Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Realizing The Value Of Ehr Systems: Critical Success Factors, Elizabeth A. Regan, Jumee Wang

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Now that a majority of hospitals and primary care physicians have made the transition to electronic health record (EHR) systems, realizing value from this investment has become a major issue. The issue raises two key questions: Why do so many EHR implementations continue to fall short of achieving intended healthcare outcome goals? What differentiates those that succeed from those that fall short? This article builds on prior research using a systems framework to analyze the EHR implementation process. It focuses on ten common themes (CSFs) that appear to differentiate institutions which achieve positive healthcare outcomes from those that do not. …

Patient Handoffs: A Review Of Current Status In The Usa, Farzad Rafi Razi

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The goal of this paper is to highlight the status of patient handoffs in the United States. A summary of what patient handoffs are, and the current processes through which handoffs are carried out will be described, as well as the benefits and limitations of each approach. In addition, this project will describe some major flaws in the handoff system, and suggestions to how they may be remedied. This paper will conclude by mentioning a new system which has reduced handoff errors, and propose an extension to this research in order to instigate further developments.

Does Unlearning Impact Interaction Of Ehr End-Users?, Julee Hafner, Cherie Noteboom

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Organizations need to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Technology change impacts knowledge competencies that require alteration quickly, to reduce operating costs, and eliminate human errors. Updating computer system documentation procedures require unlearning to maintain competency. Physician end-users possess specialized competencies, or knowledge base in documentation of patient data to the degree that these operations have become automatic. To change the knowledge base of practitioners, end-users must use intellectual capital to unlearn patient care EHR documentation. This study focused on competency change, with the perceptions and influencers of unlearning of old competencies during EHR updates.

Eemi - An Electronic Health Record For Pediatricians: Adoption Barriers, Services And Use In Mexico, Juan Carlos L. Jarquin, Roberto Garza, Lorena G. Gomez Dr., Manuel J. Silva-Cavazos, Víctor J. Lara-Díaz

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The use of paper health records and handwritten prescriptions are prone to preset errors of misunderstanding instructions or interpretations that derive in affecting patients’ health. Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems are useful tools that among other functions can assists physicians’ tasks such as finding recommended medicines (and their contraindications) and dosage for a given diagnosis, filling prescriptions and support data sharing with other systems. By using an EHR many errors can be avoided. This paper presents EEMI (Expediente Electrónico Médico Infantil), a Children EHR focused on assisting pediatricians in their daily office practice. EEMI functionality keeps the relationships among diagnosis, …

Smart Home Healthcare Settings: A Qualitative Study Of The Domain Boundary, Ahmad Alaiad, Dorsa Ziaei, Muhammad Al-Ayyad

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

Addressing the health problems of the 21st century will require individuals to use a new set of medical and public health resources that extend beyond historic and traditional medical devices and are built on current and smart information technologies. Much of these new medical tools was originally designed by device manufacturers to be used only in clinical settings and by trained healthcare professionals but recently are finding their way into the home nevertheless. Their migration to the home poses many challenges to both caregivers and care recipients. In order to facilitate their migration to the home, it is very important …

Examining The Performance Of Older And Younger Adults When Interacting With A Mobile Solution Supporting Levels Of Dexterity, Ayidh Alqahtani, Abdulwhab Alsalmah, Ahmad Alaiad

Transactions of the International Conference on Health Information Technology Advancement

The purpose of this research is to develop and evaluate a mobile game to support the needs of adults aiming to strengthen their perceptual and dexterity skills. The game itself is an advanced version of a Whack-A-Mole style game, in which the user is required to select visual targets, as quickly and accurately as possible. In this version of the game, the user is able to modify the speed, target size, and availability of distracters. In this paper, the performance between older and younger users has been compared. Older adults had spent more time and missed more compared to the …

Vulnerability, Preventability, And Responsibility: Exploring Some Normative Implications Of The Human Condition, Daniel E. Wueste

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented March 17, 2015. Papers presented for the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University.

