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Biomedical subjects

G Vassilacopoulos

Publications and source records attributed to G Vassilacopoulos.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Developing a virtual patient record using XML and web-based workflow technologies.

Virtual patient records (VPR) provide a means for integrated access to patient information that may be scattered around different healthcare settings. Within the boundaries of a health district providing all levels of care, this concept can be implemented in a corporate Intranet environment to support longitudinal patient care activities across the participating healthcare providers. In this context, a VPR implementation enables autonomous healthcare providers to operate in a cooperative working environment and apply continuity of care. Workflow systems bring this collaboration and cooperation into effect by automatically routing the medical information needed by authorized actors in a healthcare process. This paper presents a VPR framework that allows integrating geographically dispersed medical information within a health district and enhancing collaboration and coordination of authorized workgroups by means of a web-based workflow system. An implementation of the proposed framework is also presented.

Delivery of Health Care, Integrated↗

Specifying workflow process requirements for an emergency medical service.

Recent trends in healthcare delivery have led to a gradual shift in the conceptualisation of healthcare information systems towards supporting healthcare processes in a more direct way. The move towards integrated and managed care, which requires designing healthcare processes around patient needs and incorporating efficiency considerations has led to an increased interest in process-oriented healthcare information systems based on workflow technology. This means to actively deliver the tasks to be performed to the right persons at the right time with the necessary information and the application functions needed. Moreover, workflow technology promotes a component-oriented development whereby the process logic is separated from application logic. This paper presents an approach to capturing process logic requirements for healthcare workflow systems with a view to design a system that is easily adjustable to process changes and to evolving organizational structures at a reasonable cost.

Efficiency, Organizational↗

A search engine for virtual patient records.

Virtual patient records provide a means for integrated access to patient information that may be scattered around different healthcare settings. Within the boundaries of a health district providing all levels of care, this concept can be implemented in an Intranet environment to support longitudinal patient care activities across the participating healthcare providers. Since medical information is stored on multiple Intranet sites in various forms (e.g. codified data, transcribed documents, and images), a suite of appropriate tools is needed to enable access to such information in combined form. In most cases, however, access to medical information should be restricted to authorized users. To serve this purpose, a prototype search engine incorporating an authorization and access control functionality has been developed and presented in this paper. The system is based on the signature file access method and an experimental implementation written in JAVA is also described.

Database Management Systems↗

A workflow-based approach to virtual patient record security.

Virtual patient records provide a means for integrated access to patient information that may be scattered around different healthcare organizations (or hospital departments). As Intranets provide, among others, secure access to medical information, they constitute an appropriate technological infrastructure for a virtual patient record implementation. In such cases, a security policy can be enforced by combining the security features of the Intranet with the security features of the intraorganizational systems. However, when a workflow system is implemented to automate interorganizational healthcare processes, an additional security layer is needed. An authorization architecture that serves this purpose is presented in this paper.

Computer Communication Networks↗

A process model basis for evolving hospital information systems.

Hospitals often invest significant resources in the development of large and complex information systems that must be modified and extended to respond to changing requirements and to exploit the capabilities offered by modern technologies. A disciplined approach of managing the evolution of hospital information systems is then required so that to meet the increasing demands for effective and efficient use of scarce resources. This paper takes a process oriented view of the hospital and presents an approach based on hospital process modeling which aims at assessing the current status of computer support within a hospital and at identifying new opportunities for automation. The approach is illustrated by an example taken from a major Greek hospital.

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗

Participative HIS development: an approach and a case study.

User participation in HIS development is considered essential for achieving systems implementation success. Realizing a participative HIS development, where users are full members of the development team, requires not only choosing an appropriate methodology but also organizing the participation process in a way that is tailored to the particular situation in order to achieve the desired results. A general approach to this problem is presented in this paper. An application of the approach to the particular context of a Greek hospital is described.

Attitude to Computers↗

Requirements specification for a harmonized medical device vigilance information exchange system.

Effective and efficient medical device vigilance information exchange requires addressing several organizational and technical issues in a harmonized way. This paper describes a conceptual data model that has been derived within the scope of the EUROMEDIES project and accepted by project participants as a meaningful representation of data requirements on medical device vigilance. A possible scenario of a distributed implementation of the model is also discussed.

Computer Systems↗

Allocating doctors to shifts in an accident and emergency department.

A method is proposed for allocating doctors to weekly shifts in an accident and emergency department of a hospital. Two models, solved by dynamic programming, are used. The first finds the optimal solution to the problem of allocating doctors per hour of the week proportionally to the corresponding patient arrival-rate; and the second uses this solution to smooth out the hourly discrepancies in the number of doctors within a shift. The solution is then assessed by computer simulation.

Computers↗

A front end authorization mechanism for hospital information systems.

Authorization is an important functionality that every hospital information system (HIS) should provide. An authorization mechanism permits information to be accessed only by properly authorized users. Authorization models and mechanisms have been widely investigated within the framework of HISs. However, their implementation into existing systems, that do not any longer meet increased authorization requirements, requires a major redesign effort. This paper describes a front end authorization mechanism that has been developed in an attempt to enhance the security features of an existing HIS without extensive modifications to the system structure.

Authorship↗

EDI system definition for a European medical device vigilance system.

EDI is expected to be the dominant form of business communication between organizations moving to the Electronic Commerce era of 2000. The healthcare sector is already using EDI in the hospital supply function as well as in the clinical area and the reimbursement process. In this paper, we examine the use of EDI in the healthcare administration sector and more specifically its application to the Medical Device Vigilance System. Firstly, the potential of this approach is examined, followed by the definition of the EDI System Reference Model and the specification of the required system architecture. Each of the architecture's components are then explained in more detail, followed by the most important implementation options relating to them.

Computer Communication Networks↗