Publications by authors named "Valerie J M Watzlaf"

Introduction: COVID-19 has drastically transformed healthcare delivery and forced many to utilize telehealth. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate the telehealth service "Sehha" used during COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia and assess the provider experience and satisfaction with Sehha.

Methods: A questionnaire was distributed by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to 362 physicians using Sehha.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This is the second part in a two-part research study on clinical data abstraction. Clinical data abstraction is the process of capturing key administrative and clinical data elements from a medical record. Very little is known about how the abstraction function is organized and managed today.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose of electronic health record (EHR) abstraction includes collection of data related to administrative coding functions, quality improvement, clinical registry functions and clinical research. This article examines the different abstraction methods, such as manual abstraction, simple query, and natural language processing (NLP). It also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each of those methods.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

At the end of 2019, the world faced the novel coronavirus, and with it fear of economic collapse and mass fatalities. Simulation systems can be used to monitor the behavior of the virus. Simulation provides an abstract representation of reality by conveying details and characteristics of reality in a simple application.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The time and costs associated with the sequencing of a human genome have decreased significantly in recent years. Many people have chosen to have their genomes sequenced to receive genomics-based personalized healthcare services. To reach the goal of genomics-based precision medicine, health information management (HIM) professionals need to manage and analyze patients' genomic data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Research shows that exposure to community and domestic violence leads to psychological trauma from childhood through adulthood, which can lead to poor health and early death. A team of health information management (HIM) professionals reviewed existing surveys to determine their suitability for assessing the quality of life (QoL) of people in trauma-affected communities (TACs). Keywords were used to search for papers describing validated QoL surveys.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The objective of this systematic review was to systematically review papers in the United States that examine current practices in privacy and security when telehealth technologies are used by healthcare providers. A literature search was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA-P). PubMed, CINAHL and INSPEC from 2003 - 2016 were searched and returned 25,404 papers (after duplications were removed).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Many functions previously conducted on desktop computers are now performed on smartphones. Smartphones provide convenience, portability, and connectivity. When smartphones are used in the conduct of telehealth, sensitive data is invariably accessed, rendering the devices in need of user authentication to ensure data protection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Healthcare professionals engaged in telehealth are faced with complex US federal regulations (e.g., HIPAA/HITECH) and could benefit from the guidance provided by best practices in Privacy and Security (P&S).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In a previous publication the authors developed a privacy and security checklist to evaluate Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) videoconferencing software used between patients and therapists to provide telerehabilitation (TR) therapy. In this paper, the privacy and security checklist that was previously developed is used to perform a risk analysis of the top ten VoIP videoconferencing software to determine if their policies provide answers to the privacy and security checklist. Sixty percent of the companies claimed they do not listen into video-therapy calls unless maintenance is needed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems such as Adobe ConnectNow, Skype, ooVoo, etc. may include the use of software applications for telerehabilitation (TR) therapy that can provide voice and video teleconferencing between patients and therapists. Privacy and security applications as well as HIPAA compliance within these protocols have been questioned by information technologists, providers of care and other health care entities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This cross sectional descriptive study sought to identify perceived barriers to follow-up care for adult asthmatics who are followed in two community health care facilities. A second purpose of the study was to determine the effect of any barriers to Health Related Quality of Life (HRQL) and compliance in the sample. Thirty-four adults completed a demographic and health status survey, the MiniAQLQ and the EWash Access to Health Care Survey.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Coding competency is extremely important to the health information management (HIM) profession and healthcare in general. The research presented in this article evaluates coding skill and competency using practice-based research. The projected skill set for the clinical data specialist, the future coding role set forth in the publication Evolving HIM Careers, was used to determine how prepared current coders are in terms of projected competencies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed to measure the awareness, use, and validity of the minimum content recommended in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards for content and structure of electronic health records. A Web-based survey was developed and used as the primary tool to collect this data. Data was collected from a random sample of healthcare facilities from across the country, vendors, and volunteers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This research study examined the usefulness of the ICD-10-CM system in capturing public health diseases (reportable diseases or the nationally notifiable infectious diseases, leading causes of death, and morbidity/mortality related to terrorism), when compared to ICD-9-CM.1-3 It also examined agreement levels of coders when coding public health diseases in both ICD-10-CM and ICD-9-CM. Overall results demonstrate that ICD-10-CM is more specific and fully captures more of the public health diseases examined than ICD-9-CM.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose of this study was to identify hand factors that change over a five-year period that may be risk factors for the development of functional disability in persons with systemic sclerosis (scleroderma). Sixty individuals with scleroderma were administered assessments of grip and pinch strength, joint range of motion, and pain, and were observed for the presence of digital ulcers, digital scars, calcium deposits, puffy fingers, and tendon friction rubs. Matched-pairs chi square analyses and Fisher's exact tests were performed to compare variables at year 1 and five years later.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF