Journal of Health Information Management
Year:2007 | Volume:4 | Issue:2|Papers Count:11

Introduction: Nowadays, various tools are used in health informatics; the type of these tools should be related to the patients' and healthcare providers' needs. Hospital websites are suitable systems for data exchange and communication between patient and healthcare providers. This study performed for analysis and evaluation of structure and content of websites of the educational hospitals in Iran.Methods: In a descriptive study, 8 Iranian educational hospital websites were analyzed for structure, content and related links by using 4 researcher made check lists Results: The average score was 12/30 for structural analysis. 5.75/15, 2.6/19, and 2/24 were calculated scores for of, content analysis of homepage, "about us" page, and other links, respectively.Conclusion: In general, the structure of Iranian educational hospital websites is at medium level and their content is at very weak level.

Introduction: The subject headings of MeSH in medicine is more than 23,000 which is an index for the medical sciences subjects. This study aims to find the correlation between development of MeSH and increase of medline records to assess the statistical development of medical sciences subjects during the time.Methods: This is an analytical study of the subjects of medical sciences and medline publications index. A sample of one million medline records was selected randomly and the correlation between the increase in the number of medline records and the increase of head titles in MeSH was assessed to answer the two following questions: 1. How has the quantity of medical subjects developed during time? 2. Currently by the production and publication of how many medical scientific papers a new subject might be added to the headings of MeSH?Results: Development of MeSH during the time happened as a logarithm in three different phases. Putting these three phases into one, we found a formula to predict development of MeSH and its headings by the increase of publications in the field. Also, we found that nowadays by the publication of more than 250 papers in various subjects of the medical sciences, a new subject is created and added to MeSH linearly.Conclusion: The results showed that in spite of some ideas, development of scientific subjects is dynamic and is linearly dynamic and will not stop.

Introduction: The appropriate use of the hospital information computer networks and its acceptance by the health care personnel can improve the quality of health care services and decrease the expenses. This study investigated the views, attitudes and satisfaction of the nurses and clinical personnel about the effectiveness of hospital information system on some medical activities.Methods: This analytical study investigated the behavior, satisfaction and attitudes of 120 nurses, auxiliary nurses and secretaries working in the outpatients and admitting wards of the educational and medical center of Amir al-momenin in Semnan about the effectiveness of hospital information system on some of the caring activities during 2006 to 2007. Data were collected by a questionnaire whose reliability and validity were approved by investigating in scientific texts and test-retest. The questionnaire was filled by the personnel who had more than 3 years working experience. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics method with p=0.05.Results: Most of the personnel (80%) were using their wards' computer systems several times a day. They agreed with availability of appropriate health care information (55%), reduction of errors (45.8%), better supervision on patients' treatment process (28%), and improvement of the treatment results by using information systems (15%). These personnel believed that information system made it easier to search prescribed medicines (50%), and to find the patients difficulties (20%). In general, 52 subjects were satisfied by the effectiveness of system in some health care activities of the clinical wards and a few (4) were completely satisfied by that. There was a significant relation between the personnel satisfaction with HIS effectiveness on the patient caring process and the satisfaction with user-friendliness of the systems and the medical ward (p<0.05).Conclusion: The results showed that less than half of the clinical wards personnel were relatively satisfied with the effectiveness of HIS on the patients caring activities. To make this system more effective on the patients health care activities, the system should be in harmony with the dynamic nature of health care process. Therefore, it is recommended to use advanced hardware systems such as PDAs and laptops and voice recognition softwares to facilitate data entry in the clinical wards, as well as developing legal methods to prevent redundancy in nurses' daily activities.

