Anomalia congênita (AC) é causada por alterações morfológicas e/ou funcionais ocasionada no desenvolvimento embrionário ou fetal devido a fatores genéticos, ambientais, multifatoriais ou desconhecidos. A detecção pode ser no período pré-natal, no recém-nascido ou posteriormente. Estudos recentes indicam que de 2% a 3% de todos os nascidos vivos no mundo apresentam AC. Alguns autores afirmam que no Brasil elas constituem a segunda causa de mortalidade infantil, com 11,2%. Particularmente, o país conta com sistemas de bancos de dados em saúde com informações sobre anomalias congênitas. Dentre estes sistemas, temos três que se destacam: o Sistema de Informações Hospitalares do SUS (SIH), o Sistema de Informações sobre Nascidos Vivos (SINASC) e o Sistema de Informações sobre Mortalidade (SIM). Todos são obtidos através do site do Departamento de Informática do Sistema Único de Saúde (DATASUS). Todavia, esses sistemas, de maneira isolada, não fornecem uma visão clara tanto da epidemiologia das anomalias congênitas, quanto dos indivíduos com esse agravo, se ao terem nascidos foram tratados ou em decorrência dela faleceram. Diante deste cenário, neste projeto tem-se por objetivo principal apresentar o sistema de vigilância de AC utilizando estas bases públicas com intuito de monitorar as anomalias no Brasil, mapeando os nascimentos, internações e óbitos. Este sistema tornou-se o Portal de Monitoramento de AC (PMAC), com dados que abrangem o período de janeiro 2001 a dezembro 2011. Ele conta com ferramentas que correspondem aos módulos de auditoria automática, que verifica subnotificações e inconsistência, módulos de análises epidemiológicas contendo incidência, fluxo de migração e coeficientes de mortalidade (infantil, perinatal, neonatal e segundo causas por AC). Este estudo também traz a realização da técnica do relacionamento probabilístico com a integração dos sistemas SINASC, SIH e SIM, que formaram um banco contribuindo com informações de rastreabilidade dos registros com anomalias, além de apresentar os resultados satisfatórios dos testes caixa-preta junto com a aplicação da técnica de avaliação heurística, realizados por usuários para avaliar a usabilidade do portal. Por fim, ressalta-se que o portal é dinâmico, e a manipulação dos dados por meio do acesso dos usuários a análises de cunho epidemiológico, em diversas agregações, permite auxiliar a gestão das informações, promover reflexões em torno desta temática, incentivar mais estudos e pesquisas, bem como prover recursos e apoiar medidas sociais e políticas para assistir os indivíduos acometidos por AC, suas famílias e a comunidade / Congenital anomaly (AC) is caused by morphological and / or functional alterations originated during embryonic or fetal development due to genetic, environmental, multifactorial or unknown factors. Detection may happen in the prenatal period, in the newborn or later. Recent studies indicate that AC is present in about 2% to 3% of all live births worldwide. Some authors affirm that in Brazil they are the second cause of infant mortality, with around 11.2%. In particular, Brazil has health databases systems with information about congenital anomalies. Among these systems we have three that stand out: the Hospital Information System of SUS (SIH), the Live Birth Information System (SINASC) and Mortality Information System (SIM). All of which can be obtained through the Informatics of public Health System Department\'s website (DATASUS). However, these systems in isolation do not provide a clear view both of the epidemiology of congenital anomalies as well as the individuals with this birth defect be treated or it result of their death. In this scenario, the main objective of this project is to present an AC surveillance system that uses these public databases to monitor the anomalies in Brazil by mapping births, hospitalizations and deaths. This system became the Portal of Monitoring of AC (PMAC), with data that cover the period from January 2001 to December 2011, with tools that correspond to the modules of automatic audit that verifies under notifications and inconsistency, modules of epidemiological analyzes containing incidence, migration flow and mortality coefficients (infant, perinatal, neonatal and second AC causes). This study also used the probabilistic linkage technique with an integration of the SINASC, SIH and SIM systems to build a database contributing with traceable information for the records with anomalies. In addition is presented satisfactory results for black box tests along with the portal usability evaluation performed with users through heuristic evaluation technique. Finally, it should be noted that the portal is dynamic offering options like user access to data manipulation through epidemiological analyzes in diverse aggregations. It helps to manage information, promote reflections around this theme, encourage further studies and research, as well as provide resources and support social and political measures to assist individuals affected by AC, their families and the community

