Past Talks
Power and the people in Australian health care: and where were “the people” in the NHHRC?
Date: Wednesday 24th September 2009
Time: 11:00am - 12:00pm
Venue: Hugh Dixson Theatre, Ground Floor, AGSM Building, Gate 11 Botany Street, UNSW.
Speaker: Professor Gavin Mooney
Abstract
This paper argues that too little thought is given to the political economy of health care in Australia. My own discipline of health economics - but it is just as true of others - does much good work in evaluating different policies but the difference all this analysis makes in practice is in general small.
Much of this is to do with the way that power is exercised in the health care system with too much resting in the hands of those in the system, especially doctors as corporate bodies, and too little in the hands of citizens and the community.
What would happen if it were citizens’ values that drove Australian health care? Would that make a difference to what we currently have?
The paper examines the findings from some Citizens’ Juries on these issues. It also wonders why the NHHRC did not go down this road in reaching its recommendations but settled for proposing only their adoption in looking at priorities for the future.
Speaker Profile
Gavin is based in Western Australia. He is an internationally recognised health economist and was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Cape Town as ‘one of the founding fathers of health economics’. He holds professorial positions at the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, the University of Cape Town and Aarhus University (Denmark).
Gavin has worked as a health economist for nearly 40 years, first in the UK, then Denmark and more recently in Australia. He has well over 200 publications in health economics, including 20 books. His latest book (2009) is Challenging Health Economics from OUP. Gavin has worked as an adviser on many occasions for WHO and OECD and for various governments and health departments. His main interests within health economics are equity and ethics.
Using the hybrid model of learning in personality to predict performance in the workplace
Date: Thursday 10th September 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: AIHI Board Room, Level 1, AGSM Building, UNSW
Speaker: Chris J. Jackson (
c.jackson@unsw.edu.au) School of Organisation and Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
Abstract
The hybrid model of learning in personality (Jackson, 2005; 2008) argues that Sensation Seeking (a biologically based scale of high approach and low avoidance) provides an exploratory drive which is mediated by mastery goal orientation in the prediction of functionally learnt behaviour such as work performance. It is argued that other socio-cognitive mechanisms will also re-express Sensation Seeking towards functional learning. Failure to re-express the exploratory drive leads to dysfunctional learning and delinquency. Using published data from several studies, I contrast the hybrid model of learning in personality with the Big Five model of personality in terms of its theory, predictive capacity and application. Results generally suggest that practitioners may gain better insights into personality in the workplace using the hybrid model compared to the Big Five.
Speaker Profile
Chris Jackson is a Professor of Business Psychology in the School of Organisation and Management, University of New South Wales.
His research interests span models of personality and their application to the workplace. In particular, he advocates a new approach to personality based on ideas associated with functional and dysfunctional learning. His research produces a model of personality which predicts workplace and educational performance as well as shows how performance can be improved. The model can be regarded as a substantial step forward from well known models currently used such as the MBTI and the Big Five.
Chris is also interested in how workplace performance can be predicted from left and right brain differences in association with personality. From this perspective, it is important to understand laterality effects before trying to determine how personality predicts performance.
Chris is currently course leader of Management of Change in the MBA programs at University of New South Wales and has a broad range of consultancy experience concerning learning and personality assessment in the workplace.
Introducing computer-based nursing documentation into residential aged care: A multi-method evaluation of success
Date: Thursday 18th June 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: Mathews Building, Level 3, Room 307, UNSW.
Speaker: Dr. Ping Yu
Abstract
This presentation gives an overview of the design and implementation of this ARC funded Industry Linkage Project. It will introduce the context and components of the project. The first component is the research conceptual framework - DeLone and McLean’s Information System Success Model and the methods used for the development and implementation of the quantitative measurement to validate the model. The second component is qualitative research, implemented through interviewing care staff members and managers at different organisational levels to understand the IT implementation processes and perceptions of different stakeholders towards the change. The third component is work sampling study to investigate the change of aged care service delivery associated with the introduction of the IT system, particularly time for documentation. The fourth component is nursing documentation audit to collect evidence on changes of quality of nursing documentation and quality of care as reflected in nursing documentation system.
Speaker Profile
Dr Ping Yu is a Senior Lecturer, Coordinator of Health Informatics Research Laboratory in School of Information Systems and Technology, University of Wollongong (UOW). Dr Yu has co-ordinated the Master of Health Informatics Education Program in UOW since 2003. She has qualifications in biological science and computer science. Her current research focuses are social technical issues driving the adoption of information and communication technology by health and aged care organisations and workers; and (2) health and aged care information system (including mobile application) analysis and evaluation.
Facilitating biomedical systematic reviews using text classification and ranked text retrieval
Date: Thursday 4th June 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: Level 3, Room 10, Mathews Building, UNSW.
Speaker: Dr. Lawrence Cavedon
Abstract
Searching and selecting articles to be included in systematic reviews is a real challenge for healthcare agencies responsible for publishing these reviews. The current practice of manually reviewing all papers returned by complex hand-crafted boolean queries is human labour-intensive. We demonstrate a two-stage searching system that takes advantage of ranked queries and support-vector machine text classification to assist retrieval of relevant articles, and to restrict results to higher-quality documents. Our proposed approach shows significant work saved in the systematic review process over a baseline of a keyword-based retrieval system.
Speaker Profile
Lawrence Cavedon is a Senior Researcher at NICTA, in the Victorian Research Laboratory, and project leader of NICTA's BioTALA (Biomedical Text and Language Applications) project. He is also a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and IT at RMIT University. Prior to joining NICTA, Lawrence spent three years as a Senior Researcher at Stanford University, in the Center for the Study of Language and Information, developing practical speech-based dialogue systems, and as Senior Scientist at VerticalNet Inc., developing the first commercial semantic Web services platform.
Improving the understanding of complex risk information for major medical intervention
Date: Thursday 21st May 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Timothy Rakow
Abstract
This research project explored the presentation of complex risk information to the general public. Paediatric heart surgery was the chosen context, but the results are relevant to a wide range of major medical interventions. Three studies with a broad community sample (all N 100) examined how best to present risk information, and explored parents’ preferences among alternative treatments or hospitals. Participants saw survival curves (Study 1) and multi-state survival curves (Study 2) differing in the number of treatment options shown per graph. Study 3 presented funnel plots – a quality control tool – that plot the number of procedures against success/failure rates for multiple hospitals and show control limits to signal poor performance. Answers to objective questions about the graphs were generally accurate, but less so when question wording was incongruent with the frame (mortality/survival) of the graph. A small advantage for showing equivalent information on more rather than fewer graphs (with less information per graph) was found. Objectively assessed and self-reported numeracy predicted performance in all studies (r .4). Preference among alternatives was appropriately sensitive to the data shown, but was sometimes influenced by arguably arbitrary display features. These tools have merit for communicating risk, but physicians and advisors working with parents should be aware of how best to use them.
Speaker Profile
Tim Rakow is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Essex, with research interests in judgement and decision making. He has published on pre-decisional risk assessment and doctors’ preferences among treatment alternatives in paediatric cardiology. He has also published experimental evaluations of the simple heuristics research programme, and, more recently, has examined experience-based decision making.
Aspects of High Performance Computing
Date: Thursday 7th May 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Joachim Mai
Abstract
Challenges of today's High Performance Computing: architectures, processors, RAM, connection, storage. Software aspects. Parallel programming. MPI and OpenMP. Parallel libraries.
Speaker Profile
1964 - Born in Hildesheim, Germany.
1989 - Master of Chemistry at the University of Braunschweig.
1992 - PhD in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Braunschweig.
1999 - Master of Mathematics at the University of Braunschweig.
1993-1994 - Postdoctoral Research at the University of San Diego, UCSD, USA
Duties: Computational and theoretical research of chemical reactions in restricted geometries.
1995 - Postdoctoral Research at the University of Barcelona, Spain
Duties: Computational studies of reactions on fractals.
1995-2000 - Scientific Position at the University of Freiburg, Germany
Duties: Research on models of DNA folding Structures of polymers Chemical reactions.
2000-2001 - Scientific Position at the Hospital of the University of Kiel
Duties: Mathematical models for genetic diseases Administration of large genomic data bases (SQL).
2001-2005 - Employed at the Bureau of Statistics
Duties: Head of IT, Administration, Development of an Oracle data base for on-line polling, Mathematical questions of statistics, Development of new algorithms and programs for statistics and Project coordination with the other state bureaus.
2006-present - HPC support for ac3/Intersect.
Improving Understanding, Learning and Performances of Novices in Dynamic Managerial Simulation Games: Gradual-Increase-in-Complexity Approach
Date: Thursday 26th March 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Hakan Yasarcan
Abstract
Simulations are increasingly used in training and education due to their success and advantages as a learning method. However, it is also observed that the dynamic complexity of simulations creates learning difficulties, and performance tends to quickly plateau at a level well below benchmark performance. In order to overcome this difficulty we propose the gradual-increase-in-complexity approach, which suggests obtaining simpler versions of a simulation game that can be used as a part of the training. Accordingly, we developed a series of inventory management simulations and conducted an experiment. The results of this study indicate an improvement in the success of the inventory management simulation as a training tool.
Speaker Profile
Hakan Yasarcan (BS, MS, PhD) earned all his degrees in Industrial Engineering. He received his PhD from Bogazici University, Istanbul, in 2003. He initially became interested in System Dynamics after meeting Prof. Dr Yaman Barlas and joining the organising committee for the Fifteenth International System Dynamics Conference of the System Dynamics Society (Istanbul, 1997). He then became a member of the Socio-Economic System Dynamics Laboratory (SESDYN) at Bogazici University and assisted Prof. Barlas in the management of SESDYN for six years.
Dr Yasarcan has many years of experience as research and teaching assistant and as a faculty member. He was previously working as an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus until August 2006. He then relocated to Australia to join the Australian School of Business as a post doctoral research fellow at the Accelerated Learning Laboratory (ALL). He has a number of publications on generalised stock control formulations and dynamic goal management. His current research focuses on interactive simulation games and dynamic decision making. He has also been teaching and practicing Sahaja Yoga for the last nine years.
Computer model of dementia management - Can we foresee long term outcomes of clinical interventions before they are implemented into practice
Date: Thursday 12th March 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Victor Vickland
Abstract
Computer models are now frequently applied in medicine and public health policy. For example the forecasting of prevalence and incidence of specific diseases is performed routinely with the aid of computer tools. The application of agent-based modelling is not yet as popular but potential benefits of such approaches has already been recognised in such areas as computational biology, computerised clinical guidelines and modelling of specific disease conditions. There is an increasing demand for new methods in evaluation of therapeutic interventions and in particular their effectiveness at the population level over time. The incidence of depression is on increase therefore foreseeing outcomes of potential interventions could have beneficial effects on future policy making and costs savings. The preliminary results of our experiments indicate that such evaluations are plausible using agent-based models and that estimates could be made long before any real-life clinical trials are implemented.
Speaker Profile
Dr Victor Vickland is a Research Fellow at the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre (DCRC) for Assessment and Better Care Outcomes at the UNSW. He has qualifications in health sciences and clinical psychology with training and expertise in research methodologies, statistical analysis and software programming tools. Victor leads a research project that is focusing on computer modelling of dementia management. The aim of the project is to develop and evaluate a computer model that can improve understanding of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and introduce virtual experiments into dementia research.
The Promise and Pitfalls of Computer Models: A Discussion on what is to be done
Date: Thursday 26th February 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Geoff McDonnell
Abstract
This interactive session will discuss the potential and the reality of using computer models in research and education in health and informatics at UNSW and beyond.
