Sample records for range alert system

  1. Evaluation of the 3D BacT/ALERT automated culture system for the detection of microbial contamination of platelet concentrates.

    PubMed

    McDonald, C P; Rogers, A; Cox, M; Smith, R; Roy, A; Robbins, S; Hartley, S; Barbara, J A J; Rothenberg, S; Stutzman, L; Widders, G

    2002-10-01

    Bacterial transmission remains the major component of morbidity and mortality associated with transfusion-transmitted infections. Platelet concentrates are the most common cause of bacterial transmission. The BacT/ALERT 3D automated blood culture system has the potential to screen platelet concentrates for the presence of bacteria. Evaluation of this system was performed by spiking day 2 apheresis platelet units with individual bacterial isolates at final concentrations of 10 and 100 colony-forming units (cfu) mL-1. Fifteen organisms were used which had been cited in platelet transmission and monitoring studies. BacT/ALERT times to detection were compared with thioglycollate broth cultures, and the performance of five types of BacT/ALERT culture bottles was evaluated. Sampling was performed immediately after the inoculation of the units, and 10 replicates were performed per organism concentration for each of the five types of BacT/ALERT bottles. The mean times for the detection of these 15 organisms by BacT/ALERT, with the exception of Propionibacterium acnes, ranged from 9.1 to 48.1 h (all 10 replicates were positive). In comparison, the time range found using thioglycollate was 12.0-32.3 h (all 10 replicates were positive). P. acnes' BacT/ALERT mean detection times ranged from 89.0 to 177.6 h compared with 75.6-86.4 h for the thioglycollate broth. BacT/ALERT, with the exception of P. acnes, which has dubious clinical significance, gave equivalent or shorter detection times when compared with the thioglycollate broth system. The BacT/ALERT system detected a range of organisms at levels of 10 and 100 cfu mL-1. This study validates the BacT/ALERT microbial detection system for screening platelets. Currently, the system is the only practically viable option available for routinely screening platelet concentrates to prevent bacterial transmission.

  2. Auditory alert systems with enhanced detectability

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Begault, Durand R. (Inventor)

    2008-01-01

    Methods and systems for distinguishing an auditory alert signal from a background of one or more non-alert signals. In a first embodiment, a prefix signal, associated with an existing alert signal, is provided that has a signal component in each of three or more selected frequency ranges, with each signal component in each of three or more selected level at least 3-10 dB above an estimated background (non-alert) level in that frequency range. The alert signal may be chirped within one or more frequency bands. In another embodiment, an alert signal moves, continuously or discontinuously, from one location to another over a short time interval, introducing a perceived spatial modulation or jitter. In another embodiment, a weighted sum of background signals adjacent to each ear is formed, and the weighted sum is delivered to each ear as a uniform background; a distinguishable alert signal is presented on top of this weighted sum signal at one ear, or distinguishable first and second alert signals are presented at two ears of a subject.

  3. Pilot Mental Workload with Predictive System Status Information

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trujillo, Anna C.

    1998-01-01

    Research has shown a strong pilot preference for predictive information of aircraft system status in the flight deck. However, the mental workload associated with using this predictive information has not been ascertained. The study described here attempted to measure mental workload. In this simulator experiment, three types of predictive information (none, whether a parameter was changing abnormally, and the time for a parameter to reach an alert range) and four initial times to a parameter alert range (1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and ETA+45 minutes) were tested to determine their effects on subjects mental workload. Subjective workload ratings increased with increasing predictive information (whether a parameter was changing abnormally or the time for a parameter to reach an alert range). Subjective situation awareness decreased with more predictive information but it became greater with increasing initial times to a parameter alert range. Also, subjective focus changed depending on the type of predictive information. Lastly, skin temperature fluctuated less as the initial time to a parameter alert range increased.

  4. Computerized Dose Range Checking Using Hard and Soft Stop Alerts Reduces Prescribing Errors in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

    PubMed

    Balasuriya, Lilanthi; Vyles, David; Bakerman, Paul; Holton, Vanessa; Vaidya, Vinay; Garcia-Filion, Pamela; Westdorp, Joan; Sanchez, Christine; Kurz, Rhonda

    2017-09-01

    An enhanced dose range checking (DRC) system was developed to evaluate prescription error rates in the pediatric intensive care unit and the pediatric cardiovascular intensive care unit. An enhanced DRC system incorporating "soft" and "hard" alerts was designed and implemented. Practitioner responses to alerts for patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit and the pediatric cardiovascular intensive care unit were retrospectively reviewed. Alert rates increased from 0.3% to 3.4% after "go-live" (P < 0.001). Before go-live, all alerts were soft alerts. In the period after go-live, 68% of alerts were soft alerts and 32% were hard alerts. Before go-live, providers reduced doses only 1 time for every 10 dose alerts. After implementation of the enhanced computerized physician order entry system, the practitioners responded to soft alerts by reducing doses to more appropriate levels in 24.7% of orders (70/283), compared with 10% (3/30) before go-live (P = 0.0701). The practitioners deleted orders in 9.5% of cases (27/283) after implementation of the enhanced DRC system, as compared with no cancelled orders before go-live (P = 0.0774). Medication orders that triggered a soft alert were submitted unmodified in 65.7% (186/283) as compared with 90% (27/30) of orders before go-live (P = 0.0067). After go-live, 28.7% of hard alerts resulted in a reduced dose, 64% resulted in a cancelled order, and 7.4% were submitted as written. Before go-live, alerts were often clinically irrelevant. After go-live, there was a statistically significant decrease in orders that were submitted unmodified and an increase in the number of orders that were reduced or cancelled.

  5. Changes in Pilot Behavior with Predictive System Status Information

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trujillo, Anna C.

    1998-01-01

    Research has shown a strong pilot preference for predictive information of aircraft system status in the flight deck. However, changes in pilot behavior associated with using this predictive information have not been ascertained. The study described here quantified these changes using three types of predictive information (none, whether a parameter was changing abnormally, and the time for a parameter to reach an alert range) and three initial time intervals until a parameter alert range was reached (ITIs) (1 minute, 5 minutes, and 15 minutes). With predictive information, subjects accomplished most of their tasks before an alert occurred. Subjects organized the time they did their tasks by locus-of-control with no predictive information and for the 1-minute ITI, and by aviatenavigate-communicate for the time for a parameter to reach an alert range and the 15-minute conditions. Overall, predictive information and the longer ITIs moved subjects to performing tasks before the alert actually occurred and had them more mission oriented as indicated by their tasks grouping of aviate-navigate-communicate.

  6. Decision Support Alerts for Medication Ordering in a Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) System

    PubMed Central

    Beccaro, M. A. Del; Villanueva, R.; Knudson, K. M.; Harvey, E. M.; Langle, J. M.; Paul, W.

    2010-01-01

    Objective We sought to determine the frequency and type of decision support alerts by location and ordering provider role during Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) medication ordering. Using these data we adjusted the decision support tools to reduce the number of alerts. Design Retrospective analyses were performed of dose range checks (DRC), drug-drug interaction and drug-allergy alerts from our electronic medical record. During seven sampling periods (each two weeks long) between April 2006 and October 2008 all alerts in these categories were analyzed. Another audit was performed of all DRC alerts by ordering provider role from November 2008 through January 2009. Medication ordering error counts were obtained from a voluntary error reporting system. Measurement/Results Between April 2006 and October 2008 the percent of medication orders that triggered a dose range alert decreased from 23.9% to 7.4%. The relative risk (RR) for getting an alert was higher at the start of the interventions versus later (RR= 2.40, 95% CI 2.28-2.52; p< 0.0001). The percentage of medication orders that triggered alerts for drug-drug interactions also decreased from 13.5% to 4.8%. The RR for getting a drug interaction alert at the start was 1.63, 95% CI 1.60-1.66; p< 0.0001. Alerts decreased in all clinical areas without an increase in reported medication errors. Conclusion We reduced the quantity of decision support alerts in CPOE using a systematic approach without an increase in reported medication errors PMID:23616845

  7. Alert dwell time: introduction of a measure to evaluate interruptive clinical decision support alerts

    PubMed Central

    McDaniel, Robert B; Burlison, Jonathan D; Baker, Donald K; Hasan, Murad; Robertson, Jennifer; Hartford, Christine; Howard, Scott C; Sablauer, Andras

    2016-01-01

    Metrics for evaluating interruptive prescribing alerts have many limitations. Additional methods are needed to identify opportunities to improve alerting systems and prevent alert fatigue. In this study, the authors determined whether alert dwell time—the time elapsed from when an interruptive alert is generated to when it is dismissed—could be calculated by using historical alert data from log files. Drug–drug interaction (DDI) alerts from 3 years of electronic health record data were queried. Alert dwell time was calculated for 25,965 alerts, including 777 unique DDIs. The median alert dwell time was 8 s (range, 1–4913 s). Resident physicians had longer median alert dwell times than other prescribers (P < .001). The 10 most frequent DDI alerts (n = 8759 alerts) had shorter median dwell times than alerts that only occurred once (P < .001). This metric can be used in future research to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of interruptive prescribing alerts. PMID:26499101

  8. Engine monitoring display study

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hornsby, Mary E.

    1992-01-01

    The current study is part of a larger NASA effort to develop displays for an engine-monitoring system to enable the crew to monitor engine parameter trends more effectively. The objective was to evaluate the operational utility of adding three types of information to the basic Boeing Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS) display formats: alphanumeric alerting messages for engine parameters whose values exceed caution or warning limits; alphanumeric messages to monitor engine parameters that deviate from expected values; and a graphic depiction of the range of expected values for current conditions. Ten training and line pilots each flew 15 simulated flight scenarios with five variants of the basic EICAS format; these variants included different combinations of the added information. The pilots detected engine problems more quickly when engine alerting messages were included in the display; adding a graphic depiction of the range of expected values did not affect detection speed. The pilots rated both types of alphanumeric messages (alert and monitor parameter) as more useful and easier to interpret than the graphic depiction. Integrating engine parameter messages into the EICAS alerting system appears to be both useful and preferred.

  9. An evaluation of an intelligent home monitoring system.

    PubMed

    Sixsmith, A J

    2000-01-01

    A trial was performed of an intelligent monitoring system which used sensors in the home to identify emergencies by detecting deviations from normal activity patterns. The field trial lasted three months. Twenty-two elderly people agreed to participate. Their ages ranged from early 60s to over 85, with two-thirds in the age range 75-84 years. They lived in four different localities within the UK--Ipswich, Northumberland, Merseyside and Nottingham. A total of 61 alerts was recorded, at a mean frequency about one alert per month per client. Of the 61 alerts generated, 46 were classified as false alerts and the other 15 as genuine, although no real emergencies occurred during the study. Many people in the field trial reported enhanced feelings of safety and security, which could help to stimulate independence and help them to remain living in their own homes. The monitoring system increased the care choices available to elderly people and supported and enhanced the carer's role.

  10. Sensitivity and specificity of dosing alerts for dosing errors among hospitalized pediatric patients

    PubMed Central

    Stultz, Jeremy S; Porter, Kyle; Nahata, Milap C

    2014-01-01

    Objectives To determine the sensitivity and specificity of a dosing alert system for dosing errors and to compare the sensitivity of a proprietary system with and without institutional customization at a pediatric hospital. Methods A retrospective analysis of medication orders, orders causing dosing alerts, reported adverse drug events, and dosing errors during July, 2011 was conducted. Dosing errors with and without alerts were identified and the sensitivity of the system with and without customization was compared. Results There were 47 181 inpatient pediatric orders during the studied period; 257 dosing errors were identified (0.54%). The sensitivity of the system for identifying dosing errors was 54.1% (95% CI 47.8% to 60.3%) if customization had not occurred and increased to 60.3% (CI 54.0% to 66.3%) with customization (p=0.02). The sensitivity of the system for underdoses was 49.6% without customization and 60.3% with customization (p=0.01). Specificity of the customized system for dosing errors was 96.2% (CI 96.0% to 96.3%) with a positive predictive value of 8.0% (CI 6.8% to 9.3). All dosing errors had an alert over-ridden by the prescriber and 40.6% of dosing errors with alerts were administered to the patient. The lack of indication-specific dose ranges was the most common reason why an alert did not occur for a dosing error. Discussion Advances in dosing alert systems should aim to improve the sensitivity and positive predictive value of the system for dosing errors. Conclusions The dosing alert system had a low sensitivity and positive predictive value for dosing errors, but might have prevented dosing errors from reaching patients. Customization increased the sensitivity of the system for dosing errors. PMID:24496386

  11. Automated inhaled nitric oxide alerts for adult extracorporeal membrane oxygenation patient identification.

    PubMed

    Belenkiy, Slava M; Batchinsky, Andriy I; Park, Timothy S; Luellen, David E; Serio-Melvin, Maria L; Cancio, Leopoldo C; Pamplin, Jeremy C; Chung, Kevin K; Salinas, Josè; Cannon, Jeremy W

    2014-09-01

    Recently, automated alerts have been used to identify patients with respiratory failure based on set criteria, which can be gleaned from the electronic medical record (EMR). Such an approach may also be useful for identifying patients with severe adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) who may benefit from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) is a common rescue therapy for severe ARDS which can be easily tracked in the EMR, and some patients started on iNO may have indications for initiating ECMO. This case series summarizes our experience with using automated electronic alerts for ECMO team activation focused particularly on an alert triggered by the initiation of iNO. After a brief trial evaluation, our Smart Alert system generated an automated page and e-mail alert to ECMO team members whenever a nonzero value for iNO appeared in the respiratory care section of our EMR. If iNO was initiated for severe respiratory failure, a detailed evaluation by the ECMO team determined if ECMO was indicated. For those patients managed with ECMO, we tabulated baseline characteristics, indication for ECMO, and outcomes. From September 2012 to July 2013, 45 iNO alerts were generated on 42 unique patients. Six patients (14%) met criteria for ECMO. Of these, four were identified exclusively by the iNO alert. At the time of the alert, the median PaO₂-to-FIO₂ ratio was 64 mm Hg (range, 55-107 mm Hg), the median age-adjusted oxygenation index was 73 (range, 51-96), and the median Murray score was 3.4 (range, 3-3.75), indicating severe respiratory failure. Median time from iNO alert to ECMO initiation was 81 hours (range, -2-292 hours). Survival to hospital discharge was 83% in those managed with ECMO. Automated alerts may be useful for identifying patients with severe ARDS who may be ECMO candidates. Diagnostic test, level V.

  12. Comparison of warfarin therapy clinical outcomes following implementation of an automated mobile phone-based critical laboratory value text alert system.

    PubMed

    Lin, Shu-Wen; Kang, Wen-Yi; Lin, Dong-Tsamn; Lee, James; Wu, Fe-Lin; Chen, Chuen-Liang; Tseng, Yufeng J

    2014-01-01

    Computerized alert and reminder systems have been widely accepted and applied to various patient care settings, with increasing numbers of clinical laboratories communicating critical laboratory test values to professionals via either manual notification or automated alerting systems/computerized reminders. Warfarin, an oral anticoagulant, exhibits narrow therapeutic range between treatment response and adverse events. It requires close monitoring of prothrombin time (PT)/international normalized ratio (INR) to ensure patient safety. This study was aimed to evaluate clinical outcomes of patients on warfarin therapy following implementation of a Personal Handy-phone System-based (PHS) alert system capable of generating and delivering text messages to communicate critical PT/INR laboratory results to practitioners' mobile phones in a large tertiary teaching hospital. A retrospective analysis was performed comparing patient clinical outcomes and physician prescribing behavior following conversion from a manual laboratory result alert system to an automated system. Clinical outcomes and practitioner responses to both alert systems were compared. Complications to warfarin therapy, warfarin utilization, and PT/INR results were evaluated for both systems, as well as clinician time to read alert messages, time to warfarin therapy modification, and monitoring frequency. No significant differences were detected in major hemorrhage and thromboembolism, warfarin prescribing patterns, PT/INR results, warfarin therapy modification, or monitoring frequency following implementation of the PHS text alert system. In both study periods, approximately 80% of critical results led to warfarin discontinuation or dose reduction. Senior physicians' follow-up response time to critical results was significantly decreased in the PHS alert study period (46.3% responded within 1 day) compared to the manual notification study period (24.7%; P = 0.015). No difference in follow-up response time was detected for junior physicians. Implementation of an automated PHS-based text alert system did not adversely impact clinical or safety outcomes of patients on warfarin therapy. Approximately 80% immediate recognition of text alerts was achieved. The potential benefits of an automated PHS alert for senior physicians were demonstrated.

  13. Potential drug related problems detected by electronic expert support system in patients with multi-dose drug dispensing.

    PubMed

    Tora, Hammar; Bo, Hovstadius; Bodil, Lidström; Göran, Petersson; Birgit, Eiermann

    2014-10-01

    Background Drug related problems (DRPs) are frequent and cause suffering for patients and substantial costs for society. Multi-dose drug dispensing (MDDD) is a service by which patients receive their medication packed in bags with one unit for each dose occasion. The clinical decision support system (CDSS) electronic expert support (EES) analyses patients' prescriptions in the Swedish national e-prescription repository and provides alerts if potential DRPs are detected, i.e. drug-drug interactions, duplicate therapy, drug-disease contraindications, high dose, gender warnings, geriatric, and paediatric alerts. Objective To analyse potential DRPs in patients with MDDD, detected by means of EES. Setting A register study of all electronically stored prescriptions for patients with MDDD in Sweden (n = 180,059) March 5-June 5, 2013. Method Drug use and potential DRPs detected in the study population during the 3 month study period by EES were analysed. The potential DRPs were analysed in relation to patients' age, gender, number of drugs, and type of medication. Main outcome measure Prevalence of potential DRPs measured as EES alerts. Results The study population was on average 75.8 years of age (± 17.5, range 1-110) and had 10.0 different medications (± 4.7, range 1-53). EES alerted for potential DRPs in 76 % of the population with a mean of 2.2 alerts per patient (± 2.4, range 0-27). The older patients received a lower number of alerts compared to younger patients despite having a higher number of drugs. The most frequent alert categories were drug-drug interactions (37 % of all alerts), duplicate therapy (30 %), and geriatric warnings for high dose or inappropriate drugs (23 %). Psycholeptics, psychoanaleptics, antithrombotic agents, anti-epileptics, renin-angiotensin system agents, and analgesics represented 71 % of all drugs involved in alerts. Conclusions EES detected potential DRPs in the majority of patients with MDDD. The number of potential DRPs was associated with the number of drugs, age, gender, and type of medication. A CDSS such as EES might be a useful tool for physicians and pharmacists to assist in the important task of monitoring patients with MDDD for potential DRPs.

  14. Alert dwell time: introduction of a measure to evaluate interruptive clinical decision support alerts.

    PubMed

    McDaniel, Robert B; Burlison, Jonathan D; Baker, Donald K; Hasan, Murad; Robertson, Jennifer; Hartford, Christine; Howard, Scott C; Sablauer, Andras; Hoffman, James M

    2016-04-01

    Metrics for evaluating interruptive prescribing alerts have many limitations. Additional methods are needed to identify opportunities to improve alerting systems and prevent alert fatigue. In this study, the authors determined whether alert dwell time-the time elapsed from when an interruptive alert is generated to when it is dismissed-could be calculated by using historical alert data from log files. Drug-drug interaction (DDI) alerts from 3 years of electronic health record data were queried. Alert dwell time was calculated for 25,965 alerts, including 777 unique DDIs. The median alert dwell time was 8 s (range, 1-4913 s). Resident physicians had longer median alert dwell times than other prescribers (P < 001). The 10 most frequent DDI alerts (n = 8759 alerts) had shorter median dwell times than alerts that only occurred once (P < 001). This metric can be used in future research to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of interruptive prescribing alerts. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  15. Predictive Information: Status or Alert Information?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trujillo, Anna C.; Bruneau, Daniel; Press, Hayes N.

    2008-01-01

    Previous research investigating the efficacy of predictive information for detecting and diagnosing aircraft system failures found that subjects like to have predictive information concerning when a parameter would reach an alert range. This research focused on where the predictive information should be located, whether the information should be more closely associated with the parameter information or with the alert information. Each subject saw 3 forms of predictive information: (1) none, (2) a predictive alert message, and (3) predictive information on the status display. Generally, subjects performed better and preferred to have predictive information available although the difference between status and alert predictive information was minimal. Overall, for detection and recalling what happened, status predictive information is best; however for diagnosis, alert predictive information holds a slight edge.

  16. Experimental Study of Collision Detection Schema Used by Pilots During Closely Spaced Parallel Approaches

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pritchett, Amy R.; Hansman, R. John

    1996-01-01

    An experimental flight simulator study was conducted to examine the mental alerting logic and thresholds used by subjects to issue an alert and execute an avoidance maneuver. Subjects flew a series of autopilot landing approaches with traffic on a closely-spaced parallel approach; during some runs, the traffic would deviate towards the subject and the subject was to indicate the point when they recognized the potential traffic conflict, and then indicate a direction of flight for an avoidance maneuver. A variety of subjects, including graduate students, general aviation pilots and airline pilots, were tested. Five traffic displays were evaluated, with a moving map TCAS-type traffic display as a baseline. A side-task created both high and low workload situations. Subjects appeared to use the lateral deviation of the intruder aircraft from its approach path as the criteria for an alert regardless of the display available. However, with displays showing heading and/or trend information, their alerting thresholds were significantly lowered. This type of range-only schema still resulted in many near misses, as a high convergence rate was often established by the time of the subject's alert. Therefore, the properties of the intruder's trajectory had the greatest effect on the resultant near miss rate; no display system reliably caused alerts timely enough for certain collision avoidance. Subjects' performance dropped significantly on a side-task while they analyzed the need for an alert, showing alert generation can be a high workload situation at critical times. No variation was found between subjects with and with out piloting experience. These results suggest the design of automatic alerting systems should take into account the range-type alerting schema used by the human, such that the rationale for the automatic alert should be obvious to, and trusted by, the operator. Although careful display design may help generate pilot/automation trust, issues such as user non-conformance to automatically generated commands can remain a possibility.

  17. Evaluation of Antimicrobial Stewardship-Related Alerts Using a Clinical Decision Support System.

    PubMed

    Ghamrawi, Riane J; Kantorovich, Alexander; Bauer, Seth R; Pallotta, Andrea M; Sekeres, Jennifer K; Gordon, Steven M; Neuner, Elizabeth A

    2017-11-01

    Background: Information technology, including clinical decision support systems (CDSS), have an increasingly important and growing role in identifying opportunities for antimicrobial stewardship-related interventions. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe and compare types and outcomes of CDSS-built antimicrobial stewardship alerts. Methods: Fifteen alerts were evaluated in the initial antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) review. Preimplementation, alerts were reviewed retrospectively. Postimplementation, alerts were reviewed in real-time. Data collection included total number of actionable alerts, recommendation acceptance rates, and time spent on each alert. Time to de-escalation to narrower spectrum agents was collected. Results: In total, 749 alerts were evaluated. Overall, 306 (41%) alerts were actionable (173 preimplementation, 133 postimplementation). Rates of actionable alerts were similar for custom-built and prebuilt alert types (39% [53 of 135] vs 41% [253 of 614], P = .68]. In the postimplementation group, an intervention was attempted in 97% of actionable alerts and 70% of interventions were accepted. The median time spent per alert was 7 minutes (interquartile range [IQR], 5-13 minutes; 15 [12-17] minutes for actionable alerts vs 6 [5-7] minutes for nonactionable alerts, P < .001). In cases where the antimicrobial was eventually de-escalated, the median time to de-escalation was 28.8 hours (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.0-69.1 hours) preimplementation vs 4.7 hours (95% CI, 2.4-22.1 hours) postimplementation, P < .001. Conclusions: CDSS have played an important role in ASPs to help identify opportunities to optimize antimicrobial use through prebuilt and custom-built alerts. As ASP roles continue to expand, focusing time on customizing institution specific alerts will be of vital importance to help redistribute time needed to manage other ASP tasks and opportunities.

  18. CISN ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System Monitoring Tools

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Henson, I. H.; Allen, R. M.; Neuhauser, D. S.

    2015-12-01

    CISN ShakeAlert is a prototype earthquake early warning system being developed and tested by the California Integrated Seismic Network. The system has recently been expanded to support redundant data processing and communications. It now runs on six machines at three locations with ten Apache ActiveMQ message brokers linking together 18 waveform processors, 12 event association processes and 4 Decision Module alert processes. The system ingests waveform data from about 500 stations and generates many thousands of triggers per day, from which a small portion produce earthquake alerts. We have developed interactive web browser system-monitoring tools that display near real time state-of-health and performance information. This includes station availability, trigger statistics, communication and alert latencies. Connections to regional earthquake catalogs provide a rapid assessment of the Decision Module hypocenter accuracy. Historical performance can be evaluated, including statistics for hypocenter and origin time accuracy and alert time latencies for different time periods, magnitude ranges and geographic regions. For the ElarmS event associator, individual earthquake processing histories can be examined, including details of the transmission and processing latencies associated with individual P-wave triggers. Individual station trigger and latency statistics are available. Detailed information about the ElarmS trigger association process for both alerted events and rejected events is also available. The Google Web Toolkit and Map API have been used to develop interactive web pages that link tabular and geographic information. Statistical analysis is provided by the R-Statistics System linked to a PostgreSQL database.

  19. Use of a Clinical Decision Support System Alert to Prevent Supratherapeutic Vancomycin Concentrations

    PubMed Central

    Ralph, Rachel; Patel, Jean A.; Postelnick, Michael; Ziauddin, Salma; Flis, Weronika; Galal, Audrey N.

    2014-01-01

    Background: Alerts issued by clinical decision support systems (CDSS) may be useful to identify and prevent the occurrence of acute kidney injury among patients on nephrotoxic drugs, particularly vancomycin. Objective: The purpose of this instructive study was to determine the effectiveness of using a pharmacist-run CDSS alert of early serum creatinine increases in patients receiving intravenous vancomycin to decrease the proportion of severely elevated vancomycin concentrations. Methods: This was a retrospective study of a prospectively reviewed CDSS alert that triggered in patients with an increase in serum creatinine by 25% from baseline within 24 hours. Severely elevated vancomycin concentrations were divided into a control group (before alert implementation) and a study group (after alert implementation) and considered for study inclusion. The proportion of severely elevated vancomycin concentrations (ie, >30 mg/L) were collected in the control and study groups. Results: There were 1290 and 1501 vancomycin concentrations in the control group and the study group, respectively. A total of 696 CDSS alerts triggered during the study period. The proportion of severely elevated vancomycin troughs decreased from 5.3% (n = 68, median = 36.6 mg/L, interquartile range = 33.75-43.2 mg/L) in the control group to 3.7% (n = 55, median = 34.7 mg/L, interquartile range = 31.3-39.3 mg/L) in the study group. This reflects a statistically significant decrease in the proportion of severely elevated vancomycin concentrations (P = .04). Conclusion: Overall, this instructive analysis on a novel use of CDSS software suggests that the implementation of an alert based on early detection of serum creatinine changes led to a significant decrease in the proportion of severely elevated serum vancomycin concentrations.

  20. High-priority and low-priority drug-drug interactions in different international electronic health record systems: A comparative study.

    PubMed

    Cornu, Pieter; Phansalkar, Shobha; Seger, Diane L; Cho, Insook; Pontefract, Sarah; Robertson, Alexandra; Bates, David W; Slight, Sarah P

    2018-03-01

    To investigate whether alert warnings for high-priority and low-priority drug-drug interactions (DDIs) were present in five international electronic health record (EHR) systems, to compare and contrast the severity level assigned to them, and to establish the proportion of alerts that were overridden. We conducted a comparative, retrospective, multinational study using a convenience sample of 5 EHRs from the U.S., U.K., Republic of Korea and Belgium. Of the 15 previously defined, high-priority, class-based DDIs, alert warnings were found to exist for 11 in both the Korean and UK systems, 9 in the Belgian system, and all 15 in the two US systems. The specific combinations that were included in these class-based DDIs varied considerably in number, type and level of severity amongst systems. Alerts were only active for 8.4% (52/619) and 52.4% (111/212) of the specific drug-drug combinations contained in the Belgian and UK systems, respectively. Hard stops (not possible to override) existed in the US and UK systems only. The override rates for high-priority alerts requiring provider action ranged from 56.7% to 83.3%. Of the 33 previously defined low-priority DDIs, active alerts existed only in the US systems, for three class-based DDIs. The majority were non-interruptive. Alert warnings existed for most of the high-priority DDIs in the different EHRs but overriding them was easy in most of the systems. In addition to validating the high- and low-priority DDIs, this study reported a lack of standardization in DDI levels across different international knowledge bases. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  1. Evaluation of real-time clinical decision support systems for platelet and cryoprecipitate orders.

    PubMed

    Collins, Ryan A; Triulzi, Darrell J; Waters, Jonathan H; Reddy, Vivek; Yazer, Mark H

    2014-01-01

    To evaluate cryoprecipitate and platelet ordering practices after the implementation of real-time clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) in a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system. Uniform platelet and cryoprecipitate transfusion thresholds were implemented at 11 hospitals in a regional health care system with a common CPOE system. Over 6 months, a variety of information was collected on the ordering physicians and the number of alerts generated by the CDSSs when these products were ordered outside of the institutional guidelines. There were 1,889 orders for platelets and 152 orders for cryoprecipitate placed in 6 months. Of these, 1,102 (58.3%) platelet and 74 (48.7%) cryoprecipitate orders triggered an alert. The proportion of orders canceled after an alert was generated ranged from 13.5% to 17.9% for platelets and 0% to 50.0% for cryoprecipitate orders. CDSS alerts reduce, but do not eliminate, platelet and cryoprecipitate transfusions that do not meet institutional guidelines.

  2. Wide variation and patterns of physicians' responses to drug-drug interaction alerts.

    PubMed

    Cho, Insook; Lee, Yura; Lee, Jae-Ho; Bates, David W

    2018-05-08

    Providing physicians with alerts about potentially harmful drug-drug interactions (DDIs) is only moderately effective due to high alert override rates. To understand high override behavior on DDI alerts, we investigated how physicians respond to DDIs and their behavior patterns and variations. Retrospective system log data analysis and records review (sampling 2% of total overrides). A large tertiary academic hospital. About 560 physicians and their override responses to DDI alerts generated from 1 September to 31 December 2014. Not applicable. DDI alert frequency and override rate. We found significant variation in both the number of alerts and override rates at the levels of physicians, departments and drug-class pairs. Physician-level variations were wider for residents than for faculty staff (number of alerts: t = 254.17, P = 0.011; override rates: t = -4.77, P < 0.0001). Using the number of alerts and their override rate, we classified physicians into four groups: inexperienced incautious users, inexperienced cautious users, experienced cautious users and experienced incautious users. Medical department influenced both alert numbers and override rates. Nearly 90% of the overrides involved only five drug-class combinations, which had a wide range of appropriateness in the chart review. The variations at drug-class levels suggest issues with system design and the DDI rules. Department-level variation may be best addressed at the department level, and the rest of the variation appears related to individual physician responses, suggesting the need for interventions at an individual level.

  3. Evaluation of medication alerts in electronic health records for compliance with human factors principles

    PubMed Central

    Phansalkar, Shobha; Zachariah, Marianne; Seidling, Hanna M; Mendes, Chantal; Volk, Lynn; Bates, David W

    2014-01-01

    Introduction Increasing the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) with integrated clinical decision support (CDS) is a key initiative of the current US healthcare administration. High over-ride rates of CDS alerts strongly limit these potential benefits. As a result, EHR designers aspire to improve alert design to achieve better acceptance rates. In this study, we evaluated drug–drug interaction (DDI) alerts generated in EHRs and compared them for compliance with human factors principles. Methods We utilized a previously validated questionnaire, the I-MeDeSA, to assess compliance with nine human factors principles of DDI alerts generated in 14 EHRs. Two reviewers independently assigned scores evaluating the human factors characteristics of each EHR. Rankings were assigned based on these scores and recommendations for appropriate alert design were derived. Results The 14 EHRs evaluated in this study received scores ranging from 8 to 18.33, with a maximum possible score of 26. Cohen's κ (κ=0.86) reflected excellent agreement among reviewers. The six vendor products tied for second and third place rankings, while the top system and bottom five systems were home-grown products. The most common weaknesses included the absence of characteristics such as alert prioritization, clear and concise alert messages indicating interacting drugs, actions for clinical management, and a statement indicating the consequences of over-riding the alert. Conclusions We provided detailed analyses of the human factors principles which were assessed and described our recommendations for effective alert design. Future studies should assess whether adherence to these recommendations can improve alert acceptance. PMID:24780721

  4. Automated health alerts from Kinect-based in-home gait measurements.

    PubMed

    Stone, Erik E; Skubic, Marjorie; Back, Jessica

    2014-01-01

    A method for automatically generating alerts to clinicians in response to changes in in-home gait parameters is investigated. Kinect-based gait measurement systems were installed in apartments in a senior living facility. The systems continuously monitored the walking speed, stride time, and stride length of apartment residents. A framework for modeling uncertainty in the residents' gait parameter estimates, which is critical for robust change detection, is developed; along with an algorithm for detecting changes that may be clinically relevant. Three retrospective case studies, of individuals who had their gait monitored for periods ranging from 12 to 29 months, are presented to illustrate use of the alert method. Evidence suggests that clinicians could be alerted to health changes at an early stage, while they are still small and interventions may be most successful. Additional potential uses are also discussed.

  5. MyEEW: A Smartphone App for the ShakeAlert System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strauss, J. A.; Allen, S.; Allen, R. M.; Hellweg, M.

    2015-12-01

    Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) is a system that can provide a few to tens of seconds warning prior to ground shaking at a user's location. The goal and purpose of such a system is to reduce, or minimize, the damage, costs, and casualties resulting from an earthquake. A demonstration earthquake early warning system (ShakeAlert) is undergoing testing in the United States by the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, Caltech, ETH Zurich, University of Washington, the USGS, and beta users in California and the Pacific Northwest. The UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory has created a smartphone app called MyEEW, which interfaces with the ShakeAlert system to deliver early warnings to individual users. Many critical facilities (transportation, police, and fire) have control rooms, which could run a centralized interface, but our ShakeAlert Beta Testers have also expressed their need for mobile options. This app augments the basic ShakeAlert Java desktop applet by allowing workers off-site (or merely out of hearing range) to be informed of coming hazards. MyEEW receives information from the ShakeAlert system to provide users with real-time information about shaking that is about to happen at their individual location. It includes a map, timer, and earthquake information similar to the Java desktop User Display. The app will also feature educational material to help users craft their own response and resiliency strategies. The app will be open to UC Berkeley Earthquake Research Affiliates members for testing in the near future.

  6. Effects of direction of rotation in continuous and discontinuous 8 hour shift systems

    PubMed Central

    Tucker, P.; Smith, L.; Macdonald, I.; Folkard, S.

    2000-01-01

    OBJECTIVES—Previous research has produced conflicting evidence on the relative merits of advancing and delaying shift systems. The current study assessed the effects of the direction of shift rotation within 8 hour systems, upon a range of measures including sleep, on shift alertness, physical health, and psychological wellbeing.
METHODS—An abridged version of the standard shiftwork index which included retrospective alertness ratings was completed by four groups of industrial shiftworkers on relatively rapidly rotating 8 hour systems (n=611). Two groups worked continuous systems that were either advancing or delaying; the other two groups worked discontinuous systems that were either advancing or delaying.
RESULTS—Few effects were found of direction of rotation on chronic measures of health and wellbeing, even when the systems incorporated "quick returns" (a break of only 8 hours when changing from one shift to another). This was despite the use of measures previously shown to be sensitive to the effects of a broad range of features of shift systems. However, advancing continuous systems seemed to be associated with marginally steeper declines in alertness across the shift (F (3,1080)=2.87, p<0.05). They were also associated with shorter sleeps between morning shifts (F (1,404)=4.01, p<0.05), but longer sleeps between afternoons (F (1,424)=4.16, p<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS—The absence of negative effects of advancing shifts upon the chronic outcome measures accorded with previous evidence that advancing shifts may not be as harmful as early research indicated. However, this interpretation is tempered by the possibility that difficult shift systems self select those workers most able to cope with their deleterious effects. The presence of quick returns in advancing continuous systems seemed to impact upon some of the acute measures such as duration of sleep, although the associated effects on alertness seemed to be marginal.


Keywords: shift rotation; health; alertness PMID:10984340

  7. Taking up national safety alerts to improve patient safety in hospitals: The perspective of healthcare quality and risk managers.

    PubMed

    Pfeiffer, Yvonne; Schwappach, David

    2016-01-01

    National safety alert systems publish relevant information to improve patient safety in hospitals. However, the information has to be transformed into local action to have an effect on patient safety. We studied three research questions: How do Swiss healthcare quality and risk managers (qm/rm(1)) see their own role in learning from safety alerts issued by the Swiss national voluntary reporting and analysis system? What are their attitudes towards and evaluations of the alerts, and which types of improvement actions were fostered by the safety alerts? A survey was developed and applied to Swiss healthcare risk and quality managers, with a response rate of 39 % (n=116). Descriptive statistics are presented. The qm/rm disseminate and communicate with a broad variety of professional groups about the alerts. While most respondents felt that they should know the alerts and their contents, only a part of them felt responsible for driving organizational change based on the recommendations. However, most respondents used safety alerts to back up their own patient safety goals. The alerts were evaluated positively on various dimensions such as usefulness and were considered as standards of good practice by the majority of the respondents. A range of organizational responses was applied, with disseminating information being the most common. An active role is related to using safety alerts for backing up own patient safety goals. To support an active role of qm/rm in their hospital's learning from safety alerts, appropriate organizational structures should be developed. Furthermore, they could be given special information or training to act as an information hub on the issues discussed in the alerts. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

  8. Glucose alert system improves health professional responses to adverse glycaemia and reduces the number of hyperglycaemic episodes in non-critical care inpatients.

    PubMed

    Kyi, M; Wraight, P R; Rowan, L M; Marley, K A; Colman, P G; Fourlanos, S

    2018-06-01

    To investigate the effect of a novel glucose alert system, comprising the Melbourne Glucose Alert Pathway and glucose-alert-capable networked blood glucose meters, on nursing and hospital medical officer responses to adverse glycaemia. A prospective, pre- and post-observational study was undertaken in non-critical care wards of a tertiary hospital over 4 months (n=148 or 660 patient-days). The intervention consisted of two components designed to promote a consistent staff response to blood glucose measurements: (1) a clinical escalation pathway, the Melbourne Glucose Alert Pathway, and (2) networked blood glucose meters, which provide a visual alert for out-of-range blood glucose measurement. All consecutive inpatients with diabetes were assessed for diabetes management and capillary blood glucose. The primary outcome was documented nursing and medical staff action in response to episodes of adverse glycaemia (blood glucose >15 mmol/l or <4 mmol/l). Secondary outcomes consisted of glycaemic measures. In response to episodes of adverse glycaemia, nursing action increased (proportion with nursing action: 45% to 73%; P<0.001), and medical action increased (proportion with medical action: 49% to 67%; P=0.011) with the glucose alert system in place. Patient-days with hyperglycaemia (any blood glucose value >15 mmol/l: 24% vs 16%; P=0.012) and patient-days with mean blood glucose >15 mmol/l (7.4% vs 2.6%; P=0.005) decreased. There was no difference in hypoglycaemia incidence. Use of a novel glucose alert system improved health professional responses to adverse glycaemia and decreased hyperglycaemia in the hospital setting. © 2018 Diabetes UK.

  9. Successful ShakeAlert Performance for the Napa Quake

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allen, R. M.; Given, D. D.; Heaton, T. H.; Vidale, J. E.

    2014-12-01

    ShakeAlert, the demonstration earthquake early warning system, developed by the USGS, UC Berkeley, Caltech, ETH, and the University of Washington, functioned as expected for the August 24, 2014, M6.0 Napa earthquake. The first ShakeAlert was generated by the ElarmS algorithm 5.1 sec after the origin time of the earthquake, and 3.3 sec after the P-wave arrived at the closest station 6.5 km from the epicenter. This initial alert, based on P-wave triggers from four stations, estimated the magnitude to be 5.7. The warning was received at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory 5 seconds before the S-wave and about 10 sec prior to the onset of the strongest shaking. ShakeAlert beta-testers across the San Francisco Bay Area simultaneously received the alert, including the San Francisco 911 center with 8 sec warning, and the BART train system. BART has implemented an automated train-stopping system that was activated (although no trains were running at 3:20 am). With the available network geometry and communications, the blind zone of the first alert had a radius of 16 km. The four stations that contributed to the first alert all encapsulate data into 1-second packets, but the latency in transmitting data to the processing center ranged from 0.27 to 2.62 seconds. If all the stations were to deliver data in 0.27 seconds, then the alert would have been available 2.3 sec sooner and the blind zone would be reduced to about 8 km. This would also mean that the city of Napa would have received about 1 second of warning. The magnitude estimate and event location were accurate from the initial alert onwards. The magnitude estimate did first increase to 5.8 and then dip to 5.4 2.6 sec after the initial alert, stayed at that level for 2 sec, and then returned to 5.7. The final magnitude estimate was 6.0, consistent with the ANSS catalog.

  10. Pilot Preferences for Information Provided and Its Format for Status, Alerts, and Controls

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trujillo, Anna C.

    2004-01-01

    With the increased use of cathode ray tubes (CRTs) in flight decks and the computing power available, it is possible to combine status screens, alerts/procedures screens, and control screens onto a single display. This report presents the results of a survey designed to assess the perceived helpfulness and need of various pieces of information that could be included on status and control screens. The results from the survey indicate that operators want parameter ranges that change depending on the current aircraft configuration shown on bow-tie or dial displays. These displays should show the current value, normal range, alert type and range, and predictive information. Respondents wanted to see system relationships to one another for both component control and menu selection. When bringing up these various displays, this information should come up with a single button push. Finally, checklists should sense when a component has changed to the desired state.

