bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prognostic Prediction of Putaminal Hemorrhage by Nonlinear Multivariate Analysis
Authors: Iida Yasuo  , Takahashi Kei  , Ohtawara Yasunari  , Kuroda Kiyoshi  , Miura Yasuhide
Published: February 2025

We present a prediction for putaminal hemorrhage mortality by logistic regression analysis. Also, we present a prognostic prediction model by nonlinear discriminant analysis based on artificial neural network. We obtained the average correct classification rate (CCR) of 80% and over.
Using Semi-automated Image Processing and Desktop Systems to Incorporate Actual Patient Volumetric Data In Immersive Surgical Planning and Viewing Systems for Multiple Patients
Authors: George I.  , Mastrangelo Jr. M.  , Hoskins J.  , Witzke W.  , Stich J.  , Garrison J.  , Witzke D.B.  , Nichols M.  , Park A.
Published: February 2025

This paper describes how patient specific volumetric data are managed from image acquisition through final processing for the purposes of creating a 3D VR rendering of user selected and manipulated 3D models. The system described here allows for the development of quick, inexpensive, and clinician manipulated patient-specific models. The utility of this process is demonstrated by being able to move VRML models to desktop or immersive environments for both pre-operative planning and patient-specific surgical and anatomical training.
An Investigation of Immersiveness in Virtual Reality Exposure Using Physiological Data
Authors: Jang Dong P.  , Kim In Y.  , Nam Sang W.  , Wiederhold Brenda K.  , Wiederhold Mark D.  , Kim Sun I.
Published: February 2025

As virtual reality technology is increasingly attracting significant attention in clinical psychology, especially in the treatment of phobias, physiological monitoring is increasingly considered as an objective measuring tool for studying participants. However, there are few studies of the normal individual’s physiological response to virtual environments, or their reactions to different virtual environments.
A tutorial platform suitable for surgical simulator training (SimMentor™)
Authors: Røtnes Jan Sigurd  , Kaasa Johannes  , Westgaard Geir  , Eriksen Eivind Myrold  , Hvidsten Per Øyvind  , Strøm Kyrre  , Sørhus Vidar  , Halbwachs Yvon  , Haug Einar  , Grimnes Morten  , Fontenelle Hugues  , Ekeberg Tom  , Thomassen Jan B.  , Elle Ole Jakob  , Fosse Erik
Published: February 2025

Background: The introduction of simulators in surgical training entails the need to develop pedagogic platforms adapted to the potentials and limitations provided by the information technology. As a solution to the technical challenges in treating all possible interaction events and to obtain a suitable pedagogic approach, we have developed a pedagogic platform for surgical training, SimMentor™.
Finite Element (FE) Modeling of the Mandible: from Geometric Model to Tetrahedral Volumetric Mesh
Authors: Zhao Linping  , Han H.  , Patel P.K.  , Widera G.E.O.  , Harris G.F.
Published: February 2025

This paper presents our experience in using FE modeling of clinically relevant cases specifically in mandibular surgery. A semi-automatic procedure integrated with a group of Virtual Basic-based codes has been developed to clean the geometric models. Consequently, the time required for generate the tetrahedral volumetric mesh of mandible from patient-specific CT data has been reduced to less than 40 hours. Pre- and post-operation FE meshes are shown to be consistent and can be used for further modeling and analysis.
Health Information Change Management Lessons Learned from a Third of a Century of Change Introduction
Authors: Bryden John S
Published: February 2025

This paper concentrates on the disincentives that discourage particularly doctors from readily adopting new health informatics techniques and suggests that health project management is a different model of management from that used in other industries.
Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Is the Search for Aetiology Constrained by the Orthosis?
Authors: Goldberg C.J.  , Moore D.P.  , Fogarty E.E.  , Dowling F.E.
Published: February 2025

While the aetiology of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is unknown, it is widely believed that the deformity can be controlled by mechanical forces applied by a corset and acting, via skin and soft tissues, to exert pressure on vertebral growth-plates (Hueter-Volkmann Law). The reported efficacy of bracing in reducing the incidence of small degrees of progression reinforces this concept. The supposed mode of action conditioned the model of pathomechanism and precludes other hypotheses. Since the critical Cobb angle changes are usually less than the probable measurement error, another criterion (treatment outcome) is also relevant. At our centre, bracing for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis has not been practised for 9 years. Out of the 153 untreated, unselected patients presenting to the general scoliosis clinic in that time and who were at least 15 years old at the last review, 43 ( 27.6%) of them have undergone surgery. This does not differ statistically from 22.45% (229 of 1 020) braced patients reported by Lonstein and Winter in 1994. If bracing does not significantly improve prognosis, its efficacy cannot be accepted and the hypothesis of aetiology which it underpins has no greater standing than any other.
Cardio 7 - Portable System for High Resolution ECG Mapping
Authors: Rosík V.  , Tyšler M.  , Jurko Š.  , Rášo R.  , Turzová M.
Published: February 2025

