Glocalties

17th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators (STI), 2012, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

2012-02-08T11:59:00.000-05:00

17^th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators (STI), 5-8 September, 2012 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
In part due to a growing global trend in evidence-based decision-making, the use of S&T indicators for the evaluation of research—not to mention for research planning and policy—is increasing in nearly every country. New indicators and databases continue to emerge and a growing number of scholars hailing from a wide range of disciplines have joined the ranks of the S&T indicators community.
The STI conference has become the main yearly venue for the S&T indicators community of practitioners, researchers and users. The International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, informally known as the "Leiden Conference", was traditionally held every other year. In 2010, it merged with the conference series organised by ENID (European Network of Indicator Designers), which was held in the alternate years. The resulting STI conference series will continue presenting high-quality scholarly work while also providing a venue for networking and the promotion of cooperation between researchers, international organisations and other S&T indicator users.
Held for the first time outside Europe, the 2012 STI conference is jointly organised by Science-Metrix and the Observatoire des sciences et des technologies (OST) and will be held at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). The 2012 edition will be organised around the three following themes:
- Theoretical, historical, practical and social aspects of S&T indicator development and use
- Methodological aspects in the use of S&T indicators and the production of statistics
- Use of S&T indicators in R&D management and S&T strategy development and evaluation

The 17^th STI conference will be preceded by the 2^th Global TechMining Conference http://www.gtmconference.org/ . Participants to the STI conference are encouraged to attend both conferences.

The working language of the conference will be English.

Please note that in contrast to previous STI conferences, researchers and practitioners are asked to submit full papers (from 6 to 12 pages). The selected papers will be made available in open access on the STI conference website.

Key Dates:

-Deadline for submission of full papers or research in progress papers—March 9^th, 2012 (new deadline)

-Notification of acceptance of papers—April 13^th, 2012

-Deadline for posters submission—May 4^th, 2012

-Notification of acceptance of posters—May 25^th, 2012

Further information will progressively be made available on the conference website:
http://2012.sticonference.org/

Email: info@2012.sticonference.org

Honorary President
Francis Narin

Chairs
Eric Archambault,
Yves Gingras,
Vincent Larivière

International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments

2012-01-26T08:07:00.001-05:00

What: 5th International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments - PETRA 2012
Where: Crete Island, Greece
When: June 6-8, 2012
Submission deadline: February 5, 2012

The PETRA Conference brings together different types of technology to address an important social and healthcare issue: as the world's population ages, there is growing interest in solutions for the in- home care of the elderly as well as for the care of people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other disabilities or traumas. PETRA (which means "stone" in Greek) reflects the needs of the domestic environment, or "Oikos" as it was known in ancient Greece, but from a technological perspective. People's living environments are particularly important in an increasingly crowded and complex world where the need for inclusiveness and connectivity with the rest of the world is key. PETRA addresses the fact that, as people grow older, they will increasingly rely on technology to be able to stay in their homes.
Topics and areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

Tools, infrastructures, architectures and techniques for designing, implementing and deploying pervasive applications in assistive environments
Privacy, security and trust, especially risk analysis of sharing health data
Wearable, ambient and wellness measurement and monitoring technologies
Service and socially assistive robots for rehabilitation
Sensor networks for pervasive care, reliability and availability
Physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other rehabilitation technologies
Robotics and automation in assistive living systems
Natural language processing systems for assistive environments
Signal and image processing for ambient intelligence and pervasive computing
Reasoning systems and machine learning for assistive environments
Social, ethical, legal and e-government issues in pervasive healthcare and aging
Social impacts of the use of pervasive technologies, government policy & access
Global healthcare, citizen standards and interoperability
User Interfaces, usability and flexibility
Human centered computing and the senior citizen
Telemedicine and biotechnology applications
Smart materials for rehabilitation
Machine learning and data mining tools for decision making
Devices and orthotics for physical therapy and rehabilitation

Source and further information: http://www.petrae.org/

International Workshop on Software Engineering in Health Care

2012-01-25T19:23:00.002-05:00

What: International Workshop on Software Engineering in Health Care
Where: Zurich, Switzerland
When: June 4 and 5, 2012
Submission deadline: February 17, 2012

Co-located with International Conference on Software Engineering.

The world faces increasing reliance on software-intensive systems to manage quality health care services, from scheduling, billing, and health care records to the control of life-critical devices and process-guided procedures. Unique challenges and risks arise with the development, evolution, and integration of health software. The goal of this fourth workshop is to continue the development of an interdisciplinary community to identify and address software engineering challenges in health care applications.

Example Topics for Submission
We solicit submissions in the following, non-exclusive areas:
* Software engineering for clinical, home, and mobile healthcare systems (subsuming information and communication systems and devices)
* Quality assurance techniques including testing, static/dynamic analyses, and formal methods in health care systems, processes, and medical devices
* Security engineering aspects of health care systems
* Middleware and interoperability infrastructure for integration of medical devices into overall healthcare systems
* Requirements engineering for health care processes and systems (involving many different stakeholders)
* Model-driven engineering for health care systems and system integration
* Architectures and product line techniques for healthcare systems and system integration
* Healthcare process definition, analysis, automation, and improvement
* User interface issues in health care systems and processes
* Certification and regulatory issues in medical device and health care system development

Source and further information: http://www.sehc.info/sehc2012.htm

Academic publishers have become the enemies of science

2012-01-19T10:40:00.000-05:00

The US Research Works Act would allow publishers to line their pockets by locking publicly funded research behind paywalls.
Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/16/academic-publishers-enemies-science

International Workshop on Collaboration Technologies and Systems in Healthcare and Biomedical Fields

2012-01-18T10:16:00.004-05:00

What: International Workshop on Collaboration Technologies and Systems in Healthcare and Biomedical Fields
Where: Denver, Colorado, USA
When: May 21-25, 2012
Submission deadline: January 25, 2012

This workshop is to provide a scientific forum for disseminating and discussing the latest advances and research results in collaboration technologies and systems as well as bioinformatics as applied to healthcare, life sciences, and biomedical fields. It is a multidisciplinary track that brings together researchers and scientists from academia, industry, government, and research institutions.

The Workshop topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

Health and Medical Collaboratories
Design and Development Methodologies for Healthcare IT Systems
Collaborative e-Health
Medical and Nursing Informatics
Cognitive Informatics
Medical Records and Standards
Semantics and Ontologies for Healthcare and Bioinformatics
Databases and Data warehousing in Bioinformatics and Healthcare
Data Mining for Healthcare and Biomedicine
Interoperable Health Information Exchange
Medical Data Visualization
Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning
Knowledge Management and Discovery for Healthcare
Decision Support Systems
Collaborative Decision Making
Wearable Health Sensors and Informatics
Mobile Technologies for Healthcare Applications
Pervasive Health Systems and Services
Multi Platform Interoperability
Privacy and Data Security
Telehealth and Telemedicine
Clinical Problems and Applications
Therapeutic Systems and Technologies
Software Systems in Healthcare and Medicine
Healthcare Management Systems
Assistive Technologies
ICT for Aging and Disability
Human-Machine Interfaces for Special Needs Persons
Evaluation and Use of Healthcare IT
Genomics
Modeling and Simulation
Computational Systems

Source: http://cts2012.cisedu.info/2-conference/workshops/workshop-10-coheb

ProHealth’12 / KR4HC’12

2012-01-17T16:01:00.004-05:00

What: 5th International Workshop on Process-oriented Information Systems in Healthcare / 4th International Workshop on Knowledge Representation for Health Care - ProHealth'12 / KR4HC'12
Where: Tallinn, Estonia
When: September 3rd, 2012
Submission deadline: 1 June 2012

Healthcare organizations are facing the challenge of delivering high quality services to their patients at affordable costs. These challenges become more prominent with the growth in the aging population with chronic diseases and the rise of healthcare costs. High degree of specialization of medical disciplines, huge amounts of medical knowledge and patient data to be consulted in order to provide evidence-based recommendations, and the need for personalized healthcare are prevalent trends in this information-intensive domain. The emerging situation necessitates computer-based support of healthcare process & knowledge management as well as clinical decision-making.
This workshop brings together researchers from two communities who have been addressing these challenges from two different perspectives. The knowledge-representation for healthcare community, which is part of the larger medical informatics community, has been focusing on knowledge representation and reasoning to support knowledge management and clinical decision-making. This community has been developing efficient representations, technologies, and tools for integrating all the important elements that health care providers work with: Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and healthcare information systems, clinical practice guidelines, and standardized medical vocabularies. The process-oriented information systems in healthcare community, which is part of the larger business process management (BPM) community, has been studying ways to adopt BPM technology in order to provide effective solutions for healthcare process management. BPM technology has been successfully used in other sectors for establishing process-aware enterprise information systems (vs. collections of stand-alone systems for different departments in the organization). Adopting BPM technology in the healthcare sector is starting to address some of the unique characteristics of healthcare processes, including their high degree of flexibility, the integration with EMRs and shared semantics of healthcare domain concepts, and the need for tight cooperation and communication among medical care teams.
This joint workshop brings together two approaches: healthcare process support, as addressed in previous ProHealth workshops, and healthcare knowledge representation as dealt with in previous KR4HC workshops. The workshop shall elaborate both the potential and the limitations of the two approaches for supporting healthcare process & healthcare knowledge management as well as clinical decision-making. It shall further provide a forum wherein challenges, paradigms, and tools for optimized knowledge-based clinical process support can be debated. We want to bring together researchers and practitioners from these different, yet similar fields to improve the understanding of domain specific requirements, methods and theories, tools and techniques, and the gaps between IT support and healthcare processes yet to be closed. This forum also provides an opportunity to explore how the approaches from the two communities could be better integrated.

The scope of the workshop includes, but is not limited to the following areas:

Process modeling in healthcare
Computer-interpretable clinical guidelines / protocols and decision support
Workflow management in healthcare
Semantic integration of healthcare processes with electronic medical records
Knowledge representation and ontologies for healthcare processes
Temporal knowledge representations and exploitation
Facilitating knowledge-acquisition of healthcare processes
Visualization, monitoring and mining healthcare processes
Knowledge extraction from healthcare databases and EPRs
Knowledge combination, personalization and adaptation of healthcare processes
Compliance of healthcare processes
Evaluation of quality and safety of careflow systems
Managing flexibility and exceptions in healthcare processes
Process optimization and simulation in healthcare organizations and healthcare networks
Experiences in deploying knowledge-based tools in healthcare
Patient empowerment in healthcare
Linking clinical care and clinical research
Lifecycle management for healthcare processes
Context-aware healthcare processes
Ambient intelligence & smart processes in healthcare
Mobile process support in healthcare
Process interoperability & standards in healthcare
Process-oriented system architectures in healthcare

Source and further information: http://mis.hevra.haifa.ac.il/~morpeleg/events/prohealth_KR4HC_2012

Recuitment of an IHTSDO Content Change Coordinator

2012-01-17T15:53:00.001-05:00

The IHTSDO (www.ihtsdo.org) is pleased to advertise an exciting new opportunity to join the team.

Applications are invited for the role of Content Change Coordinator. The role has responsibility for managing the end to end process for any content change (including maintenance) related to the International Release of SNOMED CT and its derivatives, including maps, the Spanish translation and specific International Reference Sets. Further details of the role and responsibilities are in the attached job description.

Applications, outling detals of you would meet the skills and expereince required, should be sent to Jane Millar, jmi@ihtsdo.org, and received by 2000 UTC, Friday 3rd February 2012. Successful candidates will be notified by Friday 10th February 2012 at the latest, along with interview arrangements.

Source: http://www.ihtsdo.org/news/article/article/recruitment-of-an-ihtsdo-content-change-coordinator/

Imaging and Signal Processing in Health Care and Technology Conference

2012-01-17T15:51:00.000-05:00

What: International Symposia on Imaging and Signal Processing in Health Care and Technology (ISPHT 2012)

Where: Baltimore, USA

When: May 14-16, 2012

Submission deadline: January 21, 2012

In recent years, with the aid of engineering and information technology, image and signal processing has emerged as a high-tech field, generating innovation in such areas as medical imaging, health informatics, wireless and remote sensors, watermarking, PACS, MRI, nuclear medicine and medical cybernetics. Scientists and engineers in this field have recently been working towards such advances as developing virtual learning systems for training intravenous catheterization and collecting blood samples, creating artificial organs that mimic natural human organs, conducting telemedicine and telediagnosis, performing surgeries with robots, creating a laboratory-on-a-chip, and watermarking medical data.

This conference will be an international forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange the latest research, results, and ideas in the areas of imaging and signal processing in healthcare and technology.

Topics of interest include:

Imaging and signal processing: Fuzzy Logic and Expert Systems, Healthcare Informatics, Data Representation and Visualization, Medical and Health Informatics, Medical Data Storage, Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS),...
Telehealth and assistive technology: Tele-home Healthcare and Telemedicine, Pervasive Healthcare, Web-based Telehealth, Smart Homes,...

