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Articles and journal scans about Information management
Article
October 2012
Point-of-Care Testing: Making Innovation Work for Patient-Centered Care
Chris Price and Andrew St John have followed their book Point-of-Care Testing for Managers and Policymakers with another look at the subject from strategic vision to change management and implementation in Point-of-Care Testing: Making Innovation Work for Patient-Centered Care.
In their latest book the authors give...
Point-of-care testing
Information management
Cardiac markers
Glucose
D-dimer
Preanalytical phase
Article
January 2012
Potential benefits when the critical reference change value for serial measurements of troponin I is used
A new parameter called critical reference change value (CrRCV) to be applied for the interpretation of serial measurements of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is introduced. To illustrate the practical utility of CrRCV a set of clinical examples based on two consecutive cTnI results are presented.
Thus three cTnI changes...
Cardiac markers
Information management
Article
January 2011
ROC curves – what are they and how are they used?
ROC curves are frequently used to show in a graphical way the connection/trade-off between clinical sensitivity and specificity for every possible cut-off for a test or a combination of tests. In addition the area under the ROC curve gives an idea about the benefit of using the test(s) in question.
ROC curves are...
Information management
Article
October 2010
Significant figures
The appropriate number of significant figures is important in order to have a meaningful level of resolving power when reporting analytical concentrations. Various methods or criteria can be used when estimating how many significant figures are needed. In most cases three significant figures (two true plus one...
Information management
D-dimer
Troponins
Article
July 2010
Lean as a learning system in a hospital ward
PURPOSE – The purpose of this article is to discuss lean as a learning system in a hospital ward.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – Discusses lean as a learning system in a hospital ward.
FINDINGS – The Toyota veterans are fond of saying, lean is about “making people before making parts” or, in the wards’ context,...
Process optimization
Information management
Article
April 2010
Can lean save lives
PURPOSE – The purpose of this paper is to show how over the last 18 months Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust have been exploring whether or not lean methodologies, often known as the Toyota Production System, can indeed be applied to healthcare.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – This paper is a viewpoint.
FINDINGS – One’s...
Process optimization
Information management
Article
January 2010
Interpretation of laboratory results
Clinical laboratory test results are a very important parameter in diagnosis, monitoring and screening. 70-80 % of decisions in diagnosis are based on laboratory results and more and more laboratory analyses are requested. Thus a lot of data are provided and it is therefore imperative for patient care (and safety)...
Information management
Glucose
Creatinine/urea
D-dimer
CRP
Article
October 2009
Diagnostic accuracy – Part 2
Predictive value and likelihood ratio
Sensitivity and specificity define the discriminative power of a diagnostic procedure, whereas predictive values relate to the predictive ability of a test to identify disease or its absence in individuals.
Predictive values are greatly influenced by the prevalence of the disease and should not be generalized beyond ...
Information management
Article
June 2009
Diagnostic accuracy – Part 1
Basic concepts: sensitivity and specificity, ROC analysis, STARD statement
The discriminative ability of a diagnostic procedure is called diagnostic accuracy, and a number of quantitative measures out of which sensitivity and specificity are mostly used in the biomedical literature can express it.
Each diagnostic-accuracy measure relates to some specific aspects of a diagnostic procedure....
Information management
Article
April 2009
Reference intervals (2) - some practical considerations
This is the second of two articles focusing on the reference interval, the most widely used tool for interpretation of patient test results.
The first [1] was an introduction to the theoretical concepts that underpin the significance, construction and use of reference intervals. Here consideration is given to the...
Quality assurance
Information management
Point-of-care testing
Hemoglobins