Particular issues and questions were compiled by the Centre for Health Informatics research centre to be discussed at this seminar. These include:
• Why build models?
• Types of models: Statistical vs Other Computational Models
• Handling data gaps
• Model impacts on decision-makers: real world examples
• Validating models, including structure
Following the discussion and debate, a synthesis and action plan will be presented by Dr Geoff McDonnell.
Papers discussed in the workshop:
Rawlins M. De testimonio: on the evidence for decisions about the use of therapeutic interventions. The Lancet. 372 (9656) : 2152 - 2161. 20 Dec 2008.
Thompson KM, Duintjer Tebbens RJ. Using system dynamics to develop policies that matter: global management of poliomyelitis and beyond. System Dynamics Review. 24 (4) : 433 - 449. 4 Feb 2009.
Please contact chi@unsw.edu.au if you require a copy of these papers.
Speaker Profile
Dr Geoff McDonnell has consulted taught and assisted research in health systems simulation for two decades. Prior to his work in dynamic multiscale systems modelling, he trained as a specialist physician, engineer and health systems technologist at Sydney Uni, UNSW, Harvard and MIT and worked in health information and communications technology and clinical process and system redesign in many settings at the clinical, hospital state national and international level including with RPA Hospital and IBM.
Enhancement Technologies for Clinical Information Systems
Date: Thursday 12th February 2009
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Professor Jon Patrick
Abstract
Natural Language Processing in Clinical Contexts The Health Information Technology Research Laboratory (HITRL) concentrates on research into natural language processing of clinical texts to serve clinicians needs. It has created a number of new enhancement technologies for "bolting on" to existing clinical information systems that process progress notes so that they can searched for semantically driven retrieval, much like an intelligent Google for clinical records might behave. Other applications of HITRL's work is the extraction of targeted information from third party reports such as pathology radiology and imaging report. Two projects aimed at automatically populating structured reports for melanoma pathology reports and breast cancer mammograms and ultrasound reports will be described. Recent research has investigated the engineering model of generating Clinical Information Systems from ontologies such as SNOMED CT and Nursing Interventions and Nursing Outcomes Classifications (NIC & NOC). Draft systems have been assembled for a Trauma IS and a Multi-Disciplanry IS for Aged Care.
Speaker Profile
Jon Patrick graduated with his PhD in Computer Science from Monash University in 1977. He also has two degrees in Psychology and he is a registered psychologist. He has previously held the chairs of Information Systems at Massey University and at Sydney University. His early natural language processing work concentrated on processing systems for second language learners (English-Basque). More recently he developed the widely reported Scamseek system for the ASIC to detect financial scams on the Internet for which he was awarded the national Eureka Science prize in 2005. Since then he has worked on applying language technology to medical contexts. He has built a number of technologies with his collaborators and introduced the first real-time language processing system for ward rounds with his collaborators at the Intensive Care Service of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. His team has done over 60 projects in the last 3 years with many organisations including hospitals, pathology services and medical research groups. Most recently he has been working with the Sydney West Area Health Service to introduce a range of his IT research technologies into their hospitals. He is a member of the SNOMED CT Concept Model Working Group of the IHTSDO and he collaborates with the National Centre for Classification in Health (Australia) on methodologies for its uptake in health services in Australia. He is currently involved in major projects to automatically map between clinical notes, SNOMED CT and ICD 10 AM. He is collaborating with Prof Alan Rector on developing a methodology to identify SNOMED CT subsets from analysis of the clinical notes and applying it to materials from Intensive Care Services. Recently he has been appointed by the WHO to their Health and Informatics Modelling Group for the design of ICD 11 due out in 2013.
The Organisational and Communication Implications of Electronic Ordering Systems for Hospital Pathology Services
Date: Thursday 30th October 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Andrew Georgiou
Abstract
The presentation will report on the results of a multi-method longitudinal study over three years at a major Sydney teaching hospital. Electronic ordering systems allow clinicians to enter laboratory, medication or other hospital orders directly into a computer. Their ability to integrate with other hospital systems allows for better data management and for improved effectiveness and efficiency of patient care. However, the evidence of their impact on areas like hospital pathology services is not extensive. The presentation will highlight the organisational and communication implications of electronic ordering for the pathology laboratory service and its effect on: a) the way that departments organised, planned and controlled their work processes; b) the complexity and diversity of the environment in which they communicate; and c) the temporal means by which they synchronised, scheduled and allocated their tasks.
Speaker Profile
Andrew Georgiou is a Senior Research Fellow at the Health Informatics Research and Evaluation Unit (HIREU) at the University of Sydney in Australia. He is currently involved in investigating the impact of electronic ordering systems in clinical and hospital ancillary settings. Andrew has worked as a senior researcher in a number of areas including public health, primary care, health informatics and outcomes measurement.
Problem-solving, medication advice-seeking and socialising networks of hospital staff.
Date: Thursday 16th October 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Nerida Creswick
Abstract
Good communication is core to high quality patient care and dependent upon effective information networks connecting clinical staff. Despite their central role in safe health care provision, hospital ward staff information networks have rarely been studied. Clinical information systems are designed to support information flow and decision-making. Yet evidence is emerging that such systems may disrupt communication, contributing to errors. To identify changes it is necessary to compare communication before and after system introduction. This seminar reports the use of a social network approach to examine networks in three Australian hospital units before introduction of an electronic medication management system (e-MMS).
Speaker Profile
Nerida Creswick is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Health Informatics Research & Evaluation Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. Prior to undertaking her PhD, she was a research assistant at the Centre for Health Informatics at the University of New South Wales and in the School of Health Information Management in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. Nerida’s research interests are in health informatics evaluation and social network analysis. Nerida has published papers about the use of clinical information systems by doctors and about the social networks of staff in hospital wards. Her PhD project studied the social networks of hospital ward staff.
Podcast
Infection Control - An Intensive Care Clinician's Jouney into Informatics
Date: Thursday 2nd September 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: John Gallagher
Speaker Profile
John is a Senior Staff Specialist in Intensive Care at Westmead Hospital. He has a particular interest in pragmatic approaches to Infection Control. He has been involved in the improvement of Infection Control practice at Westmead Intensive Care and the development of innovations in this field at Sydney West Area Health Service.
Open Source Infrastructure for Public Health Informatics
Date: Thursday 18th September 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Ross Lazarus
Abstract
Open source software (OSS) is increasingly used to build robust, freely distributable systems, avoiding expensive investment and ongoing licensing costs associated with closed source, proprietary solutions. As an example of OSS in public health, the ESP project, a portable, generic population health research platform, was developed and validated as part of a CDC funded Centre of Excellence in Public Health Informatics. Given appropriate electronic medical data, ESP substantially outperforms manual reporting systems for notifiable diseases, and is currently being extended to vaccine adverse event reporting. A new grant to add syndromic surveillance reporting and data sharing on the proposed OSS (Globus Toolkit) based CDC public health informatics grid, introduces additional opportunities for more efficiently adding value to already available electronic medical record data, but also brings many associated challenges in governance, privacy and security. Although the talk will focus mainly on technical and informatics issues, the work involves a wide variety of practical public health challenges.
Speaker Profile
Ross Lazarus is an Australian trained physician, epidemiologist and computer scientist, currently based at Harvard, where he leads a medical informatics and bioinformatics research group, supported by NIH and CDC grants.
Understanding (and Communicating) Risk and Uncertainty
Date: Thursday 4th September 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Ben R. Newell
Abstract
Which statement conveys greater risk: “100 people die from cancer every day” or “36,500 people die from cancer every year”? Although the statistical information in these two statements is identical, the “frame” or the way in which the information is presented can have dramatic effects on judgments of risk, and on choices made under uncertainty. This talk will explore the impact on judgments and choices of presenting risk information in different formats (e.g. 20 out of 100 vs. 20%), ratios (2 out of 10 vs. 20 out of 100) and modes of acquisition (a description of a risk vs. ‘experiencing’ the same statistical risk through sampling from the environment). I hope to emphasize the ubiquity of such framing effects and their clear implications for understanding and improving the communication of probabilistic information in a health setting.
Speaker Profile
Ben Newell is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales. His research interests include judgment and decision-making, learning, memory, and categorization.
Translational bioinformatics: Virulence prediction, candidate gene prioritisation, and virulence gene discovery in Streptococcus agalactiae
Date: Thursday 21st August 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Frank Lin
Abstract
Physicians frequently face challenges in predicting which bacterial subpopulation are likely to cause severe infections. Accurate virulence prediction improves clinical diagnostics and limits the extent of antibiotic resistance. With the advances in molecular genetics, bacterial subpopulations can be accurately labelled with genetyping methods. Effective /translation/ of genetic data (microbiology) into clinical information (infectious diseases), however, remains largely unanswered to date.
The discovery of unknown virulence genes poses an additional challenge in virulence prediction. The traditional laboratory screening is time-consuming and resource-intensive, requiring years of fishing expedition. High-throughput DNA microarrays are often limited by the associated expenses and inability to detect uncharacterised genes. Thus, effective /ranking/ of candidate genes will accelerate virulence gene discovery. Several /in silico/ candidate gene prioritisation (CGP) systems have been designed to aid the search for human genes in inherited diseases. It remains uninvestigated of how the CGP concept can assist the discovery of virulence genes in bacteria.
In this seminar, I will present the /translational bioinformatics/ approach to address both issues of virulence prediction in group B streptococus (GBS).
GBS, normally a part of the microflora in colon and female urogenital tract, is the leading cause of perinatal infections in developed countries. The
following areas will be discussed:
1. Virulence prediction by bacterial molecular epidemiology data
Descriptive statistical analysis was performed on 912 clinical GBS isolates to identify bacterial genotype markers associated with virulence. Subsequent machine learning analyses were performed to predict GBS virulence using bacterial molecular epidemiology data. Issues on selection of virulence markers will be discussed.
2. Development of computational CGP methods for prioritising bacterial genes
Two /in silico/ CGP methods, based on comparative genomics, were developed and evaluated by rediscovery experiments. In /Statistical CGP/, genome examples were selected to identify the differences in unique gene distributions in the phenotypic groups. On the other hand, /inductive CGP/ investigated genes contributing to the phenotype by identifying genes with similar occurrence pattern across bacterial genomes.
3. Prioritisation of GBS virulence genes
The novel CGP methods were applied in assisting the discovery of unknown GBS virulence factors. The biological plausibility of prioritised candidate will be discussed.
Speaker Profile
Dr Frank Lin is a final-year PhD student at the Centre for Health Informatics,
UNSW.
Telecommunications systems for measuring and improving quality of care for older patients
Date: Thursday 10th July 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Michael Weiner
Abstract
Despite the gradual spread and adoption of informatics applications in healthcare settings, use of health information technology remains low in many settings providing care for older patients. This presentation will introduce a healthcare setting in the U.S., review concepts related to quality of care, and describe a few informatics studies and
initiatives focusing on telecommunications systems for older patients or their clinicians. These include systems for videoconferencing, home-based self-management, and specialty referrals in ambulatory care. Opportunities to improve the effectiveness of our approaches will be discussed.
Speaker Profile
Michael Weiner, M.D., M.P.H. is Director of Gero-informatics for the Indiana University Geriatrics Program; Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine; Center Scientist, Indiana University Center for Aging Research; and Research Scientist, Regenstrief Institute, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. His clinical and health-services research focuses on measuring and improving the quality, organization, coordination, and delivery of health services for older adults. He studies the effects of health information and information technology on physicians' practices and patients' outcomes. Current research includes development,
implementation, and study of information systems to promote clinical handoffs, patient-centered geriatrics care, decision support, and personal health records.