A saúde pública no país é uma área de alta demanda, dependente de tecnologia cara e de rápida obsolescência, com custos operacional e de manutenção altos, e com uma cobrança de crescimento ininterrupto, decorrente tanto do aumento vegetativo dos usuários, quanto da instabilidade social, quando os desempregados perdem a condição de se utilizar da saúde suplementar e migram para a rede pública. Há um agravamento de tal situação pela dispersão geográfica da população, pelo tamanho do país. O Sistema Único de Saúde, através do PlanejaSUS, tem um esforço continuado de planejar o funcionamento da saúde pública no país, para o que se utiliza, entre outros recursos, dos seguintes sistemas: de Informações sobre Nascidos Vivos; de Informação de Agravos de Notificação; de Informações Hospitalares; e de Informação de Mortalidade. Com o objetivo de identificar o grau de consistência dos mesmos, foi feito um levantamento de periódicos dos últimos 5 anos, de artigos que apontavam tal característica. Mediante a utilização de recortes dos artigos, análise e tabulação de resultados, identificou-se o predomínio de deficiências de pessoal e de qualidade das informações, estas últimas decorrentes das primeiras. Em apenas um caso houve queixa da infraestrutura de tecnologia da informação. Conclui-se pela priorização de trabalhos de persuasão e capacitação de funcionários; por um ajuste na expectativa pela precisão dos sistemas, já que por seu macro dimensionamento, face à dispersão geográfica e ao grande número de pessoas envolvidas, são sistemas com tendência natural à instabilidade; pelo papel que pesquisas como as apresentadas nos artigos podem fazer no controle de tais sistemas; pela consistência apresentada atualmente pelos sistemas, que embora não seja ótima, tem sustentado inúmeras pesquisas cujos resultados são validados por subsídios da literatura e cruzamento de bancos de dados. Aventa-se ainda a possibilidade de, em um trabalho de parceria entre universidades, centros de pesquisa, e o Sistema Único de Saúde, este último estabeleça alguns eixos e categorias, e estimule continuadamente pesquisas voltadas para identificação do nível de consistência dos sistemas mencionados, pesquisas estas cujos resultados poderão funcionar na redução da instabilidade dos mesmos / Public health in the country is a department of high demand, dependent on expensive technology and quick obsolescence, with high operational and maintenance costs, and with a charge of uninterrupted growth, due to both the vegetative growth of users, and the social instability, when the unemployed lose the condition of using additional health system and migrate to the public service. There is a worsening of the situation caused by the geographical dispersion of the population, by the size of the country. The Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System), through the PlanejaSUS, mantain a continued effort of planning the operation of public health in the country, for what it use, among other features, the following systems: information on live borns; reportable diseases information; hospital information; and mortality information. In order to identify the consistency degree of these systems was made a survey of the past 5 years, using articles that pointed such feature. Using cutouts of articles, analysis and tabulation of results, it was identified the predominance of disabilities of personnel and quality of the information, the latter arising out of the first. In only one case there was complaint of information technology infrastructure. It is concluded by the prioritization of work of persuasion and training of employees; by an adjustment in anticipation for the accuracy of the systems, since by its macro scale, given the geographic dispersion and the large number of people involved, that these are systems with natural tendency to instability; the role that research such as those presented in articles can make in the control of such systems; by consistency presented by systems, which although are not great, has sustained extensive research whose results are validated by literature subsidies and databases crossover. It also suggests the possibility of, in a working partnership between universities, research centers, and the Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System), the latter shall establish some axes and categories, and encourage continued research aimed to identifying the level of consistency of the mentioned systems, these research results may work in reducing instability

