System for selecting relevant information for decision support.

We implemented a prototype of a decision support system called SIR which has a form of a web-based classification service for diagnostic decision support. The system has the ability to select the most relevant variables and to learn a classification rule, which is guaranteed to be suitable also for high-dimensional measurements. The classification system can be useful for clinicians in primary care to support their decision-making tasks with relevant information extracted from any available clinical study.

Multiple disciplines synergy tools for Ph.D. Students of biomedical informatics at Charles University in Prague.

The poster describes doctoral degree studies in biomedical informatics at Charles University in Prague. Particularly important in educational programmes and knowledge dissemination is the role of Internet. Therefore we also describe special activities concerned with the specific research at the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague.

EuroMISE Center: research and education in biomedical and healthcare informatics.

EuroMISE Center was established in the year 1994bas the joint workplace of Charles University in Prague and Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic with the support of the European project focused on higher education in methodology field of healthcare. Nowadays, the EuroMISE Center is working as the joint workplace of five organizations. We describe in more details history and nowadays activities of the EuroMISE Center in the field of research, higher education and e3 Health applications.

Education in biomedical informatics and eHealth.

The long-term effect of education in the field of biomedical informatics and eHealth on efficiency and quality of healthcare is discussed. Selected educational methods and tools are presented and their applications are shown.

On genetic information, diversity and distance.

Objectives: General information-theoretic concepts such as f-divergence, f-information and f-entropy are applied to the genetic models where genes are characterized by randomly distributed alleles. The paper thus presents an information-theoretic background for measuring genetic distances between populations, genetic information in various observations on individuals about their alleles and, finally, genetic diversities in various populations.

Methods: Genetic distances were derived as divergences between frequencies of alleles representing a gene in two different populations.

New approaches to health promotion and informatics education using Internet in the Czech Republic.

The paper describes nowadays information technology skills in the Czech Republic. It focuses on informatics education using Internet, ECDL concept and the links between computer literacy among health care professionals and quality of health care. Everyone understands that the main source of wealth of any nation is information management and the efficient transformation of information into knowledge.

Medical guidelines presentation and comparing with Electronic Health Record.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are now being developed in many places. More advanced systems provide also reminder facilities, usually based on if-then rules. In this paper we propose a method how to build the reminder facility directly upon the guideline interchange format (GLIF) model of medical guidelines.

Presentation of medical guidelines on a computer.

Free-text forms of medical guidelines that are used in medical care are often cumbersome and difficult to memorize. Therefore a system that is able to present guidelines in a user-friendly manner has been designed. Guidelines are at first formalized by means of the popular GLIF3 model.

New Czech Postgraduate Doctoral Program in Biomedical Informatics.

In the paper we describe the new Czech program in Biomedical informatics with doctor degree. The agreement on cooperation of Charles University in Prague and Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in postgraduate doctoral studies was signed on April 23rd, 1997. The main goal of this agreement has been cooperation in development and running of joint education and training of young researchers.

Development of universal electronic health record in cardiology.

In the paper we discuss the vision and experiences in development of electronic health record based on universal structure of collectable data, multimedia objects, all equipped by supporting systems for data verification and medical guidelines connection. This development is based on existing European and international standards in the field of medical informatics.

Development of electronic form of the 1999 WHO/ISH hypertension guidelines.

An electronic form of 1999 ISH/WHO Guidelines for Management of Hypertension was developed. It concentrates on two main problems--assessment of a patient's cardiovascular risk and selecting drug treatment. Moreover, it can remind the risk of unfilled items both for a cardiovascular risk calculation and drug contraindications.

Czech national data standards implementations in ORCA electronic patient record in cardiology.

In the paper we describe the situation concerning Czech data standards and requirements on health care providers. Further we compare the nowadays possibilities of the multimedia electronic patient record ORCA and its extension to fulfill Czech data standards and requirements.

Evaluation of knowledge using ExaMe program on the Internet.

