Clinical auditing to improve patient outcomes

Clinical audit is about measuring the quality of care we provide against relevant standards. If we are failing to meet these standards, the audit should help us understand the factors that are causing us to fail, so that we can set priorities and make improvements

IT process architectures for enterprises development: A survey from a maturity model perspective

During the last years much has been published about IT governance. Close to the success of many governance efforts are the business frameworks, quality models, and technology standards that help enterprises improve processes, customer service, quality of products, and control. In this paper we i) survey existing frameworks, namely ITIL, ASL and BiSL, ii) find relations with the IT Governance framework CobiT to determine if the maturity model of CobiT can be used by ITIL, ASL and BiSL, and (iii) provide an integrated vista of IT processes viewed from a maturity model perspective. This perspective can help us understand the importance of maturity models for increasing the efficiency of IT processes for enterprises development and business-IT alignment

Igniting an Interoperable Healthcare System: HCI|DC 2014 Healthcare Innovation day

Interoperability -- the ability of systems to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged -- can help solve the healthcare crisis. The West Health Institute's HCI-DC 2014, co-hosted by ONC, brought together experts from across the healthcare community to consider how interoperability can cut costs, improve efficiency, reduce errors, and improve health. Interoperability across systems and care settings can empower patients, help doctors make better decisions, and allowing all healthcare providers to spend more time with patients. It can accelerate innovation and free up technology resources in hospitals so that they can focus on improving care in the community.It is by implementing standards-based technology that we can achieve interoperability between systems. Standards can help by moving us away from proprietary solutions and toward open source solutions. Commonly adopted standards will eliminate the custom interfaces required today, lessening associated costs, risks and time. Interoperability supported by standards-based exchange and semantics will help us finally harness the power of information technologies to improve healthcare.The experts at HCI-DC 2014 considered what we must do to tap into the information technology revolution that has transformed other industries to solve some of healthcare's thorniest problems. Their deliberations have been consolidated into the Call to Action offered in this document. Their key message: All of us must work together now to ignite an interoperable system. It is a burning issue. Our patients are waiting

Quality Educational Services in University: Self-Evaluation Using Quality Indicators

This paper seeks to help us answer following aspects: The University could be able to offer good educational services? Are these services at higher standards? It suggests how we can identify strengths and areas for improvement, report on standards and quality and draw up plans for action. All those involved in the provision of services may have a role to play: the staff as a whole, the “head teacher”, senior managers, individual teams, departments or stages, parents and others with a stake in our schools, the education authority.educational services; university self-evaluation; higher education management; quality indicators.

Industry and faculty surveys call for increased collaboration to prepare information technology graduates

Academic and industry collaborations can help improve computing curricula and student learning experiences. Such collaborations are formally encouraged by accreditation standards. Through the auspices of ACM and IEEE-CS, the IT2017 task group is updating curriculum guidelines for information technology undergraduate degree programs, similar to the regular updates for other computing disciplines. The task group surveyed curriculum preferences of both faculty and industry. The authors, with the group\u27s cooperation, compare US faculty and US industry preferences in mathematics, IT knowledge areas, and student workplace skill sets. Faculty and industry share common ground, which supports optimism about their productive collaboration, but are also distinct enough to justify the effort of actively coordinating with each other

Designed-in security for cyber-physical systems

An expert from academia, one from a cyber-physical system (CPS) provider, and one from an end asset owner and user offer their different perspectives on the meaning and challenges of 'designed-in security.' The academic highlights foundational issues and talks about emerging technology that can help us design and implement secure software in CPSs. The vendor's view includes components of the academic view but emphasizes the secure system development process and the standards that the system must satisfy. The user issues a call to action and offers ideas that will ensure progress

Humanitarian organizations' information practices : procedures and privacy concerns for serving the undocumented