One of the main difficulties in using body surface potential mapping (BSPM) techniques is the need of complicated multi-channel measuring system. In this paper practical portable ECG mapping system is introduced. The system consists of a notebook computer and a data acquisition system box connected to the computer by fast IEEE 1284 parallel interface working in ECP mode. Concept of the device enables to extend the basic 134-channel high-resolution multi-channel ECG amplifying unit up to 256 channels. Application software includes measurement and real time monitoring of ECG signals, computation and display of several types of body surface potential maps. System can be connected to hospital information networks and supply them with measured ECG data for advanced processing or central archiving.
A Preliminary Study to Assess a French Code of Ethics for Health Teaching Resources on the Internet
Authors: Darmoni SJ  , Le Duff F.  , Joubert M.  , Le Beux P.  , Fieschi M.  , Weber J.  , Benichou J.
Published: February 2025

Background: Constant assessment of the quality of health information on the Internet is an absolute necessity as peer review is often lacking in this media. Objective: To develop a simple and easy French Code of Ethics, which will enable medical students to judge quality of health information in teaching material available on the Internet. Design: Three medical informaticians selected ten criteria from previously established codes of ethics from Europe and the USA. This instrument was tested on a sample of 30 health Internet teaching resources. Results: For the panel of experts, chance corrected inter-observer agreement (kappa) for quality rating ranged from k=−0.19 and k=0.33, demonstrating poor agreement among the raters. Conclusion: If negative results of this preliminary study are confirmed by further research, this finding may detrimentally affect projects in Europe to accredit or certify Internet health resources.
A web-based workflow system for emergency healthcare
Authors: Poulymenopoulou M.  , Vassilacopoulos G.
Published: February 2025

Emergency healthcare delivery involves a variety of activities performed from the time of a call to the ambulance service till the time of patient’s disposal from the emergency department of a hospital. Workflow systems have recently received considerable attention in the healthcare field since they overcome organizational structures and support collaboration and coordination requirements by automatically routing relevant information where and when needed. In particular, healthcare workflow systems implemented over the Web can form the basis for a collaborative environment by bringing together healthcare professionals who are geographically dispersed and, hence, creating virtual healthcare workgroups organized around patient care. In this paper, a web-based workflow system is presented that was developed to support emergency healthcare processes and to provide an infrastructure for the integration of pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency healthcare.
The impact of the introduction of Euro and other legislation changes on EU funded prototype for social and health care: the experience of EPIC in Savona
Authors: Giacomini Mauro  , Peragallo Ilaria  , Bertone Stefania  , Ruggiero Carmelina
Published: February 2025

We present the knowledge organisation of a database which aims to collect information for the optimisation of the social and heath care delivery in a limited territory within the guidelines set up by a EU funded project EPIC. The local implementation reflects the specificity of the social and health care delivery in the validation site: Savona. The paper discusses the features of the new rules which make compulsory an update of the first version of the software.
Back Shape Assessment in each of Three Positions in Preoperative Patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS): Evaluation of a 10-level Scoliometer Method Interpolated to 18-levels
Authors: Burwell R. G.  , Aujla R. K.  , Cole A. A.  , Kirby A. S.  , Pratt R. K.  , Webb J. K.  , Moulton A.
Published: February 2025

A Scoliometer was used by one observer (RKP) to assess the reproducibility of angle of trunk inclinations (ATIs) in 13 preoperative patients with AIS (thoracic 7, thoracolumbar 6, mean Cobb angle 50 degrees, right 9, age 15.4 years, girls 10). Three positions were used namely standing forward-bending, (FB) sitting FB and prone. Readings of ATI on the back were obtained at each of 10 levels (Tl- SI). The subject was repositioned after walking around the room and a second set of readings obtained (repeats). All readings were converted by a computer program to 18 levels and plotted. The readings from 18 levels were analysed by level, as well as summated and averaged both without and with correction for the side of the curve. Conclusions. Back surface asymmetry measured with a Scoliometer in these preoperative patients with AIS is less in the prone position than in each of the forward bending positions. The standing FB position has the best reproducibility which supports the practice of using this position to measure Scoliometer ATIs in preoperative patients with AIS.
Lateral spinal profile in school-screening referrals with and without late onset idiopathic scoliosis 10°-20°
Authors: Grivas Theodoros B  , Dangas Spyros  , Samelis Panagiotis  , Maziotou Christina  , Kandris Konstandinos
Published: February 2025

Introduction. The aim of this report is a) to study the lateral spinal profile, (LSP), in school-screening referrals with and without late onset idiopathic scoliosis of small curves 10° -20° Cobb angle and b) to validate LSP's aetiological importance in idiopathic scoliosis pathobiomechanics.
Preliminary Study of a New Real-time Ultrasound Method for Measuring Spinal and Rib Rotation in Preoperative Patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)
Authors: Burwell R. G.  , Aujla R. K.  , Cole A. A.  , Kirby A. S.  , Pratt R. K.  , Webb J. K.  , Moulton A.
Published: February 2025

