Publications by Daniel Karlsson

Background: Exchange of Electronic Health Record (EHR) data between systems from different suppliers is a major challenge. EHR communication based on archetype methodology has been developed by openEHR and CEN/ISO. The experience of using archetypes in deployed EHR systems is quite limited today. Currently deployed EHR systems with large user bases have their own proprietary way of representing clinical content using various models. This study was designed to investigate the feasibility of representing EHR content models from a regional EHR system as openEHR archetypes and inversely to convert archetypes to the proprietary format. Methods: The openEHR EHR Reference Model (RM) and Archetype Model (AM) specifications were used. The template model of the Cambio COSMIC, a regional EHR product from Sweden, was analyzed and compared to the openEHR RM and AM. This study was focused on the convertibility of the EHR semantic models. A semantic mapping between the openEHR RM/AM and the COSMIC template model was produced and used as the basis for developing prototype software that performs automated bidirectional conversion between openEHR archetypes and COSMIC templates. Results: Automated bi-directional conversion between openEHR archetype format and COSMIC template format has been achieved. Several archetypes from the openEHR Clinical Knowledge Repository have been imported into COSMIC, preserving most of the structural and terminology related constraints. COSMIC templates from a large regional installation were successfully converted into the openEHR archetype format. The conversion from the COSMIC templates into archetype format preserves nearly all structural and semantic definitions of the original content models. A strategy of gradually adding archetype support to legacy EHR systems was formulated in order to allow sharing of clinical content models defined using different formats. Conclusion: The openEHR RM and AM are expressive enough to represent the existing clinical content models from the template based EHR system tested and legacy content models can automatically be converted to archetype format for sharing of knowledge. With some limitations, internationally available archetypes could be converted to the legacy EHR models. Archetype support can be added to legacy EHR systems in an incremental way allowing a migration path to interoperability based on standards.

Background: Appropriate pain assessment is a necessary prerequisite for adequate pain control. A way to follow-up on the pain is to let patients use paper-based or electronic pain diaries.

Purpose: The aim was to explore and describe palliative home care patients’ experiences of assessing their pain by using a pain diary together with digital pen and mobile Internet technology.

Methods: A system for the follow-up of pain treatment was developed and evaluated by means of a qualitative cross-case content analysis. From December 2002 until September 2003 12 palliative patients, who initially assessed VAS pain ≥ 35 mm (VAS 0–100 mm), used the system. Patients reported their momentary pain intensity and the number of consumed extra doses of analgesics three times per day. Analysis data were collected from interviews with patients and spouses, questionnaires, medical records, and the system log.

Results: In spite of severe illness and difficulties in comprehending the technology and system intervention, patients found the pain diary and digital pen easy to use for pain assessment. Patients took a greater part in their own care and experienced an improved contact with their caregivers, which led to a sense of increased security. The medical records showed a quick response to variations in the patients’ health status by means of changes in medical treatment.

Conclusions: The pain assessment system for palliative patients using pain diaries together with digital pen and wireless Internet technology constitutes an effortless method and has positive influences on the care.

Laboratory medicine is a challenge for the metrologically and terminologically inclined scientist. One main reason is the need for a sound theory that can be applied in a systematic way to cover all aspects of examinations, i.e., those procedures whose results are reported on an ordinal scale and those reported on more primitive scales (e.g., classifications and narratives). Validation of procedures for examinations involving properties on a nominal scale is especially difficult to achieve because it is hard to find gold standards, in the conventional sense, against which to validate and which combine performance characteristics and clinically relevant specificity and sensitivity. We present a systematic, unambiguously defined terminology (the C-NPU coding scheme) for metrologically derived terms for expressing properties, and present some examples of how to attain diagnostic goals. If the analytic process in the laboratory can be subsumed into medical contexts in a systematic way, many pitfalls in reporting results can be avoided. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Medical decision-support systems are of necessity multi-contextual in nature. There are always at least two contexts involved in the use of such systems: the expert knowledge-provider context and the end-user context. To show this, we present examples of context-dependent aspects significant to the use of decision-support systems. The existence of discrepancies between the contexts threatens to disrupt the rationale for using decision-support systems: for the system to transfer knowledge from the expert to the end-user. Both theoretical and empirical studies show that such discrepancies exist and that they may be detrimental to the use of decision-support systems. Systems must thus give support in interpreting the output produced by the system in the context of the end-user. © 2004 Taylor and Francis Ltd.