  11. Wireless Sensor Node for Autonomous Monitoring and Alerts in Remote Environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Panangadan, Anand V. (Inventor); Monacos, Steve P. (Inventor)

    2015-01-01

    A method, apparatus, system, and computer program products provides personal alert and tracking capabilities using one or more nodes. Each node includes radio transceiver chips operating at different frequency ranges, a power amplifier, sensors, a display, and embedded software. The chips enable the node to operate as either a mobile sensor node or a relay base station node while providing a long distance relay link between nodes. The power amplifier enables a line-of-sight communication between the one or more nodes. The sensors provide a GPS signal, temperature, and accelerometer information (used to trigger an alert condition). The embedded software captures and processes the sensor information, provides a multi-hop packet routing protocol to relay the sensor information to and receive alert information from a command center, and to display the alert information on the display.

  12. Prototype Conflict Alerting Logic for Free Flight

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yang, Lee C.; Kuchar, James K.

    1997-01-01

    This paper discusses the development of a prototype alerting system for a conceptual Free Flight environment. The concept assumes that datalink between aircraft is available and that conflicts are primarily resolved on the flight deck. Four alert stages are generated depending on the likelihood of a conflict. If the conflict is not resolved by the flight crews, Air Traffic Control is notified to take over separation authority. The alerting logic is based on probabilistic analysis through modeling of aircraft sensor and trajectory uncertainties. Monte Carlo simulations were used over a range of encounter situations to determine conflict probability. The four alert stages were then defined based on probability of conflict and on the number of avoidance maneuvers available to the flight crew. Preliminary results from numerical evaluations and from a piloted simulator study at NASA Ames Research Center are summarized.

  13. Public Release of Estimated Impact-Based Earthquake Alerts - An Update to the U.S. Geological Survey PAGER System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wald, D. J.; Jaiswal, K. S.; Marano, K.; Hearne, M.; Earle, P. S.; So, E.; Garcia, D.; Hayes, G. P.; Mathias, S.; Applegate, D.; Bausch, D.

    2010-12-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has begun publicly releasing earthquake alerts for significant earthquakes around the globe based on estimates of potential casualties and economic losses. These estimates should significantly enhance the utility of the USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system that has been providing estimated ShakeMaps and computing population exposures to specific shaking intensities since 2007. Quantifying earthquake impacts and communicating loss estimates (and their uncertainties) to the public has been the culmination of several important new and evolving components of the system. First, the operational PAGER system now relies on empirically-based loss models that account for estimated shaking hazard, population exposure, and employ country-specific fatality and economic loss functions derived using analyses of losses due to recent and past earthquakes. In some countries, our empirical loss models are informed in part by PAGER’s semi-empirical and analytical loss models, and building exposure and vulnerability data sets, all of which are being developed in parallel to the empirical approach. Second, human and economic loss information is now portrayed as a supplement to existing intensity/exposure content on both PAGER summary alert (available via cell phone/email) messages and web pages. Loss calculations also include estimates of the economic impact with respect to the country’s gross domestic product. Third, in order to facilitate rapid and appropriate earthquake responses based on our probable loss estimates, in early 2010 we proposed a four-level Earthquake Impact Scale (EIS). Instead of simply issuing median estimates for losses—which can be easily misunderstood and misused—this scale provides ranges of losses from which potential responders can gauge expected overall impact from strong shaking. EIS is based on two complementary criteria: the estimated cost of damage, which is most suitable for U.S. domestic events; and estimated ranges of fatalities, which are generally more appropriate for global events, particularly in earthquake-vulnerable countries. Alert levels are characterized by alerts of green (little or no impact), yellow (regional impact and response), orange (national-scale impact and response), and red (international response). Corresponding fatality thresholds for yellow, orange, and red alert levels are 1, 100, and 1000, respectively. For damage impact, yellow, orange, and red thresholds are triggered when estimated US dollar losses reach 1 million, 100 million, and 1 billion+ levels, respectively. Finally, alerting protocols now explicitly support EIS-based alerts. Critical users can receive PAGER alerts i) based on the EIS-based alert level, in addition to or as an alternative to magnitude and population/intensity exposure-based alerts, and ii) optionally, based on user-selected regions of the world. The essence of PAGER’s impact-based alerting is that actionable loss information is now available in the immediate aftermath of significant earthquakes worldwide based on quantifiable, albeit uncertain, loss estimates provided by the USGS.

  14. V-Alert: Description and Validation of a Vulnerable Road User Alert System in the Framework of a Smart City.

    PubMed

    Hernandez-Jayo, Unai; De-la-Iglesia, Idoia; Perez, Jagoba

    2015-07-29

    V-Alert is a cooperative application to be deployed in the frame of Smart Cities with the aim of reducing the probability of accidents involving Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) and vehicles. The architecture of V-Alert combines short- and long-range communication technologies in order to provide more time to the drivers and VRU to take the appropriate maneuver and avoid a possible collision. The information generated by mobile sensors (vehicles and cyclists) is sent over this heterogeneous communication architecture and processed in a central server, the Drivers Cloud, which is in charge of generating the messages that are shown on the drivers' and cyclists' Human Machine Interface (HMI). First of all, V-Alert has been tested in a simulated scenario to check the communications architecture in a complex scenario and, once it was validated, all the elements of V-Alert have been moved to a real scenario to check the application reliability. All the results are shown along the length of this paper.

  15. The Seismic Alert System of Mexico (SASMEX): Performance and Evolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Espinosa Aranda, J.

    2013-05-01

    Originally the Seismic Alert System of Mexico (SASMEX) was proposed to integrate the Seismic Alert System of Mexico City (SAS), operating since 1991, with the Seismic Alert System of Oaxaca City (SASO), in services since 2003. And today, after the intense big earthquake activity observed in our world during 2010 and 2011, local governments of Mexico City, Oaxaca Estate, and the Mexican Ministry of the Interior have been promoting the expansion of this technological EEW development. Until 2012 SASMEX better coverage includes 48 new field seismic sensors (FS) deployed over the seismic region of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Puebla, with someone enhancements over Guerrero and Oaxaca, to reach 97 FS. During 2013, 35 new FS has been proposed to SASMEX enhancements covering the Chiapas and Veracruz seismic regions. The SASMEX, with the support of the Mexico Valley Broadcasters Association (ARVM) since 1993, automatically issue Public and Preventive earthquake early warning signals in the Cities of Mexico, Toluca, Acapulco, Chilpancingo, and Oaxaca. The seismic warning range in each case is seated in accordance with local Civil Protection Authorities: Public Alert, if they expect strong earthquake effects, and Preventive Alert one, the effect could be moderated. Now the SASMEX warning time opportunity could be different to the 60 sec. average typically generated when SAS warned earthquake effects coming from Guerrero to Mexico City valley. Mexican EEW issued today reach: 16 Public and 62 Preventive Alert in Mexico City; 25 Public and 19 Preventive Alerts in Oaxaca City; also 14 Public and 4 Preventive Alerts in Acapulco; 14 Public and 5 Preventive Alerts in Chilpancingo. The earthquakes events registered by SASMEX FS until now reach 3448. With the support of private and Federal telecommunications infrastructure like, TELMEX, Federal Electric Commission, and the Mexican Security Ministry, it was developed a redundant communication system with pads to link the different Cities, trough VHF and UHF radio signals, Fiber Optics, and Satellite technologies, to reach more reliability and availability SASMEX functions and services. To increase the seismic early warning efficiency the Mexico City Historical Center Authorities, promoted the installation of the NOAA VHF radio transmitters system to cover the Mexico City valley, operating with the Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) called NWR-SAME, and with the Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) protocol of United States. As an enhancement of the NOAA receiver protocol, it was innovated to permit fast Public Alert issue, in no more than 2 sec. The new receiver applied in Mexico is called SARMEX™. Local and federal authorities acquired 90,000 SARMEX™ receivers to be distributed manly in public schools of Mexican cities covered by the SASMEX™ signals; the measure with the aim to promote better natural hazard prevention attitude in the Mexican young population segment.

  16. Comparison of methods of alert acknowledgement by critical care clinicians in the ICU setting

    PubMed Central

    Harrison, Andrew M.; Thongprayoon, Charat; Aakre, Christopher A.; Jeng, Jack Y.; Dziadzko, Mikhail A.; Gajic, Ognjen; Pickering, Brian W.

    2017-01-01

    Background Electronic Health Record (EHR)-based sepsis alert systems have failed to demonstrate improvements in clinically meaningful endpoints. However, the effect of implementation barriers on the success of new sepsis alert systems is rarely explored. Objective To test the hypothesis time to severe sepsis alert acknowledgement by critical care clinicians in the ICU setting would be reduced using an EHR-based alert acknowledgement system compared to a text paging-based system. Study Design In one arm of this simulation study, real alerts for patients in the medical ICU were delivered to critical care clinicians through the EHR. In the other arm, simulated alerts were delivered through text paging. The primary outcome was time to alert acknowledgement. The secondary outcomes were a structured, mixed quantitative/qualitative survey and informal group interview. Results The alert acknowledgement rate from the severe sepsis alert system was 3% (N = 148) and 51% (N = 156) from simulated severe sepsis alerts through traditional text paging. Time to alert acknowledgement from the severe sepsis alert system was median 274 min (N = 5) and median 2 min (N = 80) from text paging. The response rate from the EHR-based alert system was insufficient to compare primary measures. However, secondary measures revealed important barriers. Conclusion Alert fatigue, interruption, human error, and information overload are barriers to alert and simulation studies in the ICU setting. PMID:28316887

  17. Comparison of methods of alert acknowledgement by critical care clinicians in the ICU setting.

    PubMed

    Harrison, Andrew M; Thongprayoon, Charat; Aakre, Christopher A; Jeng, Jack Y; Dziadzko, Mikhail A; Gajic, Ognjen; Pickering, Brian W; Herasevich, Vitaly

    2017-01-01

    Electronic Health Record (EHR)-based sepsis alert systems have failed to demonstrate improvements in clinically meaningful endpoints. However, the effect of implementation barriers on the success of new sepsis alert systems is rarely explored. To test the hypothesis time to severe sepsis alert acknowledgement by critical care clinicians in the ICU setting would be reduced using an EHR-based alert acknowledgement system compared to a text paging-based system. In one arm of this simulation study, real alerts for patients in the medical ICU were delivered to critical care clinicians through the EHR. In the other arm, simulated alerts were delivered through text paging. The primary outcome was time to alert acknowledgement. The secondary outcomes were a structured, mixed quantitative/qualitative survey and informal group interview. The alert acknowledgement rate from the severe sepsis alert system was 3% ( N  = 148) and 51% ( N  = 156) from simulated severe sepsis alerts through traditional text paging. Time to alert acknowledgement from the severe sepsis alert system was median 274 min ( N  = 5) and median 2 min ( N  = 80) from text paging. The response rate from the EHR-based alert system was insufficient to compare primary measures. However, secondary measures revealed important barriers. Alert fatigue, interruption, human error, and information overload are barriers to alert and simulation studies in the ICU setting.

  18. 47 CFR 80.277 - Ship Security Alert System (SSAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). 80.277... Security Alert System (SSAS). (a) Vessels equipped with a Ship Security Alert System pursuant to the Safety..., “RTCM Standard 11020.0—Ship Security Alert Systems (SSAS) using the Cospas-Sarsat System,” Version 1.0...

  19. The NAS Alert System: A look at the first eight years

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Fuller, Pamela L.; Neilson, Matt; Huge, Dane H.

    2013-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey's Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) database program (http://nas.er.usgs.gov) tracks the distribution of introduced aquatic organisms across the United States. Awareness of, and timely response to, novel species introductions by those involved in nonindigenous aquatic species management and research requires a framework for rapid dissemination of occurrence data as it is incorporated into the NAS database. In May 2004, the NAS program developed an alert system to notify registered users of new introductions as part of a national early detection/rapid response system. This article summarizes information on system users and dispatched alerts from the system's inception through the end of 2011. The NAS alert system has registered over 1,700 users, with approximately 800 current subscribers. A total of 1,189 alerts had been transmitted through 2011. More alerts were sent for Florida (134 alerts) than for any other state. Fishes comprise the largest taxonomic group of alerts (440), with mollusks, plants, and crustaceans each containing over 100 alerts. Most alerts were for organisms that were intentionally released (414 alerts), with shipping, escape from captivity, and hitchhiking also representing major vectors. To explore the archive of sent alerts and to register, the search and signup page for the alert system can be found online at http://nas.er.usgs.gov/AlertSystem/default.aspx.

  20. V-Alert: Description and Validation of a Vulnerable Road User Alert System in the Framework of a Smart City

    PubMed Central

    Hernandez-Jayo, Unai; De-la-Iglesia, Idoia; Perez, Jagoba

    2015-01-01

    V-Alert is a cooperative application to be deployed in the frame of Smart Cities with the aim of reducing the probability of accidents involving Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) and vehicles. The architecture of V-Alert combines short- and long-range communication technologies in order to provide more time to the drivers and VRU to take the appropriate maneuver and avoid a possible collision. The information generated by mobile sensors (vehicles and cyclists) is sent over this heterogeneous communication architecture and processed in a central server, the Drivers Cloud, which is in charge of generating the messages that are shown on the drivers’ and cyclists’ Human Machine Interface (HMI). First of all, V-Alert has been tested in a simulated scenario to check the communications architecture in a complex scenario and, once it was validated, all the elements of V-Alert have been moved to a real scenario to check the application reliability. All the results are shown along the length of this paper. PMID:26230695

  1. Hypoglycemic Accuracy and Improved Low Glucose Alerts of the Latest Dexcom G4 Platinum Continuous Glucose Monitoring System.

    PubMed

    Peyser, Thomas A; Nakamura, Katherine; Price, David; Bohnett, Lucas C; Hirsch, Irl B; Balo, Andrew

    2015-08-01

    Accuracy of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices in hypoglycemia has been a widely reported shortcoming of this technology. We report the accuracy in hypoglycemia of a new version of the Dexcom (San Diego, CA) G4 Platinum CGM system (software 505) and present results regarding the optimum setting of CGM hypoglycemic alerts. CGM values were compared with YSI analyzer (YSI Life Sciences, Yellow Springs, OH) measurements every 15 min. We reviewed the accuracy of the CGM system in the hypoglycemic range using standard metrics. We analyzed the time required for the CGM system to detect biochemical hypoglycemia (70 mg/dL) compared with the YSI with alert settings at 70 mg/dL and 80 mg/dL. We also analyzed the time between the YSI value crossing 55 mg/dL, defined as the threshold for cognitive impairment due to hypoglycemia, and when the CGM system alerted for hypoglycemia. The mean absolute difference for a glucose level of less than 70 mg/dL was 6 mg/dL. Ninety-six percent of CGM values were within 20 mg/dL of the YSI values between 40 and 80 mg/dL. When the CGM hypoglycemic alert was set at 80 mg/dL, the device provided an alert for biochemical hypoglycemia within 10 min in 95% of instances and at least a 10-min advance warning before the cognitive impairment threshold in 91% of instances in the study. Use of an 80 mg/dL threshold setting for hypoglycemic alerts on the G4 Platinum (software 505) may provide patients with timely warning of hypoglycemia before the onset of cognitive impairment, enabling them to treat themselves for hypoglycemia with fast-acting carbohydrates and prevent neuroglycopenia associated with very low glucose levels.

  2. The agile alert system for gamma-ray transients

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bulgarelli, A.; Trifoglio, M.; Gianotti, F.

    2014-01-20

    In recent years, a new generation of space missions has offered great opportunities for discovery in high-energy astrophysics. In this article we focus on the scientific operations of the Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) on board the AGILE space mission. AGILE-GRID, sensitive in the energy range of 30 MeV-30 GeV, has detected many γ-ray transients of both galactic and extragalactic origin. This work presents the AGILE innovative approach to fast γ-ray transient detection, which is a challenging task and a crucial part of the AGILE scientific program. The goals are to describe (1) the AGILE Gamma-Ray Alert System, (2) a newmore » algorithm for blind search identification of transients within a short processing time, (3) the AGILE procedure for γ-ray transient alert management, and (4) the likelihood of ratio tests that are necessary to evaluate the post-trial statistical significance of the results. Special algorithms and an optimized sequence of tasks are necessary to reach our goal. Data are automatically analyzed at every orbital downlink by an alert pipeline operating on different timescales. As proper flux thresholds are exceeded, alerts are automatically generated and sent as SMS messages to cellular telephones, via e-mail, and via push notifications from an application for smartphones and tablets. These alerts are crosschecked with the results of two pipelines, and a manual analysis is performed. Being a small scientific-class mission, AGILE is characterized by optimization of both scientific analysis and ground-segment resources. The system is capable of generating alerts within two to three hours of a data downlink, an unprecedented reaction time in γ-ray astrophysics.« less

  3. The AGILE Alert System for Gamma-Ray Transients

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bulgarelli, A.; Trifoglio, M.; Gianotti, F.; Tavani, M.; Parmiggiani, N.; Fioretti, V.; Chen, A. W.; Vercellone, S.; Pittori, C.; Verrecchia, F.; Lucarelli, F.; Santolamazza, P.; Fanari, G.; Giommi, P.; Beneventano, D.; Argan, A.; Trois, A.; Scalise, E.; Longo, F.; Pellizzoni, A.; Pucella, G.; Colafrancesco, S.; Conforti, V.; Tempesta, P.; Cerone, M.; Sabatini, P.; Annoni, G.; Valentini, G.; Salotti, L.

    2014-01-01

    In recent years, a new generation of space missions has offered great opportunities for discovery in high-energy astrophysics. In this article we focus on the scientific operations of the Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) on board the AGILE space mission. AGILE-GRID, sensitive in the energy range of 30 MeV-30 GeV, has detected many γ-ray transients of both galactic and extragalactic origin. This work presents the AGILE innovative approach to fast γ-ray transient detection, which is a challenging task and a crucial part of the AGILE scientific program. The goals are to describe (1) the AGILE Gamma-Ray Alert System, (2) a new algorithm for blind search identification of transients within a short processing time, (3) the AGILE procedure for γ-ray transient alert management, and (4) the likelihood of ratio tests that are necessary to evaluate the post-trial statistical significance of the results. Special algorithms and an optimized sequence of tasks are necessary to reach our goal. Data are automatically analyzed at every orbital downlink by an alert pipeline operating on different timescales. As proper flux thresholds are exceeded, alerts are automatically generated and sent as SMS messages to cellular telephones, via e-mail, and via push notifications from an application for smartphones and tablets. These alerts are crosschecked with the results of two pipelines, and a manual analysis is performed. Being a small scientific-class mission, AGILE is characterized by optimization of both scientific analysis and ground-segment resources. The system is capable of generating alerts within two to three hours of a data downlink, an unprecedented reaction time in γ-ray astrophysics.

  4. Evaluating Alerting and Guidance Performance of a UAS Detect-And-Avoid System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lee, Seung Man; Park, Chunki; Thipphavong, David P.; Isaacson, Douglas R.; Santiago, Confesor

    2016-01-01

    A key challenge to the routine, safe operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is the development of detect-and-avoid (DAA) systems to aid the UAS pilot in remaining "well clear" of nearby aircraft. The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of alerting criteria and pilot response delay on the safety and performance of UAS DAA systems in the context of routine civil UAS operations in the National Airspace System (NAS). A NAS-wide fast-time simulation study was conducted to assess UAS DAA system performance with a large number of encounters and a broad set of DAA alerting and guidance system parameters. Three attributes of the DAA system were controlled as independent variables in the study to conduct trade-off analyses: UAS trajectory prediction method (dead-reckoning vs. intent-based), alerting time threshold (related to predicted time to LoWC), and alerting distance threshold (related to predicted Horizontal Miss Distance, or HMD). A set of metrics, such as the percentage of true positive, false positive, and missed alerts, based on signal detection theory and analysis methods utilizing the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were proposed to evaluate the safety and performance of DAA alerting and guidance systems and aid development of DAA system performance standards. The effect of pilot response delay on the performance of DAA systems was evaluated using a DAA alerting and guidance model and a pilot model developed to support this study. A total of 18 fast-time simulations were conducted with nine different DAA alerting threshold settings and two different trajectory prediction methods, using recorded radar traffic from current Visual Flight Rules (VFR) operations, and supplemented with DAA-equipped UAS traffic based on mission profiles modeling future UAS operations. Results indicate DAA alerting distance threshold has a greater effect on DAA system performance than DAA alerting time threshold or ownship trajectory prediction method. Further analysis on the alert lead time (time in advance of predicted loss of well clear at which a DAA alert is first issued) indicated a strong positive correlation between alert lead time and DAA system performance (i.e. the ability of the UAS pilot to maneuver the unmanned aircraft to remain well clear). While bigger distance thresholds had beneficial effects on alert lead time and missed alert rate, it also generated a higher rate of false alerts. In the design and development of DAA alerting and guidance systems, therefore, the positive and negative effects of false alerts and missed alerts should be carefully considered to achieve acceptable alerting system performance by balancing false and missed alerts. The results and methodology presented in this study are expected to help stakeholders, policymakers and standards committees define the appropriate setting of DAA system parameter thresholds for UAS that ensure safety while minimizing operational impacts to the NAS and equipage requirements for its users before DAA operational performance standards can be finalized.

  5. A framework for evaluating the appropriateness of clinical decision support alerts and responses

    PubMed Central

    Waitman, Lemuel R; Lewis, Julia B; Wright, Julie A; Choma, David P; Miller, Randolph A; Peterson, Josh F

    2011-01-01

    Objective Alerting systems, a type of clinical decision support, are increasingly prevalent in healthcare, yet few studies have concurrently measured the appropriateness of alerts with provider responses to alerts. Recent reports of suboptimal alert system design and implementation highlight the need for better evaluation to inform future designs. The authors present a comprehensive framework for evaluating the clinical appropriateness of synchronous, interruptive medication safety alerts. Methods Through literature review and iterative testing, metrics were developed that describe successes, justifiable overrides, provider non-adherence, and unintended adverse consequences of clinical decision support alerts. The framework was validated by applying it to a medication alerting system for patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Results Through expert review, the framework assesses each alert episode for appropriateness of the alert display and the necessity and urgency of a clinical response. Primary outcomes of the framework include the false positive alert rate, alert override rate, provider non-adherence rate, and rate of provider response appropriateness. Application of the framework to evaluate an existing AKI medication alerting system provided a more complete understanding of the process outcomes measured in the AKI medication alerting system. The authors confirmed that previous alerts and provider responses were most often appropriate. Conclusion The new evaluation model offers a potentially effective method for assessing the clinical appropriateness of synchronous interruptive medication alerts prior to evaluating patient outcomes in a comparative trial. More work can determine the generalizability of the framework for use in other settings and other alert types. PMID:21849334

  6. Prescription errors before and after introduction of electronic medication alert system in a pediatric emergency department.

    PubMed

    Sethuraman, Usha; Kannikeswaran, Nirupama; Murray, Kyle P; Zidan, Marwan A; Chamberlain, James M

    2015-06-01

    Prescription errors occur frequently in pediatric emergency departments (PEDs).The effect of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) with electronic medication alert system (EMAS) on these is unknown. The objective was to compare prescription errors rates before and after introduction of CPOE with EMAS in a PED. The hypothesis was that CPOE with EMAS would significantly reduce the rate and severity of prescription errors in the PED. A prospective comparison of a sample of outpatient, medication prescriptions 5 months before and after CPOE with EMAS implementation (7,268 before and 7,292 after) was performed. Error types and rates, alert types and significance, and physician response were noted. Medication errors were deemed significant if there was a potential to cause life-threatening injury, failure of therapy, or an adverse drug effect. There was a significant reduction in the errors per 100 prescriptions (10.4 before vs. 7.3 after; absolute risk reduction = 3.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.2 to 4.0). Drug dosing error rates decreased from 8 to 5.4 per 100 (absolute risk reduction = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.8 to 3.4). Alerts were generated for 29.6% of prescriptions, with 45% involving drug dose range checking. The sensitivity of CPOE with EMAS in identifying errors in prescriptions was 45.1% (95% CI = 40.8% to 49.6%), and the specificity was 57% (95% CI = 55.6% to 58.5%). Prescribers modified 20% of the dosing alerts, resulting in the error not reaching the patient. Conversely, 11% of true dosing alerts for medication errors were overridden by the prescribers: 88 (11.3%) resulted in medication errors, and 684 (88.6%) were false-positive alerts. A CPOE with EMAS was associated with a decrease in overall prescription errors in our PED. Further system refinements are required to reduce the high false-positive alert rates. © 2015 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

  7. 76 FR 80780 - Review of the Emergency Alert System

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-12-27

    ... Emergency Alert System AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission amends its rules governing the Emergency Alert System (EAS) rules to extend the deadline for EAS Participants to be able to receive Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)- formatted EAS alerts to...

  8. 76 FR 62321 - Airworthiness Directives; Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) Traffic Alert and...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-10-07

    ... Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) Units AGENCY... certain Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) traffic alert and collision avoidance system...) traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) units with part numbers identified in ACSS Technical...

  9. Pilot Non-Conformance to Alerting System Commands During Closely Spaced Parallel Approaches

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pritchett, Amy Ruth; Hansman, R. John; Corker, Kevin (Technical Monitor)

    1997-01-01

    Cockpit alerting systems monitor potentially hazardous situations, both inside and outside the aircraft. When a hazard is projected to occur, the alerting system displays alerts and/or command decisions to the pilot. However, pilots have been observed to not conform to alerting system commands by delaying their response or by not following the automatic commands exactly. This non-conformance to the automatic alerting system can reduce its benefit. Therefore, a need exists to understand the causes and effects of pilot non-conformance in order to develop automatic alerting systems whose commands the pilots are more likely to follow. These considerations were examined through flight simulator evaluations of the collision avoidance task during closely spaced parallel approaches. This task provided a useful case-study because the effects of non-conformance can be significant, given the time-critical nature of the task. A preliminary evaluation of alerting systems identified non-conformance in over 40% of the cases and a corresponding drop in collision avoidance performance. A follow-on experiment found subjects' alerting and maneuver selection criteria were consistent with different strategies than those used by automatic systems, indicating the pilot may potentially disagree with the alerting system if the pilot attempts to verify automatic alerts and commanded avoidance maneuvers. A final experiment found supporting automatic alerts with the explicit display of its underlying criteria resulted in more consistent subject reactions. In light of these experimental results, a general discussion of pilot non-conformance is provided. Contributing factors in pilot non-conformance include a lack of confidence in the automatic system and mismatches between the alerting system's commands and the pilots' own decisions based on the information available to them. The effects of non-conformance on system performance are discussed. Possible methods of reconciling mismatches are given, and design considerations for alerting systems which alleviate the problem of non-conformance are provided.

  10. Analysis of Alerting System Failures in Commercial Aviation Accidents

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mumaw, Randall J.

    2017-01-01

    The role of an alerting system is to make the system operator (e.g., pilot) aware of an impending hazard or unsafe state so the hazard can be avoided or managed successfully. A review of 46 commercial aviation accidents (between 1998 and 2014) revealed that, in the vast majority of events, either the hazard was not alerted or relevant hazard alerting occurred but failed to aid the flight crew sufficiently. For this set of events, alerting system failures were placed in one of five phases: Detection, Understanding, Action Selection, Prioritization, and Execution. This study also reviewed the evolution of alerting system schemes in commercial aviation, which revealed naive assumptions about pilot reliability in monitoring flight path parameters; specifically, pilot monitoring was assumed to be more effective than it actually is. Examples are provided of the types of alerting system failures that have occurred, and recommendations are provided for alerting system improvements.

  11. Analysis of clinical decision support system malfunctions: a case series and survey

    PubMed Central

    Wright, Adam; Hickman, Thu-Trang T; McEvoy, Dustin; Aaron, Skye; Ai, Angela; Andersen, Jan Marie; Hussain, Salman; Ramoni, Rachel; Fiskio, Julie; Sittig, Dean F; Bates, David W

    2016-01-01

    Objective To illustrate ways in which clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) malfunction and identify patterns of such malfunctions. Materials and Methods We identified and investigated several CDSS malfunctions at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and present them as a case series. We also conducted a preliminary survey of Chief Medical Information Officers to assess the frequency of such malfunctions. Results We identified four CDSS malfunctions at Brigham and Women’s Hospital: (1) an alert for monitoring thyroid function in patients receiving amiodarone stopped working when an internal identifier for amiodarone was changed in another system; (2) an alert for lead screening for children stopped working when the rule was inadvertently edited; (3) a software upgrade of the electronic health record software caused numerous spurious alerts to fire; and (4) a malfunction in an external drug classification system caused an alert to inappropriately suggest antiplatelet drugs, such as aspirin, for patients already taking one. We found that 93% of the Chief Medical Information Officers who responded to our survey had experienced at least one CDSS malfunction, and two-thirds experienced malfunctions at least annually. Discussion CDSS malfunctions are widespread and often persist for long periods. The failure of alerts to fire is particularly difficult to detect. A range of causes, including changes in codes and fields, software upgrades, inadvertent disabling or editing of rules, and malfunctions of external systems commonly contribute to CDSS malfunctions, and current approaches for preventing and detecting such malfunctions are inadequate. Conclusion CDSS malfunctions occur commonly and often go undetected. Better methods are needed to prevent and detect these malfunctions. PMID:27026616

  12. Analysis of UAS DAA Alerting in Fast-Time Simulations without DAA Mitigation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thipphavong, David P.; Santiago, Confesor; Isaacson, Douglas R.; Lee, Seung Man; Park, Chunki; Refai, Mohamad Said; Snow, James

    2015-01-01

    Realization of the expected proliferation of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) depends on the development and validation of performance standards for UAS Detect and Avoid (DAA) Systems. The RTCA Special Committee 228 is charged with leading the development of draft Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for UAS DAA Systems. NASA, as a participating member of RTCA SC-228 is committed to supporting the development and validation of draft requirements for DAA alerting system performance. A recent study conducted using NASA's ACES (Airspace Concept Evaluation System) simulation capability begins to address questions surrounding the development of draft MOPS for DAA alerting systems. ACES simulations were conducted to study the performance of alerting systems proposed by the SC-228 DAA Alerting sub-group. Analysis included but was not limited to: 1) correct alert (and timeliness), 2) false alert (and severity and duration), 3) missed alert, and 4) probability of an alert type at the time of loss of well clear. The performance of DAA alerting systems when using intent vs. dead-reckoning for UAS ownship trajectories was also compared. The results will be used by SC-228 to inform decisions about the surveillance standards of UAS DAA systems and future requirements development and validation efforts.

  13. Self-Activating System and Method for Alerting When an Object or a Person is Left Unattended

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Edwards, William Christopher (Inventor); Mack, Terry L. (Inventor); Modlin, Edward A. (Inventor)

    2004-01-01

    A system and method uses a wireless tether comprising a transmitter and a receiver to alert a caregiver that an object or person has been left unattended. A detector Senses the presence of the object, usually a child, located in a position such as a safety seat. The detector couples to the transmitter, which is located near the object. The transmitter transmits at least one wireless signal when the object is in the position. The receiver, which is remotely located from the transmitter, senses the at least one signal as long as the receiver is within a prescribed range of transmission. By performing a timing function, the receiver monitors the proximity of the caregiver, who maintains possession of the receiver, to the transmitter. The system communicates an alarm to the caregiver when the caregiver ventures outside the range of transmission without having removed the object/child from the position.

  14. Self-activating System and Method for Alerting When an Object or a Person is Left Unattended

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Edwards, William C. (Inventor); Mack, Terry L. (Inventor); Modlin, Edward A. (Inventor)

    2006-01-01

    A system and method use a wireless tether comprising a transmitter and a receiver to alert a caregiver that an object has been left unattended. A detector senses the presence of the object, usually a child, located in a position such as a safety seat. The detector is operatively coupled to the transmitter. which is located near the object. The transmitter transmits at least one wireless signal when the object is in the position. The receiver, which is remotely located from the transmitter, senses at least one signal as long as the receiver is within a prescribed range of transmission. By performing a timing function, the receiver monitors the proximity of the caregiver, who maintains possession of the receiver, to the transmitter. The system communicates an alarm to the caregiver when the caregiver ventures outside the range of transmission without having removed the object from the position.

  15. Time-to-detection of bacteria and yeast with the BACTEC FX versus BacT/Alert Virtuo blood culture systems.

    PubMed

    Somily, Ali Mohammed; Habib, Hanan Ahmed; Torchyan, Armen Albert; Sayyed, Samina B; Absar, Muhammed; Al-Aqeel, Rima; Binkhamis, A Khalifa

    2018-01-01

    Bloodstream infections are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Rapid detection of bloodstream infections is important in achieving better patient outcomes. Compare the time-to-detection (TTD) of the new BacT/Alert Virtuo and the BACTEC FX automated blood culture systems. Prospective simulated comparison of two instruments using seeded samples. Medical microbiology laboratory. Blood culture bottles were seeded in triplicate with each of the standard ATCC strains of aerobes, anaerobes and yeast. TTD was calculated as the length of time from the beginning of culture incubation to the detection of bacterial growth. TTD for the various tested organisms on the two microbial detection systems. The 99 bottles of seeded blood cultures incubated in each of the blood culture systems included 21 anaerobic, 39 aerobic and 39 pediatric bottles. The BacT/Alert Virtuo system exhibited significantly shorter TTD for 72.7 % of the tested organisms compared to BACTEC FX system with a median difference in mean TTD of 2.1 hours (interquartile range: 1.5-3.5 hours). The BACTEC FX system was faster in 15.2% (5/33) of microorganisms, with a median difference in mean TTD of 25.9 hours (IQR: 9.1-29.2 hours). TTD was significantly shorter for most of the microorganisms tested on the new BacT/Alert Virtuo system compared to the BACTEC FX system. Use of simulated cultures to assess TTD may not precisely represent clinical blood cultures. None.

  16. 77 FR 41331 - Commercial Mobile Alert System

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-07-13

    ... Mobile Alert System AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule; announcement of... with the Commission's Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMS), Second Report and Order (``CMAS Second... Alert System rules contained in the Commission's Second Report and Order, FCC 08- 164, published at 73...

  17. Evidence of effects of human disturbance on alert response in Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus).

    PubMed

    Li, Chunwang; Jiang, Zhigang; Tang, Songhua; Zeng, Yan

    2007-11-01

    To understand effects of human disturbance on alert response of Père David's deer, we carried out an experiment in the Dafeng Père David's Deer Reserve (32 degrees 59'-33 degrees 03'N, 120 degrees 47'-120 degrees 53'E), China. In the spring and summer, we observed alert responses (including stare, walking away, and flee) of deer and recorded the intensity of tourist disturbance in a small display pen using a laser-range finder to measure the alert distance of a free-ranging group in a large enclosure. We also recorded the pattern of head orientation when deer were resting in these two deer groups. After statistical analysis, we found that: 1) in small pen, the frequency of alert response was significantly different among different intensities of human disturbance; strong disturbance resulted in higher frequency of alert response; 2) stare distance in the free-ranging group in summer was significantly longer than that in spring, but the distance of walking away and the distance of flee showed no significant difference between the two seasons; and 3) in free-ranging group, there was no significant directional difference in head orientation, whereas in display group, there was a significant directional difference in head orientation. We suggest that: 1) under the captive situation, human disturbance may be one of the factors that affect alert response in Père David's deer; and 2) Père David's deer adopted different alert response to adapt to human disturbance under different circumstance. We recommended that relationships between alert response and human disturbance should be considered in ex situ conservation of this field extinct deer. Zoo Biol 26:461-470, 2007. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  18. Reduction in alert fatigue in an assisted electronic prescribing system, through the Lean Six Sigma methodology.

    PubMed

    Cuéllar Monreal, Mª Jesús; Reig Aguado, Jorge; Font Noguera, Isabel; Poveda Andrés, José Luis

    2017-01-01

    To reduce the alert fatigue in our Assisted Electronic Prescribing System (AEPS), through the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology. An observational (transversal) and retrospective study, in a general hospital with 850 beds and AEPS. The LSS methodology was followed in order to evaluate the alert fatigue situation in the AEPS system, to implement improvements, and to assess outcomes. The alerts generated during two trimesters studied (before and after the intervention) were analyzed. In order to measure the qualitative indicators, the most frequent alert types were analyzed, as well as the molecules responsible for over 50% of each type of alert. The action by the prescriber was analyzed in a sample of 496 prescriptions that generated such alerts. For each type of alert and molecule, there was a prioritization of the improvements to be implemented according to the alert generated and its quality. A second survey evaluated the pharmacist action for the alerts most highly valued by physicians. The problem, the objective, the work team and the project schedule were defined. A survey was designed in order to understand the opinion of the client about the alert system in the program. Based on the surveys collected (n = 136), the critical characteristics and the quanti/qualitative indicators were defined. Sixty (60) fields in the alert system were modified, corresponding to 32 molecules, and this led to a 28% reduction in the total number of alerts. Regarding quality indicators, false po sitive results were reduced by 25% (p < 0.05), 100% of those alerts ignored with justification were sustained, and there were no significant differences in user adherence to the system. The project improvements and outcomes were reviewed by the work team. LSS methodology has demonstrated being a valid tool for the quantitative and qualitative improvement of the alert system in an Assisted Electronic Prescription Program, thus reducing alert fatigue. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

  19. 77 FR 33661 - Review of the Emergency Alert System

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-06-07

    ... Emergency Alert System AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule; announcement of... Commission's Review of the Emergency Alert System, Fifth Report and Order (Order). This document is... Expiration Date: November 30, 2012. Title: Part 11--Emergency Alert System, Fifth Report and Order, FCC 12-7...

  20. Optimizing drug-dose alerts using commercial software throughout an integrated health care system.

    PubMed

    Saiyed, Salim M; Greco, Peter J; Fernandes, Glenn; Kaelber, David C

    2017-11-01

    All default electronic health record and drug reference database vendor drug-dose alerting recommendations (single dose, daily dose, dose frequency, and dose duration) were silently turned on in inpatient, outpatient, and emergency department areas for pediatric-only and nonpediatric-only populations. Drug-dose alerts were evaluated during a 3-month period. Drug-dose alerts fired on 12% of orders (104 098/834 911). System-level and drug-specific strategies to decrease drug-dose alerts were analyzed. System-level strategies included: (1) turning off all minimum drug-dosing alerts, (2) turning off all incomplete information drug-dosing alerts, (3) increasing the maximum single-dose drug-dose alert threshold to 125%, (4) increasing the daily dose maximum drug-dose alert threshold to 125%, and (5) increasing the dose frequency drug-dose alert threshold to more than 2 doses per day above initial threshold. Drug-specific strategies included changing drug-specific maximum single and maximum daily drug-dose alerting parameters for the top 22 drug categories by alert frequency. System-level approaches decreased alerting to 5% (46 988/834 911) and drug-specific approaches decreased alerts to 3% (25 455/834 911). Drug-dose alerts varied between care settings and patient populations. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  1. Detecting alerts, notifying the physician, and offering action items: a comprehensive alerting system.

    PubMed Central

    Kuperman, G. J.; Teich, J. M.; Bates, D. W.; Hiltz, F. L.; Hurley, J. M.; Lee, R. Y.; Paterno, M. D.

    1996-01-01

    We developed and evaluated a system to automatically identify serious clinical conditions in inpatients. The system notifies the patient's covering physician via his pager that an alert is present and offers potential therapies for the patient's condition (action items) at the time he views the alert information. Over a 6 month period, physicians responded to 1214 (70.2%) of 1730 alerts for which they were paged; they responded to 1002 (82.5% of the 1214) in less than 15 minutes. They said they would take action in 71.5% of the alerts, and they placed an order directly from the alert display screen in 39.4%. Further study is needed to determine if this alerting system improves processes or outcomes of care. PMID:8947756

  2. 21 CFR 26.20 - Alert system.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Alert system. 26.20 Section 26.20 Food and Drugs... PHARMACEUTICAL GOOD MANUFACTURING PRACTICE REPORTS, MEDICAL DEVICE QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN... Provisions for Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices § 26.20 Alert system. (a) The details of an alert...

  3. 21 CFR 26.20 - Alert system.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Alert system. 26.20 Section 26.20 Food and Drugs... PHARMACEUTICAL GOOD MANUFACTURING PRACTICE REPORTS, MEDICAL DEVICE QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN... Provisions for Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices § 26.20 Alert system. (a) The details of an alert...

  4. 21 CFR 26.20 - Alert system.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... PHARMACEUTICAL GOOD MANUFACTURING PRACTICE REPORTS, MEDICAL DEVICE QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Alert system. 26.20 Section 26.20 Food and Drugs... Provisions for Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practices § 26.20 Alert system. (a) The details of an alert...

  5. 47 CFR 80.277 - Ship Security Alert System (SSAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). 80.277... SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Equipment Authorization for Compulsory Ships § 80.277 Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). (a) Vessels equipped with a Ship Security Alert System pursuant to the Safety...

  6. 47 CFR 80.277 - Ship Security Alert System (SSAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). 80.277... SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Equipment Authorization for Compulsory Ships § 80.277 Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). (a) Vessels equipped with a Ship Security Alert System pursuant to the Safety...

  7. 47 CFR 80.277 - Ship Security Alert System (SSAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). 80.277... SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Equipment Authorization for Compulsory Ships § 80.277 Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). (a) Vessels equipped with a Ship Security Alert System pursuant to the Safety...

  8. 47 CFR 80.277 - Ship Security Alert System (SSAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). 80.277... SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Equipment Authorization for Compulsory Ships § 80.277 Ship Security Alert System (SSAS). (a) Vessels equipped with a Ship Security Alert System pursuant to the Safety...

