The old website is archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine going back to 1999 and so is W2tQ. The British Library also has a web archive, UK based of course. The website's there and now I've news that Welcome to the QUAD will be too.
Showing posts with label records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label records. Show all posts
Saturday, 30 August 2014
Welcome to the QUAD to be archived by The British Library
The old website is archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine going back to 1999 and so is W2tQ. The British Library also has a web archive, UK based of course. The website's there and now I've news that Welcome to the QUAD will be too.
In a 'paperless NHS' - let's not forget...
The benefits of information technology across all sectors are well recognised when they are realised:
As we head towards a paperless NHS let's not forget that health care is both an art and a science.
Links:
The Digital Challenge (due for an update?)
Digitising the NHS by 2018 - One Year On. techUK report | March 2014.
What of the impact of the pending election 2015? Time inconsistency problem:
The NHS needs a 'Bank of England moment' HSJ.
drawMD Pediatrics - Patient Education by Drawing on Medical Artwork for Healthcare Providers
Medical-Artist
individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group
creativity usability readiness to hand context | information storage and retrieval, access, efficiency, space, security, information sharing, patient safety, legibility |
| digital inclusion | cost, savings, governance, reporting (locally, nationally, internationally), policy integration |
As we head towards a paperless NHS let's not forget that health care is both an art and a science.
Links:
The Digital Challenge (due for an update?)
Digitising the NHS by 2018 - One Year On. techUK report | March 2014.
What of the impact of the pending election 2015? Time inconsistency problem:
The NHS needs a 'Bank of England moment' HSJ.
drawMD Pediatrics - Patient Education by Drawing on Medical Artwork for Healthcare Providers
Medical-Artist
Saturday, 5 July 2014
CARE2X Integrated Hospital Information System
In learning we often look in turn for role models, exemplars then even some comparator or examples against which to compare and contrast to understand the context and our own knowledge, skills and potential.
In health and social care information systems it's useful for me to look at what is available in Drupal. A recent find is Care2X with a demo available. There are numerous plans to take these systems further:
Care3g is seeking funding.
There is also Project Mtuha.
There's a post by Tim Schofield - Helping African hospitals with open source software that describes how the enterprise resource planning system KwaMoja @KwaMoja is being used to provide administration systems for hospitals in Africa.
Even though not on the same scale as commercial hospital systems in the USA and EU ... these are significant software projects compared with my purposes which are educational.
Care2X presentation
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
For portals, speak patients' language ( c/o Healthcare IT News )
Mike Miliard's
in Healthcare IT News is a reminder of accessibility and engagement at the level of a communities languages.
This is one of the reasons why I am committed to using Drupal, to try to make use of its Internationalization capabilities amongst others.
Thanks to Mike's post I'm now familiar with a 'full court press' as a hospital - enterprise wide no less - seeks to achieve defined patient engagement levels by accessing their electronic health record.
This begs the question of what constitutes the patients' language? I don't just mean the purely linguistic forms of Chinese, Korean, Russian and Greek mentioned in the article. The effort is driven by the statutory demands of meaningful use, but what of the patient's general literacy, IT and health literacies? How do patients make sense of their own health (or another in the role of a carer) not just in a given language, but culturally from a medical sociological and public health perspective? What is the community's vocabulary when it comes to health?
How can we assure that meaningfulness? How can we affirm that use and critically translate use into patient benefits and self-efficacy?
You could also entitle Mike's article as
4 portals speak patients' language
individualINTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
group
| Health Literacy, Accessibility | Measures (health literacy, patient engagement, health and well-being, clinical outcomes) |
Cultural Diversity, Languages, Carer | Internationalization 'Meaningful Use', Standards, Legislation, Policy |
When we focus on languages we must remember that listening is a great gift. Whether as health and IT professionals, educators, patients and carers, listening to the care domains can help us integrate diverse social, clinical, policy and technical objectives.
What do these portals say to you?
Mike Miliard twitter
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Extraordinary lives: Demographic influences on academic studies - Life Writing, Life Story Work
Recent reading for studies at Lancaster included
Ethics of Internet Research: Contesting the Human Subjects Research Model
Beyond a week's focus on ethics the above refers to Life Writing:
In health and social care Life Story Work is an important part in of assessment and interventions. Has it been discussed, is it appropriate, completed and if so, is this work available and accessible? Do we need people beyond the existing establishment with a dedicated set of skills and knowledge to engage with people diagnosed early on, or will treatments soon make this less of an issue? Will dementia and early dementia especially, with the latest technology prompt new perspectives, or reinforce existing life writing practices? What is an archive? In life story work these people, persons, individuals (and their lives?) are more than subjects.
There are many overlaps already in the mental health state of past and present national leaders, while health services continue to bridge the dementia gap in diagnosis. Biography: world leaders, other recognised lives in Life Story Work and seeking to preserve personal identities in dementia care: clearly these are figures that count.