Source and further information: http://www.iasted.org/conferences/cfp-771.html

Why National eHealth Programs Need Dead Philosophers

2012-01-16T11:07:00.000-05:00

Why National eHealth Programs Need Dead Philosophers:
Wittgensteinian Reflections on Policymakers' Reluctance to Learn from History

Trisha Greenhalgh, Jill Russell, Richard E. Ashcroft, and Wayne Parsons
Queen Mary University of London
The Milbank Quarterly - Volume 89, Number 4, December 2011

Available online at: http://www.milbank.org/quarterly/8904feat.html

"(...) Context: Policymakers seeking to introduce expensive national eHealth programs would be advised to study lessons from elsewhere. But these lessons are unclear, partly because a paradigm war (controlled experiment versus interpretive case study) is raging.
England's $20.6 billion National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) ran from 2003 to 2010, but its overall success was limited. Although case study evaluations were published, policymakers appeared to overlook many of their recommendations and persisted with some of the NPfIT's most criticized components and implementation methods.
Methods: In this reflective analysis, illustrated by a case fragment from the National Programme for Information Technology NPfIT, we apply ideas from Ludwig Wittgenstein's postanalytic philosophy to justify the place of the "n of 1" case study and consider why those in charge of national eHealth programs appear reluctant to learn from such studies.
Findings: National eHealth programs unfold as they do partly because no one fully understands what is going on. They fail when this lack of understanding becomes critical to the programs' mission.
Detailed analyses of the fortunes of individual programs, articulated in such a way as to illuminate the contextualized talk and action ("language games") of multiple stakeholders, offer unique and important insights. Such accounts, portrayals rather than models, deliver neither statistical generalization (as with experiments) nor theoretical generalization (as with multisite case comparisons or realist evaluations).
But they do provide the facility for heuristic generalization (i.e., to achieve a clearer understanding of what is going on), thereby enabling more productive debate about eHealth programs' complex, interdependent social practices. A national eHealth program is best conceptualized not as a blueprint and implementation plan for a state-of-the-art technical system but as a series of overlapping, conflicting, and mutually misunderstood language games that combine to produce a situation of ambiguity, paradox, incompleteness, and confusion.
But going beyond technical "solutions" and engaging with these language games would clash with the bounded rationality that policymakers typically employ to make their eHealth programs manageable. This may explain their limited and contained response to the nuanced messages of in-depth case study reports.
Conclusion:The complexity of contemporary health care, combined with the multiple stakeholders in large technology initiatives, means that national eHealth programs require considerably more thinking through than has sometimes occurred.
We need fewer grand plans and more learning communities. The onus, therefore, is on academics to develop ways of drawing judiciously on the richness of case studies to inform and influence eHealth policy, which necessarily occurs in a simplified decision environment.(…)"

Fonte: OMS/PAHO

Países@: a very useful information tool about all countries of the world

2012-01-13T17:31:00.000-05:00

The site Países@ provides information about all the countries of the world, grouped in 8 main Topics: Summary, Population, Social Indicators, Economy, Networks, Environment and Millennium Goals. When the site is initiated the topic 'Summary' is automatically selected.

The site is available in

Portuguese language.

English language.

Spanish language.

Available at: http://www.ibge.gov.br/paisesat/main.php

Postdoctoral fellowship opportunity: Health Equity Interventions, Toronto, Canada

2012-01-11T20:55:00.000-05:00

What: Postdoctoral fellowship opportunity: The ACHIEVE Research
Partnership: Action for Health Equity Interventions
Where: Centre for Research on Inner City Health - St. Michael's
Hospital - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
When: September 2012 – August 2014
Website: http://bit.ly/ztcglB
"…..We are motivated by the CIHR's goal to produce the next generation of "creative agents for change," and by the Institute of Population and Public Health's call for interventions research, defined as "the use of scientific methods to produce knowledge about policy and program interventions that operate within or outside of the health sector and have the potential to impact health at the population level."
ACHIEVE will be explicit in promoting a community of practice and a philosophy of engaged scholarship, which the Big Ten universities has recently endorsed as the partnership of university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good.
ACHIEVE will offer an intensive 24 month, collaborative curriculum for new researchers to develop the following competencies that are typically unavailable through traditional graduate training, yet necessary for closing the gap between *measuring *urban health disparities and *reducing*them…." From Carles Muntaner
Program Information:
   - Two-year term: September 2012 – August 2014
   - Stipend: Based on CIHR guidelines for qualified candidates
- Fellows are required to complete all training program components
  within the two years.
   - 3-5 Fellows may be accepted for the 2012-2014 term
   - Fellows are required to work onsite in Toronto, Canada
   - Deadline to apply: February 13, 2012
   - Decision announcements: May 2012
Source: PAHO/OMS

eLearning Africa 2012, Cotonou, Benin

2012-01-11T17:52:00.000-05:00

What: eLearning Africa 2012
Where: Cotonou, Benin
When: 23rd to 25th May 2012

"(...) eLearning Africa is the continent's largestgathering of high-level policy makers, decision makers and practitioners from education,business and government. It is the key networking event for developing eLearning capacities in Africa.

eLearning Africa 2012 will take place from 23rd to 25th May in Cotonou, Benin, which has a rich cultural heritage and significant record of achievement in education over the last decade.

eLearning Africa 2012 is under the patronage of Hon. Max Ahouêkê, Minister of Communications and New Technologies, Benin.

Focusing on eLearning andSustainability, eLearning Africa 2012 will explore creative ways in which eLearning can support development and help to build asustainable future. eLA 2012 will focus on the key themes of sustainable technologies and infrastructure; eLearning for sustainable communities; sustainable change management; eLearning and sustainable resources; and sustainable economy, culture and society.

eLA is a must for anyone involved in or wanting to find out more about ICT for development, education and training in Africa. As the largest gathering of eLearning and ICT-supported education and training professionals in Africa, participants are able to develop multinational and cross-industry contacts and enhance their knowledge, expertise and abilities.

The conference is held in English, French and Portuguese. It includes plenary sessions with world-class experts,presentation and special focus sessions, practical demonstrations, discussions and debates on specific topics, as well as various informal networking opportunities where participants can share their experiences, ideas, new information and perspectives.

The conference is accompanied by an exhibition anddemonstration area, where exhibitors can showcase their latest products and services and hold meetings with important decision-makers within the African education and training community. (...)

Source: http://www.elearning-africa.com/

Envisioning a learning health care system

2012-01-11T17:35:00.000-05:00

Reference: Brendan C. Delaney, Kevin A. Peterson, Stuart Speedie, Adel Taweel, Theodoros N. Arvanitis, and F. D. Richard Hobbs. Envisioning a learning health care system: The Electronic Primary Care Research Network, a case study. Ann Fam Med January/February 2012 10:54-59; doi:10.1370/afm.1313
Available at: http://www.annfammed.org/content/10/1/54.full

"(...)
PURPOSE The learning health care system refers to the cycle of turning health care data into knowledge, translating that knowledge into practice, and creating new data by means of advanced information technology. The electronic Primary Care Research Network (ePCRN) was a project, funded by the US National Institutes of Health, with the aim to facilitate clinical research using primary care electronic health records (EHRs).

METHODS We identified the requirements necessary to deliver clinical studies via a distributed electronic network linked to EHRs. After we explored a variety of informatics solutions, we constructed a functional prototype of the software. We then explored the barriers to adoption of the prototype software within US practice-based research networks.

RESULTS We developed a system to assist in the identification of eligible cohorts from EHR data. To preserve privacy, counts and flagging were performed remotely, and no data were transferred out of the EHR. A lack of batch export facilities from EHR systems and ambiguities in the coding of clinical data, such as blood pressure, have so far prevented a full-scale deployment. We created an international consortium and a model for sharing further ePCRN development across a variety of ongoing projects in the United States and Europe.

CONCLUSIONS A means of accessing health care data for research is not sufficient in itself to deliver a learning health care system. EHR systems need to use sophisticated tools to capture and preserve rich clinical context in coded data, and business models need to be developed that incentivize all stakeholders from clinicians to vendors to participate in the system.(...)"

Source: Annals of Family Medicine

Challenges of managing multimorbidity

2012-01-11T16:57:00.003-05:00

Reference: Kurt C. Stange. Challenges of managing multimorbidity. Ann Fam Med
January/February 2012 10:2-3; doi:10.1370/afm.1354
Available at: http://www.annfammed.org/content/10/1/2.full

"(...) This issue of the Annals features 3 research studies1–3 and an editorial4 that advance understanding of providing integrated care for people with multiple health conditions. The next issue of the Annals will continue this theme with articles relating to the methodology for investigating and managing multimorbidity. Multimorbidity is becoming the rule rather than the exception for patients seen in primary care5,6 as the population ages. One-disease-at-a-time research, quality improvement measures, and interventions7 risk fostering further fragmentation of health care.8 The Annals is pleased to serve as a forum for the growing consensus that multimorbidity is a central focus for primary care research9,10 and that care integration is a central focus for primary care practice and policy advocacy.11,12 (...)"

Source: Annals of Family Medicine

Grand Challenges: Rising Stars in Global Health

2012-01-11T16:10:00.000-05:00

A grand challenges is a specific critical barrier that, if removed, would help solve an important health problem in the developing world with a high likelihood of global impact through widespread implementation. The first grand challenge was introduced over a century ago in Germany when Dr. David Hilbert issued 23 challenges in mathematics. By doing so, he inspired a generation of mathematicians. His efforts were successful, nearly all of his challenges have been solved. Grand Challenges Canada will bring the same focus and energy to defining and addressing global health issues.

Five Grand Challenges will be identified and launched over a five year period starting in 2010. The challenges will be determined through an exploration process by Grand Challenges Canada, based on advice from its Scientific Advisory Board. On November 13, 2011, Grand Challenges Canada announced new funding opportunities for early-career innovators from low– and lower-middle income countries, the Rising Stars in Global Health program.

This program aims to tap into the creativity, knowledge and skills of emerging innovators from low- and lower-middle income countries to solve some of the most persistent health challenges in the developing world through scientific/technological, business, and social innovation. We call this approach Integrated Innovation.

We are looking for innovative ideas to address complex real-world challenges that involve a scientific or technological solution (new or existing) alone or in combination with social and/or business innovations.
The application site is now open and we are accepting applications. For more information and to apply, please click HERE and look for the “Apply Now” icon.

The Rising Stars in Global Health program will provide $100,000 CAD for up to 30 successful proof-of-concept proposals. Up to 6 additional scale-up grants of up to $1 million CAD will be awarded to applicants who have demonstrated success at the proof-of-concept stage.

Deadline: March 23, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. ET

Source: http://www.grandchallenges.ca/grand-challenges/gc1-explorations/rising-stars-in-global-health-program-information/

Agents in Health Care Workshop

2012-01-11T15:50:00.002-05:00

What: First Agents in Health Care Workshop

Where: Madrid, Spain, as part of the 7th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies

When: June 20-23, 2012

Submission deadline: February 17, 2012

Several research and development projects related to agents in health care are currently emerging. This workshop will be an opportunity to present the results of these projects and to bring together not only people interested in exploring the Agents characteristics in health-care but also Health Professionals. This workshop aims to bring to light new insights into Health-care agent based systems research and to provide a discussion forum for Agents technology applied to Health-care bringing together both IT researchers and Health professionals.

List of topics of interest
● Patient empowerment through personalised Agent based systems
● Embedding Clinical Guidelines in Multi-agent Systems
● Embedding Health Record Standards in Multi-agent Systems (e.g. HL7, Dicom, OpenEHR)
● Multi-agent Systems for HIS integration - Improving data availability
○ Search, Interface and Retrieve
● Security in Multi-agents Systems applied to Health-Care
● Agents task delegation Legal issues in Health-Care
● Successful applications of agents and multi-agent systems in health care
○ Medical agent-based decision support systems
○ Multi-agent systems for patient monitoring and diagnosis
● Modelling and Designing Methodologies for Agent based Health-Care systems.
● Surveys and Reviews providing an up to date view of the state of the art in the area of agents in health care

Further information: http://www.aisti.eu/cisti2012/

World Congress on Internet Security

2012-01-11T15:40:00.000-05:00

What: World Congress on Internet Security (WorldCIS-2012)

Where: University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

When: June 10-12, 2012

Submission deadline: January 20, 2012

The World Congress on Internet Security (WorldCIS-2012) is Technically Co-Sponsored by IEEE UK/RI Computer Chapter and IEEE K/W Section. The WorldCIS-2012 is an international forum dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practical implementation of security on the Internet and Computer Networks. The inability to properly secure the Internet, computer networks, protecting the Internet against emerging threats and vulnerabilities, and sustaining privacy and trust has been a key focus of research. The WorldCIS aims to provide a highly professional and comparative academic research forum that promotes collaborative excellence between academia and industry.

On the ubiquitous networking environments, information is explosively used for various kinds of purposes. From a service perspective, a number of context or ambient aware services are envisaged for "ubiquitous networking" but based on the context security remains an issue.

The objectives of the WorldCIS are to bridge the knowledge gap between academia and industry, promote research esteem and and to fostering discussions on information technologies, information systems and globa security applications. The WorldCIS-2011 invites speakers and researchers to submit papers that encompass conceptual analysis, design implementation and performance evaluation.

Original papers are invited on recent advances in Internet, Computer Communications and Networking Security. The topics in WorldCIS-2012 include but are not confined to the following areas:

*Internet Security
*Security, trust and privacy
*Self-organizing networks
*Sensor nets and embedded systems
*Service overlays
*Switches and switching
*Topology characterization and inference
*Traffic measurement and analysis
*Traffic engineering and control
*Trust and Data Security
*Virtual and overlay networks
*Web services and performance
*Wireless mesh networks and protocols
*Ad hoc mobile networks Security
*Addressing and location management
*Broadband access technologies
*Blended Internet Security Methods
*Biometrics
*Boundary Issues of Internet Security
*Capacity planning
*Cellular and broadband wireless nets
*Congestion control
*Content distribution
*Cryptography
*Cross layer design and optimization
*Cyber-physical computing/networking
*Geographic information systems
*Privacy Protection and Forensic in Ubi-com
*Quality of Service Issues
*Regulations
*Secured Database Systems
*Security in Data Mining
*Security and Access Control
*Semantic Web and Ontology
*Data management for U-commerce
*Software Architectures
*Defence Systems
*Delay/disruption tolerant networks
*End Users
*Enabling technologies for the Internet
*Implementation and experimental testbeds
*Future Internet Design and Applications
*Middleware support for networking
*Mobility models and systems
*Multicast and anycast
*Multimedia protocols and networking
*Network applications and services
*Network architectures Network control
*Network management
*Network simulation and emulation
*Novel network architectures
*Network and Protocol Architectures
*Peer-to-peer communications
*Performance evaluation
*Power control and management
*Pricing and billing
*Protocols and Standards
*Resource allocation and management
*RFID
*Optical networks
*Routing protocols
*Scheduling and buffer management
*Virtual Reality

Further information: www.worldcis.org

Knowledge Translation (KT) Clearinghouse, Canada

2012-01-11T14:58:00.001-05:00

What: KT Clearinghouse
Where: Canada

"(...) About KT Clearinghouse

The KT Clearinghouse website is funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) to serve as the repository of Knowledge Translation resources for individuals who want to learn about the science and practice of KT, and access tools that facilitate their own KT research and practices. (...)"