A disponibilidade e integração das informações em saúde relativas a um mesmo paciente entre diferentes níveis de atenção ou entre diferentes instituições de saúde é normalmente incompleta ou inexistente. Isso acontece principalmente porque os sistemas de informação que oferecem apoio aos profissionais da saúde não são interoperáveis, dificultando também a gestão dos serviços a nível municipal e regional. Essa fragmentação da informação também é desafiadora e preocupante na área da saúde mental, em que normalmente se exige um cuidado prolongado e que integra diferentes tipos de serviços de saúde. Problemas como a baixa qualidade e indisponibilidade de informações, assim como a duplicidade de registros, são importantes aspectos na gestão e no cuidado prolongado ao paciente portador de transtornos mentais. Apesar disso, ainda não existem estudos objetivos demonstrando o impacto efetivo da interoperabilidade e integração de dados na gestão e na qualidade de dados para a área de saúde mental. Objetivos: Neste contexto, o projeto tem como objetivo geral propor uma arquitetura de interoperabilidade para a assistência em saúde regionalizada e avaliar a efetividade de técnicas de integração de dados e interoperabilidade para a gestão dos atendimentos e internações em saúde mental na região de Ribeirão Preto, assim como o impacto na melhoria e disponibilidade dos dados por meio de métricas bem definidas. Métodos: O framework de interoperabilidade proposto tem como base a arquitetura cliente-servidor em camadas. O modelo de informação de interoperabilidade foi baseado em padrões de saúde internacionais e nacionais. Foi proposto um servidor de terminologias baseado em padrões de informação em saúde. Foram também utilizados algoritmos de Record Linkage para garantir a identificação unívoca do paciente. Para teste e validação da proposta foram utilizados dados de diferentes níveis de atenção à saúde provenientes de atendimentos na rede de atenção psicossocial na região de Ribeirão Preto. Os dados foram extraídos de cinco fontes diferentes: (i) a Unidade Básica de Saúde da Família - I, de Santa Cruz da Esperança; (ii) o Centro de Atenção Integrada à Saúde, de Santa Rita do Passa Quatro; (iii) o Hospital Santa Tereza; (iv) as informações de solicitações de internação contidas no SISAM (Sistema de Informação em Saúde Mental); e (v) dados demográficos do Barramento do Cartão Nacional de Saúde do Ministério da Saúde. As métricas de qualidade de dados utilizadas foram completude, consistência, duplicidade e acurácia. Resultados: Como resultado deste trabalho, foi projetado, desenvolvido e testado a plataforma de interoperabilidade em saúde, denominado eHealth-Interop. Foi adotada uma proposta de interoperabilidade por meio de serviços web com um modelo de integração de dados baseado em um banco de dados centralizador. Foi desenvolvido também um servidor de terminologias, denominado eHealth-Interop Terminology Server, que pode ser utilizado como um componente independente e em outros contextos médicos. No total foram obtidos dados de 31340 registros de pacientes pelo SISAM, e-SUS AB de Santa Cruz da Esperança, do CAIS de Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, do Hospital Santa Tereza e do Barramento do CNS do Ministério da Saúde. Desse total, 30,47% (9548) registros foram identificados como presente em mais de 1 fonte de informação, possuindo diferentes níveis de acurácia e completude. A análise de qualidade de dados, abrangendo todas os registros integrados, obteve uma melhoria na completude média de 18,40% (de 56,47% para 74,87%) e na acurácia sintática média de 1,08% (de 96,69% para 96,77%). Na análise de consistência houve melhoras em todas as fontes de informação, variando de uma melhoria mínima de 14.4% até o máximo de 51,5%. Com o módulo de Record Linkage foi possível