Utah university hospital pulls out of heart transplant cooperative.
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The University of Utah has been educating health professionals in medical informatics since 1964. Over the 35 years since the program's inception, 272 graduate students have studied in the department. Most students have been male (80 percent) and have come from the United States (75 percent). Students entering the program have had diverse educational backgrounds, most commonly in medicine, engineering, computer science, or biology (59 percent of all informatics students). A total of 209 graduate degrees have been awarded, with an overall graduation rate of 87 percent since the program's start. Alumni are located in the United States (91 percent) and abroad (9 percent); half (51 percent) have remained in Utah. Former students are employed in a wide variety of jobs, primarily concerned with the application of medical informatics in sizable health care delivery organizations. Trends toward increasing managerial responsibility for medical informatics graduates and the emergence of the chief information officer role are noted.
At the University of Utah Medical Center the thrusts of the effort with respect to the NCl Hyperthermia Equipment Evaluation Contract have been threefold. The first objective was the development of a reliable thermometry system for collecting temperature information as a function of space as well as time. The second objective was the evaluation and comparison of a number of hyperthermia devices, particularly with respect to deep-heating devices, and specifically as pertains to the BSD annular phased array system (AA) and its various configurations. The third objective was to develop methodology for analysing hyperthermia data which could be easily adapted toward device comparison. In the period from 10/81-1/86, a total of 137 patients were treated with one or more of 10 devices, totalling 199 device evaluations at the University of Utah Medical Center or the subcontracting institution, LDS Hospital. Of these, 132 device evaluations involved deep-seated tumours. The AA was found to be feasible for deep pelvic regional hyperthermia, although the frequency of reversible acute toxicity was high, and achievement of desired temperatures was frequently limited by one of several factors. The radiative electromagnetic wave applicators which were evaluated for treatment of superficial tumours were found to be mostly feasible for tumours of the thoracic and extremities regions, although the heating patterns were frequently too shallow or too small in area, when compared with the size of the lesion.
We feel that now, four years out, we have achieved the interim goals that we set for ourselves. There are some key aspects that we would do differently if we were now starting over, and we have provided that information to those seeking to begin similar off-site ventures who have sought our advice. There is an interesting constellation of factors that must be present for such an operation to succeed, and the individual components of that constellation will differ by institution and location. The rationale and circumstance will vary profoundly, and what is "right" in one setting may be entirely "wrong" in another. I feel compelled to caution the reader about the myriad of determinants and ingredients that must be considered. Study the precedents and seek knowledgeable advice from financial, legal, insurance, human resource (personnel), and laboratory management professionals. Regional laboratories can succeed. Hospitals may well benefit from a strategy of marketing services to physician staff members and the incremental financial and service benefits from added testing volume can be significant. However, the more expansive the business design, the more complicated the management requirements and demands and, potentially, the higher the risks, costs, pressures, and down-side factors. We feel very strongly about our focus of supporting the pathology and medical technology professions. Our value-added services are geared not only to providing technology, management, and financial services support for our clients, but also to not competing with them for local clientele. We have a program of teaching them how to market to that clientele and of providing the support materials to assist them in so doing. We have progressed from being a hospital laboratory to being a hospital laboratory referral laboratory, and now have also become a referral laboratory for other reference laboratories. As a full-service reference laboratory we send out very few tests, and are continually incorporating new tests and technologies. We have referral testing accounts currently in 42 states and we want to be the very best at what we do, namely, esoteric reference testing. Our credo is that quality at ARUP is making best continually better.
The IAIMS project at the University of Utah has focused on clinical linkages to facilitate the research, teaching, and service mission of the Medical Center. The planning phase focused on the relationship among ther users and providers of the system and developed a scenario describing the professor and clinical clerk making rounds in the bedside setting. The prototype Health Evaluation through Logical Processes (HELP) system brings together three sources necessary to solve a medical problem: the patient database, the medical literature, and an expert in the subject. Microcomputers provide access to the HELP system and a complementary literature knowledge database.
The Department of Radiology at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center has made the transition from a traditional film-based department to a near filmless operation. The University of Utah is a large teaching hospital and the transition from film in an educational facility will be discussed. This transition has had its difficulties and its success is dependent on the support of departmental leadership and hospital administration. We have had more than 100 years of experience with film, and current procedures were efficient given the limitations of the medium. While motivated by the traditional reasons for moving to a picture archival and communications system (PACS), such as film savings, unavailable films, and faster reports, we found the intangibles to be the larger issue, as well as a source for the largest benefits. This report will discuss the implementation process and the affect it had on all areas of the hospital, including its impact on hospital physicians, radiologists, file room personnel, and technologists. Procedure changes to the flow of patients, film, and electronic images will also be described. This process cannot be viewed as a one-time change, but must be viewed as a continuous process as areas of improvement are identified and new and improved technologies are developed.
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The formal creation of an Integrated Academic Information Management System (IAIMS) at the University of Utah began in the fall of 1983. The keystone of the IAIMS effort is the HELP hospital information system. IAIMS at the University of Utah is a broad-based program extending across the Health Sciences Center and beyond to health professionals throughout the inter-mountain area. This paper describes the background that led to IAIMS, the IAIMS planning process, and the library's participation in this effort.
