A Community-Driven Validation Service for Standard Medical Imaging Objects

Digital medical imaging laboratories contain many distinct types of equipment provided by different manufacturers. Interoperability is a critical issue and the DICOM protocol is a de facto standard in those environments. However, manufacturers' implementation of the standard may have non-conformities at several levels, which will hinder systems' integration. Moreover, medical staff may be responsible for data inconsistencies when entering data. Those situations severely affect the quality of healthcare services since they can disrupt system operations. The existence of software able to confirm data quality and compliance with the DICOM standard is important for programmers, IT staff and healthcare technicians. Although there are a few solutions that try to accomplish this goal, they are unable to deal with certain situations that require user input. Furthermore, these cases usually require the setup of a working environment, which makes the sharing of validation information more difficult. This article proposes and describes the development of a Web DICOM validation service for the community. This solution requires no configuration by the user, promotes validation results share-ability in the community and preserves patient data privacy since files are de-identified on the client side.Comment: Computer Standards & Interfaces, 201

Macroeconomic Digital Book Development: How are the Feasibility of Experts and Student Responses?

There are still many teachers who have not used technology as a learning resource for students. This causes the teaching materials that students have less attractive. This study aims to see the product's feasibility, namely a digital book on macroeconomic material. The feasibility of the digital-book is divided into two, namely, the feasibility of the experts and the feasibility of the sample (students). This research is an R&D type with the selected development model, namely the ADDIE development model. The sampling technique used is simple random sampling with a sample of 36 active students of an economic education study program. There are 3 data collection instruments used, including media and material expert validation instruments with ten statements and student response instruments totalling 28 statements. Analysis of the data used in the form of descriptive statistics. The results of material validation for both validators were 42 (very good) and 37 (good), then for media experts, scores were 38 (good) and 39 (good), while for student responses to the material aspect, a score of 29.25 (recommended) was obtained. , the media aspect is 52.5 (highly recommended), the output aspect is 9.75 (recommended), and for all aspects, 91.5 (highly recommended). Based on the results obtained from the validation and small group trials, digital books on macroeconomic material are appropriate to be used as complementary learning resources in macroeconomics lectures

Automating Electronic Health Record Data Quality Assessment

Information systems such as Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are susceptible to data quality (DQ) issues. Given the growing importance of EHR data, there is an increasing demand for strategies and tools to help ensure that available data are fit for use. However, developing reliable data quality assessment (DQA) tools necessary for guiding and evaluating improvement efforts has remained a fundamental challenge. This review examines the state of research on operationalising EHR DQA, mainly automated tooling, and highlights necessary considerations for future implementations. We reviewed 1841 articles from PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus published between 2011 and 2021. 23 DQA programs deployed in real-world settings to assess EHR data quality (n = 14), and a few experimental prototypes (n = 9), were identified. Many of these programs investigate completeness (n = 15) and value conformance (n = 12) quality dimensions and are backed by knowledge items gathered from domain experts (n = 9), literature reviews and existing DQ measurements (n = 3). A few DQA programs also explore the feasibility of using data-driven techniques to assess EHR data quality automatically. Overall, the automation of EHR DQA is gaining traction, but current efforts are fragmented and not backed by relevant theory. Existing programs also vary in scope, type of data supported, and how measurements are sourced. There is a need to standardise programs for assessing EHR data quality, as current evidence suggests their quality may be unknown

PACS de patologia: uma plataforma centralizada para a gestão de imagem médica de patologia

The clinical area of digital Pathology is still giving its first steps in the development of interoperable solutions that enable the distributed acquisition, storage, and visualization of medical images, including diagnostic support tools. Nowadays, digital management solutions use proprietary image formats and communication protocols that are not compatible with the DICOM standard. Moreover, the available technologies are not mature enough to support the practice of medicine in an area where scanned images can reach several gigapixels, requiring new engineering approaches to support huge volumes of data, in the order of gigabytes per study, that need to be consumed in real time. This dissertation aims to research and develop new technologies and associated information systems, capable of supporting the digital acquisition of pathology images, their centralized archive, sharing, and collaborative review with decision support tools. The result is an innovative web solution, focused on increasing productivity, with safe diagnostics and based on normalized protocols. A common web browser was transformed into a professional workstation that is able to access the image repository at any place and time, regardless of the operating system and without any prior installation.A área de Patologia clínica digital ainda se encontra a dar os primeiros passos no desenvolvimento de soluções interoperáveis que permitam a aquisição, arquivo e visualização distribuída da imagem, incluindo ferramentas de suporte ao diagnóstico. Os atuais cenários de revisão à distância usam aplicações proprietárias que não são interoperáveis com a norma DICOM. Isto deve-se ao facto de a tecnologia não estar suficientemente madura para apoiar a prática clínica numa área em que uma imagem digitalizada pode atingir vários giga-pixels, requerendo novas soluções de engenharia para suportar grandes volumes de dados, da ordem de gigabyte por estudo, que necessitam de ser consumidos remotamente em tempo real. Esta dissertação teve como objetivo estudar e desenvolver tecnologias e sistemas de informação que permitam a aquisição digital da imagem de patologia, o seu arquivo centralizado, a partilha e revisão colaborativa com ferramentas de suporte à decisão. O resultado é uma solução Web inovadora, de elevada produtividade, diagnóstico seguro e baseada em processos e protocolos normalizados. Um Web-browser comum foi transformado numa estação de trabalho capaz de aceder ao arquivo em qualquer altura e qualquer lugar, independentemente do sistema operativo, computador ou dispositivo móvel.Mestrado em Engenharia Informátic