Breastfeeding With The Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank, Marykate Bodnar

Masters Theses

Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo is home to one of only 15 certified breast milk banks in the United States. Women have shared breast milk for centuries through wet nurses, but this institutionalized and regulated version of sharing is distinct from previous forms. Breastfeeding has become a symbol of successful motherhood; donor milk adds a new dimension to this aspect of idealized motherhood. This study explores how the milk bank works: its organizational structure within a hospital, how donors are selected, and how recipients qualify for donor milk. It is grounded in Feminist and Medical Anthropology literature. Using semi-structured interviews …

Co-Construction Of Personal Narratives In Supporting Identity And Communication In Adults With Aphasia: The ‘My Story’ Project, Katie A. Strong

Dissertations

Stroke and subsequent aphasia can impact a person’s identity negatively, interfering with quality of life. Co-constructing personal narratives about stroke and other aspects of a person’s life is a promising intervention for addressing identity issues. This series of three dissertation studies explored key aspects related to identity, personal narratives, and the perceived impact of telling one’s story.

Study 1 involved a survey examining whether speech-language pathologists view themselves as having a role in supporting the reconstruction of self-identity in adults with aphasia through the use of personal narratives. Results revealed that, whereas the majority of respondents viewed themselves as having …

Saliva Cotinine As A Measure Of Abstinence In A Lottery-Based Contingency Management Treatment For Smoking Cessation, Catherine M. Gayman

Dissertations

Contingency management decreases smoking by delivering monetary incentives contingent upon objective verification of abstinence. The present study investigated the effectiveness of monitoring saliva cotinine twice weekly in a contingency-management treatment for cigarette smoking using a cash prize-based payment system. Participants were randomly assigned to either a contingent reinforcement group or a non-contingent reinforcement group. The study began with five consecutive Baseline days during which participants smoked as usual, and was followed by four consecutive Shaping days, during which participants were asked to gradually decrease smoking. During the subsequent three-week Abstinence phase, participants submitted saliva cotinine and breath carbon monoxide samples …

Convalescent Serum Therapy As Rapid Advance Treatment For Ebola In West Africa, J Bankole Thompson Md, Phd, Patricia F. Mejabi Msc., Olugbenga O. Mejabi Phd, S Ahmed Tejan-Sie Md

International Journal of African Development

The 2014 public health crisis in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone has brought Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) to everyone’s attention. Discovered in 1976, this deadly disease infrequently struck in remote areas of Africa. This article will critically review the literature and describe the pathobiology, transmission, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of EVDwhich, was predicted by the Centers for Disease Control to potentially infect 1.4 million persons in Liberia and Sierra Leone by January 2015 (“Questions and Answers”, 2014). Thankfully this worst case scenario did not occur and we may be experiencing natural burn out of the outbreak along …

Providing Compassion Through Flow, Lydia Royeen

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Meg Kral, MS, OTR/L, CLT, is the cover artist for the Summer 2015 issue of The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. Her untitled piece of art is an oil painting and is a re-creation of a photograph taken while on vacation. Meg is currently supervisor of outpatient services at Rush University Medical Center. She is lymphedema certified and has a specific interest in breast cancer lymphedema. Art and occupational therapy serve similar purposes for Meg: both provide a sense of flow. She values the outcomes, whether it is a piece of art or improved functional status.

Framing Ecological Validity In Occupational Therapy Practice, Patricia A. Crist

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

He Said—He Said: A Scholarly Conversation About Assessment, Glen Gillen, Jim Hinojosa

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Spiritual Assessments In Occupational Therapy, Barbara Hemphill

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Spirituality is recognized as an important concept in the study and practice of medicine, including occupational therapy. This aligns with occupational therapy’s core value of treating people holistically—mind, body, and spirit. Currently, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Hospital Organizations (JCAHO) requires that a spiritual assessment be given to patients on admission. To conduct effective spiritual assessments, occupational therapists must distinguish between religion and spirituality. They also must be aware of their own spiritual beliefs and practices and how those might influence their clinical interactions. This article presents spiritual assessment tools that occupational therapists can use in clinical practice; …

A Review And Case Exemplifications Of Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile (Help) And Its Screener (Help–Screener) For Older Adults, Eric J. Hwang, Terry Peralta-Catipon

