The Challenge of Ubiquitous Computing in Health Care: Technology, Concepts and Solutions

2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (03) ◽  
pp. 473-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Ammenwerth ◽  
B. Brigl ◽  
P. Knaup ◽  
E. Lang ◽  
R. Pilgram ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Ubiquitous Computing ◽  
Medical Informatics ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Care Technology

Summary Objectives: To review recent research efforts in the field of ubiquitous computing in health care. To identify current research trends and further challenges for medical informatics. Methods: Analysis of the contents of the Yearbook on Medical Informatics 2005 of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA). Results: The Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2005 includes 34 original papers selected from 22 peer-reviewed scientific journals related to several distinct research areas: health and clinical management, patient records, health information systems, medical signal processing and biomedical imaging, decision support, knowledge representation and management, education and consumer informatics as well as bioinformatics. A special section on ubiquitous health care systems is devoted to recent developments in the application of ubiquitous computing in health care. Besides additional synoptical reviews of each of the sections the Yearbook includes invited reviews concerning E-Health strategies, primary care informatics and wearable healthcare. Conclusions: Several publications demonstrate the potential of ubiquitous computing to enhance effectiveness of health services delivery and organization.But ubiquitous computing is also a societal challenge, caused by the surrounding but unobtrusive character of this technology. Contributions from nearly all of the established sub-disciplines of medical informatics are demanded to turn the visions of this promising new research field into reality.

The Untold Story: How the Health Care Systems in Developing Countries Contribute to Maternal Mortality

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. K. Sundari
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Maternal Mortality ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Health Services Delivery ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Referral Hospitals ◽  
Care Systems

This article attempts to put together evidence from maternal mortality studies in developing countries of how an inadequate health care system characterized by misplaced priorities contributes to high maternal mortality rates. Inaccessibility of essential health information to the women most affected, and the physical as well as economic and sociocultural distance separating health services from the vast majority of women, are only part of the problem. Even when the woman reaches a health facility, there are a number of obstacles to her receiving adequate and appropriate care. These are a result of failures in the health services delivery system: the lack of minimal life-saving equipment at the first referral level; the lack of equipment, personnel, and know-how even in referral hospitals; and worst of all, faulty patient management. Prevention of maternal deaths requires fundamental changes not only in resource allocation, but in the very structures of health services delivery. These will have to be fought for as part of a wider struggle for equity and social justice.

Health-care technology assessment: a clinical perspective

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Chantler
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Care Technology ◽  
Provision Of Care

Health technology assessment needs to relate to contemporary questions which concern public health-care systems: how to keep people healthy, how to focus on the needs of those with chronic disabilities and integrate care between the hospital and the community, how to encourage and audit effective teamwork, and how to establish a consensus about what is effective and affordable. Clinicians have an ethical responsibility to practice efficiently and economically, for profligacy in the care of one patient may mean that another is treated inadequately. For similar reasons, clinicians need to play a full role in the management of services. Advice from health technology assessment is vital and needs to be accurate, relevant, timely, clear, and accessible. As well as being concerned about what works, we need also to eliminate from practice what does not. Regular audit and appraisal of practice against the evidence base should be useful in this respect. Alternative approaches to management, such as the provision of care as opposed to aggressive treatments, need to be evaluated, and health technology assessment needs to consider how services are delivered, not just specific treatments.

scholarly journals Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology Education: In the Framework of the Tempus-Phare Joint European Project

1995 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 121-124
Author(s):  
Jana Zvárová
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Informatics ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Biomedical Knowledge ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
New Treatments ◽  
Care Problems ◽  
Available Information

Abstract:Medicine and health care should react to the changing composition of the population, to diseases and new treatments, to the needs of medical ethics and law, and to changing economic conditions and to social needs. The main goal of health care is to improve the health status of the population. To reach this goal the appropriate use of available information, including for example biomedical knowledge, epidemiological data or patient data, is necessary. The need for education in this field of medical informatics, statistics, and epidemiology is a requirement to solve health-care problems, to develop a long-term perspective and successful functioning of health-care systems. The information sciences can play an important role in promoting the construction of basic data, vocabularies and decision procedures, as well as developing formal methods for problem solving.

