Biomedical subjects

M Yearworth

Publications and source records attributed to M Yearworth.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Workflow management for multimedia information in clinical laboratories.

Workflow management is a serious concern in any organisation and a clinical laboratory is a particularly good example of where the information system (LIS) needs to be well integrated with the physical system comprising the doctors, technicians and the machines necessary to analyse and report on samples. It is the points of synchronisation between events and decision making in the outside world and control flow inside the information system that constitute the problem domain of workflow management. We propose an extension to the workflow management solution described in the OpenLabs architecture specification in which the emphasis is moved away from an essentially message orientated workflow system to one where the system may reasonably expect to deal with data that includes many different types of information such as images, diagrams, graphs and sound. Our key point is extensibility; the proposed extension of the OpenLabs architecture is able to deal with new data types without significant modification of the workflow management software. Our approach has been based on using some of the desirable features of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) found in the World Wide Web (WWW) and the use of industry standard object technology based on the Object Management Group's (OMG) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA).

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗

PubMed1996

Specifying an open clinical laboratory information system.

This paper presents an overview of the architectural infrastructure in which existing laboratory information systems can be made to interoperate with additional modules offering a range of advanced clinical laboratory functionalities. The infrastructure is based on an open distributed computing platform, and its specification is described using the open distributed processing reference model.

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗

PubMed1996

Computational viewpoint of the OpenLabs architecture.

The computational viewpoint of the OpenLabs architecture specification concentrates on the definition of the functional interfaces between the logical modules that make up the clinical laboratory as defined in the enterprise and information viewpoints. A method is presented which transforms the information models into a specification written in Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1). It is then shown how the specification can be translated into an Interface Definition Language (IDL) of a 'middleware' product which can then be compiled for implementation on a distributed system.

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗

PubMed1996

Managing the operation of open distributed laboratory information systems.

This paper examines how the concepts and designs of workflow management systems and distributed systems management can be integrated and customized to manage open laboratory computing services. The paper outlines the objectives of managing laboratory computing services and identifies techniques and designs which facilitate this management. The paper also outlines the implementation of an open laboratory service management system.

Clinical Laboratory Information Systems↗

PubMed1993

Interpretative reporting and alarming based on laboratory data.

The utilisation of laboratory services for patient diagnosis and management involves many steps with both clinical and laboratory components. The clinical components include the decision to order a test, interpretation of the test results and actions taken on the basis of the results. The laboratory components on the other hand include receipt of the request, specimen collection, preparation and analysis, result entry, test result validation and verification and reporting of the results. In this paper, which is part of the OpenLabs project, we concentrate on the post-analytical applications which include interpretation and reporting of the laboratory results to the users in primary care and in high dependency care units. The final objective of the work described is to develop generic modules which can be integrated both with an Open laboratory information system architecture and existing laboratory information processing environment.

Acid-Base Imbalance↗

PubMed1993

Artificial neural networks in diagnosis of thyroid function from in vitro laboratory tests.

We studied the potential benefit of using artificial neural networks (ANNs) for the diagnosis of thyroid function. We examined two types of ANN architecture and assessed their robustness in the face of diagnostic noise. The thyroid function data we used had previously been studied by multivariate statistical methods and a variety of pattern-recognition techniques. The total data set comprised 392 cases that had been classified according to both thyroid function and 19 clinical categories. All cases had a complete set of results of six laboratory tests (total thyroxine, free thyroxine, triiodothyronine, triiodothyronine uptake test, thyrotropin, and thyroxine-binding globulin). This data set was divided into subsets used for training the networks and for testing their performance; the test subsets contained various proportions of cases with diagnostic noise to mimic real-life diagnostic situations. The networks studied were a multilayer perceptron trained by back-propagation, and a learning vector quantization network. The training data subsets were selected according to two strategies: either training data based on cases with extreme values for the laboratory tests with randomly selected nonextreme cases added, or training cases from very pure functional groups. Both network architectures were efficient irrespective of the type of training data. The correct allocation of cases in test data subsets was 96.4-99.7% when extreme values were used for training and 92.7-98.8% when only pure cases were used.

Humans↗