As a way of exploring differences between medical domains regarding management of urinary tract infections, we investigated the MEDLINE® database for differences in indexing patterns. Further, our intention was to assess the MEDLINE® database as a source for studying medical domains. We examined the use of main headings, subheadings and the level of main headings in six medical domains that manage urinary tract infections. Many intuitive but also some counterintuitive results were found indicating that the MEDLINE® database is difficult to use for studying medical domains mainly due to unclear semantics both in the headings and the indexing process, which results in variability in indexing. This variability probably hides sig-nificant results. We also conclude that the differences found indicate that in addition to differences between domains, there are also large variations within domains.

IT support for home health care is an expanding area within health care IT development. Home health care differs from other in- or outpatient care delivery forms in a number of ways, and thus, the introduction of home health care applications must be based on a rigorous analysis of necessary requirements to secure safe and reliable health care. This article reports early experiences from the development of a home health care application based on emerging technologies. A prototype application for the follow-up of diabetes patients is presented and discussed in relation to a list of general requirements on home health care applications.

With the introduction of EHR two-level modelling and archetype methodologies pioneered by openEHR and standardized by CEN/ISO, we are one step closer to semantic interoperability and future-proof adaptive healthcare information systems. Along with the opportunities, there are also challenges. Archetypes provide the full semantics of EHR data explicitly to surrounding systems in a platform-independent way, yet it is up to the receiving system to interpret the semantics and process the data accordingly. In this paper we propose a design of an archetype-based platform-independent testing framework for validating implementations of the openEHR archetype formalism as a means of improving quality and interoperability of EHRs.

With the introduction of EHR two-level modelling and archetype methodologies pioneered by openEHR and standardized by CEN/ISO, we are one step closer to semantic interoperability and future-proof adaptive healthcare information systems. Along with the opportunities, there are also challenges. Archetypes provide the full semantics of EHR data explicitly to surrounding systems in a platform-independent way, yet it is up to the receiving system to interpret the semantics and process the data accordingly. In this paper we propose a design of an archetype-based platform-independent testing framework for validating implementations of the openEHR archetype formalism as a means of improving quality and interoperability of EHRs.

Sammanfattning

Ett tillgängligt och använt nationellt fackspråk ska bidra till en god och säker vård och omsorg. Det ska även medverka till att kvaliteten och resultaten på området ska kunna följas upp och jämföras på ett mer effektivt sätt. Slutrapporten presenterar resultatet av projektet Nationellt fackspråk för vård och omsorg samt förslag till förvaltning och utveckling.

Resultatet

Resultatet innefattar bland annat att det internationella begreppssystemet Snomed CT är översatt till svenska och att det är förberett för förvaltning och distribution. Socialstyrelsen har även tagit fram och testat metoder för förvaltning och utveckling av det nationella fackspråket i sin helhet. Därtill har representanter för målgrupperna informerats och fått kunskap.

Rapporten innehåller en utförlig beskrivning av det nationella fackspråkets sammantagna innehåll: Socialstyrelsens termbank, klassifikationer och kodverk, den svenska versionen av Snomed CT, metoder för utveckling och förvaltning samt regler för användning.

Förvaltning, införande och resursbehov

I rapporten finns förslag till hur hela det nationella fackspråket kan tas omhand av Socialstyrelsen och hur det kan införas i vården och omsorgen. Projektets övergång till en långsiktigt hållbar organisation kräver resurser. Därför redogör rapporten för det förväntade resursbehovet för förvaltning och utveckling. Bland annat föreslås en treårig utbildningsinsats samt stimulansbidrag för införande.

Krav på styrning, samordning och förtydligat ansvar

Rapporten betonar behovet av en samlad och medveten styrning av utvecklingen inom området. Socialstyrelsen vill ha en samordnande roll i utvecklingen och förvaltningen av det nationella fackspråket. Myndigheten föreslås få det initiala ansvaret för att utbilda användare och att driva frågor om det nationella fackspråket.

Vidare vill Socialstyrelsen få ett uttalat mandat att samordna de nationella aktiviteter som drivs med koppling till Snomed CT. Rapporten pekar ut några särskilt prioriterade områden som myndigheten borde få i uppdrag att arbeta vidare inom.

Kunskapsstyrning och normgivning

En viktig slutsats i rapporten är att användningen av det nationella fackspråket behöver regleras för att målet om ökad säkerhet för klienter och patienter ska kunna uppnås. I dagsläget bedöms föreskrifter vara den metod som bäst kan garantera ett brett genomförande.

Målgrupper för slutrapporten

Slutrapporten riktar sig till beslutsfattare i kommuner och landsting, vård- och omsorgspersonal med särskilt intresse eller ansvar för dokumentationsfrågor och professionella organisationer. Den riktar sig också till terminologiansvariga i kommuner och landsting, IT-direktörer, IT-leverantörer samt aktörer inom den nationella strategin för eHälsa.