Behavioral Reference Model for Pervasive Healthcare Systems

The emergence of mobile healthcare systems is an important outcome of application of pervasive computing concepts for medical care purposes. These systems provide the facilities and infrastructure required for automatic and ubiquitous sharing of medical information. Healthcare systems have a dynamic structure and configuration, therefore having an architecture is essential for future development of these systems. The need for increased response rate, problem limited storage, accelerated processing and etc. the tendency toward creating a new generation of healthcare system architecture highlight the need for further focus on cloud-based solutions for transfer data and data processing challenges. Integrity and reliability of healthcare systems are of critical importance, as even the slightest error may put the patients’ lives in danger; therefore acquiring a behavioral model for these systems and developing the tools required to model their behaviors are of significant importance. The high-level designs may contain some flaws, therefor the system must be fully examined for different scenarios and conditions. This paper presents a software architecture for development of healthcare systems based on pervasive computing concepts, and then models the behavior of described system. A set of solutions are then proposed to improve the design’s qualitative characteristics including, availability, interoperability and performance.     

充分发挥突发公共卫生事件中家庭医生的社区防控作用

突发公共卫生事件具有无法准确预测性、影响的广泛性和防控的复杂性等特点,社区防控是公共卫生体系中重要的基层网络,家庭医生在应对突发公共卫生事件时要继续做好居民健康的守门人,为签约居民提供高质量、综合的、持续的和个体化的保健和健康教育服务,针对医疗设施调整、慢性病患者就医不便、疫情期间特殊的心理问题和生活方式改变等问题,家庭医生应积极发挥家庭医生签约服务的优势,加强对患者的咨询和指导,及时发现和尽可能地解决患者可能存在的健康问题,提供适宜的医疗服务。此外还要做好突发公共卫生事件防控的守门人,早发现早报告,承担防控相关任务如重点人群排查与健康指导、隔离观察人员规范管理、宣传科学防护知识、发现并协调处理社区中存在的风险点等。突发公共卫生事件会导致家庭医生的防护行为、医疗行为出现一定的改变,如增加自身防护行为、更多转诊患者、提高看诊速度、测量体温、更多应用信息化技术手段等。与此同时,家庭医生在应对突发公共卫生事件时也存在着缺乏防范意识、与疾病预防控制部门隔绝、主动性和规范性不足等问题,需以政府为主体,充分调动和发挥社会力量的协同作用,构建社区疫情防控的基层治理共同体,同时在初级医疗保健服务和公共卫生服务之间建立有效的伙伴关系,通过有针对性的继续教育、建立可共享信息的网络等途径进一步提升和支持家庭医生应对突发公共卫生事件的能力。      

医院信息化系统在武汉新冠肺炎防疫救治过程中暴露出的问题及其引发的思考

目的针对武汉地区医院信息化系统在新型冠状病毒肺炎(简称新冠肺炎)防疫救治过程中暴露出的问题,提出应对突发公共卫生事件时医院信息化的完善方法。方法充分分析医院信息化系统在新冠肺炎防疫救治中所暴露出的各个医院信息化系统结构不同、各个医院之间无法实施信息共享、门诊病房之间系统相互独立、数据信息更新不及时等九大问题,并提出医院信息化基础布局的建立、区域链及大数据临床中的应用等多项措施。结果医院信息化能力的提高有助于降低医护人员工作强度,提高患者的安全。结论新冠肺炎疫情的发生给我国医院信息化系统带来了严峻的挑战,但同时也给我们带来了更大的机遇。我国在未来针对突发公共卫生事件时,医院信息化将为医护人员、患者提供更有利的支持。     

