Isabel Provides Diagnostic Medical Decision Support for UMHS Medical Students
The
Anne Ross Library at
UMHS is please to be trialing EBSCO's new clinical point-of-care diagnostic database called
Isabel.
"Isabel is a web-based, Diagnosis Checklist System designed to
assist clinicians that may have diagnostic doubt or want reassurance on a
particular diagnosis. Isabel provides a practical and dynamic diagnosis
checklist within the normal workflow either as a standalone tool or
fully integrated with the Electronic Medical Record (EMR). Isabel
enhances the diagnostic determination process by complimenting the
expertise of the clinician, minimizing risk at the most important
decision point in the care process."
The evidence shows that the most effective way for
clinicians to improve the quality and speed of diagnosis is for them to
work up a comprehensive hypothesis or list of likely diagnoses for their
patient. The Isabel clinical decision support tool enables them to do this at the point of care and operates
'hand in glove' with
DynaMed and
Medline Complete.
"Recent studies have proven that clinicians who 'Isabel' their
patients at an early stage are able to substantially reduce clinical
risk by ensuring that important possible diagnoses have not been missed." "In a recent study in the UK, physicians using Isabel found that in 29% of their cases they no longer needed to refer, 36% said they referred more appropriately, and their overall referral rate decreased by 15%."
Access via the Library Home Page with your EBSCO login.
Labels: Anne Ross Library, clinical decision making, diagnostic tools, EBSCO, interactive diagnostic tool, Isabel, medical diagnosis, online resources, point-of-care resource
The first in a new video series from the
Health Council of Canada will answer this question for you and help you to understand
Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG's); how they are used, how they are disseminated and implemented, and what impact they can have. This video series was developed by the professionals who design, disseminate, and use CPG's in Canada.
"CPGs are evidence-based recommendations that help health care professionals make better clinical decisions. When designed and used properly, CPGs can play an important role in the Canadian health care system."
Understanding Clinical Practice Guidelines: A Video Series Primer
Video 1: What are CPGs?
Video 2: Challenges for CPGs.
Video 3: Integration of CPGs at the system level.
Video 4: Opportunities and future considerations for CPGs. Labels: clinical decision making, clinical medicine, clinical practice guidelines, CPG's, evidence-based medicine, evidence-based practice, Health Council of Canada, medical diagnosis
Diagnosing Death
No doubt many of you have heard the odd
'ghost story' involving nail scratch marks discovered on the inside lids of long occupied coffins. It seems when you are dead, you still may not have died yet? Now you can look to
BBC's Health reporter,
Anna-Marie Lever for incite into what may seem to those outside the medical profession or to even our novice medical students at UMHS, as probably the simplest diagnosis for a physician to make
~ diagnosing death. The article entitled
"How easy is it to diagnose death?" (BBC-Health column) questions that assumption.
The report cites various cases where patients were mistakenly declared dead or appear to have regained life, sometimes referred to as the
"Lazarus Syndrome". The question warrants further examination, especial by those students studying medical ethics this semester, as one quickly realizes the enormity of the medical, ethical and legal implications of a
misdiagnosis of death!
"Dr Daniel Sokol, a barrister and medical ethicist at Imperial College London, said: "The implications of confirming a person dead are enormous, and hence doctors have an ethical obligation to ensure that they 'diagnose' death with due care and skill."
Note the
Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) provides this definition:
ยง 1. [Determination of Death]. An individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. A determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards.
Read the full article posted this morning (October 17, 2012) online at BBC News - Health. Labels: determining death, diagnosing death, diagnostic skills, ethics, medical diagnosis, medical ethics, medical student competencies, physical assessment, UMHS-SK courses
