Turning Access into a web-enabled secure information system for clinical trials.

Background: Organizations that have limited resources need to conduct clinical studies in a cost-effective, but secure way. Clinical data residing in various individual databases need to be easily accessed and secured. Although widely available, digital certification, encryption, and secure web server, have not been implemented as widely, partly due to a lack of understanding of needs and concerns over issues such as cost and difficulty in implementation.

Expert verification of the knowledge base of FEED--a feedback expert system for EMS documentation.

Feedback Expert System for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Documentation (FEED) has a rule-based knowledge base (KB) that was verified against specifications in a focus group consisting of six experts. The focus group suggested changes in almost all rules discussed, indicating that the KB did not meet specifications at that stage of development. However, enough information was gathered to address these issues in the next iteration of development.

Design of an eMonitor system to transport electronic patient care report (ePCR) information in unstable MobileIP wireless environment.

The eMonitor is a component of the ePatient system; a prototype system used by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in the field to record and transmits electronic patient care report (ePCR) information interactively. The eMonitor component allows each Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) on an unreliable Cisco MobileIP wireless network to securely send and received XML messages used to update patient information to and from the MDT before, during and after the transport of a patient.

Information needs of pre-hospital care providers - a requirements analysis.

To assess information needs of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel and the potential of electronic decision support tools, we surveyed 39 paramedic students and practicing EMS personnel. We found frequent use of paper-based tools, with imperfect accessibility and ease of use. Potential electronic decision support tools were rated as helpful, but some alerts were rated low.

Expert validation of the knowledge base for E-CAD - a pre-hospital dispatch triage decision support system.

The knowledge base (KB) for E-CAD (Enhanced Computer-Aided Dispatch), a triage decision support system for Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) of medical resources in trauma cases, is being evaluated. We aim to achieve expert consensus for validation and refinement of the E-CAD KB using the modified Delphi technique. Evidence-based, expert-validated and refined KB will provide improved EMD practice guidelines and may facilitate acceptance of the E-CAD by state-wide professionals.

Development and testing of an algorithm for efficient resource positioning in pre-hospital emergency care.

Response times for pre-hospital emergency care may be improved with the use of algorithms that analyzes historical patterns in incident location and suggests optimal places for pre-positioning of emergency response units. We will develop such an algorithm based on cluster analysis and test whether it leads to significant improvement in mileage when compared to actual historical data of dispatching based on fixed stations.

Chest pain and validity of an emergency medical dispatch algorithm.

Chest pain is a unique symptom in medical narration because the underlying cause can vary from mild acidity to massive Acute Myocardial Infarction also known as heart attack. Medical dispatching today is geared towards patient safety however too many Advanced Life Support (ALS) responses are made due to protocol of following every chest pain call. These ALS responses lead to inefficient use of community resources.

A regional database of antidote availability.

Timely pre-hospital management of snake bite and poisoning cases is hindered by the lack of information about availability of antidotes in hospitals. We aim to build a regional antidote database by collecting real-time antidote stock information from hospital pharmacy inventory systems and make this information available to the emergency medical technicians (EMTs). This would save valuable time, leading to improved outcomes for the patients.

Application of speech recognition data entry enhancements in an Electronic Patient Care Report (ePCR).

Based on the Alabama Patient Care Report we developed a basic Electronic Patient Care Report (ePCR) to collect data in an EMS environment. The ePCR GUI is now enhanced using speech recognition to provide speech-based command and control mechanisms to input structured data and initiate processes. This voice-enabled ePCR (vePCR) is used to evaluate the feasibility of handling EMS test cases and to get user feedback about the speech recognition functionality and usefulness.

A study design for comparing electronic patient care report (ePCR) with paper PCR in pre-hospital care.

Data gathering processes in pre-hospital care have been poorly studied. This study aims to compare an electronic PCR with the current paper standard. EMTs will hear a case narrative and enter this information in paper PCR, ePCR or ePCR pre-filled with historical patient data pulled from a database.

Personalized online information search and visualization.

Background: The rapid growth of online publications such as the Medline and other sources raises the questions how to get the relevant information efficiently. It is important, for a bench scientist, e.g.

Wireless local area network in a prehospital environment.

Background: Wireless local area networks (WLANs) are considered the next generation of clinical data network. They open the possibility for capturing clinical data in a prehospital setting (e.g.