Peter J. Murray

osni.info—Using free/libre/open source software to build a virtual international community for open source nursing informatics

Many health informatics organizations seem to be slow to take up the advantages of dynamic, web-based technologies for providing services to, and interaction with, their members; these are often the very technologies they promote for use within healthcare environments. This paper aims to introduce some of the many free/libre/open source (FLOSS) applications that are now available to develop interactive websites and dynamic online communities as part of the structure of health informatics organizations, and to show how the Open Source Nursing Informatics Working Group (OSNI) of the special interest group in nursing informatics of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA-NI) is using some of these tools to develop an online community of nurse informaticians through their website, at . Some background introduction to FLOSS applications is used for the benefit of those less familiar with such tools, and examples of some of the FLOSS content management systems (CMS) being used by OSNI are described. The experiences of the OSNI will facilitate a knowledgeable nursing contribution to the wider discussions on the applications of FLOSS within health and healthcare, and provides a model that many other groups could adopt.

The potential of information technology for nurses in primary care: a review of issues and trends

This article presents a review of current issues and trends in the use of information technology (IT) by nurses in primary care. Its aim is to raise awareness of the particular problems faced by nurses, and so it is not aimed at the IT expert but at the primary care nurse, researcher or educator who seeks a wider perspective on the issues involved. It is not the purpose of this paper to offer specific solutions to the problems; these will be discussed in further publications. The first section highlights recent policy changes in the area of information technology that are already affecting nurses in primary care. The second section addresses some of the barriers to progress in this area, which should be taken into account if the Governments vision of an IT-rich health service is to be achieved. To draw attention to the fact that nurses in other countries face similar issues to those in the UK, we include a wide selection of international as well as national literature. Finally, the third section suggests how these barriers might be overcome, and identifies emerging trends.

Current and future models for nursing e-journals: making the most of the web’s potential

We are presently witnessing an increasing number of nursing, medical and health-related electronic journals (e-journals) being made available on the World Wide Web, a minority of which are specifically devoted to informatics. We would expect, given the potential of interacting multimedia and computer-mediated communications (i.e. telematics), to also see an increasing diversity of models, but this is not currently the case. Following a brief discussion of some of the issues relevant to electronic publications, the authors present a taxonomy of current nursing e-journal models, including discussion of some examples from around the world that fall into categories within this taxonomy. We describe the model and levels of usage of one particular e-journal, Nursing Standard Online. Some of the issues presented may account for the current relative paucity of high quality content and innovative models in the development of Web-based e-journals for nurses and other health professionals. We believe it likely that nursing e-journals using current models will need to be specialist rather than generalist if they are to attract a larger audience. In concluding our paper, we advocate the development of innovative and increasingly interactive nursing e-journals as the way forward, discussing one particular model which holds promise.

Challenges for delivering healthcare education through telematics

Within the context of the education of professional healthcare providers, the authors give an overview of the challenges faced by those wishing to introduce telematics as both a mechanism for content delivery and as subject content itself. After presenting a brief overview of the current state of telematics applications to healthcare education, focusing on the European sphere, the authors outline the challenges before discussing the collaborative and communicative issues in detail. The authors conclude by suggesting that, while the authors believe that telematics is a necessary direction for the future development of healthcare education for professionals, the collaboration and communication challenges are of greater importance than the technical and policy challenges and that there is a need to educate the majority of educators, based in the experiences of the enthusiasts.

Clinical Informatics Board Specialty Certification for Physicians: A Global View.

Clinical informatics workforce development is a high priority for medicine. Professional board certification for physicians is an important tool to demonstrating excellence. The recent recognition of clinical informatics as a subspecialty board in the U.S. has generated interest and excitement among the U.S. informatics community. To determine the extent of similar programs in countries around the world, we performed literature searches with relevant keywords and internet searches of websites of informatics societies around the world for mentions or descriptions of certifications and reviewed publicly available sources. The U.S. certification was prominent in the recent published literature. Germany and Belgium have long-standing certifications with South Korea and Sri Lanka considering similar programs. This is the first global view of clinical informatics board certification for physicians. Training and certification for non-physician informatics professionals in allied areas are widespread. Official recognition and certification for physicians and all informatics professionals represents a key component of capacity building and a means of addressing the shortage of a skilled informatics workforce. Wider adoption of certification programs may further attracting talent and accelerate growth of the field.

Transformation of Healthcare Through Innovative Use of Information Technology for the 21 St Century: Newcastle, Australia, August 1997

on conferences, for a number of reasons I will outline before launching into this report properly. Those who attend conferences are generally lucky to be able to do so; even m the present academic climate of needing to publish or die (which mcludes presentations of papers at conferences), only a relative few are able to attend, and they are luckier still if they are able to get their employing organisations to support them to any extent. Those who do attend are often, in

Human networks, electronic networks: NSG96, Sheffield, UK, 19-20 September 1996

of system development. However, she recognized that such a view is not, as yet, generally held by those investing in and designing hospital systems. Four papers were given under the title ’Nursing Informatics’ in one of the oral sessions, all with much to offer. However, the lingering memory will perhaps be from Heather Strachan’s report of her study into nursing informatics. It would appear that there is still great reluctance by nurses to transfer

Global connections at McMaster, Ontario, Canada, 17-20 June 1996

International Nursing Education Conference of the Nursing Education, Research Unit of McMaster University School of Nursing from 17-20 June 1996. Titled ’Create the future, celebrate the past: global connections in nurse education’, the conference attracted around 400 delegates from across the globe (including Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, South Africa, the USA, and several European countries, including Norway, Sweden, and the UK). The programme featured nearly 200 papers and workshops and several keynote speakers, while the social programme included a winetasting and tour of Niagara Falls (although not necessarily in that order). Given the reputation which McMaster University School of Nursing has as a world leader in the development of problem-based learning (PBL) within its curriculum, it is not surprising that many of the papers addressed aspects of PBL. However, of more interest to readers of this journal will probably be the 30 or so papers which dealt with aspects of informatics within the curriculum, and computer use within the teaching and learning pro-

Private lives on public property- NSG '95 Conference

Nursing Specialist Group (NSG) of the British Computer Society (BCS) was held at Aston Umversity, Birmingham on 21-22 September 1995, and was attended by about 80 delegates. The first day had the theme ’Private lives on public property how secret is our health sermce?’ and featured a number of speakers addressing key issues, while the second day was devoted to events orgamzed by the specialist focus groups. The conference was opened by Graham Wnght, Chairman of the NSG, who m addition to reportmg on events over the past year demonstrated the range of matenals currently available on the NSGs Web pages (unfortunately, presumably due to lack of facilities at the venue, from local hard disk file rather than live InterNet lmk). It is mtended that the pages will be expanded over the coming months, to mclude abstracts and full articles from back