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10 November 2009

eHealth Worldwide

• China - Improving reproductive health knowledge in rural china-a web-based strategy. (Journal of Health Communication, Volume 14, Issue 7 October 2009)
  In China, one of the major problems in upgrading rural health services is the difficulty of communicating between the rural and urban areas. Enabling local agencies to access the Internet in resource-poor areas can provide an efficient means of diffusing current training and information and will have far-reaching policy implications. To test the feasibility of using the Internet to deliver needed health information to the countryside, the UCLA School of Public Health and the Institute of Health Studies of Kunming Medical College (IHS-KMC) collaborated in an experimental website project to improve the quality of reproductive health services to promote women's health in three rural counties of Yunnan. The project involved the county government and the Bureau of Public Health, the Bureau of Family Planning; the Bureau of Education, Women's Federation, and the Maternal and Child Health Station targeting village health workers and teachers; women's cadres.
• India - Whose gain is it anyway? Structurational perspectives on deploying ICTs for development in India's microfinance sector (Information Technology for Development Volume 15 Issue 4, 10 September 2009)
  The idea of information and communication technology (ICT) being a hammer that can be applied to a wide variety of nails across different geographic locations, sectors, organizations, and contexts to improve efficiency and/or have a beneficial social impact has come under severe criticism, particularly in the realm of implementing socioeconomic development programs. Structuration theory remains one of the key metatheories that deconstruct the complexity of technology introductions in the context of organizational and behavioral change. In this study, we use a structurational lens to examine two pilot ICT implementations in the Indian microfinance sector, specifically exploring the interactions between the ICT intervention, the organizations and people implementing the change, and the structural and institutional context within which these projects were rolled out.
• Jordan - Jordan showcases its "Hakeem" healthcare pilot (HealthCareITNews, 28 October 2009)
  A public demonstration of "Hakeem," Jordan's National E-Health Program, was made at the Prince Hamzah Hospital on Tuesday. The demonstration, part of the nation's pilot healthcare transformation program that was announced in December 2008, showcased the hospital's use of its VistA open source clinical and healthcare information management system and computerized patient record system (CPRS).
• Netherlands - Internet-based monitoring of influenza-like illness in the general population: Experience of five influenza seasons in the Netherlands (Vaccine Volume 27, Issue 45, 23 October 2009)
  Like in most other countries, influenza surveillance in The Netherlands is based upon influenza-like illness (ILI) consultations reported by sentinel general practitioners (GP). In addition, an internet-based monitoring of ILI in the general population started in 2003/2004 (Great Influenza Survey (GIS)). We compared GIS results over 5 influenza seasons with results from the GP system. Weekly ILI incidence from GIS correlated well with ILI incidence from the GP system the same week and even better 1 week later. This suggests that GIS is useful for early detection of trends in influenza activity. However, two important vulnerable groups, children and the elderly, are clearly underrepresented in the GIS. Furthermore, virological confirmation is lacking in the GIS. So, GIS can be a useful addition to the GP system, especially when representativeness can be improved and when participation remains at the current high level.
• Sudan - Integrated Mapping of Neglected Tropical Diseases: Epidemiological Findings and Control Implications for Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal State, Southern Sudan (PLoS Neglected Tropical Disease, October 2009)
  There are few detailed data on the geographic distribution of most neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in post-conflict Southern Sudan. To guide intervention by the recently established national programme for integrated NTD control, we conducted an integrated prevalence survey for schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection, lymphatic filariasis (LF), and loiasis in Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal State. Our aim was to establish which communities require mass drug administration (MDA) with preventive chemotherapy (PCT), rather than to provide precise estimates of infection prevalence.
• UK - Toolkit to nail interoperability - Jones (eHealth Insider, 29 October 2009)
  The new NHS interoperability toolkit has the potential to drive down the cost of interoperability and innovation, according to the Department of Health’s chief technology officer. In an exclusive interview with E-Health Insider, Paul Jones said the first cut of the toolkit – based on ‘about’ 22 messaging standards plus guidance - has the potential to open up the NHS IT market to new players, ranging from hospital IT departments to industry giants like Oracle and SAP.
• US - Investing in Global Health (Federal Telemedicine News, 1 November 2009)
  The Obama Administration has pledged $63 billion for the “Global Health Initiative” and is now moving ahead with projects. For example, a newly created high level Trans-NIH Global Health Research Working Group is the result of a two year effort to analyze global health research activities at NIH and to find better ways to coordinate efforts across NIH and throughout the government.