医疗改革对月坛地区居民常见症状首诊意向影响调查研究

目的　调查医疗改革对月坛地区居民常见症状首诊意向的影响,观察医疗改革效果,为分级诊疗、基层首诊提供科学依据。方法　2017年1—4月随机抽取829名月坛地区满15岁的常住居民作为调查对象,采用自行设计的问卷进行调查,调查居民医疗改革前（2017-04-08前）、医疗改革1（增设医事服务费,取消挂号费,检查费有降有升）、医疗改革2（增加社区卫生服务机构药品种类）出现感冒、发热、头晕、头痛、心悸、胸闷胸痛、喘憋、腹痛、腹泻、反酸、呕吐、便秘、乏力、腰痛关节痛、下肢水肿、失眠、尿频等17项症状时首诊选择社区卫生服务中心的比例。结果　共发放调查问卷829份,回收有效问卷809份,有效回收率为97.6%。医疗改革1和医疗改革2居民出现感冒、发热、头晕、头痛、心悸、胸闷胸痛、喘憋、腹痛、腹泻、反酸、呕吐、便秘、乏力、腰痛关节痛、下肢水肿、失眠、尿频症状时首诊社区卫生服务中心比例高于医疗改革前,医疗改革2居民出现心悸、胸闷胸痛、乏力、腰痛关节痛、下肢水肿症状时首诊社区卫生服务中心比例高于医疗改革1,医疗改革2居民出现喘憋症状时首诊社区卫生服务中心比例低于医疗改革1（P<0.01）。结论　医疗改革促进月坛地区居民在出现常见症状时更倾向到社区卫生服务机构首诊。     

Deployment of Secure Mobile Agents for Medical Information Systems

Changes in global population and demography, and advances in medicine have led to elderly population growth, creating aging societies from which elderly medical care has evolved. In addition, with the elderly susceptible to chronic diseases, this together with the changing lifestyles of young adults have not only pushed up patient numbers of chronic diseases, but also effected into younger patients. These problems have become the major focus for the health care industry. In response to patient demand and the huge shortage of medical resources, we propose remote healthcare medical information systems that combine patient physiological data acquisition equipment with real-time health care analyses. Since remote health care systems are structured around the Internet, in addition to considering the numerous public systems spread across insecure heterogeneous networks, compatibility among heterogeneous networks will also be another concern. To address the aforementioned issues, mobile agents are adopted. With a mobile agent’s characteristics of easy adaptability to heterogeneity and autonomy, the problem of heterogeneous network environments can be tackled. To construct a hierarchical safe access control mechanism for monitoring and control of patient data in order to provide the most appropriate medical treatment, we also propose to use the Chinese Remainder Theorem and discrete logarithm to classify different levels of monitoring staff and hence, to grant permission and access according to their authorized levels. We expect the methods proposed can improve medical care quality and reduce medical resource wastage, while ensuring patient privacy. Finally, security analysis of the system is conducted by simulating a variety of typical attacks, from which it can be concluded that the constructed remote healthcare information system be secure.     

Regional Variation in Medical Classification Agreement: Benchmarking the Coding Gap

The growing use of classification and coding of patient data in medical information systems has resulted in increased dependence on the accuracy of coding practices. Information maintained on systems must be trusted by both providers and managers in order to serve as a viable tool for the delivery of healthcare in an evidence-based environment. A national survey of health information managers was employed here to assess observed levels of coder agreement with physician code selections used in classifying patient data. Findings from this survey suggest that, on a national level, the quality of coded data may suffer as a result of disagreement or inconsistent coding within healthcare provider organizations, in an era where physicians are increasingly called upon to enter and classify patient data via computerized medical records. Nineteen percent of respondents report that coder–physician classification disagreement occurred on more than 5% of all patient encounters. In some cases disagreement occurs in 20% or more instances of code selection. This phenomenon occurred to varying degrees across regions and market areas, suggesting a confounding influence when coded data is aggregated for comparative purposes. In an evidence-based healthcare environment, coded data often serves as a representation of clinical performance. Given the increasing complexity of medical information classification systems, reliance on such data may pose a risk for both practitioners and managers without consistent agreement on coding practices and procedures.     