Source: http://ktclearinghouse.ca

Call for papers: Milwaukee Conference on the Ethics of Information Organization, USA

2012-01-10T12:09:00.001-05:00

CALL FOR PAPERS
What: 2nd Milwaukee Conference on the Ethics of Information Organization
When: June 15 - 16, 2012
Where: Milwaukee, WI, USA

"(...) Information organization, like other major functions of the information professions, faces many ethical challenges. In our literature, ethical concerns have been raised with regard to, topics such as, the role of national and international tools and standards, provision of subject access to information, deprofessionalization and outsourcing, education of professionals, and the effects of globalization. These issues and many others like them have serious implications for quality and equity in information access. The Information Organization Research Group and the Center for Information Policy Research of the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee join in presenting this second conference to address the ethics of information organization. Like the first Ethics of Information Organization conference held in Milwaukee May 2009, this conference (June 2012) welcomes papers on ethics and any element of information organization from cataloging standards to tagging; subject access; technology; the profession; cultural, economic, political, corporate, international, multicultural and multilingual aspects.

INVITED SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE:
Opening Speaker: Jens-Erik Mai - University of Toronto
Closing Speaker: Richard Smiraglia - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Other invited speakers will be announced

We invite submission of proposals for papers which will include: name(s) of presenter(s), title(s), affiliation(s), contact information and abstracts of 300-500 words. Presentations will be 20 minutes. Time will be set aside for questions as well as broader discussion. All abstracts will be published on the Web site of the UW-Milwaukee Information Organization Research Group. Full papers will be published in a special issue of Knowledge Organization.

ABSTRACTS DUE: February 15, 2012
NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE BY: March 15, 2012
FULL PAPERS DUE: July 15, 2012
Submit proposals via email to: Hope A Olson, Conference Chair (holson@uwm.edu)
CFP poster available here:
https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/groups/sois/webdocs/events/MKE_EIO-CFP2012.pdf (...)"

eHealth: Safety and security on the Internet

2012-01-04T19:16:00.001-05:00

Safety and security on the Internet: challenges and advances in Member States; based on the findings of the second global survey on eHealth.

WHO Global Observatory for eHealth series - Volume 4, December 2011

Authors: Kevin Clauson and Karen Vieira, International expert reviewers: Erin Holmes, Lana Ivanitskaya, Pauline Sweetman, and Michael Veronin. WHO reviewers Najeeb Al Shorbaji and Joan Dzenowagis.

Financial support and collaboration of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Available at: http://www.who.int/goe/publications/goe_security_web.pdf

Source: PAHO/WHO

Job vacancy: Lecturer in Newcastle UK

2012-01-03T09:28:00.001-05:00

"(...) Please below for an opportunity to join a vibrant research programme addressing Decision Making and Organisation of Care

Job Details

Lecturer

Ref	A1067A (IHS)
Faculty/Services	Medical Sciences
Department	Institute of Health & Society
Job Type	Academic (non-clinical)
Hours of Work	Full time

Salary: £31,798 - £44,016 Closing date: 31 January 2012 Based in the Institute of Health & Society you will be a creative academic with an excellent and growing research record in social sciences, health services or public health research and teaching. You must have a PhD, quantitative or mixed methods experience of health services research; a commitment to participate in collaborative multidisciplinary research and the capacity to become a research leader. Your research interests and experiences should align broadly with decision making and the organisation and delivery of health care. Quantitative or mixed methods experience of health services research is essential. Informal enquiries may be made to Professor Richard Thomson or Dr Catherine Exley by e-mail to (Alison.Etherington@ncl.ac.uk) in the first instance. Information about the RCDM project group can be found at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ihs/research/themes/dmoc The post is available immediately.

For more details follow the web link below

https://www15.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_newcastle02.asp?s=WyhJgMRoBzQChEeQzw&jobid=43166,5687618752&key=34949344&c=985165875614&pagestamp=selukycetxkwqgpuuo (...)"

Source: Richard Thomson

International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems

2012-01-02T20:27:00.001-05:00

What: International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems
Where: Denver, Colorado, USA
When: May 21-25, 2012

Submission Deadline: January 15, 2012

You are cordially invited to participate in and attend the International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems to be held May 21-25, 2012 in Denver, Colorado, USA. Participation is extended to researchers, designers, educators and interested parties in all CTS disciplines and specialties.

During the conference, attendees will see and interact with a broad spectrum of methodologies and technologies that relate to cooperation, coordination, communication, and collaboration at both the client and backend (cloud) levels. This year's conference targets a wide array of papers, posters, workshops, panels, demonstrations, exhibits, presentations, and tutorials addressing a broad range of topics including sensors, people, clouds, robots and social networks, e-learning, e-business, e-health, emergency response, knowledge management, decision making and support, global grids, P2P, multi-agent systems, trust and cyber security, mobile clients, Web 2.0, virtual environments, ubiquitous collaboration, user interfaces and related human and socio-technical collaboration issues.

*Topics include (but are not limited to):*
[...]
• Tele- and Collaborative Medicine and Healthcare

[...]

Further information: http://cts2012.cisedu.info/

International Conference on Networked Digital Technologies - NDT2012

2012-01-02T20:19:00.001-05:00

What: Fourth International Conference on Networked Digital Technologies (NDT'2012)
Where: The Canadian University of Dubai, Dubai, UAE
When: April 24-26, 2012
Submission deadline: January 20, 2012

Networked Digital Technologies are reshaping the way we communicate, interact, collaborate and share knowledge. Recent progress in Telecommunications, Networking, Semantic Web Technologies, Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing has enabled new collaborative technology services for various disciplines in sciences, humanities and social sciences. The Fourth International Conference on Networked Digital Technologies (NDT'2012) is a forum for scientists, engineers, and practitioners to present their latest research results, ideas, developments and applications in the areas of Networked Digital technologies. NDT'2012 will include presentations of contributed papers, poster sessions, workshops, and state-of-the-art lectures by invited keynote speakers.

Topics of the conference include, but not limited to, the following research areas:

[...]

· Collaborative Systems for e-Sciences (e/m-Learning, e-Healthcare, ...)

[...]

Further information: http://www.ndtconf.org

Science Journal Publication, Nigeria and Ghana

2012-01-01T11:40:00.001-05:00

What: Science Journal Publication
Where: Head Office at Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) Nigeria and Branch Office at Accra, Ghana.

"(...) Science Journal Publication is a broad-based open access publisher. It was founded on two key telnet: To publish the most exciting researches with respect to the subjects of our functional Journals. Secondly, to provide a rapid turn-around time possible for reviewing and publishing, and to disseminate the articles freely for teaching and reference purposes.

Science Journal Publication strives to set the highest standards for excellence in everything we do: in content, style, and aesthetics of presentation; in editorial performance at every level; in transparency and accessibility to the scientific community and public; and in educational value. It is the vision of Science Journals to publish research articles in all areas of Science without financial restriction to readers using the open access model of publication.

We strongly believe that the open access model will spur research across the world especially as researchers gain unrestricted access to high quality research articles. As a nonprofit organization, Science Journal Publication charges authors a fair price that reflects the actual cost of publication. However, the ability of authors to pay publication charges will never be a consideration in the decision whether to publish. (...)"

Call for papers are open for the following Science Journal Publications:

Physical science (Open access)

Biological science (Open access)

Medical science (Open access)

Agricultural science (Open access)

Social science (Open access)

Source: http://www.sciencejournals.cc/

National Level Worshop, Pakistan

2012-01-01T11:05:00.001-05:00

What: National Level Workshop "Mastering Research Tools; Using SPSS, AMOS, STATA & EndNote

When: 5-7 January, 2012

Where: Superior University, 16 km Raiwind Road, Lahore, Pakistan

A Three-Day National Level Workshop

Mastering Research Tools; Using SPSS, AMOS, STATA & EndNote"

Hands on Practice

I take this opportunity to introduce you that Research Center for Training & Development (RCTD) is working for the research capacity building of the faculty and postgraduate/graduate scholars through organizing workshops on research methods and methodologies.

RCTD is organizing a 3-day national level workshop "Mastering Research Tools; Using SPSS, AMOS, STATA & EndNote" on 5-7 January, 2012 (Thursday- Saturday). The researchers from Universities, Institutes, R&D organizations and Social sector organizations are invited to participate in this valued national level workshop.

The workshop aims in developing advance research skills of the participants through lectures, presentations, use of softwares, robust training techniques. The major focus of the training is hands-on practice sessions in the computer lab. The participant will also get a Certificate "Master of Research Tools" and a Cd of research softwares EndNote X5, SPSSV19, AMOSV17 and STATA.

Contents:

Citation & Referencing Using EndNote X5

· Comparative overview of reference management systems

· Why citation styles and references?

· Endnote overview, installation and practice

· Browsing and searching through endnote

· Create and manage a references library

· Edit, sort, format and insert references

· Employ and practice the 'cite while you write' (CWUR) feature

· Hands on practice and self-reflection session

Data Management, its Preparation and Analysis Using SPSS

· Data analysis process

· Factors affecting data analysis, Data preparation

· Checking Data Instruments, Questionnaire, Interview sheets

· Transcribing data, Editing, Coding

· Data entry in SPSS, Data cleaning

· Defining variable on SPSS variable view screen

· Assigning value labels, Working with data files

· Checking scale reliability through SPSS

· Creating new variables from existing one

· Descriptive Analysis

· Parametric Inference for Mean (One, Two and Multiple Samples)

· Non–Parametric Inference for Mean (One, Two and Multiple Samples

· The Regression Analysis

· Regression for Binary Response

· Exploratory Factor Analysis

Data Analysis Using STATA

· Data Manipulation

· Creating New Variables from Existing

· Descriptive Analysis

· Parametric and Non – Parametric Inference

· Principal Components, Canonical Correlations and Cluster Analysis

· Simultaneous Equation Models

· Multivariate Regression Analysis

Structural Equation Modeling Using AMOS

· Graphical Interface of AMOS

· Constructing the Path Diagram

· Non–standardized and Standardized Coefficients

· The Confirmatory Factor Analysis

· The Structural Equation Models

· Multi–group Structural Equation Models

Resource Persons:

Dr. Muhammad Qaiser Shahbaz

Expert of Quantitative Techniques and Statistical Softwares

like SPSS, AMOS, STATA, SAS, EViews, STATISTICA,

MATHEMATICA, MatLab etc.

Research Center for Training & Development (RCTD)

Dr. Muhammad Ramzan

Expert of Quantitative Techniques

Research Center for Training & Development (RCTD)

Mr. Muhammad Asif Munir

Certified EndNote Trainer

Research Center for Training & Development (RCTD)

Program:

Date: 5-7 January, 2012(Thursday-Saturday)

Time: 9:00am- 5:00pm

Investment: Rs. 8,000/participants

Discounted fee: Rs. 6,000/(Nominations more than 2)

Venue: Superior University, 16 km Raiwind Road, Lahore

Note: The universities/institutes are requested to nominate more than 2-participants in this valued national level workshop.

Online Registration:

For registration and payment details click the link below

http://tinyurl.com/rctd-workshop or Visit: www.rctd.org (Current Workshop)

The participant will also get

§ Resource Material

§ Cd of AMOS, SPSS, STATA & Endnote ,worth more than US$ 1000

§ A Certificate "Master of Research Tools"

Accommodation:

We can arrange/facilitate accommodation on reasonable rates for the workshop participants; however we need prior requisition on or before 29^th December, 2011. For those availing residence will also get pick and drop from residence to & from venue.

Who Should Attend?

· Faculty members

· Research Scholars (MPhil/PhD)

· Research Associates

· Researchers of Medical Sciences

· Researchers of R&D Organizations

· Researchers of Social Sector Organizations

Contact:

Ateeq-ur-Rehman

Manager

Research Center for Training & Development (RCTD)

Cell: 0092322-4309974

Email: workshops@rctd.org

Research Center for Training & Development (RCTD)

217-J 1 (Near J 1 Market) Wapda Town, Lahore, Pakistan

Phone: 0092-42-35898307 Fax 0092-42-35898307

workshops@rctd.org, ateeq.rctd@gmail.com

Second Conference on Computer and Information Technology, Iraq

2011-12-29T10:16:00.001-05:00

What: Second Conference on Computer and Information Technology (CCIT '2012)
Where: College of Computer, University of Anbar, Ramadi, Iraq
When: 27th-28th March 2012
Submission deadline: February 1st, 2012

Currently a high level of interest is being generated through the development of a wide and varied range of eSystems based on Computer and Information Technology. There are many high profile projects, all around the world, seeking to transfer many services and facilities into state-of-the-art electronic technologies. CCIT'2012, which will be held at the College of Computer, University of Anbar in Iraq (www.computer-college.org), will cover a mix of topics aimed to address current research issues in the design, engineering and adoption of Computer and Information Technology.
CCIT'2012 conference comprises an exciting spectrum of highly stimulating Tracks:
[...]
Track 05: e-Health & Bioinformatics
[...]

Further information: http://www.ccitiraq.org/

Patients should have online access to medical records, says report

2011-12-26T09:36:00.004-05:00

NHS patients will be allowed to see and edit their medical records under proposals in a government-commissioned report.

The plan is contained in a report that an expert advisory group, headed by Professor Steve Field, the coalition's NHS troubleshooter, is finalising before handing it to the Department of Health.

The changes would enable patients to view their whole medical history, study the result of diagnostic tests and see what drugs they have been prescribed before. They would also be able to check on their next appointment and order a repeat prescription.

Currently, patients' right to see their records is protected under the NHS Constitution but they have to apply for access and explain why they want to see them.

