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✓ ✓ NEWS Top NEWS AMERICAN ACADEMY OF healthcare while addressing result- NURSING CALLS FOR ing issues of healthcare knowledge THOUGHTFUL Drawer and policy. The Academy’s mission DEVELOPMENT AND is to serve the public and nursing DEPLOYMENT OF HEALTH profession by advancing health pol- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY icy and practice through the genera- tion, synthesis, and dissemination of nursing knowledge. With the American Recovery and Reference: Reinvestment Act now signed into Bolton LB, Gassert CA, Cipriano PF. Tech- law, the American Academy of nology solutions can make nursing care safer Nursing (AAN) has called on the and more efficient. J Healthc Inf Manag. 2008;22(4):24–30. Obama administration, Congress, • technology manufacturers, and pur- ESSENTIAL (Release) chasers to work with nurses and INFORMATION ON other healthcare providers to ensure NEW PRODUCTS that the technologies are developed SOFTWARE UNBOUND MEDICINE and deployed in a way that allows BOOKS RELEASES DIAGNOSTIC healthcare providers more time with PROGRAM FOR iPHONE their patients, which will result in MEETINGS AND iPOD increased safety, improved clinical INTERNET RESOURCES outcomes, and decreased costs. • In 2005, funded by the Robert Unbound Medicine has announced Wood Johnson Foundation, the the release of its Diagnosaurus DDx AAN Workforce Commission for download to iPhone and iPod began their Technology Targets data, followed by improvement touch. Now, subscribers can experi- Project. A major component of the in safe delivery of care, system ence the speed and reliability of a project is a process called Technol- integration, supply chain, and oral native application and access essen- ogy Drill Down, which provides communications. Technology can tial diagnostic information without medical-surgical units the opportu- also eliminate waste, alleviate some the need for a wireless connection. nity to develop and improve their staffing and workload issues, Unbound’s award-winning platform process and workflow inefficiencies assist in tracking staff, physicians, allows users to enjoy convenient by identifying technological solutions. and patients, facilitate the over-the-air installation, wireless The results of the Workforce Com- medication cycle, and improve automatic updates, and superior mission's project, “Technology Solu- the efficiency of the physical navigation. tions to Make Patient Care Safer and environment. Additionally Diagnosaurus DDx is a quick ref- More Efficient,” suggest that, technology can reduce some of erence tool that helps healthcare through the proper type and use of the stressors that result in an professionals perform differential technology, there is a potential to in- emotional reaction to inefficient diagnosis with speed and confi- crease the amount of time that nurses workflows or poor work dence at the point of care. With Di- spend providing direct care, which in- environments.1(p28) agnosaurus DDx, clinicians can creases patient safety, improves clini- A PDF version of the article by quickly search more than 1000 di- cal outcomes, and decreases costs. Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, agnoses, navigating by organ sys- According to the report on the FAAN; Carole A. Gassert, PhD, tem, symptom, or disease, or view project, published in the Journal of RN, FACMI, FAAN; and Pamela F. all entries. The “see related DDx” Healthcare Information Manage- Cipriano, PhD, RN, FAAN, is feature within each selection offers ment in autumn 2008, available at http://www.aannet.org/ alternative diagnoses and the ability The study demonstrated the files/public/FALL_JHIM.pdf. to quickly link to those entries. A greatest impact of technology is The AAN anticipates and tracks convenient “Favorites” feature al- on written communication and national and international trends in lows specific searches to be saved

