SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “data accessibility”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

PubMed1996

A framework for evaluation of secondary data sources for epidemiological research.

BACKGROUND: As part of the development in information technology, increasing amounts of health care data are available for epidemiological research. METHODS: In this review, we discuss the following factors affecting the value of secondary data in research: 1) completeness of registration of individuals, 2) the accuracy and degree of completeness of the registered data, 3) the size of the data source, 4) the registration period, 5) data accessibility, availability and cost, 6) data format, and 7) possibilities of linkage with other data sources (record linkage). RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The importance of these issues depends on the use of the data and on the problems they have to address. If the evaluation is satisfactory with respect to the above-mentioned factors relevant to the particular study, the data source could be a very cost-effective way of solving the research problem.

Bias↗

PubMed1996

Integrating public health information and surveillance systems.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes sound public health information is the essential ingredient of all of its work and the key to effective public health decision making. A CDC/ATSDR committee reached a consensus that CDC needed to streamline and consolidate its public health surveillance and information systems into an integrated system. With integrated systems, a wide range of diverse individual information systems will continue to exist but these systems must be coordinated, interconnected, comparable, and easy to use. The "glue" that holds these systems together consists of (1) uniform data standards, (2) communications networks, and (3) policy-level agreements regarding data access, sharing, and reduction of data collection burdens. By putting the appropriate policy-making apparatus and resources in place, CDC believes the end result will be a streamlined process that meets the information needs of CDC and its partners with less confusion and frustration.

Humans↗

PubMed2006

A flexible integration and visualisation system for biomarker discovery.

Biological data have accumulated at an unprecedented pace as a result of improvements in molecular technologies. However, the translation of data into information, and subsequently into knowledge, requires the intricate interplay of data access, visualisation and interpretation. Biological data are complex and are organised either hierarchically or non-hierarchically. For non-hierarchically organised data, it is difficult to view relationships among biological facts. In addition, it is difficult to make changes in underlying data storage without affecting the visualisation interface. Here, we demonstrate a platform where non-hierarchically organised data can be visualised through the application of a customised hierarchy incorporating medical subject headings (MeSH) classifications. This platform gives users flexibility in updating and manipulation. It can also facilitate fresh scientific insight by highlighting biological impacts across different hierarchical branches. An example of the integration of biomarker information from the curated Proteome database using MeSH and the StarTree visualisation tool is presented.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2002

Biological information: making it accessible and integrated (and trying to make sense of it).

The availability of the genome sequences of human and mouse, human sequence variation data and other large genetic data sets will lead to a revolution in understanding of the human machine and the treatment of its diseases. The success of the international genome sequencing consortiums shows what can be achieved by well coordinated large scale public domain projects and the benefits of data access to all. It is already clear that the availability of this sequence is having a huge impact on research worldwide. Complete genome sequences provide a framework to pull all biological data together such that each piece has the potential to say something about biology as a whole. Biology is too complex for any organisation to have a monopoly of ideas or data, so the collection, analysis and access to this data can be contributed to by research institutes around the world. However, although it is possible for all this data to be accessible to all through the internet, the more organisations provide data or analysis separately, the harder it becomes for anyone to collect and integrate the results. To address these problems of intergration of data, open standards for biological data exchange, such as the 'Distributed Annotation System' (DAS) are being developed and bioinformatics (Dowell et al., 2001) as a whole is now being strongly driven by the open source software (OSS) model for collaborative software development (Hubbard and Birney, 1999). The leading provider of human genome annotation, the Ensembl project (http://www.ensembl.org), is entirely an OSS project and has been widely adopted by academic and commerical organisations alike (Hubbard et al., 2002). Accurate automatic annotation of features such as genes in vertebrate genomes currently relies on supporting evidence in the form of homologies to mRNAs, ESTs or protein. However, it appears that sufficient high quality experimentally curated annotation now exists to be used as a substrate for machine learning algorithms to create effective models of biological signal sequences (Down and Hubbard, 2002). Is there hope for ab initio prediction methods after all?

