D L Pitty | PubMed Health

PubMed1992

Cardiac stimulator for the study of refractory period control using current pulses of programmable duration and shape.

A programmable current stimulator has been developed that allows unipolar current pulses of complex shape, long duration and high current to be generated. The stimulator conforms to the safety requirements for devices connected directly to the heart. It incorporates additional safety features to prevent unintended current being delivered, even under fault conditions. The stimulator has been used to investigate the effects of long duration current pulses on the refractory period of cardiac tissue. The flexibility of the device suggests that it may well have uses in other fields of electrophysiology.

Electric Stimulation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Developing decision support systems: a change in emphasis.

Against a backdrop of many demonstrably proficient expert systems that are not routinely used, and a user community that is skeptical of the benefits of using such technology in healthcare, the AIM funded Dilemma project is attempting to introduce decision support technology into shared care environments within scenarios from the specialties of oncology and cardiology. This paper outlines the experiences of one work-package of the Dilemma project which is concerned with the development of applications with a decision support component for use in shared care of coronary artery disease patients. We suggest reasons why expert systems have failed to gain acceptance in the past, and conclude that a shift in emphasis from building expert systems to building clinically useful applications that have an expert system component may improve the chances of acceptance of this technology in the future.

Coronary Disease↗