Have You Forgotten About Your Cash Card? The Effect of Interruptions on Post-Completion Error and Other Procedural Errors.
Date: Thursday 26th June 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Simon Li
Abstract
Have you ever made the error of forgetting to get your original back after photocopying? How about forgetting to collect your change after buying something from a vending machine, or even worse a situation where you leave your cash card behind after withdrawing money from an ATM? These incidents all involve the omission of a ‘clean-up’ step after the main task goal is accomplished and this specific form of human error is known as post-completion error (PCE).
One of the challenges in studying human error in a controlled laboratory setting is to obtain a high enough rate for investigation. In this talk, I will present a series of experiments, which used a game-like task paradigm that was able to provoke PCEs in the laboratory. The series of experiments investigated the effect of interruption on PCEs. It was found that significantly more PCEs were obtained when an interruption occurred just before the PC step than when an interruption occurred at any other position in the task. The same interruption effect was obtained for some, but not all, other procedural errors; I will discuss the nature of these errors and likely explanations for the differences in terms of Altmann and Trafton’s (2002) activation-based goal memory model.
Speaker Profile
Dr. Simon Li received his Ph.D. from University College London and is now working as a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Health Informatics, UNSW. He is a cognitive psychologist interested in the study and understanding of human cognition from an applied perspective. In particular, he is interested in human error and how it helps understanding the workings of our cognitive system. He is currently working on a project looking at human error in clinical decision support systems.
Reading Structures in DNA: What’s it all mean?
Date: Thursday 29th May 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Guy Tsafnat
Abstract
Sequencing DNA is fast becoming a commodity. However, our ability to understand DNA sequences is still an open question, and current methods are task-specific and mostly gene-centric. We have combined previous approaches to annotate higher-order structures in DNA and to discover new features in these structures. The system uses background knowledge of higher-order DNA structures and an incomplete database of features (FDB) to produce the annotations, and examine the contexts at which gaps in the annotation occur. The system then makes function predictions for the features without requiring annotated homologs. The system’s power to discover features was evaluated by experiments that measured its ability to rediscover features ommited from the feature database. Between 2% to 50% of the gene cassettes in the FDB were randomly selected and ommitted from the feature database and the system’s discoveries were compared with the initial annotation. The system was able to rediscover a high percentage of features, demonstrating its robustness as a computational discovery system.
Speaker Profile
I am the head of the Translational Bioinformatics group at the Centre for Health Informatics at UNSW. Prior to academia, for 8 years I have conducted research in machine learning in the software industry both in Sydney and in Silicon Valley, California. My PhD and later research is in computational biology and translational bioinformatics, and is focused on computational discovery.
Cognitive load measurement through multimodal behaviour patterns
Date: Thursday 15th May 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Fang Chen (Research Group Manager, Making Sense of Data, ATP, NICTA)
Abstract
Cognitive load refers to the capacity and resources used in working memory while learning – completing tasks where novel information and novel processing are required. The cognitive load experienced by a user in completing a task has a major impact on their ability to learn from the task, and high load can severely impact their performance. High levels of load detract from learning and are undesirable in many situations. However, cognitive load is difficult to measure, particularly across individual users, and there is clearly room for innovation in this area. Though there are documented, reliable indices of cognitive load, none of these are suitable for real-time cognitive load assessment, due to either intrusiveness or impracticality, particularly in computer-oriented environments in the real-world.
Multimodal interfaces expand the communication channel between system and user, allowing users to express themselves more naturally and interact with complex information with more freedom of expression. One of the many cited advantages of multimodal interfaces is their ability to facilitate effortful complex tasks over unimodal interfaces. These strategies change the way multimodal constructions are planned and executed.
CLT has been mainly concerned with the design of learning materials, even animated learning materials, but it has not been tested on highly interactive computer-based constructions or complementary constructions in multimodal input as an index of cognitive load is supported by the results of our study. Our research focuses on extending the accepted benefits of multimodal interaction by using the paradigm to detect fluctuations in cognitive load. The primary advantage of this approach is that cognitive load can be determined implicitly by monitoring variations of specific multimodal features during day to day tasks. Such unobtrusive measures may help determine user's cognitive load in real-time and achieve the ultimate goal of adapting information content selection and presentation (multimodal output generation) accordingly, in order to ensure optimal user performance.
However, assessing a user's cognitive load implicitly through their multimodal behaviour requires identifying a number of indices that reliably reflect fluctuations. In this talk, following the introduction to the cognitive load theory, experiments designed to identify the relationships between speech, manual gesture input, pen gestures and GSR (Galvanic Skin Responses) and users' cognitive load is described. The feasibility of using multimodal input as an index of cognitive load is supported by the results of our study. It suggests that semantic multimodal behavioural features are sensitive to cognitive load variations, with multimodal productions becoming more complementary as load increases.
Speaker Profile
Dr. Chen was employed with Beijing Jiaotong University in China from 1995-1999. She was appointed Associate Professor of the Faculty of Electronic and Information Engineering in 1995, the Deputy Director of the Institute of Information Science in 1996 and then Dean of Faculty of Electronic and Information Engineering in 1997. She began her career in industry in 1999 as senior researcher and Team Leader of Text-to-Speech Group in Intel China Research Centre. She joined Motorola in 2000 as a Principal Researcher, and was the founding research manager of the Speech and Language Generation Research Lab of Motorola China Research Centre, where she also acted as the account manager of business relationships for the Centre.
Dr Chen moved to Australia in 2002 to work for the Motorola Australian Research Centre, where she chaired the Patent and Publication Committees. She jointed NICTA in 2004 and is currently ATP research group manager in the theme of making sense of data. Dr.Chen has received Conjoint Professor and Honorary Associate positions with the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney. Her main research interests are in human computer interfaces, ranging from speech processing algorithms, natural language dialogue, user interface design and evaluation, cognitive load modeling to multimodal interaction systems for PC-based applications and hand-held devices. She has more than 80 refereed publications and 18 patents in Australia, US, Europe, China, Japan, Korea and Mexico.
Morbidity reporting system for busy primary care centers in a developing country
Date: Thursday 8th May 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Janaka Abeysirigunawardana
Abstract
Outpatient departments(OPD) of state hospitals cater a large number of patients within a limited time period using minimum human and other supportive resources. In Sri lanka an OPD in a general hospital treat on average 500 patients from 8 am to 4pm with 3 to 6 doctors in a shift. Approximately 3 minutes are spent per patient to examine and prescribe medicine and minimum investigations are conducted. As a result several weaknesses effecting the quality of patient care exists. Assessment of the system to identify the weaknesses and their causes with the subsequent development of a computerized patient management system solved majority of the weaknesses in the system as seen by the outcome after 6 months of evaluation following implementation. This experience in a district of Sri Lanka where 6 hospitals ranging from a urban General Hospital down to a rural Central dispensary were involved, can be taken as guidance for implementing similar systems elsewhere with similar background.
Speaker Profile
Having received his basic degree of Doctor of Medicine from state Medical Institute of Ukrain, Dr Janaka has worked in various clinical fields for 14 years in specialities of Cardiology, Pediatrics, General surgery, Family practice and public health. After receiving his post graduate Masters in Community Medicine he entered in to the field of Health information and was acting for the post of Director, Health Information, of Ministry of Health Sri Lanka while being attached as a Postgraduate trainee for MD in the disciplines of Epidemiology, Health Informatics and Bio statistics. Under his leadership the Health Information system development team of the Health Ministry designed and piloted computerized patient management systems for primary, secondary curative care institutions, which are currently under implementation. He also initiated the process of development of an IT policy for health, for Sri Lanka. Currently, Dr Janaka is attached to the Center for Health Informatics of UNSW as a visiting academic fellow.
Biosurveillance of emerging biothreats using scalable genotype clustering
Date: Thursday 1st May 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Blanca Gallego Luxan
Abstract
Molecular fingerprinting of pathogens with epidemic potential offers new opportunities for detection of infectious disease clusters. However, there are variations in definitions of communicable disease clusters and in investigative methods. We have developed functional and scalable temporal, spatial and temporo-spatial cluster definitions and tested them in the context of community outbreaks of salmonellosis. This approach adds value to innovative bacterial genotyping technologies for prospective biosurveillance, can be adjusted to reflect changes in local disease prevalence and availability of public health resources, and has a potential to enhance early warning systems for public health.
Speaker Profile
Dr Blanca Gallego Luxan is a research fellow at the Centre for Health Informatics at UNSW. Her current research involves the design and implementation of mathematical and computational models to inform clinical and public health practitioners in areas such as bio-surveillance, pathology informatics and evidence-base medicine.
Slides
Interpreting genotype cluster sizes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates with mathematical models: applications to tuberculosis spoligotypes
Date: Thursday 17th April 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Fabio Luciani and Josephine Reyes
Abstract
Molecular techniques such as IS6110-RFLP typing and spacer oligonucleotide typing (spoligotyping) have aided in understanding the transmission patterns of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The degree of clustering of isolates on the basis of genotypes is informative of the extent of transmission in a given geographic area.
In the first part of the talk we show an analysis of 130 published data sets of M. tuberculosis isolates, each representing a sample of bacterial isolates from a specific geographic region, typed with either or both of the IS6110-RFLP and spoligotyping methods. We explored common features and differences among these samples. Using population models, we found that the presence of large clusters (typically associated with recent transmission) as well as a large number of singletons (genotypes found exactly once in the data set) is consistent with an expanding infectious population. We also estimated the mutation rate of spoligotype patterns relative to IS6110 patterns and found the former rate to be about 10–26% of the latter. This study illustrates the utility of examining the full distribution of genotype cluster sizes from a given region, in the light of population genetic models.
In the second part of the talk, we discuss how molecular typing methods are commonly used to study genetic relationships among bacterial isolates.
A popular approach for analyzing such data is to construct graphs. However, it is important to base these graph constructs on appropriate models of evolution of the molecular marker. We extracted and analysed data from previously published samples of spoligotypes and find that inferred mutations of spoligotypes frequently involve the loss of a single or very few adjacent spacers. Among several models that we analyzed, we select a deletion model that can be used as the basis for resolving ambiguities in the ancestry of spoligotypes. We also propose and implement a novel method to visualize relationships among spoligotypes using this model. The general methodology used here may be applicable to other bacterial isolates with repeat loci structured similar to the DR region of M. tuberculosis.
Speaker Profile
Dr Fabio Luciani is a research fellow working on mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. He is a theoretical physicists, with a PhD in Theoretical Biology from the University Humboldt of Berlin Germany. Fabio’s interests are molecular epidemiology, the dynamics of host-pathogen interactions. His current work touches the following areas: The transmission dynamics of Tuberculosis and Hepatitis C virus, models of the intracellular mechanisms of antigen processing, models of T cell dynamics.
Josephine Reyes is a PhD student from UNSW. She is currently working on models of evolution of tuberculosis isolates. She holds a degree in Applied Mathematics (Master of Science) from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
Systems modelling for Public Health Policy Seminar and Workshop
Date: Friday 11th April 2008
Time: 12:30pm - 4:30pm
Venue: University of New South Wales, Randwick Campus, Building R1, Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Jack Homer
Seminar (12.30 pm to 2.30 pm)
System Dynamics Modelling for Public Health Policy: Observations from six years of applications at the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
System dynamics is a well-established method for evaluating intervention strategies through causal mapping and simulation. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have supported several system dynamics modelling studies since 2002, some focusing on particular diseases and others looking more broadly at the health system and the “upstream” and “downstream” factors affecting disease prevalence and burden. Dr. Homer will introduce the system dynamics approach and then describe particular applications to diabetes and cardiovascular disease and (time permitting) national health system reform. He will discuss how the models have been received and offer thoughts on what this may imply for how system dynamics can be made most salient and useful for public health clients and audiences.
