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Biomedical subjects

E Vauramo

Publications and source records attributed to E Vauramo.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

User requirements for information systems in nuclear medicine.

In the field of COST cooperation (COST = European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research) a project B2 for Quality Assurance in Nuclear Medicine Software has been established. In a memorandum of understanding setting up this project, user requirements were to be defined for the hardware and software used for data acquisition, processing and presentation. A subgroup of the management committee of COST B2 were interested in the Advanced Informatics in Medicine, AIM, task T-734 'Quality Assurance of Medical Software', and the AIM Project 'A 1034', coordinated by Dr K. Britton, was initiated. The initial drafts of this document were written in Helsinki during 1988-1990, and submitted for comment by the members of the management committee of COST B2. These comments were integrated in the text and this document was finalized by the UK group so as to make it available for international discussion. It is anticipated that, after appropriate international discussion, these User Requirements for Information Systems in Nuclear Medicine will be adopted by the management committee of COST B2 as a COST document. Towards these ends, a working group chaired by Dr Britton, including the British and Finnish teams and Ulrich Noelpp from Switzerland, was appointed by the management committee of COST B2 in April 1990. While writing it we have had the pleasure of working with referees from different European hospitals in many countries. We are happy to thank all of them for their valuable contributions.

Europe

The design of the detector and collimators for a hybrid scanner.

The hybrid scanner is a scanning device in which a long crystal with two or more photomultiplier (PM) tubes acts as a gamma camera along the crystal axis; the device acts as a linear scanner in a direction perpendicular to the crystal axis. A detailed analysis of the intrinsic resolution and uniformity is given for a two-PM-tube hybrid scanner (with one PM tube at each end) and the expressions derived should help the designer to choose the best crystal system. Collimation theory is discussed for the general hybrid scanner. Expressions and graphs are given to help in the design of a collimator with the best balance between the conflicting requirements of resolution, sensitivity, depth independence and freedom from artifacts (collimator holes may be seen in the image at high energy). Examples of practical collimators are given for energies of 80-140,364,511,662 and 840 keV.

Mathematics

Coordinate-based mapping--a new method in health services research.

The Finnish national hospital discharge registers from 1985 and 1988 have been analysed by the National Board of Health. Results are provided for all the 21 Finnish hospital districts and central communal organizations. The small area variation phenomenon in hospital utilization cannot be explained by demographic or epidemiological factors. Rather, the variations seem to be largely due to organizational factors. The project aims to develop a data processing system capable of handling information on one million patients rapidly and economically, and show the results in an intelligible form as a table with standard headers or as a map illustration. Maps are superior to traditional statistical tables in demonstrating regional variations in health care utilization and in mortality. Maps based on small administrative units are useful for many purposes. These maps are, however, relatively 'noisy' due to substantial random variation. Coordinate-based mapping is a method to overcome some of these difficulties. It is based on linking hospital discharge and mortality data with exact address data. The method allows mapping independent of administrative boundaries. Several examples of coordinate-based maps are given. The method is used in Finland for annual analysis of hospital use.

Cause of Death