Family doctors' attitudes to the plan will be vital. GPs may not back the idea of patients having such access, which could see them allowed to suggest corrections. But the report will highlight the positive effect on doctor-patient relations of introducing such a scheme.

Source and full article: The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)

Systematic review: impact of health information technology on quality, efficiency, and costs of medical care

2011-12-26T09:29:00.002-05:00

Background: Experts consider health information technology key to improving efficiency and quality of health care.

Purpose: To systematically review evidence on the effect of health information technology on quality, efficiency, and costs of health care.

Data Sources: The authors systematically searched the English-language literature indexed in MEDLINE (1995 to January 2004), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, and the Periodical Abstracts Database. We also added studies identified by experts up to April 2005.

Study Selection: Descriptive and comparative studies and systematic reviews of health information technology.

Data Extraction: Two reviewers independently extracted information on system capabilities, design, effects on quality, system acquisition, implementation context, and costs.

Data Synthesis: 257 studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies addressed decision support systems or electronic health records. Approximately 25% of the studies were from 4 academic institutions that implemented internally developed systems; only 9 studies evaluated multifunctional, commercially developed systems. Three major benefits on quality were demonstrated: increased adherence to guideline-based care, enhanced surveillance and monitoring, and decreased medication errors. The primary domain of improvement was preventive health. The major efficiency benefit shown was decreased utilization of care. Data on another efficiency measure, time utilization, were mixed. Empirical cost data were limited.

Limitations: Available quantitative research was limited and was done by a small number of institutions. Systems were heterogeneous and sometimes incompletely described. Available financial and contextual data were limited.

Conclusions: Four benchmark institutions have demonstrated the efficacy of health information technologies in improving quality and efficiency. Whether and how other institutions can achieve similar benefits, and at what costs, are unclear.

Source: Chaudhry B, Wang J, Wu S, Maglione M, Mojica W, Roth E, Morton SC, Shekelle PG. Systematic review: impact of health information technology on quality, efficiency, and costs of medical care. Ann Intern Med. 2006 May 16;144(10):742-52. Epub 2006 Apr 11. Review. PubMed PMID: 16702590.

Available at: http://www.annals.org/content/144/10/742.long

Do we have the right models for scaling up health services to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?

2011-12-26T09:14:00.005-05:00

Background

There is widespread agreement on the need for scaling up in the health sector to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But many countries are not on track to reach the MDG targets. The dominant approach used by global health initiatives promotes uniform interventions and targets, assuming that specific technical interventions tested in one country can be replicated across countries to rapidly expand coverage. Yet countries scale up health services and progress against the MDGs at very different rates. Global health initiatives need to take advantage of what has been learned about scaling up.

Methods

A systematic literature review was conducted to identify conceptual models for scaling up health in developing countries, with the articles assessed according to the practical concerns of how to scale up, including the planning, monitoring and implementation approaches.

Results

We identified six conceptual models for scaling up in health based on experience with expanding pilot projects and diffusion of innovations. They place importance on paying attention to enhancing organizational, functional, and political capabilities through experimentation and adaptation of strategies in addition to increasing the coverage and range of health services. These scaling up approaches focus on fostering sustainable institutions and the constructive engagement between end users and the provider and financing organizations.

Conclusions

The current approaches to scaling up health services to reach the MDGs are overly simplistic and not working adequately. Rather than relying on blueprint planning and raising funds, an approach characteristic of current global health efforts, experience with alternative models suggests that more promising pathways involve "learning by doing" in ways that engage key stakeholders, uses data to address constraints, and incorporates results from pilot projects. Such approaches should be applied to current strategies to achieve the MDGs.

Source: Subramanian S, Naimoli J, Matsubayashi T, Peters DH. Do we have the right models for scaling up health services to achieve the Millennium Development Goals? BMC Health Serv Res. 2011 Dec 14;11(1):336. PMID: 22168915.

Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/

Health information and technology: a transdisciplinary teaching and learning model

2011-12-22T09:39:00.001-05:00

Dear Glocalties Readers,

We developed the following work on teaching of technology and health information. We are interested in applying the model presented in the article in new undergraduate and/or graduate courses.

Reference: Galvao, M.C.B., Ricarte, I.L.M., Daura, A. P. Health information and technology: a transdisciplinary teaching and learning model (Portuguese) PERSPECT CIENC INF. , v.16, p.73 - 94, 2011.Available at: http://portaldeperiodicos.eci.ufmg.br/index.php/pci/article/view/1233/974

Abstract: The present research focused on the question of how professionals from the field of information and from the field of technology can be prepared to deal with health related problems, taking into account the basic concepts of technology, information, and health; the observation of curricular proposals; the analysis of health-related software and hardware; and the critical analysis of current literature. As the initial hypothesis, a transdisciplinary teaching and learning model was proposed considering four aspects: interaction among lecturers and students from different fields of knowledge; integration between the external context with the context from the educational institution; institutional conditions; and systematization of a teaching and learning project. To analyze this hypothesis, a qualitative method, the action-research, was adopted during one year in the offer of two courses, with 60 hours each, and the participation of 35 students. The proposed model was adequate to teach and learn technology and information in health, and emphasized relevant parameters to be considered in transdisciplinary educational contexts, such as linguistic competence, conceptual harmonization, ethical standards, the language of selected texts, and the relation between problems discussed in the educational and external contexts.
Keywords: Teaching, Information, Technology, Health, Transdisciplinarity

**********
Prezados Leitores do Glocalties,

Desenvolvemos o trabalho abaixo sobre o ensino da tecnologia e informação em saúde. Temos interesse em aplicar o modelo apresentado no artigo em novos contextos de graduação e/ou pós-graduação.

Referência: Galvao, M.C.B., Ricarte, I.L.M., Daura, A. P. Tecnologia e informação em saúde: modelo de ensino-aprendizagem transdisciplinar. PERSPECT CIENC INF. , v.16, p.73 - 94, 2011. Disponível em: http://portaldeperiodicos.eci.ufmg.br/index.php/pci/article/view/1233/974

Resumo: Considerando conceitos básicos sobre tecnologia, informação e saúde; a observação de propostas curriculares; a análise de softwares e hardwares destinados ao campo da saúde, e a análise crítica da literatura, esta pesquisa focou-se na questão de como formar profissionais do campo da informação e do campo da informática que possam melhor solucionar as problemáticas relacionadas ao contexto da saúde. Para tanto, elaborou-se como hipótese inicial um modelo de ensino-aprendizagem transdisciplinar que abarca quatro aspectos: interação entre docentes e discentes de diferentes áreas; integração entre o contexto externo e o contexto da instituição educacional; condições institucionais; sistematização de um projeto de ensino-aprendizagem. Para analisar tal hipótese, adotou-se um método qualitativo, qual seja, a pesquisa-ação, durante o período de um ano, no qual foram ofertados dois cursos, com duração de 60 horas cada um e participação de 35 alunos. Como resultado da pesquisa, o modelo proposto se mostrou adequado para o ensino-aprendizagem em tecnologia e informação em saúde, sendo enfatizados parâmetros do contexto educacional transdisciplinar, como a competência linguística, a harmonização conceitual, os padrões éticos, a linguagem dos textos selecionados, e a relação entre as problemáticas discutidas no contexto externo e interno.
Palavras chave: Ensino; Informação; Tecnologia; Saúde; Transdisciplinaridade

Sources:
Prof. Dr. Maria Cristiane Barbosa Galvão mgalvao@usp.br
Prof. Dr. Ivan Luiz Marques Ricarte ricarte@fee.unicamp.br

CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) International Network

2011-12-20T13:40:00.001-05:00

What: "(...) The CASP International Network (CASPin) is an international collaboration which supports the teaching and learning of critical appraisal skills, and in particular helps other people set up sustainable training programmes. Critical appraisal is a key skill required to be able to make evidence-based decisions. The CASPin teaching philosophy uses problem-based, small group learning within a supportive, collegiate environment to help people to develop their skills and put them into practice. (...)

CASPin's educational philosophy is summarised as follows:
whenever possible, workshops should be multidisciplinary, involving colleagues who work together in the workplace
learning should be problem-based
teaching should be interactive
workshops should include small group work
learning should be enjoyable
educational materials should be high quality and user-friendly
workshops should build on and make use of the skills knowledge and experience of the participants
skills in organising and delivering workshops should be cascaded as widely as possible (...)"

Source: http://www.caspinternational.org/

Knowledge Translation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

2011-12-18T08:09:00.000-05:00

"(...) Dear colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to invite you to 2 forthcoming events:

1st Knowledge Translation Symposium that is organized by Shaikh Research Chair for EBHC-KT. This is a one day event that will be held on Dec 21 (this coming Wed) at the Main Auditorium at the College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The 10th Residents' Research Day, that will be held at the Security Forces Hospital on Dec 28 (the next Wed), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (...)

Lubna (...)"
Source: Dr.Lubna A. Al-Ansary, MSc, FRCGP, King Saud University.

Call for Candidates for Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences (BIREME)

2011-12-16T16:17:00.001-05:00

Vacancy notice: PAHO/11/FT397
Title: Center Director, Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information
Grade: P5
Duration of contract: Two years, first year probationary period
Duty station: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Organizational location / Area:KMC/BIREME

Closing date: 3 January 2012
Call for candidates at: http://bit.ly/tLNUAM

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is committed to strengthening regional and national information systems in health sciences as another bastion in its mission to promote equity in health, combat disease, and improve the quality and duration of life in the Americas.

BIREME, based in San Paulo, Brazil since 1967, is a fundamental part of the Pan American and World Health Organization's technical cooperation efforts to achieve this mission. As one of the most important international organizations in management of technical and scientific information in health sciences, BIREME contributes to health development in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean through the democratization of access, publication, and use of information, knowledge, and scientific evidence.

Over 40 years in existence, BIREME now faces new opportunities and challenges, not only in access to scientific information, but also in providing tools for the evidence-based development of such concepts as eHealth, a strategy adopted by the governments in 2011 at the PAHO Directing Council. BIREME is perfectly positioned to take its place on the stage.

PAHO seeks a leader with ability, experience, and dedication to Public Health Service, with a strategic vision to ensure BIREME remains for the countries an essential reference in the sciences, in higher education, and in the development of public health policies. The new director will face the challenge of steering BIREME towards a more proactive and innovative relationship with countries and institutions, to ensure the democratization of knowledge and access to health information for all populations.
Source: PAHO/OMS

International Conference on Information Society (i‐Society 2012)

2011-12-16T13:38:00.001-05:00

What: International Conference on Information Society (i‐Society 2012)

When: June 25‐28, 2012
Where: London, UK
Submission deadline: January 31, 2012

The International Conference on Information Society (i‐Society 2012) is a global knowledge‐enriched collaborative effort that has its roots from both academia and industry. The conference covers a wide spectrum of topics that relate to information society, which includes technical and non‐technical research areas.

The mission of i‐Society 2012 conference is to provide opportunities for collaboration of professionals and researchers to share existing and generate new knowledge in the field of information society. The conference encapsulates the concept of interdisciplinary science that studies the societal and technological dimensions of knowledge evolution in digital society. The i‐Society bridges the gap between academia and industry with regards to research collaboration and awareness of current development in secure information management in the digital society.

The topics in i‐Society 2012 include but are not confined to the following areas:

- New enabling technologies

- Intelligent data management

- Secure Technologies

- e‐Learning

- e‐Health

- e‐Art

- e‐Science

- e‐Society

- e‐Governance

- e‐Business

For further details please visit : http://www.i-society.eu

International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security

2011-12-16T13:19:00.001-05:00

What: Fifth IFIP International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security
When: May 7-10, 2012
Where: Istanbul, Turkey
Submission deadline: December 19, 2011

NTMS'2012 is the Fifth International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security that will be held from 7 to 10 May 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey.

NTMS'2012 aims at fostering advances in the areas of New Technologies, Wireless Networks, Mobile Computing, Ad hoc and Ambient Networks, QoS, Network Security and E-commerce, to mention a few, and provides a dynamic forum for researchers, students and professionals to present their state-of-the-art research and development in these interesting areas.
[...]
Topics of interest include:
- Information Hiding.
- Privacy and Anonymity.
- Security assurance. Evaluation, testing, formal proofs, certification.
- Social and psychological aspects of security. User-centered security evaluation, perception of security and threats...
- Security and usability.
- Cloud computing. Platform security, data protection, software protection, surveillance and dynamic reaction.
- Smart Homes and E-Health
- Advanced identification techniques (Biometrics, RFID, etc.)

Further information: http://www.ntms-conf.org

2012 Brazilian Symposium on Bioinformatics

2011-12-16T13:18:00.001-05:00

What: 2012 Brazilian Symposium on Bioinformatics (BSB 2012)

When: August 15-17, 2012

Where: Campo Grande - MS, Brazil

Submission deadline: March 19, 2012

The 2012 Brazilian Symposium on Bioinformatics (BSB 2012) is an international conference which covers all aspects of bioinformatics and computational biology. BSB 2012 is organized by the special interest group in computational biology of the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC). Since 2005 the BSB proceedings have been published in the series Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics by Springer Verlag.

Topics include (but are not limited to):

- Sequence Analysis, Motifs, and Pattern Matching;

- Biological Databases, Data Management, Data Integration, and Data Mining;

- Biomedical Text Mining;

- [...]

Further information: http://bsb2012.facom.ufms.br

New Health Systems Evidence website

2011-12-16T07:08:00.003-05:00

Health Systems Evidence
Where: McMaster University, Canada
Website: http://www.mcmasterhealthforum.org/healthsystemsevidence-en

"(...) Health Systems Evidence is a valuable resource for policymakers, stakeholders and researchers seeking to address today's most pressing health challenges. It provides answers on questions about how to strengthen or reform health systems, or how to get cost-effective programs, services and drugs to those who need them.