quantificar, 1066 duplicidades e, dessas, 226 foram verificadas manualmente. Conclusões: A disponibilidade e a qualidade da informação são aspectos importantes para a continuidade do atendimento e gerenciamento de serviços de saúde. A solução proposta neste trabalho visa estabelecer um modelo computacional para preencher essa lacuna. O ambiente de interoperabilidade foi capaz de integrar a informação no caso de uso de saúde mental com o suporte de terminologias clínicas internacionais e nacionais sendo flexível para ser estendido a outros domínios de atenção à saúde. / The availability and integration of health information from the same patient between different care levels or between different health services is usually incomplete or non-existent. This happens especially because the information systems that support health professionals are not interoperable, making it difficult to manage services at the municipal and regional level. This fragmentation of information is also challenging and worrying in the area of mental health, where long-term care is often required and integrates different types of health services and professionals. Problems such as poor quality and unavailability of information, as well as duplicate records, are important aspects in the management and long-term care of patients with mental disorders. Despite this, there are still no objective studies that demonstrate the effective impact of interoperability and data integration on the management and quality of data for the mental health area. Objectives: In this context, this project proposes an interoperability architecture for regionalized health care management. It also proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of data integration and interoperability techniques for the management of mental health hospitalizations in the Ribeirão Preto region as well as the improvement in data availability through well-defined metrics. Methods: The proposed framework is based on client-service architecture to be deployed in the web. The interoperability information model was based on international and national health standards. It was proposed a terminology server based on health information standards. Record Linkage algorithms were implemented to guarantee the patient identification. In order to test and validate the proposal, we used data from different health care levels provided by the mental health care network in the Ribeirão Preto region. The data were extracted from five different sources: the Family Health Unit I of Santa Cruz da Esperança, the Center for Integrated Health Care of Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, Santa Tereza Hospital, the information on hospitalization requests system in SISAM (Mental Health Information System) and demographic data of the Brazilian Ministry of Health Bus. Results: As a result of this work, the health interoperability platform, called eHealth-Interop, was designed, developed and tested. A proposal was adopted for interoperability through web services with a data integration model based on a centralizing database. A terminology server, called eHealth-Interop Terminology Server, has been developed that can be used as an independent component and in other medical contexts. In total, 31340 patient records were obtained from SISAM, eSUS-AB from Santa Cruz da Esperança, from CAIS from Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, from Santa Tereza Hospital and from the CNS Service Bus from the Brazillian Ministry of Health. 47% (9548) records were identified as present in more than 1 information source, having different levels ofaccuracy and completeness. The data quality analysis, covering all integrated records, obtained an improvement in the average completeness of 18.40% (from 56.47% to 74.87%) and the mean syntactic accuracy of 1.08% (from 96,69% to 96.77%). In the consistency analysis there were improvements in all information sources, ranging from a minimum improvement of 14.4% to a maximum of 51.5%. With the Record Linkage module it was possible to quantify 1066 duplications, of which 226 were manually verified. Conclusions: The information\'s availability and quality are both important aspects for the continuity of care and health services management. The solution proposed in this work aims to establish a computational model to fill this gap. It has been successfully applied in the mental health care context and is flexible to be extendable to other medical domains.

