Preparing a medical informatics research grant proposal: general principles

Designing medical informatics research and library--resource projects to increase what is learned

Careful study of medical informatics research and library-resource projects is necessary to increase the productivity of the research and development enterprise. Medical informatics research projects can present unique problems with respect to evaluation. It is not always possible to adapt directly the evaluation methods that are commonly employed in the natural and social sciences. Problems in evaluating medical informatics projects may be overcome by formulating system development work in terms of a testable hypothesis; subdividing complex projects into modules, each of which can be developed, tested and evaluated rigorously; and utilizing qualitative studies in situations where more definitive quantitative studies are impractical.

The adolescence of AI in medicine: will the field come of age in the '90s?

Artificial intelligence in medicine (AIM) has reached a period of adolescence in which interactions with the outside world are not only natural but mandatory. Although the basic research topics in AIM may be those of artificial intelligence, the applied issues touch more generally on the broad field of medical informatics. To the extent that AIM research is driven by performance goals for biomedicine, AIM is simply one component within a wide range of research and development activities. Furthermore, an adequate appraisal of AIM research requires an understanding of the research motivations, the complexity of the problems, and a suitable definition of the criteria for judging the field's success. Effective fielding of AIM systems will be dependent on the development of integrated environments for communication and computing that allow merging of knowledge-based tools with other patient data-management and information-retrieval applications. The creation of this kind of infrastructure will require vision and resources from leaders who realize that the practice of medicine is inherently an information-management task and that biomedicine must make the same kind of coordinated commitment to computing technologies as have other segments of our society in which the importance of information management is well understood.

Work-sampling: a statistical approach to evaluation of the effect of computers on work patterns in the healthcare industry

An increasing number of healthcare institutions are in the process of implementing clinical computing systems. The need for an accurate assessment of the clinical, administrative, social, and financial effects of such systems has been recognized. Techniques have been developed to evaluate these effects on the work patterns of healthcare workers including: 1) time-motion analysis, 2) subjective evaluations, 3) review of departmental statistics, 4) personal activity records, and 5) work-sampling. This manuscript reviews these techniques, discusses both positive and negative aspects, and presents a step-by-step description of work-sampling.

Computers in healthcare: overview and bibliography

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this article is to provide an overview of computer technology and an associated bibliography, emphasizing institutional-based healthcare applications and pharmacoinformatics.

DATA SOURCES

References were selected from the authors' files and from a computerized search over the last five years on computers in healthcare/medical informatics and in pharmacy.

STUDY SELECTION

Articles selected for review and discussion were considered to be important contributions to the respective areas listed in the bibliography and representative of advancements in computer applications in healthcare and pharmacy.

DATA SYNTHESIS

The computer has become an important support tool for healthcare professionals. Medical informatics and the discipline related to pharmacy, called pharmacoinformatics, have evolved from the cognitive underpinnings of medicine, pharmacy, and computer science. Recent developments in computer technology have resulted in computers that are fast, increasingly portable, and user friendly. Hospital information systems employ computers in various ways to deal with the vast amount of information used by various departments. Standards for electronic data exchange are being developed to increase the integration potential of these systems. Hospital pharmacists have used computers for drug distribution, financial analysis and inventory control, drug interaction detection, pharmacokinetic dosing, drug information, and drug therapy monitoring. Expert systems are being developed in several areas of drug therapy. Pharmacy educators have developed interactive courseware to help students learn problem-solving skills in the areas of calculations, therapeutics, and drug information.

CONCLUSIONS

Pharmacists need to become more involved with applications of technology to pharmacy. Properly implemented, computers can provide more time for pharmacists to use their cognitive skills in the delivery of pharmaceutical care.