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Growing interest in promoting healthy lifestyles as a way to enhance successful aging has led to the necessity of screening and monitoring lifestyle behaviors among older adults. The 56-item Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile (HELP) and its screening version, the 15-item HELP-Screener are a set of instruments designed for assessing various health-related lifestyle behaviors in older adults, including exercise, diet, social and productive activities, leisure, activities of daily living, stress management and spiritual participation, and other health promotion and risk behaviors. This article depicts the critical features (e.g., administration and scoring) and clinical usefulness of the two instruments and reviews the …

Assessing Volition In Pediatrics: Using The Volitional Questionnaire And The Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire, Anne Kiraly-Alvarez

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Evidence suggests that pediatric occupational therapists predominantly use bottom-up, impairment-focused theoretical frameworks and assessments to guide their practice, despite the current trends promoting top-down, occupation-based approaches. Understanding a child’s volition, guided by the use of the Model of Human Occupation, contributes to a more occupation-based, client-centered, holistic, and strength-based approach to therapy. Two assessment tools, the Volitional Questionnaire and the Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire, contribute to a therapists’ understanding of children’s volition. These assessments facilitate therapists’ clinical reasoning and the ability to assess and address volition throughout the occupational therapy process.

Exploring Content Validity Of Shore Handwriting Screening And Newly Developed Score Sheet With Pre-Kindergarten Students, Denise K. Donica, Erin Francsis

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Limited tools exist to measure handwriting readiness skills of pre-kindergarten students. This study was a preliminary exploration of content validity of the Shore Handwriting Screening (SHS) and the newly developed Score Sheet with the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) in 4- and 5-year-old pre-kindergarten students. Because socioeconomic status (SES) is known to impact handwriting skills, data from two different socioeconomic groups were collected.

Method: Students from a Lower SES group (n = 36) and a Higher SES group (n = 14) completed the SHS and fine motor composite of the BOT-2. Pearson’s correlation was used to …

Examining The Purdue Pegboard Test For Occupational Therapy Practice, Debra K. Lindstrom-Hazel, Nicole Vandervlies Veenstra

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Occupational therapy ethics require that therapists use current assessment tools that provide useful comparison data. When an assessment only has normative data that is more than 40 years old, it cannot be considered current. The purpose of this study was to examine the past and current use of the Purdue Pegboard Test by occupational therapists and other professionals and to determine if it is beneficial to conduct a large normative study on the Purdue Pegboard Assembly Task (PPAT) in order to bring the test up to date.

Method: This was a psychometric study of inter-rater reliability and a small …

The Social Profiles Of Occupational Therapy Students’ Educational Groups, Tore Bonsaksen, Mari N. Eirum, Mary V. Donohue

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Today’s occupational therapy models emphasize that a person’s choice of, satisfaction with, and performance in occupations are markedly influenced by the context. For students undergoing a group-based study module, the group is an important context factor. Until recently, there has been a lack of instruments available for the assessment of functioning and participation at the group level. This mixed methods pilot study aimed to examine occupational therapy students’ perceptions of their group’s level of functioning and course of development during one study module.

Methods: The students’ perceptions of their group’s functioning were assessed in two ways: by examining their …

Performance-Based Tools For Assessing Functional Performance In Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment, Patricia Da Cunha Belchior, Melanie Holmes, Nathalie Bier, Carolina Bottari, Barbara Mazer, Alexandra Robert, Navaldeep Kaur

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: It is now recognized that individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) face subtle functional declines that can compromise performance in everyday tasks. However, it is still not clear how to capture these declines in the clinical setting. Thus, the goal of this study was to conduct a scoping review to identify performance-based tools for which the psychometric properties have been evaluated with the MCI population.

Methods: A scoping review of the scientific literature was performed with the guidance of a health science librarian in searching the MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and EMBASE databases from their inception until May 2014.

Results: …

Does The Role Checklist Measure Occupational Participation?, Tore Bonsaksen, Ursula Meidert, Deana Schuman, Hildegunn Kvarsnes, Lena Haglund, Susan Prior, Kirsty Forsyth, Takashi Yamada, Patricia J. Scott

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Among the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) assessments, the Role Checklist is one of the most established. In spite of its widespread use, no studies have examined role examples and their association with the three embedded levels of doing, as established in the MOHO theory.

