Medical informatics and decision making

Background: Decisions by dentists to administer antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent infectious complications in patients involves professional risk assessment. While recommendations for rational use have been published, several studies have shown that dentists have low adherence to these recommendations. Objective: To examine general dental practitioners’ (GDPs’) assessments of the risk...

Motivation: Whole genome microarrays are increasingly becoming the method of choice to study responses in model organisms to disease, stressors or other stimuli. However, whole genome sequences are available for only some model organisms, and there are still many species whose genome sequences are not yet available. Cross-species studies, where...

Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy are particularly susceptible to drug-drug interactions (DDIs). Practitioners should keep themselves updated with the most current DDI information, particularly involving new anticancer drugs (ACDs). Databases can be useful to obtain up-to-date DDI information in a timely and efficient manner. Our objective was to investigate the DDI...

Introductory Editorial by Dr Karna Dev Bardhan

Automated disease surveillance systems are becoming widely used by the public health community. However, communication among non-collocated and widely dispersed users still needs improvement. A web-based software tool for enhancing user communications was completely integrated into an existing automated disease surveillance system and was tested during two simulated exercises and...

Two problems now threaten the future of anticancer drug development: (i) the information explosion has made research into new target-specific drugs more duplication-prone, and hence less cost-efficient; and (ii) high-throughput genomic technologies have failed to deliver the anticipated early windfall of novel first-in-class drugs. Here it is argued that the...

This article describes the process of developing an advanced pharmacogenetics clinical decision support at one of the United States’ leading pediatric academic medical centers. This system, called CHRISTINE, combines clinical and genetic data to identify the optimal drug therapy when treating patients with epilepsy or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In...

Laurence Alpay1, John Verhoef1,2, Bo Xie3, Dov Te’eni4 and J.H.M. Zwetsloot-Schonk11Clinical Informatics Group, Department of Medical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands. 2Department of Physical Therapy, Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands. 3College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, U.S.A. 4Faculty...

David E. Axelrod1, Naomi Miller2 and Judith-Anne W. Chapman31Department of Genetics and Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 604 Allison Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8082 U.S.A. 2Department of Pathology, University Health Network, 200 Elizabeth St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 2C4. 3NCIC Clinical Trials Group, Queen’s...

Sanjaya Joshi Userspace Corporation, Kirkland, WA, USA Abstract A review of the current challenges, trends and initiatives around the various regulations as related to Health Informatics in the United States is presented. A summary of the functions in a workflow-based approach organized into the...

Nir Menachemi1, Ebrahim Randeree2, Darrell E. Burke3 and Eric W. Ford4 1UAB School of Public Health, 1530 3rd Ave. South, Birmingham, AL 35294. 2Florida State University College of Information, 101 Louis Shores Bldg, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2100. 3UAB School of Health Professions, 1530 3rd Ave. South, Birmingham, AL 35294. 4Texas...

Peter N. Nemetz Strategy and Business Economics, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. Abstract This paper advances the somewhat paradoxical hypothesis that the emergence of managed care which threatens to accelerate the decline of the autopsy may, in fact, offer an opportunity for its...

Enzo Grossi1, Riccardo Marmo2, Marco Intraligi3 and Massimo Buscema3 1Medical Department Bracco Milano, Italy; Centro Diagnostico Italiano, Milano, Italy. 2Division of Gastroenterology, L.Curto Hospital, Polla, Sant’Arsenio, Italy. 3Semeion Research Centre, Rome, Italy. Abstract Background: Mortality for non variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is clinically relevant in the...

Samuli Niiranen1, Ari Välimäki2 and Jari Yli-Hietanen1 1Department of Signal Processing, Tampere University of Technology, POB 553, 33101 Tampere, Finland. 2AMV Oy, Lintulamminkatu 13, 33400 Tampere, Finland. AbstractThe goal of this study is to present the experiences gathered from the migration of an existing and deployed joint replacement...