XML, Ontologies, and Their Clinical Applications.

The development of information technology has resulted in its penetration into every area of clinical research. Various clinical systems have been developed, which produce increasing volumes of clinical data. However, saving, exchanging, querying, and exploiting these data are challenging issues. The development of Extensible Markup Language (XML) has allowed the generation of flexible information formats to facilitate the electronic sharing of structured data via networks, and it has been used widely for clinical data processing. In particular, XML is very useful in the fields of data standardization, data exchange, and data integration. Moreover, ontologies have been attracting increased attention in various clinical fields in recent years. An ontology is the basic level of a knowledge representation scheme, and various ontology repositories have been developed, such as Gene Ontology and BioPortal. The creation of these standardized repositories greatly facilitates clinical research in related fields. In this chapter, we discuss the basic concepts of XML and ontologies, as well as their clinical applications.

Medical devices; Medical Device Data Systems. Final rule.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on its own initiative, is issuing a final rule to reclassify Medical Device Data Systems (MDDSs) from class III (premarket approval) into class I (general controls). MDDS devices are intended to transfer, store, convert from one format to another according to preset specifications, or display medical device data. MDDSs perform all intended functions without controlling or altering the function or parameters of any connected medical devices. An MDDS is not intended to be used in connection with active patient monitoring. FDA is exempting MDDSs from the premarket notification requirements.

IT proposals competing for attention? Learn how to prioritize.

There will always be more demand for IT projects than an organization can afford or manage.

Status of anatomic pathology data management systems.

Criteria are presented for selecting and evaluating anatomic pathology computer systems, along with a definition of critical performance areas. Also included are a review of factors in computer technology and coding of diagnoses that are leading to increasing use of computers in anatomic pathology and a list of current systems, some of which are available commercially. A suggested outline of pathologists' data management requirements to facilitate communication with computer marketing personnel and systems developers, and a classification of anatomic pathology data management systems are also presented.

Computerized financial systems in the ambulatory care marketplace.

In summary, there are literally hundreds of vendor financial system product offerings that combine a confusing array of application areas, hardware features, and data processing approaches to support the medical marketplace. Ambulatory health care managers will make better decisions regarding investments in computerized financial information systems by objectively comparing the many diverse features and functions of various systems, identifying the desirable hardware capabilities needed to effectively support the systems, and understanding the differences between data processing approaches.

DataFoundry: information management for scientific data.

Data warehouses and data marts have been successfully applied to a multitude of commercial business applications. They have proven to be invaluable tools by integrating information from distributed, heterogeneous sources and summarizing this data for use throughout the enterprise. Although the need for information dissemination is as vital in science as in business, working warehouses in this community are scarce because traditional warehousing techniques do not transfer to scientific environments. There are two primary reasons for this difficulty. First, schema integration is more difficult for scientific databases than for business sources, because of the complexity of the concepts and the associated relationships. While this difference has not yet been fully explored, it is an important consideration when determining how to integrate autonomous sources. Second, scientific data sources have highly dynamic data representations (schemata). When a data source participating in a warehouse changes its schema, both the mediator transferring data to the warehouse and the warehouse itself need to be updated to reflect these modifications. The cost of repeatedly performing these updates in a traditional warehouse, as is required in a dynamic environment, is prohibitive. This paper discusses these issues within the context of the DataFoundry project, an ongoing research effort at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DataFoundry utilizes a unique integration strategy to identify corresponding instances while maintaining differences between data from different sources, and a novel architecture and an extensive meta-data infrastructure, which reduce the cost of maintaining a warehouse.

SAPPHIRE: scenarios, architecture, and process.

General Medical Practice (GMP) information systems within the UK are becoming more sophisticated and more complex and are widely available from numerous suppliers. Although such systems are viewed as being important, they are problematic in terms of interpreting and assessing their usefulness, and their impact upon work and the organisation (G. Walsham, Interpreting Information Systems in Organizations (Wiley, Chichester, 1993)). In particular, it is difficult for any who have an interest in these systems to apply existing technical specifications to a specific situation, and to match individual requirements with the supplier's products. The research project SAPPHIRE seeks to inform the decision making of stakeholders, e.g. GPs, facilitators and suppliers, with respect to procurement, update, design and supply of GMP systems by developing the means of evaluating such systems, and by facilitating an accreditation process through that evaluation. This extended paper introduces the multi-faceted approach, scenarios, architecture and process of SAPPHIRE.

