- Muenster, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Semantic Web technologies, which provide a common framework by allowing data to be shared and reused between applications, can be applied to the management of health data. Linked open data - a new semantic web standard to publish and link... more
Semantic Web technologies, which provide a common framework by allowing data to be shared and reused between applications, can be applied to the management of health data. Linked open data - a new semantic web standard to publish and link heterogeneous data- allows not only human, but also machine to browse data. Through a use case of WHO data, we develop a linked data based health information representation, querying and visualization system. Through out the book, we discussed how to develop such systems using RDF and triple stores, how to write codes for visualization and retrieval. For users who are not familiar with SPARQL queries, we show how to develop and use a search engine interface. From this work we can depict that current linked open data technologies have a big potential to represent heterogeneous health data in a flexible and reusable manner. By reading this book, you will be able to understand the new data storage and programming technologies in linked data based info...
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With the increasing implementation of different health information systems in developing countries, there is a growing need to measure the main determinants of their success. The results of this evaluation study on the determinants of HIS... more
With the increasing implementation of different health information systems in developing countries, there is a growing need to measure the main determinants of their success. The results of this evaluation study on the determinants of HIS success in five low resource setting hospitals show that service quality is the main determinant factor for information system success in those kind of settings.
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Nowadays, more and more clinical data are documented in electronic health records and are thus available in digital form. With the aim of re-using these data for clinical research, a European consortium consisting of 35 partners from... more
Nowadays, more and more clinical data are documented in electronic health records and are thus available in digital form. With the aim of re-using these data for clinical research, a European consortium consisting of 35 partners from academia, clinics, pharmaceutical companies and subcontractors initiated the project "Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research" (EHR4CR). Three different services are envisaged to be supported for the design and implementation of clinical trials using a single platform: Clinical protocol feasibility, Patient identification and recruitment, Clinical trial execution and Serious adverse event reporting. Four different working groups focus on the following areas: Specifications and Business Model development, Technology Platform and Tools including semantic interoperability and data protection/security, Pilot Activities and Reference Site coordination as well as communication, dissemination and project management. It became apparent that on...
With the increasing implementation of Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR) in developing countries, there is a growing need to identify antecedents of EMR success to measure and predict the level of adoption before costly... more
With the increasing implementation of Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR) in developing countries, there is a growing need to identify antecedents of EMR success to measure and predict the level of adoption before costly implementation. However, less evidence is available about EMR success in the context of low-resource setting implementations. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap by examining the constructs and relationships of the widely used DeLone and MacLean (D&M) information system success model to determine whether it can be applied to measure EMR success in those settings. A quantitative cross sectional study design using self-administered questionnaires was used to collect data from 384 health professionals working in five governmental hospitals in Ethiopia. The hospitals use a comprehensive EMR system since three years. Descriptive and structural equation modeling methods were applied to describe and validate the extent of relationship of constructs and mediating effects. The findings of the structural equation modeling shows that system quality has significant influence on EMR use (β = 0.32, P < 0.05) and user satisfaction (β = 0.53, P < 0.01); information quality has significant influence on EMR use (β = 0.44, P < 0.05) and user satisfaction (β = 0.48, P < 0.01) and service quality has strong significant influence on EMR use (β = 0.36, P < 0.05) and user satisfaction (β = 0.56, P < 0.01). User satisfaction has significant influence on EMR use (β = 0.41, P < 0.05) but the effect of EMR use on user satisfaction was not significant. Both EMR use and user satisfaction have significant influence on perceived net-benefit (β = 0.31, P < 0.01; β = 0.60, P < 0.01), respectively. Additionally, computer literacy was found to be a mediating factor in the relationship between service quality and EMR use (P < 0.05) as well as user satisfaction (P < 0.01). Among all the constructs, user satisfaction showed the strongest effect on perceived net-benefit of health professionals. EMR implementers and managers in developing countries are in urgent need of implementation models to design proper implementation strategies. In this study, the constructs and relationships depicted in the updated D&M model were found to be applicable to assess the success of EMR in low resource settings. Additionally, computer literacy was found to be a mediating factor in EMR use and user satisfaction of health professionals. Hence, EMR implementers and managers in those settings should give priority in improving service quality of the hospitals like technical support and infrastructure; providing continuous basic computer trainings to health professionals; and give attention to the system and information quality of the systems they want to implement.
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Electronic medical record (EMR) systems have the potential of supporting clinical work by providing the right information at the right time to the right people and thus make efficient use of resources. This is especially important in... more
Electronic medical record (EMR) systems have the potential of supporting clinical work by providing the right information at the right time to the right people and thus make efficient use of resources. This is especially important in low-resource settings where reliable data are also needed to support public health and local supporting organizations. In this systematic literature review, our objectives are to identify and collect literature about success criteria of EMR implementations in low-resource settings and to summarize them into recommendations. Our search strategy relied on PubMed queries and manual bibliography reviews. Studies were included if EMR implementations in low-resource settings were described. The extracted success criteria and measurements were summarized into 7 categories: ethical, financial, functionality, organizational, political, technical, and training. We collected 381 success criteria with 229 measurements from 47 articles out of 223 articles. Most pape...
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With a widespread use of information technology in healthcare organizations, there is a pressing need for professionals who are both skilled in the use and management of information systems and knowledgeable in the field of healthcare. To... more
With a widespread use of information technology in healthcare organizations, there is a pressing need for professionals who are both skilled in the use and management of information systems and knowledgeable in the field of healthcare. To fill this need, the department of health informatics at the University of Gondar started a new bachelor's degree in the health informatics program commencing in 2012. The curriculum was developed by a thorough needs assessment and considering the recommendations of the international medical informatics association. The program has duration of 4 years with a total of 249 ECTS. Currently there are 57 students enrolled in the program and 15 full time academic staffs are involved in the teaching and research activity of the department. To share our experience for other countries, in this paper we explain the curriculum development process and its content to the health informatics community.