Hwa Sun Kim

The Development of a Graphical User Interface Engine for the Convenient Use of the HL7 Version 2.x Interface Engine

Objectives The Health Level Seven Interface Engine (HL7 IE), developed by Kyungpook National University, has been employed in health information systems, however users without a background in programming have reported difficulties in using it. Therefore, we developed a graphical user interface (GUI) engine to make the use of the HL7 IE more convenient. Methods The GUI engine was directly connected with the HL7 IE to handle the HL7 version 2.x messages. Furthermore, the information exchange rules (called the mapping data), represented by a conceptual graph in the GUI engine, were transformed into program objects that were made available to the HL7 IE; the mapping data were stored as binary files for reuse. The usefulness of the GUI engine was examined through information exchange tests between an HL7 version 2.x message and a health information database system. Results Users could easily create HL7 version 2.x messages by creating a conceptual graph through the GUI engine without requiring assistance from programmers. In addition, time could be saved when creating new information exchange rules by reusing the stored mapping data. Conclusions The GUI engine was not able to incorporate information types (e.g., extensible markup language, XML) other than the HL7 version 2.x messages and the database, because it was designed exclusively for the HL7 IE protocol. However, in future work, by including additional parsers to manage XML-based information such as Continuity of Care Documents (CCD) and Continuity of Care Records (CCR), we plan to ensure that the GUI engine will be more widely accessible for the health field.

Development of Cell Phone Application for Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring Based on ISO/IEEE 11073 and HL7 CCD

Objectives The objectives of this research were to develop and evaluate a cell phone application based on the standard protocol for personal health devices and the standard information model for personal health records to support effective blood glucose management and standardized service for patients with diabetes. Methods An application was developed for Android 4.0.3. In addition, an IEEE 11073 Manager, Medical Device Encoding Rule, and Bluetooth Health Device Profile Connector were developed for standardized health communication with a glucometer, and a Continuity of Care Document (CCD) Composer and CCD Parser were developed for CCD document exchange. The developed application was evaluated by five healthcare professionals and 87 users through a questionnaire comprising the following variables: usage intention, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, perceived risk, and voluntariness. Results As a result of the evaluation of usability, it was confirmed that the developed application is useful for blood glucose self-monitoring by diabetic patients. In particular, the healthcare professionals stated their own views that the application is useful to observe the trends in blood glucose change through the automatic function which records a blood glucose level measured using Bluetooth function, and the function which checks accumulated records of blood glucose levels. Also, a result of the evaluation of usage intention was 3.52 ± 0.42 out of 5 points. Conclusions The application developed by our research team was confirmed by the verification of healthcare professionals that accurate feedback can be provided to healthcare professionals during the management of diabetic patients or education for glucose management.

Design of Activation Functions for Inference of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps: Application to Clinical Decision Making in Diagnosis of Pulmonary Infection

Objectives Fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) representing causal knowledge of relationships between medical concepts have been used as prediction tools for clinical decision making. Activation functions used for inferences of FCMs are very important factors in helping physicians make correct decision. Therefore, in order to increase the visibility of inference results, we propose a method for designing certain types of activation functions by considering the characteristics of FCMs. Methods The activation functions, such as the sinusoidal-type function and linear function, are designed by calculating the domain range of the functions to be reached during the inference process of FCMs. Moreover, the designed activation functions were applied to the decision making process with the inference of an FCM model representing the causal knowledge of pulmonary infections. Results Even though sinusoidal-type functions oscillate and linear functions monotonously increase within the entire range of the domain, the designed activation functions make the inference stable because the proposed method notices where the function is used in the inference. And, the designed functions provide more visible numeric results than do other functions. Conclusions Comparing inference results derived using activation functions designed with the proposed method and results derived using activation functions designed with the existing method, we confirmed that the proposed method could be more appropriately used for designing activation functions for the inference process of an FCM for clinical decision making.

Development of Compatible Health Level 7 Parser

The previous HL7 interface should be developed as a separate package or conversion module for each version to process HL7 messages from different versions. This study designed and developed an HL7 parser compatible among different versions based on the requirements of compatibility defined in HL7 V2.5. According to the structure of the parser, the inheritance concept in object-oriented programming was adopted so that the class object of the HL7 message from the lower version could be inherited to the class object of the upper version. Therefore, every version’s HL7 messages could be processed using only the upper class’ object regardless of the version. To evaluate the compatibility of the developed parser, 700 data sets about inpatients with rheumatoid arthritis were used. The 700 cases underwent the compatibility test successfully. In the near future, further research on the Inter-compatibility HL7 parser is planned.

Development of an Integrated Biospecimen Database among the Regional Biobanks in Korea

Objectives This study developed an integrated database for 15 regional biobanks that provides large quantities of high-quality bio-data to researchers to be used for the prevention of disease, for the development of personalized medicines, and in genetics studies. Methods We collected raw data, managed independently by 15 regional biobanks, for database modeling and analyzed and defined the metadata of the items. We also built a three-step (high, middle, and low) classification system for classifying the item concepts based on the metadata. To generate clear meanings of the items, clinical items were defined using the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms, and specimen items were defined using the Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes. To optimize database performance, we set up a multi-column index based on the classification system and the international standard code. Results As a result of subdividing 7,197,252 raw data items collected, we refined the metadata into 1,796 clinical items and 1,792 specimen items. The classification system consists of 15 high, 163 middle, and 3,588 low class items. International standard codes were linked to 69.9% of the clinical items and 71.7% of the specimen items. The database consists of 18 tables based on a table from MySQL Server 5.6. As a result of the performance evaluation, the multi-column index shortened query time by as much as nine times. Conclusions The database developed was based on an international standard terminology system, providing an infrastructure that can integrate the 7,197,252 raw data items managed by the 15 regional biobanks. In particular, it resolved the inevitable interoperability issues in the exchange of information among the biobanks, and provided a solution to the synonym problem, which arises when the same concept is expressed in a variety of ways.

Development and Application of the Nursing Process Database based on the Object-oriented Database Model

This study developed a nursing process database based on the object-oriented database model for the development of the nursing process computerization program. Received (September 15, 2015), Review Result(Octorber 02, 2015) Accepted(October 22, 2015), Published(December 31, 2015) 41156 Dept. of Medical Informatics, Kyungpook National Univ., 680, Gukchaebosang-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu, Korea email: phs510@naver.com 41156 Dept. of Medical Informatics, Kyungpook National Univ., 680, Gukchaebosang-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu, Korea email: medinfo@knu.ac.kr 27136 Dept. of Nursing, Semyung Univ., 65, Semyeong-ro, Jecheon-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea email: ag392@naver.com (Corresponding Author) 38610 Faculty of Medical Industry Convergence, Daegu Haany Univ., 1, Hanuidae-ro, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea email: pulala@dhu.ac.kr Development and application of the nursing process database based on the object-oriented database model Copyright c 2015 HSST 168 The database coded the data of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) 2015-2017, Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC) 5th edition and Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) 6th edition, and it produced the appropriate entities based on the class diagram to design data structure in an object-oriented perspective. The nursing process database is composed of classification systems, patient information and nursing process, user information entities, and it has the separate structure that all of the information is dependent on user and patient information entity. That is, the database developed can integrate and develop the computerized program without a separate process by resetting only the relationship between the core entities. In order to take advantage of these object-oriented database model, this study developed a part of the nursing process education program by using the Java programming language, Java Swing, JDBC Connector. The further studies are scheduled to develop the complete program which includes standard protocol transfer function for the standardization of nursing practice, the interoperability between other information systems, and the nursing process macro function.