A portable ultrasound machine with a linear array transducer was used by one observer (ASK) to evaluate the reproducibility for each of spinal (laminal) rotation and rib rotation in 13 preoperative patients with AIS (thoracic 7, thoracolumbar 6, mean Cobb angle 50 degrees, right 9, left 4, age 15.4 years, girls 10). With the subject in a prone position and her head supported, readings of spinal (laminal) and rib rotations were made directly on the back at 18 and 12 levels respectively. The subject was repositioned after walking around the room and a second set of spinal and rib rotations obtained (repeats). Conclusious.. Repositioning the patient significantly alters some single level readings of lam inal rotation and rib rotation. Although the mean average spinal rotation and rib rotation each have acceptable reproducibility, repositioning the patient significantly alters the findings. In the appraisal of surgery by ultrasound [3] the positional change reported here for (I) single level laminal rotation and rib rotation, and (2) mean average rotation imposes caution on the interpretation of the findings. The method enables the a x i a l s p i n e - n h r o t a t i o n differences to be evaluated which is the subject of a separate paper [2].
Prediction of spinal deformity in scoliosis from geometric torsion
Authors: Poncet Philippe  , Jaremko Jacob L.  , Ronsky Janet  , Harder James  , Dansereau Jean  , Labelle Hubert  , Zernicke Ronald F.
Published: February 2025

The shape of a curved line that passes through thoracic and lumbar vertebrae is often used to study spinal deformity with -measurements in "auxiliary" planes that are not truly three-dimensional (3D). Here we propose a new index, the geometric torsion, which could uniquely describe the spinal deformity. In this study we assessed whether geometric torsion could be effectively used, to predict spinal deformity with the aid of multiple linear regression. Anatomical landmarks were obtained from multi-view radiographic reconstruction and used to generate 3D model of the spine and rib cage of 28 patients. Fourier series best fitted to the vertebral centroids approximated the spinal shape. For each patient, spinal deformity indices were computed. Torsion was calculated and 20 derived parameters were recorded. Torsion inputs were used in a multiple linear regression model for prediction of key spinal indices. The primary clinical Cobb angle (mainly thoracic) was predicted well, with r=0.89 using all 20 inputs of torsion or r=0.83 using just two. Torsion was also well related to the Orientation of plane of maximal deformity (r=0.87). Torsion was less accurate but still significant in predicting maximal vertebral axial rotation (r=0.77). This preliminary study showed promising results for the use of geometric torsion as an alternative 3D index of spinal deformity.
The natural history of early onset scoliosis
Authors: Goldberg C.J.  , Moore D.P.  , Fogarty E.E.  , Dowling F.E.
Published: February 2025

A retrospective analysis of the natural history and treatment outcome of scoliosis, both idiopathic and syndromic, presenting before age 10 years was undertaken. The pattern was generally one of relentless progression, with little discernible benefit from orthotic treatment and surgical correction as the outcome for the majority. This result makes imperative a properly constructed study on the evolution and long-term outcome of this less common but more significant type of spinal deformity.
A robotic surgery system (da Vinci) with image guided function
Authors: Hattori Asaki  , Suzuki Naoki  , Hashizume Makoto  , Akahoshi Tomohiko  , Konishi Kozo  , Yamaguchi Shohei  , Shimada Mitsuo  , Hayashibe Mitsuhiro
Published: February 2025

We have developed a data fusion system for the robotics surgery system “da Vinci”. The data fusion system is composed of an optical 3D location sensor and a digital video processing system. The 3D location sensor is attached to the da Vinci’s laparoscope and measures its location and direction. The digital video processing system captures the laparoscope's view and superimposes 3D patient's organ models onto the captured view in real-time. We applied the system to “da Vinci” and examined this system during a cholecystectomy. In this experiment, the surgeon was able to observe the inner conditions of the organs with a stereo view.
4-dimensional Computer-based Motion Simulation after Total Hip Arthroplasty
Authors: Otake Yoshito  , Hagio Keisuke  , Suzuki Naoki  , Hattori Asaki  , Sugano Nobuhiko  , Yonenobu Kazuo  , Ochi Takahiro
Published: February 2025

This paper represents a novel 4-dimeiisional(4D) computer-based motion simulation system for patients having had Total Hip Arttiroplasty(THA). By constructing the skeletal model of the patient’s lower extremity and measuring daily motions, we simulated the movement of the inner structures including the skeleton and the artificial joint. This system visually represents not only the 3-dimensional(3D) anatomical structure but also the 4-dimensional dynamic functions that represent the time sequential transitions of the position of each component. Clinicians can get detailed information of the movement of the hip joint quantitatively and give precise guidance for the patients with regard to postoperative daily motions. The measurement error was evaluated by performing experiments using OpenMRI and the results indicated sufficient accuracy of this system. We believe that this system enables clinicians to reveal the causes of complications after THA and encourages the development of new surgical techniques, materials, and designs of prostheses.
Visible Human 2.0 – the Next Generation
Authors: Ratiu Peter  , Hillen Berend  , Glaser Jack  , Jenkins Donald P.
Published: February 2025