A saúde mental é uma das áreas que envolve mais atenção, visto que as ações tomadas dentro da rede não podem ser reduzidas a sistemas fechados, sem comunicação com outros sistemas, mas a sistemas abertos, heterogêneos e articulados. Dessa maneira, torna-se necessário a busca de novas possibilidades para a realização do trabalho contínuo e articulado entre os diferentes níveis da rede de atenção em saúde mental. Diante deste contexto, o principal objetivo deste projeto é desenvolver e implantar um sistema de informação em saúde para gestão de pacientes que permite realizar o monitoramento do fluxo de pacientes com transtornos mentais. Para tal, o projeto contempla o desenvolvimento de um sistema web utilizando as tecnologias web PHP, HTML, JavaScript e CSS, Sistema Gerenciador de Banco de Dados MySQL e servidor web Apache. Um sistema baseado na arquitetura web, denominado SISAM 13, que permite acompanhar as consultas, solicitações de internação, internações e o movimento de pacientes na rede pública de saúde mental do Departamento Regional de Saúde XIII (DRS XIII), fornecendo relatórios de gestão, foi criado e implementado. Inicialmente, o sistema foi implantando como piloto e, após de 90 dias, entrou em funcionamento definitivo. De novembro de 2012 até outubro de 2014, foram cadastrados 4271 pacientes, 480 profissionais, 1483 agendamentos de consultas, 5938 solicitações de internação e 3239 internações. Evidenciou-se que a maioria dos municípios de procedência da solicitação de internação fazem parte do DRS XIII, confirmando a adequação da regionalização. Verificou-se que a alta proporção de solicitações provenientes dos serviços especializados em saúde mental mostrou a dificuldade de estabilização de pacientes com transtornos mentais por essas unidades, evidenciando a falta de organização desses serviços e a falta articulação com os demais serviços da rede. O sobrecarregamento da rede do DRS XIII pode ser justificado pelo alto tempo de espera por atendimento, e a redução do giro leito, prejudicando o fluxo de pacientes. A maioria da população atendida nos serviços de internação foi masculina, entre 20 a 39 anos, com diagnóstico de transtornos relacionados ao uso de substância(s) psicoativa(s) e internação com duração maior ou igual a 31 dias. O maior tempo de permanência pelas internações compulsórias em comparação com as internações voluntárias e involuntárias, ocasiona em redução no giro leito, refletindo para toda rede de saúde mental. A alta proporção de contrarreferências para serviços especializados em saúde mental pode contribuir para a continuidade do tratamento, todavia, verificou-se que apenas 54,92% das altas foram contrarreferencias. A baixa utilização da funcionalidade de consultas em conjunto com o número de ações de usuários com permissão de solicitadores menor que o de prestadores, sugere o aperfeiçoamento e/ou inclusão de funcionalidades no sistema para os serviços extra-hospitalares. O aumento de 13,16% do número total de ações de um ano para outro pode ser explicado pela incorporação do sistema no processo diário de trabalho, visto que os usuários do sistema foram vistos e reconhecidos como parte integrante na construção do sistema, permitindo o engajamento dos mesmos na sua utilização e melhoria. / Mental health is one of the areas that involves more attention, since the actions taken within the services network cannot be reduced to closed systems without communication with other systems, but with open, heterogeneous and articulated ones. Thus, a search for new possibilities for the realization of continuous and articulated work between different levels of mental health care network is necessary. Given this context, the main objective of this project is to develop and deploy a web based health information system for patient management in order to perform the monitoring of the flow of patients with mental disorders. To this end, the project will include the use of web technologies such as PHP, HTML, JavaScript and CSS, Database Management System MySQL, and Apache web server. A web based system called SISAM 13, that allows appointments, requests for hospitalizations, hospitalizations and the movement of patients in the public mental health network, providing management reports, was created. Initially, the system was implemented as a pilot, and after 90 days, it came into definitive operation. From November 2012 to October 2014, the system registered 4271 patients, 480 professionals, 1483 schedules appointments, 5938 request for hospitalizations and 3239 hospitalizations. Most origin municipalities of the requests was part of the Regional Health Department XIII (RHD XIII), confirming the adequacy of regionalization. It was found that the high proportion of requests from the mental health specialized services, showed the difficulty of stabilizing patients with mental disorders by these units, showing the lack of organization and coordination with other network services. The network overloading can be justified by the high waiting time for hospitalization, and the bed turnover decrease, damaging the network patients flow. It was shown that the majority of the population treated in hospital admissions was male, between 20 to 39 years, diagnosed with disorders related to the use of psychoactive(s) substance(s) use and length of stay more than or equal to 31 days. The longer length of stay by the compulsory admissions compared with voluntary and involuntary admissions, causes reduction in the bed turnover, reflecting on the entire mental health network. The high proportion of counter references to mental health specialist services can contribute to the continuity of care, however, it was found that only 54,92% of the discharges were counter referenced. The low level use of the appointments features along with the low number of user actions by requesters, suggests the improvement and / or inclusion of features in the system for outpatient services. The increase of 13,16% in the total number of actions from one year to another can be explained by the incorporation of the system in the daily working process, since users of the system were seen and recognized as an integral part in the system development, allowing their engagement in its use and improvement.