Ethics of Internet Research: Contesting the Human Subjects Research Model
Beyond a week's focus on ethics the above refers to Life Writing:
The study of Life Writing spans many disciplines, and represents 'a fast changing terrain' which is concerned with the study of the writing of lives, encompassing auto/biography as well as aspects of life story that originate outside the written form, such as oral history, testimony, and artifacts such as photography and the visual arts (Jolly, 2001, p. ix). The written text is viewed as a vehicle for an individual's construction of identity, the personal narrative that it records beingWhat chance is there that Life Writing will be - is being influenced by current demographic and societal trends? Trends and challenges that inevitably present new meanings for history within life and with this new ethical issues? While life writing is clearly an established discipline, how might it develop and what other challenges might apply?
…a fundamental means by which people comprehend their own lives and present a 'self' to their audience. (Borland, 1991, p. 71)
...
The multiple approaches taken in Life Writing research can arguably be attributed to the multidisciplinary background of its practitioners. Like Internet researchers, those researching Life Writing have been trained in a variety of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, history, linguistics and literary theory. These various disciplines have contributed a range of insights into the collection of oral history and analysis of the resultant texts (Gluck and Patai, 1991, p. 3). Ethical guidelines for the conduct of Life Writing researchers, such as those published by the Oral History Society in the UK, appear to follow a human subjects model, focussing on the undertaking of the interview, and restricting discussion of the resultant text to issues of copyright. Yet practitioners emphasise the need to remember that as:
…the typical product of an interview is a text, not a reproduction of reality …models of textuality [are] therefore needed. (Gluck and Patai, 1991, p. 3)
In health and social care Life Story Work is an important part in of assessment and interventions. Has it been discussed, is it appropriate, completed and if so, is this work available and accessible? Do we need people beyond the existing establishment with a dedicated set of skills and knowledge to engage with people diagnosed early on, or will treatments soon make this less of an issue? Will dementia and early dementia especially, with the latest technology prompt new perspectives, or reinforce existing life writing practices? What is an archive? In life story work these people, persons, individuals (and their lives?) are more than subjects.
There are many overlaps already in the mental health state of past and present national leaders, while health services continue to bridge the dementia gap in diagnosis. Biography: world leaders, other recognised lives in Life Story Work and seeking to preserve personal identities in dementia care: clearly these are figures that count.
Friday, 21 March 2014
BCS, UKCHIP and IHRIM announce a new vision for the health informatics profession at HC2014
 |  |
19 March 2014
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, the UK Council of Health Informatics Professions (UKCHIP) and the Institute of Health Records and Information Management (IHRIM) are working collaboratively to create a new federation for the Informatics profession. The three autonomous bodies will work closely together in a federation to ensure that UK health informatics is recognised as a valued profession.
Justin Whatling, Chair of BCS Health, part of the Chartered Institute for IT, explains: “This is a very exciting moment for health informatics. Today technology has an immense and profound impact on the health and wellbeing of people. Therefore it’s time for the profession to mature to meet the increasing demand on our skills and capability. We want health to be an attractive place for informatics professionals from other sectors to come and work, and we want to provide a clear career path and professional development opportunities to retain those already working in health. The federation will help us to achieve this.”
The initiative comes as the NHS is under increasing pressure to find and implement new models of health and social care that will provide services closer to people’s homes. This requires health professionals to share accurate information securely and confidentially. In addition, the Caldicott 2 Review has introduced a Duty of Care to Share health information. Both of these things have happened at a time when public trust in the NHS’ ability to handle personal health information has taken a hit.
The federation will be open to all other informatics professional bodies, the private sector, the home countries and lay representation. It will provide leadership of the overall profession with a single professional register and point of entry for professionals, oversee an agreed regulatory framework with a common code of ethical practice and coordinate access to resources providing a unified set of capabilities for all professional areas of practice.
Read more
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Better information means better care
BBC Radio 4: Inside Health 21 January 2013
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
Margaret McCartney and Mark Porter ask whether the anonymity of patient records on a new NHS database can be guaranteed?NHS: Your records:
Using information about the care you have received, enables those involved in providing care and health services to improve the quality of care and health services for all. The role of the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is to ensure that high quality information is used appropriately to improve patient care.
NHS England has therefore commissioned a programme of work on behalf of the NHS, public health and social care services to address gaps in information. Our aim is to ensure that the best possible evidence is available to improve the quality of care for all. ...http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/records/healthrecords/Pages/care-data.aspx
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
individual
my interests | scientific interests |
social interests | commercial interests |
group - population
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Consultation on the proposed withdrawal of the SNOMED CT national care planning content
In addition to responding myself, I notice on the actual consultation page on 'Citizen Space' there is an option to share this consultation.
Dear Peter,
You are registered for the care planning content via the HSCIC Technology Reference data Update Distribution website.
