Biomedical Informatics Commons^™

Visualization Literacy And Decision-Making In Healthcare, Stacy Weil

Translational Projects (Open Access)

The ability of workers in the healthcare industry to analyze, interpret and communicate with health data is critical to decision-making and impacts both health and business outcomes. Optimal decision-making requires having real-time access to information that provides useful insights and that lends itself to collaborative decision-making. Data visualizations have the potential to facilitate decision-making in healthcare when presented as a dashboard. However, dashboards have shown varying results in both effectiveness and adoption. Data or graphical literacy challenges experienced by health team members could complicate strategic decision-making through an inability to correctly interpret or summarize the information presented in a dashboard. …

Usability And Technology Acceptance Of An Electronic Child Abuse Screening Tool In A Pediatric Emergency Department, Angela Hayes

Translational Projects (Open Access)

Up to half of all child physical abuse victims with major abuse injuries seen in hospitals had sentinel injuries assessed by medical providers. Universal screening for child abuse and neglect in the emergency department can potentially increase detection at lower levels of injury. However, we must consider usability for the electronic health record embedded child abuse and neglect-screening tool to be most effective. The user most likely to interact with the screening tool is the bedside nurse. The interface of the initial screening tool and the process of inputting information must be perceived as useful, usable, and satisfying to the …

Social Network Analysis Of Online Support Communities For Adolescent And Young Adult Cancer Survivors, Carlos Perez Aldana

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

There are an estimated 633,000 adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors in the U.S. and nearly 89,500 AYAs are diagnosed with cancer every year. Cancer creates developmental and life stage disruptions, which result in multiple survivorship challenges, particularly among AYAs. Despite the advances made in cancer oncology and survivorship care, AYA cancer survivors continue to face diverse and unique psychosocial needs. Research suggests that online support communities have the potential to positively impact psychosocial care by providing AYA cancer survivors with access to social support which can help them successfully transition from treatment back to normal life as well …

Identifying Risk Factors For Anchoring Bias During Emergency Department Transitions Of Care, Roni Matin

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Transitions of care have been associated with breakdowns in communication and medical errors. In emergency departments (ED) these handoffs are typically known as sign outs. Sign outs provide continuity of care for ED patients whose diagnosis and care fall across shift changes. They are short interactions where pertinent information and responsibility for the patient is transferred to the physician assuming care for them. However, these exchanges may also be an opportunity for cognitive biases to be transferred or introduced, leading to erroneous decision making. Anchoring bias is known to have a significant impact on clinical decision making. Yet, little is …

Evaluation, Validation & Implementation Of A Computerized Diagnostic Decision Support System In Primary Practice, Joe Bridges

Translational Projects (Open Access)

Background: Medical diagnosis may be the most complex task attempted by humans. Studies estimate that 95% of diagnoses in outpatient care are accurate, implying that the annual rate of inaccurate diagnoses is 12 million in the US alone, with the potential for patient harm in about half. A well-researched differential might reduce inaccurate diagnoses by offering alternatives matching the patient’s symptoms. This study searched the literature for articles evaluating the diagnostic performance of commercially available computerized diagnostic decision support systems. This search led to selecting Isabel Pro, developed by Isabel Healthcare, Ltd. of Haslemere, UK.

Evaluation and Validation: …

Computer-Aided Diagnosis For Melanoma Using Ontology And Deep Learning Approaches, Xinyuan Zhang

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

The emergence of deep-learning algorithms provides great potential to enhance the prediction performance of computer-aided supporting diagnosis systems. Recent research efforts indicated that well-trained algorithms could achieve the accuracy level of experienced senior clinicians in the Dermatology field. However, the lack of interpretability and transparency hinders the algorithms’ utility in real-life. Physicians and patients require a certain level of interpretability for them to accept and trust the results. Another limitation of AI algorithms is the lack of consideration of other information related to the disease diagnosis, for example some typical dermoscopic features and diagnostic guidelines. Clinical guidelines for skin disease …