Health information

This paper describes the results of a qualitative study involving interviews with twelve public librarians about their experiences interacting with library users experiencing homelessness. The study examines the kinds of health information seeking experiences public librarians have, how public librarians respond to the health information needs of homeless library users, and the challenges public librarians undergo as they work to provide health and other information services to homeless individuals. The interviews show that public librarians have mixed experiences providing health information to homeless library users. Some viewed health information needs as a top-level concern, while others viewed health information as a lower priority need when compared to housing and food. Public librarians described several challenges when providing information services to homeless individuals related to professional roles, crisis management, the stigma of homelessness, privacy/confidentiality, and the library acting as a day shelter. Identifying the experiences and challenges of public librarians as they assist homeless library users is an initial step in creating more effective modes of providing services to this population.

Over the past years, one of the most discussed topics in policy debates on genetics has been the use of genetic testing in insurance. Many of these debates have been rather speculative and abstract. In a recent contribution to this journal, Kaufert therefore urged for "a proper research agenda" to study the issue, arguing for the need of anthropological and sociological research of the insurance world. This article will make a start with this. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in two Belgium insurance companies, this study analyses the ways insurers account for predictive medicine (lifestyle, genetics) during underwriting. We demonstrate how insurers highlight predictive lifestyle health information and how this articulates with a fault based approach in underwriting. Individual responsibility for health risks becomes the golden standard for assessing one's fitness for membership of the insurance pool. Moreover, these developments imply a changed concept of "normal standard" in insurance, increasing the conditions to fulfil to be part of the insurance group. Predictive medicine constitutes new ground in the old debates about individual control, responsibility and blame for health. This goes to the heart of the basis for citizenship and how this articulates with membership--or, if you want, exclusion--of the insurance pool.

Universal access to information for health professionals is a prerequisite for meeting the Millennium Development Goals and achieving Health for All. However, despite the promises of the information revolution, and some successful initiatives, there is little if any evidence that the majority of health professionals in the developing world are any better informed than they were 10 years ago. Lack of access to information remains a major barrier to knowledge-based health care in developing countries. The development of reliable, relevant, usable information can be represented as a system that requires cooperation among a wide range of professionals including health-care providers, policy makers, researchers, publishers, information professionals, indexers, and systematic reviewers. The system is not working because it is poorly understood, unmanaged, and under-resourced. This Public Health article proposes that WHO takes the lead in championing the goal of "Universal access to e...

Abstract—Human disease diagnosis is a complicated process and requires high level of expertise. Any attempt of developing a web-based expert system dealing with human disease diagnosis has to overcome various difficulties. This paper describes a project work aiming ...

Patient education improves clinical outcomes in patients with chronic illness, but little is known about the education needs of patients with IBS. The objective of this study was to identify: (1) patients perceptions about IBS; (2) the content areas where patients feel insufficiently informed, i.e., "knowledge gaps" about diagnosis, treatment options, etiology, triggers, prognosis, and role of stress; and (3) whether there are differences related to items 1 and 2 among clinically significant subgroups. The IBS-Patient Education Questionnaire (IBS-PEQ) was developed using patient focus groups and cognitive item reduction of items. The IBS-PEQ was administered to a national sample of IBS patients via mail and online. Frequencies of item endorsements were obtained. Clinically relevant groups, (a) health care seekers or nonhealth care seekers and (b) users or nonusers of the Web, were identified and grouped as MD/Web, MD/non-Web, and non-MD/Web. 1,242 patients completed the su...

Recent federal policies and actions support the adoption of health information exchange (HIE) in order to improve healthcare by addressing fragmented personal health information. However, concerted efforts at facilitating HIE have existed for over two decades in this country. The lessons of these experiences include a recurrence of barriers and challenges beyond those associated with technology. Without new strategies, the current support and methods of facilitating HIE may not address these barriers.

de l'offre de soins aux 2e et 3e arrondissements de Libreville s'est faite à l'aide d'un GPS. Ainsi, 104 structures médicales et paramédicales publiques et privées ont été recensées et sont inégalement réparties. Le secteur privé est représenté à 89% et le public à 11%. L'accessibilité routière semble le principal critère de localisation, d'où par endroits des structures très proches les unes des autres. La médecine occidentale domine la médecine traditionnelle et la chinoise. L'absence de la définition des zones de desserte pour les structures privées dans les Normes du secteur de la santé au Gabon explique en grande partie les caractéristiques identifiées. Ceci a permis l'actualisation de la carte sanitaire dans cet espace, qui peut se faire en collaboration avec les universitaires.

ABSTRACT:
Mapping of health care supply in Libreville 2nd and 3rd districts was done using GPS. Thus, 104 public and private medical and paramedical facilities mapped are unequally distributed. Private sector represents 89% and the public 11%. Road accessibility seems the principal criterion of location, from where by places  some  facilities  are  very  close.  Western  medicine  dominates  those  traditional  and  Chinese. Absence of definition of medical facility buffer zone for the private medical facilities in the Standards of the sector of health in Gabon mainly explains the identified inconsistencies. The study allowed updating of the medical chart in this space, which can be done in collaboration with the academics.

Planning for a Baby:  https://youtu.be/2iwLh6XCnq8

Pregnancy with IBD: https://youtu.be/br0kciD8xJk

Motherhood with IBD: https://youtu.be/TQjt8pnMv4I


Our aim is to provide an understanding of the experience of women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who have made the transition to motherhood. A total of 22 mothers with IBD were recruited from around the United Kingdom. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis. The central concept—Blurred Lines—offers a novel frame for understanding the transition to motherhood with IBD through identifying parallels between having IBD and becoming, and being, a mother. Parallels clustered into three main themes: Need for Readiness, Lifestyle Changes, and Monitoring Personal and Physical Development. Hence, women with IBD are in some ways well prepared for the challenges of motherhood even though, as a group, they tend to restrict their reproductive choices. We recommend health professionals initiate conversations about reproduction early and provide a multidisciplinary approach to pregnancy and IBD in which women have confidence that their ongoing treatment will be integrated successfully with their maternity care.

