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Biomedical subjects

Marc M Triola

Publications and source records attributed to Marc M Triola.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Brief report: Failure of an electronic medical record tool to improve pain assessment documentation.

OBJECTIVE: To comply with pain management standards, Bellevue Hospital in New York City implemented a mandatory computerized pain assessment screen (PAS) in its electronic medical record (EMR) system for every outpatient encounter. We assessed provider acceptance of the instrument and examined whether the intervention led to increased documentation of pain-related diagnoses or inquiries. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey; a pre- and posthistorically controlled observational study. SUBJECTS AND MEASUREMENTS: The utility of the computerized tool to medicine housestaff and attendings was assessed by an anonymous survey. We conducted an electronic chart review comparing all adult primary care patient encounters over a 2-day period 6 months prior to implementation of the PAS and on 2 days 6 months after its implementation. RESULTS: Forty-seven percent of survey respondents felt that the computerized assessment tool was "somewhat difficult" or "very difficult" to use. The majority of respondents (79%) felt the tool did not change their pain assessment practice. Of 265 preintervention patients and 364 postintervention patients seen in the clinic, 42% and 37% had pain-related diagnoses, respectively (P=.29). Pain inquiry by the physician was noted for 49% of preintervention patients and 44% of the postintervention patients (P=.26). In 55% of postintervention encounters, there was discordance between the pain documentation using the PAS tool and the free text section of the medical note. CONCLUSION: A mandatory computerized pain assessment tool did not lead to an increase in pain-related diagnoses and may have hindered the documentation of pain assessment because of the perceived burden of using the application.

Adult↗

The Medical Reserve Corps. an opportunity for dentists to serve.

The response to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, relied on local resources and personnel. Aware of how important their contribution could be, many people are now inspired to volunteer during times of crisis. The Medical Reserve Corps is a community-based volunteer network of health professionals that trains to respond to large-scale emergencies.

Civil Defense↗

Proposed educational objectives for hospital-based dentists during catastrophic events and disaster response.

The purpose of this project was to define education and training requirements for hospital-based dentists to efficiently and meaningfully participate in a hospital disaster response. Eight dental faculty with hospital-based training and/or military command and CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive) expertise were recruited as an expert panel. A consensus set of recommended educational objectives for hospital-based dentists was established using the following process: 1) identify assumptions supported by all expert panelists, 2) determine current advanced dental educational training requirements, and 3) conduct additional training and literature review by various panelists and discussions with other content and systems experts. Using this three-step process, educational objectives that the development group believed necessary for hospital-based dentists to be effective in treatment or management roles in times of a catastrophic event were established. These educational objectives are categorized into five thematic areas: 1) disaster systems, 2) triage/medical assessment, 3) blast and burn injuries, 4) chemical agents, and 5) biological agents. Creation of training programs to help dentists acquire these educational objectives would benefit hospital-based dental training programs and strengthen hospital surge manpower needs. The proposed educational objectives are designed to stimulate discussion and debate among dental, medical, and public health professionals about the roles of dentists in meeting hospital surge manpower needs.

Bioterrorism↗

Technology induced error and usability: the relationship between usability problems and prescription errors when using a handheld application.

This paper describes an innovative approach to the evaluation of a handheld prescription writing application. Participants (10 physicians) were asked to perform a series of tasks involving entering prescriptions into the application from a medication list. The study procedure involved the collection of data consisting of transcripts of the subjects who were asked to "think aloud" while interacting with the prescription writing program to enter medications. All user interactions with the device were video and audio recorded. Analysis of the protocols was conducted in two phases: (1) usability problems were identified from coding of the transcripts and video data, (2) actual errors in entering prescription data were also identified. The results indicated that there were a variety of usability problems, with most related to interface design issues. In examining the relationship between usability problems and errors, it was found that certain types of usability problems were closely associated with the occurrence of specific types of errors in prescription of medications. Implications for identifying and predicting technology-induced error are discussed in the context of improving the safety of health care information systems.

Adult↗

Meeting requirements and changing culture. The development of a web-based clinical skills evaluation system.

The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the Residency Review Committee require a competency-based, accessible evaluation system. The paper system at our institution did not meet these demands and suffered from low compliance. A diverse committee of internal medicine faculty, program directors, and house staff designed a new clinical evaluation strategy based on ACGME competencies and utilizing a modular web-based system called ResEval. ResEval more effectively met requirements and provided useful data for program and curriculum development. The system is paperless, allows for evaluations at any time, and produces customized evaluation reports, dramatically improving our ability to analyze evaluation data. The use of this novel system and the inclusion of a robust technology infrastructure, repeated training and e-mail reminders, and program leadership commitment resulted in an increase in clinical skills evaluations performed and a rapid change in the workflow and culture of evaluation at our residency program.

Clinical Competence↗

Computer simulation of pathogen transmission in the medical intensive care unit: a comparison of two probabilistic methods.

The quantitative evaluation of pathogen transmission in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) is difficult given the small number of patients and the complexity and severity of illness. We sought to evaluate the suitability of a probabilistic computer model of our MICU, with which we could rapidly simulate infection control measures and other clinical interventions that would be impossible to perform in the real clinical setting

Computer Simulation↗

Enhancing medical and public health capabilities during times of crisis.

Terrorist attacks and other catastrophic events will create demands that severely challenge the capacity of the medical/public health system. To meet the surge, a cadre of professionals should be trained to operate around the nucleus of medical/public health officials. At New York University, an inter-institutional team is considering specific roles for and an approach to training dentists to enable these health care professionals to supplement medical/public surge needs based upon informatics systems that provide critical information.

Delivery of Health Care↗

An email alert system for internal medicine physicians.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of an email-based alerting system for internal medicine house staff and faculty in geographically dispersed locales. Responses to a test alert email message were used to quantify the rapidity by which physicians read the message, and to define subgroups in which this communication modality proved most successful. The results of this study are being used to improve our preparedness for emergencies.

Academic Medical Centers↗