Indian journal of medical informatics 

Abstract: Breast cancer is on the rise in Indian subcontinent but the knowledge of women about breast self awareness is dismal. In order to make Breast self exam a part of lifestyle a reminder system needs to be develop. Material and method: A community based study was conducted during 2008-09 amongst women employees from various offices of Delhi. A total of 424 women who volunteered to participate in the study were trained in the technique of breast self-examination (BSE) with the help of a lecture, video, demonstration of the technique on breast model by the investigator followed by feedback demonstration by the technique participants. Subsequently, short text messages (SMS) were sent according to the last menstrual period (LMP) information collected. Women who did not menstruate were sent reminders on the first of every month. Statistical analysis: was done using Epinfo software. Results: All the 424 participants owned a personal mobile number. While 83% had a private connection of cell phone and 17% had a connection provided by a government agency. The delivery status of the SMS could be confirmed in majority of the instances. From amongst those who did not do the self exam the main barriers to BSE identified were that they were casual about it and did not bother (74%), busy (27%), anxiety (13%), pain in the breasts (2%) and were not confident of doing it (2%). Multiple responses were included. All the participants were followed up with sms reminders for the next one year. At the end of 5 months of sending reminders statistically significant number of women had started doing a breast self exam to become breast aware. (p less then 0.5). Conclusion: sms can be used as an effective reminder system to make women breast aware.

Abstract: a software architecture for clinical decision support systems. The core of the architec- ture is the Health Level Seven (HL7) Arden Syntax. Functionality and scalability of this architec- ture were proven in large routine applications for early detection and automated monitoring of hospital-acquired infections at the Vienna General Hospital. These systems automatically receive data from 15 intensive care units (ICUs) and generate indications as to whether various forms of ICU-acquired infections are clearly present in a patient, present to a certain degree, or absent.

Abstract: Technological innovations have given health services providers the means to diagnose and treat an increasing number of problems and illnesses. They can used to diagnose and treat illness, prevent disease, maintain patient well being, or facilitate the provision of health services. Integration and coordination of health services could result in optimal use of scarce and expensive resources. By leveraging information and communication technologies to provide better health care services in underserved areas, networked health systems and patients gain access to seamless, coordinated and continuing care. With the advances in modern telecommunications, information processing capability and miniaturization of health diagnostic equipments it is possible to deliver more immediate and effective heath care to the masses. This paper presents a snapshot of various forces driving the ehealth applications; challenges for their widespread adoption and attempts to provide a conceptual framework for successful deliverance of e-health services.

Abstract: Medical Education has been known conventionally taught and learnt in an inductive way and has been considered as a difficult one to both impart and imbibe. Information and Communication Technology (ICT), mostly as e-learning, has made the process of education much easier to comprehend. However, the application of medical informatics tools to medical education has been quite delayed and inadequate, especially in India. The paper discusses the pros and cons of e-learning and tries to suggest step-by-step primer for setting up effective e-learning courses for medical education.