Many humanitarian organizations in the United States work with the information of undocumented migrants to help them secure services that might otherwise be unattainable to them. Information and communication technologies can help their work, but can also significantly exacerbate the risks that undocumented individuals are facing, and expose them to security breakages, leaks, hacks, inadvertent disclosure, and courts requests. This study aims to provide a preliminary understanding of the information practices and systems that US humanitarian organizations employ to protect the privacy of the undocumented individuals they serve. To do so, we conducted interviews and an analysis of organizations' working documents within humanitarian organizations on the US West Coast, including advocacy groups and organizations with ties to higher education. Our outcomes show gaps between current legal standards, technology best practices, and the day‐to‐day functioning of the organizations. We contend the necessity of support to humanitarian organizations in further developing standards and training for digital privacy

Core Measures

Core Measures are hospital quality measures that are monitored and reported to the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). They are evidence-based practices, scientifically researched standards of care which result in improved clinical outcomes for patients, and impact Value Based Purchasing reimbursement. They assist us to provide optimal care across all patient populations, help us identify areas where we can improve patient outcomes, and provide a focus for the development of clinical pathways and standard order sets.https://digitalcommons.centracare.com/nursing_posters/1011/thumbnail.jp

Radius, Diameter, Circumference, Pi, Geometer\u27s Sketchpad, and You!

I truly believe learning mathematics can be a fun experience for children of all ages. It is up to us, the teachers, to present math as an interesting application. The addition of computers into our ever-changing world has given us an important tool, which can assist us on our journey to teach math in new fun and interesting ways. The Program Geometer’s Sketchpad© is one of many mathematic programs we as teachers can use to better help kids understand different geometric concepts. I would like to use Geometer’s Sketchpad© in my classroom to help teach my students about circles and the different algorithms that go along with them. Having the students create circles on the program helps them better visual a concept and helps with the learning process in general. It allows them to get away from their desks for a while and explore both computing and mathematics. It actually makes learning math an enjoyable and exciting process. I want the children to see how an algorithm is made. Creating a circle on sketchpad, finding its center, and then finding the radius will help them better visualize the process. After proving several small algorithms, I hope my students understand algorithms are not just created through trial and error. An algorithm is a systematic procedure used to accomplish an operation. I hope visualizing the algorithmic process helps them better retain the knowledge as well. I also hope the students become more comfortable using this program so we can use it in future geometry problems. The activities I have chosen to do on Geometer’s Sketchpad© addresses several of the National Standards for Mathematics. Out of the 13 mathematics standards for grades 5-8, the lessons I have proposed addresses roughly 9 of them: Standard (1) Mathematics and Problem solving, Standard (2) Mathematics as Communication, Standard (3) Mathematics as Reasoning, Standard (4) Mathematical Connections, Standard (6) Number Systems and Number Theory, Standard (7) Computation and Estimation, Standard (9) Algebra, Standard (12) Geometry, Standard (13) Measurement (NCTM Standards, 1989)

A community-engaged infection prevention and control approach to Ebola.

The real missing link in Ebola control efforts to date may lie in the failure to apply core principles of health promotion: the early, active and sustained engagement of affected communities, their trusted leaders, networks and lay knowledge, to help inform what local control teams do, and how they may better do it, in partnership with communities. The predominant focus on viral transmission has inadvertently stigmatized and created fear-driven responses among affected individuals, families and communities. While rigorous adherence to standard infection prevention and control (IPC) precautions and safety standards for Ebola is critical, we may be more successful if we validate and combine local community knowledge and experiences with that of IPC medical teams. In an environment of trust, community partners can help us learn of modest adjustments that would not compromise safety but could improve community understanding of, and responses to, disease control protocol, so that it better reflects their 'community protocol' (local customs, beliefs, knowledge and practices) and concerns. Drawing on the experience of local experts in several African nations and of community-engaged health promotion leaders in the USA, Canada and WHO, we present an eight step model, from entering communities with cultural humility, though reciprocal learning and trust, multi-method communication, development of the joint protocol, to assessing progress and outcomes and building for sustainability. Using examples of changes that are culturally relevant yet maintain safety, we illustrate how often minor adjustments can help prevent and treat the most serious emerging infectious disease since HIV/AIDS