The National Library of Medicine has initiated the development of new anatomical methods and techniques for the acquisition of higher resolution data sets, aiming to address the anatomical artifacts encountered in the development of the Visible Human Male and Female and to insure enhanced detection of structures, providing data in greater depth and breadth. Given this framework, we acquired a complete data set of the head and neck. CT and MR scans were also obtained with registration hardware inserted prior to imaging. The arterial and venous systems were injected with colorized araldite-F. After freezing, axial cryosectioning and digital photography at 147 microns/voxel resolution was performed. Two slabs of the specimen were acquired with a special tissue harvesting technique. The resulting tissue slices of the whole specimen were stained for different tissue types. The resulting histological material was then scanned at a 60x magnification using the Virtual Slice technology at 2 microns/pixel resolution (each slide approximately 75,000 x 100,000 pixels).
Accurate searching using XML and Topic Maps
Authors: Schweigere Ralf  , Hölzera Simon  , Dudecka Joachim
Published: February 2025

Most clinical data is narrative text and often not accessible and searchable at the clinical workstation. We have therefore developed a search engine that allows indexing, searching and linking different kinds of data using web technologies. Text matching methods fail to represent implicit relationships between data, e.g. the relationship between HIV and AIDS. The ISO topic maps standard provides a data model that allows representing arbitrary relationships between resources. Such relationships form the basis for context sensitive searching and accurate search results. XML standards are used for the interchange of data relationships. Our approach has been applied to medical classification systems and clinical practice guidelines with promising results.
An ontological approach to evidence-based medicine and meta-analysis
Authors: Pisanelli Domenico M  , Zaccagnini Davide  , Capurso Lucio  , Koch Maurizio
Published: February 2025

The “evidence-based medicine” (EBM) paradigm is centered on the concept of “best evidence” and clinical studies based on this approach are more likely to be considered by physicians in their practice.
Improving Literature Based Discovery Support by Genetic Knowledge Integration
Authors: Hristovski Dimitar  , Peterlin Borut  , Mitchell Joyce A.  , Humphrey Susanne M.
Published: February 2025

We present an interactive literature based biomedical discovery support system (BITOLA). The goal of the system is to discover new, potentially meaningful relations between a given starting concept of interest and other concepts, by mining the bibliographic database Medline. To make the system more suitable for disease candidate gene discovery and to decrease the number of candidate relations, we integrate background knowledge about the chromosomal location of the starting disease as well as the chromosomal location of the candidate genes from resources such as LocusLink, HUGO and OMIM. The BITOLA system can be also used as an alternative way of searching the Medline database. The system is available at http://www.mfuni-lj.si/bitola/
Security Policy Development for Healthcare Information Systems
Authors: Gritzalis Dimitris  , Kokolakis Spyros
Published: February 2025

In this paper the issue of security policy development for health information systems is addressed. Security policy development involves the definition of the policy content, the analysis of the social, organisational, and technical contexts, as well as the organisation of the policy development process. We present the structure of security policies, analyse the characteristics of the HIS context, and analyse the different categories of methodologies, which can be used towards this end.
Public Key Infrastructures for Health
Authors: Pharow Peter  , Blobel Bernd
Published: February 2025

Introducing the technological step into this new 3rdmillennium, advanced communication means like global networks including the Internet become more and more important for a fast and convenient information exchange across regional and even national borders. Concerning the sector of public and private healthcare and welfare, new health information system, or citizens’ information systems in general, are coming up to meet the needs of the whole information society. Thus, developing and implementing those systems is one of the most important aims of the present and the near future. Access to, and communication of, relevant patient-related administrative and medical information items always means a secure and trustworthy way of dealing with data. Concerning the main aspects of specific legal, social, ethical, technical, organisational, and even political requirements for secure access and secure communication of health data in terms of data protection, data security, privacy, safety and quality using unprotected networks as, e.g., the Internet, there is a strong and even growing need for the fundamental technology of Trusted Third Parties to meet the whole range of the security categories as integrity, confidentiality, availability, accountability, and access control.
eHealth for Europe
Authors: Richardson Ricky
Published: February 2025

eHealth has been defined as “a means of applying new low cost electronic technologies, such as ‘web enabled’ transactions, advanced networks and new design approaches, to healthcare delivery. In practice, it implies not only the application of new technologies, but also a fundamental re-thinking of healthcare processes based on using electronic communication and computer-based support at all levels and for all functions both within the healthcare service itself and in its dealings with outside suppliers. eHealth is a term which implies a way of working rather than a specific technology of application”. As the chairman of the eHealth Working Group of the European Health Telematics Association and as an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children as well as a Consultant Paediatrician at the Portland Hospital for Women and Children, the author tries to identify relevant aspects of eHealth for Europe.
Medical Telematics in Disaster Response
Authors: Benner Thomas  , Schaechinger Ulrich  , Nerlich Michael
Published: February 2025