东莞市社区门诊首诊制的运行现状调查

社区首诊制是分级诊疗制度的核心问题,东莞市自2008年开始实施社区门诊首诊制,现已取得一定成效。本文旨在对其运行现状进行分析,结果显示,2009—2016年东莞市社区门诊结算人次逐年递增,有效缓解了居民“看病难、看病贵”问题,有利于对慢性病的预防保健管理,同时兼顾了卫生服务的公平和效率。但在运行过程中,仍存在各镇（街）发展差异大、转诊手续繁琐、转诊率高、人才招聘和稳定性不足等问题。建议统一社区卫生服务中心的建立标准、规范社区门诊转诊标准、建立科学的薪酬体系和晋升机制,同时引导居民转变就医观念,以推动社区门诊首诊制的持续发展。     

A Data-Mining Framework for Transnational Healthcare System

Medical resources are important and necessary in health care. Recently, the development of methods for improving the efficiency of medical resource utilization is an emerging problem. Despite evidence supporting the use of order sets in hospitals, only a small number of health information systems have successfully equipped physicians with analysis of complex order sequences from clinical pathway and clinical guideline. This paper presents a data-mining framework for transnational healthcare system to find alternative practices, including transfusion, pre-admission tests, and evaluation of liver diseases. However, individual countries vary with respect to geographical location, living habits, and culture, so disease risks and treatment methods also vary across countries. To realize the difference, a service-oriented architecture and cloud-computing technology are applied to analyze these medical data. The validity of the proposed system is demonstrated in including Taiwan and Mongolia, to ensure the feasibility of our approach.     

Unified Performance Evaluation of Health Centers with Integrated Model of Data Envelopment Analysis and Bargaining Game

This paper introduces a new integrated approach to measure unified efficiency of the healthcare systems. Health centers as an important part of the healthcare systems are considered for evaluation. For this purpose, we define two categories of inputs to measure performance of health centers based on medical human resources and characteristics of spatial information by using geographic information system (GIS). Catching the balance in the spatial distribution of populations and services is one of the main problems in health centers evaluation. On the other hand, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is widely applied for measuring efficiency of the healthcare systems. But, the conventional DEA models may fail to integrated several categories of measures. In this paper, DEA and bargaining game model are integrated for evaluation of health centers. In other words, two categories of measures are used to measure unified efficiency for each health center in the competitive environment. Two models according to constant return to scale (CRS) and variable return to scale (VRS) assumptions are developed. The case study of health centers under supervising of Tehran university of medical sciences (TMUS) is presented to show the abilities of the proposed approach.     

Coding Medical Information: Classification Versus Nomenclature and Implications to the Israeli Medical System

The efficient retrieval of medical information is essential for all functional aspects of a health system. Such retrieval is possible only by coding data (as it is produced or after it is produced) and entering it into a data-base. The completeness and accuracy of retrieved information depend, therefore, on the coding system employed. The main coding system that is in use in Israel is the ICD-9: International Classification of Diseases and its clinical modification (ICD-9-CM). Using such a statistical classification system for coding has met the basic needs for statistical and administrative purposes, but causes distortion and loss of information. With the recent growth and availability of information technology, more detailed data can be coded and processed than was possible before. A detailed nomenclature system such as SNOMED (the Systematized Nomenclature Of Human and Veterinary Medicine) can be used as a coding system that enables a more comprehensive and flexible medical information data base. This article discusses some aspects of coding medical information and suggests that a national revision of medical coding systems be considered as the computerized-patient-record is further developed and implemented.     

