The Contribution of Sociotechnical Factors to Health Information Technology-Related Sentinel Events.

Background: An understanding of how health information technology (health IT) can contribute to sentinel events is necessary to learn how to safely implement and use health IT. An analysis was conducted to explore how health IT may contribute to adverse events that result in death or severe harm to the patient.

Methods: For 3,375 de-identified sentinel events voluntarily reported to The Joint Commission between January 1, 2010, and June 30, 2013, categorical and keyword queries were used to search for potential health IT-related events.

Comparison study of acellular dermal matrices in complicated hernia surgery.

Background: Damage control surgery and management of the open abdomen has led to a significant improvement in survival in trauma and emergency surgical patients. However, subsequent abdominal reconstruction has become a significant challenge. The objective of this study was to compare 2 different acellular dermal matrices in regard to hernia recurrence and complications in patients who present with a large complicated ventral hernia as a result of trauma or emergency surgery.

Determination of efficacy of novel modified chitosan sponge dressing in a lethal arterial injury model in swine.

Background: Chitosan is a functional biopolymer that has been widely used as a hemostat. Recently, its efficacy has been questioned due to clinical failures as a result of poor adhesiveness. The purpose of this study was to compare, in a severe groin injury model in swine, the hemostatic properties of an unmodified standard chitosan sponge with standard gauze dressing and a novel hydrophobically modified (hm) chitosan sponge.

New hemostatic dressing (FAST Dressing) reduces blood loss and improves survival in a grade V liver injury model in noncoagulopathic swine.

Background: We performed this study to evaluate the hemostatic efficacy of the FAST Dressing in treating a grade V liver injury in noncoagulopathic swine.

Methods: Sixteen female splenectomized, noncoagulopathic swine underwent reproducible grade V liver injuries. The animals were blindly randomized to two treatment groups: (1) FAST Dressing (n = 8) or (2) IgG placebo dressing (n = 8).

Towards an International Classification for Patient Safety: a Delphi survey.

Objective: Interpretation and comparison of patient safety information have been compromised by the lack of a common understanding of the concepts involved. The World Alliance set out to develop an International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS) to address this, and to test the relevance and acceptability of the draft ICPS and progressively refine it prior to field testing.

Design: Two-stage Delphi survey.

Towards an International Classification for Patient Safety: the conceptual framework.

Global advances in patient safety have been hampered by the lack of a uniform classification of patient safety concepts. This is a significant barrier to developing strategies to reduce risk, performing evidence-based research and evaluating existing healthcare policies relevant to patient safety. Since 2005, the World Health Organization's World Alliance for Patient Safety has undertaken the Project to Develop an International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS) to devise a classification which transforms patient safety information collected from disparate systems into a common format to facilitate aggregation, analysis and learning across disciplines, borders and time.

Building a Hospital Incident Reporting Ontology (HIRO) in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) using the JCAHO Patient Safety Event Taxonomy (PSET).

A Hospital Incident Reporting Ontology (HIRO) is being developed in Protégé-OWL to demonstrate feasibility and clinical value of using an ontology to combine, compare, and analyze data from across many public and private reporting systems collecting adverse events and near misses for patient safety. The HIRO is based on the JCAHO Patient Safety Event Taxonomy (PSET) and de-identified hospital incident reports.