Biomedical subjects
Marianna Diomidus
Publications and source records attributed to Marianna Diomidus.
Epidemiological study designs.
This chapter illustrates the study designs most frequently encountered in the medical literature. In medical research, either subjects are observed or experiments are undertaken. Experiments involving humans are called trials. Experimental studies may also use animals and tissue, although we did not discuss them as a separate category; the comments pertaining to clinical trials are relevant to animal and tissue studies as well. Each type of study discussed has advantages and disadvantages. Randomized, controlled clinical trials are the most powerful designs possible in medical research, but they are often expensive and time-consuming. Well-designed observational studies can provide useful insights on disease causation, even though they do not constitute proof of causes. Cohort studies are best for studying the natural progression of disease or risk factors for disease; case-control studies are much quicker and less expensive. Cross-sectional studies provide a snapshot of a disease or condition at one time, and we must be cautious in inferring disease progression from them. Surveys, if properly done. are useful in obtaining current opinions and practices. Case-series studies should be used only to raise questions for further research.
Multimedia technologies in education.
In general multimedia is the combination of visual and audio representations. These representations could include elements of texts, graphic arts, sound, animation, and video. However, multimedia is restricted in such systems where information is digitalized and is processed by a computer. Interactive multimedia and hypermedia consist of multimedia applications that the user has more active role. Education is perhaps the most useful destination for multimedia and the place where multimedia has the most effective applications, as it enriches the learning process. Multimedia both in nursing education and in medical informatics education has several applications as well. A multimedia project can be developed even as a "stand alone" application (on CD-ROM), or on World Wide Web pages on Internet. However several technical constraints exist for developing multimedia applications on Internet. For developing multimedia projects we need hardware and software, talent and skill. The software requirements for multimedia development consist of one or more authoring systems and various editing applications for text, images, sounds and video. In this chapter different software tools for creating multimedia applications are presented. In the last part of this chapter, two examples of multimedia educational training programs are discussed. Both are "stand alone" applications (CD-ROMs). The first, examines several aspects of the electronic patient record by using videos, audio descriptions, lectures and glossary, while the second one presents several topics regarding epidemiology and epidemiological research by using graphics, sound and animation.
Health care systems.
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