Benchmarking Electronic Medical Records Initiatives in the US: a Conceptual Model

This article provides a conceptual model for benchmarking the use of clinical information systems within healthcare organizations. Additionally, it addresses the benefits of clinical information systems which include the reduction of errors, improvement in clinical decision-making and real time access to patient information. The literature suggests that clinical information systems provide financial benefits due to cost-savings from improved efficiency and reduction of errors. As a result, healthcare organizations should adopt such clinical information systems to improve quality of care and stay competitive in the marketplace. Our research clearly documents the increased adoption of electronic medical records in U.S. hospitals from 2005 to 2007. This is important because the electronic medical record provides an opportunity for integration of patient information and improvements in efficiency and quality of care across a wide range of patient populations. This was supported by recent federal initiatives such as the establishment of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) to create an interoperable health information infrastructure. Potential barriers to the implementation of health information technology include cost, a lack of financial incentives for providers, and a need for interoperable systems. As a result, future government involvement and leadership may serve to accelerate widespread adoption of interoperable clinical information systems.     

Personal health records: a scoping review

Electronic personal health record systems (PHRs) support patient centered healthcare by making medical records and other relevant information accessible to patients, thus assisting patients in health self-management. We reviewed the literature on PHRs including design, functionality, implementation, applications, outcomes, and benefits. We found that, because primary care physicians play a key role in patient health, PHRs are likely to be linked to physician electronic medical record systems, so PHR adoption is dependent on growth in electronic medical record adoption. Many PHR systems are physician-oriented, and do not include patient-oriented functionalities. These must be provided to support self-management and disease prevention if improvements in health outcomes are to be expected. Differences in patient motivation to use PHRs exist, but an overall low adoption rate is to be expected, except for the disabled, chronically ill, or caregivers for the elderly. Finally, trials of PHR effectiveness and sustainability for patient self-management are needed.     

个人健康管理信息系统技术研究

建立健全公民健康档案对完善我国公共卫生和医疗服务体系,加强疾病防治和预防保健等工作具有重要意义。目前。我国医疗卫生行业信息化发展迅速,医院信息系统（HIS）、社区卫生服务系统（CHSS）等正在不断开发、应用。但由于各信息系统难以互通,不能形成完整的社会健康信息,难以实现对健康信息的深度挖掘和利用。为解决以上问题,应致力于个人健康信息,研究出一套在时间上涵盖个体从出生到死亡、内容上涵盖从预防接种到疾病诊治转归等医学健康行为的数据标准及数据管理标准.     

Creation of a RFID Based Real Time Tracking (R-RTT) System for Small Healthcare Clinics

A well-managed healthcare system improves the quality of the patient experience. However, many small healthcare clinics have suboptimal systems for scheduling and locating patients and medical staff, delaying the relay of information and creating poor resource and room utilization. This paper proposes a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based Real-Time Tracking (R-RTT) System for optimizing small healthcare facility operations, enabling further optimization of throughput time, room utilization, and patient flow. In the proposed scenario, RFID readers were equipped in strategic locations throughout the facility. Patients and medical staff were issued personalized RFID tags. When they pass through the reader's interrogation zone, it reads their RFID tag and sends the information to a central computer equipped with software capable of filtering the RFID data into useable information. A Visual Basic Application (VBA) program uses the information received from the ID tags to display the location of the patients and staff as they move throughout the facility. This increases their visibility within the facility by allowing medical staff to determine where their colleagues and patients are at all times. The VBA program was also able to record the data in order to track the time each stage of the appointment process takes to complete. The recorded time data can be broken into processes, making it easier to determine if it adds value. This data can then be transformed into a value stream map for further analysis and improvement.     

“互联网+”医疗环境下的健康医疗大数据应用

健康医疗大数据是医院信息化建设的重要内容,是医院运行管理的核心资源,“互联网+”医疗已成为健康医疗领域发展趋势。从从推进医院精细化管理、推进疾病精准治疗、创新医疗模式、推进健康管理、拉动医疗相关产业发展5方面讨论了健康医疗大数据的应用。     

AMIA Advocates National Health Information System in Fight Against National Health Threats