The national Care Planning Content is designed for use to support care planning functionality across health and social care. This functionality crosses many professions/sectors which may have differing descriptions for a care plan in the traditional health record (e.g. treatment plans, birthing plans, support plans, intervention plans or care order sets). The content can support the interoperation of care plans across boundaries and paper based care plans based on the pack have also been used successfully to gain greater familiarity with structured terminology (SNOMED CT).
More details at: http://www.infostandards.org/careplanning
The absence of a declared owner or sponsor for this product means that we are proposing to withdraw it and are keen to hear views and understand the impact of not maintaining this content and its associated services.
We have a number of questions to determine how information Standards could best support the development of a standard for care planning, the consultation can be found at:
https://consultations.infostandards.org/bdea/snomed-ct-care-planning/consult_view
- and we would value and encourage your feedback on this proposal.
If you have any questions regarding the above you can contact us by sending an e-mail to information.standards AT hscic.gov.uk. This is the preferred form of communication.
You can also telephone for advice and support. Our telephone number is +44 845 13 00 114
We are available weekdays from 9am to 5pm.
Regards
The TRUD support team
Health and Social Care Information Centre
Dear Peter,
You are registered for the care planning content via the HSCIC Technology Reference data Update Distribution website.
The national Care Planning Content is designed for use to support care planning functionality across health and social care. This functionality crosses many professions/sectors which may have differing descriptions for a care plan in the traditional health record (e.g. treatment plans, birthing plans, support plans, intervention plans or care order sets). The content can support the interoperation of care plans across boundaries and paper based care plans based on the pack have also been used successfully to gain greater familiarity with structured terminology (SNOMED CT).
More details at: http://www.infostandards.org/careplanning
The absence of a declared owner or sponsor for this product means that we are proposing to withdraw it and are keen to hear views and understand the impact of not maintaining this content and its associated services.
We have a number of questions to determine how information Standards could best support the development of a standard for care planning, the consultation can be found at:
https://consultations.infostandards.org/bdea/snomed-ct-care-planning/consult_view
- and we would value and encourage your feedback on this proposal.
If you have any questions regarding the above you can contact us by sending an e-mail to information.standards AT hscic.gov.uk. This is the preferred form of communication.
You can also telephone for advice and support. Our telephone number is +44 845 13 00 114
We are available weekdays from 9am to 5pm.
Regards
The TRUD support team
Health and Social Care Information Centre
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Arts: "Reflection on a sofa" Hodges' model as a 'memory palace' I
Prior to the New Dynamics in Ageing Showcase this Monday (a great event) I travelled down to London on Sunday morning. I wasn't 100% that morning, nothing specific.
I arrived at noon dropped the bags at the B&B and then took the nine stops from Kings Cross to South Kensington. A few minutes walk brought me to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I was early to collect my timed ticket for the Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace exhibition.
After queuing for ten minutes (we Brits eh!) at the proper sign to be told I just had to approach the entrance at the allotted time. I went to check the cafe. This was very nice, on the pricey side and rather busy. It's not easy to find a seat, do self-service and be secure. Anyway it was time for a walk, find somewhere else. Before doing so I went to shop and bought the exhibition book, not a huge tome and quite interesting.
Not far away around the corner I found the Brompton cafe. There were seats here. I ordered a cappucinno. There was a large communal table so I sat there. I was ok for about twenty minutes and then came over all hot and increasingly dizzy. I realised I had to move and quickly so took my jumper off and walked around to the right where there was a bookshop.
It was empty and there was sofa with 'LOVE' emblazoned on it - three times - if I registered this correctly. I could hear the cafe and just see one table through the passage way. At that moment I'd had enough of the individual-group axis and the humanistic-mechanistic took over as I went semi-horizontal.
After a couple of minutes I recovered myself and was able to get up - yes the gyro functions - and carry on my way. I am really grateful for that little space and rest. I was still determined to visit the exhibition and attend the showcase. This was fortunate timing with Sunday the 20th the last day of the exhibition and I wanted to keep it that way.
Hodges' model is a memory palace, vacant, awaiting occupancy by patient, client, or carer. The model acts as a great prompt past, future and the here and now.
I arrived at noon dropped the bags at the B&B and then took the nine stops from Kings Cross to South Kensington. A few minutes walk brought me to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I was early to collect my timed ticket for the Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace exhibition.
After queuing for ten minutes (we Brits eh!) at the proper sign to be told I just had to approach the entrance at the allotted time. I went to check the cafe. This was very nice, on the pricey side and rather busy. It's not easy to find a seat, do self-service and be secure. Anyway it was time for a walk, find somewhere else. Before doing so I went to shop and bought the exhibition book, not a huge tome and quite interesting.
Not far away around the corner I found the Brompton cafe. There were seats here. I ordered a cappucinno. There was a large communal table so I sat there. I was ok for about twenty minutes and then came over all hot and increasingly dizzy. I realised I had to move and quickly so took my jumper off and walked around to the right where there was a bookshop.