  9. Real-time data acquisition and alerts may reduce reaction time and improve perfusionist performance during cardiopulmonary bypass.

    PubMed

    Beck, J R; Fung, K; Lopez, H; Mongero, L B; Argenziano, M

    2015-01-01

    Delayed perfusionist identification and reaction to abnormal clinical situations has been reported to contribute to increased mortality and morbidity. The use of automated data acquisition and compliance safety alerts has been widely accepted in many industries and its use may improve operator performance. A study was conducted to evaluate the reaction time of perfusionists with and without the use of compliance alert. A compliance alert is a computer-generated pop-up banner on a pump-mounted computer screen to notify the user of clinical parameters outside of a predetermined range. A proctor monitored and recorded the time from an alert until the perfusionist recognized the parameter was outside the desired range. Group one included 10 cases utilizing compliance alerts. Group 2 included 10 cases with the primary perfusionist blinded to the compliance alerts. In Group 1, 97 compliance alerts were identified and, in group two, 86 alerts were identified. The average reaction time in the group using compliance alerts was 3.6 seconds. The average reaction time in the group not using the alerts was nearly ten times longer than the group using computer-assisted, real-time data feedback. Some believe that real-time computer data acquisition and feedback improves perfusionist performance and may allow clinicians to identify and rectify potentially dangerous situations. © The Author(s) 2014.

  10. Development and implementation of sepsis alert systems

    PubMed Central

    Harrison, Andrew M.; Gajic, Ognjen; Pickering, Brian W.; Herasevich, Vitaly

    2016-01-01

    Synopsis/Summary Development and implementation of sepsis alert systems is challenging, particularly outside the monitored intensive care unit (ICU) setting. Important barriers to wider use of sepsis alerts include evolving clinical definitions of sepsis, information overload & alert fatigue, due to suboptimal alert performance. Outside the ICU, additional barriers include differences in health care delivery models, charting behaviors, and availability of electronic data. Currently available evidence does not support routine use of sepsis alert systems in clinical practice. However, continuous improvement in both the afferent (data availability and accuracy of detection algorithms) and efferent (evidence-based decision support and smoother integration into clinical workflow) limbs of sepsis alert systems will help translate theoretical advantages into measurable patient benefit. PMID:27229639

  11. Wireless clinical alerts for physiologic, laboratory and medication data.

    PubMed Central

    Shabot, M. M.; LoBue, M.; Chen, J.

    2000-01-01

    A fully interfaced clinical information system (CIS) contains physiologic, laboratory, blood gas, medication and other data that can be used as the information base for a comprehensive alerting system. Coupled with an event driven rules engine, a CIS can generate clinical alerts which may both prevent medical errors and assist caregivers in responding to critical events in a timely way. The authors have developed a clinical alerting system which delivers alerts and reminders to clinicians in real time via a alphanumeric display pagers. This paper will describe the system, the type and number of alerts generated, and the impact on clinical practice. A major issue remains in measuring the impact of wireless alerts on patient outcomes. PMID:11079992

  12. Making electronic prescribing alerts more effective: scenario-based experimental study in junior doctors

    PubMed Central

    Shah, Priya; Wyatt, Jeremy C; Makubate, Boikanyo; Cross, Frank W

    2011-01-01

    Objective Expert authorities recommend clinical decision support systems to reduce prescribing error rates, yet large numbers of insignificant on-screen alerts presented in modal dialog boxes persistently interrupt clinicians, limiting the effectiveness of these systems. This study compared the impact of modal and non-modal electronic (e-) prescribing alerts on prescribing error rates, to help inform the design of clinical decision support systems. Design A randomized study of 24 junior doctors each performing 30 simulated prescribing tasks in random order with a prototype e-prescribing system. Using a within-participant design, doctors were randomized to be shown one of three types of e-prescribing alert (modal, non-modal, no alert) during each prescribing task. Measurements The main outcome measure was prescribing error rate. Structured interviews were performed to elicit participants' preferences for the prescribing alerts and their views on clinical decision support systems. Results Participants exposed to modal alerts were 11.6 times less likely to make a prescribing error than those not shown an alert (OR 11.56, 95% CI 6.00 to 22.26). Those shown a non-modal alert were 3.2 times less likely to make a prescribing error (OR 3.18, 95% CI 1.91 to 5.30) than those not shown an alert. The error rate with non-modal alerts was 3.6 times higher than with modal alerts (95% CI 1.88 to 7.04). Conclusions Both kinds of e-prescribing alerts significantly reduced prescribing error rates, but modal alerts were over three times more effective than non-modal alerts. This study provides new evidence about the relative effects of modal and non-modal alerts on prescribing outcomes. PMID:21836158

  13. A review of human factors principles for the design and implementation of medication safety alerts in clinical information systems.

    PubMed

    Phansalkar, Shobha; Edworthy, Judy; Hellier, Elizabeth; Seger, Diane L; Schedlbauer, Angela; Avery, Anthony J; Bates, David W

    2010-01-01

    The objective of this review is to describe the implementation of human factors principles for the design of alerts in clinical information systems. First, we conduct a review of alarm systems to identify human factors principles that are employed in the design and implementation of alerts. Second, we review the medical informatics literature to provide examples of the implementation of human factors principles in current clinical information systems using alerts to provide medication decision support. Last, we suggest actionable recommendations for delivering effective clinical decision support using alerts. A review of studies from the medical informatics literature suggests that many basic human factors principles are not followed, possibly contributing to the lack of acceptance of alerts in clinical information systems. We evaluate the limitations of current alerting philosophies and provide recommendations for improving acceptance of alerts by incorporating human factors principles in their design.

  14. Pilot Performance With Predictive System Status Information

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Trujillo, Anna C.

    1997-01-01

    Research has shown a strong pilot preference for predictive information of aircraft system status in the flight deck. However, the benefits of predictive information have not been quantitatively demonstrated. The study described here attempted to identify and quantify these benefits if they existed. In this simulator experiment, three types of predictive information (none, whether a parameter was changing abnormally, and the time for a parameter to reach an alert range) and four initial times to an alert (1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and ETA+ 45 minutes) were found to affect when subjects accomplished certain actions, such as accessing pertinent checklists, declaring emergencies, diverting, and calling the flight attendant and dispatch.

  15. Proactive authenticated notifications for health practitioners: two way human computer interaction through phone.

    PubMed

    Majeed, Raphael W; Stöhr, Mark R; Röhrig, Rainer

    2012-01-01

    Notifications and alerts play an important role in clinical daily routine. Rising prevalence of clinical decision support systems and electronic health records also result in increasing demands on notification systems. Failure adequately to communicate a critical value is a potential cause of adverse events. Critical laboratory values and changing vital data depend on timely notifications of medical staff. Vital monitors and medical devices rely on acoustic signals for alerting which are prone to "alert fatigue" and require medical staff to be present within audible range. Personal computers are unsuitable to display time critical notification messages, since the targeted medical staff are not always operating or watching the computer. On the other hand, mobile phones and smart devices enjoy increasing popularity. Previous notification systems sending text messages to mobile phones depend on asynchronous confirmations. By utilizing an automated telephony server, we provide a method to deliver notifications quickly and independently of the recipients' whereabouts while allowing immediate feedback and confirmations. Evaluation results suggest the feasibility of the proposed notification system for real-time notifications.

  16. Analysis of clinical decision support system malfunctions: a case series and survey.

    PubMed

    Wright, Adam; Hickman, Thu-Trang T; McEvoy, Dustin; Aaron, Skye; Ai, Angela; Andersen, Jan Marie; Hussain, Salman; Ramoni, Rachel; Fiskio, Julie; Sittig, Dean F; Bates, David W

    2016-11-01

    To illustrate ways in which clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) malfunction and identify patterns of such malfunctions. We identified and investigated several CDSS malfunctions at Brigham and Women's Hospital and present them as a case series. We also conducted a preliminary survey of Chief Medical Information Officers to assess the frequency of such malfunctions. We identified four CDSS malfunctions at Brigham and Women's Hospital: (1) an alert for monitoring thyroid function in patients receiving amiodarone stopped working when an internal identifier for amiodarone was changed in another system; (2) an alert for lead screening for children stopped working when the rule was inadvertently edited; (3) a software upgrade of the electronic health record software caused numerous spurious alerts to fire; and (4) a malfunction in an external drug classification system caused an alert to inappropriately suggest antiplatelet drugs, such as aspirin, for patients already taking one. We found that 93% of the Chief Medical Information Officers who responded to our survey had experienced at least one CDSS malfunction, and two-thirds experienced malfunctions at least annually. CDSS malfunctions are widespread and often persist for long periods. The failure of alerts to fire is particularly difficult to detect. A range of causes, including changes in codes and fields, software upgrades, inadvertent disabling or editing of rules, and malfunctions of external systems commonly contribute to CDSS malfunctions, and current approaches for preventing and detecting such malfunctions are inadequate. CDSS malfunctions occur commonly and often go undetected. Better methods are needed to prevent and detect these malfunctions. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

  17. Adoption of medication alert systems in hospital outpatient departments in Taiwan.

    PubMed

    Kuo, Yu-Chun; Cheng, Shou-Hsia

    2017-06-01

    The adoption of medication alert systems in the health care sector varies among regions. In Taiwan, the health authority introduced policies in 2005 to encourage the adoption of medication alert systems in hospitals. This study aimed to understand the adoption of medication alert systems in the outpatient departments of hospitals in Taiwan using a nationwide survey. A questionnaire was developed and mailed to 380 accredited general hospitals in Taiwan in 2013. The information collected from the questionnaire concerning the outpatient department included (1) the time of adoption of a medication alert system; (2) the operation of individual alert functions: availability, management, and stability; and (3) hospital characteristics: accreditation level, teaching status, ownership, and number of beds. A total of 216 hospitals completed and returned the questionnaire, corresponding to a response rate of 56.8%. The adoption rate of medication alert systems in hospital outpatient departments increased from less than 10% in 1997-95.83% in 2012. Approximately two-thirds of the hospitals developed and maintained the alert systems independently or collaboratively with vendors. Teaching and large hospitals tended to develop more advanced alert functions such as drug-drug interaction functions. Improving the safety and quality of pharmaceutical services and meeting the policy requirements are reasons for hospitals to establish medication alert systems. The adoption rate of medication alert systems reached 95% in accredited general hospitals in Taiwan. Government policy and available health information professionals and vendors may somewhat contribute to the high adoption rate. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. INITIATE: An Intelligent Adaptive Alert Environment.

    PubMed

    Jafarpour, Borna; Abidi, Samina Raza; Ahmad, Ahmad Marwan; Abidi, Syed Sibte Raza

    2015-01-01

    Exposure to a large volume of alerts generated by medical Alert Generating Systems (AGS) such as drug-drug interaction softwares or clinical decision support systems over-whelms users and causes alert fatigue in them. Some of alert fatigue effects are ignoring crucial alerts and longer response times. A common approach to avoid alert fatigue is to devise mechanisms in AGS to stop them from generating alerts that are deemed irrelevant. In this paper, we present a novel framework called INITIATE: an INtellIgent adapTIve AlerT Environment to avoid alert fatigue by managing alerts generated by one or more AGS. We have identified and categories the lifecycle of different alerts and have developed alert management logic as per the alerts' lifecycle. Our framework incorporates an ontology that represents the alert management strategy and an alert management engine that executes this strategy. Our alert management framework offers the following features: (1) Adaptability based on users' feedback; (2) Personalization and aggregation of messages; and (3) Connection to Electronic Medical Records by implementing a HL7 Clinical Document Architecture parser.

  19. 47 CFR 10.300 - Alert aggregator. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Alert aggregator. [Reserved] 10.300 Section 10.300 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM System Architecture § 10.300 Alert aggregator. [Reserved] ...

  20. 47 CFR 10.300 - Alert aggregator. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Alert aggregator. [Reserved] 10.300 Section 10.300 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM System Architecture § 10.300 Alert aggregator. [Reserved] ...

  1. 47 CFR 10.300 - Alert aggregator. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Alert aggregator. [Reserved] 10.300 Section 10.300 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM System Architecture § 10.300 Alert aggregator. [Reserved] ...

  2. Evaluation of a National Call Center and a Local Alerts System for Detection of New Cases of Ebola Virus Disease - Guinea, 2014-2015

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-03-11

    Control and Prevention Evaluation of a National Call Center and a Local Alerts System for Detection of New Cases of Ebola Virus Disease — Guinea, 2014...principally through the use of a telephone alert system. Community members and health facilities report deaths and suspected Ebola cases to local alert ...sensitivity of the national call center with the local alerts system, the CDC country team performed probabilistic record linkage of the combined

  3. Jetliner Alert Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1983-01-01

    NASA research and design has significantly improved crew alert systems. The Engine Indication and Crew Alerting System (EICAS), developed by Psycho-Linguistic Research Associates, is technologically advanced and able to order alerts by priority. Ames has also developed computer controlled voice synthesizers for readouts during difficult landing approaches. This is available to airplane manufacturers.

  4. 77 FR 6000 - Airworthiness Directives; Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) Traffic Alert and...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-02-07

    ... Airworthiness Directives; Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) Traffic Alert and Collision... Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) units with part...

  5. Preventing dispensing errors by alerting for drug confusions in the pharmacy information system-A survey of users.

    PubMed

    Campmans, Zizi; van Rhijn, Arianne; Dull, René M; Santen-Reestman, Jacqueline; Taxis, Katja; Borgsteede, Sander D

    2018-01-01

    Drug confusion is thought to be the most common type of dispensing error. Several strategies can be implemented to reduce the risk of medication errors. One of these are alerts in the pharmacy information system. To evaluate the experiences of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with alerts for drug name and strength confusion. In May 2017, a cross-sectional survey of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians was performed in community pharmacies in the Netherlands using an online questionnaire. Of the 269 respondents, 86% (n = 230) had noticed the alert for drug name confusion, and 26% (n = 67) for drug strength confusion. Of those 230, 9% (n = 20) had experienced that the alert had prevented dispensing the wrong drug. For drug strength confusion, this proportion was 12% (n = 8). Respondents preferred to have an alert for drug name and strength confusion in the pharmacy information system. 'Alert fatigue' was an important issue, so alerts should only be introduced for frequent confusions or confusions with serious consequences. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were positive about having alerts for drug confusions in their pharmacy information system and experienced that alerts contributed to the prevention of dispensing errors. To prevent alert fatigue, it was considered important not to include all possible confusions as a new alert: the potential contribution to the prevention of drug confusion should be weighed against the risk of alert fatigue.

  6. 47 CFR 10.310 - Federal alert gateway. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] 10.310 Section 10.310 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM System Architecture § 10.310 Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] ...

  7. 47 CFR 10.310 - Federal alert gateway. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] 10.310 Section 10.310 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM System Architecture § 10.310 Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] ...

  8. 47 CFR 10.310 - Federal alert gateway. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] 10.310 Section 10.310 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM System Architecture § 10.310 Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] ...

  9. The international experience of bacterial screen testing of platelet components with an automated microbial detection system: a need for consensus testing and reporting guidelines.

    PubMed

    Benjamin, Richard J; McDonald, Carl P

    2014-04-01

    The BacT/ALERT microbial detection system (bioMerieux, Inc, Durham, NC) is in routine use in many blood centers as a prerelease test for platelet collections. Published reports document wide variation in practices and outcomes. A systematic review of the English literature was performed to describe publications assessing the use of the BacT/ALERT culture system on platelet collections as a routine screen test of more than 10000 platelet components. Sixteen publications report the use of confirmatory testing to substantiate initial positive culture results but use varying nomenclature to classify the results. Preanalytical and analytical variables that may affect the outcomes differ widely between centers. Incomplete description of protocol details complicates comparison between sites. Initial positive culture results range from 539 to 10606 per million (0.054%-1.061%) and confirmed positive from 127 to 1035 per million (0.013%-0.104%) donations. False-negative results determined by outdate culture range from 662 to 2173 per million (0.066%-0.217%) and by septic reactions from 0 to 66 per million (0%-0.007%) collections. Current culture protocols represent pragmatic compromises between optimizing analytical sensitivity and ensuring the timely availability of platelets for clinical needs. Insights into the effect of protocol variations on outcomes are generally restricted to individual sites that implement limited changes to their protocols over time. Platelet manufacturers should reassess the adequacy of their BacT/ALERT screening protocols in light of the growing international experience and provide detailed documentation of all variables that may affect culture outcomes when reporting results. We propose a framework for a standardized nomenclature for reporting of the results of BacT/ALERT screening. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Provider acceptance of an automated electronic alert for acute kidney injury

    PubMed Central

    Oh, Janice; Bia, Joshua R.; Ubaid-Ullah, Muhamad; Testani, Jeffrey M.; Wilson, Francis Perry

    2016-01-01

    Background Clinical decision support systems, including electronic alerts, ideally provide immediate and relevant patient-specific information to improve clinical decision-making. Despite the growing capabilities of such alerts in conjunction with an expanding electronic medical record, there is a paucity of information regarding their perceived usefulness. We surveyed healthcare providers' opinions concerning the practicality and efficacy of a specific text-based automated electronic alert for acute kidney injury (AKI) in a single hospital during a randomized trial of AKI alerts. Methods Providers who had received at least one electronic AKI alert in the previous 6 months, as part of a separate randomized controlled trial (clinicaltrials.gov #01862419), were asked to complete a survey concerning their opinions about this specific AKI alert system. Individual approval of the alert system was defined by a provider's desire to continue receiving the alert after termination of the trial. Results A total of 98 individuals completed the survey, including 62 physicians, 27 pharmacists and 7 non-physician providers. Sixty-nine percent of responders approved the alert, with no significant difference among the various professions (P = 0.28). Alert approval was strongly correlated with the belief that the alerts improved patient care (P < 0.0001), and negatively correlated with the belief that alerts did not provide novel information (P = 0.0001). With each additional 30 days of trial duration, odds of approval decreased by 20% (3–35%) (P = 0.02). Conclusions The alert system was generally well received, although approval waned with time. Approval was correlated with the belief that this type of alert improved patient care. These findings suggest that perceived efficacy is critical to the success of future alert trials. PMID:27478598

  11. 78 FR 53774 - Guide for the Evaluation of Alert and Notification Systems for Nuclear Power Plants, FEMA-REP-10...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-30

    ...] Guide for the Evaluation of Alert and Notification Systems for Nuclear Power Plants, FEMA-REP-10, Rev. 1... the Guide for the Evaluation of Alert and Notification Systems for Nuclear Power Plants, FEMA-REP-10... Agency (FEMA) issued FEMA-REP-10, Guide for the Evaluation of Alert and Notification Systems for Nuclear...

  12. A CCTV system with SMS alert (CMDSA): An implementation of pixel processing algorithm for motion detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rahman, Nurul Hidayah Ab; Abdullah, Nurul Azma; Hamid, Isredza Rahmi A.; Wen, Chuah Chai; Jelani, Mohamad Shafiqur Rahman Mohd

    2017-10-01

    Closed-Circuit TV (CCTV) system is one of the technologies in surveillance field to solve the problem of detection and monitoring by providing extra features such as email alert or motion detection. However, detecting and alerting the admin on CCTV system may complicate due to the complexity to integrate the main program with an external Application Programming Interface (API). In this study, pixel processing algorithm is applied due to its efficiency and SMS alert is added as an alternative solution for users who opted out email alert system or have no Internet connection. A CCTV system with SMS alert (CMDSA) was developed using evolutionary prototyping methodology. The system interface was implemented using Microsoft Visual Studio while the backend components, which are database and coding, were implemented on SQLite database and C# programming language, respectively. The main modules of CMDSA are motion detection, capturing and saving video, image processing and Short Message Service (SMS) alert functions. Subsequently, the system is able to reduce the processing time making the detection process become faster, reduce the space and memory used to run the program and alerting the system admin instantly.

  13. Comparison of Overridden Medication-related Clinical Decision Support in the Intensive Care Unit between a Commercial System and a Legacy System.

    PubMed

    Wong, Adrian; Wright, Adam; Seger, Diane L; Amato, Mary G; Fiskio, Julie M; Bates, David

    2017-08-23

    Electronic health records (EHRs) with clinical decision support (CDS) have shown to be effective at improving patient safety. Despite this, alerts delivered as part of CDS are overridden frequently, which is of concern in the critical care population as this group may have an increased risk of harm. Our organization recently transitioned from an internally-developed EHR to a commercial system. Data comparing various EHR systems, especially after transitions between EHRs, are needed to identify areas for improvement. To compare the two systems and identify areas for potential improvement with the new commercial system at a single institution. Overridden medication-related CDS alerts were included from October to December of the systems' respective years (legacy, 2011; commercial, 2015), restricted to three intensive care units. The two systems were compared with regards to CDS presentation and override rates for four types of CDS: drug-allergy, drug-drug interaction (DDI), geriatric and renal alerts. A post hoc analysis to evaluate for adverse drug events (ADEs) potentially resulting from overridden alerts was performed for 'contraindicated' DDIs via chart review. There was a significant increase in provider exposure to alerts and alert overrides in the commercial system (commercial: n=5,535; legacy: n=1,030). Rates of overrides were higher for the allergy and DDI alerts (p<0.001) in the commercial system. Geriatric and renal alerts were significantly different in incidence and presentation between the two systems. No ADEs were identified in an analysis of 43 overridden contraindicated DDI alerts. The vendor system had much higher rates of both alerts and overrides, although we did not find evidence of harm in a review of DDIs which were overridden. We propose recommendations for improving our current system which may be helpful to other similar institutions; improving both alert presentation and the underlying knowledge base appear important.

  14. Dose-response relationship for light intensity and ocular and electroencephalographic correlates of human alertness

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cajochen, C.; Zeitzer, J. M.; Czeisler, C. A.; Dijk, D. J.

    2000-01-01

    Light can elicit both circadian and acute physiological responses in humans. In a dose response protocol men and women were exposed to illuminances ranging from 3 to 9100 lux for 6.5 h during the early biological night after they had been exposed to <3 lux for several hours. Light exerted an acute alerting response as assessed by a reduction in the incidence of slow-eye movements, a reduction of EEG activity in the theta-alpha frequencies (power density in the 5-9 Hz range) as well as a reduction in self-reported sleepiness. This alerting response was positively correlated with the degree of melatonin suppression by light. In accordance with the dose response function for circadian resetting and melatonin suppression, the responses of all three indices of alertness to variations in illuminance were consistent with a logistic dose response curve. Half of the maximum alerting response to bright light of 9100 lux was obtained with room light of approximately 100 lux. This sensitivity to light indicates that variations in illuminance within the range of typical, ambient, room light (90-180 lux) can have a significant impact on subjective alertness and its electrophysiologic concomitants in humans during the early biological night.

  15. 47 CFR 10.240 - Notification to new subscribers of non-participation in CMAS.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ...-participation in CMAS. 10.240 Section 10.240 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.240... EMERGENCY ALERTS (Commercial Mobile Alert Service) [[CMS provider

  16. 47 CFR 11.56 - Obligation to process CAP-formatted EAS messages.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ...), and Common Alerting Protocol, v. 1.2 USA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Profile Version 1...) “Common Alerting Protocol, v. 1.2 USA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Profile Version 1.0” (Oct...

  17. 47 CFR 11.56 - Obligation to process CAP-formatted EAS messages.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ...), and Common Alerting Protocol, v. 1.2 USA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Profile Version 1...) “Common Alerting Protocol, v. 1.2 USA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Profile Version 1.0” (Oct...

  18. 47 CFR 11.56 - Obligation to process CAP-formatted EAS messages.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ...), and Common Alerting Protocol, v. 1.2 USA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Profile Version 1...) “Common Alerting Protocol, v. 1.2 USA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Profile Version 1.0” (Oct...

  19. Development and Implementation of Sepsis Alert Systems.

    PubMed

    Harrison, Andrew M; Gajic, Ognjen; Pickering, Brian W; Herasevich, Vitaly

    2016-06-01

    Development and implementation of sepsis alert systems is challenging, particularly outside the monitored intensive care unit (ICU) setting. Barriers to wider use of sepsis alerts include evolving clinical definitions of sepsis, information overload, and alert fatigue, due to suboptimal alert performance. Outside the ICU, barriers include differences in health care delivery models, charting behaviors, and availability of electronic data. Current evidence does not support routine use of sepsis alert systems in clinical practice. Continuous improvement in the afferent and efferent aspects will help translate theoretic advantages into measurable patient benefit. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Pilot Non-Conformance to Alerting System Commands

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pritchett, Amy R.; Hansman, R. John

    1997-01-01

    Instances of pilot non-conformance to alerting system commands have been identified in previous studies. Pilot non-conformance changes the final behavior of the system, and therefore may reduce actual performance from that anticipated. A simulator study has examined pilot non-conformance, using the task of collision avoidance during closely spaced parallel approaches as a case study. Consonance between the display and the alerting system was found to significantly improve subject agreement with automatic alerts. Based on these results, a more general discussion of the factors involved in pilot conformance is given, and design guidelines for alerting systems are given.

  1. Does Telehealth Monitoring Identify Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Reduce Hospitalisations? An Analysis of System Data

    PubMed Central

    Bentley, Claire L; Mountain, Gail A

    2017-01-01

    Background The increasing prevalence and associated cost of treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is unsustainable. Health care organizations are focusing on ways to support self-management and prevent hospital admissions, including telehealth-monitoring services capturing physiological and health status data. This paper reports on data captured during a pilot randomized controlled trial of telehealth-supported care within a community-based service for patients discharged from hospital following an exacerbation of their COPD. Objective The aim was to undertake the first analysis of system data to determine whether telehealth monitoring can identify an exacerbation of COPD, providing clinicians with an opportunity to intervene with timely treatment and prevent hospital readmission. Methods A total of 23 participants received a telehealth-supported intervention. This paper reports on the analysis of data from a telehealth monitoring system that captured data from two sources: (1) data uploaded both manually and using Bluetooth peripheral devices by the 23 participants and (2) clinical records entered as nursing notes by the clinicians. Rules embedded in the telehealth monitoring system triggered system alerts to be reviewed by remote clinicians who determined whether clinical intervention was required. We also analyzed data on the frequency and length (bed days) of hospital admissions, frequency of hospital Accident and Emergency visits that did not lead to hospital admission, and frequency and type of community health care service contacts—other than the COPD discharge service—for all participants for the duration of the intervention and 6 months postintervention. Results Patients generated 512 alerts, 451 of which occurred during the first 42 days that all participants used the equipment. Patients generated fewer alerts over time with typically seven alerts per day within the first 10 days and four alerts per day thereafter. They also had three times more days without alerts than with alerts. Alerts were most commonly triggered by reports of being more tired, having difficulty with self-care, and blood pressure being out of range. During the 8-week intervention, and for 6-month follow-up, eight of the 23 patients were hospitalized. Hospital readmission rates (2/23, 9%) in the first 28 days of service were lower than the 20% UK norm. Conclusions It seems that the clinical team can identify exacerbations based on both an increase in alerts and the types of system-generated alerts as evidenced by their efforts to provided treatment interventions. There was some indication that telehealth monitoring potentially delayed hospitalizations until after patients had been discharged from the service. We suggest that telehealth-supported care can fulfill an important role in enabling patients with COPD to better manage their condition and remain out of hospital, but adequate resourcing and timely response to alerts is a critical factor in supporting patients to remain at home. Trial Registration International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN): 68856013; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN68856013 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6ofApNB2e) PMID:28330829

  2. 47 CFR 10.320 - Provider alert gateway requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Provider alert gateway requirements. 10.320 Section 10.320 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM System Architecture § 10.320 Provider alert gateway requirements. This section specifies the functions...

  3. The Generic Resolution Advisor and Conflict Evaluator (GRACE) for Detect-And-Avoid (DAA) Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Abramson, Michael; Refai, Mohamad; Santiago, Confesor

    2017-01-01

    The paper describes the Generic Resolution Advisor and Conflict Evaluator (GRACE), a novel alerting and guidance algorithm that combines flexibility, robustness, and computational efficiency. GRACE is "generic" in that it makes no assumptions regarding temporal or spatial scales, aircraft performance, or its sensor and communication systems. Accordingly, GRACE is well suited to research applications where alerting and guidance is a central feature and requirements are fluid involving a wide range of aviation technologies. GRACE has been used at NASA in a number of real-time and fast-time experiments supporting evolving requirements of DAA research, including parametric studies, NAS-wide simulations, human-in-the-loop experiments, and live flight tests.

  4. 75 FR 81512 - Airworthiness Directives; Various Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) Traffic...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-12-28

    ... Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) Units AGENCY... & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) units during a flight test over... applies to Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS) Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance...

  5. Visual Alert System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1985-01-01

    A visual alert system resulted from circuitry developed by Applied Cybernetics Systems for Langley as part of a space related telemetry system. James Campman, Applied Cybernetics president, left the company and founded Grace Industries, Inc. to manufacture security devices based on the Langley technology. His visual alert system combines visual and audible alerts for hearing impaired people. The company also manufactures an arson detection device called the electronic nose, and is currently researching additional applications of the NASA technology.

  6. 77 FR 26701 - Review of the Emergency Alert System

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-07

    ... Emergency Alert System AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) amends its rules governing the Emergency Alert... the manner in which EAS Participants must be able to receive alert messages formatted in the Common...

  7. The PLATO PPTK System: An Alternative Keyboard Using the PLATO Computer-Based Education System for the Orthopedically Handicapped.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goodman, William J.

    Developed in response to the complex problems involved in providing equal educational opportunities for the intellectually alert orthopedically handicapped, the PLATO Programmable Terminal Keyset (PPTK) system makes the resources of PLATO compatible to the functional problems of a wide range of orthopedic conditions. This report describes the…

  8. A systematic review of the effectiveness of interruptive medication prescribing alerts in hospital CPOE systems to change prescriber behavior and improve patient safety.

    PubMed

    Page, N; Baysari, M T; Westbrook, J I

    2017-09-01

    To assess the evidence of the effectiveness of different categories of interruptive medication prescribing alerts to change prescriber behavior and/or improve patient outcomes in hospital computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems. PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library were searched for relevant articles published between January 2000 and February 2016. Studies were included if they compared the outcomes of automatic, interruptive medication prescribing alert/s to a control/comparison group to determine alert effectiveness. Twenty-three studies describing 32 alerts classified into 11 alert categories were identified. The most common alert categories studied were drug-condition interaction (n=6), drug-drug interaction alerts (n=6) and corollary order alerts (n=6). All 23 papers investigated the effect of the intervention alert on at least one outcome measure of prescriber behavior. Just over half of the studies (53%, n=17) reported a statistically significant beneficial effect from the intervention alert; 34% (n=11) reported no statistically significant effect, and 6% (n=2) reported a significant detrimental effect. Two studies also evaluated the effect of alerts on patient outcome measures; neither finding that patient outcomes significantly improved following alert implementation (6%, n=2). The greatest volume of evidence relates to three alert categories: drug-condition, drug-drug and corollary order alerts. Of these, drug-condition alerts had the greatest number of studies reporting positive effects (five out of six studies). Only two of six studies of drug-drug interaction and one of six of corollary alerts reported positive benefits. The current evidence-base does not show a clear indication that particular categories of alerts are more effective than others. While the majority of alert categories were shown to improve outcomes in some studies, there were also many cases where outcomes did not improve. This lack of evidence hinders decisions about the amount and type of decision support that should be integrated into CPOE systems to increase safety while reducing the risk of alert fatigue. Virtually no studies have sought to investigate the impact on changes to prescriber behavior and outcomes overall when alerts from multiple categories are incorporated within the same system. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Wireless clinical alerts and patient outcomes in the surgical intensive care unit.

    PubMed

    Major, Kevin; Shabot, M Michael; Cunneen, Scott

    2002-12-01

    Errors in medicine have gained public interest since the Institute of Medicine published its 1999 report on this subject. Although errors of commission are frequently cited, errors of omission can be equally serious. A computerized surgical intensive care unit (SICU) information system when coupled to an event-driven alerting engine has the potential to reduce errors of omission for critical intensive care unit events. Automated alerts and patient outcomes were prospectively collected for all patients admitted to a tertiary-care SICU for a 2-year period. During the study period 3,973 patients were admitted to the SICU and received 13,608 days of care. A total of 15,066 alert pages were sent including alerts for physiologic condition (6,163), laboratory data (4,951), blood gas (3,774), drug allergy (130), and toxic drug levels (48). Admission Simplified Acute Physiology Score and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score, SICU lengths of stay, and overall mortality rates were significantly higher in patients who triggered the alerting system. Patients triggering the alert paging system were 49.4 times more likely to die in the SICU compared with patients who did not generate an alert. Even after transfer to floor care the patients who triggered the alerting system were 5.7 times more likely to die in the hospital. An alert page identifies patients who will stay in the SICU longer and have a significantly higher chance of death compared with patients who do not trigger the alerting system.

  10. An IDS Alerts Aggregation Algorithm Based on Rough Set Theory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Ru; Guo, Tao; Liu, Jianyi

    2018-03-01

    Within a system in which has been deployed several IDS, a great number of alerts can be triggered by a single security event, making real alerts harder to be found. To deal with redundant alerts, we propose a scheme based on rough set theory. In combination with basic concepts in rough set theory, the importance of attributes in alerts was calculated firstly. With the result of attributes importance, we could compute the similarity of two alerts, which will be compared with a pre-defined threshold to determine whether these two alerts can be aggregated or not. Also, time interval should be taken into consideration. Allowed time interval for different types of alerts is computed individually, since different types of alerts may have different time gap between two alerts. In the end of this paper, we apply proposed scheme on DAPRA98 dataset and the results of experiment show that our scheme can efficiently reduce the redundancy of alerts so that administrators of security system could avoid wasting time on useless alerts.

  11. Some human factors issues in the development and evaluation of cockpit alerting and warning systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Randle, R. J., Jr.; Larsen, W. E.; Williams, D. H.

    1980-01-01

    A set of general guidelines for evaluating a newly developed cockpit alerting and warning system in terms of human factors issues are provided. Although the discussion centers around a general methodology, it is made specifically to the issues involved in alerting systems. An overall statement of the current operational problem is presented. Human factors problems with reference to existing alerting and warning systems are described. The methodology for proceeding through system development to system test is discussed. The differences between traditional human factors laboratory evaluations and those required for evaluation of complex man-machine systems under development are emphasized. Performance evaluation in the alerting and warning subsystem using a hypothetical sample system is explained.

  12. 76 FR 3064 - Travelers Information Stations

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-01-19

    ... phone numbers when local 911 systems fail, terror threat alert levels, public health warnings ``and all... Alerts, alternate phone numbers when local 911 systems fail, terror threat alert levels, public health..., alternate phone numbers to 911, terror threat alert levels, and public health warnings--do not appear to be...

  13. Dual-task performance consequences of imperfect alerting associated with a cockpit display of traffic information.

    PubMed

    Wickens, Christopher; Colcombe, Angela

    2007-10-01

    Performance consequences related to integrating an imperfect alert within a complex task domain were examined in two experiments. Cockpit displays of traffic information (CDTIs) are being designed for use in airplane cockpits as responsibility for safe separation becomes shared between pilots and controllers. Of interest in this work is how characteristics of the alarm system such as threshold, modality, and number of alert levels impact concurrent task (flight control) performance and response to potential conflicts. Student pilots performed a tracking task analogous to flight control while simultaneously monitoring for air traffic conflicts with the aid of a CDTI alert as the threshold, modality, and level of alert was varied. As the alerting system became more prone to false alerts, pilot compliance decreased and concurrent performance improved. There was some evidence of auditory preemption with auditory alerts as the false alarm rate increased. Finally, there was no benefit to a three-level system over a two-level system. There is justification for increased false alarm rates, as miss-prone systems appear to be costly. The 4:1 false alarm to miss ratio employed here improved accuracy and concurrent task performance. More research needs to address the potential benefits of likelihood alerting. The issues addressed in this research can be applied to any imperfect alerting system such as in aviation, driving, or air traffic control. It is crucial to understand the performance consequences of new technology and the efficacy of potential mitigating design features within the specific context desired.

  14. Factors influencing alert acceptance: a novel approach for predicting the success of clinical decision support

    PubMed Central

    Seidling, Hanna M; Phansalkar, Shobha; Seger, Diane L; Paterno, Marilyn D; Shaykevich, Shimon; Haefeli, Walter E

    2011-01-01

    Background Clinical decision support systems can prevent knowledge-based prescription errors and improve patient outcomes. The clinical effectiveness of these systems, however, is substantially limited by poor user acceptance of presented warnings. To enhance alert acceptance it may be useful to quantify the impact of potential modulators of acceptance. Methods We built a logistic regression model to predict alert acceptance of drug–drug interaction (DDI) alerts in three different settings. Ten variables from the clinical and human factors literature were evaluated as potential modulators of provider alert acceptance. ORs were calculated for the impact of knowledge quality, alert display, textual information, prioritization, setting, patient age, dose-dependent toxicity, alert frequency, alert level, and required acknowledgment on acceptance of the DDI alert. Results 50 788 DDI alerts were analyzed. Providers accepted only 1.4% of non-interruptive alerts. For interruptive alerts, user acceptance positively correlated with frequency of the alert (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.38), quality of display (4.75, 3.87 to 5.84), and alert level (1.74, 1.63 to 1.86). Alert acceptance was higher in inpatients (2.63, 2.32 to 2.97) and for drugs with dose-dependent toxicity (1.13, 1.07 to 1.21). The textual information influenced the mode of reaction and providers were more likely to modify the prescription if the message contained detailed advice on how to manage the DDI. Conclusion We evaluated potential modulators of alert acceptance by assessing content and human factors issues, and quantified the impact of a number of specific factors which influence alert acceptance. This information may help improve clinical decision support systems design. PMID:21571746

  15. 77 FR 8181 - Airworthiness Directives; Fokker Services B.V. Airplanes

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-02-14

    ... hydraulic system and accompanying alerts for ``hydraulic system 1 low quantity'' and ``hydraulic system 2... of the hydraulic system and accompanying alerts for ``hydraulic system 1 low quantity'' and... for these alerts may give the false impression that the stabiliser is still hydraulically controllable...

  16. Alert Triage v 0.1 beta

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Doak, Justin E.; Ingram, Joe; Johnson, Josh

    2016-01-06

    In the cyber security operations of a typical organization, data from multiple sources are monitored, and when certain conditions in the data are met, an alert is generated in an alert management system. Analysts inspect these alerts to decide if any deserve promotion to an event requiring further scrutiny. This triage process is manual, time-consuming, and detracts from the in-depth investigation of events. We have created a software system that uses supervised machine learning to automatically prioritize these alerts. In particular we utilize active learning to make efficient use of the pool of unlabeled alerts, thereby improving the performance ofmore » our ranking models over passive learning. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of our system on a large, real-world dataset of cyber security alerts.« less

  17. 75 FR 25842 - Notice of a Grant With the Public Broadcasting Service

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-05-10

    ... development of the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), a national system to distribute emergency alert...-27 (Feb. 8, 2006) (establishing the National Alert and Tsunami Warning Program); Section 606 of the... requirements to support the distribution of geographically targeted alerts by commercial mobile service...

  18. 77 FR 28387 - Federal Advisory Committee Act; Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-14

    ... practice recommendations on emergency alerting systems such as promoting E9-1-1 reliability and alerting platforms--Emergency Alert System and Common Alerting Protocol. DATES: June 6, 2012. ADDRESSES: Federal... Advisory Committee that will provide recommendations to the FCC regarding best practices and actions the...

  19. Radar-based alert system to operate a sewerage network: relevance and operational effectiveness after several years of use.

    PubMed

    Faure, D; Payrastre, O; Auchet, P

    2005-01-01

    Since January 2000, the sewerage network of a very urbanised catchment area in the Greater Nancy Urban Community has been operated according to the alarms generated in real time by a storm alert system using weather radar data. This alert system is based on an automatic identification of intense rain cells in the radar images. This paper presents the characteristics of this alert system and synthesises the main results of two complementary studies realised in 2002 in order to estimate the relevance and the operational effectiveness of the alert system. The first study consisted in an off-line analysis of almost 50,000 intense rain cells detected in four years of historical radar data. The second study was an analysis of the experience feedback after two years of operational use of this alert system. The results of these studies are discussed in function of the initial operational objectives.

  20. Flight crew interface aspects of forward-looking airborne windshear detection systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Anderson, Charles D.; Carbaugh, David C.

    1993-01-01

    The goal of this research effort was to conduct analyses and research which could provide guidelines for design of the crew interface of an integrated windshear system. Addressed were HF issues, crew/system requirements, candidate display formats, alerting criteria, and crew procedures. A survey identified five flight management issues as top priority: missed alert acceptability; avoidance distance needed; false alert acceptability; nuisance rate acceptability; and crew procedures. Results of a simulation study indicated that the warning time for a look-ahead alert needs to be between 11 and 36 seconds (target of 23 seconds) before the reactive system triggers in order to be effective. Pilots considered the standard go-around maneuver most appropriate for look-ahead alerts, and the escape maneuvers used did not require lateral turns. Prototype display formats were reviewed or developed for alerting the crew; providing guidance to avoid or escape windshear; and status displays to provide windshear situational awareness. The three alerting levels now in use were considered appropriate, with a fourth (time-critical) level as a possible addition, although many reviewers felt only two levels of alerting were needed. Another survey gathered expert opinion on what crew procedures and alerting criteria should be used for look-ahead, or integrated, windshear systems, with a wide diversity of opinion in these areas.

  1. Advanced alerting features: displaying new relevant data and retracting alerts.

    PubMed Central

    Kuperman, G. J.; Hiltz, F. L.; Teich, J. M.