To protect public health and national safety, AMIA recommends that the federal government dedicate technologic resources and medical informatics expertise to create a national health information infrastructure (NHII). An NHII provides the underlying information utility that connects local health providers and health officials through high-speed networks to national data systems necessary to detect and track global threats to public health. AMIA strongly recommends the accelerated development and wide-scale deployment of electronic public health surveillance systems, computer-based patient records, and disaster-response information technologies. Such efforts hold the greatest potential to protect our citizens from disaster and to deliver the best health care if disaster strikes.To protect public health and national safety, AMIA recommends that the federal government dedicate technologic resources and medical informatics expertise to create a national health information infrastructure (NHII). An NHII provides the underlying information utility that connects local health providers and health officials through high-speed networks to national data systems (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) necessary to detect and track global threats to public health.In the short term, this means adapting existing information systems to facilitate public health surveillance and emergency response. To establish a permanent infrastructure, AMIA strongly recommends the accelerated development and wide-scale deployment of electronic public health surveillance systems, computer-based patient records, and disaster-response information technologies. Such efforts hold the greatest potential to protect our citizens from disaster, and to deliver the best health care if disaster strikes.While meeting the acute needs of today, this initiative will begin laying the groundwork for a NHII that will continue to serve the health needs of the nation—a lasting endowment for future generations. Establishing an NHII requires thoughtful strategic planning and strong inter-agency leadership. Work on key components of the NHII must begin immediately. These key components include:

• Strategic planning and coordination. There must be a central coordinating entity that can quickly inventory existing public- and personal-health initiatives and develop a strategy to fashion a national system to protect Americans against health threats of various types, including biological, chemical, nuclear, and physical. The short-term strategy must be part of a framework for a permanent infrastructure that serves public health, patient care, and research.
• Connectivity and communications. Local, regional, and national coordination cannot exist without efficient, instantaneous communication. Public health services must be linked using secure connections to the Internet as an immediate top priority. AMIA recommends federal government funding to guarantee high-speed, dedicated access to the Internet for all public and private health care facilities and related organizations. Minimum-level workstations should be required, and adequate tools and training should be provided.
• Standards. Effective communication among local, community, state, and federal facilities require the use of standards. Health care messaging standards should be used for data interchange. A common vocabulary standard and required data elements for public health surveillance databases are required to enable effective sharing of data. Without a common vocabulary, data from local systems cannot be analyzed to detect emerging health threats. Government coordination and support for consensus standardization and low-cost distribution of common vocabularies for health event detection, prevention, and intervention are a fundamental aspect of an NHII.
• Resource databases. An up-to-date, central, Internet-based health resources directory containing information about available resources—knowledge, physical, and human—is vital to providing the timely information needed to manage any public health crisis. The national health resource directory would include information about physical resources, such as health care organizations, safety facilities, and environmental agencies; human resources, including physicians, nurses, and public health and support personnel; organizational resources, such as emergency medical services, county and city law enforcement agencies, and other emergency-response groups; and knowledge resources ranging from clinical guidelines to extensive clinical decision support algorithms related to threat vectors. Local health authorities must be trained in use of the directory to effectively derive maximal benefit when responding to national health threats.
• Public health surveillance systems. Effective public health practice and decision making depend on timely information, much of which is not readily available. Information about patients with clinical conditions of public health importance, symptoms compatible with prodromes of serious infection or exposure, health behaviors, and environmental risk factors must be collected, transmitted, aggregated, analyzed, and utilized for prompt decision making. Whether the health threat is biological, chemical, or nuclear, early detection and rapid response are essential. Existing public health systems in place and under development should be adapted to meet the current needs. Implementation of public health system initiatives such as the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System and Health Alert Network must be accelerated to meet the acute threat posed by bioterrorism.
• National identifiers. National identifiers for providers, insurers, businesses, and individuals are required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. The privacy provision of HIPAA that protects confidential health information has been finalized. In the face of the acute crisis, the work on identifiers should be accelerated so that effective epidemiologic data can be gathered and analyzed and appropriate health care services delivered where needed.