Introduction: Every year many disasters cause thousands of injuries, deaths, refugees. Depending on the kind of disaster (train/plane accident, flood, earthquake) not only an acute emergency medicine treatment but also generai and family medicine and hospital treatment have to be safeguarded over a longer time-period in the disaster area.
Distributed Interactive Virtual Environments for Collaborative Medical Education and Training: Design and Characterization
Authors: Mowafi Moad Y.  , Summers Kenneth L.  , Holten James  , Greenfield John A.  , Sherstyuk Andrei  , Nickles David  , Aalseth Edward  , Takamiya Ward  , Saiki Stanley  , Alverson Dale  , Caudell Thomas Preston
Published: February 2025

Project TOUCH (Telehealth Outreach for Unified Community Health) is a collaborative effort between University of New Mexico and University of Hawaii. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate the feasibility of using advanced technologies to overcome geographical barriers to delivery of medical education and to enhance the learning process within a group setting. This has led to the design and implementation of a new system that addresses the critical requirements for collaborative virtual environments: consistency, networking, scalability, and system integration. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of the collaborative system based on use patterns during Project TOUCH sessions.
Cybertherapy in Practice: The VEPSY Updated project
Authors: Riva Giuseppe  , Botella Cristina  , Castelnuovo Gianluca  , Gaggioli Andrea  , Mantovani Fabrizia  , Molinari Enrico
Published: February 2025

Rapid and far-reaching technological advances are changing the ways in which people relate, communicate, and live. Technologies that were hardly used ten years ago, such as the Internet, e-mail, and video teleconferencing are becoming familiar methods for diagnosis, therapy, education and training. This is producing an emerging field – cybertherapy – whose focus is the use of communication and information technologies to improve the health care processes.
A Multiple-Ontology Customizable Search Interface for Retrieval of Clinical Guidelines
Authors: Moskovitch Robert  , Shahar Yuval
Published: February 2025

A major problem in the effective use of clinical guidelines is fast and accurate access at the point of care. Thus, we are developing a digital electronic guideline library (DeGeL) and a set of tools for incremental conversion of free-text guidelines into increasingly machine-comprehensible representations, which support automated application. Even if guidelines are represented in electronic fashion, care providers need to be able to quickly retrieve the guidelines that best fit the clinical situation at hand. We describe Vaidurya, a search and retrieval engine that exploits the hybrid nature of guideline representation in the DeGeL architecture. Vaidurya can use not only free-text keywords, but also multiple semantic indices along which the guidelines are classified, and the mark up of guidelines in DeGeL, using the semantic roles of one or more guideline-representation languages (ontologies). Vaidurya offers a wide variety of querying options, in order to enable different types of users to query the guideline library in a manner that is both efficient and user friendly. We describe the customizable query interface, in which each user can create their own personal query interface.
Analysis of guideline compliance – a data mining approach
Authors: Svátek Vojtěch  , Říha Antonín  , Peleška Jan  , Rauch Jan
Published: February 2025

While guideline–based decision support is safety–critical and typically requires human interaction, offline analysis of guideline compliance can be performed to large extent automatically. We examine the possibility of automatic detection of potential non-compliance followed up with (statistical) association mining. Only frequent associations of non-compliance patterns with various patient data are submitted to medical expert for interpretation. The initial experiment was carried out in the domain of hypertension management.
Emotional Prosody Measurement (EPM): A Voice-Based Evaluation Method for Psychological Therapy Effectiveness
Authors: Van Den Broek Egon L.
Published: February 2025

The voice embodies three sources of information: speech, the identity, and the emotional state of the speaker (i.e., emotional prosody). The latter feature is resembled by the variability of the F0 (also named fundamental frequency of pitch) (SD F0). To extract this feature, Emotional Prosody Measurement (EPM) was developed, which consists of 1) speech recording, 2) removal of speckle noise, 3) a Fourier Transform to extract the F0-signal, and 4) the determination of SD F0. After a pilot study in which six participants mimicked emotions by their voice, the core experiment was conducted to see whether EPM is successful. Twenty-five patients suffering from a panic disorder with agoraphobia participated. Two methods (story-telling and reliving) were used to trigger anxiety and were compared with comparable but more relaxed conditions. This resulted in a unique database of speech samples that was used to compare the EPM with the Subjective Unit of Distress to validate it as measure for anxiety/stress. The experimental manipulation of anxiety proved to be successful and EPM proved to be a successful evaluation method for psychological therapy effectiveness.
A New Monitoring Service for Long Term Residential Care
Authors: Bratan Tanja  , Jones Russell  , Clarke Malcolm
Published: February 2025