    1997-01-01

    We added two advanced features to our automated alerting system. The first feature identifies and displays, at the time an alert is reviewed, relevant data filed between the login time of a specimen leading to an alerting result and the time the alert is reviewed. Relevant data is defined as data of the same kind as generated the alert. The other feature retracts alerts when the alerting value is edited and no longer satisfies the alerting criteria. We evaluated the two features for a 14-week period (new relevant data) and a 6-week period (retraction). Of a total of 1104 alerts in the 14-week evaluation, 286 (25.9%) had new relevant data displayed at alert review time. Of the 286, 75.2% were due to additions of comments to the original piece of alerting data; 24.1% were due to new or pending laboratory results of the same type that generated the alert. Two alerts (out of 490) were retracted in a 6 week period. We conclude that in our system, new clinically relevant data is often added between the time of specimen login and the time that an alerting result from that specimen is reviewed. Retractions occur rarely but are important to detect and communicate. PMID:9357625

  2. Advanced LED warning system for rural intersections : phase 2 (ALERT-2) : final report.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2014-02-01

    This report presents findings of the second phase of the Advanced LED Warning System for Rural : Intersections (ALERT) project. Since it is the next generation of the same system, the second phase : system is referred to as the ALERT-2 system while t...

  3. Geo-targeted Weather Alerts Coming to Millions of Mobile Devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gerber, M.

    2011-12-01

    The Personal Localized Alert Network (PLAN), aka Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), is readying for roll out and will be broadcasting emergency public alerts to millions of cell phones by the middle of 2012. Learn how the National Weather Serivce (NWS) is supplying PLAN with geo-referenced weather alert information in the industry standard Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) format and how you can access this same information for integration with mobile devices, other consumer electronics, and decision support systems. Information will also be provided on the NWS' new collaborative venue that encourages wide participation in the evolution and use of NWS CAP alerts in a variety of applications.

  4. Variability of Diabetes Alert Dog Accuracy in a Real-World Setting

    PubMed Central

    Gonder-Frederick, Linda A.; Grabman, Jesse H.; Shepard, Jaclyn A.; Tripathi, Anand V.; Ducar, Dallas M.; McElgunn, Zachary R.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Diabetes alert dogs (DADs) are growing in popularity as an alternative method of glucose monitoring for individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Only a few empirical studies have assessed DAD accuracy, with inconsistent results. The present study examined DAD accuracy and variability in performance in real-world conditions using a convenience sample of owner-report diaries. Method: Eighteen DAD owners (44.4% female; 77.8% youth) with T1D completed diaries of DAD alerts during the first year after placement. Diary entries included daily BG readings and DAD alerts. For each DAD, percentage hits (alert with BG ≤ 5.0 or ≥ 11.1 mmol/L; ≤90 or ≥200 mg/dl), percentage misses (no alert with BG out of range), and percentage false alarms (alert with BG in range) were computed. Sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), and true positive rates were also calculated. Results: Overall comparison of DAD Hits to Misses yielded significantly more Hits for both low and high BG. Total sensitivity was 57.0%, with increased sensitivity to low BG (59.2%) compared to high BG (56.1%). Total specificity was 49.3% and PLR = 1.12. However, high variability in accuracy was observed across DADs, with low BG sensitivity ranging from 33% to 100%. Number of DADs achieving ≥ 60%, 65% and 70% true positive rates was 71%, 50% and 44%, respectively. Conclusions: DADs may be able to detect out-of-range BG, but variability across DADs is evident. Larger trials are needed to further assess DAD accuracy and to identify factors influencing the complexity of DAD accuracy in BG detection. PMID:28627305

  5. Diagnostic accuracy and effectiveness of automated electronic sepsis alert systems: A systematic review.

    PubMed

    Makam, Anil N; Nguyen, Oanh K; Auerbach, Andrew D

    2015-06-01

    Although timely treatment of sepsis improves outcomes, delays in administering evidence-based therapies are common. To determine whether automated real-time electronic sepsis alerts can: (1) accurately identify sepsis and (2) improve process measures and outcomes. We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature from database inception through June 27, 2014. Included studies that empirically evaluated 1 or both of the prespecified objectives. Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. Diagnostic accuracy of sepsis identification was measured by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and likelihood ratio (LR). Effectiveness was assessed by changes in sepsis care process measures and outcomes. Of 1293 citations, 8 studies met inclusion criteria, 5 for the identification of sepsis (n = 35,423) and 5 for the effectiveness of sepsis alerts (n = 6894). Though definition of sepsis alert thresholds varied, most included systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria ± evidence of shock. Diagnostic accuracy varied greatly, with PPV ranging from 20.5% to 53.8%, NPV 76.5% to 99.7%, LR+ 1.2 to 145.8, and LR- 0.06 to 0.86. There was modest evidence for improvement in process measures (ie, antibiotic escalation), but only among patients in non-critical care settings; there were no corresponding improvements in mortality or length of stay. Minimal data were reported on potential harms due to false positive alerts. Automated sepsis alerts derived from electronic health data may improve care processes but tend to have poor PPV and do not improve mortality or length of stay. © 2015 Society of Hospital Medicine.

  6. Diagnostic Accuracy and Effectiveness of Automated Electronic Sepsis Alert Systems: A Systematic Review

    PubMed Central

    Makam, Anil N.; Nguyen, Oanh K.; Auerbach, Andrew D.

    2015-01-01

    Background Although timely treatment of sepsis improves outcomes, delays in administering evidence-based therapies are common. Purpose To determine whether automated real-time electronic sepsis alerts can: 1) accurately identify sepsis, and 2) improve process measures and outcomes. Data Sources We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and CINAHL from database inception through June 27, 2014. Study Selection Included studies that empirically evaluated one or both of the prespecified objectives. Data Extraction Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed the risk of bias. Diagnostic accuracy of sepsis identification was measured by sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) and likelihood ratios (LR). Effectiveness was assessed by changes in sepsis care process measures and outcomes. Data Synthesis Of 1,293 citations, 8 studies met inclusion criteria, 5 for the identification of sepsis (n=35,423) and 5 for the effectiveness of sepsis alerts (n=6,894). Though definition of sepsis alert thresholds varied, most included systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria ± evidence of shock. Diagnostic accuracy varied greatly, with PPV ranging from 20.5-53.8%, NPV 76.5-99.7%; LR+ 1.2-145.8; and LR- 0.06-0.86. There was modest evidence for improvement in process measures (i.e., antibiotic escalation), but only among patients in non-critical care settings; there were no corresponding improvements in mortality or length of stay. Minimal data were reported on potential harms due to false positive alerts. Conclusions Automated sepsis alerts derived from electronic health data may improve care processes but tend to have poor positive predictive value and do not improve mortality or length of stay. PMID:25758641

  7. Implementation and evaluation of the Sacramento Regional Transportation Management Center Weather Alert Notification System.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2010-08-01

    This report presents the results of an evaluation of Caltrans District 3 Regional Transportation Management Centers (RTMC) implementation of a weather alert notification system. This alert system was selected for implementation from among several ...

  8. Examples of Communicating Uncertainty Applied to Earthquake Hazard and Risk Products

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wald, D. J.

    2013-12-01

    When is communicating scientific modeling uncertainty effective? One viewpoint is that the answer depends on whether one is communicating hazard or risk: hazards have quantifiable uncertainties (which, granted, are often ignored), yet risk uncertainties compound uncertainties inherent in the hazard with those of the risk calculations, and are thus often larger. Larger, yet more meaningful: since risk entails societal impact of some form, consumers of such information tend to have a better grasp of the potential uncertainty ranges for loss information than they do for less-tangible hazard values (like magnitude, peak acceleration, or stream flow). I present two examples that compare and contrast communicating uncertainty for earthquake hazard and risk products. The first example is the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) ShakeMap system, which portrays the uncertain, best estimate of the distribution and intensity of shaking over the potentially impacted region. The shaking intensity is well constrained at seismograph locations yet is uncertain elsewhere, so shaking uncertainties are quantified and presented spatially. However, with ShakeMap, it seems that users tend to believe what they see is accurate in part because (1) considering the shaking uncertainty complicates the picture, and (2) it would not necessarily alter their decision-making. In contrast, when it comes to making earthquake-response decisions based on uncertain loss estimates, actions tend to be made only after analysis of the confidence in (or source of) such estimates. Uncertain ranges of loss estimates instill tangible images for users, and when such uncertainties become large, intuitive reality-check alarms go off, for example, when the range of losses presented become too wide to be useful. The USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, which in near-real time alerts users to the likelihood of ranges of potential fatalities and economic impact, is aimed at facilitating rapid and proportionate earthquake response. For uncertainty representation, PAGER employs an Earthquake Impact Scale (EIS) that provides simple alerting thresholds, derived from systematic analyses of past earthquake impact and response levels. The alert levels are characterized by alerts of green (little or no impact), yellow (regional impact and response), orange (national-scale impact and response), and red (major disaster, necessitating international response). We made a conscious attempt at both simple and intuitive color-coded alerting criterion; yet, we preserve the necessary uncertainty measures (with simple histograms) by which one can gauge the likelihood for the alert to be over- or underestimated. In these hazard and loss modeling examples, both products are widely used across a range of technical as well as general audiences. Ironically, ShakeMap uncertainties--rigorously reported and portrayed for the primarily scientific portion of the audience--are rarely employed and are routinely misunderstood; for PAGER, uncertainties aimed at a wider user audience seem to be more easily digested. We discuss how differences in the way these uncertainties are portrayed may play into their acceptance and uptake, or lack thereof.

  9. Wearable PPG sensor based alertness scoring system.

    PubMed

    Dey, Jishnu; Bhowmik, Tanmoy; Sahoo, Saswata; Tiwari, Vijay Narayan

    2017-07-01

    Quantifying mental alertness in today's world is important as it enables the person to adopt lifestyle changes for better work efficiency. Miniaturized sensors in wearable devices have facilitated detection/monitoring of mental alertness. Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors through Heart Rate Variability (HRV) offer one such opportunity by providing information about one's daily alertness levels without requiring any manual interference from the user. In this paper, a smartwatch based alertness estimation system is proposed. Data collected from PPG sensor of smartwatch is processed and fed to machine learning based model to get a continuous alertness score. Utility functions are designed based on statistical analysis to give a quality score on different stages of alertness such as awake, long sleep and short duration power nap. An intelligent data collection approach is proposed in collaboration with the motion sensor in the smartwatch to reduce battery drainage. Overall, our proposed wearable based system provides a detailed analysis of alertness over a period in a systematic and optimized manner. We were able to achieve an accuracy of 80.1% for sleep/awake classification along with alertness score. This opens up the possibility for quantifying alertness levels using a single PPG sensor for better management of health related activities including sleep.

  10. Closing the Loop in ICU Decision Support: Physiologic Event Detection, Alerts, and Documentation

    PubMed Central

    Norris, Patrick R.; Dawant, Benoit M.

    2002-01-01

    Automated physiologic event detection and alerting is a challenging task in the ICU. Ideally care providers should be alerted only when events are clinically significant and there is opportunity for corrective action. However, the concepts of clinical significance and opportunity are difficult to define in automated systems, and effectiveness of alerting algorithms is difficult to measure. This paper describes recent efforts on the Simon project to capture information from ICU care providers about patient state and therapy in response to alerts, in order to assess the value of event definitions and progressively refine alerting algorithms. Event definitions for intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure were studied by implementing a reliable system to automatically deliver alerts to clinical users’ alphanumeric pagers, and to capture associated documentation about patient state and therapy when the alerts occurred. During a 6-month test period in the trauma ICU at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 530 alerts were detected in 2280 hours of data spanning 14 patients. Clinical users electronically documented 81% of these alerts as they occurred. Retrospectively classifying documentation based on therapeutic actions taken, or reasons why actions were not taken, provided useful information about ways to potentially improve event definitions and enhance system utility.

  11. Preventing dispensing errors by alerting for drug confusions in the pharmacy information system—A survey of users

    PubMed Central

    Campmans, Zizi; van Rhijn, Arianne; Dull, René M.; Santen-Reestman, Jacqueline; Taxis, Katja

    2018-01-01

    Introduction Drug confusion is thought to be the most common type of dispensing error. Several strategies can be implemented to reduce the risk of medication errors. One of these are alerts in the pharmacy information system. Objective To evaluate the experiences of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with alerts for drug name and strength confusion. Methods In May 2017, a cross-sectional survey of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians was performed in community pharmacies in the Netherlands using an online questionnaire. Results Of the 269 respondents, 86% (n = 230) had noticed the alert for drug name confusion, and 26% (n = 67) for drug strength confusion. Of those 230, 9% (n = 20) had experienced that the alert had prevented dispensing the wrong drug. For drug strength confusion, this proportion was 12% (n = 8). Respondents preferred to have an alert for drug name and strength confusion in the pharmacy information system. ‘Alert fatigue’ was an important issue, so alerts should only be introduced for frequent confusions or confusions with serious consequences. Conclusion Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were positive about having alerts for drug confusions in their pharmacy information system and experienced that alerts contributed to the prevention of dispensing errors. To prevent alert fatigue, it was considered important not to include all possible confusions as a new alert: the potential contribution to the prevention of drug confusion should be weighed against the risk of alert fatigue. PMID:29813099

  12. 33 CFR 101.310 - Additional communication devices.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... communication devices. (a) Alert Systems. Alert systems, such as the ship security alert system required in... part 104, 105, or 106 of this subchapter. (b) Automated Identification Systems (AIS). AIS may be used... plan under part 104 of this subchapter. See 33 CFR part 164 for additional information on AIS device...

  13. 33 CFR 101.310 - Additional communication devices.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... communication devices. (a) Alert Systems. Alert systems, such as the ship security alert system required in... part 104, 105, or 106 of this subchapter. (b) Automated Identification Systems (AIS). AIS may be used... plan under part 104 of this subchapter. See 33 CFR part 164 for additional information on AIS device...

  14. 33 CFR 101.310 - Additional communication devices.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... communication devices. (a) Alert Systems. Alert systems, such as the ship security alert system required in... part 104, 105, or 106 of this subchapter. (b) Automated Identification Systems (AIS). AIS may be used... plan under part 104 of this subchapter. See 33 CFR part 164 for additional information on AIS device...

  15. 33 CFR 101.310 - Additional communication devices.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... communication devices. (a) Alert Systems. Alert systems, such as the ship security alert system required in... part 104, 105, or 106 of this subchapter. (b) Automated Identification Systems (AIS). AIS may be used... plan under part 104 of this subchapter. See 33 CFR part 164 for additional information on AIS device...

  16. 33 CFR 101.310 - Additional communication devices.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... communication devices. (a) Alert Systems. Alert systems, such as the ship security alert system required in... part 104, 105, or 106 of this subchapter. (b) Automated Identification Systems (AIS). AIS may be used... plan under part 104 of this subchapter. See 33 CFR part 164 for additional information on AIS device...

  17. A Critical Review of Research on the Alert Program®

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gill, Kamaldeep; Thompson-Hodgetts, Sandra; Rasmussen, Carmen

    2018-01-01

    To evaluate the strength of evidence for the effectiveness, feasibility, and appropriateness of the Alert Program®. Multiple databases were systematically searched for peer-reviewed, English-language articles that evaluated the Alert Program®. Six articles met the inclusion criteria. The strength of evidence ranged from weak to moderate using the…

  18. NAS-Wide Fast-Time Simulation Study for Evaluating Performance of UAS Detect-and-Avoid Alerting and Guidance Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lee, Seung Man; Park, Chunki; Cone, Andrew Clayton; Thipphavong, David P.; Santiago, Confesor

    2016-01-01

    This presentation contains the analysis results of NAS-wide fast-time simulations with UAS and VFR traffic for a single day for evaluating the performance of Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) alerting and guidance systems. This purpose of this study was to help refine and validate MOPS alerting and guidance requirements. In this study, we generated plots of all performance metrics that are specified by RTCA SC-228 Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS): 1) to evaluate the sensitivity of alerting parameters on the performance metrics of each DAA alert type: Preventive, Corrective, and Warning alerts and 2) to evaluate the effect of sensor uncertainty on DAA alerting and guidance performance.

  19. Developing an Early-Alert System to Promote Student Visits to Tutor Center

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cai, Qijie; Lewis, Carrie L.; Higdon, Jude

    2015-01-01

    An early-alert system (MavCLASS) was developed and piloted in a large gateway math class with 611 freshman students to identify academically at-risk students and provide alert messages. It was found that there was significant association between the alert messages students received and their visits to the university's tutor center. Further, the…

  20. Real-time alerts and reminders using information systems.

    PubMed

    Wanderer, Jonathan P; Sandberg, Warren S; Ehrenfeld, Jesse M

    2011-09-01

    Adoption of information systems throughout the hospital environment has enabled the development of real-time physiologic alerts and clinician reminder systems. These clinical tools can be made available through the deployment of anesthesia information management systems (AIMS). Creating usable alert systems requires understanding of technical considerations. Various successful implementations are reviewed, encompassing cost reduction, improved revenue capture, timely antibiotic administration, and postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis. Challenges to the widespread use of real-time alerts and reminders include AIMS adoption rates and the difficulty in choosing appropriate areas and approaches for information systems support. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Assessing contextual factors that influence acceptance of pedestrian alerts by a night vision system.

    PubMed

    Källhammer, Jan-Erik; Smith, Kip

    2012-08-01

    We investigated five contextual variables that we hypothesized would influence driver acceptance of alerts to pedestrians issued by a night vision active safety system to inform the specification of the system's alerting strategies. Driver acceptance of automotive active safety systems is a key factor to promote their use and implies a need to assess factors influencing driver acceptance. In a field operational test, 10 drivers drove instrumented vehicles equipped with a preproduction night vision system with pedestrian detection software. In a follow-up experiment, the 10 drivers and 25 additional volunteers without experience with the system watched 57 clips with pedestrian encounters gathered during the field operational test. They rated the acceptance of an alert to each pedestrian encounter. Levels of rating concordance were significant between drivers who experienced the encounters and participants who did not. Two contextual variables, pedestrian location and motion, were found to influence ratings. Alerts were more accepted when pedestrians were close to or moving toward the vehicle's path. The study demonstrates the utility of using subjective driver acceptance ratings to inform the design of active safety systems and to leverage expensive field operational test data within the confines of the laboratory. The design of alerting strategies for active safety systems needs to heed the driver's contextual sensitivity to issued alerts.

  2. 21 CFR 26.50 - Alert system and exchange of postmarket vigilance reports.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN MEDICAL DEVICE PRODUCT EVALUATION REPORTS: UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY Specific Sector Provisions for Medical Devices § 26.50 Alert system and exchange of... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Alert system and exchange of postmarket vigilance...

  3. Comparative analytics of infusion pump data across multiple hospital systems.

    PubMed

    Catlin, Ann Christine; Malloy, William X; Arthur, Karen J; Gaston, Cindy; Young, James; Fernando, Sudheera; Fernando, Ruchith

    2015-02-15

    A Web-based analytics system for conducting inhouse evaluations and cross-facility comparisons of alert data generated by smart infusion pumps is described. The Infusion Pump Informatics (IPI) project, a collaborative effort led by research scientists at Purdue University, was launched in 2009 to provide advanced analytics and tools for workflow analyses to assist hospitals in determining the significance of smart-pump alerts and reducing nuisance alerts. The IPI system allows facility-specific analyses of alert patterns and trends, as well as cross-facility comparisons of alert data uploaded by more than 55 participating institutions using different types of smart pumps. Tools accessible through the IPI portal include (1) charts displaying aggregated or breakout data on the top drugs associated with alerts, numbers of alerts per device or care area, and override-to-alert ratios, (2) investigative reports that can be used to characterize and analyze pump-programming errors in a variety of ways (e.g., by drug, by infusion type, by time of day), and (3) "drill-down" workflow analytics enabling users to evaluate alert patterns—both internally and in relation to patterns at other hospitals—in a quick and efficient stepwise fashion. The formation of the IPI analytics system to support a community of hospitals has been successful in providing sophisticated tools for member facilities to review, investigate, and efficiently analyze smart-pump alert data, not only within a member facility but also across other member facilities, to further enhance smart pump drug library design. Copyright © 2015 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. [Detection of Brucella with an automatic hemoculture system: Bact/Alert].

    PubMed

    Casas, J; Partal, Y; Llosá, J; Leiva, J; Navarro, J M; de la Rosa, M

    1994-12-01

    The ability of in vitro and in vivo detection of Brucella spp. with the Bact/Alert system was studied. Three strains of Brucella melitensis and two of Brucella abortus were used. Different dilutions of the five strains were performed in trypticase soy broth (TSB), achieving concentrations of 1 cfu/ml, 5 cfu/ml, 10 cfu/ml and 100 cfu/ml. Ten ml of each dilution and strain were inoculated into 5 aerobic bottles Bact/Alert and 5 biphasic Hemóline bottles. Furthermore, over a 9 month period, 8,216 bottles of Bact/Alert bottles from hospitalized patients and from the emergency department were processed in the authors' laboratory. The mean detection time for Brucella growth was from 2 to 3 days with the Bact/Alert system, and 14 days in the biphasic bottles. Former bottles processed in the authors' laboratory, 11 aerobic bottles belonged to 5 patients in whom brucelosis was confirmed by bloodculture. The Bact/Alert system detected Brucella melitensis in only on bottle at 2.9 days of incubation. In 7 bottles Bact/Alert detected B. melitensis by a blind pass of these bottles at 10 to 20 days of incubation. These results suggest that the Bact/Alert system does not totally solve the diagnosis of brucellosis. Blind passes of the bloodcultures are required.

  5. 78 FR 16806 - The Commercial Mobile Alert System

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-03-19

    ... FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 10 [PS Docket No. 07-287; DA 13-280] The Commercial Mobile Alert System AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission amends its rules to change the name of the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS...

  6. Evaluation of Epidemic Intelligence Systems Integrated in the Early Alerting and Reporting Project for the Detection of A/H5N1 Influenza Events

    PubMed Central

    Barboza, Philippe; Vaillant, Laetitia; Mawudeku, Abla; Nelson, Noele P.; Hartley, David M.; Madoff, Lawrence C.; Linge, Jens P.; Collier, Nigel; Brownstein, John S.; Yangarber, Roman; Astagneau, Pascal; on behalf of the Early Alerting, Reporting Project of the Global Health Security Initiative

    2013-01-01

    The objective of Web-based expert epidemic intelligence systems is to detect health threats. The Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) Early Alerting and Reporting (EAR) project was launched to assess the feasibility and opportunity for pooling epidemic intelligence data from seven expert systems. EAR participants completed a qualitative survey to document epidemic intelligence strategies and to assess perceptions regarding the systems performance. Timeliness and sensitivity were rated highly illustrating the value of the systems for epidemic intelligence. Weaknesses identified included representativeness, completeness and flexibility. These findings were corroborated by the quantitative analysis performed on signals potentially related to influenza A/H5N1 events occurring in March 2010. For the six systems for which this information was available, the detection rate ranged from 31% to 38%, and increased to 72% when considering the virtual combined system. The effective positive predictive values ranged from 3% to 24% and F1-scores ranged from 6% to 27%. System sensitivity ranged from 38% to 72%. An average difference of 23% was observed between the sensitivities calculated for human cases and epizootics, underlining the difficulties in developing an efficient algorithm for a single pathology. However, the sensitivity increased to 93% when the virtual combined system was considered, clearly illustrating complementarities between individual systems. The average delay between the detection of A/H5N1 events by the systems and their official reporting by WHO or OIE was 10.2 days (95% CI: 6.7–13.8). This work illustrates the diversity in implemented epidemic intelligence activities, differences in system's designs, and the potential added values and opportunities for synergy between systems, between users and between systems and users. PMID:23472077

  7. Evaluation of epidemic intelligence systems integrated in the early alerting and reporting project for the detection of A/H5N1 influenza events.

    PubMed

    Barboza, Philippe; Vaillant, Laetitia; Mawudeku, Abla; Nelson, Noele P; Hartley, David M; Madoff, Lawrence C; Linge, Jens P; Collier, Nigel; Brownstein, John S; Yangarber, Roman; Astagneau, Pascal

    2013-01-01

    The objective of Web-based expert epidemic intelligence systems is to detect health threats. The Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) Early Alerting and Reporting (EAR) project was launched to assess the feasibility and opportunity for pooling epidemic intelligence data from seven expert systems. EAR participants completed a qualitative survey to document epidemic intelligence strategies and to assess perceptions regarding the systems performance. Timeliness and sensitivity were rated highly illustrating the value of the systems for epidemic intelligence. Weaknesses identified included representativeness, completeness and flexibility. These findings were corroborated by the quantitative analysis performed on signals potentially related to influenza A/H5N1 events occurring in March 2010. For the six systems for which this information was available, the detection rate ranged from 31% to 38%, and increased to 72% when considering the virtual combined system. The effective positive predictive values ranged from 3% to 24% and F1-scores ranged from 6% to 27%. System sensitivity ranged from 38% to 72%. An average difference of 23% was observed between the sensitivities calculated for human cases and epizootics, underlining the difficulties in developing an efficient algorithm for a single pathology. However, the sensitivity increased to 93% when the virtual combined system was considered, clearly illustrating complementarities between individual systems. The average delay between the detection of A/H5N1 events by the systems and their official reporting by WHO or OIE was 10.2 days (95% CI: 6.7-13.8). This work illustrates the diversity in implemented epidemic intelligence activities, differences in system's designs, and the potential added values and opportunities for synergy between systems, between users and between systems and users.

  8. 47 CFR 10.300 - Alert aggregator. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Alert aggregator. [Reserved] 10.300 Section 10.300 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS System Architecture § 10.300 Alert aggregator. [Reserved] ...

  9. 47 CFR 10.300 - Alert aggregator. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Alert aggregator. [Reserved] 10.300 Section 10.300 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS System Architecture § 10.300 Alert aggregator. [Reserved] ...

  10. Delta 13C in CO2 at Alert, NWT, Canada (June 1991 - December 2001)

    DOE Data Explorer

    Allison, C. E. [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Aspendale, Victoria, Australia; Francey, R. J. [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Aspendale, Victoria, Australia; Krummel, P. B. [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Aspendale, Victoria, Australia

    2003-04-01

    Measurements have been made on air collected in flasks at Alert, Canada, through the CSIRO GASLAB worldwide network. Flasks are filled with air at Alert and returned to the CSIRO GASLAB for analysis; typical sample storage times for flasks collected at Alert range from a few weeks to a few months. No significant effect on the stable carbon isotopic composition, δ13C, has been detected as a consequence of the sample storage time.

  11. Closing the loop in ICU decision support: physiologic event detection, alerts, and documentation.

    PubMed Central

    Norris, P. R.; Dawant, B. M.

    2001-01-01

    Automated physiologic event detection and alerting is a challenging task in the ICU. Ideally care providers should be alerted only when events are clinically significant and there is opportunity for corrective action. However, the concepts of clinical significance and opportunity are difficult to define in automated systems, and effectiveness of alerting algorithms is difficult to measure. This paper describes recent efforts on the Simon project to capture information from ICU care providers about patient state and therapy in response to alerts, in order to assess the value of event definitions and progressively refine alerting algorithms. Event definitions for intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure were studied by implementing a reliable system to automatically deliver alerts to clinical users alphanumeric pagers, and to capture associated documentation about patient state and therapy when the alerts occurred. During a 6-month test period in the trauma ICU at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 530 alerts were detected in 2280 hours of data spanning 14 patients. Clinical users electronically documented 81% of these alerts as they occurred. Retrospectively classifying documentation based on therapeutic actions taken, or reasons why actions were not taken, provided useful information about ways to potentially improve event definitions and enhance system utility. PMID:11825238

  12. Computerized pharmacy surveillance and alert system for drug-related problems.

    PubMed

    Ferrández, O; Urbina, O; Grau, S; Mateu-de-Antonio, J; Marin-Casino, M; Portabella, J; Mojal, S; Riu, M; Salas, E

    2017-04-01

    Because of the impact of drug-related problems (DRPs) on morbidity and mortality, there is a need for computerized strategies to increase drug safety. The detection and identification of the causes of potential DRPs can be facilitated by the incorporation of a pharmacy warning system (PWS) in the computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) and its application in the routine validation of inpatient drug therapy. A limited number of studies have evaluated a clinical decision support system to monitor drug treatment. Most of these applications have utilized a small range of drugs with alerts and/or types of alert. The objective of this study was to describe the implementation of a PWS integrated in the electronic medical record (EMR). The PWS was developed in 2003-2004. Pharmacological information to generate drug alerts was entered on demographic data, drug dosage, laboratory tests related to the prescribed drug and drug combinations (interactions, duplications and necessary combinations). The PWS was applied in the prescription reviews conducted in patients admitted to the hospital in 2012. Information on 83% of the drugs included in the pharmacopeia was introduced into the PWS, allowing detection of 2808 potential DRPs, representing 79·1% of all potential DRPs detected during the study period. Twenty per cent of PWS DRPs were clinically relevant, requiring pharmacist intervention. The PWS detected most potential DRPs, thus increasing inpatient safety. The detection ability of the PWS was higher than that reported for other tools described in the literature. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. Lessons from Hawaii: A Blessing in Disguise.

    PubMed

    Deitchman, Scott; Dallas, Cham E; Burkle, Frederick

    2018-03-20

    On January 13, 2018, Hawaii experienced an erroneous alert that falsely warned of an imminent ballistic missile strike. Rather than focus on the inconvenience caused by the false alert, we used reporting of the event to identify the missing elements that would characterize a system that could save lives by alerting and informing the public in a nuclear detonation. These include warnings that contain essential information rather than directing recipients to secondary sources; a system that issues alerts directly from federal agencies that will have the earliest warning; a robust multimodal alerting system that can deliver messages before and after the detonation; and swift activation of federal agencies immediately upon warning.

  14. Alert generation and cockpit presentation for an integrated microburst alerting system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wanke, Craig; Hansman, R. John, Jr.

    1991-01-01

    Alert generation and cockpit presentation issues for low level wind shear (microburst) alerts are investigated. Alert generation issues center on the development of a hazard criterion which allows integration of both ground based and airborne wind shear detection systems to form an accurate picture of the aviation hazard posed by a particular wind shear situation. A methodology for the testing of a hazard criteria through flight simulation has been developed, and has been used to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of several possible criteria. Also, an experiment to evaluate candidate graphical cockpit displays for microburst alerts using a piloted simulator has been designed.

  15. 78 FR 61445 - Seventy-Sixth Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 147, Minimum Operational Performance Standards for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-10-03

    ... Committee 147, Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment. SUMMARY: The FAA is issuing this notice... Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment. DATES: The meeting...

  16. 78 FR 66419 - Seventy Sixth Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 147, Minimum Operational Performance Standards for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-11-05

    ... Committee 147, Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment. SUMMARY: The FAA is issuing this notice... Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment. DATES: The meeting...

  17. 77 FR 29749 - 74th Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 147, Minimal Operations Performance Standards for Traffic...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-18

    ... 147, Minimal Operations Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment. SUMMARY: The FAA is issuing this notice... Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment. DATES: The meeting...

  18. 78 FR 6401 - Seventy Fifth Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 147, Minimum Operational Performance Standards for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-01-30

    ... Committee 147, Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment. SUMMARY: The FAA is issuing this notice... Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment. DATES: The meeting...

  19. Statistics from the Operation of the Low-Level Wind Shear Alert System (LLWAS) during the Joint Airport Weather Studies (JAWS) Project.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1984-12-01

    AD-RI59 367 STATISTICS FROM THE OPERATION OF THE LOW-LEVEL WIND I/i SHEAR ALERT SYSTEM (L..(U) NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATOMSPHERIC RESEARCH BOULDER CO...NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS-1963A % % Oh b DOT/FAAIPM-84132 Statistics from the Operation of the Program Engineering Low-Level Wind Shear Alert System and...The Operation of The Low-Level Wind December 1984 Shear Alert System (LLWAS) During The JAWS Project: 6. Performing Organization Code An Interim Report

  20. Reaching out to clinicians: implementation of a computerized alert system.

    PubMed

    Degnan, Dan; Merryfield, Dave; Hultgren, Steve

    2004-01-01

    Several published articles have identified that providing automated, computer-generated clinical alerts about potentially critical clinical situations should result in better quality of care. In 1999, the pharmacy department at a community hospital network implemented and refined a commercially available, computerized clinical alert system. This case report discusses the implementation process, gives examples of how the system is used, and describes results following implementation. The use of the clinical alert system in this hospital network resulted in improved patient safety as well as in greater efficiency and decreased costs.

  1. Modeling, Analyzing, and Mitigating Dissonance Between Alerting Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Song, Lixia; Kuchar, James K.

    2003-01-01

    Alerting systems are becoming pervasive in process operations, which may result in the potential for dissonance or conflict in information from different alerting systems that suggests different threat levels and/or actions to resolve hazards. Little is currently available to help in predicting or solving the dissonance problem. This thesis presents a methodology to model and analyze dissonance between alerting systems, providing both a theoretical foundation for understanding dissonance and a practical basis from which specific problems can be addressed. A state-space representation of multiple alerting system operation is generalized that can be tailored across a variety of applications. Based on the representation, two major causes of dissonance are identified: logic differences and sensor error. Additionally, several possible types of dissonance are identified. A mathematical analysis method is developed to identify the conditions for dissonance originating from logic differences. A probabilistic analysis methodology is developed to estimate the probability of dissonance originating from sensor error, and to compare the relative contribution to dissonance of sensor error against the contribution from logic differences. A hybrid model, which describes the dynamic behavior of the process with multiple alerting systems, is developed to identify dangerous dissonance space, from which the process can lead to disaster. Methodologies to avoid or mitigate dissonance are outlined. Two examples are used to demonstrate the application of the methodology. First, a conceptual In-Trail Spacing example is presented. The methodology is applied to identify the conditions for possible dissonance, to identify relative contribution of logic difference and sensor error, and to identify dangerous dissonance space. Several proposed mitigation methods are demonstrated in this example. In the second example, the methodology is applied to address the dissonance problem between two air traffic alert and avoidance systems: the existing Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) vs. the proposed Airborne Conflict Management system (ACM). Conditions on ACM resolution maneuvers are identified to avoid dynamic dissonance between TCAS and ACM. Also included in this report is an Appendix written by Lee Winder about recent and continuing work on alerting systems design. The application of Markov Decision Process (MDP) theory to complex alerting problems is discussed and illustrated with an abstract example system.

  2. Technical implementation plan for the ShakeAlert production system: an Earthquake Early Warning system for the West Coast of the United States

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Given, Douglas D.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.; Heaton, Thomas; Hauksson, Egill; Allen, Richard; Hellweg, Peggy; Vidale, John; Bodin, Paul

    2014-01-01

    Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems can provide as much as tens of seconds of warning to people and automated systems before strong shaking arrives. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and its partners are developing such an EEW system, called ShakeAlert, for the West Coast of the United States. This document describes the technical implementation of that system, which leverages existing stations and infrastructure of the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) regional networks to achieve this new capability. While significant progress has been made in developing the ShakeAlert early warning system, improved robustness of each component of the system and additional testing and certification are needed for the system to be reliable enough to issue public alerts. Major components of the system include dense networks of ground motion sensors, telecommunications from those sensors to central processing systems, algorithms for event detection and alert creation, and distribution systems to alert users. Capital investment costs for a West Coast EEW system are projected to be $38.3M, with additional annual maintenance and operations totaling $16.1M—in addition to current ANSS expenditures for earthquake monitoring. An EEW system is complementary to, but does not replace, other strategies to mitigate earthquake losses. The system has limitations: false and missed alerts are possible, and the area very near to an earthquake epicenter may receive little or no warning. However, such an EEW system would save lives, reduce injuries and damage, and improve community resilience by reducing longer-term economic losses for both public and private entities.

  3. Development of an "Alert Framework" Based on the Practices in the Medical Front.

    PubMed

    Sakata, Takuya; Araki, Kenji; Yamazaki, Tomoyoshi; Kawano, Koichi; Maeda, Minoru; Kushima, Muneo; Araki, Sanae

    2018-05-09

    At the University of Miyazaki Hospital (UMH), we have accumulated and semantically structured a vast amount of medical information since the activation of the electronic health record system approximately 10 years ago. With this medical information, we have decided to develop an alert system for aiding in medical treatment. The purpose of this investigation is to not only to integrate an alert framework into the electronic heath record system, but also to formulate a modeling method of this knowledge. A trial alert framework was developed for the staff in various occupational categories at the UMH. Based on findings of subsequent interviews, a more detailed and upgraded alert framework was constructed, resulting in the final model. Based on our current findings, an alert framework was developed with four major items. Based on the analysis of the medical practices from the trial model, it has been concluded that there are four major risk patterns that trigger the alert. Furthermore, the current alert framework contains detailed definitions which are easily substituted into the database, leading to easy implementation of the electronic health records.

  4. 47 CFR 10.310 - Federal alert gateway. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] 10.310 Section 10.310 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS System Architecture § 10.310 Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] ...

  5. 47 CFR 10.310 - Federal alert gateway. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] 10.310 Section 10.310 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS System Architecture § 10.310 Federal alert gateway. [Reserved] ...

  6. Alerts Visualization and Clustering in Network-based Intrusion Detection

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yang, Dr. Li; Gasior, Wade C; Dasireddy, Swetha

    2010-04-01

    Today's Intrusion detection systems when deployed on a busy network overload the network with huge number of alerts. This behavior of producing too much raw information makes it less effective. We propose a system which takes both raw data and Snort alerts to visualize and analyze possible intrusions in a network. Then we present with two models for the visualization of clustered alerts. Our first model gives the network administrator with the logical topology of the network and detailed information of each node that involves its associated alerts and connections. In the second model, flocking model, presents the network administratormore » with the visual representation of IDS data in which each alert is represented in different color and the alerts with maximum similarity move together. This gives network administrator with the idea of detecting various of intrusions through visualizing the alert patterns.« less

  7. Optimizing the real-time ground level enhancement alert system based on neutron monitor measurements: Introducing GLE Alert Plus

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Souvatzoglou, G.; Papaioannou, A.; Mavromichalaki, H.; Dimitroulakos, J.; Sarlanis, C.

    2014-11-01

    Whenever a significant intensity increase is being recorded by at least three neutron monitor stations in real-time mode, a ground level enhancement (GLE) event is marked and an automated alert is issued. Although, the physical concept of the algorithm is solid and has efficiently worked in a number of cases, the availability of real-time data is still an open issue and makes timely GLE alerts quite challenging. In this work we present the optimization of the GLE alert that has been set into operation since 2006 at the Athens Neutron Monitor Station. This upgrade has led to GLE Alert Plus, which is currently based upon the Neutron Monitor Database (NMDB). We have determined the critical values per station allowing us to issue reliable GLE alerts close to the initiation of the event while at the same time we keep the false alert rate at low levels. Furthermore, we have managed to treat the problem of data availability, introducing the Go-Back-N algorithm. A total of 13 GLE events have been marked from January 2000 to December 2012. GLE Alert Plus issued an alert for 12 events. These alert times are compared to the alert times of GOES Space Weather Prediction Center and Solar Energetic Particle forecaster of the University of Málaga (UMASEP). In all cases GLE Alert Plus precedes the GOES alert by ≈8-52 min. The comparison with UMASEP demonstrated a remarkably good agreement. Real-time GLE alerts by GLE Alert Plus may be retrieved by http://cosray.phys.uoa.gr/gle_alert_plus.html, http://www.nmdb.eu, and http://swe.ssa.esa.int/web/guest/space-radiation. An automated GLE alert email notification system is also available to interested users.

  8. NASA aviation safety reporting system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1978-01-01

    An analytical study of reports relating to cockpit altitude alert systems was performed. A recent change in the Federal Air Regulation permits the system to be modified so that the alerting signal approaching altitude has only a visual component; the auditory signal would continue to be heard if a deviation from an assigned altitude occurred. Failure to observe altitude alert signals and failure to reset the system were the commonest cause of altitude deviations related to this system. Cockpit crew distraction was the most frequent reason for these failures. It was noted by numerous reporters that the presence of altitude alert system made them less aware of altitude; this lack of altitude awareness is discussed. Failures of crew coordination were also noted. It is suggested that although modification of the altitude alert system may be highly desirable in short-haul aircraft, it may not be desirable for long-haul aircraft in which cockpit workloads are much lower for long periods of time. In these cockpits, the aural alert approaching altitudes is perceived as useful and helpful. If the systems are to be modified, it appears that additional emphasis on altitude awareness during recurrent training will be necessary; it is also possible that flight crew operating procedures during climb and descent may need examination with respect to monitoring responsibilities. A selection of alert bulletins and responses to them is presented.

  9. Technologic Distractions (Part 1): Summary of Approaches to Manage Alert Quantity With Intent to Reduce Alert Fatigue and Suggestions for Alert Fatigue Metrics.

    PubMed

    Kane-Gill, Sandra L; O'Connor, Michael F; Rothschild, Jeffrey M; Selby, Nicholas M; McLean, Barbara; Bonafide, Christopher P; Cvach, Maria M; Hu, Xiao; Konkani, Avinash; Pelter, Michele M; Winters, Bradford D

    2017-09-01

    To provide ICU clinicians with evidence-based guidance on tested interventions that reduce or prevent alert fatigue within clinical decision support systems. Systematic review of PubMed, Embase, SCOPUS, and CINAHL for relevant literature from 1966 to February 2017. Focus on critically ill patients and included evaluations in other patient care settings, as well. Identified interventions designed to reduce or prevent alert fatigue within clinical decision support systems. Study selection was based on one primary key question to identify effective interventions that attempted to reduce alert fatigue and three secondary key questions that covered the negative effects of alert fatigue, potential unintended consequences of efforts to reduce alert fatigue, and ideal alert quantity. Data were abstracted by two reviewers independently using a standardized abstraction tool. Surveys, meeting abstracts, "gray" literature, studies not available in English, and studies with non-original data were excluded. For the primary key question, articles were excluded if they did not provide a comparator as key question 1 was designed as a problem, intervention, comparison, and outcome question. We anticipated that reduction in alert fatigue, including the concept of desensitization may not be directly measured and thus considered interventions that reduced alert quantity as a surrogate marker for alert fatigue. Twenty-six articles met the inclusion criteria. Approaches for managing alert fatigue in the ICU are provided as a result of reviewing tested interventions that reduced alert quantity with the anticipated effect of reducing fatigue. Suggested alert management strategies include prioritizing alerts, developing sophisticated alerts, customizing commercially available alerts, and including end user opinion in alert selection. Alert fatigue itself is studied less frequently, as an outcome, and there is a need for more precise evaluation. Standardized metrics for alert fatigue is needed to advance the field. Suggestions for standardized metrics are provided in this document.

