Data Quality and Cost-effectiveness Analyses of Electronic and Paper-Based Interviewer-Administered Public Health Surveys: Systematic Review.

Background: A population-level survey (PLS) is an essential and standard method used in public health research that supports the quantification of sociodemographic events, public health policy development, and intervention designs. Data collection mechanisms in PLS seem to be a significant determinant in avoiding mistakes. Using electronic devices such as smartphones and tablet computers improves the quality and cost-effectiveness of public health surveys.

Data Quality and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses of Electronic and Paper-Based Interviewer-Administered Public Health Surveys: Protocol for a Systematic Review.

Background: Population-level survey is an essential standard method used in public health research to quantify sociodemographic events and support public health policy development and intervention designs with evidence. Although all steps in the survey can contribute to the data quality parameters, data collection mechanisms seem the most determinant, as they can avoid mistakes before they happen. The use of electronic devices such as smartphones and tablet computers improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of public health surveys.

Access to mobile phone and willingness to receive mHealth services among patients with diabetes in Northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: This study aimed at determining access to mobile phone and willingness to receive mobile phone-based diabetes health services as well as identify associated factors in Northwest Ethiopia.

Design: An institution-based cross-sectional survey was conducted from February to March 2016.

Participants: Systematic randomly selected 423 patients with diabetes.

A Comparison of Electronic Medical Record Data to Paper Records in Antiretroviral Therapy Clinic in Ethiopia: What is affecting the Quality of the Data?

Background: Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) care is a lifelong treatment, which needs accurate and reliable data collected for long period of time. Poor quality of medical records data remains a challenge and is directly related to the quality of care of patients. To improve this, there is an increasing trend to implement electronic medical record (EMR) in hospitals.

Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma in the Era of Novel Drug Induction: A Retrospective Single-Center Analysis.

Within this retrospective single-center study, we analyzed the survival of 320 multiple myeloma (MM) patients receiving melphalan high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) and either single (n = 286) or tandem (n = 34) autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) from 1996 to 2012. Additionally, the impact of novel induction regimens was assessed. Median follow-up was 67 months, median overall survival (OS) 62 months, median progression-free survival (PFS) 33 months (95% CI 27-39), and treatment-related death (TRD) 3%.

Electronic health records to facilitate clinical research.

Electronic health records (EHRs) provide opportunities to enhance patient care, embed performance measures in clinical practice, and facilitate clinical research. Concerns have been raised about the increasing recruitment challenges in trials, burdensome and obtrusive data collection, and uncertain generalizability of the results. Leveraging electronic health records to counterbalance these trends is an area of intense interest.

User Satisfaction Evaluation of the EHR4CR Query Builder: A Multisite Patient Count Cohort System.

The Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (EHR4CR) project aims to develop services and technology for the leverage reuse of Electronic Health Records with the purpose of improving the efficiency of clinical research processes. A pilot program was implemented to generate evidence of the value of using the EHR4CR platform. The user acceptance of the platform is a key success factor in driving the adoption of the EHR4CR platform; thus, it was decided to evaluate the user satisfaction.

Health-Related Quality of Life in Chronic Pruritus: An Analysis Related to Disease Etiology, Clinical Skin Conditions and Itch Intensity.

Background: It is unknown if health-related quality of life (HRQoL) differs between diseases associated with chronic pruritus (CP).

Objective: To analyze HRQoL in relation to age, gender, skin lesions (primary vs. scratch-induced secondary) and itch intensity.

Willingness to receive text message medication reminders among patients on antiretroviral treatment in North West Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Non-adherence to Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) is strongly associated with virologic rebound and drug resistance. Studies have shown that the most frequently mentioned reason for missing ART doses is the forgetfulness of patients to take their medications on time. Therefore using communication devices as reminder tools, for example alarms, pagers, text messages and telephone calls could improve adherence to ART.

PIACS: A System for the Automatic Detection, Categorization and Comparison of Scratch-Related Skin Lesions in Dermatology.

In the treatment of chronic pruritus-related, scratch-induced skin lesions the categorization, counting and temporal comparison are common methodologies. The observation requires a good memory and expertise in this field to gain comparable findings for this time-consuming process. Digital image processing aims at supporting such manual detections.

Clinical Trial Feasibility Study Questionnaire Analysis.

With the growing complexity and cost of clinical trials (CTs) over the past few decades, Protocol Feasibility (PF) studies have become one of the most critical CT steps in order to avoid costly protocol amendments and ensure the success of CTs. The PF process includes interaction with clinicians located at targeted clinical sites, which results in slow and cumbersome process steps. These process steps are normally supported by information systems that allow users to create, share and collect responses to feasibility questionnaires.

The need for cost-benefit analyses of eHealth in low and middle-income countries.

Cost and benefit analyses are crucial for eHealth interventions, especially in low and middle income countries (LMIC). We performed a scoping review, with goals to acquire an overview of cost-benefit studies and to collect indicators that are being used for costs and savings with respect to eHealth. Of all retrieved articles, 29 were included in our analysis and 21 contained cost/savings indicators which we categorized into outcome measures with respect to providers, patients and other stakeholders.

