Cost-effectiveness of an essential mental health intervention package in Nigeria.

Limitations in healthcare funding require hospitals to find more effective ways to utilize resources. An effective patient management system is critically dependent on the accurate analysis of individual patient outcomes and resource utilization. In the current paper, a management-oriented decision support model is thus proposed to assist health system managers in improving the efficiency of their systems. In the first stage of the model, the key variables affecting system efficiency, as well as their causal relationships, are identified through causal maps. Efficiency is measured by the total time spent in the system. In the second stage, a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) is employed to represent both the conditional dependencies and uncertainties of the key variables. In the third stage, a sensitivity analysis is performed using a BBN to determine the most critical variable(s) in terms of impact on the system. Finally, strategies to improve system efficiency are proposed. The suggested decision support system is applied to the tomography section in the radiology department of a private hospital in Turkey.

A decision support system to improve the efficiency of resource allocation in healthcare management

In this paper, a visual algebra and the relative pictorial query language (PQL) for geographic information systems (GIS) are proposed and discussed. The base data structure of the object oriented model for geographical data is defined and the symbolic features used in the PQL are described. The algebra operators are formally defined, besides their properties and applicability. The use of the symbolic features to express the queries is illustrated, as well as the possible pictorial operations are considered. The used interface is part of the Scenario GIS, developed using an object-oriented environment. This PQL makes easier the formulation of a complex query and simplifies user approach to the system, maintaining a strong expressive power. Finally, an example of query and its pictorial composition on the screen is shown.

A Pictorial Query Language for Geographic Features in an Object-Oriented Environment

An object oriented decision support system for the planning of health resource allocation

We have created a prototype for a universal object-oriented model of a health care system compatible with the object-oriented approach used in version 3.0 of the HL7 standard for communication messages. A set of three models has been developed: (1) the Object Model describes the hierarchical structure of objects in a system—their identity, relationships, attributes, and operationss (2) the Dynamic Model represents the sequence of operations in time as a collection of state diagrams for object classes in the systems and (3) functional Diagram represents the transformation of data within a system by means of data flow diagrams. Within these models, we have defined major object classes of health care participants and their subclasses, associations, attributes and operators, states, and behavioral scenarios. We have also defined the major processes and subprocesses. The top-down design approach allows use, reuse, and cloning of standard components.

Object-Oriented Analysis and Design of a Health Care Management Information System

A system to define and allocate health care resources on a territory to improve the life quality of the populations in developing countries

In this paper an object-oriented system for the storing and the managing of epidemiological data in order to decrease the incidence of a given groups of diseases by means of health care strategy application and of the relative health care resource allocation is described. The system starts from the present epidemiological situation of the territory examined and from the real distribution on this territory of human and material health care resources. The health care manager inputs the available budget, some information regarding the population living on this area, other geographical and climatic informations, the values of certain epidemiological parameters of the diseases considered--the system has stored the mathematical and departmental models of these diseases--and the system allocates (using own allocation algorithms) human and material health care resources, optimizing the cost-benefit rate.

Toward an improvement of life optimizing resource use.

The aim of this paper is the description of a system for the definition. be acquisifion wid die storuge of rrrullim+ dial inforrnation (geographic duta. themt ic tru/ps, ctc.) rcgarding both the real situation of the herrlth crrre resources tillocation, and the epidemiological situation, io order to dccrease the incidence of a given disease with a fixed budget, applying a suitable strategy. The first part of the project will be discussezd and the implemented prototype will be: illustrated.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/7705/21095/00978722.pdf

A system for the storing of multimedial epidemiological data

In this paper the Authors present the prototype of a vocal interface for the storing in real time of intra-operative staging informations into a knowledge base of an expert system and, at the same time, into a medical record of a data base integrated with it. A brief discussion about the medical problem (the pancreatic cancer) is made, and the acquisition of the staging informations by voice is presented. Finally, the vocal query language is discussed, and an example by visual representation of a partial result of the staging is shown.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/1028/5761222/05761281.pdf

M. Rafanelli

Papers

An object oriented decision support system for the planning of health resource allocation

A system to define and allocate health care resources on a territory to improve the life quality of the populations in developing countries

Toward an improvement of life optimizing resource use.

A system for the storing of multimedial epidemiological data

A user vocal interface for the intra-operative staging