eVital, a European funded project [1], aims to investigate the issues in the provision of vital signs monitoring services in the community. For the UK pilot, services to monitor the vital signs of patients in residential care homes by remote health care workers have been established. In particular, the aim was to allow the resident's own GP to observe the ECG, blood pressure, SpO2, temperature and respiration whilst still in the health centre and be able to advise on the most appropriate action should a crisis occur. As outcomes, this pilot project was designed to determine feasibility, channels of communication between key players and assess the technology. Trials have been under way for four months and preliminary results are promising. Residential home staff have commented on the extra level security they feel in being able to “summon” medical support for residents for whom they may have concern. Patient's relatives have also commented on the reassurance they experience from knowing that the resident is being monitored.
Telemedicine Development: Setting the Record Straight
Authors: Merrell Ronald C.
Published: February 2025

When a topic so synonymous with advanced technology as telemedicine needs a written history, perhaps a discipline has come of age. Telemedicine has had an oral history among visionaries and technophiles over the last thirty years or so. Tales of grand projects, technical failures and fabulous successes abound at telemedicine meetings. One is reminded of the film footage of early efforts at flight where extravagant engineering approaches failed time and time again until the elegant solution of the Wright brothers took to the air on the beach at Kitty Hawk in December 1903. It is hard to imagine the frustration and excitement of initial efforts at telemedicine or manned flight when current expectations are for information on demand and on time departures. However, from very early efforts in telemedicine the vision was consistent: overcome the huge liability of distance in patient care by creating an electronic continuum between the site of need and the site of expertise. The vision continues to strive toward technical transparency and clinical results, which assure a patient that no matter who, no matter where, no matter when medicine will care for you with consistent professionalism. Technology took us from the patient home to the technology-rich hospital. Perhaps technology will transfer the majority of patient management back to the comforts of home, convenience of workplace or the exigencies of travel and mobility.
Experiences and Perspectives in Using Telematic Prevention on Sensitive Health Issues
Authors: Peltoniemi Teuvo
Published: February 2025

The new information and communication technologies, telematics – such as the Internet, telephone services and videoconferencing – are simultaneously both an instrument and a symbol – a sign of progress – but also a potential addiction problem. Sensitive topics – like substances or mental health – bring out all these characteristics of telematics. Therefore the computer world, substances and addictions are closely connected.
Privacy Enhancing Techniques in E-Health: An Overview
Authors: De Moor Georges J.E.  , Claerhout Brecht
Published: February 2025

This overview highlights the relevance of Privacy Enhancing Techniques (PETs) in the context of e-Health. A number of validated privacy protecting techniques is briefly presented. The implementation of such PETs could provoke, for a number of applications, a shift in paradigm, namely from “Privacy through Security” to “Security through Privacy”.
The Success Factor ProrIle$^{\copy}$ for Clinical Computer Innovation
Authors: Lorenzi Nancy M.  , Smith Janis B.  , Conner Susan R.  , Campion Thomas R.
Published: February 2025

Fifty to seventy percent of information system projectsfail. Most of the failures are not the victims of flawed technology, but rather organizational and people related issues. When Vanderbilt University Medical Center began an intensive electronic health record (EHR) effort, a process was carefully designed to select the clinical areas where new tools could be developed and pilot tested. The Success Factor Profile© was created to guide the selection of sites most likely to have innovation success. This paper describes both the tools and the processes used to select clinical sites for new computer tools development and pilot implementation. Early results demonstrated that the tools provided structure for the decision making process, permitting side-by-side comparison of “apples and oranges.” Selecting the site most likely to succeed with computer application innovation and early implementation has broad applicability in healthcare informatics. Failure to succeed with early system users is not only costly, but also discourages users and developers alike, and may damage the reputation of the tools and systems across the institution.
Adherence to Computerized Clinical Reminders in a Large Healthcare Delivery Network
Authors: Agrawal Abha  , Mayo-Smith Michael F.
Published: February 2025

Objective: To evaluate clinicians' adherence with clinical reminders (CRs) across multiple ambulatory practice settings in an integrated health care network.
Predicting Survival Causes After Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest using Data Mining Method
Authors: Le Duff Franck  , Muntean Cristian  , Cuggia Marc  , Mabo Philippe
Published: February 2025