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✓ ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS CALENDAR Top Drawer TO HOST AND CONSOLIDATE CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES 2009 and bookmarked into a personal DATA CENTERS archive. Diagnosaurus DDx joins the MAY 2009 growing list of downloadable Electronic Data Systems, a Hewlett May 20–21, 2009, Personal iPhone applications available now Packard company, has been Electronic Health Records: From from Unbound Medicine. A listing awarded a task order by the US Biomedical Research to People’s of currently available applications Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Health, Bethesda, MD. Sponsored and upcoming releases is available Services (CMS) to consolidate and by Friends of the National Library of at the company’s Web site. host the data center operations of Medicine, National Institutes of Features of Diagnosaurus DDx all nine common working file Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, on the iPhone include the following: (CWF) host sites for the agency. Bethesda, MD. This consolidation effort will en- • Interface optimized for iPhone May 28–30, 2009, AMIA 2009 able the CMS to streamline its data and iPod touch Spring Conference, Orlando, FL. center hosting operations, improve • Personalized favorites Sponsored by the American Medical hosting reliability, and reduce costs. • More than 1000 differential Informatics Association, 4915 St The task order was awarded under diagnoses Elmo Ave, Suite 401, Bethesda, MD the CMS Enterprise Data Center In- • Disease, symptom, or organ 20814. For more information, call definite Delivery/Indefinite Quan- system searching 301-657-1291, e-mail [email protected], tity contract and is worth up to • Extensive links to related entries or visit the Web site at $19.8 million through 2014, if all http://www.amia.org/meetings/s08/. options are exercised. To view or download a demon- The nine regional CWF host sites stration of Diagnosaurus DDx on of the CMS store Medicare Part A JUNE 2009 the iPhone/iPod touch, please visit and Part B eligibility information for June 17–19, 2009, Informatics www.unboundmedicine.com/diag_ about 45 million beneficiaries within 2009: Multiconference on iphone_demo.htm. Computer Science and the United States. The CWF applica- Information Systems, Algarve, tion allows Medicare administrative Portugal. Sponsored by the (Release) contractors, fiscal intermediaries, International Association for and carriers to verify beneficiary eli- Development of the Information ✓ gibility, receive prepayment reviews, Society, Rua Sao Sebastiao da and obtain approval of Medicare in- Pedreira, 100, 3, 1050-209 Lisbon, surance claims. Portugal. For more information, Under the task order, EDS will visit the Web site at operate and host all CWF host site http://www.mccsis.org/ or applications from its data center, e-mail the conference secretariat at Your contributions to Top which is capable of processing eligi- [email protected]. Drawer (news, calendar bility inquiries for all 45 million June 30–July 1, 2009, Nursing items, products for review) beneficiaries. Informatics—Connecting Health are welcome. Send them to: To support the consolidation, and Humans, the 10th International EDS also will provide data center Congress on Nursing Informatics, host implementations and correc- Helsinki, Finland. Sponsored by the CIN Editorial Office tions, Web hosting, data storage, International Medical Informatics 10A Beach Street Suite 2 mainframe services, transition ser- Association—Nursing Informatics Portland, ME 04101 Special Interest Group, the Finnish vices, shared infrastructure services, Nurses Association, the Association Telephone: 207-553-7750 enterprise data center program for Common European Nursing Fax: 207-553-7751 management, and general support. Diagnoses, Interventions, and E-mail: [email protected] EDS, an HP company, is a tech- Outcomes, and the University of nology services provider world- Kuopio Department of Health Policy wide; EDS founded the information technology outsourcing industry

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✓ NOTES FROM THE NET NOMAD . . . The Internet has brought the spirit of global commu- note-as-a-medical-students-peripheral-brain/), nication and collaboration to nurses and other health- prompted me to look more closely at this application. care professionals in ways never before thought possible. Offered in both a free and a fee-based version, it is a These resources are offered to expand your opportuni- personal notebook that you can fill with documents ties for discussion, reference, education, and research. (PDF), video, audio, and links. Evernote also has the A couple of years ago, I became interested in the ability to synchronize information between your per- concept of Personal Learning Environments and how sonal computer and cloud storage as well as the ability Web tools could be used as a repository of informa- to run the application from a flash drive. tion and links from a variety of sites. I have collected There are also applications for both the iPhone and bits and pieces from all over the Web, including im- iTouch to get to public folders. It also is available for ages, blog links, and articles, all of which are part of both Windows and Mac computers. my personal network of information. There are other healthcare professionals who have While I have used PageFlakes (http://www. been using this application for a variety of tasks. The pageflakes.com) as an information aggregation tool, Efficient MD blog posted a three-part series that sug- there are several free tools that serve as a personal on- gested several uses for Evernote, including how it line notebook. could be used as a “hybrid electronic health record.” Zotero is a free application that works only with (See “The Efficient MD—Life Hacks for Healthcare Firefox. When you create an account at http:// How Doctors Can Use Evernote as a Professional www.zotero.org/ and download the application, it Memory Accessible Anywhere [Part 1 of 3]” at http:// installs itself to work with Firefox. What can you do efficientmd.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-doctors-can- with it? Here is the feature list directly from the Web use-evernote-as.html). site: I signed up on the Web site (http://www.evernote.com), • Automatically capture citations downloaded and installed the application, created a • Remotely back up and synchronize your library flash drive version, and saved several sites during the • Store PDFs, images, and Web pages day. From my home computer, I logged into the appli- • Cite from within Word and OpenOffice cation, and everything I had worked on from a different computer was synchronized with my home desktop. • Take rich-text notes in any language Both free and premium versions offer access to all • Wide variety of import/export options versions of Evernote, synchronization across plat- • Free, open source, and extensible forms, and text recognition inside images. The differ- • Collaborate with group libraries ences between the two are as follows: • Organize with collections and tags • Monthly upload allowance: The free version al- • Access your library from anywhere lows 40 MB; the fee-based version allows 500 MB. • Automatically grab metadata for PDFs • File synchronization: The free version allows im- • Use thousands of bibliographic styles ages, audio, ink, and PDF; the fee-based version • Instantly search your PDFs and notes allows any file type (although a single note is • Advanced search and data mining tools limited to 25 MB). • Interface available in over 30 languages • Support: The free version receives standard support; • Recommendation engine and RSS feeds the fee-based version receives premium support. The ability to export citations in multiple reference • Security: The free version offers standard secu- formats, including AMA, APA, ASPA, and Chicago, is rity; the fee-based version is SSL encrypted. a tremendous asset for student and faculty publica- Last but not the least, important for many will be tions. the lack of advertisements and promotions on the pre- Since I had already created a flash-drive version of mium version, something that may be worth $5 per Firefox (http://portableapps.com/apps/Internet/ month or $45 per year depending on user preferences. firefox_portable), I installed Zotero on the drive and These are both excellent tools to create an organized my PC. It worked like a charm and synchronized the collection of professional or personal links and re- flash-drive documents and citations with the Web sources. If you browse only with Internet Explorer, version. you cannot use Zotero. If you use both Firefox and In- While it works only with Firefox, it is compatible ternet Explorer, you can use either or both from your with Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. PC or a flash drive. David Rothman's recent posting, “Screencast: Ever- note as a Medical Student’s Peripheral Brain” (http://davidrothman.net/2009/03/02/screencast-ever- William Perry, MA, RN

