Mobile Health Research Group™

Projects Summary

Australian Research Council Projects

Enhancing Patient Management at the Point of Care Using Electronic-Based Clinical Pathways

ARC Linkage Project, LP0989160-R1 (2009-2010)

This project involves digital pens & paper and clinical pathways and is MHRG's new university and industry partner research collaboration. Currently hospitals are seeking to move patient information from paper files to electronic databases. At the bedside or point of care (POC), there are limited automated information entry systems. A goal of this project is to trial digital paper and pen based technology for assisting in recording clinical pathway data, including charting by exception, at the bedside. The benefits for nurses and clinicians would include fast, accurate collection of data at the point of care that could be analysed or reformatted in ways that assist clinical decision-making and workflow management as well as resource management and auditing. The main project partners are Monash University, NEC Business Solutions, Print Media Group and Peninsula Health. The project will be carried out at Frankston Hospital, Frankston under (Peninsula Health's Human Research and Ethics Committee (& Monash University) Research Project Application No. [to be updated]: Enhancing Patient Management at the Point of Care Using Electronic-Based Clinical Pathways.

The mWard Project [Completed]

ARC Linkage Project, LP0455331-R2 (2004-2006)

mWard is a university and industry partner research collaboration. Wireless networks, hand held devices and associated applications are key emerging technologies. Within the healthcare setting, mWard is a series of inter-related projects investigating the implementation of such devices for patient administration. mWard's main partners are Monash University, Southern Health and NEC Business Solutions. The recently completed mWard project was carried out at Monash Medical Centre, Clayton (Southern Health Human Research Ethics Committee (& Monash University) Research Project Application No. *04046A: Enchancing Patient Management And Clinical Systems In Hospital Ward Settings Using Mobile, Wireless Technologies) where wireless infrastructure was installed and clinical staff are able to conduct their rounds with notebook computers at the patients' bedside. The research team assessed the acceptance of the new devices and applications by nursing and medical staff. Outcomes from this current project included a set of guidelines and techniques for introducing and managing technology-enhanced patient administration and clinical systems. The project is being assisted by an ARC Linkage grant, sponsorship and industry support from the above partners, and from Motorola (incorporating Symbol Technologies) and Tele-IP (incorporating Able Communications and Telenet Communications).

Other Projects

Developing a holistic framework for supporting contextual needs of clinicians in a hospital-based mobile information environment
Patient care in hospitals is improved by providing timely data at the point of care using mobile ICT. This project will contribute to improved patient care and clinical effectiveness by developing a framework which supports the development of systems which deliver accurate, appropriate and timely information to mobile clinicians at the point of care for clinical decision making.The development of a holistic framework will provide a new perspective of “context awareness” for information based on understanding how to effectively connect "clinicians in context" with mobile devices on "context aware" networks using workflow models which are based on web services using device ecologies. Ultimately, this framework will be extended to incorporate a holistic view of hospital mobile information environments from the lowest system level through to the services level, the user level, the local governance level and the external governance (regulatory) level (2009).

Using Social Networking technologies for reporting issues in Health Informatics research and education
This project will produce a set of short video podcasts (aka vidcasts, screencasts, etc) which discuss and report on recent issues in Health Informatics research and education. The aim is to explore new technology delivery of HIS related material using video, screen capture, and video podcasting to create vidcasts and to publish and share these vidcasts with the health informatics community using social networking environments such as YouTube, iTunes (and iTunes U), blogs, and wikis (2009).

In Australia, why aren't Apple Mac PC's being more widely adopted by General Practice? Colliers Charitable Fund and Faculty of Information Technology, Equipment Grants for Research and Teaching (2008). $4,800.

Addressing Medical Errors with ePrescribing in a Mobile Wireless Hospital Environment, Research Consultancy, NEC Business Solutions. 2007-2008 (extended 2009-2010). $25,000.

Improving Mobile Wireless Device Adoption by Nurses in a Ward Setting to Enhance Clinical Outcomes, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Science, School of Nursing and Midwifery Collaborative Grant Scheme. 2006-2007. $20,000.

Testing Wireless Tablet PC for use on a Hospital Ward. Colliers Charitable Fund and Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Science, Equipment Grants for Research and Teaching (2006). $4,900.

Developing Application Environments for Mobile Devices in Health Care: Investigating Issues of Usability and Acceptance, Monash Small Grant. 2002-2003. $5,500.