BACKGROUND: The prognosis of life for patients with heart failure remains poor. By using data mining methods, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the most important criteria for predicting patient survival and to profile patients to estimate their survival chances together with the most appropriate technique for health care. METHODS: Five hundred and thirty three patients who had suffered from cardiac arrest were included in the analysis. We performed classical statistical analysis and data mining analysis using mainly Bayesian networks. RESULTS: The mean age of the 533 patients was 63 (± 17) and the sample was composed of 390 (73 %) men and 143 (27 %) women. Cardiac arrest was observed at home for 411 (77 %) patients, in a public place for 62 (12 %) patients and on a public highway for 60 (11 %) patients. The belief network of the variables showed that the probability of remaining alive after heart failure is directly associated to five variables: age, sex, the initial cardiac rhythm, the origin of the heart failure and specialized resuscitation techniques employed. CONCLUSIONS: Data mining methods could help clinicians to predict the survival of patients and then adapt their practices accordingly. This work could be carried out for each medical procedure or medical problem and it would become possible to build a decision tree rapidly with the data of a service or a physician. The comparison between classic analysis and data mining analysis showed us the contribution of the data mining method for sorting variables and quickly conclude on the importance or the impact ofthe data and variables on the criterion of the study. The main limit of the method is knowledge acquisition and the necessity to gather sufficient data to produce a relevant model.
An inventory of evaluation studies of information technology in health care: Trends in evaluation research 1982 - 2002
Authors: Ammenwerth Elske  , de Keizer Nicolette
Published: February 2025

During the last years the significance of evaluation studies as well as the interest in adequate methods and approaches for evaluation has grown in medical informatics. In order to put this discussion into a historical context, we conducted a systematic overview on trends in evaluation research of information technology in health care 1982 – 2002.
Detailed Clinical Models for Sharable, Executable Guidelines
Authors: Parker Craig G.  , Rocha Roberto A.  , Campbell James R.  , Tu Samson W.  , Huff Stanley M.
Published: February 2025

The goal of shareable, executable clinical guidelines is both worthwhile and challenging. One of the largest hurdles is that of representing the necessary clinical information in a precise and sharable manner. Standard terminologies and common information models, such as the HL7 RIM, are necessary, they are not sufficient. In addition, common detailed clinical models are needed to give precise semantics and to make the task of mapping between models manageable. We discuss the experience of the SAGE project related to detailed clinical models.
Evolution of medical informatics in bibliographic databases
Authors: Otero Paula  , Pedernera Federico  , Montenegro Sergio  , Borbolla Damian  , Marti Sebastián Garcia  , Luna Daniel  , Gonzalez Bernaldo de Quiros Fernan
Published: February 2025

Medical informatics became a medical specialty during the last years and this is evidenced by a great amount of journal articles regarding the subject published worldwide. We compared the presentation of Medical In formatics in two different bibliographic databases: MEDLINE and LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on the Health Sciences). Previous studies described how Medical Informatics was represented in MEDLINE, but we wanted to compare it to a regional database as LILACS. We search both databases completely (MEDLINE 1966 -2002 and LILACS 1982-2002) using the keyword “Medical Informatics” as MeSH term in MEDLINE and as DeCS term in LILACS, and we added “medical informatics” as text word and analyzed the references obtained as results. We found that MEDLINE properly represents the impact of Medical Informatics in non-Latin-American international journals, but lacks of a considerable amount of articles from this region, while LILACS, although in comparison it is smaller in size, has more articles regarding the subject. So we think that LILACS properly represents the specialty in Latin America and the Caribbean Region.
The Role of Foundational Relations in the Alignment of Biomedical Ontologies
Authors: Smith Barry  , Rosse Cornelius
Published: February 2025

The Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA) symbolically represents the structural organization of the human body from the macromolecular to the macroscopic levels, with the goal of providing a robust and consistent scheme for classifying anatomical entities that is designed to serve as a reference ontology in biomedical informatics. Here we articulate the need for formally clarifying the is-a and part-of relations in the FMA and similar ontology and terminology systems. We diagnose certain characteristic errors in the treatment of these relations and show how these errors can be avoided through adoption of the formalism we describe. We then illustrate how a consistently applied formal treatment of taxonomy and partonomy can support the alignment of ontologies.
MeSH and Specialized Terminologies : Coverage in the Field of Molecular Biology
Authors: Mary Vincent  , Marquet Gwenaëlle  , Le Beux Pierre
Published: February 2025

There is real need among researchers for data in molecular biology, due to the explosive development in this field. Information extraction techniques have been developed in this specific domain, to extract structured information from the literature. The National Library of Medicine provides access to 12 million MEDLINE citations, accessible via PubMed. Information retrieval techniques which are used to select documents that are relevant according to user request. As other domains in medicine, biomolecular scientific literature is indexed by MeSH terms. Automatic identification of protein and gene names in scientific articles is an important step in the indexing process, since proteins and genes are often associated with multiple names, and authors alternate between these synonyms. In this article we assess the contribution of specialized terminologies in the field of molecular biology compared to MeSH.
Facilitating Cancer Research using Natural Language Processing of Pathology Reports
Authors: Xu Hua  , Anderson Kristin  , Grann Victor R.  , Friedman Carol
Published: February 2025