Workshop (2.30 pm to 4.30 pm)
Modelling Assistance/ Discussions
The workshop will provide an opportunity for more informal discussions with Dr Homer about modelling projects that are currently underway at UNSW and beyond.
Please bring models and questions.
Speaker Profile
The international presenter: Jack Homer, Homer Consulting, New Jersey, USA, is the leading consultant in health system dynamics, with a PhD from MIT and Masters in Mathematics/Statistics from Stanford, a recipient of the prestigious Forrester award for significant publication in system dynamics and co-founder of the Health Policy Special Interest Group of the System Dynamics Society. See http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/HomerConsulting/
Details
Afternoon tea will be supplied.
Attendees need to RSVP to Colleen Faes (ph: 9385 0186 or E: colleen.faes@unsw.edu.au ) and indicate whether you are attending the seminar, workshop or both.
This event is supported by funding from:
Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP)
http://www.dpmp.unsw.edu.au/
School of Public Health and Community Medicine http://www.sphcm.med.unsw.edu.au/
Centre for Health Informatics
http://www.chi.unsw.edu.au/
Slides available on request
Evaluating the Electronic Prescription Service in Primary Care in England
Date: Thursday 10th April 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Tony Cornford
Abstract
The National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) is delivering to the NHS in England a number of substantial new information systems for primary and secondary care. Among these is the Electronic Prescription Service. This is a network-based service that allows the GP to prescribe medicines to a patient and transmit the prescription directly to a high street pharmacy where a patient can collect them. At first sight this is a simple use of standard technology, particularly so given that almost all GPs already prescribe using a computer and all pharmacies are to a degree computerised. However, the implementation of this system proves to be complex and problematic in a number of areas. This talk discusses the complexities seen in establishing the EPS, and the structure of our current project to evaluate the EPS and establish the benefits that flow to the various stakeholders.
Further information of the Electronic Prescription Service is available at
http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/eps
The Commissioning Brief and protocol description for this study are available at
http://www.pcpoh.bham.ac.uk/publichealth/cfhep/Project_CFHEP004.htm
Speaker Profile
Tony Cornford is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests in the field of health have primarily related to the computerisation of work processes around the use of medicines and drugs, and issues of evaluation. Recent work has focused on electronic prescribing in secondary care, and ongoing projects are concerned with the implementation of electronic care records as well as electronic transmission of prescriptions. Beyond health care Tony has active research interests in GRID computing, e-government and open source software processes.
Podcast
Slides
Balancing rigor and relevance in clinical and policy research: systems simulation meets evidence based methods
Date: Thursday 3rd April 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Geoff McDonnell
Abstract
Evidence based medicine and evidence based policy try to apply closed systems scientific methods to real world open systems problems. Virtual experiments using the methods of action research and simulation can provide rapid rigorous learning in complex systems.
This talk will cover the theory and practice of improving learning using systems simulation approaches for clinical, management and health policy decisions.
Speaker Profile
Geoff McDonnell is simulation research fellow at CHI UNSW and Director Adaptive Care Systems. Trained as a physician and engineer he consults trains and researches into health systems simulation using system dynamics process-centric and agent-based multiscale modelling methods to understand and predict the impact of complex clinical policy and management interventions in complex systems. He is a co-founder of the Health Policy Special Interest Group of the International System Dynamics Society and runs their wiki at www.hpsig.com
Podcast
NHS Connecting for Health
Date: Wednesday 26th March 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Professor Vinesh Raja
Abstract
NHS Connecting for Health is part of the wider NHS. It helps the NHS to deliver better and safer care to patients, via new IT systems that link GPs and community services to hospitals. This is the world's largest ICT healthcare project. The programme aims to modernise NHS computer systems. Indeed, better, faster and safer patient care is the objective of NPfIT. It will provide hugely powerful tools, like a patient's record being instantly available to any clinician at any location; clinical decision support software and electronic appointment booking. These will improve capacity and performance, enhance the experience of patients and help realise our other NHS priorities.
During my talk I will cover details of NHS Connect for Health, its achievements to date and issues & challenges.
Speaker Profile
Professor Vinesh Raja BSc, MSc, PhD, CEng, FIMechE, FRSA, FRSH, MBCS, SMSME
Professor Raja is a Professorial Fellow in Informatics at the University of Warwick. He is in-charge of the Informatics Research Group, which encompasses the Virtual Reality Centre (VRC), the Collaborative Product Commerce Centre and Reverse Engineering at the Warwick Manufacturing Group. He focuses on augmenting and extending everyday learning and work activities with interactive technologies that moves ‘beyond the desktop’. This involves designing enhanced user experiences through appropriating and assembling a diversity of technologies including haptic interfaces, handheld and pervasive computing. The main focus of his research is not the technology per se but the design and integration of the digital representations that are presented via them to support social and cognitive activities in ways that extend current capabilities.
Prof. Raja is responsible for defining the strategy and technology vision for the B2B Manufacturing Centre and its associated global virtual community of practice both at Teesside and Warwick. Founded in 2003, this Centre provides the anchor for a knowledge base and virtual community of practice. As one of the top education, community and Informatics researcher who constitutes the Founding Members of the Technology Application Network (TANet), he serves on the core team defining the standard that codifies the best practices used by industries in technology transfer. His service on advisory panels of global significance includes Basic Technologies for DTI, Technology Programme for DTI, Advanced Visualisation Network (EPSRC), Sun Microsystems Visualisation Panel, etc.
Podcast
Slides
Web-based chemotherapy protocols - Friend or Foe?
Date: Thursday 20th March 2008
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Isla Hains
Abstract
The Cancer Institute NSW Standard Cancer Treatment Program (CI−SCaT, www.treatment.cancerinstitute.org.au) is an award-winning, online resource of evidence−based cancer treatment protocols. CI-SCaT was designed for the use of clinicians and patients at the time treatment decisions are being made, with its primary goal to standardise care and improve patient outcomes. The program is widely accessed however, we do not know if this utilisation equates to high levels of use at the point of care. Using qualitative techniques we further investigated CI−SCaT use at the point of care and determined the barriers and facilitators to its utilisation.We recruited 6 medical oncology departments in NSW public hospitals (metropolitan, regional and rural) to participate in: 1) An observational study to establish the way in which chemotherapy protocols are administered in various hospital settings and where CI-SCaT is being used in this process 2) One-on-one interviews with clinicians (doctors, nurses and pharmacists) to examine CI-SCaT utilisation and the barriers to its use at the point of care.
Our preliminary analysis indicates 5 distinct areas in the treatment process where CI-SCaT is being used: initiating, preparing, administering, monitoring and ceasing treatment (e.g. validating treatment choices, checking protocols, calculating chemotherapy doses, checking and/or adjusting doses and patient education). However, there is a high degree of variability, between hospitals and clinicians, in the level and sophistication of use. We identified environmental, cultural, personal and program-specific barriers to CI-SCaT use.
We identified a number of points in the treatment process where CI-SCaT is being used but there are a number of barriers to be overcome for its full potential to be realised. This evaluation will inform the development of a state-wide educational intervention to increase CI-SCaT utilisation.
Speaker Profile
I received my BSC(Hons) in Chemistry in 1998 from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. In 2003 I obtained my PhD in Chemistry in the area of anti-influenza drug design and development, also from Heriot-Watt University. In June 2003 I then took up my first research position at the University of Wollongong as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry. My research over this period maintained a medical focus and was concentrated on the cause and development of cataracts. In April 2004 I took up a second Post-doctoral Research position at Macquarie University in the department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences. The research was focused in the area of drug design and development against a particular enzyme implicated in medical conditions such as cataract, Alzheimer’s disease and AIDS dementia complex.
At the beginning of 2007 I decided to change career direction from research in chemistry to public health and took up a Research Fellow position in the UNSW Faculty of Medicine where I carry out research relating to cancer clinician behaviour change particularly in the area of prescribing and the uptake of a web-based resource of chemotherapy protocols.
Designing Health Record Systems to Improve Medication Errors
Date: Thursday 29 November 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Rosie Sadsad
Abstract
Elderly patients use more medications given the prevalence of co-morbidities putting them at risk of experiencing medication errors.
A highly anticipated strategy is the implementation of health record solutions, namely a mix of shared electronic health records and personal health records. One aim for this intervention is to improve sharing and access of patient medication information for health providers, carers and patients thus enabling more informed decisions throughout the medication use process (prescribing, dispensing, administering and monitoring of medications).
However it is difficult to direct the design of an integrated health record solution when health record implementation studies and evaluations are limited.
Traditional methods such as random controlled trials lack the capacity to capture the scale of the problem and are inadequate in terms of time frames, cost, resources required, and non-applicability of trial settings.
Multi-scale simulations can represent the system's different spatial and temporal resolutions. It provides a logical and consistent framework for dynamic analysis and a means to design and test health record policies to cover a range of possible futures in a risk-free environment.
Speaker Profile
Rosie Sadsad (BEng Computer, MEng Biomedical) is a PhD student with the Centre for Health Informatics at the University of News South Wales. Her thesis research is to test whether multi-scale simulation tools can aid the design of health record systems for the purpose of reducing medication errors experienced by the elderly at home.
Functional discovery of bacterial genes through genomic candidate gene prioritisation
Date: Thursday 22 November 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Frank Lin
Abstract
The identification of gene functions is a central task for bench-side experimentalists in biological sciences. Selecting candidate genes for biological validation, however, is both time-consuming and resource intensive. An improved method of candidate genes selection can potentially accelerate scientific discovery.
Candidate gene prioritisation (CGP) is a computational approach that improves this selection process by ranking the candidate genes according to relevance. To date, however, no CGP systems were designed for prioritising bacterial genes. In this presentation, a novel bacterial CGP (BCGP) system is described to assist candidate gene selection.
Speaker Profile
Frank is a PhD student with the Centre for Health Informatics at the University of News South Wales.
A Dynamic Balanced Scorecard for Managing Health Systems Performance
Date: Thursday 15 November 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: David Lyell
Abstract
Health system performance management is a dynamically complex problem, affected by a large number of factors which interact to produce health outcomes over time. A brief review of current health system performance assessment instruments, including the balanced scorecard, demonstrates only a limited ability to deal with the dynamic complexity of this problem. These are limitations that can be overcome with the incorporation of system dynamics methods. We propose a dynamic balanced scorecard for managing regional health system performance in New South Wales, Australia. Central to this scorecard will be an understanding of the dynamic interactions of cost, quality and access and how these affect population health. Preliminary mapping suggests that the way the gap in resources required to provide medical services is managed will play an important role in balancing these objectives.
Speaker Profile
David Lyell is a PhD student with the Centre for Health Informatics at the University of News South Wales. His thesis research is to test whether system simulation tools can assist in improving decision making performance on decision relating to health system performance.
Lung Surface Classification on HRCT using Machine Learning
Date: Thursday 27 October 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Tatjana Zrimec
Abstract
Computerized medical image analysis has been an active research area in the past decade. Our research in image understanding seeks solutions for automating the process of image interpretation.
The approach we use relies on extensive knowledge of lung anatomy and a lung atlas, which facilitate interpretation of HRCT images. Although the knowledge about normal lung anatomy and pathology is mainly acquired via machine learning we are exploring different possibilities of improving the knowledge acquisition process.