The redeveloped website offers numerous enhancements, including new open search and advanced search functionalities, and is available in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Health Systems Evidence, a continuously updated repository of syntheses of research evidence about health system governance, financial and delivery arrangements, has expanded dramatically since its launch less than two years ago. It also includes syntheses of research about implementation strategies that can support change in health systems, and is now adding economic evaluations in these same domains, descriptions of health system reforms, and descriptions of health systems.

The database currently contains nearly 2,000 records that are coded with additional details such as the quality of the synthesis, how recently the search for the studies was conducted, and the countries in which the studies included in the synthesis were conducted. Key findings of the documents are available through links to user-friendly summaries written by any of nine groups in the world.

Other enhancements added with the relaunch of Health Systems Evidence include a comprehensive synonyms dictionary that cuts through the different jargon in use within and across countries, a filter that allows users to identify evidence that targets low- and middle-income countries, and a customizable evidence service that will provide monthly email alerts identifying new documents available in the database specific to someone's individual interests.

Video tutorial about Health Systems Evidence - McMaster Health Forum http://www.youtube.com/user/mcmasterhealthforumon how to make the best use of the site is provided, which will assist users to rapidly identify the best available research on a particular health system topic.

Health Systems Evidence is supported by a collaboration with the Program in Policy Decision-making at McMaster University, Cochrane Canada and its Policy Liaison Office, the Health Information Research Unit's McMaster PLUS and McMaster Search Filters, and Rx for Change.

Translations of the site into the six languages other than English is supported by World Health Organization (WHO) regional offices for the Americas (Pan American Health Organization PAHO/WHO), Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, the American University of Beirut and the Evidence-Based Medicine Centre at Lanzhou University in China. (...)"

Source: PAHO/WHO

National Library of Medicine announces expansion of PubMed Health

2011-12-15T13:20:00.003-05:00

(...) We've expanded PubMed Health to include all DARE reviews. Along with Cochrane reviews and a major proportion (and growing) of health technology assessments and NICE guidelines that are also systematic reviews, that means there are now over 18,000 published since 2003 in a single search – along with a simultaneous search of PubMed and many knowledge translation materials – consumer versions of systematic reviews and so on.

You can read more about the expansion from here at the NLM: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/expansion_pubmed_health.html

And this is PubMed Health: http://www.pubmed.gov/health (...)"

Source: Hilda Bastian

Fellowships in Evidence Synthesis, PCMD based in Cornwall, UK

2011-12-15T07:28:00.003-05:00

What:
1 Research Fellow (0.5 FTE) in Evidence Synthesis (Ref. E1038/PMS)1
Associate Research Fellow (1.0 FTE)

Where:
Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (Cornwall based: Truro)

Closing date for completed applications:
12 midnight 25 January 2012

"(...) This is an exciting opportunity to join the newly formed national NIHR School for Public Health Research at PCMD, in Truro, a leading academic centre with recognised excellence in applied public health research. The PCMD wishes to recruit one Research Fellow (0.5FTE) and one Associate Research Fellow (1.0FTE) to conduct a systematic review of the evidence for the health benefits of being involved in conservation/ environmental enhancement activities.

These posts are funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research and are available for 12 months from April 2012. The successful applicants will undertake all the relevant tasks associated with conducting a systematic review and evidence synthesis of diverse evidence in order to assess the broad health impacts of participation in conservation/ environmental enhancement activities. You will join the European Centre for Environment and Human Health (ECEHH) in Truro. (http://www.ecehh.org/) ECEHH investigates the interconnections between the environment and human health.

Established in 2010 with support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Centre aims to undertake world leading and internationally relevant research hich makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of the relationship between the environment and human health; supports the development of a knowledge economy in Cornwall and beyond; and contributes to the formulation of national and international policy in the area. The post will include all systematic review processes: identifying relevant literature, data extraction, critical appraisal and synthesis of a range of qualitative and quantitative research. Ability to write for publication is important. The Research Fellow will additionally be responsible for day to day project management. You will have systematic review experience and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop research programmes and methodologies. You will have a good first degree and preferably a qualification at postgraduate level in a relevant subject (such as in research methodology).

You will have experience of undertaking systematic reviews and synthesis of quantitative research. Experience of undertaking systematic reviews and synthesis of qualitative research and using methods such as realist synthesis will be advantageous.

The starting salary will be £31,798 to £33,734 (pro rata) on Grade F for the Research Fellow and £24,370 to £26,063 on Grade E for the Associate Research Fellow depending on qualifications and experience. For further information please contact Dr Ruth Garside, e-mail Ruth.Garside@pms.ac.uk (...)"

Source: Ruth Garside

A Modern Approach to Meta-Analysis, 23 – 24 April 2012, Imperial College London

2011-12-15T07:01:00.002-05:00

What: A Modern Approach to Meta-Analysis, 23–24 April 2012
Where: Imperial College London, UK

"(...) An introduction to the basic ideas of meta-analysis, including traditional methods for combining results from different studies, for both discrete and continuous measurements.

In addition, this course includes new, more efficient methods based on variance stabilisation. This unified approach leads to more accurate confidence intervals for effect sizes in both individual and combined studies. The benefits of variance stabilisation for accurate power calculations and for finding appropriate standardised effects will also be discussed. A package of R functions will be provided.

The course fee is £530.

For further details please visit the course website
www.imperial.ac.uk/cpd/metaanalysis

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at
the School of Professional Development on cpd@imperial.ac.uk or
+44(0)2075946885. (...)"

Source: Yue, Betty Y S
E-mail: b.yue@imperial.ac.uk via usp.br

The electronic patient record in the twenty-first century: the required contributions of information science

2011-12-13T16:46:00.003-05:00

GALVAO, MCB, RICARTE, ILM. The electronic patient record in the twenty-first century: the required contributions of information science (Portuguese). InCID: Revista de Ciência da Informação e Documentação, v. 2, n. 2, p. 77-100, jul./dez. 2011.

Available at: http://revistas.ffclrp.usp.br/incid/article/view/80.

The electronic health record raises informational and technological issues, including some that can be addressed using knowledge from the information science field and from informational professionals. To explore these issues, this article departs from the scope of electronic health record and establishes possible connections within the scope of information science. In these connections, information from literature reviews was combined with knowledge obtained by observation of contexts of health records production and use, by observation and analysis of health records in different formats and from different institutions, and by contact with health professionals, information professionals, computing professionals, managers, and researchers that work directly with health records. Results describe informational and technological issues of electronic health record that are related to the processes of creation, communication, identification, selection, acquisition, organization and retrieval, storage, preservation, analysis and synthesis, and assessment of information. Conclusions show that in the 21st Century, the electronic health record, when considered in its local, regional, national and international dimensions, presents issues that are adequate to the purposeful activity of information professionals, and constitutes research field for the information science, which can contribute to health improvement and, simultaneously, can expand, test, and refine its theories, hypotheses, and methodologies.

GALVAO, MCB, RICARTE, ILM. O prontuário eletrônico do paciente no século XXI: contribuições necessárias da ciência da informação. InCID: Revista de Ciência da Informação e Documentação, v. 2, n. 2, p. 77-100, jul./dez. 2011. Disponível em: http://revistas.ffclrp.usp.br/incid/article/view/80.

A construção do prontuário eletrônico do paciente demanda metodologias informacionais e tecnológicas. Tem-se por objetivo levantar aquelas que podem ter resolubilidade por meio dos conhecimentos da ciência da informação e de seus profissionais. Como metodologia para elaborar o estudo, partiu-se do escopo de prontuário eletrônico do paciente estabelecendo-se conexões possíveis com o escopo da ciência da informação. Nestas conexões, combinaram-se os conhecimentos adquiridos por revisão da literatura, por observação de contextos de produção e uso do prontuário do paciente, por observação e análise de prontuários em diferentes suportes e em diferentes instituições, pelo contato direto com profissionais da saúde, da informação e da informática que trabalham diretamente com o prontuário do paciente, gestores, docentes e pesquisadores que fazem uso de prontuários de pacientes. O resultado descreve demandas informacionais e tecnológicas do prontuário eletrônico do paciente relacionadas aos processos de criação, comunicação, identificação, seleção, aquisição, organização e recuperação, armazenagem, preservação, análise e síntese, e avaliação da informação. Conclui-se que, no século XXI, o prontuário eletrônico do paciente, se considerado em sua dimensão local, regional, nacional e internacional, apresenta demandas propícias para a atuação propositiva do profissional da informação e constitui campo de pesquisa para que a ciência da informação, de um lado, contribua com a saúde e, de outro, amplie, teste e aperfeiçoe suas teorias, hipóteses e metodologias.

Survey - Reporting Guidelines for Equity-relevant Systematic Reviews

2011-12-13T07:35:00.003-05:00

Survey - Reporting Guidelines for Equity-relevant Systematic Reviews

"(...) The Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group invites you to complete a survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D38NWP3) on the need for reporting guidelines for equity-relevant systematic reviews. We have identified a significant gap in reporting effectiveness of interventions for poor and vulnerable populations in systematic reviews. One way to improve reporting of facets of specific importance to systematic reviews reporting on inequities is to develop specific reporting guidelines, for example, by extending or amplifying the PRISMA statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). Currently PRISMA has no guidance specific to health equity and we are now in the process of developing an equity extension to PRISMA. We invite you to complete our survey on this extension – open for responses until January 5th, 2012. For more information visit our website (http://equity.cochrane.org/) (...)"
Source: Campbell and Cochrane Equity Methods Group <Jennifer.ONeill@uottawa.ca>

Review of Re-Identification Attacks on Health Data

2011-12-10T20:32:00.001-05:00

Privacy legislation in most jurisdictions allows the disclosure of health data for secondary purposes without patient consent if it is de-identified. Some recent articles in the medical, legal, and computer science literature have argued that de-identification methods do not provide sufficient protection because they are easy to reverse. Should this be the case, it would have significant and important implications on how health information is disclosed, including: (a) potentially limiting its availability for secondary purposes such as research, and (b) resulting in more identifiable health information being disclosed. Our objectives in this systematic review were to: (a) characterize known re-identification attacks on health data and contrast that to re-identification attacks on other kinds of data, (b) compute the overall proportion of records that have been correctly re-identified in these attacks, and (c) assess whether these demonstrate weaknesses in current de-identification methods.
The current evidence shows a high re-identification rate but is dominated by small-scale studies on data that was not de-identified according to existing standards. This evidence is insufficient to draw conclusions about the efficacy of de-identification methods.
Source: El Emam K , Jonker E , Arbuckle L , Malin B , 2011 A Systematic Review of Re-Identification Attacks on Health Data. PLoS ONE 6(12): e28071.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028071
Full article available at: http://www.plosone.org/

EHR pilot project in Geneva receives highest certification for eHealth strategy compliance

2011-12-09T15:48:00.001-05:00

The 'e-toile' electronic health record (EHR), jointly developed by a private company and the canton of Geneva as part of a pilot project, has been awarded the highest possible certification by the eHealth Suisse Steering Committee, the federal and cantonal eHealth coordination body.

The 'e-toile' is being piloted in four Geneva municipalities since February 2011 with the aim to network patients with healthcare sector stakeholders via a Medical Data Exchange Solution (MDES). Patients living in Bernex, Confignon, Onex and Petit-Lancy can now log on to the healthcare network 'e-toile' and create a personal EHR with participating doctors and pharmacists. The 'e-toile' pilot includes a portal for patients and for healthcare professionals, where clinicians and other providers can access patient records from across the canton through the MDES. Patients must first grant access to the records to specific healthcare entities, thus helping to ensure patient privacy.

According to the final evaluation report which was carried out in June 2011 by Bern University of Applied Sciences for Engineering and Information Technology by order of the Swiss Coordination Office for eHealth, the 'e-toile' pilot received the certification 'Interregional - strategy-compliant - multiple communities 2011' (Interrégional - conforme à la stratégie - plusieurs communautés 2011, in French) for its excellent performance in all assessment criteria.

The report says that this innovative project has demonstrated a high level of technical preparedness, thus enabling it to link to other communities in line with the Swiss eHealth strategy, which aims to provide citizens with access to quality-based, safe, efficient and affordable healthcare. Furthermore, it portrays the 'e-toile' pilot as a pioneer for the further expansion of the eHealth strategy, offering the potential for a model case solution. Results show that eHealth Suisse Steering Committee's recommendations have been successfully implemented.

Source and full article: http://www.epractice.eu/

The promise of electronic health care records

2011-12-09T15:40:00.001-05:00

Don Berwick, administrator of U.S. Medicare and Medicaid, noted that 20 percent to 30 percent of health spending is “waste” that yields no benefit to patients. Berwick listed five reasons for the enormous waste in health spending:

Patients are overtreated
There is not enough coordination of care
US health care is burdened with an excessively complex administrative system
The enormous burden of rules
Fraud

Certainly regulatory reform is needed, but electronic health records can go far to addressing each of these issues.

EHRs can provide alerts and reminders - just in time advice as to what my patients need. Educational materials and literature can be embedded in the workflow for easy reference. Population/panel health tools can identify those patients who need followup or are deviating from care plans.

If rules can be built into EHRs such as the precise definitions for quality reporting, automated electronic coding of visits based on structured documentation/natural language processing, and payments made on objectively measured processes/outcomes instead of the quantity of care delivered, regulatory complexity can be reduced and money saved.

Electronic health records can enforce automated care plans, provide feedback at the point of care and support administrative simplification with bidirectional electronic transactions between payers and providers.