It was empty and there was sofa with 'LOVE' emblazoned on it - three times - if I registered this correctly. I could hear the cafe and just see one table through the passage way. At that moment I'd had enough of the individual-group axis and the humanistic-mechanistic took over as I went semi-horizontal.After a couple of minutes I recovered myself and was able to get up - yes the gyro functions - and carry on my way. I am really grateful for that little space and rest. I was still determined to visit the exhibition and attend the showcase. This was fortunate timing with Sunday the 20th the last day of the exhibition and I wanted to keep it that way.
In the post-apocalyptic world of British author Hari Kunzru’s specially commissioned 10,000 word novella, London has been ravaged by a magnetic storm; all memory, art, writing, and recording has been banned. As one man attempts to remember, alone in his cell, the narrative unfolds.
Zoe Pilger, The Independent - Art review.
“Once there were great palaces called Hospitals.” In contrast to a dystopian future when the NHS and indeed all medical knowledge has been erased, the idea of basic public services appears miraculous. “It was a time of great wonder,” he writes, referring to the present. This fragment of text is accompanied by a fabulous sculpture of a “misremembered” ambulance by London-based illustration collective Le Gun. A ghoulish figure brandishes a whip and pulls a cart filled with potions that promise ad-hoc, alchemical healing.
“misremembered” ambulance by London-based illustration collective Le Gun
Zoe Pilger, The Independent - Art review and image
See page 18-19 of Kunzru’s book.I started in a memory palace, a book shop. I left to visit another, carrying my own memory palace in my mind.
Hodges' model is a memory palace, vacant, awaiting occupancy by patient, client, or carer. The model acts as a great prompt past, future and the here and now.
Friday, 12 July 2013
BCS: Webinar - Standards for the delivery of patient-centred care in the Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards initiative
Healthcare information standards are essential for the delivery of joined-up patient information and joined-up patient care, in the DoH Information Strategy and in the NHS ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards’ Technology Fund. The establishment of Integrated Digital Care Records (IDCR) across all care settings is a firm expectation by 2018 according to the Secretary of State for Health.
This free webinar provides vital orientation for managers, clinicians and IT staff wishing to participate in these initiatives, who need to understand:
Speakers:
To register for the free webinar please cut and paste the following link into your browser:
https://connectingforhealth.webex.com/connectingforhealth/j.php?ED=219725507&RG=1&UID=1629531582
SUPPORTED BY HSCIC & NHS ENGLAND
This free webinar provides vital orientation for managers, clinicians and IT staff wishing to participate in these initiatives, who need to understand:
- Why standards – their role in better patient care
- How standards should be applied in the NHS ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards’ Technology Fund
- Which standards to use for exchange and storage of clinical documents
- Which standards to use for mobile health devices and applications
- Practical experience in the deployment of standards
Speakers:
- Neil Robinson: IHE UK Chair:
- Introduction and Closing Remarks
- Kathy Farndon: Head of Health Information Standards and IG NHS England:
- The Role of Standards
- Inderjit Singh: NHS England:
- Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards Technology Fund initiative
- Dr Robert Worden: HL7 UK:
- Clinical Documents and deployment of CDA & XDS
- Dr Justin Whatling: BCS Health Chair:
- The clinical need for standards
- Dr Dave Harvey: IHE UK:
- Standards needs in mobile applications
To register for the free webinar please cut and paste the following link into your browser:
https://connectingforhealth.webex.com/connectingforhealth/j.php?ED=219725507&RG=1&UID=1629531582
SUPPORTED BY HSCIC & NHS ENGLAND
Monday, 24 June 2013
IMIA NI/TermSum - Workshop 3 July: ISO standards for Nursing Terminologies and for Continuity of Care
Please forward this message via to your own lists, networks and contacts. It is particularly relevant to those with an interest in healthcare standards, technical aspects of informatics, standardised terminologies, health records, etc.
As part of the Terminology Summit transition, the IMIA NI Healthcare Standards Working Group is hosting a series of on-line workshops to further the valuable work of the Summit in providing strategic direction to nursing informatics, with a particular focus on supporting the management of nursing information.
The first workshop was led by William Goossen who provided an overview of HL7 standards and the implications for nursing as a stimulus for discussion.
The second workshop will be led by Anne Casey who will provide an overview of two important ISO standards for nursing terminologies and for continuity of care.
The second workshop will be held via GoToMeeting on 3 July 2013 at 19.00 UTC/GMT.
For joining instructions please contact Nick (or myself).
We look forward to seeing you online.
Access to GoToMeeting has been provided kindly by eHealth Education: www.ehe.edu.au.
