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Design and evaluation of a multimedia electronic patient record “oncoflow” with clinical workflow assistance for head and neck tumor therapy

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International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

The management of patient-specific information is a challenging task for surgeons and physicians because existing clinical information systems are insufficiently integrated into daily clinical routine and contained information entities are distributed across different proprietary databases. Thus, existing information is hardly usable for further electronic processing, workflow support or clinical studies.

Methods

A Web-based clinical information system has been developed that automatically imports patient-specific information from different information systems. The system is tailored to the existing workflow for the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer. In this paper, the clinical assistance functions and a quantitative as well as a qualitative system evaluation are presented.

Results

The information system has been deployed at a clinical site and is in use in daily clinical routine. Two evaluation studies show that the information integration, the structured information presentation in the Web browser and the assistance functions improve the physician’s workflow. The studies also show that the usage of the new information system does not impair the time physicians need for a process step compared with the usage of the existing information system.

Conclusions

Information integration is crucial for efficient workflow support in the clinic. The central access to information within a modern and structured user interface saves valuable time for the physician. The comprehensive database allows an instant usage of the existing information clinical workflow support or the conduction of trial studies.

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Acknowledgments

ICCAS is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Saxon Ministry of Science and Fine Arts (SMWK) in the scope of the Unternehmen Region with Grant Number 03Z1LN12 and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the state of Saxony within the frame of measures to support the technology sector.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Innovation Center Computer Assisted Surgery (ICCAS), Universität Leipzig, Semmelweisstrasse 14, 04103 , Leipzig, Germany

    Jens Meier, Stefan Bohn & Thomas Neumuth

  2. Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Institute for Process Automation and Embedded Systems, University of Applied Sciences Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Thomas Neumuth

  3. Department of ENT Surgery, University Medical Center Leipzig, Liebigstrasse 10-14, 04103 , Leipzig, Germany

    Andreas Boehm, Anne Kielhorn & Andreas Dietz

Authors
  1. Jens Meier
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  2. Andreas Boehm
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  3. Anne Kielhorn
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  4. Andreas Dietz
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  5. Stefan Bohn
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  6. Thomas Neumuth
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Correspondence to Thomas Neumuth.

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Meier, J., Boehm, A., Kielhorn, A. et al. Design and evaluation of a multimedia electronic patient record “oncoflow” with clinical workflow assistance for head and neck tumor therapy. Int J CARS 9, 949–965 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-014-0988-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-014-0988-x

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