Radiologists have difficulty in communicating their knowledge of image analysis. However, they are very good at providing comments on a case and justifying decisions, based on their experience. In a "Ripple-down Rule" (RDR) learning framework, the human expert knowledge is acquired based on the current context, case by case, and is added incrementally. For each new rule, the expert is asked to justify his/her reasoning.
In this talk I will present our approach to acquisition of knowledge from radiologists to automate the process of understanding lung anatomy using Ripple Down Rules. In particular I will present how we use machine learning for Lung Surface Classification on HRCT of the lungs. Dividing the lung surface into multiple parts according to its anatomical features provides better understanding of the lung and its functions. Incremental learning, based on Ripple-down rules (RDR), is used to acquire the knowledge of which attribute(s) an expert uses to differentiate between types of lung surface. The knowledge acquired with RDR is compared with the knowledge acquired using C4.5, a decision tree learning.
Speaker Profile
Tatjana Zrimec received her PhD in Computer Science form the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia where she worked as an Associate professor until 2000. She then moved to the University of New South Wales, Centre for Health Informatics in the Faculty of Medicine, where she is responsible for postgraduate education in Health informatics. Tatjana is associated with the school of Computer Science and Engineering where she has a laboratory for 3D scientific visitation. She is also a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems. Her current research is in the areas of medical imaging and intelligent agents.
Research interests: medical image understanding, knowledge acquisition and management, scientific visualization, robotic, intelligent agents and autonomous systems.
Alert overriding in CPOE from an error management perspective
Date: Thursday 11 October 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Jos Aarts
Abstract
Too many drug alerts in a CPOE system may cause physicians to ignore them. For many years practitioners and scholars have attempted to understand and customize alerts in such a way that only in serious situations an alert will be presented and otherwise suppressed because of the assumed knowledge level of the physician or the context of a particular patient situation. In our study we have selected the the top 10% of drug-drug interaction alerts generated in one month and presented to clinicians from different specialties to decide whether these alerts could be turned off safely. We found no agreement. We only found a positive correlation between the number of alerts generated and the number of clinicians advising to turn off an alert. I will discuss the consequences of our findings and what hypotheses can be generated that can be studied in a larger scale study of CPOE in hospitals.
Speaker Profile
Dr. Jos Aarts is currently sharing his time as visiting fellow between the Centre for Health Informatics of the University of New South Wales and the Health Informatics Research and Evaluation Unit of the University Sydney. He is a senior research scientist in the Section on Health Care Governance of the Institute of Health Policy and Management of Erasmus University Medical Center. The research interests of Jos Aarts concern the impact of clinical IT on medical work practices and professional collaboration. With his PhD students he currently studies how CPOE impacts medical and nursing workflow and communication and the problem of alert overrides in clinical practices and strategies how to turn off alerts safely. Jos Aarts has a PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam on a socio-technical study of CPOE implementation in Dutch and American hospitals. He has published widely on the subject. His previous degrees were in Physics and Mathematics (BSc) and Solid State Physics (MSc) from Radboud University Nijmegen. Jos Aarts has been serving on the organizing committee of three socio-technical conferences in health informatics (Rotterdam in 2001, Portland in 2004 and Sydney in 2007). Among others he is on the Scientific Program Committee for MIE2008 in Gteborg and chair of the EFMI Working Group on Human and Organizational Factors of Medical Informatics. For details see his website: http://www.bmg.eur.nl/personal/j.aarts/
Question Answering and AnswerFinder
Date: Thursday 27 September 2007
Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Diego Mollá Aliod
Abstract
Question answering is a complex task that requires the use of technology from a wide range of natural language processing tasks. In this presentation I will focus on the technology of AnswerFinder, the question answering system that we are developing at Macquarie University. From the engineering point of view, AnswerFinder aims to produce an environment for the development and testing of question answering technology and its deployment on specific tasks. From the theoretical point of view, AnswerFinder is an excuse to do research on document retrieval, question classification, named entity recognition, query-driven summarisation, text entailment, paraphrase detection, and answer validation systems, among other areas.
Speaker Profile
Diego Mollá is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Language Technology at Macquarie University. His research focuses on bridging the gap between theoretical linguistics, especially semantics and logical forms, and practical natural language processing applications by combining rule-based methods with machine-learning methods on various levels of the representation of sentences. His projects center around AnswerFinder, a question-answering system that has participated in the TREC, DUC and CLEF evaluation fora. He received a PhD in speech and language processing and PhD in the formal semantics of aspectual composition from the University of Edinburgh. He is currently secretary of the Australasian Language Technology Association and the leader of the Priority Area of Next-Genaration Search Technology within the ARC Research Network of HCSNet.
Stochastic population models for stem cell development
Date: Thursday 13 September 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Robert Nordon
Abstract
Populations evolve over time with respect to age and physical characteristics. An important problem is to construct a representative family history, when it is not possible to sample individuals and their descendants longitudinally. It may only be feasible to randomly sample the population at discrete times. This is a particularly complex statistical problem, when one considers that births and deaths are asynchronous, individuals give rise to variable numbers of offspring during their lifetime, and physical characteristics may change with age.
We have studied the population dynamics of blood stem cells using flow cytometric division tracking. This technique provides a snapshot of a growing cell population, providing cellular characteristics (phenotype), and divisional history (number of cell divisions since the start of culture). Longitudinal cell histories are lost because the population is randomly sampled by the flow cytometer. We would like to use this data to construct a model of stem cell development.
In this talk I will present the experimental, mathematical and computational approach that was taken to construct a stochastic model of stem cell development. This approach is quite general and could be applied to different systems.
Speaker Profile
Dr Nordon is a UNSW medical graduate who specialised in biomedical engineering. His principle research focus has been development of medical devices for delivery of cell-based therapies. He has developed a hollow fibre device for cell selection and expansion, which has been patented internationally, and has worked with industry over the last decade to bring this technology towards the clinic. Development of mathematical models to predict the growth of differentiating cell populations is an important aspect of this work.
Effects-driven IT development and implementation
Date: Wesnesday 12 September 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Maren Fich Granlien
Abstract
Systems development is abound in projects that represent considerable resource investments but result in systems that fail to meet users' needs. Most IT projects regulate the custom-vendor relationship and project management by means of requirement specification in terms of system functionality. It is our hypothesis that by shifting focus towards measurable, agreed-upon effects of using the system, the effects will provide more appropriate means for working systematically toward meeting customer goals.
Effects-driven IT development is an incipient idea or approach aimed at using effects as a way to define and prioritise the scope and goal for IT applications and to use the effects as guidelines in the development and implementation process.
Maren will talk about her PhD project which explores some of the challenges that effects-driven IT development implies.
Speaker Profile
Maren Fich Granlien (BA, Master in communication and computer science) is a PhD student from Roskilde University, Denmark. Maren has previously worked with IT supported shared care (the collaboration between the GP's and the outpatients clinics) according to diabetes treatment. As part of her PhD programme Maren teaches a course for graduate students "Organisational IT implementation".
Improving Literature-based Discovery by Semantic Relations and Background Knowledge Integration
Date: Wednesday 5 September 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Dimitar Hristovski
Abstract
Literature-based discovery (LBD) is a method for automatically generating hypotheses for scientific research by finding overlooked implicit connections in the research literature. Discoveries have the form of relations between two primary concepts, for example a drug as a treatment for a disease or a gene as the cause of a disease.
Current literature-based discovery systems use concept co-occurrence as their primary mechanism. No semantic information about the nature of the relation between concepts is provided. The use of co-occurrence alone has several drawbacks: (a) Users must read large numbers of Medline citations when reviewing candidate relations; (b) systems tend to produce large numbers of spurious relations; and, finally, (c) there is no explicit explanation of the discovered relation.
We would like to present two approaches for enhancing LBD: 1. the use of semantic relations and 2. the integration of background knowledge, such as chromosomal locations of genes and genetic diseases. The use of semantic relations in LBD has the potential to produce a smaller number of false positive discoveries while, at the same time, facilitating user evaluation and review of potentially new relations. Finally, it can support explanation of the discovery produced. The other way to improve LBD we present is the use of background knowledge. By background knowledge we mean other domain specific databases in addition to Medline. For example, for the discovery task of finding genes responsible for a genetic disease, we integrated the chromosomal regions for the genetic diseases and the chromosomal locations of the genes. The use of background knowledge significantly reduces the number of hypotheses the user has to evaluate.
References
1. Hristovski, D., Peterlin, B., Mitchell, JA and Humphrey, SM (2005), Using literature-based discovery to identify disease candidate genes, Int. J. Med. Inform., Vol. 74(2-4), pp. 289-298.
2. Hristovski, D, Friedman, C, Rindflesch, TC and Peterlin B. Exploiting semantic relations for literature-based discovery. In Proc AMIA 2006 Symp; 2006. p. 349-53.
Speaker Profile
Dimitar Hristovski graduated at the Faculty for Electrotechnical and Computer Sciences in Ljubljana in 1988. At the beginning of 1990 he began his employment as a young researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana. He received his M. Sc. degree in 1993 with a thesis entitled "Conceptual browser for information retrieval". He received his Ph.D. degree in 2000. The title of the dissertation was "Genetic knowledge discovery from biomedical data". He was engaged as a postdoctoral researcher between February 2, 2002 and April 30, 2003 at the National Institutes of Health - National Library of Medicine - Lister Hill Center in Bethesda, USA.
His research is currently focused on the development of systems for literature-based discovery support, systems for knowledge discovery in databases and data mining, data warehousing and decision support with on-line analytical processing. Most of this research is done in biomedicine.
He is engaged in teaching Biomedical Informatics courses at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana.
His professional work is divided on several tasks. He is maintaining servers with the national biomedical bibliographic database Biomedicina Slovenica, developing decision support system for the evaluation of research achievements in biomedicine (based on Oracle DBMS), developing web search engine for the Biomedicina Slovenica database, developing software for automatic data transfer between Biomedicina Slovenica and COBISS databases, and developing software for automatic citation analysis on the web.
On Technology Adoption in Primary Care: Evidence from a Clinical Reminder System Deployment for Chronic Disease and Preventive Care Management
Date: Monday 27 August 2007
Time: 10:00am - 11:00am
Venue: ATAX Auditorium, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Prof. Rema Padman
Abstract
Motivated by the widely acknowledged gap between clinicians' knowledge of evidence-based standards of care and the consistent application of these standards in practice, we have developed, deployed, and evaluated a Clinical Reminder System (CRS) that provides clinicians just-in-time alerts and recommended actions at the point of care. We assess user acceptance and adoption of this system for chronic disease and preventive care management in an ambulatory care environment using a muti-pronged approach. We use a novel developmental trajectory approach (DTA) and social psychology based intention theories to study longitudinal behavior change and antecedents to technology adoption in clinical care settings. DTA, a group-based, semi-parametric statistical modeling method identifies distinct groups, following distinct usage trajectories, among those who recorded use of the reminder system within an evaluation period of 10 months. We trace system use within these groups over time using computer-generated logs and user satisfaction surveys. Our analysis delineates three categories of users based on their demographics and computer literacy backgrounds. These user categories are also correlated with reminder compliance, and these reminders have triggered follow-up actions that could be otherwise missed. To further explain observed behavior, we use social network analysis to delineate interaction structure among the users. Finally, we use sequential pattern analysis and first-order Markov Chain model to discover patterns of feature access within CRS that can facilitate adoption and continued use. We conclude that these approaches that combine quantitative and qualitative assessments can provide new insights into system usability and technology adoption issues that may benefit clinical decision support systems (CDSS) as well as information systems more generally.