Many ongoing clinical research projects, such as projects involving studies associated with cancer, involve manual capture of information in surgical pathology reports so that the information can be used to determine the eligibility of recruited patients for the study and to provide other information, such as cancer prognosis. Natural language processing (NLP) systems offer an alternative to automated coding, but pathology reports have certain features that are difficult for NLP systems. This paper describes how a preprocessor was integrated with an existing NLP system (MedLEE) in order to reduce modification to the NLP system and to improve performance. The work was done in conjunction with an ongoing clinical research project that assesses disparities and risks of developing breast cancer for minority women. An evaluation of the system was performed using manually coded data from the research project’s database as a gold standard. The evaluation outcome showed that the extended NLP system had a sensitivity of 90.6% and a precision of 91.6%. Results indicated that this system performed satisfactorily for capturing information for the cancer research project.
Organizing Literature Information for Clinical Decision Support
Authors: Demner-Fushman Dina  , Hauser Susan E.  , Ford Glenn  , Thoma George R.
Published: February 2025

Answers to clinical questions occurring during healthcare practitioner/patient interaction can be often found in National Library of Medicine's (NLM) databases. The recent advances in wireless handheld computers promise to make them a widely used tool to deliver needed information to the practitioner at the point of service. This paper addresses challenges in organizing and presenting information obtained from NLM's MEDLINE®database of indexed citations in a way that wil helpractitioners reduce literature search time on handheld computers. We study two clustering algorithms and two methods of labeling document clusters.
Virtual Interactive Practice$^{\trade}$: Utilising Healthcare Information Systems to Contextualise the Skills associated with Clinical Decision making within Nurse Education
Authors: Watkinson Graham  , Spencer Anne  , Monger Eloise  , Weaver Mike  , Gobbi Mary  , Lathlean Judith  , Bryant Stephanie
Published: February 2025

This paper reports on a Virtual Interactive Practice™(VIP) project that has the potential to revolutionise the educational delivery and learning of clinical skills complementing real’ practice. The focus is currently on nurse learning but the principles could equally be applied to multi and inter professional learning and clinical decision-making. This project represents a new model to enhance clinical skill acquisition and clinical reasoning using a structured competency base. Integral to this is a strong partnership between education and practice utilising `real’ live and recorded anonymised patient data from a critical care clinical information system (CIS) within a large district general hospital to structure scenarios fostering problem-based learning. This educational practice interface enables the synthesis of clinical data using virtual technology and sophisticated scenario-based simulation within a skills laboratory. The aim is to enhance the more ad hoc system of learning within conventional practice placements. Early findings suggest that VIPTM enhances practice providing a safe but challenging learning experience with the benefit of instant performance feedback to students.
Structuring European Biomedical Informatics to Support Individualized Healthcare: current issues and future trends
Authors: Sanz Ferran  , Díaz Carlos  , Martin-Sanchez Fernando  , Maojo Victor
Published: February 2025

Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics are disciplines that up to now have followed separate development with few contacts and synergies between them in Europe. The elucidation of the human genome has however evidenced the need and the possibilities for a strong synergy between the two. Classical epidemiological and clinical research on the one hand, and genomic research on the other, separately considered, are no longer enough for advancing in the so-called genomic medicine, and a new integrative approach is required. Biomedical Informatics is the emerging discipline that aims to put these two worlds together so that the discovery and creation of novel diagnostic and therapeutic methods is fostered. On the basis of the results of the European Commission-funded BIOINFOMED Study, an INFOBIOMED Network of Excellence has been recently constituted with the main objective of setting a durable structurefor the described collaborative approach at a European level. Initially formed by fifteen renowned European organisations, the main objective of the INFOBIOMED network is therefore to enable the reinforcement of European BMIas an integrative discipline.
A Knowledge-Based Time-Oriented Active Database Approach for Intelligent Abstraction, Querying and Continuous Monitoring of Clinical Data
Authors: Spokoiny Alex  , Shahar Yuval
Published: February 2025

Query and interpretation of time-oriented medical data involves two subtasks: Temporal-reasoning–intelligent analysis of timeoriented data, and temporal-maintenance–effective storage, query, and retrieval of these data. Integration of these tasks into one system, known as temporal-mediator, has been proven to be beneficial to biomedical applications such as monitoring, therapy, quality assessment, visualization and exploration of timeoriented data. One potential problem in existing temporal-mediation approaches is lack of sufficient responsiveness when querying or continuously monitoring the database for complex abstract concepts that are derived from the raw data, especially regarding a large patient group. We propose a new approach: the knowledge-based time-oriented active database, a temporal extension of the active-database concept, and a merger of temporal reasoning and temporal maintenance within a persistent database framework. The approach preserves the efficiency of databases in handling data storage and retrieval, while enabling specification and performance of complex temporal reasoning using an incremental-computation approach. We implemented our approach within the Momentum system. Initial experiments are encouraging; an evaluation is underway.