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Hartvigsen Gunnar

Description

Illnesses like infections, cold, influenza and so on in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients, can compromise the daily patient administered diabetes treatment. This in turn may result in fluctuating blood glucose concentrations, especially hyperglycemia for prolonged periods, which over time can cause serious late complications. The illness prediction project at Tromsø Telemedicine Laboratory aims to construct a prediction model that, through use of patient observable parameters, for example, blood glucose, insulin injections and body temperature, can significantly identify risk of developing illnesses, before onset of symptoms and before illness onset.

Such a model could potentially enable T1DM patients to fight the illnesses, and prepare for an adequate change in the T1DM-management earlier on.

 

Objective

To develop an illness prediction model that can predict illness in T1DM patients before onset of symptoms, using the patient’s observable parameters.

Submitted by hparton on
Description

Disease surveillance systems are currently used for the early detection of disease outbreak before diagnosis is confirmed in order to mobilize a rapid response . The fear of epidemics or bioterrorism resulted in the development of systems for the general population; however research efforts for sensitive population groups are missing. Sensitive groups could be considered patients suffering from chronic diseases (such as diabetes and renal failure), elderly people and infants. It is well known that these groups are quite susceptible to diseases that can be easily spread under certain circumstances e.g. in a dialysis room where patients with renal failure receive their regular treatment. In addition to that, several diseases seem to affect them more. Therefore, the development of disease surveillance systems for sensitive population groups is an issue that should be addressed.

Objective

The aim of this study is to reveal the need for developing disease surveillance systems for sensitive populations.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

It is well known that diabetic patients are particularly sensitive to infections however no robust diagnostic test for the early detection of infection has been developed to date. Glucose levels  would be an ideal indicator, since diabetics measure their blood glucose (BG) on a daily basis along with insulin intake. At the same time some computerized systems have been developed that collect BG values using sensors and transmit them to a central data repository, such as the Electronic Healthcare Record. Acute infection often results in hyperglycemia, due to release of regulatory hormones and pro-inflammatory cytokines as evidenced by studies on hospitalized patients. Nevertheless the underlying mechanisms of infection-related stress hyperglycemia are not fully understood.

 

Objective

The aim of the study is to assess the correlation between blood glucose levels and infection and to propose the development of a model for the early detection of infections in diabetics.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

In the Northern part of Norway, all General Practitioners (GPs) and hospitals use electronic health records (EHR). They are connected via an independent secure IP-network called the Norwegian Health Network. The newly developed “Snow Agent System” can utilize this environment by distributing processes to, and extracting epidemiological data directly from, the EHR system in a geographic area. This system may enable the GPs to discover local disease outbreaks that may have affected the current patient by providing epidemiological data from the local population. Currently, work is being done to add more functionality to the system. The overall goal for this project is to contribute to a system that will share epidemiological information between GPs and provide them with information about contagious diseases that may be useful in a clinical setting.

To achieve this, we need the GPs to accept and use the system. Nearly one half of information systems fail due to user resistance and staff interference despite the fact that they are technologically sound. One of the reasons for user resistance is lack of user involvement and bad design. The more specialized the system, the more you need user research to unsure success. With this in mind we have decided to take a User-Centred-Design approach to the project.

 

Objective

The Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine plans to establish a peer-to-peer symptom based surveillance network between all GPs, laboratories, accident and emergency units, and other relevant health providers in Northern Norway. This paper describes some initial results from a study of GPs’ user requirements, regarding what they want in return from the system.

Submitted by elamb on
Description

In the Northern part of Norway, all general practitioners (GPs) and hospitals use electronic health record systems. They are all connected via an independent secure IP-network called the Norwegian Health Network which enables electronic communication between all institutions involved in disease prevention and healthcare.

 

Objective

The Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine plans to establish a peer-to-peer based surveillance  network between all GPs, laboratories, accident and emergency units, and other relevant health providers and authorities in Northern Norway. This paper briefly describes the architecture and components of the system and the motivation for using this approach.

Submitted by elamb on