Healthcare information systems: analysis of healthcare software.

The need to manage medical information in healthcare delivery requires that information technology be optimized in diagnosing disease; in planning and administering treatment; and in monitoring patient outcomes, services, and costs. The goals of this article are twofold: (1) to identify healthcare-specific software that addresses specific parameters set forth by the World Health Organization (WHO) for healthcare information systems and (2) to identify issues that managers should keep in mind when choosing an integrated information systems software package. For our analysis, we gathered, through Internet research, information about more than 400 software products from more than 200 companies.

Resource guide 2004. Blood glucose. Monitors and data management systems.

Before you buy a blood glucose monitor (also known as a blood glucose meter), check with your doctor and diabetes educator. Make sure the one you choose is well suited to your particular needs. You might want to have one at home and one for use at school or the office.

Bibliometría e indicadores de actividad científica (VII). Indica-dores cienciométricos en Web of Science. Funciones «Analyze results» y «Create citation report» / Bibliometrics and indicators of scientific activity (VII). Scientometrics indicators in Web of Science. Functions «Analyze results» and «Create citation report»

En este trabajo se presenta la Colección Principal de Web of Science y, más concretamente, el Science Citation Index-Expanded, como base de datos bibliográfica para el cálculo de indicadores de actividad científica. Se lleva a cabo un análisis de las publicaciones del área de pediatría a través de la categoría Pediatrics, exponiendo las distintas opciones de búsqueda, así como la visualización de los resultados obtenidos. Entre las funciones más destacadas de la Colección Principal de Web of Science se detalla el «Análisis de resultados», adecuado para el cálculo de indicadores de producción científica, y la función «Crear un informe de citas», relacionada con los indicadores de citación e impacto (AU)

This paper presents the Web of Science Core Collection and more particularly the Science Citation Index-Expanded as a bibliographic database to obtain bibliometric indicators of scientific activity. An analysis of pediatric publications through Pediatrics cate-gory is performed explaining the different search options which are available in the database as well as a detailed visualization of the possible options that can be made with the results. Among the main functions offered by the Web of Science Core Collection, the «Analyze results» function is a useful tool for the calculation of scientific production indicators, and the function «Create citation report» which is related to citation impact based indicators (AU)

Unnotified deaths and hospital admissions for tuberculosis in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze underreporting of deaths and hospital admissions from tuberculosis to the Information System for Notifiable Diseases (SINAN). METHODS: Cases with tuberculosis as basic or associated cause of death were selected from the Brazilian Mortality Information System (SIM) and hospital admissions for tuberculosis as main or secondary cause from the Hospital Information System of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SIH-SUS), for residents in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro in 2004. Probabilistic record linkage was carried out between the SIM and SIH-SUS databases and the SINAN for the years 2002 to 2004. RESULTS: Out of the 542 deaths from tuberculosis in the period, 234 (43.2%) were not registered in the SINAN for the two previous years. As for the 1,079 admissions, 238 (22.1%) failed to be notified. Seventy-one deaths were related to these admissions: 47 were registered out of the SIH-SUS by death, 24 occurred after discharge and seven remained unnotified in the SINAN. The elderly were 1.6 times (95%CI 1.074;2.516) less likely to be notified than younger patients, and those with at least a college education were 3.6 times (95%CI 1.384;11.022) less likely to be notified than those with no formal education. Patients under 15 were 4.8 times (95%CI 2.757;8.452) less likely to be notified than those aged between 15 and 59 years. Some regional health administration divisions showed a percentage of unnotified deaths of over 50% and this percentage ranged from 37.8% to 12.7% for hospital admissions. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest problems in the detection of cases and point to obstacles in adequate and timely treatment, as well as to quality flaws in the information system, with differences among regions in the municipality.