Speaker Profile
Prior to joining the Heinz School's faculty in 1989, Professor Padman was Assistant Professor of Management Science in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. More recently, she was Visiting Scientist at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. She is an Associate Editor with the INFORMS Journal on Computing and a past Associate Editor with Operations Research. She has also served on the National Science Foundation (NSF) panels on Operations Research grants and on several program committees of information systems and operations research conferences.
Intelligent Tools for Monitoring and Therapy of Chronic Patients
Date: Monday 27 August 2007
Time: 11:00am - 12:00pm
Venue: ATAX Auditorium, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Prof. Yuval Shahar
Abstract
Using machine-interpretable clinical guidelines to support evidence-based medicine promotes the quality of medical care. I will present the Digital Electronic Guidelines Libray (DeGeL), a comprehensive framework, including a Web-based guideline repository and a suite of tools, to store and support the use of automated guidelines for medical care, research, and quality assessment. To access, monitor, and interpret patient data over time, we have developed several conceptual and computational architectures called temporal-abstraction mediators. Temporal-abstraction mediators, such as the IDAN architecture, support tools such as KNAVE-II and VISITORS. KNAVE is specific to the task of monitoring, interpretation, summarization, visualization, explanation, and interactive exploration of time-oriented raw clinical data, and of the multiple levels of clinically meaningful patterns that can be abstracted from these data. VISITORS performs a similar task for patient populations and for the associations amongst aggregate concepts.
I will briefly describe some of the evaluations performed for all components of the system and demonstrate several of these components.
Speaker Profile
Prof. Shahar, PhD, MD, is head of the Medical Informatics Research Center and Chair of the department fo Information Systems Engineering at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Mapping cancer care - wrapping the cancer journey around the patient
Date: Thursday 16 August 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Mr. Neville Board
Abstract
The Cancer Institute NSW was created by an Act of Parliament in 2003 with these statutory responsibilities:
- to increase the survival rate for cancer patients,
- to reduce the incidence of cancer in the community,
- to improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their carers,
- to operate as a source of expertise on cancer control for the government, health service providers, medical researchers and the general community.
Population-based cancer registries in each Australian state and jurisdiction provide comprehensive information on cancer incidence. By matching, verifying and registering each case, incidence of each cancer type is mapped by area of residence, age, sex and country of birth. Death notifications (including cause of death) are also matched, and the NSW Central Cancer Registry provides the definitive mortality and survival rates for cancer in NSW.
However, population-based registries do not directly improve survival. Improving the quality and timeliness of cancer therapy will improve survival. To enhance the epidemiological information already available, clinical cancer registries are designed to add the dimensions of:
- stage
- treatment, and
- quality of care,
..allowing analyses of actual patterns of cancer care against best-practice guidelines. The Institute is funding Area-based clinical cancer registries in six Area Health Services, and redesigning the NSW Central Cancer Registry.
Cancer therapy routinely involves surgery, radiation, chemotherapies and a range of supportive care interventions, and it is rare that each element of treatment for one patient is administered in one hospital. The main challenges of project are the cost:benefit trade-off of the additional data collection, and the technical and ethical barriers to wrapping the minimum data set for clinical cancer registration back around the patient through a multi-facility cancer journey.
Speaker Profile
Neville Board RN, BA, MPH, is Information Systems Manager at the Cancer Institute NSW, and a member of Cancer Australia's National Cancer Data Strategies Group. Current projects include developing and evalauting standards for synoptic laboratory reporting for cancer, and he established the National Round Table for Structured Pathology Reporting for Cancer in June 2007, co-auspiced by the Institute, Cancer Australia and the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. Before joining the Institute as part of the start-up team in 2003, he managed the implementation of radiotherapy
systems across the state's public hospitals for NSW Health. He has published on the cost and safety of hosptial at home and early discharge programs at Prince of Wales Hospital, and developed ambulatory and mental health information strategies at NSW Health.
Research in Colombia: differences, advantages and drawbacks
Date: Monday 26 August 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Fernando Camacho
Abstract
This is a special session seminar in which Dr. Camacho's presentation will be followed by a short discussion.
Speaker Profile
Colombian and Australian. PhD from University of New South Wales (2006). Currently working as Assistant Professor at the School of Electrical end Electronics Engineering, Group of Biomedical Engineering, at Universidad de los Andes in Bogot, Colombia.
Main research interests are medical instrumentation, home telecare, telemedicine.
Development of prognostic models for individualization of fracture risk
Date: Thursday 19 July 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Tuan V. Nguyen
Abstract
Osteoporotic fracture is a major public health problem in the world, because fracture is associated with increased risk of mortality and significant health care cost. The susceptibility to fracture is influenced by several environmental, hormonal, lifestyles, and genetic risk factors. Early identification of those who are at risk is of paramount importance because it can set the stage for a more rationale therapeutic approach by allowing direct additional measures to those who need them the most. Therefore, at present, a major research priority is the translation of these risk factors into prognostic tool for assessing fracture risk and adverse outcomes. A common approach to developing prognostic models is to group individuals with similar characteristics by some thresholds and to make a prediction for each group. However, this risk-stratified approach is inefficient and usually have low predictive power. During the past few years, we have worked on an alternative approach in which an individual?s are simultaneously considered in a multivariable prognostic model and represented by a nomogram. This model recognises the fact that there are different ways two individuals can attain the same risk. Models for prognostication of fracture risk have been developed for hip fracture, and it seems clear that the multivariable-based model can be an effective tool for individualising short-term and long-term absolute risks of fracture. We will discuss several issues of methodology and practicality that have to be resolved so that the model can be applied in clinical practice.
Speaker Profile
Tuan Nguyen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research?s Bone and Mineral Research Program, and an Associate Professor at the UNSW Faculty of Medicine. He is an internationally recognized epidemiologist with a specicial interest in the epidemiology and genetics of osteoporosis. He is interested in the application of Bayesian inference in epidemiology. He is author or coauthor of more than 150 research papers, editorials, commentaries, and reviews and a dozen book chapters. He also serves as a regular reviewer for some 15 medical journals in the USA and Europe, and in editorial board of five leading medical journals in the USA.
Enanabling Infra Software for the Healthcare Market
Date: Thursday 7 June 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speakers: Mike Silvester & Matthew Gage, InterSystems Australia
Abstract
InterSystems of the unique technology of three products ( Cache, Ensemble & HealthShare ) which have made it the world leader in the Healthcare Industry with well over 50% of the desktops worldwide using the technology. Reasons for this deep penetration will be given together with details as to its installed base. Detailed technical desciption of the three products will be given:
- Cache--- a sparse multi dimensional array/object database
- Ensemble a fully integrated integration engine/a connectable composite application development and database application
- HealthShare software product that provides a fast path for creating a health information exchange on a regional or national level
Speaker Profiles
Mike Silvester was raised and educated in the UK where he obtained a PhD in Chemistry from Imperial Commerce.\He started as a research chemist but rapidly expanded his research activity into 10 areas of diverse technology from microbiology to airborne geophysics. He has lived and worked in the UK, USA, Canada and now Australia. He has started companies in semiconductor production equipment, telecommunications and software. He has always maintained strong connections with academia.
He currently is responsible for InterSystems' University Relationships and Business Development
Matthew Gage was also born and educated in the UK and started programming at the age of 10, at the age of 15 he and his father developed a GP desktop software application which was to become one of the most successful in the market. He later joined SMS software where he started to develop using the InterSystems technology of the time, "MUMPS". About 10 years ago he joined InterSystems as a Sales Engineer in there London office, 4 years ago he transferred to the Australian office as a Senior Sales Engineer. He was the project Lead in the design and development of HealthShare.
Hereditary Cancer Syndromes: a new layer of information for patients and their doctors
Date: Thursday 24 May 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Lesley Andrews
Abstract
Approximately 5% of common cancers such as breast and bowel cancer arise in individuals who have inherited a genetic mutation which places them at extremely high risk of cancer (often around 60%, but in some rare cases, 100%). Identifying such families raises questions of prevention and cancer management, taking into account the risk of second malignancies and variations in cancer outcomes. Patients and their doctors are presented with a series of risk estimates - the likelihood that there is a mutation in the family; the likelihood it will be identified by current technology; the risk of a first malignancy; the risk of a second primary cancer; the risk for children and other relatives etc. Calculating and communicating such risks in a meaningful way, and ensuring that appropriate health care follows, is the challenge faced by Hereditary Cancer Clinics.
Speaker Profile
Lesley Andrews was a general practitioner before completing a Masters of Medicine in Reproductive Health and Human Genetics, examining the reliability of family history as a predictor of BRCA and 2 Jewish founder mutation status. She subsequently became a clinician at the Prince of Wales Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospitals Hereditary Cancer Clinics, being involved in establishing management clinics at both hospitals for women at high risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
Lesley has been involved in a number of research projects, particularly on the psychosocial aspects of hereditary cancer syndromes as well as the feasibility of adding breast MRI to screening of high risk women.
Geographical Correlation between Air Pollution and Asthma Patients in NSW
Date: Thursday 26 April 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Samsung Lim
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to produce a GIS for asthma analysis from a series of datasets, and to use the capabilities of the GIS for identifying and analysing any correlations within the sets of data. Various areas of spatial analysis were identified. This study predominantly focused on polygon overlays. Each pollutant type has been individually analysed. A significant level for each pollutant was verified at which there is a potential to affect to asthma sufferers.
The analysis of the pollutants identified the locations of those with significant levels of substance and revealed various outcomes. Although, there seemed to be no correlation between locations with high levels of pollution and the eight areas with high percentage levels, there was a high level of pollution found in close proximity to some areas with high patient numbers.
A combined overlay of weighted values was produced based on the values of 72% for Particulate Matter, 67% for Ozone and 56% for Nitrogen Dioxide. These figures are based on the research into the correlation of these substances as registered at air quality monitoring stations. The results of this analysis also registered a significant reading close to the area with the postcode region where an extremely high number of patients reside.
Speaker Profile
Dr. Samsung Lim has been teaching Surveying and GIS at the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, UNSW, since July 2004. His research interests are in Geographic Information Science, Geo-spatial Information Technology, 3D Modelling, Geodetic GPS Network Analysis and Wireless Internet-Based Real-Time Kinematic GPS. Samsung has developed an address-based search tool in 2005 in conjunction with web-map services such as Google Earth, Google Maps, Virtual Earth, ESRI Arc-Web, and Yahoo Maps, which stimulated Google and Microsoft to make Australian context available in 2006. His 3D model of UNSW Kensington campus in 2006 is unique in that buildings are all textured and therefore the virtual reality becomes obvious.
Impact of cognitive biases on information searching and decision making
Date: Thursday 12 April 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Ms. Annie Lau
Abstract
Information searching plays an important part in healthcare consumers’ decision making and clinicians’ practice of evidence-based medicine. However, decision making research has for a long time identified that people experience cognitive biases that limit their ability to attend to and process information. As searching for documents on the Web becomes an increasingly important source of information for making decisions, can people experience cognitive biases during information searching that would have adverse impact on their decision outcomes?
In this presentation, we will be exploring examples of cognitive biases that people can experience while searching for information. This is followed by walking through a series of interventions on the search user interface designed to modify the impact of these biases during search. Evaluation of these interventions will be discussed, focusing on the impact on decision accuracy, users’ confidence in making decisions and their behavioural changes in searching for information.