Emergence of Coproduction and Participatory Care in European Clinical Practice

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-161
Author(s):  
Dawid Szescilo
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
European Experience ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
European Health ◽  
The Uk

Coproduction as a participatory and collaborative innovation in public service delivery might be particularly useful as a tool for improving quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction in the course of health services provision. This article reviews the practices of coproduction identified in European health care systems. This aims at exploring if the coproduction has already gained a status of significant trend in health services provision and what are the outcomes of coproductive arrangements implemented. In the first part, drawing from the literature review, major types of coproduction in health care have been identified, including shared decision making, self management and expert patient initiatives, and peer support networks. In the second part the existing evidence on European experience with coproduction in health care has been analysed in terms of scale and outcomes. This review demonstrates that while coproduction might be promising addition to institutional mix in health services delivery, it is still at early stage of development. The number and scope of coproductive arrangements is rather low and most of them could be identified in the UK health care system. Possible reasons for limited dissemination of coproduction in the European health care systems are discussed in the last part of the article.

Post-Apartheid Challenges: Household Access and Use of Health Care in South Africa

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Gilson ◽  
Di McIntyre
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
South African ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Utilization Patterns

This is the final part of the special section, edited by Professors Margaret Whitehead and Göran Dahlgren, on the equity impacts of different health care systems, which includes studies conducted within the framework of the Affordability Ladder Program. Since 1994 the South African government has placed equity at the heart of its health policy goals. However, there has as yet been surprisingly little assessment of the success of policies in reducing inequity. This article provides insights on these issues by applying the Affordability Ladder conceptual framework in synthesizing evidence drawn from a series of household surveys and studies undertaken between 1992 and 2003. These data suggest that, despite policy efforts, inequities in access and utilization between socioeconomic groups remain. Underlying challenges include worsening community perceptions of the quality of publicly provided care and the influence of insurance status on utilization patterns. Further and more detailed evaluation of household-level policy impacts requires both improvements in the quality of South African survey data, particularly in enhancing consistency in survey design over time, and more detailed, focused studies.

Everyone Really Loves Health Care

2019 ◽  
pp. 153-168
Author(s):  
Christoffer Green-Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Niche Parties ◽  
Incentive Model ◽  
Societal Actors ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Party Differences ◽  
Care Technology

This chapter provides an analysis of party system attention to health care. Based on the issue incentive model, the importance of issue characteristics for understanding the rising party system attention to health care is clear. Health care is an obtrusive issue of great importance to everyone, so large, mainstream parties have a strong incentive to focus on the issue. However, as it is difficult to satisfy public demands, party attention is often an exercise in blame avoidance. Rapid progress within health-care technology has thus generated more party system attention to the issue because parties are struggling to meet public demands while controlling costs. Comparative differences in how much the attention to health care has increased can be explained to some extent by the comparative differences in health-care systems. The more responsibility for health care is concentrated with the state, the more party attention because parties have to address all kinds of questions about service provision. When responsibility is defused to societal actors, political parties attend less to the issue. Also, the analysis reveals no significant party differences in attention to the issue. There are no niche parties on the issue and no strong tendency for the large, mainstream parties to pay more attention to the issue than other parties do. Thus, health care seems to be an issue to which all political parties have to pay attention.

160: Cost-Effectiveness of Medical Management Strategies of Nephrolithiasis in Different Health Care Systems

2004 ◽  
Vol 171 (4S) ◽  
pp. 42-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yair Latan ◽  
David M. Wilhelm ◽  
David A. Duchene ◽  
Margaret S. Pearle
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Medical Management ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Care Systems
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