With best wishes
Nick
Nick Hardiker RN PhD
Professor of Nursing and Health Informatics | Associate Head (Research & Innovation)
School of Nursing Midwifery & Social Work
MS2.29, Mary Seacole Building, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT
n.r.hardiker at salford.ac.uk | www.salford.ac.uk
www.seek.salford.ac.uk/profiles/HARDIKER514.jsp
As part of the Terminology Summit transition, the IMIA NI Healthcare Standards Working Group is hosting a series of on-line workshops to further the valuable work of the Summit in providing strategic direction to nursing informatics, with a particular focus on supporting the management of nursing information.
The first workshop was led by William Goossen who provided an overview of HL7 standards and the implications for nursing as a stimulus for discussion.
The second workshop will be led by Anne Casey who will provide an overview of two important ISO standards for nursing terminologies and for continuity of care.
The second workshop will be held via GoToMeeting on 3 July 2013 at 19.00 UTC/GMT.
For joining instructions please contact Nick (or myself).
We look forward to seeing you online.
Access to GoToMeeting has been provided kindly by eHealth Education: www.ehe.edu.au.
With best wishes
Nick
Nick Hardiker RN PhD
Professor of Nursing and Health Informatics | Associate Head (Research & Innovation)
School of Nursing Midwifery & Social Work
MS2.29, Mary Seacole Building, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT
n.r.hardiker at salford.ac.uk | www.salford.ac.uk
www.seek.salford.ac.uk/profiles/HARDIKER514.jsp
Monday, 10 June 2013
Eyes, prisms, data, courts and complexes [ in Hodges' model ]
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
individual
 |  |
The court of public opinion | The military-industrial complexEisenhower |
group - population
Source: Luce, E. US data-intelligence complex emerges from shadow of 9/11, Financial Times. 8-9 June, 2013. p.6.
Images:
Eye: http://www.teamthinking.co.uk/self-awareness/4575076161
Prism: http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/06/politics-papal-reminders-looking-at.html
Friday, 7 June 2013
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fines Glasgow City Council £150,000
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has fined Glasgow City Council £150,000 for the loss of two unencrypted laptops, one of which contained personal details about more than 20,000 people.
...
An ICO investigation discovered that - despite previous warnings - Glasgow City Council had provided staff with unencrypted laptops after there had been problems with encryption software. At least 74 of these laptops remain unaccounted for, with at least six of them known to have been stolen.
...
An ICO investigation discovered that - despite previous warnings - Glasgow City Council had provided staff with unencrypted laptops after there had been problems with encryption software. At least 74 of these laptops remain unaccounted for, with at least six of them known to have been stolen.
Thursday, 6 June 2013
Government steps in to settle medical dispute over digital patient records - Canada
REGINA - The Saskatchewan government has stepped in to help three Regina doctors who were having problems getting their patients' digital medical records from the clinic where they used to work.
The office manager at the Gateway Alliance Medical Clinic says efforts to get the electronic records from the Midway Walk-in Healthcare Centre had been ongoing for two months.
Robin Anderson says Midway transferred paper files as required by Saskatchewan law, but not the digital records.
http://bit.ly/14xRYgS
My source: Peter Kurilecz - Records Management List
Information and Records Management Society
Sunday, 7 April 2013
3rd Int. Conference on Integrated Information: IC-ININFO, Prague Sept
Hi everyone!
I have been invited to Chair a session at the IC-ININFO 2013 conference in Prague in September and am now looking for abstracts by people interested in attending.
I am particularly interested in papers around sociotechnology or knowledge management. At this stage an abstract is required of around 250 words to me in the first instance and if I accept it, then it will go through the online review system. After acceptance of their abstract the authors have to prepare their Conference paper of up to 8 pages.
The paper submission will initiate a further single blind peer review process and the final paper will be published in the Conference Proceedings Book. More over, each author can submit a full paper to one of the supporting journals.
Please get in touch if you have an idea for this conference.
Elayne Coakes (Dr)
Senior Lecturer, Information and Knowledge Management
Room M112
The University of Westminster
coakese at WESTMINSTER.AC.UK
My source: SOCIOTECH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
I have been invited to Chair a session at the IC-ININFO 2013 conference in Prague in September and am now looking for abstracts by people interested in attending.
I am particularly interested in papers around sociotechnology or knowledge management. At this stage an abstract is required of around 250 words to me in the first instance and if I accept it, then it will go through the online review system. After acceptance of their abstract the authors have to prepare their Conference paper of up to 8 pages.
The paper submission will initiate a further single blind peer review process and the final paper will be published in the Conference Proceedings Book. More over, each author can submit a full paper to one of the supporting journals.
Please get in touch if you have an idea for this conference.
Elayne Coakes (Dr)
Senior Lecturer, Information and Knowledge Management
Room M112
The University of Westminster
coakese at WESTMINSTER.AC.UK
My source: SOCIOTECH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Thursday, 29 November 2012
(Extreme) sensitivity to initial conditions: Employment - Sickness
There was an item today on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours on the government's Fit for Work tests.