Primary care physicians (PCPPs) have been slow to implement electronic health records (EHRs), even though there is a U.S. federal requirement to implement EHRs. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to determine why PCPPs have been slow to adopt electronic health record (EHR) systems despite the potential to increase efficiency and quality of health care. The complex adaptive systems theory (CAS) served as the conceptual framework for this study. Twenty-six PCPPs were interviewed from primary care practices (PCPs) based in southwestern Ohio. The data were collected through a semistructured interview format and analyzed using a modified van Kaam method. Several themes emerged as barriers to EHR implementation, including staff training on the new EHR system, the decrease in productivity experienced by primary care practice (PCP) staff adapting to the new EHR system, and system usability and technical support after adoption. The findings may contribute to the body of knowledge regarding EHR system implementation and assist healthcare providers who are slow to adopt EHRs. Additionally, findings could contribute to social change by reducing healthcare costs, increasing patient access to care, and improving the efficacy of patient diagnosis and treatment.

During the selection and retention process in a medical record technology program, it is advantageous to identify those students who will fulfill the program's course requirements, as well as subsequently pass the accreditation examination. Graduates of such a program at Wbstern Kentucky University were studied to identify these demoaraphic and academic indicators. Using a stepwise multiple regression analysis, the variables of high school grade point average (GPA), college GPA, and composite ACT score were found to be significantly related to medical record GPA. Using the maximum Rsquare improvement technique, the variables of high school GPA, college GPA, age entering the program, English ACT score and number of credits at graduation were found to be significantly related to overall college GPA at graduation. Multiple regression analysis indicated that high school GPA and composite ACT score were found to be the best predictors of overall performance on the accreditation exam, though the relationship was not significant. Using the discriminant analysis technique, several variables were found to be significant in determining which students will pass the exam and which students will fail. Based on information age when entering the program, and number of medical record core courses repeated contributed significantly to the model. The model was applied to the actual data with a pass/fail accuracy rate of 82% for all students and a rate of 84% for those students passing the exam. Based on additional information after graduation, the variables of medical record GPA, composite ACT score, age when entering the program, and number of credits received at graduation contributed significantly to the model. The model was applied to the actual data with a pass:fail accuracy rate of 78% for all students and a rate of 89% for those students failing the exam.

With exponential growth on a daily basis, there is potentially valuable information hidden in complex electronic medical records (EMR) systems. In this thesis, several efficient data mining algorithms were explored to discover hidden knowledge in insurance claims data. The first aim was to cluster three levels of information overload(IO) groups among chronic rheumatic disease (CRD) patient groups based on their clinical events extracted from insurance claims data. The second aim was to discover hidden patterns using three renowned pattern mining algorithms: Apriori, frequent pattern growth(FP-Growth), and sequential pattern discovery using equivalence classes(SPADE). The SPADE algorithm was found to be the most efficient method for the dataset used. Finally, a prototype system named myDietPHIL was developed to manage clinical events for CRD patients’ and visualize the relationships of frequent clinical events. The system has been tested and visualization of relationships could facilitate patient education.