Chromosome Mapping↗

PubMed2006

Data sharing - a case of shared databases and community use of on-line GIS support systems.

Data management is becoming increasingly simple and complex at the same time. The challenge is to effectively use the increasing number of tools available to manage increasing amounts of environmental information for purposes of data capture, analysis, display, sharing and storage. Government is no longer the main collector and provider of data. Community groups possess vast amounts of data collected through daily work of monitoring the environment in their local community. The chief concerns are data access, sharing, integrity and comparability. The capacity of groups to sustain data management is the key to making the sharing possible. The Southeast Environmental Association has been working with Environment Canada to develop a community, on-line database that will be linked to other geo-spatial data sets to allow instant access to geo-referenced data.

Canada↗

PubMed1991

Providing an integrated clinical data view in a hospital information system that manages multimedia data.

The VA's hospital information system, the Decentralized Hospital Computer Program (DHCP), is an integrated system based on a powerful set of software tools with shared data accessible from any of its application modules. It includes many functionally specific application subsystems such as laboratory, pharmacy, radiology, and dietetics. Physicians need applications that cross these application boundaries to provide useful and convenient patient data. One of these multi-specialty applications, the DHCP Imaging System, integrates multimedia data to provide clinicians with comprehensive patient-oriented information. User requirements for cross-disciplinary image access can be studied to define needs for similar text data access. Integration approaches must be evaluated both for their ability to deliver patient-oriented text data rapidly and their ability to integrate multimedia data objects. Several potential integration approaches are described as they relate to the DHCP Imaging System.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed2004

Latinos' health care access: financial and cultural barriers.

This study aimed at investigating how income, culture, and language affect health care access. Data from a structured questionnaire administered to a random sample of 206 Latinos was analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Qualitative data served to explain quantitative results. Point estimates for various access measures were similar to national data. In multivariate logistic regression, income and education determined having health insurance (OR 6.8 and 7.4; 95% CI 2.7-17.3 and 2.9-19.0, respectively). Time in the U.S. and health insurance determined having a regular source of care (OR 4.6 and 5.8; 95% CI 1.7-12.8 and 2.1-16.0, respectively). Having a source of care and being female determined visit to the doctor in the past year (OR 6.14 and 6.73; 95% CI 2.3-16.5 and 2.4-19.3, respectively). Language and culture showed no statistically significant effect on access measures, but qualitative data showed they were related to health care barriers.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

The difficult quest for data on "vanishing" vaccine-preventable infections in Europe: the case of measles in Flanders (Belgium).

We aimed to describe the impact of vaccination on the epidemiology of measles infection in Flanders (Belgium), to document probable vaccination coverage based on this evidence, compare these epidemiological data with those generated by a mathematical model and estimate the costs of morbidity from measles. In contrast to previous analyses, we included the costs of long-term care for sequelae due to encephalitis and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). We estimated the direct health care costs per average measles case at 227, 212, 210, 200 and 194 for the age groups of 0-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19 and > or=20 years, respectively. Excluding long-term care lowers these estimates by 22-51%, depending on the age group. By including indirect time costs, we arrive at total costs per measles case of 320, 305, 210, 200 and 625, respectively. In addition to registering vaccination coverage more rigorously in the future, it seems necessary to undertake seroprevalence studies to document the age-specific immunity to measles. By using such information, current vaccination strategies can be adapted to prevent future outbreaks and to help eliminate measles from Europe in an efficient way. We noted throughout that many of the data sources are flawed. Better and accessible data bases are required to improve the reliability of similar studies in the future.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Accessing population health information through interactive systems: lessons learned and future directions.