Method: A cross-sectional survey of 293 respondents from the US, the UK, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway produced 7,182 role examples. The respondents completed Part I of the Role Checklist and provided examples of each internalized role they performed. Responses were classified as occupational skill, occupational performance, or occupational participation.

Results: …

Exploring The Role And Scope Of Clinical Assessment In Occupational Therapy, Ann M. Chapleau

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Sympathetic Nervous System In Response To Food In Children With Autism And Typically Developing Children, Jonathon D. Haskell

Occupational Therapy Graduate Student Evidenced-Based Research Reviews

Previous research behind sympathetic nervous system functioning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder has shown disturbances in their ability to regulate their arousal level (Miller et al., 2003; Tomcheck and Dunn, 2000). Depicting this notion in previous research, children diagnosed with autism are likely to be comorbid with Sensory Over-responsitivity (SOR) or Sensory under-responsitivity (SUR), and could ultimately elicit variable sympathetic nervous system functioning in response to their sensory environment-whether it be taste, smell, auditory, tactile, or visual stimuli. Although previous research depicts inconsistent measures involving sympathetic responses to stimuli in children with autism, research specifically involving food selectivity provided …

Effect Of Social Skill Training Programs On Bullying, Kaycee Johns, Megan Kloska

Occupational Therapy Graduate Student Evidenced-Based Research Reviews

Bullying is a problem that is often found in schools during the adolescence age. Although this is not a new concept, bullying continues to lead to the victimization of children and adolescents all over the world. Research has played a critical role in understanding bullying, victimization, and prevention programs. However, bullying and victimization still continue to be problems within schools and peer relationships.

The primary purpose of this systematic review is to assist practitioners by investigating evidence-based studies related to school social skill programs, and their effectiveness in reducing victimization of bullying throughout adolescence.

Effectiveness Of Executive Function Performance Test (Efpt) In Stroke Population, Faryal Shaheen

Occupational Therapy Graduate Student Evidenced-Based Research Reviews

Stroke is the leading cause of long term disability in the U.S, causing 15,000 deaths each year (Hall et al, 2015). It has been estimated that 71% of clients are discharged with minimal to no services from acute/subacute after stroke because of deficits that go undetected (2015).

One of the most common deficits in stroke is loss in executive functioning (EF). Occupational therapists (OTs) have typically used a combination of tools to measure EF and most of these assessments did not involve observations in the everyday environment (Morrison et al, 2015). A new measure, known as the Executive Function Performance …

Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation And Post-­‐Stroke Glenohumeral Subluxation, Tera Richards, Jason Colon

Occupational Therapy Graduate Student Evidenced-Based Research Reviews

A cerebral vascular accident (CVA) occurs when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted, either because a blood vessel has been occluded or the blood vessel has ruptured. This typically results in hemiplegia or paralysis of the muscles on the side of the body contralateral to the lesion site within the brain.

Effects Of Reducing Fatigue In Muscular Dystrophy Through Physical Activity, Callie Toaso, Alea Brown

Occupational Therapy Graduate Student Evidenced-Based Research Reviews

Myopathy is a functional impairment of muscle tissue; muscular dystrophy is a type of myopathy (Rakowicz & Lane, 2004). Muscular dystrophy (MD) consists of progressive muscle weakness and affects limbs and facial muscles. The most common types include Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), and Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (Mercuri & Muntoni, 2013). One common complaint found with patients with muscular dystrophy is fatigue. It is noted that fatigue affects daily activities, but it is believed that physical activity can help reduce this. The purpose of this systematic review is to research how effective physical activity is at reducing fatigue …

Professor Emerita Has Second Book Published, College Of Education And Human Development

Family and Consumer Sciences News

Marlene Breu, professor emerita of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, will be having her second book published that she wrote during her time at WMU.

Graduate Of Career And Technical Education Program Develops Prosthetic Arm With 3-D Printer, College Of Education And Human Development

Family and Consumer Sciences News

Adam Zavislak, a graduate of CEHD's Career and Technical Education program, created the prosthetic arm.