The graduate student program in medical informatics at the University of Utah described in this paper comprises a Master of Science degree (since 1976) and a Ph.D. degree (since 1962). The average program length is 2 years for M.Sc. and 3-5 years for Ph.D. The aims of the program are to prepare graduates for careers in medical informatics in academic, hospital or industrial settings. There are several different courses of study, or tracks, within the department ranging from Expert Systems, Genetic Epidemiology, Health Care Quality, Hospital Information Systems, Medical Imaging, Medical Physics, to an intensive one-year M.Sc. degree course for physicians. After the first three quarters the students are required to take a qualifying examination in which they qualify for a Masters or Ph.D. degree. The program covers the total spectrum of medical informatics. About 10 students are admitted each year. There are 14 full-time faculty and 9 adjunct faculty. The total number of graduates is 151.
Analysis of the ancestry of the 1,262 lifespan beagles (LSB) entered into lifespan studies at the Radiobiology Division, University of Utah, beginning in 1952 and ending in 1980, indicated that about 97% of ancestor citations in the various pedigrees were of only 10 breeding animals (breeders) among breeders within the beagle colony. In turn, just 18 AKC-registered "champion" beagles from outside of this colony (founders) accounted for about 98% of all ancestor citations among founders for the LSB. We conclude from this study that the animals used in the lifespan radionuclide experiments can be considered to be somewhat genetically interrelated.
OBJECTIVE: This study sought to evaluate the benefit of utilizing a nutritionist review of a self-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), to determine whether accuracy could be improved beyond that produced by the self-administered questionnaire alone. DESIGN: Participants randomized into a dietary intervention trial completed both a FFQ and a 4-day food record (FR) at baseline before entry into the intervention. The FFQ was self-administered, photocopied and then reviewed by a nutritionist who used additional probes to help complete the questionnaire. Both the versions before nutritionist review and after nutritionist review - were individually compared on specific nutrients to the FR by means, correlations and per cent agreement into quintiles. SETTINGS AND SUBJECTS: Three hundred and twenty-four people, a subset of participants from the Polyp Prevention Trial - a randomized controlled trial examining the effect of a low-fat, high-fibre, high fruit and vegetable dietary pattern on the recurrence of adenomatous polyps - were recruited from clinical centres at the University of Utah, University of Buffalo, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Kaiser Permanente Medical Program in Oakland. RESULTS: Reviewing the FFQ increased correlations with the FR for every nutrient, and per cent agreement into quintiles for all nutrients except calcium. Energy was underestimated in both versions of the FFQ but to a lesser degree in the version with review. CONCLUSIONS: One must further evaluate whether the increases seen with nutritionist review of the FFQ will enhance our ability to predict diet-disease relationships and whether it is cost-effective when participant burden and money spent utilizing trained personnel are considered.
A study was undertaken to investigate the changes of plasma non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), glucose and alpha-amino nitrogen and their relationship with age, body weight (BW) and plasma growth hormone (GH) in growing buffaloes. For the purpose, six growing female Murrah buffalo calves of 6-8 months of age were selected on the basis of their BW and fed according to Kearl standard (Nutrient Requirements of Ruminants in Developing Countries, International Feedstuffs Institute, Utah State University, Utah, USA, 1982, p. 89) for growing buffaloes (target growth rate 500 g/day) to meet energy and protein requirement of the animals. Blood samples collected at fortnight intervals for 1 year were analysed for plasma NEFA, glucose, alpha-amino nitrogen and GH. The animals were also weighed at fortnight intervals. Plasma NEFA and glucose levels were found to decrease (p < 0.01) with age. Unlike plasma NEFA and glucose, plasma alpha-amino nitrogen level increased (p < 0.01) as the buffaloes become older. Plasma NEFA and glucose concentrations in growing buffaloes were found to be positively correlated with plasma GH (r = 0.379 and 0.420 respectively), but these were non-significant (p > 0.01). However, plasma NEFA and glucose showed a good correlation (p < 0.01; r = 0.780 and 0.652 respectively) with plasma GH per 100 kg live weight. Plasma alpha-amino nitrogen exhibited non-significant (p > 0.01) negative correlation (r = -0.295) with plasma GH but a negative correlation (p < 0.01; r = -0.641) with GH per 100 kg BW. So, plasma metabolites showed a definite pattern of change during growth and these have a significant (p < 0.01) correlation with plasma GH per 100 kg BW than GH.
This paper presents the major findings of research carried out by a team of investigators at the University of Utah School of Medicine in the 1960s and 1970s (1) to better understand the multidimensional and complex aspects of practicing physicians' performances, and (2) to investigate relationships between assessments of students in medical school and physicians' performances. The major research began in the 1960s, and data were assembled from a variety of sources to identify factors of physicians' performances. The original study sampled 507 practicing physicians, classified into four highly diverse and representative groups. The team also investigated to what degree these physicians' medical school performances (measured by grades) were predictors of their practice performances. Factor analysis of the data on the physicians' performances resulted in the identification of 25 to 29 factors within each of the four groups. A representative profile of the performances of each physician studied showed how well the physician performed on each of the factors appropriate to his or her specialty and background. Correlation analysis demonstrated that these physicians' performances in medical school, as measured by grade-point averages (GPAs), were almost completely independent of their later performances in their practices, a disturbing finding and one that the team maintained cannot be dismissed by arguments of "restriction of range." In the teams' later studies, 61 measures of physicians' performances were correlated to medical school GPAs in the two basic science years and the two clinical science years. No association beyond chance was observed, and nonsignificant relationships held up regardless of the physicians' specialties or years of experience.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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