Craig H. Allen

Use of medical informatics for management of multiple sclerosis using a chronic-care model.

The mission of the Multiple Sclerosis Centers of Excellence (MSCoEs) is to optimize the services veterans with multiple sclerosis (MS) receive across the U.S. Veterans Health Administration. To accomplish this mission, the MSCoE West has adopted a collaborative chronic-disease management strategy along the lines of the model described by Wagner and colleagues. This model describes an organized, integrated, proactive, and population-based approach to patient care that includes healthcare delivery system change and patient-based self-management. While Wagners model is described independent of information technology, the majority of actions called for in that model benefit tremendously from the application of a powerful and well-integrated informatics infrastructure designed to serve and support populations with chronic disease. Key elements such as goals and actions encourage high-quality care for those with chronic illnesses.

Doctrine of hot pursuit: A functional interpretation adaptable to emerging maritime law enforcement technologies and practices

Abstract The doctrine of maritime hot pursuit recognizes the right of a coastal state to pursue onto the high seas a foreign vessel that violated its laws while within its waters. This article examines the hot pursuit doctrines development under customary and conventional law, particularly in light of recently expanded coastal state jurisdictional claims over resources located in adjacent ocean areas and the growing maritime drug interdiction effort. The article concludes that several of the procedural standards contained in the conventional doctrine unnecessarily restrict the use of innovative and essential technologies in the exercise of hot pursuit. The author proposes a functional approach to defining the standards to be followed in exercising a right of hot pursuit. The functional approach eschews detailed, mechanical standards, and instead articulates the policy goals that must be followed in exercising the right. Such an approach will encourage innovative approaches to maritime law enforcement wit...