A variety of structured assessment tools for use in surgical training have been reported, but extant assessment tools often employ paper-based rating forms. Digital assessment forms for evaluating surgical skills could potentially offer advantages over paper-based forms, especially in complex assessment situations. In this paper, we report on the development of cross-platform digital assessment forms for use with multiple raters in order to facilitate the automatic processing of surgical skills assessments that include structured ratings. The FileMaker 13 platform was used to create a database containing the digital assessment forms, because this software has cross-platform functionality on both desktop computers and handheld devices. The database is hosted online, and the rating forms can therefore also be accessed through most modern web browsers. Cross-platform digital assessment forms were developed for the rating of surgical skills. The database platform used in this study was reasonably priced, intuitive for the user, and flexible. The forms have been provided online as free downloads that may serve as the basis for further development or as inspiration for future efforts. In conclusion, digital assessment forms can be used for the structured rating of surgical skills and have the potential to be especially useful in complex assessment situations with multiple raters, repeated assessments in various times and locations, and situations requiring substantial subsequent data processing or complex score calculations.
Physical Examination ; Web Browser

OBJECTIVE: We developed a Clinical Document Architecture(CDA) Generator module based on CDA standard for the interchange of radiological reports. METHODS: This paper describes CDA standard, the template of radiological report, CDA Generator module, and the Web-form report using an Extensible Stylesheet Language(XSL) style-sheet. And the CDA Generator module is integrated into a existing Picture Archiving Communication System(PACS) Viewer. RESULTS: Radiological reports based on CDA standard are used to interchange between different health institutions, and also presented in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) compatible web browser. CONCLUSION: The proposed module and concept in this paper may be a utility in improving health care delivery and can also be used to integrate with other Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine(DICOM) Structured Report (SR) compliant PACS systems.
Delivery of Health Care ; Web Browser

Embedded computing and wireless communication technology were used to develop a mobile biotelemetry system, featuring the functions of mobile measurement, wireless transmission, database archival, and internet retrieval of biomedical signals. Two PPCs (Pocket PC) with WLAN (wireless LAN) PC cards were used to simulate the communicating situation of biomedical signals between wireless sensors and a personal monitor. A PPC client program simulated the wireless sensors and a PPC server program simulated the personal medical monitor. Medical PDA was implemented by SBC (single board computer), LCD display, touch screen and Bluetooth module. Windows CE.net was ported as its operating system and the application program was developed using embedded Visual C++ 4. The measured transmission speed of ECG data was 2150 samples per second in the WLAN environment. For wireless internet connection, a Web-based server program was developed, able to display the biomedical signals of remote patients and be remotely monitored by medical doctors in a distant hospital. PDA data, which was archived at the server's database table, was transformed to an XML message and could be displayed on a Web browser as a signal graph. This system would be very useful for patients with chronic illness, especially in an emergent environment, and for containing medical cost in the aged society.
Chronic Disease ; Electrocardiography ; Humans ; Internet ; Web Browser

The amount of medical information is rapidly increasing in accordance with the development of medical technology. Therefore, developing efficient ways of management, exchange and sharing of medical information is becoming an important issue. A variety of models and tools introduced in hospitals, departments and clinics became obstacles in the reproduction and utilization of information. A proficient means of exchanging this medical information, known as an Application Program Interface (API) has been designed in the present study. A discharge summary which contains major description of medical care has been chosen as the source for this exchange. The API translated the information on the discharge summary into Health Level Seven (HL7) messages, which is the standard protocol for exchanging information. Users could send and/or receive a discharge summary using a web browser using this API. For the security of a web-server, we used a freeware, Mr.Flux, to control access to the server. Time to input data was significantly different according to the traffic of network, which was 341+/-55 seconds and 131+/-15 seconds at 10 p.m at 10 a.m. In summary, HL7 based on an API for the exchange of information on nuclear medical care could be used in different computing environments such as an internet based system that is convenient to use for most users.
Health Level Seven ; Internet ; Reproduction ; Web Browser

To know recent research works in neurosurgical fields and to analyze neurosurgery related sites on the internet, authors have been searching sites on the web offering the neurosurgical resources. From December 1995 to October 1996 we used a modem(28.8Kbps) and thereafter connected to a LAN(local area network). Under the environment of Windows 95, we used web browsers with Netscape 2.02 and Netterm 2.89. We got an medical information with PC journals or seminars and graded the neurosurgical center/institutes from A to E according to the quality of web sites. We could use the internet resources more rapidly in the early morning than noon or evening. Best sites for neurosurgeon were MedMark(http://www.medmark.bit.co.kr/neurosur.html) and Neurosource (http://www.neurosource.com/). The more comprehensive academic neurosurgical site among all web were the Massachusetts General Hospital(http://neurosurgery.mgh.harvard.edu/) and the University North California (http://sunsite.unc.edu/Neuro/uncns/home.html). In 89 neurosurgical center/institutes, 72 sites(80.9%) couldn't supply sufficient information. In conclusion, there are many webs related to neurosurgery on the internet, but useful sites for neurosurgeon are not common. It is necessary to make an effort to find available sites offering more information in the future.
California ; Internet* ; Massachusetts ; Neurosurgery ; Web Browser