  10. 47 CFR 76.1711 - Emergency alert system (EAS) tests and activation.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Emergency alert system (EAS) tests and activation. 76.1711 Section 76.1711 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE Documents to be Maintained for Inspection § 76.1711 Emergency alert system (EAS)...

  11. 47 CFR 76.1711 - Emergency alert system (EAS) tests and activation.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Emergency alert system (EAS) tests and activation. 76.1711 Section 76.1711 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE Documents to be Maintained for Inspection § 76.1711 Emergency alert system (EAS)...

  12. ToxAlerts: a Web server of structural alerts for toxic chemicals and compounds with potential adverse reactions.

    PubMed

    Sushko, Iurii; Salmina, Elena; Potemkin, Vladimir A; Poda, Gennadiy; Tetko, Igor V

    2012-08-27

    The article presents a Web-based platform for collecting and storing toxicological structural alerts from literature and for virtual screening of chemical libraries to flag potentially toxic chemicals and compounds that can cause adverse side effects. An alert is uniquely identified by a SMARTS template, a toxicological endpoint, and a publication where the alert was described. Additionally, the system allows storing complementary information such as name, comments, and mechanism of action, as well as other data. Most importantly, the platform can be easily used for fast virtual screening of large chemical datasets, focused libraries, or newly designed compounds against the toxicological alerts, providing a detailed profile of the chemicals grouped by structural alerts and endpoints. Such a facility can be used for decision making regarding whether a compound should be tested experimentally, validated with available QSAR models, or eliminated from consideration altogether. The alert-based screening can also be helpful for an easier interpretation of more complex QSAR models. The system is publicly accessible and tightly integrated with the Online Chemical Modeling Environment (OCHEM, http://ochem.eu). The system is open and expandable: any registered OCHEM user can introduce new alerts, browse, edit alerts introduced by other users, and virtually screen his/her data sets against all or selected alerts. The user sets being passed through the structural alerts can be used at OCHEM for other typical tasks: exporting in a wide variety of formats, development of QSAR models, additional filtering by other criteria, etc. The database already contains almost 600 structural alerts for such endpoints as mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, skin sensitization, compounds that undergo metabolic activation, and compounds that form reactive metabolites and, thus, can cause adverse reactions. The ToxAlerts platform is accessible on the Web at http://ochem.eu/alerts, and it is constantly growing.

  13. ToxAlerts: A Web Server of Structural Alerts for Toxic Chemicals and Compounds with Potential Adverse Reactions

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    The article presents a Web-based platform for collecting and storing toxicological structural alerts from literature and for virtual screening of chemical libraries to flag potentially toxic chemicals and compounds that can cause adverse side effects. An alert is uniquely identified by a SMARTS template, a toxicological endpoint, and a publication where the alert was described. Additionally, the system allows storing complementary information such as name, comments, and mechanism of action, as well as other data. Most importantly, the platform can be easily used for fast virtual screening of large chemical datasets, focused libraries, or newly designed compounds against the toxicological alerts, providing a detailed profile of the chemicals grouped by structural alerts and endpoints. Such a facility can be used for decision making regarding whether a compound should be tested experimentally, validated with available QSAR models, or eliminated from consideration altogether. The alert-based screening can also be helpful for an easier interpretation of more complex QSAR models. The system is publicly accessible and tightly integrated with the Online Chemical Modeling Environment (OCHEM, http://ochem.eu). The system is open and expandable: any registered OCHEM user can introduce new alerts, browse, edit alerts introduced by other users, and virtually screen his/her data sets against all or selected alerts. The user sets being passed through the structural alerts can be used at OCHEM for other typical tasks: exporting in a wide variety of formats, development of QSAR models, additional filtering by other criteria, etc. The database already contains almost 600 structural alerts for such endpoints as mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, skin sensitization, compounds that undergo metabolic activation, and compounds that form reactive metabolites and, thus, can cause adverse reactions. The ToxAlerts platform is accessible on the Web at http://ochem.eu/alerts, and it is constantly growing. PMID:22876798

  14. Concept and development of a discharge alert filter for abnormal laboratory values coupled with computerized provider order entry: a tool for quality improvement and hospital risk management.

    PubMed

    Mathew, George; Kho, Abel; Dexter, Paul; Bloodworth, Nathaniel; Fantz, Corinne; Spell, Nathan; LaBorde, David V

    2012-06-01

    To develop a clinical decision support system activated at the time of discharge to reduce potentially inappropriate discharges from unidentified or unaddressed abnormal laboratory values. We identified 106 laboratory tests for possible inclusion in the discharge alert filter. We selected 7 labs as widely available, commonly obtained, and associated with high risk for potential morbidity or mortality within abnormal ranges. We identified trigger thresholds at levels that would capture significant laboratory abnormalities while avoiding excessive flag generation because of laboratory results that minimally deviate outside the normal reference range. We selected sodium (>155 or <125 mmol/L), potassium (<2.5 or >6 mEq/dL) phosphorous (<1.6 mg/dL), magnesium (<1.2 mg/dL), creatinine greater than 1.1 with a rise of 20% or more between the 2 most recent results, white blood cell count (>11,000 cells/mm with a rise of 20% or more between the 2 most recent results), and international normalized ratio greater than 4. A discharge alert filter that reliably and effectively identifies patients that may be discharged in unsafe situations because of unaddressed critical laboratory values can improve patient safety at discharge and potentially reduce the incidence of costly litigation. Further research is needed to validate whether the proposed discharge alert filter is effective at improving patient safety at discharge.

  15. Maximizing Trust in the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) Service

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-02-01

    Homeland Security under Contract No. FA8721-05-C-0003 with Carnegie Mellon University for the operation of the Software En - gineering Institute, a...AOs will protect their alert-generating systems from misuse. A compro- mised alert-generating system could overload the IPAWS-OPEN message validation...greater accessibility, such as accessing the WEA service re- motely from the scene of an incident. Although we are currently unaware of any alerting

  16. Provider management strategies of abnormal test result alerts: a cognitive task analysis.

    PubMed

    Hysong, Sylvia J; Sawhney, Mona K; Wilson, Lindsay; Sittig, Dean F; Espadas, Donna; Davis, Traber; Singh, Hardeep

    2010-01-01

    Electronic medical records (EMRs) facilitate abnormal test result communication through "alert" notifications. The aim was to evaluate how primary care providers (PCPs) manage alerts related to critical diagnostic test results on their EMR screens, and compare alert-management strategies of providers with high versus low rates of timely follow-up of results. 28 PCPs from a large, tertiary care Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) were purposively sampled according to their rates of timely follow-up of alerts, determined in a previous study. Using techniques from cognitive task analysis, participants were interviewed about how and when they manage alerts, focusing on four alert-management features to filter, sort and reduce unnecessary alerts on their EMR screens. Provider knowledge of alert-management features ranged between 4% and 75%. Almost half (46%) of providers did not use any of these features, and none used more than two. Providers with higher versus lower rates of timely follow-up used the four features similarly, except one (customizing alert notifications). Providers with low rates of timely follow-up tended to manually scan the alert list and process alerts heuristically using their clinical judgment. Additionally, 46% of providers used at least one workaround strategy to manage alerts. Considerable heterogeneity exists in provider use of alert-management strategies; specific strategies may be associated with lower rates of timely follow-up. Standardization of alert-management strategies including improving provider knowledge of appropriate tools in the EMR to manage alerts could reduce the lack of timely follow-up of abnormal diagnostic test results.

  17. 47 CFR 10.320 - Provider alert gateway requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Provider alert gateway requirements. 10.320 Section 10.320 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS System Architecture § 10.320 Provider alert gateway requirements. This section specifies the functions...

  18. 47 CFR 10.320 - Provider alert gateway requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Provider alert gateway requirements. 10.320 Section 10.320 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS System Architecture § 10.320 Provider alert gateway requirements. This section specifies the functions...

  19. 47 CFR 10.410 - Prioritization.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Prioritization. 10.410 Section 10.410 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Alert Message... required to transmit Imminent Threat Alerts and AMBER Alerts on a first in-first out (FIFO) basis. ...

  20. Generalized Philosophy of Alerting with Applications for Parallel Approach Collision Prevention

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Winder, Lee F.; Kuchar, James K.

    2000-01-01

    The goal of the research was to develop formal guidelines for the design of hazard avoidance systems. An alerting system is automation designed to reduce the likelihood of undesirable outcomes that are due to rare failures in a human-controlled system. It accomplishes this by monitoring the system, and issuing warning messages to the human operators when thought necessary to head off a problem. On examination of existing and recently proposed logics for alerting it appears that few commonly accepted principles guide the design process. Different logics intended to address the same hazards may take disparate forms and emphasize different aspects of performance, because each reflects the intuitive priorities of a different designer. Because performance must be satisfactory to all users of an alerting system (implying a universal meaning of acceptable performance) and not just one designer, a proposed logic often undergoes significant piecemeal modification before gamma general acceptance. This report is an initial attempt to clarify the common performance goals by which an alerting system is ultimately judged. A better understanding of these goals will hopefully allow designers to reach the final logic in a quicker, more direct and repeatable manner. As a case study, this report compares three alerting logics for collision prevention during independent approaches to parallel runways, and outlines a fourth alternative incorporating elements of the first three, but satisfying stated requirements. Three existing logics for parallel approach alerting are described. Each follows from different intuitive principles. The logics are presented as examples of three "philosophies" of alerting system design.

  1. 75 FR 20671 - Seventieth Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-20

    ... Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... RTCA Special Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision...

  2. Comparative Analysis of ACAS-Xu and DAIDALUS Detect-and-Avoid Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Davies, Jason T.; Wu, Minghong G.

    2018-01-01

    The Detect and Avoid (DAA) capability of a recent version (Run 3) of the Airborne Collision Avoidance System-Xu (ACAS-Xu) is measured against that of the Detect and AvoID Alerting Logic for Unmanned Systems (DAIDALUS), a reference algorithm for the Phase 1 Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for DAA. This comparative analysis of the two systems' alerting and horizontal guidance outcomes is conducted through the lens of the Detect and Avoid mission using flight data of scripted encounters from a recent flight test. Results indicate comparable timelines and outcomes between ACAS-Xu's Remain Well Clear alert and guidance and DAIDALUS's corrective alert and guidance, although ACAS-Xu's guidance appears to be more conservative. ACAS-Xu's Collision Avoidance alert and guidance occurs later than DAIDALUS's warning alert and guidance, and overlaps with DAIDALUS's timeline of maneuver to remain Well Clear. Interesting discrepancies between ACAS-Xu's directive guidance and DAIDALUS's "Regain Well Clear" guidance occur in some scenarios.

  3. 21 CFR 26.50 - Alert system and exchange of postmarket vigilance reports.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Alert system and exchange of postmarket vigilance reports. 26.50 Section 26.50 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN... postmarket vigilance reports. (a) An alert system will be set up during the transition period and maintained...

  4. 75 FR 49368 - Airworthiness Directives; Rolls-Royce plc (RR) RB211-Trent 900 Series Turbofan Engines

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-08-13

    ...-Royce Trent 900 Series Propulsion Systems Alert Non- Modification Service Bulletin (NMSB) RB.211-72... Propulsion Systems Alert NMSB RB.211-72-AG329, Revision 1, dated January 13, 2010. The actions described in... Series Propulsion Systems Alert Non-Modification Service Bulletin (NMSB) RB.211-72-AG329, Revision 1...

  5. The COMESEP Alert System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Crosby, Norma; Veronig, Astrid; Rodriguez, Luciano; Vrsnak, Bojan; Vennerstrom, Susanne; Malandraki, Olga; Dalla, Silvia; Srivastava, Nandita; Hesse, Michael; Odstrcil, Dusan; Robbrecht, Eva

    2014-05-01

    Tools for forecasting geomagnetic storms and solar energetic particle (SEP) radiation storms have been developed under the three-year EU FP7 COMESEP (COronal Mass Ejections and Solar Energetic Particles) collaborative project. To enhance our understanding of the 3D kinematics and interplanetary propagation of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the structure, propagation and evolution of CMEs have been investigated. In parallel, the sources and propagation of SEPs have been examined and modeled. During the third year of the COMESEP project the produced tools have been validated and implemented into an operational space weather alert system. The COMESEP Alert System provides notifications for the space weather community. To achieve this the system relies on both models and data, the latter including near real-time data as well as historical data. Geomagnetic and SEP radiation storm alerts are based on the COMESEP definition of risk. The COMESEP Alert System has recently been launched. Receiving COMESEP alerts are free of charge, but registration is required. For more information see the project website (http://www.comesep.eu/). This work has received funding from the European Commission FP7 Project COMESEP (263252).

  6. The Nature and Variability of Automated Practice Alerts Derived from Electronic Health Records in a U.S. Nationwide Critical Care Research Network.

    PubMed

    Benthin, Cody; Pannu, Sonal; Khan, Akram; Gong, Michelle

    2016-10-01

    The nature, variability, and extent of early warning clinical practice alerts derived from automated query of electronic health records (e-alerts) currently used in acute care settings for clinical care or research is unknown. To describe e-alerts in current use in acute care settings at medical centers participating in a nationwide critical care research network. We surveyed investigators at 38 institutions involved in the National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical Trials Network for the Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Thirty sites completed the survey (79% response rate). All sites used electronic health record systems. Epic Systems was used at 56% of sites; the others used alternate commercially available vendors or homegrown systems. Respondents at 57% of sites represented in this survey used e-alerts. All but 1 of these 17 sites used an e-alert for early detection of sepsis-related syndromes, and 35% used an e-alert for pneumonia. E-alerts were triggered by abnormal laboratory values (37%), vital signs (37%), or radiology reports (15%) and were used about equally for clinical decision support and research. Only 59% of sites with e-alerts have evaluated them either for accuracy or for validity. A majority of the research network sites participating in this survey use e-alerts for early notification of potential threats to hospitalized patients; however, there was significant variability in the nature of e-alerts between institutions. Use of one common electronic health record vendor at more than half of the participating sites suggests that it may be possible to standardize e-alerts across multiple sites in research networks, particularly among sites using the same medical record platform.

  7. Provider management strategies of abnormal test result alerts: a cognitive task analysis

    PubMed Central

    Sawhney, Mona K; Wilson, Lindsay; Sittig, Dean F; Espadas, Donna; Davis, Traber; Singh, Hardeep

    2010-01-01

    Objective Electronic medical records (EMRs) facilitate abnormal test result communication through “alert” notifications. The aim was to evaluate how primary care providers (PCPs) manage alerts related to critical diagnostic test results on their EMR screens, and compare alert-management strategies of providers with high versus low rates of timely follow-up of results. Design 28 PCPs from a large, tertiary care Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) were purposively sampled according to their rates of timely follow-up of alerts, determined in a previous study. Using techniques from cognitive task analysis, participants were interviewed about how and when they manage alerts, focusing on four alert-management features to filter, sort and reduce unnecessary alerts on their EMR screens. Results Provider knowledge of alert-management features ranged between 4% and 75%. Almost half (46%) of providers did not use any of these features, and none used more than two. Providers with higher versus lower rates of timely follow-up used the four features similarly, except one (customizing alert notifications). Providers with low rates of timely follow-up tended to manually scan the alert list and process alerts heuristically using their clinical judgment. Additionally, 46% of providers used at least one workaround strategy to manage alerts. Conclusion Considerable heterogeneity exists in provider use of alert-management strategies; specific strategies may be associated with lower rates of timely follow-up. Standardization of alert-management strategies including improving provider knowledge of appropriate tools in the EMR to manage alerts could reduce the lack of timely follow-up of abnormal diagnostic test results. PMID:20064805

  8. 75 FR 52590 - Seventy-First Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-08-26

    ... Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... RTCA Special Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision...

  9. Impact of e-alert systems on the care of patients with acute kidney injury.

    PubMed

    Breighner, Crystal M; Kashani, Kianoush B

    2017-09-01

    With the recent advancement in electronic health record systems and meaningful use of information technology incentive programs (i.e., the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), interest in clinical decision support systems has risen. These systems have been used to examine a variety of different syndromes with variable reported effects. In recent years, electronic alerts (e-alerts) have been implemented at various institutions to decrease the morbidity associated with acute kidney injury (AKI). AKI is common, accounting for 1 in 7 hospital admissions, and is associated with increased length of hospital stay and mortality. AKI is often underrecognized, causing delayed intervention. The use of e-alerts may result in earlier recognition and intervention, as well as decreased morbidity and mortality. This must be balanced with the possibility of increased resource utilization that e-alerts may cause. Before widespread implementation, the ethical and legal consequences of not following e-alert recommendations must be established, and the optimal algorithm for AKI e-alert detection must be determined. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Crew Factors in Flight Operations XIV: Alertness Management in Regional Flight Operations Education Module

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rosekind, Mark R.; Co, Elizabeth L.; Neri, David F.; Oyung, Raymond L.; Mallis, Melissa M.

    2002-01-01

    Regional operations encompass a broad range of pilots and equipment. This module is intended to help all those involved in regional aviation, including pilots, schedulers, dispatchers, maintenance technicians, policy makers, and others, to understand the physiological factors underlying fatigue, how flight operations affect fatigue, and what can be done to counteract fatigue and maximize alertness and performance in their operations. The overall purpose of this module is to promote aviation safety, performance, and productivity. It is intended to meet three specific objectives: (1) to explain the current state of knowledge about the physiological mechanisms underlying fatigue; (2) to demonstrate how this knowledge can be applied to improving flight crew sleep, performance, and alertness; and (3) to offer strategies for alertness management. Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) and National Transportation Safety Board (NISH) reports are used throughout this module to demonstrate that fatigue is a safety issue in the regional operations community. The appendices at the end of this module include the ASRS reports used for the examples contained in this publication, brief introductions to sleep disorders and relaxation techniques, summaries of relevant NASA publications, and a list of general readings on sleep, sleep disorders, and circadian rhythms.

  11. Crew Factors in Flight Operations XV: Alertness Management in General Aviation Education Module

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rosekind, Mark R.; Co, Elizabeth L.; Neri, David F.; Oyung, Raymond L.; Mallis, Melissa M.; Cannon, Mary M. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    Regional operations encompass a broad range of pilots and equipment. This module is intended to help all those involved in regional aviation, including pilots, schedulers, dispatchers, maintenance technicians, policy makers, and others, to understand the physiological factors underlying fatigue, how flight operations affect fatigue, and what can be done to counteract fatigue and maximize alertness and performance in their operations. The overall purpose of this module is to promote aviation safety, performance, and productivity. It is intended to meet three specific objectives: (1) to explain the current state of knowledge about the physiological mechanisms underlying fatigue; (2) to demonstrate how this knowledge can be applied to improving flight crew sleep, performance, and alertness; and (3) to offer strategies for alertness management. Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) and National Transportation Safety Board (NISH) reports are used throughout this module to demonstrate that fatigue is a safety issue in the regional operations community. The appendices at the end of this module include the ASRS reports used for the examples contained in this publication, brief introductions to sleep disorders and relaxation techniques, summaries of relevant NASA publications, and a list of general readings on sleep, sleep disorders, and circadian rhythms.

  12. For whom the bell tolls: Silver Alerts raise concerns regarding individual rights and governmental interests.

    PubMed

    Wasser, Tobias D; Fox, Patrick K

    2013-01-01

    The Silver Alert system was initially created to help protect missing persons who have cognitive impairments, particularly the elderly. The Silver Alert is modeled after the Amber Alert, created to help locate and safeguard missing children. Unlike the Amber Alert, however, in most states the Silver Alert applies to the elderly, adults with a mental impairment, or both, depending on the state. The goal of the Silver Alert system is the quick dissemination of information about missing persons to law enforcement personnel as well as to the general public. Previously, states notified law enforcement personnel of missing persons through teletype to other public safety jurisdictions to enlist their assistance in the retrieval of the missing person. Silver Alert programs substantially expand the notification to include the general public, who receive information through radio and television broadcasts as well as highway billboards. The programs serve a legitimate governmental interest by protecting a vulnerable population from possible harm. Yet, the implementation of these alerts can have unintended consequences, including the possible violation of an individual's right to privacy. Such consequences require careful consideration.

  13. An MFC-Based Online Monitoring and Alert System for Activated Sludge Process

    PubMed Central

    Xu, Gui-Hua; Wang, Yun-Kun; Sheng, Guo-Ping; Mu, Yang; Yu, Han-Qing

    2014-01-01

    In this study, based on a simple, compact and submersible microbial fuel cell (MFC), a novel online monitoring and alert system with self-diagnosis function was established for the activated sludge (AS) process. Such a submersible MFC utilized organic substrates and oxygen in the AS reactor as the electron donor and acceptor respectively, and could provide an evaluation on the status of the AS reactor and thus give a reliable early warning of potential risks. In order to evaluate the reliability and sensitivity of this online monitoring and alert system, a series of tests were conducted to examine the response of this system to various shocks imposed on the AS reactor. The results indicate that this online monitoring and alert system was highly sensitive to the performance variations of the AS reactor. The stability, sensitivity and repeatability of this online system provide feasibility of being incorporated into current control systems of wastewater treatment plants to real-time monitor, diagnose, alert and control the AS process. PMID:25345502

  14. Development of an Earthquake Impact Scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wald, D. J.; Marano, K. D.; Jaiswal, K. S.

    2009-12-01

    With the advent of the USGS Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system, domestic (U.S.) and international earthquake responders are reconsidering their automatic alert and activation levels as well as their response procedures. To help facilitate rapid and proportionate earthquake response, we propose and describe an Earthquake Impact Scale (EIS) founded on two alerting criteria. One, based on the estimated cost of damage, is most suitable for domestic events; the other, based on estimated ranges of fatalities, is more appropriate for most global events. Simple thresholds, derived from the systematic analysis of past earthquake impact and response levels, turn out to be quite effective in communicating predicted impact and response level of an event, characterized by alerts of green (little or no impact), yellow (regional impact and response), orange (national-scale impact and response), and red (major disaster, necessitating international response). Corresponding fatality thresholds for yellow, orange, and red alert levels are 1, 100, and 1000, respectively. For damage impact, yellow, orange, and red thresholds are triggered by estimated losses exceeding 1M, 10M, and $1B, respectively. The rationale for a dual approach to earthquake alerting stems from the recognition that relatively high fatalities, injuries, and homelessness dominate in countries where vernacular building practices typically lend themselves to high collapse and casualty rates, and it is these impacts that set prioritization for international response. In contrast, it is often financial and overall societal impacts that trigger the level of response in regions or countries where prevalent earthquake resistant construction practices greatly reduce building collapse and associated fatalities. Any newly devised alert protocols, whether financial or casualty based, must be intuitive and consistent with established lexicons and procedures. In this analysis, we make an attempt at both simple and intuitive color-coded alerting criterion; yet, we preserve the necessary uncertainty measures by which one can gauge the likelihood for the alert to be over- or underestimated.

  15. Practitioners’ Views on Computerized Drug–Drug Interaction Alerts in the VA System

    PubMed Central

    Ko, Yu; Abarca, Jacob; Malone, Daniel C.; Dare, Donna C.; Geraets, Doug; Houranieh, Antoun; Jones, William N.; Nichol, W. Paul; Schepers, Gregory P.; Wilhardt, Michelle

    2007-01-01

    Objectives To assess Veterans Affairs (VA) prescribers’ and pharmacists’ opinions about computer-generated drug–drug interaction (DDI) alerts and obtain suggestions for improving DDI alerts. Design A mail survey of 725 prescribers and 142 pharmacists from seven VA medical centers across the United States. Measurements A questionnaire asked respondents about their sources of drug and DDI information, satisfaction with the combined inpatient and outpatient computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) system, attitude toward DDI alerts, and suggestions for improving DDI alerts. Results The overall response rate was 40% (prescribers: 36%; pharmacists: 59%). Both prescribers and pharmacists indicated that the CPOE system had a neutral to positive impact on their jobs. DDI alerts were not viewed as a waste of time and the majority (61%) of prescribers felt that DDI alerts had increased their potential to prescribe safely. However, only 30% of prescribers felt DDI alerts provided them with what they needed most of the time. Both prescribers and pharmacists agreed that DDI alerts should be accompanied by management alternatives (73% and 82%, respectively) and more detailed information (65% and 89%, respectively). When asked about suggestions for improving DDI alerts, prescribers most preferred including management options whereas pharmacists most preferred making it more difficult to override lethal interactions. Prescribers and pharmacists reported primarily relying on electronic references for general drug information (62% and 55%, respectively) and DDI information (51% and 79%, respectively). Conclusion Respondents reported neutral to positive views regarding the effect of CPOE on their jobs. Their opinions suggest DDI alerts are useful but still require additional work to increase their clinical utility. PMID:17068346

  16. Context-Sensitive Clinical Alert Packages Written in Arden Syntax.

    PubMed

    Zeckl, Julia; Adlassnig, Katharina; Fossler, Renate; Blacky, Alexander; de Bruin, Jeroen S; Koller, Walter; Rappelsberger, Andrea; Adlassnig, Klaus-Peter

    2017-01-01

    An increasing body of raw patient data is generated on each day of a patient's stay at a hospital. It is of paramount importance that critical patient information be extracted from these large data volumes and presented to the patient's clinical caregivers as early as possible. Contemporary clinical alert systems attempt to provide this service with moderate success. The efficacy of the systems is limited by the fact that they are too general to fit specific patient populations or healthcare institutions. In this study we present an extendable alerting framework implemented in Arden Syntax, which can be configured to the needs and preferences of healthcare institutions and individual patient caregivers. We illustrate the potential of this alerting framework via an alert package that analyzes hematological laboratory results with data from intensive care units at the Vienna General Hospital, Austria. The results show the effectiveness of this alert package and its ability to generate key alerts while avoiding over-alerting.

  17. Effectiveness of a computerized alert system based on re-testing intervals for limiting the inappropriateness of laboratory test requests.

    PubMed

    Lippi, Giuseppe; Brambilla, Marco; Bonelli, Patrizia; Aloe, Rosalia; Balestrino, Antonio; Nardelli, Anna; Ceda, Gian Paolo; Fabi, Massimo

    2015-11-01

    There is consolidated evidence that the burden of inappropriate laboratory test requests is very high, up to 70%. We describe here the function of a computerized alert system linked to the order entry, designed to limit the number of potentially inappropriate laboratory test requests. A computerized alert system based on re-testing intervals and entailing the generation of pop-up alerts when preset criteria of appropriateness for 15 laboratory tests were violated was implemented in two clinical wards of the University Hospital of Parma. The effectiveness of the system for limiting potentially inappropriate tests was monitored for 6months. Overall, 765/3539 (22%) test requests violated the preset criteria of appropriateness and generated the appearance of electronic alert. After alert appearance, 591 requests were annulled (17% of total tests requested and 77% of tests alerted, respectively). The total number of test requests violating the preset criteria of inappropriateness constantly decreased over time (26% in the first three months of implementation versus 17% in the following period; p<0.001). The total financial saving of test withdrawn was 3387 Euros (12.8% of the total test cost) throughout the study period. The results of this study suggest that a computerized alert system may be effective to limit the inappropriateness of laboratory test requests, generating significant economic saving and educating physicians to a more efficient use of laboratory resources. Copyright © 2015 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Performance Evaluation of Evasion Maneuvers for Parallel Approach Collision Avoidance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Winder, Lee F.; Kuchar, James K.; Waller, Marvin (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    Current plans for independent instrument approaches to closely spaced parallel runways call for an automated pilot alerting system to ensure separation of aircraft in the case of a "blunder," or unexpected deviation from the a normal approach path. Resolution advisories by this system would require the pilot of an endangered aircraft to perform a trained evasion maneuver. The potential performance of two evasion maneuvers, referred to as the "turn-climb" and "climb-only," was estimated using an experimental NASA alerting logic (AILS) and a computer simulation of relative trajectory scenarios between two aircraft. One aircraft was equipped with the NASA alerting system, and maneuvered accordingly. Observation of the rates of different types of alerting failure allowed judgement of evasion maneuver performance. System Operating Characteristic (SOC) curves were used to assess the benefit of alerting with each maneuver.

  19. Participatory design for drug-drug interaction alerts.

    PubMed

    Luna, Daniel; Otero, Carlos; Almerares, Alfredo; Stanziola, Enrique; Risk, Marcelo; González Bernaldo de Quirós, Fernán

    2015-01-01

    The utilization of decision support systems, in the point of care, to alert drug-drug interactions has been shown to improve quality of care. Still, the use of these systems has not been as expected, it is believed, because of the difficulties in their knowledge databases; errors in the generation of the alerts and the lack of a suitable design. This study expands on the development of alerts using participatory design techniques based on user centered design process. This work was undertaken in three stages (inquiry, participatory design and usability testing) it showed that the use of these techniques improves satisfaction, effectiveness and efficiency in an alert system for drug-drug interactions, a fact that was evident in specific situations such as the decrease of errors to meet the specified task, the time, the workload optimization and users overall satisfaction in the system.

  20. 76 FR 14797 - Airworthiness Directives; Rolls-Royce plc (RR) RB211-Trent 900 Series Turbofan Engines

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-03-18

    .... Relevant Service Information Rolls-Royce plc has issued Trent 900 Series Propulsion Systems Alert Service... incorporating software 10.6 can be found in Rolls-Royce plc Trent 900 Series Propulsion Systems Alert Service... Propulsion Systems Alert SB No. RB.211-73-AG639, dated December 3, 2010, for related information. (i) Contact...

  1. Verbal collision avoidance messages during simulated driving: perceived urgency, alerting effectiveness and annoyance.

    PubMed

    Baldwin, Carryl L

    2011-04-01

    Matching the perceived urgency of an alert with the relative hazard level of the situation is critical for effective alarm response. Two experiments describe the impact of acoustic and semantic parameters on ratings of perceived urgency, annoyance and alerting effectiveness and on alarm response speed. Within a simulated driving context, participants rated and responded to collision avoidance system (CAS) messages spoken by a female or male voice (experiments 1 and 2, respectively). Results indicated greater perceived urgency and faster alarm response times as intensity increased from -2 dB signal to noise (S/N) ratio to +10 dB S/N, although annoyance ratings increased as well. CAS semantic content interacted with alarm intensity, indicating that at lower intensity levels participants paid more attention to the semantic content. Results indicate that both acoustic and semantic parameters independently and interactively impact CAS alert perceptions in divided attention conditions and this work can inform auditory alarm design for effective hazard matching. Matching the perceived urgency of an alert with the relative hazard level of the situation is critical for effective alarm response. Here, both acoustic and semantic parameters independently and interactively impacted CAS alert perceptions in divided attention conditions. This work can inform auditory alarm design for effective hazard matching. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Results indicate that both acoustic parameters and semantic content can be used to design collision warnings with a range of urgency levels. Further, these results indicate that verbal warnings tailored to a specific hazard situation may improve hazard-matching capabilities without substantial trade-offs in perceived annoyance.

  2. [Materials and articles intended to come into contact with food: evaluation of the rapid alert system for food and feed (RASFF) 2008-2010].

    PubMed

    Baiguini, Alessandro; Colletta, Stefano; Rebella, Valentina

    2011-01-01

    For some time, packaging materials and articles intended to come into contact with food are included in the system of controls, early warnings and risk communication provided by the European Commission (EU) regulation 178/2002. Data analysis of the EU rapid alert system for food allows one to define a specific risk profile and to establish an effective plan for official control of materials intended to come into contact with food. In the 2008-2010 period the rapid alert system has ratified alert notifications, mostly related to plastic materials of Chinese origin.

  3. Applying human factors principles to alert design increases efficiency and reduces prescribing errors in a scenario-based simulation

    PubMed Central

    Russ, Alissa L; Zillich, Alan J; Melton, Brittany L; Russell, Scott A; Chen, Siying; Spina, Jeffrey R; Weiner, Michael; Johnson, Elizabette G; Daggy, Joanne K; McManus, M Sue; Hawsey, Jason M; Puleo, Anthony G; Doebbeling, Bradley N; Saleem, Jason J

    2014-01-01

    Objective To apply human factors engineering principles to improve alert interface design. We hypothesized that incorporating human factors principles into alerts would improve usability, reduce workload for prescribers, and reduce prescribing errors. Materials and methods We performed a scenario-based simulation study using a counterbalanced, crossover design with 20 Veterans Affairs prescribers to compare original versus redesigned alerts. We redesigned drug–allergy, drug–drug interaction, and drug–disease alerts based upon human factors principles. We assessed usability (learnability of redesign, efficiency, satisfaction, and usability errors), perceived workload, and prescribing errors. Results Although prescribers received no training on the design changes, prescribers were able to resolve redesigned alerts more efficiently (median (IQR): 56 (47) s) compared to the original alerts (85 (71) s; p=0.015). In addition, prescribers rated redesigned alerts significantly higher than original alerts across several dimensions of satisfaction. Redesigned alerts led to a modest but significant reduction in workload (p=0.042) and significantly reduced the number of prescribing errors per prescriber (median (range): 2 (1–5) compared to original alerts: 4 (1–7); p=0.024). Discussion Aspects of the redesigned alerts that likely contributed to better prescribing include design modifications that reduced usability-related errors, providing clinical data closer to the point of decision, and displaying alert text in a tabular format. Displaying alert text in a tabular format may help prescribers extract information quickly and thereby increase responsiveness to alerts. Conclusions This simulation study provides evidence that applying human factors design principles to medication alerts can improve usability and prescribing outcomes. PMID:24668841

  4. Applying human factors principles to alert design increases efficiency and reduces prescribing errors in a scenario-based simulation.

    PubMed

    Russ, Alissa L; Zillich, Alan J; Melton, Brittany L; Russell, Scott A; Chen, Siying; Spina, Jeffrey R; Weiner, Michael; Johnson, Elizabette G; Daggy, Joanne K; McManus, M Sue; Hawsey, Jason M; Puleo, Anthony G; Doebbeling, Bradley N; Saleem, Jason J

    2014-10-01

    To apply human factors engineering principles to improve alert interface design. We hypothesized that incorporating human factors principles into alerts would improve usability, reduce workload for prescribers, and reduce prescribing errors. We performed a scenario-based simulation study using a counterbalanced, crossover design with 20 Veterans Affairs prescribers to compare original versus redesigned alerts. We redesigned drug-allergy, drug-drug interaction, and drug-disease alerts based upon human factors principles. We assessed usability (learnability of redesign, efficiency, satisfaction, and usability errors), perceived workload, and prescribing errors. Although prescribers received no training on the design changes, prescribers were able to resolve redesigned alerts more efficiently (median (IQR): 56 (47) s) compared to the original alerts (85 (71) s; p=0.015). In addition, prescribers rated redesigned alerts significantly higher than original alerts across several dimensions of satisfaction. Redesigned alerts led to a modest but significant reduction in workload (p=0.042) and significantly reduced the number of prescribing errors per prescriber (median (range): 2 (1-5) compared to original alerts: 4 (1-7); p=0.024). Aspects of the redesigned alerts that likely contributed to better prescribing include design modifications that reduced usability-related errors, providing clinical data closer to the point of decision, and displaying alert text in a tabular format. Displaying alert text in a tabular format may help prescribers extract information quickly and thereby increase responsiveness to alerts. This simulation study provides evidence that applying human factors design principles to medication alerts can improve usability and prescribing outcomes. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  5. 76 FR 32367 - Agency Information Collection Activities, Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Integrated Public...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-06-06

    ...; Integrated Public Alert and Warning Systems (IPAWS) Inventory AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency... proposed revision of the information collection concerning public alert and warning systems at the Federal... evaluation and assessment of existing public alert and warning resources and their integration with the...

  6. 76 FR 72306 - Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Appraiser Roster: Appraiser Qualifications for Placement on...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-11-23

    ... Appraiser Roster regulations by replacing the obsolete references to the Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System (CAIVRS) with references to its successor, the online-based Credit Alert Verification... propose the elimination references to the Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System (CAIVRS). On July...

  7. 76 FR 54245 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, Integrated...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-08-31

    ... Request, Integrated Public Alert and Warning Systems (IPAWS) Inventory AGENCY: Federal Emergency... system to alert and warn the American people in situations of war, terrorist attack, natural disaster, or... inventory of public alert and warning resources, capabilities, and the degree of integration at the Federal...

  8. 76 FR 41441 - Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Appraiser Roster: Appraiser Qualifications for Placement on...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-07-14

    ... the FHA Appraiser Roster by replacing the obsolete references to the Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System with references to its successor, the online-based Credit Alert Verification Reporting...'s Limited Denial of Participation list, or in HUD's Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System...

  9. Electronic Immunization Alerts and Spillover Effects on Other Preventive Care.

    PubMed

    Kim, Julia M; Rivera, Maria; Persing, Nichole; Bundy, David G; Psoter, Kevin J; Ghazarian, Sharon R; Miller, Marlene R; Solomon, Barry S

    2017-08-01

    The impact of electronic health record (EHR) immunization clinical alert systems on the delivery of other preventive services remains unknown. We assessed for spillover effects of an EHR immunization alert on delivery of 6 other preventive services, in children 18 to 30 months of age needing immunizations. We conducted a secondary data analysis, with additional primary data collection, of a randomized, historically controlled trial to improve immunization rates with EHR alerts, in an urban, primary care clinic. No significant differences were found in screening for anemia, lead, development, nutrition, and injury prevention counseling in children prompting EHR immunization alerts (n = 129), compared with controls (n = 135). Significant increases in oral health screening in patients prompting EHR alerts (odds ratio = 4.8, 95% CI = 1.8-13.0) were likely due to practice changes over time. An EHR clinical alert system targeting immunizations did not have a spillover effect on the delivery of other preventive services.

  10. Modeling Pilot State in Next Generation Aircraft Alert Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Carlin, Alan S.; Alexander, Amy L.; Schurr, Nathan

    2011-01-01

    The Next Generation Air Transportation System will introduce new, advanced sensor technologies into the cockpit that must convey a large number of potentially complex alerts. Our work focuses on the challenges associated with prioritizing aircraft sensor alerts in a quick and efficient manner, essentially determining when and how to alert the pilot This "alert decision" becomes very difficult in NextGen due to the following challenges: 1) the increasing number of potential hazards, 2) the uncertainty associated with the state of potential hazards as well as pilot slate , and 3) the limited time to make safely-critical decisions. In this paper, we focus on pilot state and present a model for anticipating duration and quality of pilot behavior, for use in a larger system which issues aircraft alerts. We estimate pilot workload, which we model as being dependent on factors including mental effort, task demands. and task performance. We perform a mathematically rigorous analysis of the model and resulting alerting plans. We simulate the model in software and present simulated results with respect to manipulation of the pilot measures.

  11. Applications for detection of acute kidney injury using electronic medical records and clinical information systems: workgroup statements from the 15(th) ADQI Consensus Conference.

    PubMed

    James, Matthew T; Hobson, Charles E; Darmon, Michael; Mohan, Sumit; Hudson, Darren; Goldstein, Stuart L; Ronco, Claudio; Kellum, John A; Bagshaw, Sean M

    2016-01-01

    Electronic medical records and clinical information systems are increasingly used in hospitals and can be leveraged to improve recognition and care for acute kidney injury. This Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative (ADQI) workgroup was convened to develop consensus around principles for the design of automated AKI detection systems to produce real-time AKI alerts using electronic systems. AKI alerts were recognized by the workgroup as an opportunity to prompt earlier clinical evaluation, further testing and ultimately intervention, rather than as a diagnostic label. Workgroup members agreed with designing AKI alert systems to align with the existing KDIGO classification system, but recommended future work to further refine the appropriateness of AKI alerts and to link these alerts to actionable recommendations for AKI care. The consensus statements developed in this review can be used as a roadmap for development of future electronic applications for automated detection and reporting of AKI.

  12. Optimization of drug-drug interaction alert rules in a pediatric hospital's electronic health record system using a visual analytics dashboard.