Speaker Profile
Annie Lau is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Health Informatics (CHI). This presentation describes the research conducted in her PhD. She is currently working in the decision support research stream at CHI, using machine learning and knowledge acquisition methods to learn and model strategies for searching online information, as well as exploring the use of search technologies in other unconventional online settlings. Annie’s other research interests include knowledge discovery and using computational methods to analyse and model patterns of behaviour.
X-ray Micro-Tomography : Technology & Applications
Date: Thursday 29 March 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Allan Jones
Abstract
In recent years a series of technological advances have converged to make X-ray micro-tomgraphy a viable and accessible mode of analytical microscopy. The areas of application for X-ray micro-tomography cover a huge range of sciences, from those that one might expect, such as bone histomorphometry, to others less obvious such as orthodontics, entomology and archaeology. This presentation will examine the genesis of X-ray micro-tomography and its technological basis before proceeding to examine its application in a range of biosciences as well as its likely future development and prospects as a new analytical tool.
Speaker Profile
Dr Allan S. Jones
Senior Lecturer in Image Analysis with the Electron Microscope Unit of The University of Sydney
Over the course of my career image analysis has allowed me the good fortune to be able to work across a broad spectrum of science and engineering. As a biochemist and cell biology graduate I worked in medical sciences with my initial publications being in anatomical pathology. As a postgraduate in biomedical engineering at UNSW I explored the computational and engineering aspects of biocompatability. As a post doc at the University of Sydney I was able to delve into the complexities of aerobiology and allergy. And now as a microscopist I research in fields as diverse as the petrology of minerals, the eyes of ancient fishes and the anatomical structure of the inner ear. Though largely unintentional I can now claim to have published works on all three of the natural kingdoms of animal, vegetable and mineral (though I would never claim to be a modern major-general, as regrettably the names of the kings of England continue to elude all my attempts to memorise them).
Intel's Healthcare IT Economic Model and the Banner Estrella Benefits Realization Study
Date: Thursday 22 March 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: ATAX, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Ben Wilson
Abstract
Banner Health is a non-profit health system with 21 facilities in seven western U.S. states and has $2.6B in revenues and $3.1B in assets. Banner has developed a unique approach called Care Transformation, which is an organizational methodology combining information technology, evidenced based medicine, culture change, and work redesign.
In 2005 Banner Health opened Banner Estrella, its first all digital ("paper-light") hospital. Banner Estrella was the first hospital at which Banner Health implemented its complete Care Transformation program.
In order to better understand the benefits it had realized from going digital through Care Transformation, Banner Health leadership decided to conduct a Benefits Realization Study combining the resources of Cerner Consulting Services and Intel Corporation's Digital Health Group.
The study is focused on three levels of benefits-qualitative and quantitative, as well as, 'monetizable' benefits. Benefits might include improved hospital ambiance (e.g. patient orders and documentation), which is a qualitative benefit, meaning there is not a definable and measurable financial value. Quantitative benefits can include faster turnaround times for tests, procedures or medication administration. Another example is more time spent with patients and their families. This is quantifiable because actual time spent providing patient care can be documented, but specific financial benefits may be difficult to measure. Monetizable benefits can include reduced staff overtime expense, which is both quantifiable and provides measurable financial value.
This research is unique because this may be the first time that a study details the specific bottom line financial benefits of implementing an all digital hospital. We believe this study, and follow-up studies like it, will help propel the worldwide healthcare industry to adopt information systems at a much faster pace. Broader adoption of information technology will bring improved patient care and improved financial results to providers throughout the world.
Speaker Profile
Ben Wilson has over 17 years of healthcare experience in marketing, consulting, product management, and technology. As the Director of Healthcare IT for Intel's Digital Health Group, Ben is responsible for driving the health information technology strategy for providers worldwide. Prior to Intel, Ben was Executive Vice President and Founder of HealthAlliant, the premier boutique consulting firm serving RHIOs. Just before HealthAlliant, he was a Partner and Co-Founder of Health Technology Group (HTG), a healthcare technology consulting firm that continues to serve a list of clients including Kaiser Permanente, Blue Shield of CA, Sharp HealthCare and Partners HealthCare. Prior to HTG, he held executive positions at three successful start-ups: SVP of Business Development and Marketing at CanDo.com, General Manager of the healthcare division of BabyCenter.com, and President and Founder of Consumer Health Interactive (CHI). Ben holds an MBA and a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from UC Berkeley and degree in Political Science from Stanford University.
Network Visualization
Date: Thursday 15 March 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Prof. Peter Eades
Abstract
Technological advances have provided a data deluge over the past few years, and consequently have led to many large and complex network models in many domains. This includes social and biological networks, software engineering structures, and webgraphs. Visualization is an effective tool in helping humans to understand such networks. In this talk we describe some well established and stable network visualization algorithms, as well as some new and crazy network visualization algorithms.
Speaker Profile
Peter Eades is the interim Research Director of the HxI Initiative (
www.hxi.org.au), a collaboration between NICTA, CSIRO, and DSTO that aims to dramatically increase Australia's impact in innovative interfaces between humans and systems. Peter has been researching network visualization algorithms for the past 25 years, and wrote a book on the subject in 1998. He holds the chair of Software Technology at the University of Sydney.
Numerical Analysis of Titanium Implants in Bone
Date: Thursday 1 March 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr. Naomi Tsafnat
Abstract
X-Ray micro-computed tomography (microCT) is a nondestructive method of visualising specimens in three dimensions at the micron scale. Finite element analysis (FEA) is a well-known method for approximating the structural response of systems to mechanical loading. The two methods are readily combined in microFEA. The microCT image, already in the discretized form of voxels, can be automatically converted into a finite element mesh. Thus the exact geometry of the microstructure can be modelled. Loads and boundary conditions are applied to the geometry, and the results show the strain and stress distributions in the material.
An example of the use of microFEA in biomedical engineering will be presented. Titanium dental implants were imaged in microCT before and after a mechanical load was applied to the implant. The bone growth around the implant and its fracture under tensile loading were assessed. MicroFEA was used to study the strain and stress distributions in the trabecular and cortical bone surrounding the implant.
Speaker Profile
Dr. Naomi Tsafnat is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Electron Microscope Unit of the University of Sydney. She is studying the microstructure of porous materials using a combination of micro-computed tomography and finite element analysis. She has recently completed an exchange project at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as a Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund Exchange Fellow, studying the microstructure of bone implants. Naomi's Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, from the University of New South Wales, is on the topic of numerical heat transfer modelling of hyperthermia liver cancer treatment. She completed her B.Sc. (Summa Cum Laude) in mechanical engineering at San Jose State University, California, and has worked as a thermal and mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry.
Modelling the T Cell Immunological Synapse Formation and Maturation
Date: Thursday 15 February 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Ms. Shuli Kotzer
Abstract
The immune system depends on coordinated intercellular interactions of different cell types. The “immunological synapse” (IS) is the contact area of cell-cell conjugates where information is transferred between immune system cells by clustering of signaling molecules. The cellular and molecular events taking place during contact occur in sequential stages that involve dramatic changes in cell polarity and dynamic redistribution of cell membrane receptors. Recent studies have emphasized the importance of cell asymmetry, cytoskeletal dynamics, membrane organization and molecular patterning in setting thresholds for the T cell activation process. However, the mechanisms driving the formation of T cell-antigen presenting cell synapses are currently not understood. Laboratory experiments tend to isolate and study one or two molecular or cellular interactions at a time. Mathematical and computational modeling is increasingly becoming an essential tool to integrate the information from many experiments, thus complementing experimental and conventional techniques. We created a simulation model that enables us to explain the dynamics of the different cellular events taking place sequentially in immune synapses. Using this simulation, we offer several following new insights into IS behavior, which have not been answered so far by mathematical models.
Speaker Profile
Ms. Kotzer is a PhD student in her final year, doing her doctoral thesis in the area of Computational and Mathematical Biology in Bar – Ilan University. The subject of the thesis is Models of immunological synapse formation and maturation. The thesis is done under the supervision of Prof. Ramit Mehr. The research is done with collaboration with Petter Höglund group from Microbiology and Tumor Biology Center (MTC), Karolinska Institutet and Daniel Davis group from the department of Biological Sciences, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London. She completed her M.S. also in Bar – Ilan University. It was in the area of Humanities Biology, the subject was Studies on inducing apoptosis in cancer cells by cytotoxic cell cycle dependent agents. It was done under the supervision of Prof. Jacob Shoam.
Systems Simulation in Health
Date: Thursday 1 February 2007
Time: 10:00am-4:30pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Prof. Yaman Barlas
Abstract
The workshop covers:
Attached are slides presented at the seminar
Health Systems Simulation Presentation.pps
Model Validation Presentation.pps
Speaker Profile
Yaman Barlas received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering, from Middle East Technical University, Ohio University and Georgia Institute of Technology respectively. In 1985, upon receiving his doctoral degree, he joined Miami University of Ohio as an assistant professor of Systems Analysis where he was granted tenure in 1990. He worked as a guest researcher at MIT in the summer of 1990. In 1992, he gave seminars in Istanbul, as a United Nations TOKTEN consultant. He joined Boğaziçi University in 1993, where he is currently working as a professor of Industrial Engineering and directing the SESDYN research laboratory. He spent his sabbatical leave at University of Bergen in Norway, in 2000. His interest areas are validation of simulation models, system dynamics methodology, modeling/analysis of socio-economic problems and simulation as a learning/training platform. He has published numerous articles in journals, proceedings and books, and offered academic and professional seminars nationally and internationally in these areas. He teaches simulation, system dynamics, dynamics of socio-economic systems and advanced dynamic systems modeling. He is a founding member of the System Dynamics Society and member of several other international and national professional organizations. Professor Barlas was the Chair of the 15th International System Dynamics Conference, held in Istanbul in 1997. He is the editor of System Dynamics Review for short articles, an invited Honorary Editor of the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems and a former President of the System Dynamics Society.
A brief biography can be found at:
http://www.ie.boun.edu.tr/~barlas/)
Health informatics: which piper, which tune and who pays?
Date: Thursday 9 November
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Sue Whetton
Abstract
A discipline may be viewed as establishing the parameters around an area of intellectual endeavour. However as an emerging discipline the focus, key issues, even the underlying theories and methodologies of health informatics appear to be somewhat fluid. This creates an interesting situation as various stakeholder groups seek to shape the discipline and its application in the healthcare environment. Multiple stakeholder perspectives can be a strength for health informatics, since they facilitate a comprehensive analysis of the complex cultural, organisational and technical systems of health care. At the same time, the various perspectives may not be equally represented, with powerful groups being able to exert more influence than marginal groups. This can result in some issues and processes being identified for attention, while alternative issues, options and solutions are ignored. We have seen this in the past, where the dominance of a technological orientation has been identified as a significant factor in the lack of uptake of many health informatics initiatives. Health informatics academics and practitioners therefore need to engage in a critical dialogue to explore and acknowledge the different, even competing perspectives.
This seminar discusses research which is identifying stakeholder perspectives and their relative influence within the discipline and profession of health informatics in Australia. At this early stage, evidence suggests that there are indeed diverse, even conflicting opinions, including a fledgling, but still marginalised critical discourse.
Speaker Profile
Sue Whetton has a background in education, sociology, computing, andinformation systems. She joined the UDRH in 1998 to establish the health informatics program. She is currently Coordinator of postgraduate programs and of teaching and learning within the University Department of Rural Health. She is also Deputy Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Chair of the Faculty Postgraduate Coursework Working Group and a member of the University Postgraduate Coursework Sub-committee. Sue is a member of the Editorial Committee for the electronic journal of Health Informatics and principal author of the textbook Health Informatics: a socio-technical perspective recently published by OUP.
