Collaboration Technology for Real-time Treatment of Patients
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January 1 - March 31, 1997
The objective of this task is to demonstrate the usefulness of computer-assisted collaboration technologies in patient care, where the general practitioner in charge of a patient's care is not physically collocated with an appropriate expert consultant. This task will demonstrate remote consultation in two specific instances: 1) between a primary care obstetrician and a tertiary care perinatologist and 2) between a primary care provider and a tertiary care radiologist.
The X-ray scanning software and hardware have been shipped to Huntington. Valley Health Systems (VHS) finally decided, based on a vote by its physicians, to deploy this hardware and software at Cabell Huntington Hospital (CHH). CHH has agreed to start using the system; the physical location of the machine is being finalized. CHH has also expressed their interest in using the X-ray scanner for an emergency room application. We are in the process of talking to them about what other uses they may have for the system being deployed there.
During this phase, the major work included:
Community health care primarily involves preventive and primary health care for community residents through the participation of individual practices, group practices, federally-funded clinics, community centers, and hospitals. Collaboration and cooperation among these multiple parties is essential for effective healthcare delivery. Limited resources and medical staff, coupled with the lack of proper health education and awareness among the population, make it difficult to provide healthcare in rural areas. The objective of this task is to develop a community care network (CCN) that will allow a community of healthcare professionals to provide quality care to a rural population.
After three false starts, the dictation and transcription system is now undergoing operational testing at Wayne, where Dr. Merkin will be using it. The transcriptionist will be transcribing at Fort Gay, where she is permanently located. Some additional modules -- nurses' data entry in particular -- are awaiting commencement of use of the dictation and transcription.
The following work was completed in this reporting period:
The objective of this task is to develop a domain-specific reference architecture for statewide collaboration in the health care domain that can serve as a model for promoting the use of such technology. Through direct experience with the experimental tasks, Tasks 1 and 2, we expect the architecture to evolve in its construction over the course of the project.
This task manages the planning and installation of infrastructure elements, networks, computers, etc., in the community care network. It also contributes to the overall effort to evaluate the effectiveness of the network and its individual elements.
We wrote two reports that are relevant to the architecture context. One report was an invited submission to IMIA; the other was an invited submission to Towards Electronic Patient Record. These documents lay out our architectural underpinnings.
We also are examining the impact of adding additional sites at VHS. No evaluation work could be done as the system is still awaiting actual use.
The major work during this period included:
The objective of this task is to demonstrate open and easy access to patient information from legacy hospital information systems. This task is now focusing on integration at Cabell Huntington Hospital (CHH).
We now have a HL7 parser, which will allow us to link and provide access to hospital records. We also have a preliminary version of a master patient index (MPI), which we are evaluating for use at St. Mary's Hospital.
The major work for this period included:
http://www.cerc.wvu.edu/nlm/artemis/project_reports/p2q10.html
September 3, 1997, by Mary Carriger
Copyright © 1997 Concurrent Engineering Research Center