The new fitness for work assessments have been under review. The discussion featured Professor Malcolm Harrington and his final report on the Work Capability Assessment Review and highlighted the humanistic and mechanistic dimensions of this very complex issue (see also the back-to-work programme?). Points raised include:
What are the purposes to which clinical assessments, tests, reviews can be put? Why do clinicians and the social care team create records?
Relying primarily upon, or being driven by a computer based algorithm makes this a POLITICAL 'exercise'.
The new fitness for work assessments have been under review. The discussion featured Professor Malcolm Harrington and his final report on the Work Capability Assessment Review and highlighted the humanistic and mechanistic dimensions of this very complex issue (see also the back-to-work programme?). Points raised include:
- the impact of certain medications and treatments on an individual's ability to partake in an interview;
- the meaningfulness of an appeals process that once won, then sees subsequent recalls;
- 4/10 appeals are won;
- the need to balance decision making and the computer based process, with the former utilising documentary evidence;
- people with mental health and cognitive problems may be less able to advocate for themselves.
What are the purposes to which clinical assessments, tests, reviews can be put? Why do clinicians and the social care team create records?
Relying primarily upon, or being driven by a computer based algorithm makes this a POLITICAL 'exercise'.
As such it will be seen SPIRITUALLY as cold and uncaring.
POLITICAL neglect reinforcing similar neglect and disinterest in the CITIZENRY.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Reflections [II] Conceptual Spaces At Work: Lund University, Sweden, May 2012
[See also Reflections I CSaW2012]
Among many things Dessalles - From Conceptual Spaces to Predicates - told us that meaning is essentially two-fold: analogue and symbolic.
An evocative summary was provided:
(Topo)logical thinking = Conceptual spaces + Contrast
Concepts do not exist as permanent structures.
Predicates are ephemeral.
Questions included: Is there a contrast logic?
You can find Dessalles online and there is a specific book Why We Talk (2007) (some of the chapters look particularly interesting - information).
Also to investigate are there being no locality principle and the danger of holism, and a point about structural matching as part of problems with traditional approaches to meaning that involve interfaces and relationship structures (pardon the ramble - the paper has not appeared yet).
Geuder's Manner Modification and the Representation of Event Concepts found me tweeting - see below. A biomotion demo was tied to the theme emphasizing perceptual cues, manner and meaning.
Off at a tangent the title had me musing on the importance of 'manner modification' in nursing. Sometimes fleetness of attitudinal, objective and emotional foot is needed to deal with a care situation. Tangent aside, there are clearly some serious considerations around health care processes, these are the bread and butter of healthcare records and information systems.
I've just copied my tweets (clinical examples arose in several sessions):
* The following may be the new paper:Peter Gärdenfors and Massimo Warglien Using Conceptual Spaces to Model Actions and Events. J of Semantics first published online April 17, 2012 doi:10.1093/jos/ffs007
Among many things Dessalles - From Conceptual Spaces to Predicates - told us that meaning is essentially two-fold: analogue and symbolic.
An evocative summary was provided:
(Topo)logical thinking = Conceptual spaces + Contrast
Concepts do not exist as permanent structures.
Predicates are ephemeral.
Questions included: Is there a contrast logic?
You can find Dessalles online and there is a specific book Why We Talk (2007) (some of the chapters look particularly interesting - information).
Also to investigate are there being no locality principle and the danger of holism, and a point about structural matching as part of problems with traditional approaches to meaning that involve interfaces and relationship structures (pardon the ramble - the paper has not appeared yet).
Geuder's Manner Modification and the Representation of Event Concepts found me tweeting - see below. A biomotion demo was tied to the theme emphasizing perceptual cues, manner and meaning.
Off at a tangent the title had me musing on the importance of 'manner modification' in nursing. Sometimes fleetness of attitudinal, objective and emotional foot is needed to deal with a care situation. Tangent aside, there are clearly some serious considerations around health care processes, these are the bread and butter of healthcare records and information systems.
I've just copied my tweets (clinical examples arose in several sessions):
Gardenfors & Warglien ref new paper?* subspaces corres to a division into domains - event conceptsManner modification eg. "slowly". (Manner central in health nursing) +mention of forgetting + absentmindedness denotes? PTSD?
Geuder still, now on emotional state predicates - "sadly" Three possible ways to proceed - close now
* The following may be the new paper:
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Personal Health Records: Part II - revisiting Kim and Johnson 2002
Part I continued ...
What Kim and Johnson reveal is a level of transience that can be quite scary in this context. True, electronic health records can be archived and printed, but the latter surely defeats the purpose of the 'e'. Printing undermines the credentials. The virtual landscape presented in part I by checking the current status of these domains highlights the issue of ownership of data in a way that has provoked much debate in social media and the transferability of a person's data - information. If I want to move to another vendor, system, company (however the 'entity' is described) there needs to be standards and a degree of interoperability to facilitate this.