    PubMed

    Simpao, Allan F; Ahumada, Luis M; Desai, Bimal R; Bonafide, Christopher P; Gálvez, Jorge A; Rehman, Mohamed A; Jawad, Abbas F; Palma, Krisha L; Shelov, Eric D

    2015-03-01

    To develop and evaluate an electronic dashboard of hospital-wide electronic health record medication alerts for an alert fatigue reduction quality improvement project. We used visual analytics software to develop the dashboard. We collaborated with the hospital-wide Clinical Decision Support committee to perform three interventions successively deactivating clinically irrelevant drug-drug interaction (DDI) alert rules. We analyzed the impact of the interventions on care providers' and pharmacists' alert and override rates using an interrupted time series framework with piecewise regression. We evaluated 2 391 880 medication alerts between January 31, 2011 and January 26, 2014. For pharmacists, the median alert rate prior to the first DDI deactivation was 58.74 alerts/100 orders (IQR 54.98-60.48) and 25.11 alerts/100 orders (IQR 23.45-26.57) following the three interventions (p<0.001). For providers, baseline median alert rate prior to the first round of DDI deactivation was 19.73 alerts/100 orders (IQR 18.66-20.24) and 15.11 alerts/100 orders (IQR 14.44-15.49) following the three interventions (p<0.001). In a subgroup analysis, we observed a decrease in pharmacists' override rates for DDI alerts that were not modified in the system from a median of 93.06 overrides/100 alerts (IQR 91.96-94.33) to 85.68 overrides/100 alerts (IQR 84.29-87.15, p<0.001). The medication serious safety event rate decreased during the study period, and there were no serious safety events reported in association with the deactivated alert rules. An alert dashboard facilitated safe rapid-cycle reductions in alert burden that were temporally associated with lower pharmacist override rates in a subgroup of DDIs not directly affected by the interventions; meanwhile, the pharmacists' frequency of selecting the 'cancel' option increased. We hypothesize that reducing the alert burden enabled pharmacists to devote more attention to clinically relevant alerts. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  13. 47 CFR 11.56 - EAS Participants receive CAP-formatted alerts.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false EAS Participants receive CAP-formatted alerts... SYSTEM (EAS) Emergency Operations § 11.56 EAS Participants receive CAP-formatted alerts. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, all EAS Participants must be able to receive CAP-formatted EAS alerts no...

  14. 75 FR 26269 - Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning Program's...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-05-11

    ...] Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning Program's... from construction- related actions taken under the Integrated Public Alert and Warning Program (IPAWS... Order 13407, Public Alert and Warning System, by providing robust and survivable power generation, fuel...

  15. Improving the health forecasting alert system for cold weather and heat-waves in England: a case-study approach using temperature-mortality relationships

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Masato, Giacomo; Cavany, Sean; Charlton-Perez, Andrew; Dacre, Helen; Bone, Angie; Carmicheal, Katie; Murray, Virginia; Danker, Rutger; Neal, Rob; Sarran, Christophe

    2015-04-01

    The health forecasting alert system for cold weather and heatwaves currently in use in the Cold Weather and Heatwave plans for England is based on 5 alert levels, with levels 2 and 3 dependent on a forecast or actual single temperature action trigger. Epidemiological evidence indicates that for both heat and cold, the impact on human health is gradual, with worsening impact for more extreme temperatures. The 60% risk of heat and cold forecasts used by the alerts is a rather crude probabilistic measure, which could be substantially improved thanks to the state-of-the-art forecast techniques. In this study a prototype of a new health forecasting alert system is developed, which is aligned to the approach used in the Met Office's (MO) National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS). This is in order to improve information available to responders in the health and social care system by linking temperatures more directly to risks of mortality, and developing a system more coherent with other weather alerts. The prototype is compared to the current system in the Cold Weather and Heatwave plans via a case-study approach to verify its potential advantages and shortcomings. The prototype health forecasting alert system introduces an "impact vs likelihood matrix" for the health impacts of hot and cold temperatures which is similar to those used operationally for other weather hazards as part of the NSWWS. The impact axis of this matrix is based on existing epidemiological evidence, which shows an increasing relative risk of death at extremes of outdoor temperature beyond a threshold which can be identified epidemiologically. The likelihood axis is based on a probability measure associated with the temperature forecast. The new method is tested for two case studies (one during summer 2013, one during winter 2013), and compared to the performance of the current alert system. The prototype shows some clear improvements over the current alert system. It allows for a much greater degree of flexibility, provides more detailed regional information about the health risks associated with periods of extreme temperatures, and is more coherent with other weather alerts which may make it easier for front line responders to use. It will require validation and engagement with stakeholders before it can be considered for use.

  16. Managing the Alert Process at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

    PubMed Central

    Kuperman, Gilad J; Diamente, Rosanna; Khatu, Vrinda; Chan-Kraushar, Terri; Stetson, Pete; Boyer, Aurelia; Cooper, Mary

    2005-01-01

    Clinical decision support can improve the quality of care, but requires substantial knowledge management activities. At NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, we have implemented a formal alert management process whereby only hospital committees and departments can request alerts. An explicit requestor, who will help resolve the details of the alert logic and the alert message must be identified. Alerts must be requested in writing using a structured alert request form. Alert requests are reviewed by the Alert Committee and then forwarded to the Information Systems department for a software development estimate. The model required that clinical committees and departments become more actively involved in the development of alerts than had previously been necessary. In the 12 months following implementation, 10 alert requests were received. The model has been well received. A lot of the knowledge engineering work has been distributed and burden has been removed from scarce medical informatics resources. PMID:16779073

  17. Development of an Alert System to Detect Drug Interactions with Herbal Supplements using Medical Record Data.

    PubMed

    Archer, Melissa; Proulx, Joshua; Shane-McWhorter, Laura; Bray, Bruce E; Zeng-Treitler, Qing

    2014-01-01

    While potential medication-to-medication interaction alerting engines exist in many clinical applications, few systems exist to automatically alert on potential medication to herbal supplement interactions. We have developed a preliminary knowledge base and rules alerting engine that detects 259 potential interactions between 9 supplements, 62 cardiac medications, and 19 drug classes. The rules engine takes into consideration 12 patient risk factors and 30 interaction warning signs to help determine which of three different alert levels to categorize each potential interaction. A formative evaluation was conducted with two clinicians to set initial thresholds for each alert level. Additional work is planned add more supplement interactions, risk factors, and warning signs as well as to continue to set and adjust the inputs and thresholds for each potential interaction.

  18. Evaluation of the operational and demonstration test of short-range weather forecasting decision support within an advanced rural traveler information system

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1996-11-01

    THIS IS THE TECHNICAL SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH REPORT, COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE DRIVER FATIOUE AND ALERTNESS STUDY BY WYLIE ET AL., THE LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE OVER-THE-ROAD STUDY ON THIS SUBJECT EVER CONDUCTED IN NORTH AMERICA. THE DATA COLLEC...

  19. Notification of real-time clinical alerts generated by pharmacy expert systems.

    PubMed Central

    Miller, J. E.; Reichley, R. M.; McNamee, L. A.; Steib, S. A.; Bailey, T. C.

    1999-01-01

    We developed and implemented a strategy for notifying clinical pharmacists of alerts generated in real-time by two pharmacy expert systems: one for drug dosing and the other for adverse drug event prevention. Display pagers were selected as the preferred notification method and a concise, yet readable, format for displaying alert data was developed. This combination of real-time alert generation and notification via display pagers was shown to be efficient and effective in a 30-day trial. PMID:10566374

  20. One vendor's experience: preliminary development of a reminder system based on the Arden Syntax.

    PubMed

    Spates, R P; Aller, K C

    1994-09-01

    This article reviews the efforts of HBO & Company in the production of a first phase clinical alerting system based on the Arden Syntax. The alerting system was integrated with a clinical data repository and clinical workstation to process returning laboratory results. Investigations with expert systems resulted in a C language alerting system. GUI prototyping of an authoring environment led to a Smalltalk language authoring system. Future development is expected to broaden the system scope and address the evolution of the Arden Syntax.

  1. Outlier Detection for Patient Monitoring and Alerting

    PubMed Central

    Hauskrecht, Milos; Batal, Iyad; Valko, Michal; Visweswaran, Shyam; Cooper, Gregory F.; Clermont, Gilles

    2012-01-01

    We develop and evaluate a data-driven approach for detecting unusual (anomalous) patient-management decisions using past patient cases stored in electronic health records (EHRs). Our hypothesis is that a patient-management decision that is unusual with respect to past patient care may be due to an error and that it is worthwhile to generate an alert if such a decision is encountered. We evaluate this hypothesis using data obtained from EHRs of 4,486 post-cardiac surgical patients and a subset of 222 alerts generated from the data. We base the evaluation on the opinions of a panel of experts. The results of the study support our hypothesis that the outlier-based alerting can lead to promising true alert rates. We observed true alert rates that ranged from 25% to 66% for a variety of patient-management actions, with 66% corresponding to the strongest outliers. PMID:22944172

  2. Self-Alert Training: Volitional Modulation of Autonomic Arousal Improves Sustained Attention

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Connell, Redmond G.; Bellgrove, Mark A.; Dockree, Paul M.; Lau, Adam; Fitzgerald, Michael; Robertson, Ian H.

    2008-01-01

    The present study examines a new alertness training strategy (Self-Alert Training, SAT) designed to explore the relationship between the top-down control processes governing arousal and sustained attention. In order to maximally target frontal control systems SAT combines a previously validated behavioural self-alerting technique [Robertson, I.…

  3. Reduced Effectiveness of Interruptive Drug-Drug Interaction Alerts after Conversion to a Commercial Electronic Health Record.

    PubMed

    Wright, Adam; Aaron, Skye; Seger, Diane L; Samal, Lipika; Schiff, Gordon D; Bates, David W

    2018-05-15

    Drug-drug interaction (DDI) alerts in electronic health records (EHRs) can help prevent adverse drug events, but such alerts are frequently overridden, raising concerns about their clinical usefulness and contribution to alert fatigue. To study the effect of conversion to a commercial EHR on DDI alert and acceptance rates. Two before-and-after studies. 3277 clinicians who received a DDI alert in the outpatient setting. Introduction of a new, commercial EHR and subsequent adjustment of DDI alerting criteria. Alert burden and proportion of alerts accepted. Overall interruptive DDI alert burden increased by a factor of 6 from the legacy EHR to the commercial EHR. The acceptance rate for the most severe alerts fell from 100 to 8.4%, and from 29.3 to 7.5% for medium severity alerts (P < 0.001). After disabling the least severe alerts, total DDI alert burden fell by 50.5%, and acceptance of Tier 1 alerts rose from 9.1 to 12.7% (P < 0.01). Changing from a highly tailored DDI alerting system to a more general one as part of an EHR conversion decreased acceptance of DDI alerts and increased alert burden on users. The decrease in acceptance rates cannot be fully explained by differences in the clinical knowledge base, nor can it be fully explained by alert fatigue associated with increased alert burden. Instead, workflow factors probably predominate, including timing of alerts in the prescribing process, lack of differentiation of more and less severe alerts, and features of how users interact with alerts.

  4. Implementation of a simple electronic transfusion alert system decreases inappropriate ordering of packed red blood cells and plasma in a multi-hospital health care system.

    PubMed

    Smith, Matthew; Triulzi, Darrell J; Yazer, Mark H; Rollins-Raval, Marian A; Waters, Jonathan H; Raval, Jay S

    2014-12-01

    Prescriber adherence to institutional blood component ordering guidelines can be low. The goal of this study was to decrease red blood cell (RBC) and plasma orders that did not meet institutional transfusion guidelines by using data within the laboratory information system to trigger alerts in the computerized order entry (CPOE) system at the time of order entry. At 10 hospitals within a regional health care system, discernment rules were created for RBC and plasma orders utilizing transfusion triggers of hemoglobin <8 gm/dl and INR >1.6, respectively, with subsequent alert generation that appears within the CPOE system when a prescriber attempts to order RBCs or plasma on a patient whose antecedent laboratory values do not suggest that a transfusion is indicated. Orders and subsequent alerts were tracked for RBCs and plasma over evaluation periods of 15 and 10 months, respectively, along with the hospital credentials of the ordering health care providers (physician or nurse). Alerts triggered which were heeded remained steady and averaged 11.3% for RBCs and 19.6% for plasma over the evaluation periods. Overall, nurses and physicians canceled statistically identical percentages of alerted RBC (10.9% vs. 11.5%; p = 0.78) and plasma (21.3% vs. 18.7%; p = 0.22) orders. Implementing a simple evidence-based transfusion alert system at the time of order entry decreased non-evidence based transfusion orders by both nurse and physician providers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Warning Alert HITL Experiment Results

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Monk, Kevin J.; Ferm, Lisa; Roberts, Zach

    2018-01-01

    Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) are being developed to support the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace (NAS). Input from subject matter experts and multiple research studies have informed display requirements for Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) systems aimed at supporting timely and appropriate pilot responses to collision hazards. Phase 1 DAA MOPS alerting is designed to inform pilots if an avoidance maneuver is necessary; the two highest alert levels - caution and warning - indicate how soon pilot action is required and whether there is adequate time to coordinate with the air traffic controller (ATC). Additional empirical support is needed to clarify the extent to which warning-level alerting impacts DAA task performance. The present study explores the differential effects of the auditory and visual cues provided by the DAA Warning alert, and performance implications compared to caution-only alerting are discussed.

  6. Development of the Carers' Alert Thermometer (CAT) to identify family carers struggling with caring for someone dying at home: a mixed method consensus study.

    PubMed

    Knighting, Katherine; O'Brien, Mary R; Roe, Brenda; Gandy, Rob; Lloyd-Williams, Mari; Nolan, Mike; Jack, Barbara A

    2015-05-03

    There is an increasing international policy direction to promote home death for dying patients which will impact on the demands placed on family carers. The early identification of carer needs and appropriate intervention can help avoid crisis situations for the carer and avoidable hospital admissions which are reported to be a global concern. The aim of the study was to explore what professionals and carers of patients with cancer and advanced progressive illness, in their last year of life, find burdensome and to develop an alert system for use by non-specialist staff. A mixed-method, multi-phased, consensus study sequentially utilising qualitative and quantitative data to develop and pilot the Carers' Alert Thermometer (CAT). 245 people (117 carers and 128 professionals) participated in the study across a range of health and social care settings in the North West of England (2011-2014). A number of key domains were identified and prioritised by consensus for inclusion in the CAT. The 8 domains fit within two overarching themes of the reported carer experience; the support needed by the carer to provide care and the support needed for the carer's own health and well-being. The resultant CAT is an evidence-based alert thermometer consisting of 10 questions, guidance on the possible actions for each alert and space for an action plan to be jointly agreed by the assessor and carer. Preliminary piloting of the CAT has shown it to be valued, fit for purpose and it can be administered by a range of personnel. The CAT enables the identification of current and potential future needs so a proactive approach can be taken to supporting the carer as their role develops over time, with a view to enhancing their well-being and preventing avoidable hospital admissions; ultimately supporting patient choice to remain in their own home.

  7. Impact of an electronic alert notification system embedded in radiologists' workflow on closed-loop communication of critical results: a time series analysis.

    PubMed

    Lacson, Ronilda; O'Connor, Stacy D; Sahni, V Anik; Roy, Christopher; Dalal, Anuj; Desai, Sonali; Khorasani, Ramin

    2016-07-01

    Optimal critical test result communication is a Joint Commission national patient safety goal and requires documentation of closed-loop communication among care providers in the medical record. Electronic alert notification systems can facilitate an auditable process for creating alerts for transmission and acknowledgement of critical test results. We evaluated the impact of a patient safety initiative with an alert notification system on reducing critical results lacking documented communication, and assessed potential overuse of the alerting system for communicating results. We implemented an alert notification system-Alert Notification of Critical Results (ANCR)-in January 2010. We reviewed radiology reports finalised in 2009-2014 which lacked documented communication between the radiologist and another care provider, and assessed the impact of ANCR on the proportion of such reports with critical findings, using trend analysis over 10 semiannual time periods. To evaluate potential overuse of ANCR, we assessed the proportion of reports with non-critical results among provider-communicated reports. The proportion of reports with critical results among reports without documented communication decreased significantly over 4 years (2009-2014) from 0.19 to 0.05 (p<0.0001, Cochran-Armitage trend test). The proportion of provider-communicated reports with non-critical results remained unchanged over time before and after ANCR implementation (0.20 to 0.15, p=0.45, Cochran-Armitage trend test). A patient safety initiative with an alert notification system reduced the proportion of critical results among reports lacking documented communication between care providers. We observed no change in documented communication of non-critical results, suggesting the system did not promote overuse. Future studies are needed to evaluate whether such systems prevent subsequent patient harm. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  8. PleurAlert: an augmented chest drainage system with electronic sensing, automated alerts and internet connectivity.

    PubMed

    Leeson, Cory E; Weaver, Robert A; Bissell, Taylor; Hoyer, Rachel; McClain, Corinne; Nelson, Douglas A; Samosky, Joseph T

    2012-01-01

    We have enhanced a common medical device, the chest tube drainage container, with electronic sensing of fluid volume, automated detection of critical alarm conditions and the ability to automatically send alert text messages to a nurse's cell phone. The PleurAlert system provides a simple touch-screen interface and can graphically display chest tube output over time. Our design augments a device whose basic function dates back 50 years by adding technology to automate and optimize a monitoring process that can be time consuming and inconvenient for nurses. The system may also enhance detection of emergency conditions and speed response time.

  9. Radar based autonomous sensor module

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Styles, Tim

    2016-10-01

    Most surveillance systems combine camera sensors with other detection sensors that trigger an alert to a human operator when an object is detected. The detection sensors typically require careful installation and configuration for each application and there is a significant burden on the operator to react to each alert by viewing camera video feeds. A demonstration system known as Sensing for Asset Protection with Integrated Electronic Networked Technology (SAPIENT) has been developed to address these issues using Autonomous Sensor Modules (ASM) and a central High Level Decision Making Module (HLDMM) that can fuse the detections from multiple sensors. This paper describes the 24 GHz radar based ASM, which provides an all-weather, low power and license exempt solution to the problem of wide area surveillance. The radar module autonomously configures itself in response to tasks provided by the HLDMM, steering the transmit beam and setting range resolution and power levels for optimum performance. The results show the detection and classification performance for pedestrians and vehicles in an area of interest, which can be modified by the HLDMM without physical adjustment. The module uses range-Doppler processing for reliable detection of moving objects and combines Radar Cross Section and micro-Doppler characteristics for object classification. Objects are classified as pedestrian or vehicle, with vehicle sub classes based on size. Detections are reported only if the object is detected in a task coverage area and it is classified as an object of interest. The system was shown in a perimeter protection scenario using multiple radar ASMs, laser scanners, thermal cameras and visible band cameras. This combination of sensors enabled the HLDMM to generate reliable alerts with improved discrimination of objects and behaviours of interest.

  10. Semiautomated System for Nonurgent, Clinically Significant Pathology Results.

    PubMed

    O'Connor, Stacy D; Khorasani, Ramin; Pochebit, Stephen M; Lacson, Ronilda; Andriole, Katherine P; Dalal, Anuj K

    2018-04-01

     Failure of timely test result follow-up has consequences including delayed diagnosis and treatment, added costs, and potential patient harm. Closed-loop communication is key to ensure clinically significant test results (CSTRs) are acknowledged and acted upon appropriately. A previous implementation of the Alert Notification of Critical Results (ANCR) system to facilitate closed-loop communication of imaging CSTRs yielded improved communication of critical radiology results and enhanced adherence to institutional CSTR policies.  This article extends the ANCR application to pathology and evaluates its impact on closed-loop communication of new malignancies, a common and important type of pathology CSTR.  This Institutional Review Board-approved study was performed at a 150-bed community, academically affiliated hospital. ANCR was adapted for pathology CSTRs. Natural language processing was used on 30,774 pathology reports 13 months pre- and 13 months postintervention, identifying 5,595 reports with malignancies. Electronic health records were reviewed for documented acknowledgment for a random sample of reports. Percent of reports with documented acknowledgment within 15 days assessed institutional policy adherence. Time to acknowledgment was compared pre- versus postintervention and postintervention with and without ANCR alerts. Pathologists were surveyed regarding ANCR use and satisfaction.  Acknowledgment within 15 days was documented for 98 of 107 (91.6%) pre- and 89 of 103 (86.4%) postintervention reports ( p  = 0.2294). Median time to acknowledgment was 7 days (interquartile range [IQR], 3, 11) preintervention and 6 days (IQR, 2, 10) postintervention ( p  = 0.5083). Postintervention, median time to acknowledgment was 2 days (IQR, 1, 6) for reports with ANCR alerts versus 6 days (IQR, 2.75, 9) for reports without alerts ( p  = 0.0351). ANCR alerts were sent on 15 of 103 (15%) postintervention reports. All pathologists reported that the ANCR system positively impacted their workflow; 75% (three-fourths) felt that the ANCR system improved efficiency of communicating CSTRs.  ANCR expansion to facilitate closed-loop communication of pathology CSTRs was favorably perceived and associated with significant improved time to documented acknowledgment for new malignancies. The rate of adherence to institutional policy did not improve. Schattauer.

  11. Rapid MODIS-based detection of tree cover loss

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wheeler, David; Guzder-Williams, Brook; Petersen, Rachael; Thau, David

    2018-07-01

    This paper reports on recent improvements made to the FORMA (Hammer et al., 2014a) data product. The resulting system, FORMA250, is a 250-m alerting system updated daily. FORMA250 alerts are available through Global Forest Watch. These alerts can empower law enforcement officials, government agencies responsible for protecting forests, nongovernmental organizations, companies committed to sustainable forest management practices and supply chains, indigenous groups and forest-dependent communities. In addition, the alerts provide useful information for researchers who study temporal and spatial patterns of forest clearing.

  12. Project "Hypertension Alert."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sailors, Emma Lou

    1983-01-01

    "Hypertension Alert," a 1979-80 blood pressure screening-awareness project of the Yonkers, New York Public Schools, is described. Data is analyzed in tables for ethnic composition, and range of blood pressure readings for the high school, junior high school, and elementary school students tested. (Author/JMK)

  13. The effectiveness of computerized drug-lab alerts: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

    PubMed

    Bayoumi, Imaan; Al Balas, Mosab; Handler, Steven M; Dolovich, Lisa; Hutchison, Brian; Holbrook, Anne

    2014-06-01

    Inadequate lab monitoring of drugs is a potential cause of ADEs (adverse drug events) which is remediable. To determine the effectiveness of computerized drug-lab alerts to improve medication-related outcomes. Citations from the Computerized Clinical Decision Support System Systematic Review (CCDSSR) and MMIT (Medications Management through Health Information Technology) databases, which had searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts from 1974 to March 27, 2013. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of clinician-targeted computerized drug lab alerts conducted in any healthcare setting. Two reviewers performed full text review to determine study eligibility. A single reviewer abstracted data and evaluated validity of included studies using Cochrane handbook domains. Thirty-six studies met the inclusion criteria (25 single drug studies with 22,504 participants, 14 targeting anticoagulation; 11 multi-drug studies with 56,769 participants). ADEs were reported as an outcome in only four trials, all targeting anticoagulants. Computerized drug-lab alerts did not reduce ADEs (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.79-1.00, p=0.05), length of hospital stay (SMD 0.00, 95%CI -0.93 to 0.93, p=0.055, 1 study), likelihood of hypoglycemia (OR 1.29, 95% CI 0.31-5.37) or likelihood of bleeding, but were associated with increased likelihood of prescribing changes (OR 1.73, 95% CI 1.21-2.47) or lab monitoring (OR 1.47, 95% confidence interval 1.12-1.94) in accordance with the alert. There is no evidence that computerized drug-lab alerts are associated with important clinical benefits, but there is evidence of improvement in selected clinical surrogate outcomes (time in therapeutic range for vitamin K antagonists), and changes in process outcomes (lab monitoring and prescribing decisions). Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Improving the Health Forecasting Alert System for Cold Weather and Heat-Waves In England: A Proof-of-Concept Using Temperature-Mortality Relationships

    PubMed Central

    Masato, Giacomo; Bone, Angie; Charlton-Perez, Andrew; Cavany, Sean; Neal, Robert; Dankers, Rutger; Dacre, Helen; Carmichael, Katie; Murray, Virginia

    2015-01-01

    Objectives In this study a prototype of a new health forecasting alert system is developed, which is aligned to the approach used in the Met Office’s (MO) National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS). This is in order to improve information available to responders in the health and social care system by linking temperatures more directly to risks of mortality, and developing a system more coherent with other weather alerts. The prototype is compared to the current system in the Cold Weather and Heatwave plans via a case-study approach to verify its potential advantages and shortcomings. Method The prototype health forecasting alert system introduces an “impact vs likelihood matrix” for the health impacts of hot and cold temperatures which is similar to those used operationally for other weather hazards as part of the NSWWS. The impact axis of this matrix is based on existing epidemiological evidence, which shows an increasing relative risk of death at extremes of outdoor temperature beyond a threshold which can be identified epidemiologically. The likelihood axis is based on a probability measure associated with the temperature forecast. The new method is tested for two case studies (one during summer 2013, one during winter 2013), and compared to the performance of the current alert system. Conclusions The prototype shows some clear improvements over the current alert system. It allows for a much greater degree of flexibility, provides more detailed regional information about the health risks associated with periods of extreme temperatures, and is more coherent with other weather alerts which may make it easier for front line responders to use. It will require validation and engagement with stakeholders before it can be considered for use. PMID:26431427

  15. Improving the Health Forecasting Alert System for Cold Weather and Heat-Waves In England: A Proof-of-Concept Using Temperature-Mortality Relationships.

    PubMed

    Masato, Giacomo; Bone, Angie; Charlton-Perez, Andrew; Cavany, Sean; Neal, Robert; Dankers, Rutger; Dacre, Helen; Carmichael, Katie; Murray, Virginia

    2015-01-01

    In this study a prototype of a new health forecasting alert system is developed, which is aligned to the approach used in the Met Office's (MO) National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS). This is in order to improve information available to responders in the health and social care system by linking temperatures more directly to risks of mortality, and developing a system more coherent with other weather alerts. The prototype is compared to the current system in the Cold Weather and Heatwave plans via a case-study approach to verify its potential advantages and shortcomings. The prototype health forecasting alert system introduces an "impact vs likelihood matrix" for the health impacts of hot and cold temperatures which is similar to those used operationally for other weather hazards as part of the NSWWS. The impact axis of this matrix is based on existing epidemiological evidence, which shows an increasing relative risk of death at extremes of outdoor temperature beyond a threshold which can be identified epidemiologically. The likelihood axis is based on a probability measure associated with the temperature forecast. The new method is tested for two case studies (one during summer 2013, one during winter 2013), and compared to the performance of the current alert system. The prototype shows some clear improvements over the current alert system. It allows for a much greater degree of flexibility, provides more detailed regional information about the health risks associated with periods of extreme temperatures, and is more coherent with other weather alerts which may make it easier for front line responders to use. It will require validation and engagement with stakeholders before it can be considered for use.

  16. Earthquake Early Warning ShakeAlert System: Testing and certification platform

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Cochran, Elizabeth S.; Kohler, Monica D.; Given, Douglas; Guiwits, Stephen; Andrews, Jennifer; Meier, Men-Andrin; Ahmad, Mohammad; Henson, Ivan; Hartog, Renate; Smith, Deborah

    2017-01-01

    Earthquake early warning systems provide warnings to end users of incoming moderate to strong ground shaking from earthquakes. An earthquake early warning system, ShakeAlert, is providing alerts to beta end users in the western United States, specifically California, Oregon, and Washington. An essential aspect of the earthquake early warning system is the development of a framework to test modifications to code to ensure functionality and assess performance. In 2016, a Testing and Certification Platform (TCP) was included in the development of the Production Prototype version of ShakeAlert. The purpose of the TCP is to evaluate the robustness of candidate code that is proposed for deployment on ShakeAlert Production Prototype servers. TCP consists of two main components: a real‐time in situ test that replicates the real‐time production system and an offline playback system to replay test suites. The real‐time tests of system performance assess code optimization and stability. The offline tests comprise a stress test of candidate code to assess if the code is production ready. The test suite includes over 120 events including local, regional, and teleseismic historic earthquakes, recentering and calibration events, and other anomalous and potentially problematic signals. Two assessments of alert performance are conducted. First, point‐source assessments are undertaken to compare magnitude, epicentral location, and origin time with the Advanced National Seismic System Comprehensive Catalog, as well as to evaluate alert latency. Second, we describe assessment of the quality of ground‐motion predictions at end‐user sites by comparing predicted shaking intensities to ShakeMaps for historic events and implement a threshold‐based approach that assesses how often end users initiate the appropriate action, based on their ground‐shaking threshold. TCP has been developed to be a convenient streamlined procedure for objectively testing algorithms, and it has been designed with flexibility to accommodate significant changes in development of new or modified system code. It is expected that the TCP will continue to evolve along with the ShakeAlert system, and the framework we describe here provides one example of how earthquake early warning systems can be evaluated.

  17. An Investigation of Drug-Drug Interaction Alert Overrides at a Pediatric Hospital.

    PubMed

    Humphrey, Kate; Jorina, Maria; Harper, Marvin; Dodson, Brenda; Kim, Seung-Yeon; Ozonoff, Al

    2018-05-01

    Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) can result in patient harm. DDI alerts are intended to help prevent harm; when the majority of alerts presented to providers are being overridden, their value is diminished. Our objective was to evaluate the overall rates of DDI alert overrides and how rates varied by specialty, clinician type, and patient complexity. A retrospective study of DDI alert overrides that occurred during 2012 and 2013 within the inpatient setting described at the medication-, hospital-, provider-, and patient encounter-specific levels was performed at an urban, quaternary-care, pediatric hospital. There were >41 000 DDI alerts presented to clinicians; ∼90% were overridden. The 5 DDI pairs that were most frequently presented and overridden included the following: potassium chloride-spironolactone, methadone-ondansetron, ketorolac-ibuprofen, cyclosporine-fluconazole, and potassium chloride-enalapril, each with an alert override rate of ≥0.89. Override rates across provider groups ranged between 0.84 and 0.97. In general, patients with high complexity had a higher frequency of alert overrides, but the rates of alert overrides for each DDI pairing did not differ significantly. High rates of DDI alert overrides occur across medications, provider groups, and patient encounters. Methods to decrease DDI alerts which are likely to be overridden exist, but it is also clear that more robust and intelligent tools are needed. Characteristics exist at the medication, hospital, provider, and patient levels that can be used to help specialize and enhance information transmission. Copyright © 2018 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

  18. Tactical Conflict Detection in Terminal Airspace

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tang, Huabin; Robinson, John E.; Denery, Dallas G.

    2010-01-01

    Air traffic systems have long relied on automated short-term conflict prediction algorithms to warn controllers of impending conflicts (losses of separation). The complexity of terminal airspace has proven difficult for such systems as it often leads to excessive false alerts. Thus, the legacy system, called Conflict Alert, which provides short-term alerts in both en-route and terminal airspace currently, is often inhibited or degraded in areas where frequent false alerts occur, even though the alerts are provided only when an aircraft is in dangerous proximity of other aircraft. This research investigates how a minimal level of flight intent information may be used to improve short-term conflict detection in terminal airspace such that it can be used by the controller to maintain legal aircraft separation. The flight intent information includes a site-specific nominal arrival route and inferred altitude clearances in addition to the flight plan that includes the RNAV (Area Navigation) departure route. A new tactical conflict detection algorithm is proposed, which uses a single analytic trajectory, determined by the flight intent and the current state information of the aircraft, and includes a complex set of current, dynamic separation standards for terminal airspace to define losses of separation. The new algorithm is compared with an algorithm that imitates a known en-route algorithm and another that imitates Conflict Alert by analysis of false-alert rate and alert lead time with recent real-world data of arrival and departure operations and a large set of operational error cases from Dallas/Fort Worth TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control). The new algorithm yielded a false-alert rate of two per hour and an average alert lead time of 38 seconds.

  19. Investigating the association of alerts from a national mortality surveillance system with subsequent hospital mortality in England: an interrupted time series analysis.

    PubMed

    Cecil, Elizabeth; Bottle, Alex; Esmail, Aneez; Wilkinson, Samantha; Vincent, Charles; Aylin, Paul P

    2018-05-04

    To investigate the association between alerts from a national hospital mortality surveillance system and subsequent trends in relative risk of mortality. There is increasing interest in performance monitoring in the NHS. Since 2007, Imperial College London has generated monthly mortality alerts, based on statistical process control charts and using routinely collected hospital administrative data, for all English acute NHS hospital trusts. The impact of this system has not yet been studied. We investigated alerts sent to Acute National Health Service hospital trusts in England in 2011-2013. We examined risk-adjusted mortality (relative risk) for all monitored diagnosis and procedure groups at a hospital trust level for 12 months prior to an alert and 23 months post alert. We used an interrupted time series design with a 9-month lag to estimate a trend prior to a mortality alert and the change in trend after, using generalised estimating equations. On average there was a 5% monthly increase in relative risk of mortality during the 12 months prior to an alert (95% CI 4% to 5%). Mortality risk fell, on average by 61% (95% CI 56% to 65%), during the 9-month period immediately following an alert, then levelled to a slow decline, reaching on average the level of expected mortality within 18 months of the alert. Our results suggest an association between an alert notification and a reduction in the risk of mortality, although with less lag time than expected. It is difficult to determine any causal association. A proportion of alerts may be triggered by random variation alone and subsequent falls could simply reflect regression to the mean. Findings could also indicate that some hospitals are monitoring their own mortality statistics or other performance information, taking action prior to alert notification. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  20. Develop and pilot test smart phone/tablet app for paratransit demand-response passenger pick-up alerts to assist passengers with disabilities and reduce no-shows and dwell times.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2016-12-01

    This research produced an arrival notification system for paratransit passengers with disabilities. Almost all existing curb-to-curb paratransit services have significantly large pick-up time window ranging from 20 to 40 minutes from the scheduled ti...

  1. Determining Inappropriate Medication Alerts from "Inaccurate Warning" Overrides in the Intensive Care Unit.

    PubMed

    Rehr, Christine A; Wong, Adrian; Seger, Diane L; Bates, David W

    2018-04-01

     This article aims to understand provider behavior around the use of the override reason "Inaccurate warning," specifically whether it is an effective way of identifying unhelpful medication alerts.  We analyzed alert overrides that occurred in the intensive care units (ICUs) of a major academic medical center between June and November 2016, focused on the following high-significance alert types: dose, drug-allergy alerts, and drug-drug interactions (DDI). Override appropriateness was analyzed by two independent reviewers using predetermined criteria.  A total of 268 of 26,501 ICU overrides (1.0%) used the reason "Inaccurate warning," with 93 of these overrides associated with our included alert types. Sixty-one of these overrides (66%) were identified to be appropriate. Twenty-one of 30 (70%) dose alert overrides were appropriate. Forty of 48 drug-allergy alert overrides (83%) were appropriate, for reasons ranging from prior tolerance ( n  = 30) to inaccurate ingredient matches ( n  = 5). None of the 15 DDI overrides were appropriate.  The "Inaccurate warning" reason was selectively used by a small proportion of providers and overrides using this reason identified important opportunities to reduce excess alerts. Potential opportunities include improved evaluation of dosing mechanisms based on patient characteristics, inclusion of institutional dosing protocols to alert logic, and evaluation of a patient's prior tolerance to a medication that they have a documented allergy for. This resource is not yet routinely used for alert tailoring at our institution but may prove to be a valuable resource to evaluate available alerts. Schattauer GmbH Stuttgart.

  2. Web-based Tsunami Early Warning System: a case study of the 2010 Kepulaunan Mentawai Earthquake and Tsunami

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ulutas, E.; Inan, A.; Annunziato, A.

    2012-06-01

    This study analyzes the response of the Global Disasters Alerts and Coordination System (GDACS) in relation to a case study: the Kepulaunan Mentawai earthquake and related tsunami, which occurred on 25 October 2010. The GDACS, developed by the European Commission Joint Research Center, combines existing web-based disaster information management systems with the aim to alert the international community in case of major disasters. The tsunami simulation system is an integral part of the GDACS. In more detail, the study aims to assess the tsunami hazard on the Mentawai and Sumatra coasts: the tsunami heights and arrival times have been estimated employing three propagation models based on the long wave theory. The analysis was performed in three stages: (1) pre-calculated simulations by using the tsunami scenario database for that region, used by the GDACS system to estimate the alert level; (2) near-real-time simulated tsunami forecasts, automatically performed by the GDACS system whenever a new earthquake is detected by the seismological data providers; and (3) post-event tsunami calculations using GCMT (Global Centroid Moment Tensor) fault mechanism solutions proposed by US Geological Survey (USGS) for this event. The GDACS system estimates the alert level based on the first type of calculations and on that basis sends alert messages to its users; the second type of calculations is available within 30-40 min after the notification of the event but does not change the estimated alert level. The third type of calculations is performed to improve the initial estimations and to have a better understanding of the extent of the possible damage. The automatic alert level for the earthquake was given between Green and Orange Alert, which, in the logic of GDACS, means no need or moderate need of international humanitarian assistance; however, the earthquake generated 3 to 9 m tsunami run-up along southwestern coasts of the Pagai Islands where 431 people died. The post-event calculations indicated medium-high humanitarian impacts.

  3. The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) adaption in National Early Warning Alerting Systems of China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Chao

    2017-04-01

    The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) [1] is an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies. In China, from local communities to entire nations, there was a patchwork of specialized hazard public alerting systems. And each system was often designed just for certain emergency situations and for certain communications media. Application took place in the NEWAS (National Early Warning Alerting Systems) [2]project where CAP serves as central message to integrate all kind of hazard situations, including the natural calamity, accident disaster, public health emergency , social safety etc. Officially operated on May 2015, NEWAS now has completed docking work with 14 departments including civil administration, safety supervision, forestry, land, water conservancy, earthquake, traffic, meteorology, agriculture, tourism, food and drug supervision, public security and oceanic administration. Thus, several items in CAP has been modified, redefined and extended according to the various grading standards and publishing strategies, as well as the characteristics of Chinese Geocoding. NEWAS successfully delivers information to end users through 4 levels (i.e. State, province, prefecture and county) structure and by various means. [1] CAP, http://www.oasis-emergency.org/cap [2] http://www.12379.cn/

  4. Prioritizing earthquake and tsunami alerting efforts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allen, R. M.; Allen, S.; Aranha, M. A.; Chung, A. I.; Hellweg, M.; Henson, I. H.; Melgar, D.; Neuhauser, D. S.; Nof, R. N.; Strauss, J. A.

    2015-12-01

    The timeline of hazards associated with earthquakes ranges from seconds for the strong shaking at the epicenter, to minutes for strong shaking at more distant locations in big quakes, to tens of minutes for a local tsunami. Earthquake and tsunami warning systems must therefore include very fast initial alerts, while also taking advantage of available time in bigger and tsunami-generating quakes. At the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory we are developing a suite of algorithms to provide the fullest possible information about earthquake shaking and tsunami inundation from seconds to minutes after a quake. The E-larmS algorithm uses the P-wave to rapidly detect an earthquake and issue a warning. It is currently issuing alerts to test users in as little as 3 sec after the origin time. Development of a new waveform detector may lead to even faster alerts. G-larmS uses permanent deformation estimates from GNSS stations to estimate the geometry and extent of rupture underway providing more accurate ground shaking estimates in big (M>~7) earthquakes. It performed well in the M6.0 2014 Napa earthquake. T-larmS is a new algorithm designed to extend alert capabilities to tsunami inundation. Rapid estimates of source characteristics for subduction zones event can not only be used to warn of the shaking hazard, but also the local tsunami inundation hazard. These algorithms are being developed, implemented and tested with a focus on the western US, but are also now being tested in other parts of the world including Israel, Turkey, Korea and Chile. Beta users in the Bay Area are receiving the alerts and beginning to implement automated actions. They also provide feedback on users needs, which has led to the development of the MyEEW smartphone app. This app allows beta users to receive the alerts on their cell phones. All these efforts feed into our ongoing assessment of directions and priorities for future development and implementation efforts.

  5. ShakeAlert Users Transition to the Production Prototype System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strauss, J. A.; Vinci, M.; Steele, W. P.; Hellweg, M.; Allen, R. M.; DeGroot, R. M.

    2016-12-01

    The ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning system transitioned from the demonstration system into the fully-fledged production prototype system this year. Users were migrated over to the new system concurrent with the release of the ShakeAlert UserDisplay Version 2.5.0. The production prototype system provides robust connectivity, fail-over mechanisms to ensure that alarms are deliverd even if one connection fails, and provides a framework to connect future stations, participants, and other sources as the project expands to the full public system. We will present an overview of key user sectors that are either testing or launching pilot projects for the system within their organizations. We will outline the implementation of certain actions, and highlight accomplishments and challenges the Beta Users encounter in fully implementing ShakeAlert within their organizations. By better studying these issues, project partners can better assist the users in incorporating early warning in their operations. Opening up the system to allow for pilot projects enables ShakeAlert users to develop hardware, software, and policy solutions for actions in response to early warning alerts in a controlled environment. This is the first step on the path toward limited rollouts. The pilot groups leverage the expertise of our stakeholders to develop the `last mile' alert distribution and responses. The transition went smoothly in February 2015, for users in California, and we expect to connect with more beta users and pilot groups in this next phase. User transition is planned for Fall 2016 for users in the Pacific Northwest. Beta Users, such as municipalities, emergency response groups, and county officials, lifelines, schools, and private industry continue to meet with ShakeAlert partners to 1) further education and training on both benefits and limitations 2) strategize on implementation actions, such as opening fire house bay doors in response to an alarm, and 3) coordinate continued engagement as the system comes online with more Users and in more areas. The newly created Joint Committee on Communication, Education, and Outreach is aiding with the education and training aspect of the rollout.

  6. Tsunami.gov: NOAA's Tsunami Information Portal

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shiro, B.; Carrick, J.; Hellman, S. B.; Bernard, M.; Dildine, W. P.