Abstract Access to information is a fundamental element in research and production of science process, as well as one of the metrics of development. So, the awareness and use of communicational and informational networks, as well as their related technologies could be really necessary. In this connection, internet, web and related techniques, such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, or RDF Site Summary) is one of these technologies which appeared on many websites, weblogs and databases, in recent years and became the most expanded and suitable tool for making awareness. Obviously, this technology allows the librarians and information scientists to find access to the existential information on websites, weblogs and databases, in order to improve their commercial, economical, educational, research, social and cultural relations. More over, using this technology can make users to access to their information by themselves, and to fulfill their informational needs. This technology through its own language programming can show the latest information and become up to date by adding new information. RSS is a simple and quick method for current awareness, new book list, reference services, education and communication with users, which should not be ignored by librarian in libraries and information centers.Therefore, we tried first to give a definition of RSS feed as well as to present its advantages for application; then we try divide RSS readers into two main groups; web based and special software based, with some examples of each group. At the end, we suggest that for better understanding and also for providing appropriate and suitable information services for users, this technique (RSS Feed) and its facilities should not be ignored by librarians in the libraries and information centers.

Methods: In this descriptive (cross sectional) research, all medical record staff were participated (no sampling). General health questionnaire (GHQ), Osipow questionnaire (for rate of stress), and a researcher made questionnaire (for find out the stress factors) were used. Data was analyzed with SPSS software.Results: The staff working in private hospitals had a better general heath condition. Medical records administrators had more stress. The rate of stress in medical records staff (with academic degree) and in staff with no academic degree was in the same level; but general health level in staff with academic degree was higher. k2 test showed that there was not any significant relation between rate of general health (P = 0.06), stress (P = 0.21) and course of education. Conclusion: The general health condition in all staff was in acceptable rate. Also, the stress level was in natural rate. Attention to medical records workers because of relationship with patients and duration of the time which they must work, for removing stressful factors is suggested.

Introduction: Iran is a natural disaster-prone country with a great variety of educational and research institutions owing to the wide range of its cultural heritage. The main goal of libraries and information centers is to take care of these heritage. This study investigated the principles of safety in the buildings of the libraries financed by the Astan Qods Razavi.Methods: This is an applied research and a descriptive study. The study population consisted of 33 libraries administered by the Astan Qods Razavi but in the city of Mashhad and outside the city. The study carried out in October 2007. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity was confirmed by the professors and professionals and the reliability was assessed by Alfa Cronbach (88%). SPSS software was used to analyze the data. Results: The findings showed that described index for the library safety based on their priorities are: safety against problems with the building installations, safety against natural disasters and safety against fire.Conclusion: Generally, it can be concluded that the libraries need a long term plan to prepare themselves for crisis management.

Introduction: Library users expect fast and direct access to the information they need and the variety of users' searching behavior have lead to new library services. Therefore, in order to provide the correct data to the library users, librarians should know the students' searching motives and aims, the type and nature of resources they search and methods and instruments they use to access the data. This study investigates the search needs of the students in the first and last semester of the faculty of management and medical information sciences in 2006.Methods: This is an analytical survey. The study population included 94 students (54 in the first semester and 40 in the last semester) of the faculty of management and medical information sciences of Isfahan in 3 undergraduate majors. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity was approved by professors and professionals and a pilot study in the sample size which was equal to 88%. The reliability was checked by Alfa Cronbach. Data were analyzed by Excell software and quantitative statistics such as percentage and frequency were used. Results: The findings showed that the searching needs of the students are different in various semesters of their study period and the main reason for not using the library resources correctly is lack of knowledge and education about it.Conclusion: It is recommended to educate the university students how to use the electronic resources for a faster and better access to data they need. Also, communication between professors and librarians can help development of electronic databases of the library as well as improvement of the students' literacy of the library usage.

Clinical coding is a translation of medical documents to diagnostic, procedure and financial codes. Health care data are displayed with codes. Clinical coding is a knowledge process in health care and include concepts of knowledge management such as codification of knowledge, storage of knowledge, packaging of knowledge with its details and delivery to users and coordinating of intellectual resources.Conversion process of data into knowledge is a continual process in health care industry and knowledge created in any phase is a data for upper phase too. So clinical coding performs organization of knowledge is related to diseases. The databases taken from clinical coding process display diagnostic data and codes in relational table formats of data mining and On-Line Analysis Processing (OLAP) can discover knowledge from it. Furthermore creation of On-Line Discussion Group can play important role in knowledge sharing and improvement in process of Health care information management particularly clinical coding.Health care information management professions need to identify real situation of clinical coding and impact of their functions on knowledge management in healthcare and health decisions and thus improve their practice with knowledge management tools.