Next, we have to bow to the notion of a year on the internet compared with 'real time'. M-health was a dream a decade ago. Here is another pressure on the PHR and its family members. A public-facing health record, whatever its nomenclature, must not only be responsive to the public and professional users and the 'total stakeholder community'. Now the record must be responsive according to device: from desktop, to tablet through to mobile phone.
In 2002 the PHR project was set to run and run. It had a slow, strong pulse with speedy recovery after exertion. The PHR looked fit for Olympic* endeavors.
But then the algorithms set to change personal health care (to fuse ill-health and well-being) suffered a major arrhythmia. The fate of those who became the new PHR frontrunners, the heavyweights no less: NHS's Healthspace, the initiatives of Google and Microsoft suffered the same fate. This post is from 2009:
*All trademarks acknowledged.
What Kim and Johnson reveal is a level of transience that can be quite scary in this context. True, electronic health records can be archived and printed, but the latter surely defeats the purpose of the 'e'. Printing undermines the credentials. The virtual landscape presented in part I by checking the current status of these domains highlights the issue of ownership of data in a way that has provoked much debate in social media and the transferability of a person's data - information. If I want to move to another vendor, system, company (however the 'entity' is described) there needs to be standards and a degree of interoperability to facilitate this.
Next, we have to bow to the notion of a year on the internet compared with 'real time'. M-health was a dream a decade ago. Here is another pressure on the PHR and its family members. A public-facing health record, whatever its nomenclature, must not only be responsive to the public and professional users and the 'total stakeholder community'. Now the record must be responsive according to device: from desktop, to tablet through to mobile phone.
In 2002 the PHR project was set to run and run. It had a slow, strong pulse with speedy recovery after exertion. The PHR looked fit for Olympic* endeavors.
But then the algorithms set to change personal health care (to fuse ill-health and well-being) suffered a major arrhythmia. The fate of those who became the new PHR frontrunners, the heavyweights no less: NHS's Healthspace, the initiatives of Google and Microsoft suffered the same fate. This post is from 2009:
Self-care in e-space and the need to Impress
Given the changes since Kim and Johnson you have to wonder what the next decade will bring. Whatever there will still be fog, but that just adds to the excitement as we climb the trees. Then we realise that to all of the users of health information systems (remember the user and stakeholders?), whichever TLA is employed, they are all X-HRs by proxy.Kim MI, Johnson KB. Personal Health Records: Evaluation of Functionality and Utility. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2002. Mar-Apr; 9(2):171-180. Selected for inclusion in the IMIA 2003 Yearbook of Medical Informatics.
*All trademarks acknowledged.
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Personal Health Records: Part I - revisiting Kim and Johnson 2002
When I was at HC2004 or 2005 I was given a copy of the Medical Informatics Yearbook 2003 from the British Computer Society - Nursing Specialist Group stand. Within this volume of key papers for the year April 2001 - March 2002 I found the following:
Kim and Johnson provide several lessons as a high quality contribution to the medical informatics literature. From the above we see that while we talk about timeliness in terms of the written record, time takes on a series of new meanings when it comes to electronic records, media, commercial companies and clearly the internet.
As I read the paper and reflected on the past decade other things fell into focus. At the end of the day a PHR should be what it says - personal. Reading Kim and Johnson this did not stop them looking at the PHRs from the perspective of doctors and informatics practitioners. There is nothing wrong with this. Although developers and political masters quite rightly seek to engage with the user, espouse usability and user testing - a system is aimed at a community.
If title [personal] follows function [record] and form [electronic] follows function then what do we have?
Don't worry if you're lost, me too (I'm musing again); let's add the fog....
It's crucial to know what's going on over the fence (similarly sometimes it helps to climb a tree). In this case the person in the form of patient is not the only consumer of the information in the record.
This is the point: systems are about a user AND a stakeholder community. Stakeholder is a much maligned word, found on the lips of those seeking to reach and engage remote ('difficult' to reach) community groups. It has a definite role here though.
Every health discipline has its record, that is a professional must. So in effect you have a series of 'X' -HRs. On paper they were - and remain in many cases - a mess. What we should have then is a hybrid health record that depending on the user morphs itself accordingly. But what is the point in pointing to users and stakeholders? Well, conceptually how far is personal from medical (nursing...) and how far again to personality? Add to the mix the question of where patient, well-being and health fit in to the management of long term medical conditions as per the critieria of Kim and Johnson, accurate entry of medicines, medical conditions, lab tests, monitoring ... and you see what is frequently a record breaking task.
This is (or was*) the challenge: to transform something that is generically personal (with the potential contradiction this implies) to something that is personalised as in 'I'.
*Part II to follow.