In the paper we describe the function of the ExaMe program that serves for evaluation of students' knowledge using Internet. Evaluation is based on the knowledge base of a given course. Two types of evaluation tests are described.

Evaluation of medical knowledge using electronic textbooks and ExaMe program on Internet.

In the paper we describe the function of the ExaMe program that serves for evaluation of students knowledge using Internet. Evaluation is based on the knowledge base of a given course. Two types of evaluation tests are described.

Statistical approaches for evaluation of genetic risk factor of peripheral arterial occlusive disease.

In the paper we show results of medical study from statistical point of view. The medical study was aimed to study genetic risk factors of peripheral arterial occlusive diseases in Czech population. Two genes, CBS and MTHFR were examined, as various genotypes of these genes are thought to have impact on amino thiols, who participate in variety of reactions in vasculature.

Relevant information for decision support systems: application in cardiology.

In the paper we show information theory tools for extracting relevant information for decision support systems from medical databases. Each proposed algorithm for selecting a set of relevant features has a specific score function defined by means of information-theoretical characteristics. Then algorithms are classified according to the primary criterion, that can lead to influence-preferring algorithms or weight-preferring algorithms.

On development of medical informatics education via European cooperation.

In this paper, we show different activities of the European Center for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology (EuroMISE Center) of Charles University and Academy of Sciences in the field of medical informatics, statistics and epidemiology education and training. The development of these activities started within the TEMPUS-PHARE project in 1993 and they are continuing with the support of another project, particularly the IT EDUCTRA (Information Technologies Education and Training) (Fourth Framework Programme) project. New approaches using the Internet as well as newly developed programmes are described.

Medical informatics education: basic assumption for successful implementation of information technology in the health care sector.

In the paper we mention the trends in medical informatics education and we present the development of medical informatics education in the Czech Republic. The actual situation at Czech faculties giving pregraduate courses covering medical informatics topics is described. The enhanced development of medical informatics education via European cooperation is shown.

Analysis of data about epileptic patients using the GUHA method.

In this paper we search for hypotheses on association between the memory quotient and 13 clinical variables examined in a sample of 214 epilepsy patients. We introduce the General Unary Hypotheses Automaton (GUHA) method that automatically generates hypotheses from empirical data by means of computer procedures. Procedure ASSOC of the program GUHA generates and evaluates the hypotheses on symmetrical association or asymmetrical association using quantifiers.

Education and training in medical informatics, statistics and epidemiology in EuroMISE.

The paper gives information on education and training covered by the Joint European Project (JEP) entitled 'Education in the Methodology Field of Health Care, EuroMISE (European Education in Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology)', that has been running for 3 years (1993-1995) under the umbrella of the European TEMPUS-PHARE programme. Training and education in EuroMISE consists of three overlapping methodological branches: Medical informatics (MI), medical statistics (MS) and epidemiology (E). The teaching scheme has been developed in cooperation between 11 universities in the European Union and Charles University in Prague (four medical faculties, the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and the Faculty Hospital) together with the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Institute of Computer Science).

On the medical informatics structure.

This paper contributes to the discussion of R. Haux paper on essential aims and tasks of medical informatics. New views on structure of informatics and consequently medical informatics are given.

Evaluation of data in cardiology by new software tools.

We describe an analysis of cardiology data using new software tools. First we use data of 1417 men aged 40 to 50 years living in the center of Prague gathered in the twenty years lasting longitudinal study. We show some results of application of the programs E.

Decision support and data analysis tools for risk assessment in primary preventive study of atherosclerosis.

In the paper we show results of two programs applied for data analysis and decision support in primary preventive study of atherosclerosis. First program E.T.

Medical informatics--an interdisciplinary approach.

Medical informatics is the first science that has incorporated all traditional medical disciplines. That progress is possible due to fast development of new technologies, particularly in informatics, as well as due to common needs of all medical disciplines. Information is crucial component of all investigations, and that is why the main goal should be incorporation of information technologies into medical practice.