15

8 -- Apr 15

12 -- Jun 15

16 -- Aug 15

20 -- Oct 15

24 -- Dec 15

1/31/02 dfs

1 -- Jan 1	5 -- Mar 1	9 --- May 1	13 -- Jul 1	17 -- Sep 1	21 -- Nov 1
2 -- Jan 15	6 -- Mar 15	10 -- May 15	14 -- Jul 15	18 -- Sep 15	22 -- Nov 15
3 -- Feb 1	7 -- Apr 1	11 -- Jun 1	15 -- Aug 1	19 -- Oct 1	23 -- Dec 1
4 -- Feb 15	8 -- Apr 15	12 -- Jun 15	16 -- Aug 15	20 -- Oct 15	24 -- Dec 15