    2014-12-01

    We present the new Tsunami.gov website, which delivers a single authoritative source of tsunami information for the public and emergency management communities. The site efficiently merges information from NOAA's Tsunami Warning Centers (TWC's) by way of a comprehensive XML feed called Tsunami Event XML (TEX). The resulting unified view allows users to quickly see the latest tsunami alert status in geographic context without having to understand complex TWC areas of responsibility. The new site provides for the creation of a wide range of products beyond the traditional ASCII-based tsunami messages. The publication of modern formats such as Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) can drive geographically aware emergency alert systems like FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). Supported are other popular information delivery systems, including email, text messaging, and social media updates. The Tsunami.gov portal allows NOAA staff to easily edit content and provides the facility for users to customize their viewing experience. In addition to access by the public, emergency managers and government officials may be offered the capability to log into the portal for special access rights to decision-making and administrative resources relevant to their respective tsunami warning systems. The site follows modern HTML5 responsive design practices for optimized use on mobile as well as non-mobile platforms. It meets all federal security and accessibility standards. Moving forward, we hope to expand Tsunami.gov to encompass tsunami-related content currently offered on separate websites, including the NOAA Tsunami Website, National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, NOAA Center for Tsunami Research, National Geophysical Data Center's Tsunami Database, and National Data Buoy Center's DART Program. This project is part of the larger Tsunami Information Technology Modernization Project, which is consolidating the software architectures of NOAA's existing TWC's into a single system. We welcome your feedback to help Tsunami.gov become an effective public resource for tsunami information and a medium to enable better global tsunami warning coordination.

  7. Usability evaluation of pharmacogenomics clinical decision support aids and clinical knowledge resources in a computerized provider order entry system: a mixed methods approach.

    PubMed

    Devine, Emily Beth; Lee, Chia-Ju; Overby, Casey L; Abernethy, Neil; McCune, Jeannine; Smith, Joe W; Tarczy-Hornoch, Peter

    2014-07-01

    Pharmacogenomics (PGx) is positioned to have a widespread impact on the practice of medicine, yet physician acceptance is low. The presentation of context-specific PGx information, in the form of clinical decision support (CDS) alerts embedded in a computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system, can aid uptake. Usability evaluations can inform optimal design, which, in turn, can spur adoption. The study objectives were to: (1) evaluate an early prototype, commercial CPOE system with PGx-CDS alerts in a simulated environment, (2) identify potential improvements to the system user interface, and (3) understand the contexts under which PGx knowledge embedded in an electronic health record is useful to prescribers. Using a mixed methods approach, we presented seven cardiologists and three oncologists with five hypothetical clinical case scenarios. Each scenario featured a drug for which a gene encoding drug metabolizing enzyme required consideration of dosage adjustment. We used Morae(®) to capture comments and on-screen movements as participants prescribed each drug. In addition to PGx-CDS alerts, 'Infobutton(®)' and 'Evidence' icons provided participants with clinical knowledge resources to aid decision-making. Nine themes emerged. Five suggested minor improvements to the CPOE user interface; two suggested presenting PGx information through PGx-CDS alerts using an 'Infobutton' or 'Evidence' icon. The remaining themes were strong recommendations to provide succinct, relevant guidelines and dosing recommendations of phenotypic information from credible and trustworthy sources; any more information was overwhelming. Participants' median rating of PGx-CDS system usability was 2 on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree). Usability evaluation results suggest that participants considered PGx information important for improving prescribing decisions; and that they would incorporate PGx-CDS when information is presented in relevant and useful ways. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Centralized Alert-Processing and Asset Planning for Sensorwebs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Castano, Rebecca; Chien, Steve A.; Rabideau, Gregg R.; Tang, Benyang

    2010-01-01

    A software program provides a Sensorweb architecture for alert-processing, event detection, asset allocation and planning, and visualization. It automatically tasks and re-tasks various types of assets such as satellites and robotic vehicles in response to alerts (fire, weather) extracted from various data sources, including low-level Webcam data. JPL has adapted cons iderable Sensorweb infrastructure that had been previously applied to NASA Earth Science applications. This NASA Earth Science Sensorweb has been in operational use since 2003, and has proven reliability of the Sensorweb technologies for robust event detection and autonomous response using space and ground assets. Unique features of the software include flexibility to a range of detection and tasking methods including those that require aggregation of data over spatial and temporal ranges, generality of the response structure to represent and implement a range of response campaigns, and the ability to respond rapidly.

  9. Fatigue and alertness in the United States railroad industry part I: the nature of the problem

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-03-31

    The railroad industry must actively manage employee fatigue and alertness problems to maintain an optimal level of operational safety and productivity. Given the necessity to operate nights and irregular hours, weekends and holidays under a wide rang...

  10. An Obstacle Alerting System for Agricultural Application

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    DeMaio, Joe

    2003-01-01

    Wire strikes are a significant cause of helicopter accidents. The aircraft most at risk are aerial applicators. The present study examines the effectiveness of a wire alert delivered by way of the lightbar, a GPS-based guidance system for aerial application. The alert lead-time needed to avoid an invisible wire is compared with that to avoid a visible wire. A flight simulator was configured to simulate an agricultural application helicopter. Two pilots flew simulated spray runs in fields with visible wires, invisible wires, and no wires. The wire alert was effective in reducing wire strikes. A lead-time of 3.5 sec was required for the alert to be effective. The lead- time required was the same whether the pilot could see the wire or not.

  11. Geographic Variation in Rosiglitazone Use Surrounding FDA Warnings in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    PubMed

    Ahuja, Vishal; Sohn, Min-Woong; Birge, John R; Syverson, Chad; Budiman-Mak, Elly; Emanuele, Nicholas; Cooper, Jennifer M; Huang, Elbert S

    2015-12-01

    Geographic variation in the use of prescription drugs, particularly those deemed harmful by the FDA, may lead to variation in patient exposure to adverse drug events. One such drug is the glucose-lowering drug rosiglitazone, for which the FDA issued a safety alert on May 21, 2007, following the publication of a meta-analysis that suggested a 43% increase in the risk of myocardial infarction with the use of rosiglitazone. This alert was followed by a black box warning on August 14, 2007, that was updated 3 months later. While large declines have been documented in rosiglitazone use in clinical practice, little is known about how the use of rosiglitazone and other glucose-lowering drugs varied within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), surrounding the FDA alerts. Understanding this variation within integrated health care systems is essential to formulating policies that enhance patient protection and quality of care. To document variation in the use of rosiglitazone and other glucose- lowering drugs across 21 Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs). We conducted a retrospective analysis of drug use patterns for all major diabetes drugs in a national cohort of 550,550 veterans with diabetes from 2003 to 2008. This included the time periods when rosiglitazone was added to (November 2003) and removed from (October 2007) the VA national formulary (VANF). We employed multivariable logistic regression models to statistically estimate the association between a patient's location and the patient's odds of using rosiglitazone. Aggregate rosiglitazone use increased monotonically from 7.7%, in the quarter it was added to the VANF (November 4, 2003), to a peak of 15.3% in the quarter when the FDA issued the safety alert. Rosiglitazone use decreased sharply afterwards, reaching 3.4% by the end of the study period (September 30, 2008). The use of pioglitazone, another glucose-lowering drug in the same class as rosiglitazone, was low when the FDA issued the safety alert (0.4%) but increased sharply afterwards, reaching 3.6% by the end of the study period. Insulin use increased monotonically; metformin use remained relatively flat; and sulfonylurea use exhibited a general declining trend throughout the study period. Statistically significant geographic variation was observed in rosiglitazone use throughout the study period. The prevalence range, defined as the range of minimum to maximum use across VISNs was 3.7%-12.4% in the first quarter (January 1 to March 31, 2003); 1.0%-5.5% in the last quarter of study period (July 1 to September 30, 2008); and reached a peak of 9.6%-25.5% in the quarter when the FDA safety alert was issued (April 1 to March 31, 2007). In 5 VISNs, peak rosiglitazone use occurred before the FDA issued the safety alert. The odds ratio of using rosiglitazone in a given VISN varied from 0.55 (95% CI = 0.52-0.59; VISN 10) to 1.58 (95% CI = 1.50-1.66; VISN 15), with VISN 1 being the reference region. The variation was higher in the periods after the FDA issued the safety alert. Much less variation was observed in the use of pioglitazone, metformin, sulfonylurea, and insulin. Our results show statistically significant variation in the way VISNs within the VA responded to the FDA alerts, suggesting a need for mechanisms that disseminate information and guidelines for drug use in a consistent and reliable manner. Further study of regions that adopted ideal practices earlier may provide lessons for regional leadership and practice culture within integrated health care systems.

  12. CISN ShakeAlert: Using early warnings for earthquakes in California

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vinci, M.; Hellweg, M.; Jones, L. M.; Khainovski, O.; Schwartz, K.; Lehrer, D.; Allen, R. M.; Neuhauser, D. S.

    2009-12-01

    Educated users who have developed response plans and procedures are just as important for an earthquake early warning (EEW) system as are the algorithms and computers that process the data and produce the warnings. In Japan, for example, the implementation of the EEW system which now provides advanced alerts of ground shaking included intense outreach efforts to both institutional and individual recipients. Alerts are now used in automatic control systems that stop trains, place sensitive equipment in safe mode and isolate hazards while the public takes cover. In California, the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) is now developing and implementing components of a prototype system for EEW, ShakeAlert. As this processing system is developed, we invite a suite of perspective users from critical industries and institutions throughout California to partner with us in developing useful ShakeAlert products and procedures. At the same time, we will support their efforts to determine and implement appropriate responses to an early warning of earthquake shaking. As a first step, in a collaboration with BART, we have developed a basic system allowing BART’s operation center to receive realtime ground shaking information from more than 150 seismic stations operating in the San Francisco Bay Area. BART engineers are implementing a display system for this information. Later phases will include the development of improved response procedures utilizing this information. We plan to continue this collaboration to include more sophisticated information from the prototype CISN ShakeAlert system.

  13. Alert Exchange Process Protocol

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Groen, Frank

    2015-01-01

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America (NASA), and the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), acknowledging that NASA, ESA and JAXA have a mutual interest in exchanging Alerts and Alert Status Lists to enhance the information base for each system participant while fortifying the general level of cooperation between the policy agreement subscribers, and each Party will exchange Alert listings on regular basis and detailed Alert information on a need to know basis to the extent permitted by law.

  14. System and Method for Providing Model-Based Alerting of Spatial Disorientation to a Pilot

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnson, Steve (Inventor); Conner, Kevin J (Inventor); Mathan, Santosh (Inventor)

    2015-01-01

    A system and method monitor aircraft state parameters, for example, aircraft movement and flight parameters, applies those inputs to a spatial disorientation model, and makes a prediction of when pilot may become spatially disoriented. Once the system predicts a potentially disoriented pilot, the sensitivity for alerting the pilot to conditions exceeding a threshold can be increased and allow for an earlier alert to mitigate the possibility of an incorrect control input.

  15. 47 CFR 10.410 - Prioritization.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Prioritization. 10.410 Section 10.410 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Alert Message Requirements § 10.410 Prioritization. A Participating CMS Provider is required to transmit Presidential Alerts...

  16. 75 FR 19559 - Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Seeks Informal Comment Regarding Revisions to the...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-15

    ..., cell phones and electronic highway signs. CAP will also allow an alert initiator to send alerts... CAP-formatted alerts delivered via any new delivery systems, whether wireline, internet, satellite, or...

  17. IR panoramic alerting sensor concepts and applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    de Jong, Arie N.; Schwering, Piet B. W.

    2003-09-01

    During the last decade, protection of military and civilian operational platforms against weapons like guns, grenades, missiles, Unmanned Combat Aerial (and surface) Vehicles (UCAV's) and mines, has been an issue of increased importance due to the improved kill-probability of these threats. The standard countermeasure package of armour, guns, decoys, jammers, camouflage nets and smokes is inadequate when not accompanied by a suitable sensor package, primarily consisting of an alerting device, triggering consecutive steps in the countermeasure-chain. In this process of alert four different detection techniques are considered: pre-alert, giving the directions of possible attack, detection of an action of attack, identification of the threat and finally the precise localization (3-D). The design of the alerting device is greatly depending on the platform, on which it will be used, the associated and affordable cost and the nature of the threat. A number of sensor packages, considered, developed and evaluated at TNO-FEL is presented for simple, medium size and large and expensive platforms. In recent years the requirements for these sensors have become more and more strigent due to the growing number of scenarios. The attack can practically be from any direction, implying the need for a large Field of Regard (FOR), the attack range can vary considerably and the type of threat can be very diverse, implying great flexibility and dynamic range and rapid response of the sensor. Especially the localization at short ranges is a challenging issue. Various configurations including advantages and drawbacks are discussed.

  18. Stimulated reporting: the impact of US food and drug administration-issued alerts on the adverse event reporting system (FAERS).

    PubMed

    Hoffman, Keith B; Demakas, Andrea R; Dimbil, Mo; Tatonetti, Nicholas P; Erdman, Colin B

    2014-11-01

    The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses the Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) to support post-marketing safety surveillance programs. Currently, almost one million case reports are submitted to FAERS each year, making it a vast repository of drug safety information. Sometimes cited as a limitation of FAERS, however, is the assumption that "stimulated reporting" of adverse events (AEs) occurs in response to warnings, alerts, and label changes that are issued by the FDA. To determine the extent of "stimulated reporting" in the modern-day FAERS database. One hundred drugs approved by the FDA between 2001 and 2010 were included in this analysis. FDA alerts were obtained by a comprehensive search of the FDA's MedWatch and main websites. Publicly available FAERS data were used to assess the "primary suspect" AE reporting pattern for up to four quarters before, and after, the issuance of an FDA alert. A few drugs did demonstrate "stimulated reporting" trends. A majority of the drugs, however, showed little evidence for significant reporting changes associated with the issuance of alerts. When we compared the percentage changes in reporting after an FDA alert with those after a sham "control alert", the overall reporting trends appeared to be quite similar. Of 100 drugs analyzed for short-term reporting trends, 21 real alerts and 25 sham alerts demonstrated an increase (greater than or equal to 1 %) in reporting. The long-term analysis of 91 drugs showed that 24 real alerts and 28 sham alerts demonstrated a greater than or equal to 1 % increase. Our results suggest that most of modern day FAERS reporting is not significantly affected by the issuance of FDA alerts.

  19. Reducing duplicate testing: a comparison of two clinical decision support tools.

    PubMed

    Procop, Gary W; Keating, Catherine; Stagno, Paul; Kottke-Marchant, Kandice; Partin, Mary; Tuttle, Robert; Wyllie, Robert

    2015-05-01

    Unnecessary duplicate laboratory testing is common and costly. Systems-based means to avert unnecessary testing should be investigated and employed. We compared the effectiveness and cost savings associated with two clinical decision support tools to stop duplicate testing. The Hard Stop required telephone contact with the laboratory and justification to have the duplicate test performed, whereas the Smart Alert allowed the provider to bypass the alert at the point of order entry without justification. The Hard Stop alert was significantly more effective than the Smart Alert (92.3% vs 42.6%, respectively; P < .0001). The cost savings realized per alert activation was $16.08/alert for the Hard Stop alert vs $3.52/alert for the Smart Alert. Structural and process changes that require laboratory contact and justification for duplicate testing are more effective than interventions that allow providers to bypass alerts without justification at point of computerized physician order entry. Copyright© by the American Society for Clinical Pathology.

  20. Cockpit display of hazardous weather information

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hansman, R. John, Jr.; Wanke, Craig

    1991-01-01

    Information transfer and display issues associated with the dissemination of hazardous weather warnings are studied in the context of wind shear alerts. Operational and developmental wind shear detection systems are briefly reviewed. The July 11, 1988 microburst events observed as part of the Denver Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) operational evaluation are analyzed in terms of information transfer and the effectiveness of the microburst alerts. Information transfer, message content and display issues associated with microburst alerts generated from ground based sources (Doppler Radar, Low Level Wind Shear Alert System, and Pilot Reports) are evaluated by means fo pilot opinion surveys and part task simulator studies.

  1. Clinical Decision Support Alert Appropriateness: A Review and Proposal for Improvement

    PubMed Central

    McCoy, Allison B.; Thomas, Eric J.; Krousel-Wood, Marie; Sittig, Dean F.

    2014-01-01

    Background Many healthcare providers are adopting clinical decision support (CDS) systems to improve patient safety and meet meaningful use requirements. Computerized alerts that prompt clinicians about drug-allergy, drug-drug, and drug-disease warnings or provide dosing guidance are most commonly implemented. Alert overrides, which occur when clinicians do not follow the guidance presented by the alert, can hinder improved patient outcomes. Methods We present a review of CDS alerts and describe a proposal to develop novel methods for evaluating and improving CDS alerts that builds upon traditional informatics approaches. Our proposal incorporates previously described models for predicting alert overrides that utilize retrospective chart review to determine which alerts are clinically relevant and which overrides are justifiable. Results Despite increasing implementations of CDS alerts, detailed evaluations rarely occur because of the extensive labor involved in manual chart reviews to determine alert and response appropriateness. Further, most studies have solely evaluated alert overrides that are appropriate or justifiable. Our proposal expands the use of web-based monitoring tools with an interactive dashboard for evaluating CDS alert and response appropriateness that incorporates the predictive models. The dashboard provides 2 views, an alert detail view and a patient detail view, to provide a full history of alerts and help put the patient's events in context. Conclusion The proposed research introduces several innovations to address the challenges and gaps in alert evaluations. This research can transform alert evaluation processes across healthcare settings, leading to improved CDS, reduced alert fatigue, and increased patient safety. PMID:24940129

  2. A dramatic increase in the positive blood culture rates of Helicobacter cinaedi: the evidence of differential detection abilities between the Bactec and BacT/Alert systems.

    PubMed

    Miyake, Noriko; Chong, Yong; Nishida, Ruriko; Nagasaki, Yoji; Kibe, Yasushi; Kiyosuke, Makiko; Shimomura, Takeshi; Shimono, Nobuyuki; Shimoda, Shinji; Akashi, Koichi

    2015-11-01

    In our hospital, positive blood culture rates of Helicobacter cinaedi dramatically increased after introducing the Bactec system. A simulated culture model of H. cinaedi bacteremia demonstrated no positive signals using the BacT/Alert system, despite efficient growth in bottles. Clinically suspected H. cinaedi bacteremia should be monitored more closely when using the BacT/Alert system, preferably with subcultivation after 7days of incubation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. A new method for determining a sector alert

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2008-09-29

    The Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) currently declares an alert for any 15-minute interval in which the predicted demand exceeds the Monitor/Alert Parameter (MAP) for any airport, sector, or fix. For a sector, TFMS predicts the demand for each ...

  4. A new approach to monitoring and alerting congestion in airspace sectors

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2014-09-28

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS)currently declares an alert for any 15 minute interval in which the predicted demand exceeds the Monitor/Alert Parameter (MAP)for any airport, sector, or fix. For airports...

  5. A topological substructural molecular design approach for predicting mutagenesis end-points of alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds.

    PubMed

    Pérez-Garrido, Alfonso; Helguera, Aliuska Morales; López, Gabriel Caravaca; Cordeiro, M Natália D S; Escudero, Amalio Garrido

    2010-01-31

    Chemically reactive, alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds are common environmental pollutants able to produce a wide range of adverse effects, including, e.g. mutagenicity. This toxic property can often be related to chemical structure, in particular to specific molecular substructures or fragments (alerts), which can then be used in specialized software or expert systems for predictive purposes. In the past, there have been many attempts to predict the mutagenicity of alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds through quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR) but considering only one exclusive endpoint: the Ames test. Besides, even though those studies give a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon, they do not provide substructural information that could be useful forward improving expert systems based on structural alerts (SAs). This work reports an evaluation of classification models to probe the mutagenic activity of alpha, beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds over two endpoints--the Ames and mammalian cell gene mutation tests--based on linear discriminant analysis along with the topological Substructure molecular design (TOPS-MODE) approach. The obtained results showed the better ability of the TOPS-MODE approach in flagging structural alerts for the mutagenicity of these compounds compared to the expert system TOXTREE. Thus, the application of the present QSAR models can aid toxicologists in risk assessment and in prioritizing testing, as well as in the improvement of expert systems, such as the TOXTREE software, where SAs are implemented. 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Implementation of an Alert and Response System in Haiti during the Early Stage of the Response to the Cholera Epidemic

    PubMed Central

    Santa-Olalla, Patricia; Gayer, Michelle; Magloire, Roc; Barrais, Robert; Valenciano, Marta; Aramburu, Carmen; Poncelet, Jean Luc; Gustavo Alonso, Juan Carlos; Van Alphen, Dana; Heuschen, Florence; Andraghetti, Roberta; Lee, Robert; Drury, Patrick; Aldighieri, Sylvain

    2013-01-01

    The start of the cholera epidemic in Haiti quickly highlighted the necessity of the implementation of an Alert and Response (A&R) System to complement the existing national surveillance system. The national system had been able to detect and confirm the outbreak etiology but required external support to monitor the spread of cholera and coordinate response, because much of the information produced was insufficiently timely for real-time monitoring and directing of a rapid, targeted response. The A&R System was designed by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization in collaboration with the Haiti Ministry of Health, and it was based on a network of partners, including any institution, structure, or individual that could identify, verify, and respond to alerts. The defined objectives were to (1) save lives through early detection and treatment of cases and (2) control the spread through early intervention at the community level. The operational structure could be broken down into three principle categories: (1) alert (early warning), (2) verification and assessment of the information, and (3) efficient and timely response in coordination with partners to avoid duplication. Information generated by the A&R System was analyzed and interpreted, and the qualitative information was critical in qualifying the epidemic and defining vulnerable areas, particularly because the national surveillance system reported incomplete data for more than one department. The A&R System detected a number of alerts unrelated to cholera and facilitated rapid access to that information. The sensitivity of the system and its ability to react quickly was shown in May of 2011, when an abnormal increase in alerts coming from several communes in the Sud-Est Department in epidemiological weeks (EWs) 17 and 18 were noted and disseminated network-wide and response activities were implemented. The national cholera surveillance system did not register the increase until EWs 21 and 22, and the information did not become available until EWs 23 and 24, when the peak of cases had already been reached. Although many of the partners reporting alerts during the peak of the cholera epidemic have since left Haiti, the A&R System has continued to function as an Early Warning (EWARN) System, and it continues to be developed with recent activities, such as the distribution of cell phones to enhance alert communication. PMID:24106196

  7. Implementation of an alert and response system in Haiti during the early stage of the response to the cholera epidemic.

    PubMed

    Santa-Olalla, Patricia; Gayer, Michelle; Magloire, Roc; Barrais, Robert; Valenciano, Marta; Aramburu, Carmen; Poncelet, Jean Luc; Gustavo Alonso, Juan Carlos; Van Alphen, Dana; Heuschen, Florence; Andraghetti, Roberta; Lee, Robert; Drury, Patrick; Aldighieri, Sylvain

    2013-10-01

    The start of the cholera epidemic in Haiti quickly highlighted the necessity of the implementation of an Alert and Response (A&R) System to complement the existing national surveillance system. The national system had been able to detect and confirm the outbreak etiology but required external support to monitor the spread of cholera and coordinate response, because much of the information produced was insufficiently timely for real-time monitoring and directing of a rapid, targeted response. The A&R System was designed by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization in collaboration with the Haiti Ministry of Health, and it was based on a network of partners, including any institution, structure, or individual that could identify, verify, and respond to alerts. The defined objectives were to (1) save lives through early detection and treatment of cases and (2) control the spread through early intervention at the community level. The operational structure could be broken down into three principle categories: (1) alert (early warning), (2) verification and assessment of the information, and (3) efficient and timely response in coordination with partners to avoid duplication. Information generated by the A&R System was analyzed and interpreted, and the qualitative information was critical in qualifying the epidemic and defining vulnerable areas, particularly because the national surveillance system reported incomplete data for more than one department. The A&R System detected a number of alerts unrelated to cholera and facilitated rapid access to that information. The sensitivity of the system and its ability to react quickly was shown in May of 2011, when an abnormal increase in alerts coming from several communes in the Sud-Est Department in epidemiological weeks (EWs) 17 and 18 were noted and disseminated network-wide and response activities were implemented. The national cholera surveillance system did not register the increase until EWs 21 and 22, and the information did not become available until EWs 23 and 24, when the peak of cases had already been reached. Although many of the partners reporting alerts during the peak of the cholera epidemic have since left Haiti, the A&R System has continued to function as an Early Warning (EWARN) System, and it continues to be developed with recent activities, such as the distribution of cell phones to enhance alert communication.

  8. Validation of the CME Geomagnetic Forecast Alerts Under the COMESEP Alert System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dumbović, Mateja; Srivastava, Nandita; Rao, Yamini K.; Vršnak, Bojan; Devos, Andy; Rodriguez, Luciano

    2017-08-01

    Under the European Union 7th Framework Programme (EU FP7) project Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Energetic Particles (COMESEP, http://comesep.aeronomy.be), an automated space weather alert system has been developed to forecast solar energetic particles (SEP) and coronal mass ejection (CME) risk levels at Earth. The COMESEP alert system uses the automated detection tool called Computer Aided CME Tracking (CACTus) to detect potentially threatening CMEs, a drag-based model (DBM) to predict their arrival, and a CME geoeffectiveness tool (CGFT) to predict their geomagnetic impact. Whenever CACTus detects a halo or partial halo CME and issues an alert, the DBM calculates its arrival time at Earth and the CGFT calculates its geomagnetic risk level. The geomagnetic risk level is calculated based on an estimation of the CME arrival probability and its likely geoeffectiveness, as well as an estimate of the geomagnetic storm duration. We present the evaluation of the CME risk level forecast with the COMESEP alert system based on a study of geoeffective CMEs observed during 2014. The validation of the forecast tool is made by comparing the forecasts with observations. In addition, we test the success rate of the automatic forecasts (without human intervention) against the forecasts with human intervention using advanced versions of the DBM and CGFT (independent tools available at the Hvar Observatory website, http://oh.geof.unizg.hr). The results indicate that the success rate of the forecast in its current form is unacceptably low for a realistic operation system. Human intervention improves the forecast, but the false-alarm rate remains unacceptably high. We discuss these results and their implications for possible improvement of the COMESEP alert system.

  9. Vital signs and other observations used to detect deterioration in pregnant women: an analysis of vital sign charts in consultant-led UK maternity units.

    PubMed

    Smith, G B; Isaacs, R; Andrews, L; Wee, M Y K; van Teijlingen, E; Bick, D E; Hundley, V

    2017-05-01

    Obstetric early warning systems are recommended for monitoring hospitalised pregnant and postnatal women. We decided to compare: (i) vital sign values used to define physiological normality; (ii) symptoms and signs used to escalate care; (iii) type of chart used; and (iv) presence of explicit instructions for escalating care. One-hundred-and-twenty obstetric early warning charts and escalation protocols were obtained from consultant-led maternity units in the UK and Channel Islands. These data were extracted: values used to determine normality for each maternal vital sign; chart colour-coding; instructions following early warning system triggering; other criteria used as triggers. There was considerable variation in the charts, warning systems and escalation protocols. Of 120 charts, 89.2% used colour; 69.2% used colour-coded escalation systems. Forty-one (34.2%) systems required the calculation of weighted scores. Seventy-five discrete combinations of 'normal' vital sign ranges were found, the most common being: heart rate=50-99beats/min; respiratory rate=11-20breaths/min; blood pressure, systolic=100-149mmHg, diastolic ≤89mmHg; SpO 2 =95-100%; temperature=36.0-37.9°C; and Alert-Voice-Pain-Unresponsive assessment=Alert. Most charts (90.8%) provided instructions about who to contact following triggering, but only 41.7% gave instructions about subsequent observation frequency. The wide range of 'normal' vital sign values in different systems suggests a lack of equity in the processes for detecting deterioration and escalating care in hospitalised pregnant and postnatal women. Agreement regarding 'normal' vital sign ranges is urgently required and would assist the development of a standardised obstetric early warning system and chart. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Human Factors Evaluation of Conflict Detection Tool for Terminal Area

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Verma, Savita Arora; Tang, Huabin; Ballinger, Deborah; Chinn, Fay Cherie; Kozon, Thomas E.

    2013-01-01

    A conflict detection and resolution tool, Terminal-area Tactical Separation-Assured Flight Environment (T-TSAFE), is being developed to improve the timeliness and accuracy of alerts and reduce the false alert rate observed with the currently deployed technology. The legacy system in use today, Conflict Alert, relies primarily on a dead reckoning algorithm, whereas T-TSAFE uses intent information to augment dead reckoning. In previous experiments, T-TSAFE was found to reduce the rate of false alerts and increase time between the alert to the controller and a loss of separation over the legacy system. In the present study, T-TSAFE was tested under two meteorological conditions, 1) all aircraft operated under instrument flight regimen, and 2) some aircraft operated under mixed operating conditions. The tool was used to visually alert controllers to predicted Losses of separation throughout the terminal airspace, and show compression errors, on final approach. The performance of T-TSAFE on final approach was compared with Automated Terminal Proximity Alert (ATPA), a tool recently deployed by the FAA. Results show that controllers did not report differences in workload or situational awareness between the T-TSAFE and ATPA cones but did prefer T-TSAFE features over ATPA functionality. T-TSAFE will provide one tool that shows alerts in the data blocks and compression errors via cones on the final approach, implementing all tactical conflict detection and alerting via one tool in TRACON airspace.

  11. Impact of an emergency department electronic sepsis surveillance system on patient mortality and length of stay.

    PubMed

    Austrian, Jonathan S; Jamin, Catherine T; Doty, Glenn R; Blecker, Saul

    2018-05-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether an electronic health record-based sepsis alert system could improve quality of care and clinical outcomes for patients with sepsis. We performed a patient-level interrupted time series study of emergency department patients with severe sepsis or septic shock between January 2013 and April 2015. The intervention, introduced in February 2014, was a system of interruptive sepsis alerts triggered by abnormal vital signs or laboratory results. Primary outcomes were length of stay (LOS) and in-hospital mortality; other outcomes included time to first lactate and blood cultures prior to antibiotics. We also assessed sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), and clinician response to the alerts. Mean LOS for patients with sepsis decreased from 10.1 to 8.6 days (P < .001) following alert introduction. In adjusted time series analysis, the intervention was associated with a decreased LOS of 16% (95% CI, 5%-25%; P = .007, with significance of α = 0.006) and no change thereafter (0%; 95% CI, -2%, 2%). The sepsis alert system had no effect on mortality or other clinical or process measures. The intervention had a sensitivity of 80.4% and a PPV of 14.6%. Alerting based on simple laboratory and vital sign criteria was insufficient to improve sepsis outcomes. Alert fatigue due to the low PPV is likely the primary contributor to these results. A more sophisticated algorithm for sepsis identification is needed to improve outcomes.

  12. 47 CFR 10.440 - Embedded reference prohibition.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Embedded reference prohibition. 10.440 Section 10.440 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Alert Message Requirements § 10.440 Embedded reference prohibition. A CMAS Alert Message processed by a...

  13. 47 CFR 10.320 - Provider alert gateway requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Provider alert gateway requirements. 10.320 Section 10.320 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM... that each Participating Commercial Mobile Service provider is required to support and perform at its...

  14. 47 CFR 10.420 - Message elements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Message elements. 10.420 Section 10.420 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Alert Message Requirements § 10.420 Message elements. A CMAS Alert Message processed by a Participating CMS Provider shall...

  15. 47 CFR 10.10 - Definitions.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Definitions. 10.10 Section 10.10 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM General Information § 10.10 Definitions. (a) Alert Message. An Alert Message is a message that is intended to provide the...

  16. 47 CFR 10.440 - Embedded reference prohibition.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Embedded reference prohibition. 10.440 Section 10.440 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Alert Message Requirements § 10.440 Embedded reference prohibition. A CMAS Alert Message processed by a...

  17. 47 CFR 10.440 - Embedded reference prohibition.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Embedded reference prohibition. 10.440 Section 10.440 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Alert Message Requirements § 10.440 Embedded reference prohibition. A CMAS Alert Message processed by a...

  18. Advanced power sources for space missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gavin, Joseph G., Jr.; Burkes, Tommy R.; English, Robert E.; Grant, Nicholas J.; Kulcinski, Gerald L.; Mullin, Jerome P.; Peddicord, K. Lee; Purvis, Carolyn K.; Sarjeant, W. James; Vandevender, J. Pace

    1989-01-01

    Approaches to satisfying the power requirements of space-based Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) missions are studied. The power requirements for non-SDI military space missions and for civil space missions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are also considered. The more demanding SDI power requirements appear to encompass many, if not all, of the power requirements for those missions. Study results indicate that practical fulfillment of SDI requirements will necessitate substantial advances in the state of the art of power technology. SDI goals include the capability to operate space-based beam weapons, sometimes referred to as directed-energy weapons. Such weapons pose unprecedented power requirements, both during preparation for battle and during battle conditions. The power regimes for these two sets of applications are referred to as alert mode and burst mode, respectively. Alert-mode power requirements are presently stated to range from about 100 kW to a few megawatts for cumulative durations of about a year or more. Burst-mode power requirements are roughly estimated to range from tens to hundreds of megawatts for durations of a few hundred to a few thousand seconds. There are two likely energy sources, chemical and nuclear, for powering SDI directed-energy weapons during the alert and burst modes. The choice between chemical and nuclear space power systems depends in large part on the total duration during which power must be provided. Complete study findings, conclusions, and eight recommendations are reported.

  19. Impact-based earthquake alerts with the U.S. Geological Survey's PAGER system: what's next?

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wald, D.J.; Jaiswal, K.S.; Marano, K.D.; Garcia, D.; So, E.; Hearne, M.

    2012-01-01

    In September 2010, the USGS began publicly releasing earthquake alerts for significant earthquakes around the globe based on estimates of potential casualties and economic losses with its Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system. These estimates significantly enhanced the utility of the USGS PAGER system which had been, since 2006, providing estimated population exposures to specific shaking intensities. Quantifying earthquake impacts and communicating estimated losses (and their uncertainties) to the public, the media, humanitarian, and response communities required a new protocol—necessitating the development of an Earthquake Impact Scale—described herein and now deployed with the PAGER system. After two years of PAGER-based impact alerting, we now review operations, hazard calculations, loss models, alerting protocols, and our success rate for recent (2010-2011) events. This review prompts analyses of the strengths, limitations, opportunities, and pressures, allowing clearer definition of future research and development priorities for the PAGER system.

  20. Weather-based prediction of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in epidemic-prone regions of Ethiopia II. Weather-based prediction systems perform comparably to early detection systems in identifying times for interventions.

    PubMed

    Teklehaimanot, Hailay D; Schwartz, Joel; Teklehaimanot, Awash; Lipsitch, Marc

    2004-11-19

    Timely and accurate information about the onset of malaria epidemics is essential for effective control activities in epidemic-prone regions. Early warning methods that provide earlier alerts (usually by the use of weather variables) may permit control measures to interrupt transmission earlier in the epidemic, perhaps at the expense of some level of accuracy. Expected case numbers were modeled using a Poisson regression with lagged weather factors in a 4th-degree polynomial distributed lag model. For each week, the numbers of malaria cases were predicted using coefficients obtained using all years except that for which the prediction was being made. The effectiveness of alerts generated by the prediction system was compared against that of alerts based on observed cases. The usefulness of the prediction system was evaluated in cold and hot districts. The system predicts the overall pattern of cases well, yet underestimates the height of the largest peaks. Relative to alerts triggered by observed cases, the alerts triggered by the predicted number of cases performed slightly worse, within 5% of the detection system. The prediction-based alerts were able to prevent 10-25% more cases at a given sensitivity in cold districts than in hot ones. The prediction of malaria cases using lagged weather performed well in identifying periods of increased malaria cases. Weather-derived predictions identified epidemics with reasonable accuracy and better timeliness than early detection systems; therefore, the prediction of malarial epidemics using weather is a plausible alternative to early detection systems.

  1. The national cost of adverse drug events resulting from inappropriate medication-related alert overrides in the United States.

    PubMed

    Slight, Sarah P; Seger, Diane L; Franz, Calvin; Wong, Adrian; Bates, David W

    2018-06-22

    To estimate the national cost of ADEs resulting from inappropriate medication-related alert overrides in the U.S. inpatient setting. We used three different regression models (Basic, Model 1, Model 2) with model inputs taken from the medical literature. A random sample of 40 990 adult inpatients at the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston with a total of 1 639  294 medication orders was taken. We extrapolated BWH medication orders using 2014 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data. Using three regression models, we estimated that 29.7 million adult inpatient discharges in 2014 resulted in between 1.02 billion and 1.07 billion medication orders, which in turn generated between 75.1 million and 78.8 million medication alerts, respectively. Taking the basic model (78.8 million), we estimated that 5.5 million medication-related alerts might have been inappropriately overridden, resulting in approximately 196 600 ADEs nationally. This was projected to cost between $871 million and $1.8 billion for treating preventable ADEs. We also estimated that clinicians and pharmacists would have jointly spent 175 000 hours responding to 78.8 million alerts with an opportunity cost of $16.9 million. These data suggest that further optimization of hospitals computerized provider order entry systems and their associated clinical decision support is needed and would result in substantial savings. We have erred on the side of caution in developing this range, taking two conservative cost estimates for a preventable ADE that did not include malpractice or litigation costs, or costs of injuries to patients.

  2. Impact of a computer-generated alert system prompting review of antibiotic use in hospitals.

    PubMed

    Lesprit, Philippe; Duong, Trung; Girou, Emmanuelle; Hemery, François; Brun-Buisson, Christian

    2009-05-01

    The aim of this study was to measure the impact on antibiotic use of a computer-generated alert prompting post-prescription review and direct counselling in hospital wards. A computer-generated alert on new prescriptions of 15 antibiotics was reviewed weekly by an infectious disease physician for 41 weeks. During the first 6 months of the study, criteria selected for potential intervention were: (i) a planned duration of treatment of > or =10 days; (ii) discordance between the spectrum of the prescribed antibiotic and available microbiological results; or (iii) prescriptions of broad-spectrum beta-lactams, fluoroquinolones, glycopeptides or linezolid. During the following 5 months, the alert was restricted to any prescription of the 15 antibiotics in the 9 wards where overall antibiotic use had not decreased in the past year. We analysed 2385 prescriptions, 932 (39%) of which generated an alert for potential intervention. Among the latter, 482 (51.7%) prescriptions prompted direct counselling, mainly for shortening the planned duration of therapy (18.9%), withdrawing antibiotics (16.2%) or streamlining therapy (15.5%). The attending physicians' compliance with the recommendations was 80%. The overall median (interquartile range) days of therapy prescribed by the attending physicians was reduced from an initial duration of 8 (7-14) to 7 (6-11) days (P < 0.0001), resulting in 26.5% less antibiotic days prescribed. The time required for the intervention was 6 h per week. This computer-prompted post-prescription review led physicians to modify one half of the antibiotic courses initially prescribed and was well accepted by the majority, although they had not requested counselling.

  3. Coordinated Displays to Assist Cyber Defenders

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-09-23

    suspicious activity, such as the occurrence of a network event that is similar to a known attack signature, the system generates an alert which is then...presented to a human computer network defense analyst, or more succinctly, a network analyst, who must evaluate the veracity of that alert . To...display and select an alert to investigate further. Though alerts generally include some information about the nature of a potential threat, the

  4. The Zwicky Transient Facility Public Alert Stream

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Masci, F.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Graham, M.; Prince, T.; Helou, G.

    2018-06-01

    The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF; ATel #11266) announces the start of public alerts. These alerts will originate from the ZTF public surveys (Bellm & Kulkarni 2017; Nature Astronomy 1, 71) as described at www.ztf.caltech.edu/page/msip Alerts are generated by the ZTF Science Data System housed at IPAC-Caltech (www.ipac.caltech.edu) using a realtime image-subtraction pipeline (Masci et al. 2018; www.ztf.caltech.edu/page/technical).

  5. Earthquake impact scale

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wald, D.J.; Jaiswal, K.S.; Marano, K.D.; Bausch, D.

    2011-01-01

    With the advent of the USGS prompt assessment of global earthquakes for response (PAGER) system, which rapidly assesses earthquake impacts, U.S. and international earthquake responders are reconsidering their automatic alert and activation levels and response procedures. To help facilitate rapid and appropriate earthquake response, an Earthquake Impact Scale (EIS) is proposed on the basis of two complementary criteria. On the basis of the estimated cost of damage, one is most suitable for domestic events; the other, on the basis of estimated ranges of fatalities, is generally more appropriate for global events, particularly in developing countries. Simple thresholds, derived from the systematic analysis of past earthquake impact and associated response levels, are quite effective in communicating predicted impact and response needed after an event through alerts of green (little or no impact), yellow (regional impact and response), orange (national-scale impact and response), and red (international response). Corresponding fatality thresholds for yellow, orange, and red alert levels are 1, 100, and 1,000, respectively. For damage impact, yellow, orange, and red thresholds are triggered by estimated losses reaching $1M, $100M, and $1B, respectively. The rationale for a dual approach to earthquake alerting stems from the recognition that relatively high fatalities, injuries, and homelessness predominate in countries in which local building practices typically lend themselves to high collapse and casualty rates, and these impacts lend to prioritization for international response. In contrast, financial and overall societal impacts often trigger the level of response in regions or countries in which prevalent earthquake resistant construction practices greatly reduce building collapse and resulting fatalities. Any newly devised alert, whether economic- or casualty-based, should be intuitive and consistent with established lexicons and procedures. Useful alerts should also be both specific (although allowably uncertain) and actionable. In this analysis, an attempt is made at both simple and intuitive color-coded alerting criteria; yet the necessary uncertainty measures by which one can gauge the likelihood for the alert to be over- or underestimated are preserved. The essence of the proposed impact scale and alerting is that actionable loss information is now available in the immediate aftermath of significant earthquakes worldwide on the basis of quantifiable loss estimates. Utilizing EIS, PAGER's rapid loss estimates can adequately recommend alert levels and suggest appropriate response protocols, despite the uncertainties; demanding or awaiting observations or loss estimates with a high level of accuracy may increase the losses. ?? 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.

  6. 47 CFR 10.430 - Character limit.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Character limit. 10.430 Section 10.430 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Alert Message Requirements § 10.430 Character limit. A CMAS Alert Message processed by a Participating CMS Provider must not...