Kim MI, Johnson KB. Personal Health Records: Evaluation of Functionality and Utility. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2002. Mar-Apr; 9(2):171-180. Selected for inclusion in the IMIA 2003 Yearbook of Medical Informatics.The paper identified candidate Personal Health Records [PHRs], then developed criteria examining the entry and display of data elements necessary for the PHRs to serve as adequate representations of information. Then in the final third phase a selected group of PHRs were assessed for their functionality and utility (p.370). Of the 12 PHRs assessed I thought it would be interesting to check their current status (this was a quick visit to the published domains).
Web Site | Record | URL | Findings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. I-Net | My Medical Record | www.drinet.com/ | A good start! Still operational domain redirects from original www.aboutmyhealth.com Continues to offer a PHR. |
| HealthCompass: | Lifelong Health Record | www.healthcompassnet.com | While there are several site using 'Health Compass' the original version was not obvious. |
| MedicalEdge | Medical Register | www.medicaledge.com/ | Domain currently offers support to physicians, so a PHR may be part of a package? |
| MedicalRecord.com | Your Medical Record | www.medicalrecord.com | This now appears to be a directory to electronic medical records. |
| MedicData | MedicData | www.medicdata.com/ | This does not appear to offer a PHR and the homepage is 'under construction'. It looks like the domain may have a new owner. |
| Medscape AboutMyHealth | Personal Health Record | www.aboutmyhealth.com/ | Now leads to GE Healthcare. |
| myhealthnotes.com | Personal Health Manager | www.myhealthnotes.com/ | Server not found. |
| PersonalMD | My Medical Records | www.personalmd.com | Retired - leads to: www.eheandme.com/personalmd_announcement.html |
| TheDailyApple | Health Records | www.thedailyapple.com/ | Social networking is vital to well-being but no PHR here. |
| VistaLink | Health Profile | vistalink.com | Domain for sale. |
| WebMD | WebMD | www.webmd.com/ | Very much alive and kicking commercially, but my health record / PHR not in immediately in evidence. |
| Wellmed.com | Health Record | www.wellmed.com | This site leads to http://www.webmdhealthservices.com/ |
Kim and Johnson provide several lessons as a high quality contribution to the medical informatics literature. From the above we see that while we talk about timeliness in terms of the written record, time takes on a series of new meanings when it comes to electronic records, media, commercial companies and clearly the internet.
As I read the paper and reflected on the past decade other things fell into focus. At the end of the day a PHR should be what it says - personal. Reading Kim and Johnson this did not stop them looking at the PHRs from the perspective of doctors and informatics practitioners. There is nothing wrong with this. Although developers and political masters quite rightly seek to engage with the user, espouse usability and user testing - a system is aimed at a community.
If title [personal] follows function [record] and form [electronic] follows function then what do we have?
Don't worry if you're lost, me too (I'm musing again); let's add the fog....
It's crucial to know what's going on over the fence (similarly sometimes it helps to climb a tree). In this case the person in the form of patient is not the only consumer of the information in the record.
This is the point: systems are about a user AND a stakeholder community. Stakeholder is a much maligned word, found on the lips of those seeking to reach and engage remote ('difficult' to reach) community groups. It has a definite role here though.
Every health discipline has its record, that is a professional must. So in effect you have a series of 'X' -HRs. On paper they were - and remain in many cases - a mess. What we should have then is a hybrid health record that depending on the user morphs itself accordingly. But what is the point in pointing to users and stakeholders? Well, conceptually how far is personal from medical (nursing...) and how far again to personality? Add to the mix the question of where patient, well-being and health fit in to the management of long term medical conditions as per the critieria of Kim and Johnson, accurate entry of medicines, medical conditions, lab tests, monitoring ... and you see what is frequently a record breaking task.
This is (or was*) the challenge: to transform something that is generically personal (with the potential contradiction this implies) to something that is personalised as in 'I'.
*Part II to follow.
Friday, 6 April 2012
Virtual International Day of the Midwife - start 10.00 5th May New Zealand
Hello everyone
For those of you who do not know me, I am one of the facilitators of the Virtual International Day of the Midwife. This is a free online conference that runs for:
24 hours starting 10.00 5th May New Zealand.
The conference is designed for midwives and anyone interested in birth. And if you cannot attend, we'll be recording the conference sessions for you to watch in your own time.
I am delighted to announce that the program for the conference is now confirmed: http://internationaldayofthemidwife.wikispaces.com/
Please go to the website above for all information, including how to access the web conference room that we'll be using, as well as practice sessions where you can get one-to-one help with setting up your technology.
You can also follow us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/VirtualInternationalDayoftheMidwife
and Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/VIDofM
There is also a poster that you can download and print off, in order to advertise this event to your colleagues. Look forward to seeing you at the conference. If you have any queries about the program, or the technology, please let me know or leave a comment on our Facebook page.
regards Sarah
Sarah Stewart
EdD Student and Consultant
http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com
Skype: sarah.m.stewart
Twitter: SarahStewart
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