AMIA is an organization of professionals who operate at the interface between health care and computer and information science. Our leadership and members are capable and willing to contribute to solving the acute situation while laying the foundation for a lasting infrastructure to manage health information for the benefit of patients and the public.TANG, National Health Information System Proposal     

A Mobile Agent Approach for Secure Integrated Medical Information Systems

Different patient-related information in medical organizations is the primary reference for medical personnel diagnosing, treating, and caring patients. With the rapid development of information technology, paper-based medical records have gradually been changed to electronic forms. However, different medical organizations present individual system specifications and data-saving formats so that the medical information of the same patient cannot be exchanged, shared, and securely accessed. In order not to largely change the present medical information systems as well as not to increase abundant costs, Virtual Integrated Medical-information Systems (VIMS) is proposed to assist various hospitals in information exchange. Furthermore, with Mobile Agent, the dispersed medical information can be securely integrated. It presents confidentiality, non-repudiation, source authentication, and integrity in network transmission. Virtual Integrated Medical-information Systems (VIMS) is a virtual electronic integration system combined with Mobile Agent technology. With the features of independence, adaptability, mobility, objectives, and autonomy, Mobile Agent is applied to overcome the problems from heterogeneous systems. With the features, the over-dispersed medical records can be integrated. Moreover, Mobile Agent can ensure the instantaneity and usability of medical records from which doctors can make the most appropriate evaluation and diagnoses. It will avoid the waste of medical resources, such as repetition medication, as well as become the reference of further consultation or health check. Not only can it improve the medical care quality, but it can be provided for medical research.     

提升全科医生职业吸引力的SWOT分析

我国全科医生队伍人才短缺、人员留用困难的问题极大地影响着基层医疗卫生服务的发展,也给分级诊疗制度的落实与推进带来巨大挑战,亟须制定策略维护和提升全科医生的职业吸引力。本文基于SWOT分析法,探讨当下全科医学与全科医生队伍具备的优势与劣势,以及所面临社会环境的机会和威胁。提出：目前我国提升全科医生职业吸引力面临的优势在于广泛的政策支持、全科教育的持续发展及符合健康中国发展目标;劣势在于全科医生的社会认同不高及管理制度的缺乏;机会在于医药卫生体制改革、医联体建设和健康信息技术的发展;威胁在于具体医疗行为的限制及培养体系、硬件基础的缺乏。同时,文章在分析全科医生职业吸引力提升动因和面临挑战的基础上,制定符合全科医学发展方向的应对策略,包括增加财政支持力度、强化制度建设、拓宽晋升平台、优化团队配置等方面,以期提升全科医生职业吸引力,促进我国全科医生队伍可持续发展。     

Leveraging health information technology to achieve the “triple aim” of healthcare reform

Objective To investigate experiences with leveraging health information technology (HIT) to improve patient care and population health, and reduce healthcare expenditures.Materials and methods In-depth qualitative interviews with federal government employees, health policy, HIT and medico-legal experts, health providers, physicians, purchasers, payers, patient advocates, and vendors from across the United States.Results The authors undertook 47 interviews. There was a widely shared belief that Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) had catalyzed the creation of a digital infrastructure, which was being used in innovative ways to improve quality of care and curtail costs. There were however major concerns about the poor usability of electronic health records (EHRs), their limited ability to support multi-disciplinary care, and major difficulties with health information exchange, which undermined efforts to deliver integrated patient-centered care. Proposed strategies for enhancing the benefits of HIT included federal stimulation of competition by mandating vendors to open-up their application program interfaces, incenting development of low-cost consumer informatics tools, and promoting Congressional review of the The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) to optimize the balance between data privacy and reuse. Many underscored the need to “kick the legs from underneath the fee-for-service model” and replace it with a data-driven reimbursement system that rewards high quality care.Conclusions The HITECH Act has stimulated unprecedented, multi-stakeholder interest in HIT. Early experiences indicate that the resulting digital infrastructure is being used to improve quality of care and curtail costs. Reform efforts are however severely limited by problems with usability, limited interoperability and the persistence of the fee-for-service paradigm—addressing these issues therefore needs to be the federal government’s main policy target.