In the mid-1990s, several state and county public health departments implemented interactive software systems that provided easy access to public health-related data for local boards of health, other public health agencies, health care providers, community groups, and other interested members of the public. Based on their experiences with two well-established state interactive systems and one well-established county system, the authors summarize lessons that could prove useful to state and local public health agencies interested in developing new interactive systems or adapting existing ones. The article addresses issues such as: basing interactive systems on a broad definition of health, designing systems to incorporate user preferences, moving from data warehouses to information warehouses, and fostering prevention communities. Finally, the article provides recommendations to assist federal, state, and local public health agencies in developing the next generation of interactive data access systems.

Computer Communication Networks↗

PubMed1996

Environmental health and hazardous waste issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Environmental health and environmental quality issues along the U.S.-Mexico border have been of concern for several years. The enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the presence of the maquiladoras (foreign-owned industries using imported raw materials) have intensified those concerns recently. Efforts to assess these issues are complicated by the fact that many of the issues affecting the border region are within federal jurisdiction, but the problems are regional and local in nature. Thus, state and local governments become involved with public concerns about real and potential problems. One major problem is that environmental health data from this region are lacking, particularly from Mexico. Some new agencies such as the Border Environment Cooperation Commission, the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission, and the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation have joined several existing agencies at the federal and state level to address environmental quality and health. Several studies have been initiated to determine air and water quality, but little is being done in the areas of hazardous waste and health assessment. Several problems are anticipated in the generation of such data, such as its format and accessibility. Data gaps and research needs are discussed.

Environmental Health↗

PubMed2006

A study on new nursing information accessibility mechanism using the digital broadcasting network.

There have been efforts to add an interoperability function to TV systems. The digital technology has changed all our lifestyles. Now TV systems do indeed have interoperability functions. However, this means more than interoperable TV. It announces the birth of a digital broadcasting network (one-source and many-destination digital communication mechanism)--the new digital communication network as a broadcasting style. As a viewpoint of nursing informatics, this mechanism provides a new accessibility mechanism to structured and interoperable data. This paper introduces the technology and the basic scenarios on the data accessibility mechanism using the digital broadcasting network.

Access to Information↗

PubMed2001

A JAVA-based DICOM server with integration of clinical findings and DICOM-conform data encryption.

The transfer of large amounts of medical data within heterogeneous hard and software infrastructures and the exploitation of distributed resources require a fast, secure, and platform-independent data exchange. To avoid costly vendor-specific solutions, a DICOM server was implemented in JAVA. Data access was enabled via internet browser technology. Relevant patient and image acquisition information was extracted from the DICOM images and stored into a relational database. Patient information such as radiological findings were transferred from the Radiological Information System into the database. Image data were accessed either by a fast preview tool or using a JAVA-based DICOM viewer. Since data security mechanisms are not yet part of the DICOM standard, a DICOM-conform encryption of sensitive patient data was implemented. The method allowed a dynamic selection of the data to be encrypted. Integrating this module into the image server enabled the fast and secure transfer of image data across insecure networks as well as long-term storage on CD-Recordables.

CD-ROM↗

PubMed2000

Prototype of a JAVA/DICOM image server with integrated findings and data security.

The transfer of medical data within heterogeneous hard- and software infrastructures requires platform-independent standardized protocols and data formats such as DICOM. To avoid costly vendor-specific solutions a DICOM server was implemented in JAVA thereby enabling the data access via internet browser technology. The most important patient and image acquisition information were extracted from the DICOM images and stored into a relational database. For an integrated view patient information such as radiological findings were transferred from the Radiological Information System (RIS) into the data base. Image data were accessed either by a fast preview tool or using a DICOM viewer. Since DICOM does not include inherent data security mechanisms, a second tool allowed the DICOM-conform encryption of DCIOM data for a secure long term storage on CD-R or across unsecure networks.

Computer Security↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A database manager of biomedical images.