Using electronic decision support to enhance the best use of medicines
Date: Thursday 26 October 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speakers: James Reeve, Bryn Lewis and Margaret Williamson
Abstract
The National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) is an independent, non-profit organisation for Quality Use of Medicines, providing accurate, balanced, evidence-based information and services to help people choose if, when and how to use medicines to improve their health and wellbeing.
The aim of the NPS Pharmaceutical Decision Support (PDS) Program is to improve the quality of prescribing and use of medicines by health professionals through provision of reliable information electronically at the point of decision making. The major focus of the program is to facilitate access to relevant evidence-based information to both health professionals and patients that support Quality Use of Medicines (QUM). While the primary focus is on prescribing and dispensing systems, the scope of activities and interest encompass information and communication technologies (ICT) across the spectrum of health care, with the aim of embedding QUMdecision support where appropriate.
This presentation will provide an overview of the current work of NPS about Pharmaceutical Decision Support, will focus on implementation and research projects underway to improve safety and quality of clinical systems and provide GPs with electronic access to clinical audits and other decision aids.
Speaker Profile
James Reeve(PhD, BPharm, Grad Dip IT) is the manager of the Pharmaceutical Decision Support Program at NPS. James has a background in pharmacy and worked as a community and hospital pharmacist and as an editor for Therapeutic Guidelines. Recently James completed a PhD thesis titled "Development and evaluation of information technology solutions to improve medication use".
Bryn Lewis(PhD, GDip Adv Comp Sci., GDip Comp Sci., G Dip Lib Sc., BSc.) is a computer scientist with a PhD in artificial intelligence. Bryn has extensive experience in software development and implementation, was the Chief Investigator for the SPIRT project: Towards Electronic Decision Support, and is currently working at NPS and Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd.
Margaret Williamson (MPH, Grad Dip Applied Epi, BPharm) is the manager of the Research and Development Program at the NPS. Margaret has significant experience in research and evaluation in areas of chronic disease, informatics, medication safety and public health.
Researching complexity - a reflexive approach to mapping hospital practice
Date: Thursday 12 October 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Associate Professor Rick Iedema
Deputy Director, Centre for Clinical Governance Research and
Associate Professor, School of Public Health & Community Medicine
Abstract
This presentation gives on overview of my approach to researchingorganizational complexity in hospitals. The presentation provides a brief outline of some projects I have been involved in, and clarifies the method that I have developed to engage clinicians in reflexively renegotiating their own practices. This method consists in negotiating with clinicians the meanings and significances of visual and textual data that we select for presentation and discussion. This negotiation becomes the basis for establishing not just themes and relevancies, but also for identifying possibilities for practice improvement and organizational change. The presentation argues in favour of regarding research as a means to social-organizational engagement.
XML data management, mobile data access and automatic document processing
Date: Thursday 28 September 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
Speaker: Dr Raymond Wong
Abstract
This seminar will summarize our recent research efforts in the areas of XML data management, mobile data access and automatic document processing. In particular, I will present our most recent results in space-efficient XML data management.
As XML database sizes grow, the amount of space used for storing the data and auxiliary supporting data structures becomes a major factor in query and update performance. This seminar presents our proposed, compact storage scheme for XML data that supports all navigational operations in near constant time. In addition to supporting efficient queries, the space requirement of the proposed scheme is within a constant factor of the information theoretic minimum, while insertions and deletions can be performed in near constant time as well. As a result, the proposed structure features a small memory footprint that increases cache locality, whilst still supporting standard APIs, such as DOM, and necessary database operations, such as queries and updates, efficiently.
Presenter Profile
Dr Raymond Wong is a Project Leader at National ICT Australia, a Senior Lecturer at University of New South Wales and the founder of Green Pea Software. In 2001, he led his development team in building one of the first native XML database management systems, supporting full transaction capabilities and multiple XML query languages including XPath and XQuery. He is currently a supervisor of 8 PhD students and has published more than 100 research manuscripts in the database field. He received his BSc from ANU, MPhil and PhD from HKUST. After his PhD, he was a postdoc at Stanford University and a visiting scholar at UCLA. Before joining UNSW, he worked at the computer science department of the following universities: Chinese University of Hong Kong, Macquarie University, and University of Sydney.
Moore's Law and Health IT: New technology and how we can use it
Date: Thursday, 31 August 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: ATAX Conference Room, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee, (cnr Battery Street one block south of Clovelly Road)
Speaker: Dr George Margelis
Abstract
As the microprocessor age has been driven by Moore's law to make computers faster and cheaper, healthcare like all industries has been a beneficiary. But just making faster chips doesn't necessarily lead to better healthcare.
Intel's Digital Health Group is investigating new usage models for technology in the hospital, clinic, and home to find how it can lead to higher quality healthcare, ensure access to the entire population, and help control spiraling costs.
In this presentation we will share how this is being done around the world, and look for how this can benefit healthcare and research in Australia.
Presenter Profile
Dr George Margelis is Industry Development Manager with the Intel Australia Digital Health Group. He works with the healthcare industry to explore the role of technology in healthcare, working with partners to facilitate trials of technology to develop new usage models for technology in healthcare, and working with industry to develop new products designed to work in the challenging healthcare space.
Biosurveillance: Essential knowledge or Troublesome Diversion?
Date: Thursday 20 July 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: The Stables, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee, (cnr Battery Street one block south of Clovelly Road)
Speakers: Tim Churchers, David Muscatelle, Wei Zheng
Abstract
NSW Health has been a national leader in the development of public health biosurveillance systems. This seminar will provide an opportunity to hear first-hand from the developers of the NSW Public Health Real-time Emergency Department Surveillance System about their experiences and up-to-date information on the practice, methods and outcomes of real-time surveillance, with an emphasis on informatics.
Presentations will cover high impact areas such as outbreak detection/surveillance systems including data models and performance requirements, detection algorithms, system architecture, and system evaluation.
Presenters Profile
Tim Churchers, Medical Epidemiologist
David Muscatello, Senior Epidemiologist and Manager, ED Surveillance
Wei Zheng, Senior Surveillance Officer
Achieving Your Goals
Date: Thursday 22 June 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: ATAX Gordon's Bay Seminar Room, Level 1 ATAX Building, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee, (cnr Battery Street one block south of Clovelly Road)
Speaker: Gabrielle McCorry
Abstract
Is there an area of your life with which you feel discontented and would like to change? Do you have a 'fuzzy' vision of something you want to achieve in your life but don't know where to start? Lifestyle coaching may be what you need to help you identify and achieve your personal or professional goals and make positive changes in your life. Areas of life in which you may be experiencing dissatisfaction could include:
- Working Life: managing stress, increasing work satisfaction, occupational change, attaining work-life balance
- Work Performance: developing or improving time management skills, organisational skills or leadership skills
- Career Development: career planning, career change, developing or improving study strategies
- Health & Fitness: weight loss or management, establishing an exercise regime, diet and lifestyle planning
- Family & Relationships: increasing family time, dealing with communication problems
- Life Transitions: retirement planning, life planning, preparing for a return to work
- Emotional Life: dealing with stress, improving emotional well-being
- Coaching can help people achieve their goals faster and more easily than would be otherwise possible as it accelerates a person's motivation and progress by providing greater focus on the goal and awareness of alternatives to reach it.
Presenter Profile
Gabrielle is a Registered Psychologist and an Associate Member of the Australian Psychological Society. She has completed a Masters of Applied Science in Coaching Psychology from the University of Sydney, which hosts the world's first university-based Coaching Psychology Unit. As a graduate of the University of Sydney's Coaching Psychology Unit, she is professionally trained in methods and techniques that are based on scientific evidence, thus ensuring the practices used with clients are up-to-date and have proven benefits.
The Sax Institute - Key Programs
Date: Thursday 8 June 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: ATAX Gordon's Bay Seminar Room, Level 1 ATAX Building, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee
(cnr Battery Street one block south of Clovelly Road)
Speaker: Professor Sally Redman
Chief Executive Officer
The Sax Institute
Abstract
The Sax Institute has been established to strengthen public health andhealth service research and to increase its impact on policy and practice. Professor Redman will outline the key programs of the Institute including the 45 and Up Study and the Hospital Alliance for Research Collaboration. She will highlight opportunities for collaborations between the Institute and the Centre for Health Informatics.
Education in Health Informatics
Date: Thursday 25 May 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: ATAX Gordon's Bay Seminar Room, Level 1 ATAX Building, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee, (cnr Battery Street one block south of Clovelly Road)
Speaker: Dr Tatjana Zrimec
Senior Lecturer - Medical Informatics
Centre for Health Informatics
Abstract
There is a growing demand for a high-quality multidisciplinary postgraduate program in Health Informatics that can address the current needs of the health industry as well as develop and train high level Health Informatics professionals and clinicians to meet an expected growth in the demand for Health Informatics skills. As a result, many graduate Health Informatics programs have been developed, or are in preparation. Apart for introducing Health Informatics education at the post-qualification level, there is a strong drive to position Health Informatics education at the pre-qualification level also. This talk will present an overview of the attempts to clearly define a Health Informatics profession. It will also invite group discussion and contributions around the following topics:
- Is there a clear picture about what is a "Health Informatician"?
- How many different profiles of Health Informaticians should exist?
- Do we have a clear picture about what should be the Health Informatics curriculum in order to respond to the diverse needs both on the post-qualification level and the pre-qualification level?
Adoption of e-Health: Optimising the adoption of e-health by the community: A marketing guy's perspective
Processes, ideas and tricks for the future, derived from Adam Morgan's internationally popular business book: Eating the Big Fish: how challenger brands can compete against brand leaders
Date: Thursday 27 April 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: ATAX Gordon's Bay Seminar Room, Level 1 ATAX Building, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee, (cnr Battery Streetone block south of Clovelly Road)
Speaker: Bob Miller
Consultant - Strategic Management
Abstract
Changing the way Australians go about managing their health care looks like becoming an increasingly important challenge in our economy.
Much of our nation's wealth, business power and intellectual capacity remain in the hands of the so-called Baby Boomer generation. They are just entering their sixties, with all the demands on health care assets that implies.
Ex-Toyota marketing director Bob Miller, a visiting professor at Macquarie University's Economics and Finance Division and himself a "Boomer" is currently working with the Centre for Health Informatics.
Bob discusses his view of the way New York and London advertising guru Adam Morgan's eight stages for a "Challenger brand" might be applied to encouraging Australians to adopt e-health processes.
Health & IT: Opportunities, Challenges, Problems?
Date: Thursday 30 March 2006
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Venue: ATAX Gordon Bay Seminar Room, Level 1 ATAX Building, UNSW Coogee Campus, 45 Beach Street, Coogee (cnr Battery Street one block south of Clovelly Road)
Speaker: Dr Bob Jansen
Director IT & Senior Research Fellow
Centre for Health Informatics
Abstract
The application of Information Technology (IT) in the health sector is gaining speed, with large projects underway to develop eHealth areas such as the electronic medical record, point of clinical care systems, prescribing systems, decision support systems, etc. This situation has led to large amounts of money being available in the health area which is 'red rag to a bull' for a cash-strapped IT sector. Yet no one seems to asking the fundamental questions: what is IT good for?; what problems has it successfully solved in the past?; what new problems have surfaced through its implementation?; what could it do for us?
This talk investigates the state of IT today, what has it done, where is it going and more importantly what are the problems it has brought to light. Then, through group discussion and involvement, we explore how or what aspects of IT might be successfully applied to health.