Source and full article: http://www.massdevice.com/

Hungary Health System

2011-12-09T15:32:00.004-05:00

(...) Hungary has achieved a successful transition from an overly centralized, integrated Semashko-style health are system to a purchaser–provider split model with output-based payment methods. Although there have been substantial increases in life expectancy in recent years mong both men and women, many health outcomes remain poor, placing Hungary among the countries with the worst health status and highest rate of avoidable mortality in the EU (life expectancy at birth trailed the EU27 average by 5.1 years in 2009). Lifestyle factors – especially the traditionally unhealthy Hungarian diet, alcohol consumption and smoking – play a very important role in shaping the overall health of the population. (...)
Available at:
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/155044/e96034.pdf

Source: European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

IDRC Recruitment: Senior Specialist - Governance for Equity in Health Systems

2011-12-06T11:29:00.003-05:00

Senior Program Specialist - Governance for Equity in Health Systems

Position #*326

Location: *Ottawa, Canada

Salary Range (CAD):*$90,330 - $112,912

Duration:*Indeterminate

Closing Date: 09/01/12

Job Overview

The Governance for Equity in Health Systems Program support research in developing countries to strengthen their health systems and improve health outcomes. Our program includes research on equitable health financing, policies and innovations for improved health services delivery, health information systems, and addressing access and governance challenges across
a number of regions.
For more information regarding primary duties or responsibilities, view Job
Details<http://publicwebsite.idrc.ca/EN/AboutUs/Careers/JobPostings/Pages/Senior-Program-Specialist.aspx>

Source: PAHO/OMS

Privacy and security in the implementation of health information technology (Electronic Health Records): U.S. and EU compared

2011-12-03T18:40:00.001-05:00

The importance of the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and the associated cost savings cannot be ignored as an element in the changing delivery of health care. However, the potential cost savings predicted in the use of EHR are accompanied by potential risks, either technical or legal, to privacy and security. The U.S. legal framework for healthcare privacy is a combination of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory law at the federal and state levels. In contrast, it is generally believed that EU protection of privacy, including personally identifiable medical information, is more comprehensive than that of U.S. privacy laws. Direct comparisons of U.S. and EU medical privacy laws can be made with reference to the five Fair Information Practices Principles (FIPs) adopted by the Federal Trade Commission and other international bodies. The analysis reveals that while the federal response to the privacy of health records in the U.S. seems to be a gain over conflicting state law, in contrast to EU law, U.S. patients currently have little choice in the electronic recording of sensitive medical information if they want to be treated, and minimal control over the sharing of that information. A combination of technical and legal improvements in EHRs could make the loss of privacy associated with EHRs de minimis. The EU has come closer to this position, encouraging the adoption of EHRs and confirming the application of privacy protections at the same time. It can be argued that the EU is proactive in its approach; whereas because of a different viewpoint toward an individual’s right to privacy, the U.S. system lacks a strong framework for healthcare privacy, which will affect the implementation of EHRs. If the U.S. is going to implement EHRs effectively, technical and policy aspects of privacy must be central to the discussion.

Source: Hiller J, McMullen MS, Chumney WM, Baumer DL. Privacy and security in the implementation of health information technology (Electronic Health Records): U.S. and EU compared. Journal of Science and Technology Law, 17(1), 2011.

Available at: http://www.privacylives.com/

Eliminating Health Inequities: Every Woman and Every Child Counts

2011-12-03T16:16:00.003-05:00

Eliminating Health Inequities: Every Woman and Every Child Counts.

New report from the Red Cross and The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health calls for barriers to health services to be removed.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), November 2011

Available at: http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/membernews/2011/20111129_healthinequities_report_eng..pdf

"(...) The report contains a set of concrete recommendations for action by different stakeholders, including government, donors and civil society, to improve access to quality care and health information, and greater gender equality. The recommendations take a
holistic approach, linking health inequities to poverty, gender bias, and human rights violations, which are in turn impact on education, transport, health, agriculture and overall well-being.

Success stories of social and political action in 10 countries around the world, including Egypt, Bangladesh, Malawi, Ecuador, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Austria, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Eritrea, are also highlighted…."

Content:

Introduction

Chapter 1. Focusing on women and children is a good place to start

The unique needs of women and children

Social inequities compound biological differences, exacerbating vulnerabilities

Double the risk and double the neglect: HIV and women who use drugs

Chapter 2. The time to act is now

Progress in reaching MDGs disguises burdens

Human rights is the framework to eliminate health inequities

Chapter 3. The scale of the problem: the dimensions of health inequities

Public health systems are both a cause and a solution to health inequities

Poverty amid current universal trends exacerbates health inequities

Public policies committed to equity present opportunities

Chapter 4. The Red Cross Red Crescent response

A holistic approach to health equity informed by human rights

Provide prevention, treatment, care and support when and where needed

Make reliable, accurate information available and encourage
health-seeking behaviours

Promote gender equality, empower women and girls, and enlist the
support of men and boys

Obstacles and opportunities

The way forward

References

Source: PAHO/OMS

EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup Releases Technical Specifications

2011-12-03T09:21:00.001-05:00

The EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup, a group of states and vendors focused on eliminating the barriers to sharing electronic health records (EHRs), recently issued a set of technical specifications to standardize connections between health care providers, health information exchanges (HIEs), and other data-sharing partners.

The objective of the workgroup is to define a single set of standardized, easy-to-implement connections to increase the adoption of EHRs and HIE services. The effort leveraged existing published standards for interoperability from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). The specifications aim to remove impediments that make it difficult for EHRs to connect to HIEs.

The first set of specifications focuses on two use cases and the detailed data and metadata specification for a compliant Continuity of Care Document. The first use case, Statewide Send and Receive Patient Record Exchange, describes how encrypted health information can be transmitted over the internet. The second, the Statewide Patient Data Inquiry Service Use Case, describes the clinician's ability to query an HIE for relevant data on a specific patient.

Source: http://www.24x7mag.com/

Electronic health records: First do no harm

2011-12-03T09:15:00.001-05:00

During the past decade, American policymakers have gone ape over computerized health records, sure they would dramatically reduce medical errors while slashing health costs.
Now, the national Institute of Medicine has come out with a report reminding us the first responsibility is avoiding harm — which many makers and users of these records seem to have forgotten.
The institute’s report concluded there’s precious little evidence today to show electronic records are as safe as they should be. What’s probably most worrisome is some of the lack of evidence is because of the business practices of the software makers.
Software makers seem not to have figured out that an electronic health record is a medical device. You can’t just look at profitability. You have to look at patient safety, first and foremost.
Source and full article: http://galvestondailynews.com/

Doctor peeked at heath records of girlfriend’s ex-husband

2011-12-02T15:25:00.001-05:00

Alberta’s privacy commissioner says a doctor in a Covenant Health hospital emergency room peeked at electronic health records of his girlfriend nurse’s ex-husband and people close to him.

After the nurse’s lawyer asked the ex-husband during divorce proceedings about a personal medical issue, the man asked for a log of those who had accessed his records.

They found 12 doctors’ names, none of which sounded familiar to the ex-husband.

Further investigation revealed the nurse’s new boyfriend, a doctor, had used other people’s computer accounts which had been open in the busy ER to check out the records.

The doctor says the nurse was not aware of him doing it, adding it was not uncommon for computers to be left logged on by a number of busy physicians.

Source: http://www.reddeeradvocate.com/

Interoperability Remains Elusive EHR Goal

2011-12-02T14:45:00.001-05:00

As physicians and other health professionals become more savvy in ways of the digital universe, many of them like what they have found but want more, especially more seamless information exchange between hospital records and physician practice-based electronic health records.

The importance of that goal, known in the IT world as interoperability, was hammered home again and again during a panel discussion of real world EHR issues at the Digital Health Conference here.

While patients' digital health records make keeping track of admissions and discharges from emergency departments easy, a disconnect in data provided between emergency departments and personal care physicians is likely to impede patient care and may, in fact, be a carryover from "traditional" medical practice.

A. John Blair III, MD, CEO of MedAllies, told that the key to EHR success is the transmission of useful, clinically relevant information.

"Half the time important decisions are made with inadequate information," he said. "I think it's important for clinicians to understand the capabilities of the programs that are in the early beginning phases and coming in the future."

Source and full article: http://www.medpagetoday.com/

Health Information Exchanges: Patients Must Be Convinced

2011-12-02T14:39:00.001-05:00

While health information exchanges (HIEs) have the potential to save Americans millions of healthcare dollars, getting these patient data-sharing services up and running has become a tangled web of regulations, conflicting IT standards, and provider resistance.

They also face a significant challenge when it comes to getting patient buy-in. The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives' guide to HIEs outlines two approaches that providers can use to obtain patient consent, namely opt in or opt out. Regardless of which approach your organization uses, it needs to be sensitive to the public's fears.

The public is afraid that their medical data won't be safe. And given the number of data breaches in the news recently, you can certainly understand their concerns. But those breaches tell only part of the story. And the rest needs to be told if the health IT community ever hopes to convince people to let HIEs use their personal data.

Source and full article: http://www.informationweek.com/

Collaborative effort launched to facilitate doctors helping doctors transform healthcare: first area of focus is health IT

2011-12-02T14:34:00.001-05:00

Addressing the pressing need to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of health care in the U.S., physician leaders are gathering today in Washington, D.C. to launch Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Health Care (Doctors Helping Doctors), the goal of which is to support the transformation of health care, initially through greater use of health information technology (IT).

Through this non-profit, collaborative, social media effort, physicians are sharing their experiences and insights—through videos, audio programs, stories and blog posts—about why they decided to adopt health IT, the initial challenges they faced and the strategies they used to overcome them, the impact on their practices or organizations, and their lessons learned—to support other physicians as they make the transition to a health IT-enabled health care system that delivers better health and health care.
Doctors Helping Doctors is a collaborative effort led primarily by doctors—for doctors, engaging non-profit, clinician-led organizations and medical societies to provide input, identify physician leaders who have successfully transformed care through health IT, and highlight resources that will be helpful to physicians. Collaborators include the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS). The American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Medical Association also serve in advisory roles.
Source and full article: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/

Health Care Data Breaches Increase by 32 Percent: Ponemon Report

2011-12-02T14:30:00.001-05:00

The Ponemon Institute, a research firm that advises organizations on data security and privacy, has released a new survey of the health care industry showing a 32 percent increase in data breaches.

Data security consulting firm ID Experts sponsored Ponemon's report, the second-annual "Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security," announced on Dec. 1. ID Experts provides assessment tools and response plans to help organizations deal with data security issues.

For the study, Ponemon interviewed senior personnel at 72 health care organizations in the administration, clinical, compliance, financial, privacy and security departments.

Three leading causes of data breaches in health care are lost or stolen equipment, errors by third parties and employee mistakes. In fact, sloppy mistakes by employees have led to many data breach increases, according to 41 percent of respondents.
Data breaches have cost the health care industry an average of $6.5 billion annually since 2010. With that money, the industry would have been able to hire 81,250 nurses nationwide, the Ponemon Institute reports.
Of health care organizations surveyed, 96 percent have suffered a data breach in the last two years.
In addition, although 81 percent of health care organizations store personal health data on mobile devices, 49 percent of respondents say their companies take no steps to secure the data, according to the report.

Source and full article: http://www.eweek.com/

Glocalties 10000

2011-12-02T09:41:00.004-05:00

Glocalties (http://glocalties.blogspot.com/) celebrates more than 10000 accesses in 2011!

Source: Glocalties' Editors

The Four Habits of High-Value Health Care Organizations

2011-12-02T06:42:00.001-05:00

Recent attention to the question of value in health care — the ratio of outcomes to long-term costs — has focused on problems of definition and measurement: what outcomes and which costs? Less attention has been given to an equally difficult but important issue: how do health care delivery organizations reliably deliver higher value? Given the health care sector's mixed record of disseminating clinical innovations and system improvements, how do we learn from leading organizations?
Although high-value health care organizations vary in structure, resources, and culture, they often have remarkably similar approaches to care management. Specific tactics vary, but their “habits” — repeated behaviors and activities and the ways of thinking that they reflect and engender — are shared. This is important because experience suggests that such habits may be portable.
The first common habit is specification and planning. A second common habit is infrastructure design. The third habit is measurement and oversight. The fourth and final habit is self-study.

Source: Bohmer RMJ. The Four Habits of High-Value Health Care Organizations. N Engl J Med 2011; 365:2045-2047

Full article available at: http://www.nejm.org/

Health Data Not Better Protected Than a Year Ago

2011-12-01T22:58:00.001-05:00

The second year of a benchmark survey to track progress in securing protected health information finds improved policies and staff training, but also increased frequency of breaches, rising incidents of identity theft, poor control over mobile devices, and two-thirds of organizations don't provide protection services for breach victims.
More electronic health records adoption and migration to mobile computing devices lead to increased security risks and breaches. But, based on interviews with about 300 officials at 72 provider organizations, mostly hospitals, the rate of breach reporting has improved, which could skew the actual increase in breaches.
Survey results show that identity theft in health care is up 26 percent in a year, and the overall financial cost of compromised sensitive health information can be higher than theft of financial data. "A health record with Social Security number and bank card number is the crown jewel of stolen information."
Source and full article: http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/

Practical considerations to guide development of access controls and decision support for genetic information in electronic medical records

2011-12-01T22:48:00.001-05:00

Background

Genetic testing is increasingly used as a tool throughout the health care system. In 2011 the number of clinically available genetic tests is approaching 2,000, and wide variation exists between these tests in their sensitivity, specificity, and clinical implications, as well as the potential for discrimination based on their results.

Discussion

As health care systems increasingly implement electronic medical record systems (EMRs) they must carefully consider how to use information from this wide spectrum of genetic tests, with whom to share information, and how to provide decision support for clinicians to properly interpret the information. Although some characteristics of genetic tests overlap with other medical test results, there are reasons to make genetic test results widely available to health care providers and counterbalancing reasons to restrict access to these test results to honor patient preferences, and avoid distracting or confusing clinicians with irrelevant but complex information. Electronic medical records can facilitate and provide reasonable restrictions on access to genetic test results and deliver education and decision support tools to guide appropriate interpretation and use.

Summary

This paper will review some of the key characteristics of genetic tests as they relate to the design of access controls and decision support for genetic test information in an EMR, emphasizing the clear need for health information technology (HIT) to be part of optimal implementation of genetic medicine, and the importance of understanding key characteristics of genetic tests when designing HIT applications.

Source: Darcy DC, Lewis ET, Ormond KE, Clark DJ, Trafton JA. Practical considerations to guide development of access controls and decision support for genetic information in electronic medical records. BMC Health Serv Res. 2011 Nov 2;11(1):294.

Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/

Quality of human-computer interaction - results of a national usability survey of hospital-IT in Germany

2011-12-01T22:44:00.001-05:00

Background

Due to the increasing functionality of medical information systems, it is hard to imagine day to day work in hospitals without IT support. Therefore, the design of dialogues between humans and information systems is one of the most important issues to be addressed in health care. This survey presents an analysis of the current quality level of human-computer interaction of healthcare-IT in German hospitals, focused on the users' point of view.

Methods

To evaluate the usability of clinical-IT according to the design principles of EN ISO 9241-10 the IsoMetrics Inventory, an assessment tool, was used. The focus of this paper has been put on suitability for task, training effort and conformity with user expectations, differentiated by information systems. Effectiveness has been evaluated with the focus on interoperability and functionality of different IT systems.

Results

4521 persons from 371 hospitals visited the start page of the study, while 1003 persons from 158 hospitals completed the questionnaire. The results show relevant variations between different information systems.

Conclusions

Specialised information systems with defined functionality received better assessments than clinical information systems in general. This could be attributed to the improved customisation of these specialised systems for specific working environments. The results can be used as reference data for evaluation and benchmarking of human computer engineering in clinical health IT context for future studies.

Source: Bundschuh BB, Majeed RW, Burkle T, Kuhn K, Sax U, Seggewies C, Vosseler C, Rohrig R. Quality of human-computer interaction - results of a national usability survey of hospital-IT in Germany. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2011 Nov 9;11(1):69.

Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/

Integrating historical clinical and financial data for pharmacological research

2011-12-01T22:30:00.001-05:00

Background

Retrospective research requires longitudinal data, and repositories derived from electronic health records (EHR) can be sources of such data. With Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act meaningful use provisions, many institutions are expected to adopt EHRs, but may be left with large amounts of financial and historical clinical data, which can differ significantly from data obtained from newer systems, due to lack or inconsistent use of controlled medical terminologies (CMT) in older systems. We examined different approaches for semantic enrichment of financial data with CMT, and integration of clinical data from disparate historical and current sources for research.

Methods

Snapshots of financial data from 1999, 2004 and 2009 were mapped automatically to the current inpatient pharmacy catalog, and enriched with RxNorm. Administrative metadata from financial and dispensing systems, RxNorm and two commercial pharmacy vocabularies were used to integrate data from current and historical inpatient pharmacy modules, and the outpatient EHR. Data integration approaches were compared using percentages of automated matches, and effects on cohort size of a retrospective study.

Results

During 1999-2009, 71.52%-90.08% of items in use from the financial catalog were enriched using RxNorm; 64.95%-70.37% of items in use from the historical inpatient system were integrated using RxNorm, 85.96%-91.67% using a commercial vocabulary, 87.19%-94.23% using financial metadata, and 77.20%-94.68% using dispensing metadata. During 1999-2009, 48.01%-30.72% of items in use from the outpatient catalog were integrated using RxNorm, and 79.27%-48.60% using a commercial vocabulary. In a cohort of 16304 inpatients obtained from clinical systems, 4172 (25.58%) were found exclusively through integration of historical clinical data, while 15978 (98%) could be identified using semantically enriched financial data.

Conclusions

Data integration using metadata from financial/dispensing systems and pharmacy vocabularies were comparable. Given the current state of EHR adoption, semantic enrichment of financial data and integration of historical clinical data would allow the repurposing of these data for research. With the push for HITECH meaningful use, institutions that are transitioning to newer EHRs will be able to use their older financial and clinical data for research using these methods.

Source: Deshmukh VG, Sower NB, Hunter CY, Mitchell JA. Integrating historical clinical and financial data for pharmacological research. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2011 Nov 18;11(1):151.

Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/

Why we need easy access to all data from all clinical trials and how to accomplish it

2011-12-01T22:05:00.001-05:00

International calls for registering all trials involving humans and for sharing the results, and sometimes also the raw data and the trial protocols, have increased in recent years. Such calls have come, for example, from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organization (WHO), the US National Institutes of Heath, the US Congress, the European Commission, the European ombudsman, journal editors, The Cochrane Collaboration, and several funders, for example the UK Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation. Calls for data sharing have mostly been restricted to publicly-funded research, but I argue that the distinction between publicly-funded and industry-funded research is an artificial and irrelevant one, as the interests of the patients must override commercial interests. I also argue why it is a moral imperative to render all results from all trials involving humans, also healthy volunteers, publicly available. Respect for trial participants who often run a personal and unknown risk by participating in trials requires that they - and therefore also the society at large that they represent - be seen as the ultimate owners of trial data. Data sharing would lead to tremendous benefits for patients, progress in science, and rational use of healthcare resources based on evidence we can trust. The harmful consequences are minor compared to the benefits. It has been amply documented that the current situation, with selective reporting of favorable research and biased data analyses being the norm rather than the exception, is harmful to patients and has led to the death of tens of thousands of patients that could have been avoided. National and supranational legislation is needed to make data sharing happen as guidelines and other voluntary agreements do not work. I propose the contents of such legislation and of appropriate sanctions to hold accountable those who refuse to share their data.

Source: Gotzsche PC. Why we need easy access to all data from all clinical trials and how to accomplish it. Trials 2011, 12:249.

Article available at: http://www.trialsjournal.com/

A unified framework for managing provenance information in translational research

2011-12-01T21:54:00.001-05:00

Background

A critical aspect of the NIH Translational Research roadmap, which seeks to accelerate the delivery of "bench-side" discoveries to patient's "bedside," is the management of the provenance metadata that keeps track of the origin and history of data resources as they traverse the path from the bench to the bedside and back. A comprehensive provenance framework is essential for researchers to verify the quality of data, reproduce scientific results published in peer-reviewed literature, validate scientific process, and associate trust value with data and results. Traditional approaches to provenance management have focused on only partial sections of the translational research life cycle and they do not incorporate "domain semantics", which is essential to support domain-specific querying and analysis by scientists.

Results

We identify a common set of challenges in managing provenance information across the pre-publication and post-publication phases of data in the translational research lifecycle. We define the semantic provenance framework (SPF), underpinned by the Provenir upper-level provenance ontology, to address these challenges in the four stages of provenance metadata: (a) Provenance collection - during data generation (b) Provenance representation - to support interoperability, reasoning, and incorporate domain semantics (c) Provenance storage and propagation - to allow efficient storage and seamless propagation of provenance as the data is transferred across applications (d) Provenance query - to support queries with increasing complexity over large data size and also support knowledge discovery applications We apply the SPF to two exemplar translational research projects, namely the Semantic Problem Solving Environment for Trypanosoma cruzi (T.cruzi SPSE) and the Biomedical Knowledge Repository (BKR) project, to demonstrate its effectiveness.

Conclusions

The SPF provides a unified framework to effectively manage provenance of translational research data during pre and post-publication phases. This framework is underpinned by an upper-level provenance ontology called Provenir that is extended to create domain-specific provenance ontologies to facilitate provenance interoperability, seamless propagation of provenance, automated querying, and analysis.

Source: Sahoo SS, Nguyen V, Bodenreider O, Parikh P, Minning T, Sheth AP. A unified framework for managing provenance information in translational research. BMC Bioinformatics 2011, 12:461

Article available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/

The e-Health Implementation Toolkit: Qualitative evaluation across four European countries

2011-12-01T21:43:00.001-05:00

Background

Implementation researchers have attempted to overcome the research-practice gap in e-health by developing tools that summarize and synthesize research evidence of factors that impede or facilitate implementation of innovation in healthcare settings. The e-Health Implementation Toolkit (e-HIT) is an example of such a tool that was designed within the context of the United Kingdom National Health Service to promote implementation of e-health services. Its utility in international settings is unknown.

Methods

We conducted a qualitative evaluation of the e-HIT in use across four countries - Finland, Norway, Scotland, and Sweden. Data were generated using a combination of interview approaches (n = 22) to document e-HIT users' experiences of the tool to guide decision making about the selection of e-health pilot services and to monitor their progress over time.

Results

e-HIT users evaluated the tool positively in terms of its scope to organize and enhance their critical thinking about their implementation work and, importantly, to facilitate discussion between those involved in that work. It was easy to use in either its paper- or web-based format, and its visual elements were positively received. There were some minor criticisms of the e-HIT with some suggestions for content changes and comments about its design as a generic tool (rather than specific to sites and e-health services). However, overall, e-HIT users considered it to be a highly workable tool that they found useful, which they would use again, and which they would recommend to other e-health implementers.

Conclusion

The use of the e-HIT is feasible and acceptable in a range of international contexts by a range of professionals for a range of different e-health systems.

Source: Macfarlane A, Clerkin P, Murray E, Heaney DJ, Wakeling M, Pesola UM, Lindh Waterworth E, Larsen F, Makiniemi M, Winblad I. The e-Health Implementation Toolkit: Qualitative evaluation across four European countries. Implement Sci. 2011 Nov 19;6(1):122. [Epub ahead of print]

Article available at: http://www.implementationscience.com/

PMID:: 22098945; [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Free Article

Patients Sue Sutter Health Over Data Breach Involving 4.24 Million People

2011-12-01T21:27:00.001-05:00

Sutter Health, a hospital system in Northern California, faces two class-action lawsuits from patients for leaving the information of 4.24 million people vulnerable to exposure.

During the weekend of Oct. 15-16, a rock was thrown through the window of Sutter's administrative offices in Sacramento, Calif., and then a desktop PC along with monitors, mice and keyboards were stolen.

Although no medical data or Social Security numbers resided on the PC, the computer did store some personal information, Sutter Health reports.

The PC theft exposed personal information for about 3.3 million patients of Sutter Physician Services (SPS) from 1995 to January 2011, including names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses (for those who provided them). SPS provides billing and managed care services for health care providers affiliated with Sutter.

Meanwhile, information regarding medical diagnoses and procedures for about 943,000 Sutter Medical Foundation patients from January 2005 to January 2011 also was exposed in the breach. Sutter Medical Foundation is a network of doctors working in Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

Since 2007, Sutter has been encrypting laptops and BlackBerry devices, but had only recently begun encrypting desktops. The priority was to encrypt the portable devices first.
The Sutter data breach is the latest incident involving health organizations losing data.
In fact, 71 percent of health care organizations have suffered at least one data breach within the past year, according to a study by Veriphyr, a software-as-a-service data-analytics application provider.
On Sept. 29, Tricare, a health care services provider to active and retired military personnel, disclosed that its contractor, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), had potentially exposed data for 4.9 million patients when backup tapes were stolen from a car in San Antonio.
Source and full article: http://www.eweek.com/

The free movement of doctors in the European context

2011-12-01T07:52:00.003-05:00

"(...) Summary: The Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EC) guarantees the free movement of doctors in the European Economic Area. It requires regulators, such as the General Medical Council, to automatically recognise other European qualifications. Although there are significant benefits to high-levels of mobility, and as a result the UK has received many dedicated professionals, it can present some challenges to patient safety. This article looks at some of the regulatory gaps with the Directive and outlines a UK regulator's perspective on the forthcoming legislative review. (...)"

"(...) Language and communication
We believe that the ability of a professional to communicate effectively lies at the heart of good medical practice. International Medical Graduates in the UK are required, by law, to demonstrate that they have the necessary knowledge of the English language to practise. However the GMC is prevented from testing the language skills of doctors applying for registration from the EEA. This, in our view, is an unacceptable gap in current regulation. The vast majority of European doctors would not come to work in the UK if they did not have a good command of English, but there is evidence that a small number lack insight and the language skills required to practise in the UK and thus they pose a risk to patients. We are currently working with the UK government to improve this in national legislation but the language provisions in the European Directive also need to be strengthened. The legislation needs to make clear that, for health care professionals, all applicants for registration should be required to demonstrate their knowledge of the host country's language. Although the Green Paper acknowledges the importance of language skills, it suggests limiting this to a "one-off assessment" and only for health care professionals having direct contact with patients. Our view is that this would not adequately protect patients. First, effective communication with colleagues and the wider health care team is just as important in making sure that patient safety is not compromised. Secondly, checking language knowledge at the point of registration should not prevent an employer satisfying themselves of an applicant's skills to perform a particular job. A professional needs to be both fit for practise, a decision for the regulator, and fit to do a particular job, a decision for an employer. (...)"

Reference: Dickson, Niall. The free movement of professionals: a UK regulator's perspective. Eurohealth incorporating Euro Observer, v.17, n.4, 2011. Available at: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/154516/EuroHealth_V17n4.pdf

Assessment of health information by patients: The DISCERN Instrument

2011-12-01T01:55:00.004-05:00

"(...) DISCERN is a brief questionnaire which provides users with a valid and reliable way of assessing the quality of written information on treatment choices for a health problem. DISCERN can also be used by authors and publishers of information on treatment choices as a guide to the standard which users are entitled to expect. (...)
Source: http://www.discern.org.uk/discern_instrument.php

"(...) The DISCERN website contains an online version of the DISCERN instrument and handbook. The handbook is designed to help you understand and use DISCERN effectively, and can be used to support training. It has been written from the perspective of a health
consumer (or patient), but can be used by anyone interested in information about treatment choices.DISCERN may be used to assess a broad range of consumer health information on treatment in a variety of formats.

The DISCERN on the Internet Project

The DISCERN on the Internet Project is funded by the NHS Executive Research and Development Programme. More information about the Project can be found in an article which appeared in the He@lth Information on the Internet newsletter , and in:

Charnock, D., Shepperd, S., Learning to DISCERN online: applying an appraisal tool to health websites in a workshop setting. Health Education Research 2004 19: 440-446.

The DISCERN Project is based in the University of Oxford, Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care, at the Institute of Health Sciences. (...)"

