Research archive: Vol. 35 No.2

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Volume 35 Number 2: >> Health Information Service Management

	Managing health information during disasters Erin Smith and Rhona Macdonald p8 [ pdf ] Abstract Providing continuing patient care when healthcare infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed requires careful advanced planning. Substantial numbers of patients will seek medical care during a disaster, including those injured during the acute phase of the disaster, those injured in recovery and evacuation attempts, and the chronically ill who have been displaced and do not have access to their medications. as a vital department of any healthcare facility, the Health Information Service (HIS) should have a planned response for retrieving medical records, and allocating new ones, should a disaster situation occur. Problems that may be encountered by the HIS at hospitals or healthcare facilities should be identified and responses that mitigate these problems should be discussed by staff and included in a disaster plan that can be activated in a timely manner. a disaster planning strategy for the management of medical records in health facilities is outlined in this paper.
	Achieving meaningful learning in health information management students: the importance of professional experience Anne Marks and Jean McIntosh p14 [ pdf ] Abstract Learning is a complex process, not merely a transfer of information from teacher to student. for learning to be meaningful, students need to adopt a deep approach, and in the case of vocational students, to be given the opportunity to learn experientially. Health information management is a practice profession for which students are educated through theory at university and professional experience in the workplace. this article discusses how, through the process of experiential learning, professional experience can promote reflective thinking and thus deep learning, that is, the ability to integrate theory and practice, as well as professional and personal development in health information management students.
	Evaluating telemedicine: lessons and challenges Michelle Brear p23 [ pdf ] Abstract telemedicine applications have been rapidly implemented since the early 1990s and are now in use in a wide range of healthcare settings. There is, however, limited evidence of clinical benefits resulting from their use. this paper describes the design and implementation of a multi-method evaluation of an emergency telemedicine application’s clinical impact. In particular, the challenges faced and lessons learnt regarding the development of a suitable methodology and collection of health information from a variety of sources are discussed. In order to understand the application’s clinical impact it was necessary to use different types of data from multiple sources, and to interpret the results from each enquiry in relation to results from the others.