Service Quality: A Main Determinant Factor for Health Information System Success in Low-resource Settings.

With the increasing implementation of different health information systems in developing countries, there is a growing need to measure the main determinants of their success. The results of this evaluation study on the determinants of HIS success in five low resource setting hospitals show that service quality is the main determinant factor for information system success in those kind of settings.

Modeling antecedents of electronic medical record system implementation success in low-resource setting hospitals.

Background: With the increasing implementation of Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR) in developing countries, there is a growing need to identify antecedents of EMR success to measure and predict the level of adoption before costly implementation. However, less evidence is available about EMR success in the context of low-resource setting implementations. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap by examining the constructs and relationships of the widely used DeLone and MacLean (D&M) information system success model to determine whether it can be applied to measure EMR success in those settings.

Web-based multi-site feasibility questionnaire tool.

The design of clinical trial (CT) study protocols, currently supported by clinicians, is often a slow and cumbersome process. The Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (EHR4CR) project supports the design of study protocols through a multi-site patient count cohort system. However, there is still a need to improve the process step in which the clinicians are involved.

Comprehensive evaluation of electronic medical record system use and user satisfaction at five low-resource setting hospitals in ethiopia.

Background: Electronic medical record (EMR) systems are increasingly being implemented in hospitals of developing countries to improve patient care and clinical service. However, only limited evaluation studies are available concerning the level of adoption and determinant factors of success in those settings.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the usage pattern, user satisfaction level, and determinants of health professional's satisfaction towards a comprehensive EMR system implemented in Ethiopia where parallel documentation using the EMR and the paper-based medical records is in practice.

A European inventory of data elements for patient recruitment.

Introduction: In the last few years much work has been conducted in creating systems that support clinical trials for example by utilizing electronic health record data. One of these endeavours is the Electronic Health Record for Clinical Research project (EHR4CR). An unanswered question that the project aims to answer is which data elements are most commonly required for patient recruitment.

Efficiency and effectiveness evaluation of an automated multi-country patient count cohort system.

Background: With the increase of clinical trial costs during the last decades, the design of feasibility studies has become an essential process to reduce avoidable and costly protocol amendments. This design includes timelines, targeted sites and budget, together with a list of eligibility criteria that potential participants need to match. The present work was designed to assess the value of obtaining potential study participant counts using an automated patient count cohort system for large multi-country and multi-site trials: the Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (EHR4CR) system.

Success criteria for electronic medical record implementations in low-resource settings: a systematic review.

Objective: Electronic medical record (EMR) systems have the potential of supporting clinical work by providing the right information at the right time to the right people and thus make efficient use of resources. This is especially important in low-resource settings where reliable data are also needed to support public health and local supporting organizations. In this systematic literature review, our objectives are to identify and collect literature about success criteria of EMR implementations in low-resource settings and to summarize them into recommendations.

Design and development of a linked open data-based health information representation and visualization system: potentials and preliminary evaluation.

Background: Healthcare organizations around the world are challenged by pressures to reduce cost, improve coordination and outcome, and provide more with less. This requires effective planning and evidence-based practice by generating important information from available data. Thus, flexible and user-friendly ways to represent, query, and visualize health data becomes increasingly important.

Does single-source create an added value? Evaluating the impact of introducing x4T into the clinical routine on workflow modifications, data quality and cost-benefit.

Objectives: The first objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of integrating a single-source system into the routine patient care documentation workflow with respect to process modifications, data quality and execution times in patient care as well as research documentation. The second one is to evaluate whether it is cost-efficient using a single-source system in terms of achieved savings in documentation expenditures.

Methods: We analyzed the documentation workflow of routine patient care and research documentation in the medical field of pruritus to identify redundant and error-prone process steps.

Protocol feasibility workflow using an automated multi-country patient cohort system.

The Electronic Health Record for Clinical Research (EHR4CR) project aims to improve the current process of clinical trials, providing a technological platform that supports the design and execution of trials. For the protocol feasibility scenario, the system currently allows the user to create a set of in-/exclusion criteria to find patients matching these criteria across sites located in several countries. The automated multi-country patient cohort system developed in EHR4CR implies substantial changes on the current protocol feasibility process, which will be reflected in this study.

Analysis of eligibility criteria from ClinicalTrials.gov.

Electronic health care records are being used more and more for patient documentation. This electronic data can be used for secondary purposes, for example through systems that support clinical research. Eligibility criteria have to be processable for such systems to work, but criteria published on ClinicalTrials.

New bachelors degree program in health informatics in Ethiopia: curriculum content and development approaches.

With a widespread use of information technology in healthcare organizations, there is a pressing need for professionals who are both skilled in the use and management of information systems and knowledgeable in the field of healthcare. To fill this need, the department of health informatics at the University of Gondar started a new bachelor's degree in the health informatics program commencing in 2012. The curriculum was developed by a thorough needs assessment and considering the recommendations of the international medical informatics association.