In order to allow an efficient archiving and retrieval of biomedical images, PACS would include an image DBMS. As biomedical images have complex structures we developed a specific DBMS over a relational one. The medical image database manager ensures a data description that takes into account data semantics so that consistency or existential constraints may be verified. It provides a unique language to retrieve images no matter what their storage format. It encompasses the queries of the user which constitute a filter over associated data. The manager can handle changes in the environment of the image. We implemented a manager prototype to show the validity of logical access possibilities. The user need no longer know the structure of the image database to access data. The logical access allows retrieval of images, whatever the architecture of the base. An automatic query construction consists of three functional levels including the interfaces towards the external environment which ensure a logical independence from the database, a query generator which creates the correspondence between the user's query and physical access queries, a dictionary which contains the structure of the image data and consistency constraints.

Computer Systems↗

PubMed1991

Management and clinical utilization of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and angiography in Hokkaido University Hospital picture archiving and communication system.

We made a preliminary assessment of the Hokkaido University picture archiving and communication system (HU-PACS). Data access time from either imaging machines or data base to workstations was 1.5 minutes, which is great benefit for data communication in routine examinations. Image quality of the work station was estimated in terms of brain computed tomography (CT) and digitized cerebral angiograms. Cerebral infarction was definitely observed on the cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor of the work station. Although the picture quality of CRT was acceptable, we had to manipulate window level and width for CRT diagnosis of cerebral angiography. Data compression was routinely used without significant degradation of those image quality. Nevertheless, further improvement of maneuverability of the workstation should be considered.

Angiography, Digital Subtraction↗

PubMed2002

Disabilities secondary to traffic accidents: what information is available in Belgium?

Traffic accidents and their health consequences are a major public health problem in industrialized countries. In addition to being the first cause of death of children up to the age of 14 years, they are also responsible for considerable morbidity. Persistent lesions and more or less disabling sequelae are the lot of a certain number of causalities. In this study, we took stock of all of the information about functional impairment following injuries sustained in traffic accidents that is available in Belgium. We described the 'itineraries' of traffic accident patients and identified the potential sources of data. We then analyzed the available and accessible data. Our study shows that we do not have any directly usable data in Belgium that can yield a measure of the public health impact of traffic accidents in terms of temporary and permanent disabilities. Very partial information exists in the country's various institutions and insurance companies, but this information is not suitable for use in a public health approach aimed at quantifying the importance of a health problem and its course over time. We do not feel that the country's main disability measurement tool (BOBI), which is used notably by the insurance companies, attuned to the everyday reality that is experienced by people whose functional abilities have been reduced in the wake of a traffic accident. Given this lack of data, priority should be given to initiating the routine collection of such information or at least to quantifying post-traffic accident disabilities by following up a cohort of traffic accident victims.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2003

Interactive visualization and exploration of time-oriented clinical data using a distributed temporal-abstraction architecture.

KNAVE-II is a system for visualization and exploration of large amounts of time-oriented clinical data and of multiple levels of clinically meaningful abstractions derivable from these data. KNAVE-II uses a distributed temporal-abstraction architecture that integrates a set of knowledge services, each interacting with a domain-specific knowledge source, a set of data-access services, each interacting with a clinical data source, and a computational service for deriving knowledge-based abstractions of the data.

Artificial Intelligence↗

PubMed2002

Methodological issues in Web-based research.

PURPOSE: To examine methodological issues associated with using the Internet and World Wide Web for scientific research, namely, issues related to the nature of the sample, the testing environment and environmental factors, privacy, and confidentiality, and response rates. METHODS: Reviews of literature and personal observation and experience. FINDINGS: Web-based research provides many advantages such as access to specific, sometimes difficult-to-find populations, speed of data access, and decreased costs for data collection and data entry. Such benefits are likely to increase as more nurse scientists use the Web for research purposes. CONCLUSIONS: Nurse researchers who use this technology must consider the methodological problems associated with Web-based methods. The research potential exists, but the methodological issues discussed in this paper are real and, if not addressed, they can seriously affect the validity of study findings.

Internet↗