Source: http://www.discern.org.uk/about.php

E-Society 2012

2011-11-29T16:21:00.001-05:00

What: IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE E-SOCIETY 2012
Where: Berlin, Germany
When: March 10-13, 2012
Deadline for submissions: 30 December 2011

The IADIS e-Society 2012 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within the Information Society. This conference covers both the technical as well as the non-technical aspects of the Information Society. Broad areas of interest are eSociety and Digital Divide, eBusiness / eCommerce, eLearning, New Media and E-Society, Digital Services in eESociety, eGovernment /eGovernance, eHealth, Information Systems, and Information Management. These broad areas are divided into more detailed areas. However innovative contributes that don't fit into these areas will also be considered since they might be of benefit to conference attendees.
* Topics related to the Information Society are of interest. These include, but are not limited to the following areas and topics:
[...]
eHealth

May include issues relating to:

• Data Security Issues

• eHealth Policy and Practice

• eHealthcare Strategies and Provision

• Legal Issues

• Medical Research Ethics

• Patient Privacy and Confidentiality

Source and full call for papers: http://www.esociety-conf.org/

Yggdrasil - young guest and doctoral researchers' annual scholarships for investigation and learning

2011-11-29T14:02:00.001-05:00

Submission deadline: 15 February 2012

The Yggdrasil mobility programme promotes the internationalisation of Norwegian research by offering grants to international Ph.D. students and younger researchers in connection with research stays in Norway. The programme seeks to make Norway an attractive research destination for highly qualified international Ph.D. students and younger researchers in all subject areas, thus strengthening the Norwegian research communities involved.

Grant applications will be accepted from the following countries:

European countries: All countries, including all Council of Europe member states, except for the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden).
Non-European countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Africa.

Grants will be awarded for an uninterrupted research stay of 3-12 months at a Norwegian host institution, based on fixed monthly rates:

NOK 13 500 per month (without family).
NOK 27 000 per month (with family).
NOK 10 000 per person for travel expenses for applicants from non-European countries.

Source and applications: http://www.forskningsradet.no/

Do Open-Access Articles Have a Greater Research Impact?

2011-11-27T12:23:00.004-05:00

"(...) Although many authors believe that their work has a greater research impact if it is freely available, studies to demonstrate that impact are few. This study looks at articles in four disciplines at varying stages of adoption of open access—philosophy, political science, electrical and electronic engineering and mathematics—to see whether they have a greater impact as measured by citations in the ISI Web of Science database when their authors make them freely available on the Internet. The ﬁnding is that, across all four disciplines, freely available articles do have a greater research impact. Shedding light on this category of open access reveals that scholars in diverse disciplines are adopting open-access practices and being rewarded for it. (...)This study indicates that, across a variety of disciplines, open-access articles have a greater research impact than articles that are not freely available. (...)"

Reference: Antelman, K. Do Open Access Articles Have a Greater Research Impact?, 2004. In College & Research Libraries News. American Library Association. pp.372-382. (Published) [Journal Article (Print/Paginated)].

Available: http://eprints.rclis.org/bitstream/10760/5463/1/do_open_access_CRL.pdf

How Do Health Information Websites Score on a 100-Point Customer Satisfaction Scale?

2011-11-26T09:26:00.001-05:00

Private-sector health information websites scored a 79 on a 100-point customer satisfaction scale, while health insurance websites scored a 51, according to a study by ForeSee, a customer experience analytics firm.

Public-sector health information websites scored a 78 on the scale, according to the study. The study defined public-sector health information websites as those maintained by the federal government and not-for-profit organizations.

Meanwhile, hospital and health system websites scored a 78.

Two sub-categories of private-sector health information websites -- sites that included information about pharmaceuticals and health products -- both scored a 76.

The study also found that health information website visitors who give a satisfaction rating of 80 or higher say they are 127% more likely to use the site as their main resource for interacting with a health care organization.

Results are based on an analysis of 100,000 surveys conducted from August to September 2011.

Source and full article: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/

Health information: a video for Portuguese speakers

2011-11-26T07:35:00.002-05:00

To disseminate the health information field for Portuguese speakers, we created a video named Health Information (Informacao e saude), available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rBxBxE03Hs

Please, disseminate this video for countries and people that speak Portuguese.

Thank you!

Reference: Galvao, M.C.B. Informação em saúde. Ribeirão Preto : Universidade de São Paulo, 2011. Disponível em: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rBxBxE03Hs

Health information: disseminating this idea for Portuguese speakers

2011-11-26T07:22:00.002-05:00

To disseminate the health information field for Portuguese speakers, we started in November 2011 the journalistic column Health and Information. The first text of serie is The Information Professional and the Patient, available at

http://www.ofaj.com.br/colunas_conteudo.php?cod=639

Please, disseminate this projet for countries and people that speak Portuguese.

Thank you!

Reference: Galvao, M.C.B. O profissional da informação e o paciente. 10 de novembro de 2011. In: Almeida Junior, O.F. Infohome [Internet]. Marília: OFAJ, 2011. Disponível em: http://www.ofaj.com.br/colunas_conteudo.php?cod=639

IEEE Workshop on Biometric Measurements and Systems for Security and Medical Applications

2011-11-25T20:24:00.001-05:00

What: IEEE Workshop on Biometric Measurements and Systems for Security and Medical Applications
Where: Salerno, Italy
When: 14 September 2012
Submission deadline: 15 April 2012 (abstracts)

The use of biometric measurements is acquiring paramount importance in many security and medical applications, not only from the theoretical point of view but also from the industrial perspective and practice. This workshop aims to present and discuss various technological, methodological and application issues in these areas, especially concerning, but not limited to, advanced sensors, signal/image processing techniques, patter recognition approaches, systems and applications.
Papers are solicited on all aspects of biometric theory and practice in biometric-based measurements and systems, specifically for security and medical applications.

Source and details: http://bioms2012.dti.unimi.it/

Oxford Levels of Evidence: new version 2011

2011-11-24T10:49:00.005-05:00

"(...) Hierarchies of evidence have been somewhat inflexibly used, and criticised, for some decades. The CEBM "levels of evidence" were first produced in 1998 forEvidence-Based On Call to make the process of finding appropriate evidence feasible and its results explicit. We have revised the "levels" in light of new concepts and data, and we would like to hear your feedback. The "levels" are essentially a heuristic, or short-cut to finding the likely best evidence. While ideally we should look at "all the evidence" that might help to answer a question, doing so is often impractical or unfeasible. For example, suppose for a journal club next week you needed to look at the evidence for the use of warfarin in atrial fibrillation. A PubMed search of the words "atrial fibrillation AND warfarin" yields thousands of hits. As you will not have time to read them all, you will need some guidance as to which articles might be the most valid and useful for purpose. (...)"

Source: http://www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=5513

Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (short GRADE) Working Group

2011-11-24T09:57:00.003-05:00

"(...) The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (short GRADE) Working Group began in the year 2000 as an informal collaboration of people with an interest in addressing the shortcomings of present grading systems in health care. The working group has developed a common, sensible and transparent approach to grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. Many international organizations have provided input into the development of the approach and have started using it."

"(...) Judgments about evidence and recommendations in healthcare are complex. For example, those making recommendations must decide between recommending selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) and tricyclics for the treatment of moderate depression must agree on which outcomes to consider, which evidence to include for each
outcome, how to assess the quality of that evidence, and how to determine if SSRI's do more good than harm compared with tricyclics.

Because resources are always limited and money that is allocated to treating depression cannot be spent on other worthwhile interventions, they may also need to decide whether any incremental health benefits are worth the additional costs. Systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare provide essential, but not sufficient information for making well informed decisions.

Reviewers and people who use reviews draw conclusions about the quality of the evidence, either implicitly or explicitly. Such judgments guide subsequent decisions. For example, clinical actions are likely to differ depending on whether one concludes that the evidence that warfarin reduces the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation is convincing (high quality) or that it is unconvincing (low quality).

Similarly, practice guidelines and people who use them draw conclusions about the strength of recommendations, either implicitly or explicitly. Using the same example, a guideline that recommends that patients with atrial fibrillation should be treated may suggest that all patients definitely should be treated or that patients should probably be treated, implying that treatment may not be warranted in all patients.

A systematic and explicit approach to making judgments such as these can help to prevent errors, facilitate critical appraisal of these judgments, and can help to improve communication of this information.

Since the 1970's a growing number of organizations have employed various systems to grade the quality (level) of evidence and the strength of recommendations. Unfortunately, different organizations use different systems to grade evidence and recommendations. The same evidence and recommendation could be graded as "II-2, B", "C+, 1", or "strong evidence, strongly recommended" depending on which system is used. This is confusing and impedes effective communication. (...)"

Sources:
http://www.gradeworkinggroup.org/index.htm
http://www.gradeworkinggroup.org/publications/index.htm

Uses of Levels of Evidence and Grades of Recommendations by Gordon Guyatt

2011-11-24T09:46:00.003-05:00

This is a serie with 12 videos reporting a lecture that Gordon Guyatt gave at McMaster University on the related topic of guidelines.

Reference: Guyatt, G. The GRADE approach: part 1 of 12. McMaster University.

Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6MlqC7157E

NHMRC Levels of Evidence and Grades for Recommendations for Developers of Guidelines

2011-11-24T09:28:00.005-05:00

"(...) In 1999 the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in Australia released a suite of handbooks to support organisations involved in the development of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/cp65syn.htm). Reflecting the general impetus of the previous decade, these handbooks focused predominantly on assessing the clinical evidence for interventions. As a consequence, the handbooks present 'levels of evidence' appropriate mainly for intervention studies. However, feedback from guideline developers received by the NHMRC indicated that the levels of evidence used by the NHMRC for intervention studies have been found to be restrictive. This was particularly so where the areas of study do not lend themselves to research designs appropriate to intervention studies (i.e. randomised controlled trials).This paper presents a new approach to grading evidence recommendations, which should be relevant to any clinical guideline (not just those dealing with interventions).This process of developing and grading evidence recommendations has received robust scrutiny and refinement through two public consultation phases and formal pilot-testing has been conducted across a range of guideline development projects. (...)

Reference: Australian Government. (2009). NHMRC levels of evidence and grades for recommendations for developers of guidelines.

Available at: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/file/guidelines/evidence_statement_form.pdf

Levels of Evidence and Grade of Recommendation: Taxonomy

2011-11-24T09:11:00.004-05:00

"A large number of taxonomies are used to rate the quality of an individual study and the strength of a recommendation based on a body of evidence. We have developed a new grad- ing scale that will be used by several family medicine and primary care journals (required or optional), with the goal of allowing readers to learn one taxonomy that will apply to many sources of evidence. Our scale is called the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy. It addresses the quality, quantity, and consistency of evidence and allows authors to rate individual stud- ies or bodies of evidence. The taxonomy is built around the information mastery framework, which emphasizes the use of patient-oriented outcomes that measure changes in morbidity or mortality. An A-level recommendation is based on consistent and good-quality patient-oriented evidence; a B-level recommendation is based on inconsistent or limited-quality patient-oriented evidence; and a C-level recommendation is based on consensus, usual practice, opinion, disease- oriented evidence, or case series for studies of diagnosis, treatment, prevention, or screening. Levels of evidence from 1 to 3 for individual studies also are defined. We hope that consistent use of this taxonomy will improve the ability of authors and readers to communicate about the translation of research into practice. (...)"

Reference: Ebell, M. H., Siwek, J., Weiss, B. D., Woolf, S. H., Susman, J., Ewigman, B., & Bowman, M. (2004). Strength of recommendation taxonomy (SORT): a patient-centered approach to grading evidence in the medical literature. The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice / American Board of Family Practice, 17(1), 59-67.

Available at: http://www.aafp.org/afp/2004/0201/p548.html

Electronic health records are inevitable, experts say

2011-11-23T18:28:00.001-05:00

Electronic health records will become the norm, sooner than later, experts said at a summit hosted Friday by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

The bottom line, said many of the speakers at ONC's Grantee and Stakeholder Summit, is that consumers are demanding EHRs. The government is helping with adoption, but this is not nearly as influential as the healthcare consumer's pressure on providers.

National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD, said the patient is not just "a ticket holder crammed into economy."

"The patient is the copilot" with his or her healthcare provider, Mostashari said. "Increasingly, we'll hear patients, consumers, people expecting more out of their interactions with others. So we're going to see all of the pieces come together for this."

Source and full article: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/

Preparing the information professional for the health context: the clinical research case

2011-11-20T12:35:00.004-05:00

The goal of this work is to explain the informational aspects related to clinical research and to observe the potential positions for information professionals. This is an exploratory literature review. A total of 113 articles were retrieved of which 57 were analyzed. Clinical research is expanding and offering new job opportunities, generating economic growth and development to the pharmaceutical industry and academia. The performance of specialized professionals who can manage information flows in a specific area of knowledge has a relevance to both information science and clinical research. For clinical research, the role of specialists in information retrieval, synthesis and representation is needed to support clinical practice. For Information Science, the alliance between these knowledge areas opens a new field of activity in a developing market, which fosters knowledge and needs information professionals" skills.

Reference:

Faustino, G.G.; Galvao, M.C.B. Formação do profissional da informação no contexto da saúde: o caso da pesquisa clínica. Revista EDICIC, v.1, n.3, p.143-163, Jul./Sep. 2011.

Available at: <http://www.edicic.org/revista/>

International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare

2011-11-19T21:19:00.001-05:00

What: International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare
Where: Paris, France
When: 17-20 April, 2012

Our theme for 2012 continues to build upon previous Forums' commitment to excellent, safe and affordable healthcare. Our 9 programme streams capture and address the current key international priorities of the quality improvement movement. All streams highlight the relationship between improving quality and safety and financial costs and benefits.

Streams
Click on the links below to view the timetable by streams:
1.    Safe and reliable care
2.    Better value and cost
3.    Clinical improvement
4.    Transformational change
5.    Workforce and culture
6.    Patient engagement
7.    Leadership
8.    Primary care
9.    Technology for improvement
We are excited to also present specific content aimed at people working in the following settings:
•    Global and public health
•    Primary and community care
•    Hospital management and frontline clinicians
•    Executive roles such as Directors and CEOs
•    Long-term and chronic care

Source and further information: http://internationalforum.bmj.com/2012-forum