CLAS App ML

This is a multi-language (ML) update of the CLAS App original design by Bridget Maher from the School of Medicine at University College Cork, Ireland. The current version has an improve counting mechanism and has been translated from English to Spanish, Catalan and German languages within the European project PATIENT (www.patient-project.eu). The CLAS App ML aims to train good written communication skills as they are essential to the practice of medicine and avoidance of medical error. The hospital discharge letter is probably the most important of all written communications between hospital and General Practitioner (Family Doctors). However, discharge letters vary greatly in quality, structure, cohesion, and ‘readability’. Most discharge letters are written by junior doctors and frequently omit important information. The School of Medicine at University College Cork developed a comprehensive check-list i-phone application to improve the quality of hospital discharge letters. The CLAS scale lists the key elements of a discharge letter - reason for admission, investigations, results, diagnosis, problem list, medications, management plan, name and contact details of doctor writing the letter etc. There are 4 pages of items, divided into various sections. Either a section heading or an individual item can be ticked. Most items score 1, but some items of particular importance, such as medication, score higher. Total CLAS score is 50. At the end, the user is shown his total score and can swipe to see a list of unchecked items. By using the CLAS application as a point-of-practice reference tool, doctors and medical students can improve their letter-writing skills, decrease the risk of medical error and improve patient safety. With the new version CLAS App ML we aim to provide a standard within Europe for the structure of hospital discharge letter. Therefore, the App has been translated to 3 new languages.This work has been partly funded by the Patient Project (with support from the European Commission. 527620-LLP-1-2012-1-NLERASMUS-FEXI, http://patient-project.eu/

WP2-Deliverable: Training Needs Analysis [Public Part]

Orrego, C., Secanell, M., Mora, N., Baneres, J., Maher, B., Stieger, L., Druener, S., Henn, P., Stoyanov, S., Sopka, S., & Drachsler, H. (2013). WP2-Deliverable: Training Needs Analysis [Public Part]. PATIENT project. Heerlen, The Netherlands.The PATIENT project aims to provide pioneering solutions to improve training on handover practices in undergraduate medical education. The Training Needs Assessment (TNA) is considered as a first step in the design and delivery of training in the medical schools. The primary goal of the TNA is to identify and prioritize the skills needed to be developed in medical training and to determine the specifications and resources necessary to make this training successful. The objective of this work package was to design and conduct a systematic survey of knowledge and practice in handover learning and teaching, as well as assessment of innovative teaching approaches in medical schools across three EU countries (Germany, Ireland, Spain,). The TNA survey was built up upon the information gathered from a variety of resources, which contributed to control the content and construct validity of the instrument. The final sets of questions were selected according to relevance and frequency of inclusion resulting from expert opinions and literature review. The final survey was structured under the umbrella of 4 handover related dimensions assessing the opinion of the respondents about the importance and skill abilities related to handover, their experience in clinical practice, curriculum content and preferences about handover and level of confidence related to learning environment. The primary goal of the Training Needs Assessment (TNA) is to identify and prioritize the skills that need to be developed in training and to determine the specifications and resources necessary to make this training successful (14). Our purpose was to design and conduct a systematic survey of knowledge and practice in handover learning and teaching, as well as assessment of innovative teaching approaches in medical schools across three EU countries (Spain, Germany and Ireland).EU LLP PATIENT-project.e

Electronic Discharge Letter Mobile App

The electronic discharge letter mobile app takes advantage of Near Field Communication (NFC) within the PATIENT project and a related post-doc study. NFC enabled phones to read passive RFID tags, but can also use this short-range wireless technology to exchange (small) messages. NFC in that sense competes with bluetooth. Compared to bluetooth, NFC: ● Requires the devices to be really close (less than 4cm) ● Does not require the devices to pair before communicating We applied the Android Beam technology to facilitate the handover of medical discharge letters between doctors and patients. Sharing these letters with patients and providing extra services around gives patients more insight on their health. Furthermore the app for patients can be extended with extra functionality to give them for instance more information about e.g. their medication. In that way the eDL App encourages the standardization of discharge letters by replacing the traditional handwritten or printed letter by an electronic version (eDL) exchanged between devices. The first goal was to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) where wanted prototype the ability to complete a discharge procedure from end to end and show how a doctor can pass a discharge letter to a patient's mobile device via Near Field Communication.This work has been partly funded by the Patient Project (with support from the European Commission. 527620-LLP-1-2012-1-NLERASMUS-FEXI, http://patient-project.eu/