Hydropathic molecular modeling is a computer-aided molecular design technique for obtaining, representing, and understanding the properties and interactions of biomacromolecular complexes in the biological environment. Hydropathic INTeraction (HINT) is a novel empirical force field to calculate the free energy of intermolecular interaction based on experimentally determined partition coefficients (log Po/w). It includes all the expected interactions between molecules such as hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic, electrostatic, acid-base, and Coulombic interactions, entropy, solvation and others. HINT tools were used to determine, evaluate, and analyze protein-ligand interactions in different research projects: 1) We used these tools to discover small molecule inhibitors of PsaA, a potential target for Streptococcus pneumoniae. We screened and scored potential molecules to obtain hits. After the growth conditions for both the wild type and PsaA mutant of S. pneumoniae were optimized, we then tested our hits. A few compounds passed through the three-stage assay protocol and confirmed the inhibition of PsaA with MICs between 125-250 μM. 2) The SAR of C-3 and C-5 pyrrole-based antitubulin agents at the colchicine-binding site with explicitly solvated models was performed. After docking with GOLD at the colchicine site, post-docking scoring and evaluation were performed with HINT. The total HINT score correlates with binding and activity; similarly, the significance of individual functional groups, protein residues and interactions amongst a collection of compounds can be quantitated. The possibility of water-mediated interactions in a way solvent accessible part of the pocket was considered by subjecting molecular models to MD simulations. Several water molecules were identified to be contributing to the binding and were confirmed by HINT scoring. Finally, using hydropathic molecular modeling tools helped us to understand, evaluate, analyze, and improve protein-ligand interactions in different biological systems.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of a cloud-based CDS alerting system for SIRS, a precursor to sepsis, and sepsis itself, on adult patient and process outcomes at VCU Health System. The two main hypotheses are: 1) the implementation of cloud-based SIRS and sepsis alerts will lead to lower sepsis-related mortality and lower average length of stay, and 2) the implementation of cloud-based SIRS and sepsis alerts will lead to more frequent ordering of the Sepsis PowerPlan and more recording of sepsis diagnoses. To measure these outcomes, a pre-post study was conducted. A pre-implementation group diagnosed with sepsis within the year leading up to the alert intervention consisted of 1,551 unique inpatient visits, and the three-year post-implementation sample size was 9,711 visits, for a total cohort of 11,262 visits. Logistic regression and multiple linear regression were used to test the hypotheses. Study results showed that sepsis-related mortality was slightly higher after the implementation of SIRS alerts, but the presence of sepsis alerts did not have a significant relationship to mortality. The average length of stay and the total number of recorded sepsis diagnoses were higher after the implementation of both SIRS and sepsis alerts, while ordering of the Sepsis Initial Resuscitation PowerPlan was lower. There is preliminary evidence from this study that more sepsis diagnoses are made as a result of alert adoption, suggesting that clinicians can consider the implementation of these alerts in order to capture a higher number of sepsis diagnoses.

The United States is one of the last countries to transition to the 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) coding system. The move from the 35-year-old system, ICD-9, to ICD-10, represents a milestone in the transformation of the 21st century healthcare industry. All covered healthcare entities were mandated to use the ICD-10 system on October 1, 2015, to justify medical necessity, an essential component in determining whether a service is payable or not. Despite the promising outcomes of this shift, more than 70% of healthcare organizations identified concerns related to education efforts, including lack of best practices for the ICD-10 transition. Lack of preparation for the implementation of ICD-10 undermines the clinical, technological, operational, and financial processes of healthcare organizations. This study was an exploration of implementation strategies used to overcome barriers to transition to ICD-10. A single case study was conducted, grounded by the conceptual framework of the technology acceptance model, to learn about ways to mitigate the barriers of this new coding system. Data were gathered from the review of documents, observations, and semistructured interviews with 9 participants of a public healthcare organization in Florida. Data were coded to identify themes. Key themes that emerged from the study included (a) in-depth ICD-10 training, (b) the prevalence of ICD-10 cheat sheets, (c) lack of system readiness, and (d) perception of usefulness of job performance. The results of the study may contribute to social change by identifying successful implementation strategies to mitigate operational disruptions that will allow providers to capture more detailed health information about the severity of patients' conditions.