Disasters are fortunately rare occurrences. However, accurate and timely information and communication are vital to adequately prepare individual health organizations for such events. The current article investigates the health related communication and information systems for emergency management in Iran. A mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology was used in this study. A sample of 230 health service managers was surveyed using a questionnaire and 65 semi-structured interviews were also conducted with public health and therapeutic affairs managers who were responsible for emergency management. A range of problems were identified including fragmentation of information, lack of local databases, lack of clear information strategy and lack of a formal system for logging disaster related information at regional or local level. Recommendations were made for improving the national emergency management information and communication system. The findings have implications for health organizations in developing and developed countries especially in the Middle East. Creating disaster related information databases, creating protocols and standards, setting an information strategy, training staff and hosting a center for information system in the Ministry of Health to centrally manage and share the data could improve the current information system.

Health information systems (HIS) are often deployed with inadequate security mechanisms and with users being generally pointed out as the weakest link. The launch of the Portuguese digital national identification smart card, the citizen card (CC), with strong authentication and digital signing capabilities, represents a new and viable economic opportunity for securing a HIS and at the same time foster the creation of a much more secure national health information infrastructure. Smart cards are being deployed in ...

The purpose of this paper is to identify the threats that exist in Healthcare Information Systems (HIS). The study has been carried out in three different departments namely, Information Technology Department (ITD), Medical Record Department (MRD) and X-Ray Department in one of the leading government supported hospital in Malaysia. The hospital was equipped with Total Hospital Information System (THIS) environment. The data were collected using in-depth structured interviews. The study identified 22 types of threats according to major threat categories based on ISO/IEC 27002 (ISO 27799:2008). The result shows the most critical threat for the THIS is the power failure. In addition, acts of human error or failure threat also show high frequency of occurrence. The contribution of the paper will be categorization of threats in HIS and can be used to design and implement effective security systems and policies in healthcare setting.

The application of theory to practice can be challeng-ing. This article describes the experiences of one organi-zation in applying the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) to a health promotion program for older adults, HealthStages. The concepts of the model, especially stage of change, ...

Increasing people’s ability to understand and engage in their healthcare is an international priority. Research, particularly from the United States, has shown that people who lack such ability have poorer health outcomes and increased mortality.1 In the linked study (doi:10.1136/bmj.e1602), Bostock and colleagues show an adverse effect on mortality in patients in the United Kingdom too. The findings of this study are worrying, but not surprising. The study also suggests that a third of older people in the UK have difficulty reading and understanding basic health information. Considered alongside data from the US and
Australia, these findings suggest that between a third and half
of people in developed countries have difficulty understanding
and engaging in their healthcare and that this has important
consequences for health. In light of such findings it seems remarkable that the matter is not given higher priority.

The paper presents an application of the "Fit between Individuals, Task and Technology" (FITT) framework to analyze the socio-organizational-technical factors that influence IT adoption in the healthcare domain. The FITT framework was employed as the theoretical instrument for a retrospective analysis of a 15-year effort in implementing IT systems and eHealth services in the context of a Regional Health Information Network in Crete. Quantitative and qualitative research methods, interviews and participant observations were employed to gather data from a case study that involved the entire region of Crete. The detailed analysis of the case study based on the FITT framework, showed common features, but also differences of IT adoption within the various health organizations. The emerging picture is a complex nexus of factors contributing to IT adoption, and multi-level interventional strategies to promote IT use. The work presented in this paper shows the applicability of the...

Seeking information about one's health is increasingly documented as a key coping strategy in health-promotive activities and psychosocial adjustment to illness. In this article, the authors critically examine the scientific literature from 1982 to 2006 on the concept of health information—seeking behavior (HISB) to determine its level of maturity and clarify the concept's essential characteristics. A principle-based method of concept analysis provides the framework for exploring the nature of HISB. The authors reviewed approximately 100 published articles and five books reporting on HISB. Although HISB is a popular concept used in various contexts, most HISB definitions provide little insight into the concept's specific meanings. The authors describe the concept's characteristics, contributing to a clearer understanding of HISB, and discuss operationalizations, antecedents, and outcomes of HISB. Such an analysis of HISB might guide further theorizing on this highly ...

The internet is increasingly being used as a source of health information by the general public. Numerous websites exist that provide advice and information on the diagnosis and management of acute low back pain (ALBP), however, the accuracy and utility of this information has yet to be established. The aim of this study was to establish the quality, content and readability of online information relating to the treatment and management of ALBP. The internet was systematically searched using Google search engines from six major English-speaking countries. In addition, relevant national and international low back pain-related professional organisations were also searched. A total of 22 relevant websites was identified. The accuracy of the content of the ALBP information was established using a 13 point guide developed from international guidelines. Website quality was evaluated using the HONcode, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade level (FKGL) was used to establish readability. The majority of websites lacked accurate information, resulting in an overall mean content accuracy score of 6.3/17. Only 3 websites had a high content accuracy score (>14/17) along with an acceptable readability score (FKGL 6-8) with the majority of websites providing information which exceeded the recommended level for the average person to comprehend. The most accurately reported category was, "Education and reassurance" (98%) while information regarding "manipulation" (50%),…