Scientific Articles

• Using information and communication technology to revitalise continuing professional development for rural health professionals: evidence from a pilot project. (Journal of Rural and Remote Health, 7 November 2009)
  This project revitalised continuing professional development (CPD) among rural health professionals in Uganda, Africa, using information and communication technology (ICT). The project was piloted in 3 rural hospitals where CPD activities were failing to meet demand because activities were not properly coordinated, the meetings were too infrequent, the delivery methods were inappropriate, and the content was highly supply-driven and generally irrelevant to the performance needs of the health workers.
• Do PubMed and Google searches help medical students and young doctors reach the correct diagnosis? A pilot study. (European Journal of Internal Medicine, 7 November 2009)
  In the era of the World Wide Web we sought to examine whether the use of PubMed and Google can help physicians to improve their diagnostic skills.
• A Survey Of Primary Care Physicians In Eleven Countries, 2009: Perspectives On Care, Costs, And Experiences (Health Affairs, 28, no. 6, 2 November 2009)
  his 2009 survey of primary care doctors in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States finds wide differences in practice systems, incentives, perceptions of access to care, use of health information technology (IT), and programs to improve quality.
• Concept and applications of the Web 3.0: An introduction for medical doctors (Aten Primaria. 2009 October 27)
  The development of the Internet is continuous and appears to be never-ending, although with the arrival of Web 3.0 it could be said that the Internet is what its creators intended it to be from the first moment, an extraordinary and immense organised, understandable, and easy to access data base, characteristics still not achieved. The innovations and services included in Web 3.0 will result, in the first place, in better, faster and safer access to quality information. In the second place it should provide better personalisation of the health services that Internet users access, avoiding irrelevant information that may contain wrong, false and dangerous recommendations. However, these changes will have to be accompanied by the legal requirements common to the information society, by the ethical aspects associated with medical care, guaranteeing and contributing, in all cases, to improving the doctor-patient relationship.
• Electronic Health Record Goes Personal World-wide (Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 27 October 2009)
  Increasing patient demand for convenient access to their own healthcare data has led to more personal use of the Electronic Health Record (EHR). With "consumer empowerment" being an important issue of EHR, we are seeing a more "patient-centric" approach of EHR from countries around the world. Researchers have reported on issues in EHR sharing including concerns on privacy and security, consumer empowerment, competition among providers, and content standards. This study attempts to analyze prior research and to synthesize comprehensive, empirically-based conceptual models of EHR for personal use.
• The state of the art in clinical knowledge management: An inventory of tools and techniques (International Journal of Medical Informatics, 14 October 2009)
  To explore the need for, and use of, high-quality, collaborative, clinical knowledge management (CKM) tools and techniques to manage clinical decision support (CDS) content. In order to better understand the current state of the art in CKM, we developed a survey of potential CKM tools and techniques. We conducted an exploratory study by querying a convenience sample of respondents about their use of specific practices in CKM.
• Can economic evaluation in telemedicine be trusted? A systematic review of the literature (Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation, 24 October 2009)
  Telemedicine has been advocated as an effective means to provide health care services over a distance. Systematic information on costs and consequences has been called for to support decision-making in this field. This paper provides a review of the quality, validity and generalisability of economic evaluations in telemedicine. A systematic literature search in all relevant databases was conducted and forms the basis for addressing these issues. Only articles published in peer-reviewed journals and written in English in the period from 1990 to 2007 were analysed. The literature search identified 33 economic evaluations where both costs (resource use) and outcomes (non-resource consequences) were measured.
• Cost Effectiveness of Internet Interventions: Review and Recommendations. (Annals of Behavioural Medicine, 17 October 2009)
  Internet interventions have a large potential for public health impact, and their efficacy has been established over the past 10-15 years. Cost effectiveness of Internet interventions is one of the most frequently cited reasons for developing such treatments. This paper provides a review of economic evaluations of Internet interventions with specific recommendations for future economic analyses of Internet interventions.
• Preventing hospital visits through telemedicine (Bull World Health Organ vol.87 no.10 Genebra Oct. 2009)
  In the United Kingdom, where 17 million people – more than a quarter of the population – are living with chronic conditions, a new telemedicine programme shows how medical care provided by general practitioners and nurses for such patients can be complemented with "supported self-care". Kathryn Senior reports.

Articles

• Mobile Tech Use Growing (Federal Telemedicine News - November 4, 2009)
  Today and in the future, smart phones and wireless technology will play an important ever growing role in delivering healthcare especially in developing countries. To find out the latest news in the mHealth field, an overflow crowd attended the Foundation for the National Institute of Health’s Inaugural “mHealth Summit” held on October 29-30. Leaders and experts came to the Summit to hear in-depth discussions on using mobile communications to advance global health for all in the 21st century.
• Quality improvement program demonstrates meaningful use (HealthCareIT News, 3 November 2009)
  Providers will need to demonstrate improved clinical quality and patient outcomes through the use of health IT to meet some of the meaningful use criteria required by ARRA. The Get With the Guidelines (GWTG), a successful evidence-based, quality improvement program, is one model that providers can participate in to achieve meaningful use, according to its advocates.
• Developing countries falling into 'broadband gap' (SciDEV, 29 October 2009)
  Bandwidth availability is low and the cost of broadband Internet is high in many developing countries, says 'Information Economy Report 2009', released last week (22 October) by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Opinions

• Don't underestimate EMR usability (HealthcareIT News, November 04, 2009)
  If you think electronic medical record usability means user satisfaction, guess again. While meaningful use criteria don’t address measures of usability, usability affects adoption rates, efficiency, training and support costs, said Jeffrey Belden, MD.
• The day the Internet age began (Nature 461, 1202-1203, 29 October 2009)
  Forty years ago today the first message was sent between computers on the ARPANET. Vinton G. Cerf, who was a principal programmer on the project, reflects on how our online world was shaped by its innovative origins.