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✓ ✓ CALENDAR Top Drawer CALENDAR

and Management. For more nearly 50 years ago. EDS performs Association, 5782-172 Street, information, visit the Web site at information technology, applications, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6M http://www.ni2009.org/. and business process outsourcing 1B4; the Journal of Medical Internet services in the manufacturing, fi- Research (http://www.jmir.org/); the nancial services, healthcare, com- Canadian Medical Association; and JULY 2009 munications, energy, transportation, others. For more information or to July 13–17, 2009, 20th International consumer and retail industries, and register, visit the conference Web Nursing Research Conference governments around the world. site at http://www. Focusing on Evidence-Based medicine20congress.com/. Practice, Cancun, Mexico. September 23–26, 2009, Ease on (Release) Sponsored by Sigma Theta Tau Down the Road: Exploring International, 550 W North Street, Pathways to Excellence in Indianapolis, IN 46202. For more Clinical Education, NLN Education PEW INTERNET RELEASES information, visit the conference Summit, Philadelphia, PA. Web site at http://www. DATA ON TWITTER AND Sponsored by the National League nursingsociety.org/STTIEVENTS/ STATUS UPDATES for Nursing, 61 Broadway, New RESEARCHCONGRESS/Pages/ York, NY 10006. For more congress.aspx. information, visit the Web site at July 20–25, 2009, Informatics at As of December 2008, 11% of on- http://www.nln.org/Summit/index.htm. the Point of Care—A Barrier or a line American adults said that they Bridge? 19th Annual Summer used a service like Twitter or an- Institute in Nursing Informatics, other service that allowed them to OCTOBER 2009 Baltimore, MD. Sponsored by the share updates about themselves or October 31–November 4, 2009, I University of Maryland School of to see the updates of others. Am a Nurse…and I Am a Member Nursing, Office of Continuing Just a few weeks earlier, in No- of a Global Nursing Community: Education, 655 West Lombard St, vember 2008, 9% of Internet users 40th Biennial Sigma Theta Tau Baltimore, MD 21201. For more used Twitter or updated their status Convention, Indianapolis, IN. information, visit http://nursing. online, and in May of 2008, 6% of Sponsored by Sigma Theta Tau umaryland.edu/sini/index.htm. International, the Honor Society of Internet users responded yes to a Preconference sessions will be held Nursing, 550 W North St, slightly different question, where July 20–22, 2009. Indianapolis, IN 46202. For more users were asked if they used “Twitter information, visit the Web site at or another ‘microblogging’ service http://www.nursingsociety.org/ AUGUST 2009 to share updates about themselves STTIEvents/BiennialConvention/ August 31– September 2, 2009, or to see updates about others.” Pages/biennialconvention.aspx. Medical Informatics in a United For the full report, please visit and Healthy Europe: http://www.pewInternet.org/PPF/r/ 22nd International Congress of 276/report_display.asp. the European Federation for The Pew Internet Project is an Medical Informatics, Sarajevo, initiative of the Pew Research Cen- Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sponsored ter, a nonprofit “fact tank” that by the Society for Medical Informatics provides information on the issues, of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For attitudes, and trends shaping Amer- more information, visit ica and the world. Pew Internet ex- http://www.mie2009.org/. plores the impact of the Internet on children, families, communities, the SEPTEMBER 2009 work place, schools, healthcare, September 17–18, 2009, Medicine and civic/political life. Support for 2.0: Web 2.0 in Health and the project is provided by the Pew Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Charitable Trusts. Canada. Sponsored by the International Medical Informatics (Release)

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