Examination is indispensable to medical education. It qualifies medical education, drives medical students to study hard, and provides guides for the students acquiring a large amount of medical knowledge. This study provides an approach to organize the question pool for medical examination. In this approach, many questions in the form of HTML based texts were stored and managed in text-and memo-type field of Microsoft Access database system. They could be retrieved from the database in computer-generated HTML file, which could be read in word processors and web browsers. Several advantages of HTML bases text were emphasized. Though they are essentially text format data which can be stored and processed easily in text-type field of databases, they don't lose character attributes such as bold, italic, underlined, superscript, subscript and so on. Also they can provide table facility and links to external graphic files. This approach can be applied in other medical information retrieval system.
Education, Medical ; Humans ; Information Systems ; Students, Medical ; Web Browser

PURPOSE: The authors have developed a system that searches for radiologic reports, and we have evaluated the utility of this system for clinical application, research and medical education. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The system retrieves radiologic reports from the OCS (ordering communication system) server and stores them in a separate computer. A CGI (common gateway interface) program was written to search the database with variable keywords given by the user. The system satisfied the requirements of functionality, accessibility and security. RESULTS: Users could search for radiologic reports with variable keywords using the web browser, and the user could refine the results using combinations of these keywords. The system has been running successfully for 2 years, and radiologists have used this system for searching or collecting cases, keeping reports and gathering statistics. CONCLUSION: The simple text searching system has been developed in a short time period with only small costs and a bit of hard effort, and this system is practical for clinical use, research and medical education.
Education, Medical ; Information Management ; Internet* ; Running ; Web Browser

PURPOSE: By developing on-line statistics program to record the information of radiation oncology to share the information with internet. It is possible to supply basic reference data for administrative plans to improve radiation oncology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The information of radiation oncology statistics had been collected by paper forms about 52 hospitals in the past. Now, we can input the data by internet web browsers. The statistics program used windows NT 4.0 operation system, Internet Information Server 4.0 (IIS4.0) as a web server and the Microsoft Access MDB. We used Structured Query Language (SQL), Visual Basic, VBScript and JAVAScript to display the statistics according to years and hospitals. RESULTS: This program shows present conditions about man power, research, therapy machines, technics, brachytherapy, clinic statistics, radiation safety management, institution, quality assurance and radioisotopes in radiation oncology department. The database consists of 38 inputs and 6 outputs windows. Statistical output windows can be increased continuously according to user's need. CONCLUSION: We have developed statistics program to process all of the data in department of radiation oncology for reference information. Users easily could input the data by internet web browsers and share the information.
Brachytherapy ; Internet ; Radiation Oncology* ; Radioisotopes ; Safety Management ; Web Browser

The amount of medical information is rapidly increasing in accordance to the development of medical technology. Therefore, it is an important issue to develop the efficient ways of management, exchange and sharing of medical informations. Though the variable models and tools have been introduced to hospitals, departments and clinics, those became obstacles in the production and utilization of informations. A proficient mean of exchanging this medical informations, known as an Application Program Interface(API) has been designed and introduced in the study. A discharge summary has been chosen as the source for this exchange of medical information, because it contains major description of medical or surgical care. API translated the information as Health Level Seven(HL7) messages, which is the standard protocol for exchanging informations. Users could send or receive a discharge summary using a web browser in this API. In summary, HL7 based on an API for the exchange of information of the plastic surgical care can be used in different computing environments such as an internet based system and is convenient to use for most doctors.
Health Level Seven ; Health Status ; Internet ; Medical Informatics Applications ; Surgery, Plastic* ; Web Browser

Recently the changes in medical informatics enabled us to use medical information whenever we want and wherever we are. However, there are few information supporting systems on the web in occupational health field. So we have tried to make an occupational health information system (OHIS) based on the Internet and to provide occupational information to occupational health personnel. There were two steps for developing OHIS. First, we analyzed user's needs and existing information systems and then developed contents of our OHIS. Second, we constructed web server under the environment of Windows user, using operating system of windows NT 4.0 and web browsers of Netscape Navigator. Many users in worksites wanted information through the Internet. The contents of OHS which they wanted were information related to health education of workers, health counselling, news, and so on. The contents of OHIS which we forwarded were occupational health service, information about organization of occupational health, book references and journals, link-sites related to occupational health. In the future, this Interned-based OHIS will be an useful site offering a lot of information to occupational health personnel.
Health Education ; Health Information Systems* ; Information Systems ; Internet* ; Medical Informatics ; Occupational Health ; Occupational Health Services ; Occupations* ; Web Browser ; Workplace