  7. Alerts Analysis and Visualization in Network-based Intrusion Detection Systems

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yang, Dr. Li

    2010-08-01

    The alerts produced by network-based intrusion detection systems, e.g. Snort, can be difficult for network administrators to efficiently review and respond to due to the enormous number of alerts generated in a short time frame. This work describes how the visualization of raw IDS alert data assists network administrators in understanding the current state of a network and quickens the process of reviewing and responding to intrusion attempts. The project presented in this work consists of three primary components. The first component provides a visual mapping of the network topology that allows the end-user to easily browse clustered alerts. Themore » second component is based on the flocking behavior of birds such that birds tend to follow other birds with similar behaviors. This component allows the end-user to see the clustering process and provides an efficient means for reviewing alert data. The third component discovers and visualizes patterns of multistage attacks by profiling the attacker s behaviors.« less

  8. Automated intelligent video surveillance system for ships

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wei, Hai; Nguyen, Hieu; Ramu, Prakash; Raju, Chaitanya; Liu, Xiaoqing; Yadegar, Jacob

    2009-05-01

    To protect naval and commercial ships from attack by terrorists and pirates, it is important to have automatic surveillance systems able to detect, identify, track and alert the crew on small watercrafts that might pursue malicious intentions, while ruling out non-threat entities. Radar systems have limitations on the minimum detectable range and lack high-level classification power. In this paper, we present an innovative Automated Intelligent Video Surveillance System for Ships (AIVS3) as a vision-based solution for ship security. Capitalizing on advanced computer vision algorithms and practical machine learning methodologies, the developed AIVS3 is not only capable of efficiently and robustly detecting, classifying, and tracking various maritime targets, but also able to fuse heterogeneous target information to interpret scene activities, associate targets with levels of threat, and issue the corresponding alerts/recommendations to the man-in- the-loop (MITL). AIVS3 has been tested in various maritime scenarios and shown accurate and effective threat detection performance. By reducing the reliance on human eyes to monitor cluttered scenes, AIVS3 will save the manpower while increasing the accuracy in detection and identification of asymmetric attacks for ship protection.

  9. Intraoperative Clinical Decision Support for Anesthesia: A Narrative Review of Available Systems.

    PubMed

    Nair, Bala G; Gabel, Eilon; Hofer, Ira; Schwid, Howard A; Cannesson, Maxime

    2017-02-01

    With increasing adoption of anesthesia information management systems (AIMS), there is growing interest in utilizing AIMS data for intraoperative clinical decision support (CDS). CDS for anesthesia has the potential for improving quality of care, patient safety, billing, and compliance. Intraoperative CDS can range from passive and post hoc systems to active real-time systems that can detect ongoing clinical issues and deviations from best practice care. Real-time CDS holds the most promise because real-time alerts and guidance can drive provider behavior toward evidence-based standardized care during the ongoing case. In this review, we describe the different types of intraoperative CDS systems with specific emphasis on real-time systems. The technical considerations in developing and implementing real-time CDS are systematically covered. This includes the functional modules of a CDS system, development and execution of decision rules, and modalities to alert anesthesia providers concerning clinical issues. We also describe the regulatory aspects that affect development, implementation, and use of intraoperative CDS. Methods and measures to assess the effectiveness of intraoperative CDS are discussed. Last, we outline areas of future development of intraoperative CDS, particularly the possibility of providing predictive and prescriptive decision support.

  10. The national web-based outbreak rapid alert system in Norway: eight years of experience, 2006-2013.

    PubMed

    Guzman-Herrador, B; Vold, L; Berg, T; Berglund, T M; Heier, B; Kapperud, G; Lange, H; Nygård, K

    2016-01-01

    In 2005, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health established a web-based outbreak rapid alert system called Vesuv. The system is used for mandatory outbreak alerts from municipal medical officers, healthcare institutions, and food safety authorities. As of 2013, 1426 outbreaks have been reported, involving 32913 cases. More than half of the outbreaks occurred in healthcare institutions (759 outbreaks, 53·2%). A total of 474 (33·2%) outbreaks were associated with food or drinking water. The web-based rapid alert system has proved to be a helpful tool by enhancing reporting and enabling rapid and efficient information sharing between different authorities at both the local and national levels. It is also an important tool for event-based reporting, as required by the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005. Collecting information from all the outbreak alerts and reports in a national database is also useful for analysing trends, such as occurrence of certain microorganisms, places or sources of infection, or route of transmission. This can facilitate the identification of specific areas where more general preventive measures are needed.

  11. Personalized and automated remote monitoring of atrial fibrillation.

    PubMed

    Rosier, Arnaud; Mabo, Philippe; Temal, Lynda; Van Hille, Pascal; Dameron, Olivier; Deléger, Louise; Grouin, Cyril; Zweigenbaum, Pierre; Jacques, Julie; Chazard, Emmanuel; Laporte, Laure; Henry, Christine; Burgun, Anita

    2016-03-01

    Remote monitoring of cardiac implantable electronic devices is a growing standard; yet, remote follow-up and management of alerts represents a time-consuming task for physicians or trained staff. This study evaluates an automatic mechanism based on artificial intelligence tools to filter atrial fibrillation (AF) alerts based on their medical significance. We evaluated this method on alerts for AF episodes that occurred in 60 pacemaker recipients. AKENATON prototype workflow includes two steps: natural language-processing algorithms abstract the patient health record to a digital version, then a knowledge-based algorithm based on an applied formal ontology allows to calculate the CHA2DS2-VASc score and evaluate the anticoagulation status of the patient. Each alert is then automatically classified by importance from low to critical, by mimicking medical reasoning. Final classification was compared with human expert analysis by two physicians. A total of 1783 alerts about AF episode >5 min in 60 patients were processed. A 1749 of 1783 alerts (98%) were adequately classified and there were no underestimation of alert importance in the remaining 34 misclassified alerts. This work demonstrates the ability of a pilot system to classify alerts and improves personalized remote monitoring of patients. In particular, our method allows integration of patient medical history with device alert notifications, which is useful both from medical and resource-management perspectives. The system was able to automatically classify the importance of 1783 AF alerts in 60 patients, which resulted in an 84% reduction in notification workload, while preserving patient safety. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2015. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  12. Subjective assessment of usefulness and appropriate presentation mode of alerts and reminders in the outpatient setting.

    PubMed Central

    Krall, M. A.; Sittig, D. F.

    2001-01-01

    There is very little known about the limits of alerting in the setting of the outpatient Electronic Medical Record (EMR). We are interested in how users value and prefer such alerts. One hundred Kaiser Permanente primary care clinicians were sent a four-page questionnaire. It contained questions related to the usability and usefulness of different approaches to presenting reminder and alert information. The survey also contained questions about the desirability of six categories of alerts. Forty-three of 100 questionnaires were returned. Users generally preferred an active, more intrusive interaction model for "alerts" and a passive, less intrusive model for order messages and other types of reminders and notifications. Drug related alerts were more highly rated than health maintenance or disease state reminders. Users indicated that more alerts would make the system "more useful" but "less easy to use". PMID:11825206

  13. Subjective assessment of usefulness and appropriate presentation mode of alerts and reminders in the outpatient setting.

    PubMed

    Krall, M A; Sittig, D F

    2001-01-01

    There is very little known about the limits of alerting in the setting of the outpatient Electronic Medical Record (EMR). We are interested in how users value and prefer such alerts. One hundred Kaiser Permanente primary care clinicians were sent a four-page questionnaire. It contained questions related to the usability and usefulness of different approaches to presenting reminder and alert information. The survey also contained questions about the desirability of six categories of alerts. Forty-three of 100 questionnaires were returned. Users generally preferred an active, more intrusive interaction model for "alerts" and a passive, less intrusive model for order messages and other types of reminders and notifications. Drug related alerts were more highly rated than health maintenance or disease state reminders. Users indicated that more alerts would make the system "more useful" but "less easy to use".

  14. ElarmS Earthquake Early Warning System: 2017 Performance and New ElarmS Version 3.0 (E3)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chung, A. I.; Henson, I. H.; Allen, R. M.; Hellweg, M.; Neuhauser, D. S.

    2017-12-01

    The ElarmS earthquake early warning (EEW) system has been successfully detecting earthquakes throughout California since 2007. ElarmS version 2.0 (E2) is one of the three algorithms contributing alerts to ShakeAlert, a public EEW system being developed by the USGS in collaboration with UC Berkeley, Caltech, University of Washington, and University of Oregon. E2 began operating in test mode in the Pacific Northwest in 2013, and since April of this year E2 has been contributing real-time alerts from Oregon and Washington to the ShakeAlert production prototype system as part of the ShakeAlert roll-out throughout the West Coast. Since it began operating west-coast-wide, E2 has correctly alerted on 5 events that matched ANSS catalog events with M≥4, missed 1 event with M≥4, and incorrectly created alerts for 5 false events with M≥4. The most recent version of the algorithm, ElarmS version 3.0 (E3), is a significant improvement over E2. It addresses some of the most problematic causes of false events for which E2 produced alerts, without impacting reliability in terms of matched and missed events. Of the 5 false events that were generated by E2 since April, 4 would have been suppressed by E3. In E3, we have added a filterbank teleseismic filter. By analyzing the amplitude of the waveform filtered in various passbands, it is possible to distinguish between local and teleseismic events. We have also added a series of checks to validate triggers and filter out spurious and S-wave triggers. Additional improvements to the waveform associator also improve detections. In this presentation, we describe the improvements and compare the performance of the current production (E2) and development (E3) versions of ElarmS over the past year. The ShakeAlert project is now working through a streamlining process to identify the best components of various algorithms and merge them. The ElarmS team is participating in this effort and we anticipate that much of E3 will continue in the final system.

  15. Evaluation of health alerts from an early illness warning system in independent living.

    PubMed

    Rantz, Marilyn J; Scott, Susan D; Miller, Steven J; Skubic, Marjorie; Phillips, Lorraine; Alexander, Greg; Koopman, Richelle J; Musterman, Katy; Back, Jessica

    2013-06-01

    Passive sensor networks were deployed in independent living apartments to monitor older adults in their home environments to detect signs of impending illness and alert clinicians so they can intervene and prevent or delay significant changes in health or functional status. A retrospective qualitative deductive content analysis was undertaken to refine health alerts to improve clinical relevance to clinicians as they use alerts in their normal workflow of routine care delivery to older adults. Clinicians completed written free-text boxes to describe actions taken (or not) as a result of each alert; they also rated the clinical significance (relevance) of each health alert on a scale of 1 to 5. Two samples of the clinician's written responses to the health alerts were analyzed after alert algorithms had been adjusted based on results of a pilot study using health alerts to enhance clinical decision-making. In the first sample, a total of 663 comments were generated by seven clinicians in response to 385 unique alerts; there are more comments than alerts because more than one clinician rated the same alert. The second sample had a total of 142 comments produced by three clinicians in response to 88 distinct alerts. The overall clinical relevance of the alerts, as judged by the content of the qualitative comments by clinicians for each alert, improved from 33.3% of the alerts in the first sample classified as clinically relevant to 43.2% in the second. The goal is to produce clinically relevant alerts that clinicians find useful in daily practice. The evaluation methods used are described to assist others as they consider building and iteratively refining health alerts to enhance clinical decision making.

  16. Perceptual evaluation of visual alerts in surveillance videos

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rogowitz, Bernice E.; Topkara, Mercan; Pfeiffer, William; Hampapur, Arun

    2015-03-01

    Visual alerts are commonly used in video monitoring and surveillance systems to mark events, presumably making them more salient to human observers. Surprisingly, the effectiveness of computer-generated alerts in improving human performance has not been widely studied. To address this gap, we have developed a tool for simulating different alert parameters in a realistic visual monitoring situation, and have measured human detection performance under conditions that emulated different set-points in a surveillance algorithm. In the High-Sensitivity condition, the simulated alerts identified 100% of the events with many false alarms. In the Lower-Sensitivity condition, the simulated alerts correctly identified 70% of the targets, with fewer false alarms. In the control condition, no simulated alerts were provided. To explore the effects of learning, subjects performed these tasks in three sessions, on separate days, in a counterbalanced, within subject design. We explore these results within the context of cognitive models of human attention and learning. We found that human observers were more likely to respond to events when marked by a visual alert. Learning played a major role in the two alert conditions. In the first session, observers generated almost twice as many False Alarms as in the No-Alert condition, as the observers responded pre-attentively to the computer-generated false alarms. However, this rate dropped equally dramatically in later sessions, as observers learned to discount the false cues. Highest observer Precision, Hits/(Hits + False Alarms), was achieved in the High Sensitivity condition, but only after training. The successful evaluation of surveillance systems depends on understanding human attention and performance.

  17. An investigation of air transportation technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990-1991

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Simpson, Robert W.

    1991-01-01

    Brief summaries are given of research activities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the sponsorship of the FAA/NASA Joint University Program. Topics covered include hazard assessment and cockpit presentation issues for microburst alerting systems; the situational awareness effect of automated air traffic control (ATC) datalink clearance amendments; a graphical simulation system for adaptive, automated approach spacing; an expert system for temporal planning with application to runway configuration management; deterministic multi-zone ice accretion modeling; alert generation and cockpit presentation for an integrated microburst alerting system; and passive infrared ice detection for helicopter applications.

  18. 14 CFR 135.150 - Public address and crewmember interphone systems.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... to alert flight crewmembers; (iii) For the alerting system required by paragraph (b)(7)(ii) of this... systems. 135.150 Section 135.150 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF... Aircraft and Equipment § 135.150 Public address and crewmember interphone systems. No person may operate an...

  19. 14 CFR 135.150 - Public address and crewmember interphone systems.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... to alert flight crewmembers; (iii) For the alerting system required by paragraph (b)(7)(ii) of this... systems. 135.150 Section 135.150 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF... Aircraft and Equipment § 135.150 Public address and crewmember interphone systems. No person may operate an...

  20. 14 CFR 135.150 - Public address and crewmember interphone systems.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... to alert flight crewmembers; (iii) For the alerting system required by paragraph (b)(7)(ii) of this... systems. 135.150 Section 135.150 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF... Aircraft and Equipment § 135.150 Public address and crewmember interphone systems. No person may operate an...

  1. Developing, Implementing, and Assessing an Early Alert System

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tampke, Dale R.

    2013-01-01

    Early alert systems offer institutions systematic approaches to identifying and intervening with students exhibiting at-risk behaviors. Many of these systems rely on a common format for student referral to central receiving point. Systems at larger institutions often use web-based technology to allow for a scalable (available campus wide) approach…

  2. 14 CFR 135.150 - Public address and crewmember interphone systems.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... to alert flight crewmembers; (iii) For the alerting system required by paragraph (b)(7)(ii) of this... systems. 135.150 Section 135.150 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF... Aircraft and Equipment § 135.150 Public address and crewmember interphone systems. No person may operate an...

  3. 14 CFR 135.150 - Public address and crewmember interphone systems.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... to alert flight crewmembers; (iii) For the alerting system required by paragraph (b)(7)(ii) of this... systems. 135.150 Section 135.150 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF... Aircraft and Equipment § 135.150 Public address and crewmember interphone systems. No person may operate an...

  4. Work zone intrusion alert technologies : assessment and practical guidance : final report.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2017-06-01

    A work zone intrusion alert technology is a type of safety system that is used in a roadway work zone to alert field workers and secure time for them to escape when errant vehicles intrude into the work zone. Although such technologies have potential...

  5. 76 FR 11846 - Seventy-second Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-03-03

    ... Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... Committee 147 meeting: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance... RTCA Special Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision...

  6. 76 FR 58077 - Seventy-Third Meeting: RTCA Special Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-09-19

    ... Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems... Committee 147 meeting: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance... RTCA Special Committee 147: Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision...

  7. Delivering Alert Messages to Members of a Work Force

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Loftis, Julia; Nickens, Stephanie; Pell, Melissa; Pell, Vince

    2008-01-01

    Global Alert Resolution Network (GARNET) is a software system for delivering emergency alerts as well as less-urgent messages to members of the Goddard Space Flight Center work force via an intranet or the Internet, and can be adapted to similar use in other large organizations.

  8. Solar radiation alert system : final report.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2009-03-01

    The Solar Radiation Alert (SRA) system continuously evaluates measurements of high-energy protons made by instruments on GOES satellites. If the measurements indicate a substantial elevation of effective dose rates at aircraft flight altitudes, the C...

  9. Speech Alarms Pilot Study

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sandor, A.; Moses, H. R.

    2016-01-01

    Currently on the International Space Station (ISS) and other space vehicles Caution & Warning (C&W) alerts are represented with various auditory tones that correspond to the type of event. This system relies on the crew's ability to remember what each tone represents in a high stress, high workload environment when responding to the alert. Furthermore, crew receive a year or more in advance of the mission that makes remembering the semantic meaning of the alerts more difficult. The current system works for missions conducted close to Earth where ground operators can assist as needed. On long duration missions, however, they will need to work off-nominal events autonomously. There is evidence that speech alarms may be easier and faster to recognize, especially during an off-nominal event. The Information Presentation Directed Research Project (FY07-FY09) funded by the Human Research Program included several studies investigating C&W alerts. The studies evaluated tone alerts currently in use with NASA flight deck displays along with candidate speech alerts. A follow-on study used four types of speech alerts to investigate how quickly various types of auditory alerts with and without a speech component - either at the beginning or at the end of the tone - can be identified. Even though crew were familiar with the tone alert from training or direct mission experience, alerts starting with a speech component were identified faster than alerts starting with a tone. The current study replicated the results from the previous study in a more rigorous experimental design to determine if the candidate speech alarms are ready for transition to operations or if more research is needed. Four types of alarms (caution, warning, fire, and depressurization) were presented to participants in both tone and speech formats in laboratory settings and later in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA). In the laboratory study, the alerts were presented by software and participants were asked to identify the alert as quickly and as accurately as possible. Reaction time and accuracy were measured. Participants identified speech alerts significantly faster than tone alerts. The HERA study investigated the performance of participants in a flight-like environment. Participants were instructed to complete items on a task list and respond to C&W alerts as they occurred. Reaction time and accuracy were measured to determine if the benefits of speech alarms are still present in an applied setting.

  10. Evaluation of a National Call Center and a Local Alerts System for Detection of New Cases of Ebola Virus Disease - Guinea, 2014-2015.

    PubMed

    Lee, Christopher T; Bulterys, Marc; Martel, Lise D; Dahl, Benjamin A

    2016-03-11

    The epidemic of Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in West Africa began in Guinea in late 2013 (1), and on August 8, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (2). Guinea was declared Ebola-free on December 29, 2015, and is under a 90 day period of enhanced surveillance, following 3,351 confirmed and 453 probable cases of Ebola and 2,536 deaths (3). Passive surveillance for Ebola in Guinea has been conducted principally through the use of a telephone alert system. Community members and health facilities report deaths and suspected Ebola cases to local alert numbers operated by prefecture health departments or to a national toll-free call center. The national call center additionally functions as a source of public health information by responding to questions from the public about Ebola. To evaluate the sensitivity of the two systems and compare the sensitivity of the national call center with the local alerts system, the CDC country team performed probabilistic record linkage of the combined prefecture alerts database, as well as the national call center database, with the national viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) database; the VHF database contains records of all known confirmed Ebola cases. Among 17,309 alert calls analyzed from the national call center, 71 were linked to 1,838 confirmed Ebola cases in the VHF database, yielding a sensitivity of 3.9%. The sensitivity of the national call center was highest in the capital city of Conakry (11.4%) and lower in other prefectures. In comparison, the local alerts system had a sensitivity of 51.1%. Local public health infrastructure plays an important role in surveillance in an epidemic setting.

  11. Benefit Value to the Air Force of the GIDEP (Government Industry Data Exchange Program) Alert

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1984-06-15

    cost avoidance within that organization is not the result of the ALERT system . 3-1 b) Designed Life - This is the expected life of the item as...Analytics1 Phase II efforts under contract F33615-S3- C-5098. The main findings of the report are: (1) The system set up to handle Government...slow to issue ALERTs. (4) There is no formally documented system for determining that the Air Force’s warranty rights are being enforced on items

  12. Pi-EEWS: a low cost prototype for on-site earthquake early warning system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pazos, Antonio; Vera, Angel; Morgado, Arturo; Rioja, Carlos; Davila, Jose Martin; Cabieces, Roberto

    2017-04-01

    The Royal Spanish Navy Observatory (ROA), with the participation of the Cadiz University (UCA), have been developed the ALERTES-SC3 EEWS (regional approach) based on the SeisComP3 software package. This development has been done in the frame of the Spanish ALERT-ES (2011-2013) and ALERTES-RIM (2014-2016) projects, and now a days it is being tested in real time for south Iberia. Additionally, the ALERTES-SC3 system integrates an on-site EEWS software, developed by ROA-UCA, which is running for testing in real time in some seismic broad band stations of the WM network. Regional EEWS are not able to provide alerts in the area closet to the epicentre (blind zone), so a dense on-site EEWS is necessary. As it was mentioned, ALERTES-SC3 inludes the on-site software running on several WM stations but a more dense on-site stations are necessary to cover the blind zones. In order to densify this areas, inside of the "blind zones", a low cost on-site prototype "Pi-EEWS", based on a Raspberry Pi card and low cost acelerometers. In this work the main design ideas, the components and its capabilities will be shown.

  13. Safety Alerts: An Observational Study in Portugal.

    PubMed

    Soares, Sara; Roque, Fátima; Teixeira Rodrigues, António; Figueiras, Adolfo; Herdeiro, Maria Teresa

    2015-09-01

    The information that is available when marketing authorizations are approved is limited. Pharmacovigilance has an important role during the postauthorization period, and alerts published by national authorities allow health care professionals to be informed about new data on safety profiles. This study therefore sought to analyze all safety alerts published by the Portuguese National Authority of Medicines and Health Products I.P. (INFARMED). We conducted an observational study of all alerts published on the INFARMED website from January 2002 through December 2014. From the data included in the alerts, the following information was abstracted: active substance name (and trade name), event that led to the alert, and the resulting safety measures. Active substances were classified according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) code. A total of 562 alerts were published, and 304 were eligible for inclusion. The musculoskeletal system was the ATC code with more alerts (n = 53), followed by the nervous system (n = 42). Communication of the information and recommendations to the health care professionals and the public in general was the most frequent safety measure (n = 128), followed by changes in the Summary of the Product Characteristics and package information leaflet (n = 66). During the study period, 26 marketing authorizations were temporarily suspended and 10 were revoked. The knowledge of the alerts published during the postmarketing period is very useful to the health care professionals for improving prescription and use of medicines and to the scientific community for the development of new researches. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Improving the Quality of Alerts and Predicting Intruder's Next Goal with Hidden Colored Petri-Net

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yu, Dong; Frincke, Deb A.

    2006-06-22

    Intrusion detection systems (IDS) often provide poor quality alerts, which are insufficient to support rapid identification of ongoing attacks or predict an intruder’s next likely goal. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to alert post-processing and correlation, the Hidden Colored Petri-Net (HCPN). Different from most other alert correlation methods, our approach treats the alert correlation problem as an inference problem rather than a filter problem. Our approach assumes that the intruder’s actions are unknown to the IDS and can be inferred only from the alerts generated by the IDS sensors. HCPN can describe the relationship between different stepsmore » carried out by intruders, model observations (alerts) and transitions (actions) separately, and associate each token element (system state) with a probability (or confidence). The model is an extension to Colored Petri-Net (CPN) .It is so called “hidden” because the transitions (actions) are not directly observable but can be inferred by looking through the observations (alerts). These features make HCPN especially suitable for discovering intruders’ actions from their partial observations (alerts,) and predicting intruders’ next goal. Our experiments on DARPA evaluation datasets and the attack scenarios from the Grand Challenge Problem (GCP) show that HCPN has promise as a way to reducing false positives and negatives, predicting intruder’s next possible action, uncovering intruders’ intrusion strategies after the attack scenario has happened, and providing confidence scores.« less

  15. The effect of phasic auditory alerting on visual perception.

    PubMed

    Petersen, Anders; Petersen, Annemarie Hilkjær; Bundesen, Claus; Vangkilde, Signe; Habekost, Thomas

    2017-08-01

    Phasic alertness refers to a short-lived change in the preparatory state of the cognitive system following an alerting signal. In the present study, we examined the effect of phasic auditory alerting on distinct perceptual processes, unconfounded by motor components. We combined an alerting/no-alerting design with a pure accuracy-based single-letter recognition task. Computational modeling based on Bundesen's Theory of Visual Attention was used to examine the effect of phasic alertness on visual processing speed and threshold of conscious perception. Results show that phasic auditory alertness affects visual perception by increasing the visual processing speed and lowering the threshold of conscious perception (Experiment 1). By manipulating the intensity of the alerting cue, we further observed a positive relationship between alerting intensity and processing speed, which was not seen for the threshold of conscious perception (Experiment 2). This was replicated in a third experiment, in which pupil size was measured as a physiological marker of alertness. Results revealed that the increase in processing speed was accompanied by an increase in pupil size, substantiating the link between alertness and processing speed (Experiment 3). The implications of these results are discussed in relation to a newly developed mathematical model of the relationship between levels of alertness and the speed with which humans process visual information. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Prescription order risk factors for pediatric dosing alerts.

    PubMed

    Stultz, J S; Porter, K; Nahata, M C

    2015-02-01

    To determine dosing alert rates based on prescription order characteristics and identify prescription order risk factors for the occurrence of dosing alerts. A retrospective analysis of inpatient medication orders and dosing alerts occurring during October 2011 and January, April, and July 2012 at a pediatric institution. Prescription orders and alerts were categorized by: medication class, patient age, route of administration, and month of the year. There were 228,259 orders during the studied period, with 11,072 alerted orders (4.9%). The most frequently alerted medication class was the non-analgesic central nervous system agent class (14% of alerts). Age, route, medication class, and month all independently affected dosing alert rates. The alert rate was highest for immunosuppressive agents (54%), neonates (6.7%), and orders for rectal administration (9.5%). The alert rate was higher in adult patients receiving their care at a pediatric institution (5.7%) compared to children (4.7%), but after multivariate analysis, pediatric orders had higher odds for an alert (OR 1.1, 95% CI 1.05-1.16). Mercaptopurine had the highest alert rate when categorized by active ingredient (73.9%). Albuterol 2.5mg/mL continuous aerosol and heparin 1000 units in 0.9% sodium chloride injection solution were the unique medications with the highest alert rates (100.0% and 97.7%, respectively). Certain types of prescription orders have a higher risk for causing dosing alerts than others. Patient age, medication class, route of administration, and the month of year can affect dosing alert rates. Design and customization efforts should focus on these medications and prescription order characteristics that increase the risk for dosing alerts. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Physicians’ response to computerised alerts for psychotropic drugs in older persons: a multilevel analysis of the associated alert, patient and physician characteristics

    PubMed Central

    Tamblyn, Robyn; Reidel, Kristen; Patel, Vaishali

    2012-01-01

    Objective Computerised drug alerts are expected to reduce patients’ risk of adverse drug events. However, physicians over-ride most drug alerts, because they believe that the benefit exceeds the risk. The purpose of this study was to determine the drug alert, patient and physician characteristics associated with the: (1) occurrence of psychotropic drug alerts for elderly patients and the (2) response to these alerts by their primary care physicians. Setting Primary care, Quebec, Canada. Design Prospective cohort study. Participants Sixty-one physicians using an electronic prescribing and drug alert decision-support system in their practice, and 3413 elderly patients using psychotropic drugs. Primary and secondary measures Psychotropic drug class, alert severity, patient risk for fall injuries and physician experience, practice volume and computer use were evaluated in relationship to the likelihood of having: (1) a psychotropic drug alert, (2) the prescription revised in response to an alert. Cluster-adjusted alternating logistic regression was used to assess multilevel predictors of alert occurrence and response. Results In total 13 080 psychotropic drug alerts were generated in 8931 visits. Alerts were more likely to be generated for male patients at higher risk of fall-related injury and for physicians who established the highest alert threshold. In 9.9% of alerts seen, the prescription was revised. The highest revision rate was for antipsychotic alerts (22.6%). Physicians were more likely to revise prescriptions for severe alerts (OR 2.03; 95%CI 1.39 to 2.98), if patients had cognitive impairment (OR 1.95; 95%CI 1.13 to 3.36), and if they made more visits to their physician (OR 1.05 per 5 visits; 95%CI 1 to 1.09). Conclusions Physicians view and respond to a small proportion of alerts, mainly for higher-risk patients. To reduce the risk of psychotropic drug-related fall injuries, a new generation of evidence-based drug alerts should be developed. PMID:23024254

  18. Physician response to a medication alert system in inpatients with levodopa-treated diseases

    PubMed Central

    Morris, Marie; Willis, Allison W.; Searles Nielsen, Susan; McCann, Franklin; Birke, Angela

    2015-01-01

    Objective: To evaluate the appropriateness of dopamine receptor antagonist prescriptions in hospitalized patients with dopamine-requiring diseases after implementation of an automated prescription alert system. Methods: We examined dopamine receptor antagonist prescriptions in hospitalized patients with dopamine-requiring diseases and physician response to an automated drug contraindication alert system at Barnes-Jewish Hospital from 2009 to 2013. A detailed review of patient medical records was performed for all alert events generated when a physician prescribed a dopamine receptor antagonist concurrently with a dopamine receptor agonist in hospitalized patients. Two movement disorders neurologists determined the appropriateness of each prescription, based on patient medical history, through consensus. Physician response to alert was compared by indication for the prescription and physician specialty. Results: Of 237 orders, 197 (83.1%) prescriptions for dopamine receptor antagonists were considered inappropriate. The prevalence of inappropriate dopamine receptor antagonist prescriptions per levodopa prescriptions was 16.10% (95% confidence interval 9.47, 22.73) in psychiatry, 7.51% (6.16, 8.86) in general medicine, 6.14% (4.49, 7.79) in the surgical specialties, and 0.85% (0.46, 1.25) in the neurologic/neurosurgical specialties. Of the inappropriate prescriptions, 146 (74.1%) were continued despite the alert. The strongest predictor of discontinuation of dopamine receptor antagonist medications was use of the medication to treat nausea or emesis (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Despite successfully identifying instances when dopamine antagonists were prescribed to patients with dopamine-requiring diseases, the alert system modestly affected physician prescribing behavior, highlighting the need for improved education of health care providers. PMID:26092916

  19. A Secret Support Network

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wasley, Paula

    2007-01-01

    This article describes Hanover College's Early Alert Team, an early-alert program that seeks to identify students' academic, social, or personal troubles as soon as they surface. The team's five members gather information about students from all corners of the campus and then devise strategies to help them. The early-alert system has not only…

  20. 47 CFR 80.1113 - Transmission of a distress alert.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Operating...-shore distress alerts are used to alert Rescue Coordination Centers via coast stations or coast earth... (from a ship earth station or a satellite EPIRB) and terrestrial services (from ship stations and EPIRBs...

  1. 47 CFR 80.1113 - Transmission of a distress alert.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Operating...-shore distress alerts are used to alert Rescue Coordination Centers via coast stations or coast earth... (from a ship earth station or a satellite EPIRB) and terrestrial services (from ship stations and EPIRBs...

  2. 47 CFR 80.1113 - Transmission of a distress alert.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... SERVICES STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Operating...-shore distress alerts are used to alert Rescue Coordination Centers via coast stations or coast earth... (from a ship earth station or a satellite EPIRB) and terrestrial services (from ship stations and EPIRBs...

  3. Validation of Test Performance and Clinical Time Zero for an Electronic Health Record Embedded Severe Sepsis Alert

    PubMed Central

    Downing, N. Lance; Shepard, John; Chu, Weihan; Tam, Julia; Wessels, Alexander; Li, Ron; Dietrich, Brian; Rudy, Michael; Castaneda, Leon; Shieh, Lisa

    2016-01-01

    Summary Bachground Increasing use of EHRs has generated interest in the potential of computerized clinical decision support to improve treatment of sepsis. Electronic sepsis alerts have had mixed results due to poor test characteristics, the inability to detect sepsis in a timely fashion and the use of outside software limiting widespread adoption. We describe the development, evaluation and validation of an accurate and timely severe sepsis alert with the potential to impact sepsis management. Objective To develop, evaluate, and validate an accurate and timely severe sepsis alert embedded in a commercial EHR. Methods The sepsis alert was developed by identifying the most common severe sepsis criteria among a cohort of patients with ICD 9 codes indicating a diagnosis of sepsis. This alert requires criteria in three categories: indicators of a systemic inflammatory response, evidence of suspected infection from physician orders, and markers of organ dysfunction. Chart review was used to evaluate test performance and the ability to detect clinical time zero, the point in time when a patient develops severe sepsis. Results Two physicians reviewed 100 positive cases and 75 negative cases. Based on this review, sensitivity was 74.5%, specificity was 86.0%, the positive predictive value was 50.3%, and the negative predictive value was 94.7%. The most common source of end-organ dysfunction was MAP less than 70 mm/Hg (59%). The alert was triggered at clinical time zero in 41% of cases and within three hours in 53.6% of cases. 96% of alerts triggered before a manual nurse screen. Conclusion We are the first to report the time between a sepsis alert and physician chart-review clinical time zero. Incorporating physician orders in the alert criteria improves specificity while maintaining sensitivity, which is important to reduce alert fatigue. By leveraging standard EHR functionality, this alert could be implemented by other healthcare systems. PMID:27437061

  4. Validation of Test Performance and Clinical Time Zero for an Electronic Health Record Embedded Severe Sepsis Alert.

    PubMed

    Rolnick, Joshua; Downing, N Lance; Shepard, John; Chu, Weihan; Tam, Julia; Wessels, Alexander; Li, Ron; Dietrich, Brian; Rudy, Michael; Castaneda, Leon; Shieh, Lisa

    2016-01-01

    Increasing use of EHRs has generated interest in the potential of computerized clinical decision support to improve treatment of sepsis. Electronic sepsis alerts have had mixed results due to poor test characteristics, the inability to detect sepsis in a timely fashion and the use of outside software limiting widespread adoption. We describe the development, evaluation and validation of an accurate and timely severe sepsis alert with the potential to impact sepsis management. To develop, evaluate, and validate an accurate and timely severe sepsis alert embedded in a commercial EHR. The sepsis alert was developed by identifying the most common severe sepsis criteria among a cohort of patients with ICD 9 codes indicating a diagnosis of sepsis. This alert requires criteria in three categories: indicators of a systemic inflammatory response, evidence of suspected infection from physician orders, and markers of organ dysfunction. Chart review was used to evaluate test performance and the ability to detect clinical time zero, the point in time when a patient develops severe sepsis. Two physicians reviewed 100 positive cases and 75 negative cases. Based on this review, sensitivity was 74.5%, specificity was 86.0%, the positive predictive value was 50.3%, and the negative predictive value was 94.7%. The most common source of end-organ dysfunction was MAP less than 70 mm/Hg (59%). The alert was triggered at clinical time zero in 41% of cases and within three hours in 53.6% of cases. 96% of alerts triggered before a manual nurse screen. We are the first to report the time between a sepsis alert and physician chart-review clinical time zero. Incorporating physician orders in the alert criteria improves specificity while maintaining sensitivity, which is important to reduce alert fatigue. By leveraging standard EHR functionality, this alert could be implemented by other healthcare systems.

  5. Earthquake early Warning ShakeAlert system: West coast wide production prototype

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kohler, Monica D.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.; Given, Douglas; Guiwits, Stephen; Neuhauser, Doug; Hensen, Ivan; Hartog, Renate; Bodin, Paul; Kress, Victor; Thompson, Stephen; Felizardo, Claude; Brody, Jeff; Bhadha, Rayo; Schwarz, Stan

    2017-01-01

    Earthquake early warning (EEW) is an application of seismological science that can give people, as well as mechanical and electrical systems, up to tens of seconds to take protective actions before peak earthquake shaking arrives at a location. Since 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey has been working in collaboration with several partners to develop EEW for the United States. The goal is to create and operate an EEW system, called ShakeAlert, for the highest risk areas of the United States, starting with the West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington. In early 2016, the Production Prototype v.1.0 was established for California; then, in early 2017, v.1.2 was established for the West Coast, with earthquake notifications being distributed to a group of beta users in California, Oregon, and Washington. The new ShakeAlert Production Prototype was an outgrowth from an earlier demonstration EEW system that began sending test notifications to selected users in California in January 2012. ShakeAlert leverages the considerable physical, technical, and organizational earthquake monitoring infrastructure of the Advanced National Seismic System, a nationwide federation of cooperating seismic networks. When fully implemented, the ShakeAlert system may reduce damage and injury caused by large earthquakes, improve the nation’s resilience, and speed recovery.

  6. DAIDALUS Observations From UAS Integration in the NAS Project Flight Test 4

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Vincent, Michael J.; Tsakpinis, Dimitrios

    2016-01-01

    In order to validate the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) solution proposed by standards body RTCA Inc., the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) UAS Integration in the NAS project, alongside industry members General Atomics and Honeywell, conducted the fourth flight test in a series at Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Flight Test 4 (FT4) investigated problems of interoperability with the TCAS collision avoidance system with a DAA system as well as problems associated with sensor uncertainty. A series of scripted flight encounters between the NASA Ikhana UAS and various "intruder" aircraft were flown while alerting and guidance from the DAA algorithm were recorded to investigate the timeliness of the alerts and correctness of the guidance triggered by the DAA system. The results found that alerts were triggered in a timely manner in most instances. Cases where the alerting and guidance was incorrect were investigated further.

  7. The process of development of a prioritization tool for a clinical decision support build within a computerized provider order entry system: Experiences from St Luke's Health System.

    PubMed

    Wolf, Matthew; Miller, Suzanne; DeJong, Doug; House, John A; Dirks, Carl; Beasley, Brent

    2016-09-01

    To establish a process for the development of a prioritization tool for a clinical decision support build within a computerized provider order entry system and concurrently to prioritize alerts for Saint Luke's Health System. The process of prioritizing clinical decision support alerts included (a) consensus sessions to establish a prioritization process and identify clinical decision support alerts through a modified Delphi process and (b) a clinical decision support survey to validate the results. All members of our health system's physician quality organization, Saint Luke's Care as well as clinicians, administrators, and pharmacy staff throughout Saint Luke's Health System, were invited to participate in this confidential survey. The consensus sessions yielded a prioritization process through alert contextualization and associated Likert-type scales. Utilizing this process, the clinical decision support survey polled the opinions of 850 clinicians with a 64.7 percent response rate. Three of the top rated alerts were approved for the pre-implementation build at Saint Luke's Health System: Acute Myocardial Infarction Core Measure Sets, Deep Vein Thrombosis Prophylaxis within 4 h, and Criteria for Sepsis. This study establishes a process for developing a prioritization tool for a clinical decision support build within a computerized provider order entry system that may be applicable to similar institutions. © The Author(s) 2015.

  8. Alertness management in two-person long-haul flight operations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rosekind, M. R.; Gander, P. H.

    1992-01-01

    Long-haul flight operations involve cumulative sleep loss, circadian disruption, and extended and irregular duty schedules. These factors reduce pilot alertness and performance on the flightdeck. Conceptually and operationally, alertness management in flight operations can be divided into preventive strategies and operational countermeasures. Preventive strategies are utilized prior to a duty period to mitigate or reduce the effects of sleep loss, circadian disruption and fatigue during subsequent flight operations. Operational countermeasures are used during operations as acute techniques for maintaining performance and alertness. Results from previous NASA Ames field studies document the sleep loss and circadian disruption in three-person long-haul flying and illustrate the application of preventive strategies and operational countermeasures. One strategy that can be used in both a preventive and operational manner is strategic napping. The application and effectiveness of strategic napping in long-haul operations will be discussed. Finally, long-haul flying in two-person highly automated aircraft capable of extended range operations will create new challenges to maintaining pilot alertness and performance. Alertness management issues in this flight environment will be explored.

  9. Real time alert system: a disease management system leveraging health information exchange.

    PubMed

    Anand, Vibha; Sheley, Meena E; Xu, Shawn; Downs, Stephen M

    2012-01-01

    Rates of preventive and disease management services can be improved by providing automated alerts and reminders to primary care providers (PCPs) using of health information technology (HIT) tools. Using Adaptive Turnaround Documents (ATAD), an existing Health Information Exchange (HIE) infrastructure and office fax machines, we developed a Real Time Alert (RTA) system. RTA is a computerized decision support system (CDSS) that is able to deliver alerts to PCPs statewide for recommended services around the time of the patient visit. RTA is also able to capture structured clinical data from providers using existing fax technology. In this study, we evaluate RTA's performance for alerting PCPs when their patients with asthma have an emergency room visit anywhere in the state. Our results show that RTA was successfully able to deliver "just in time" patient-relevant alerts to PCPs across the state. Furthermore, of those ATADs faxed back and automatically interpreted by the RTA system, 35% reported finding the provided information helpful. The PCPs who reported finding information helpful also reported making a phone call, sending a letter or seeing the patient for follow up care. We have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of electronically exchanging important patient related information with the PCPs statewide. This is despite a lack of a link with their electronic health records. We have shown that using our ATAD technology, a PCP can be notified quickly of an important event such as a patient's asthma related emergency room admission so further follow up can happen in near real time.

  10. Carbamates and ICH M7 classification: Making use of expert knowledge.

    PubMed

    Hemingway, Rachel; Fowkes, Adrian; Williams, Richard V

    2017-06-01

    Carbamates are widely used in the chemical industry so understanding their toxicity is important to safety assessment. Carbamates have been associated with certain toxicities resulting in publication of structural alerts, including alerts for mutagenicity. Structural alerts for bacterial mutagenicity can be used in combination with statistical systems to enable ICH M7 classification, which allows assessment of the genotoxic risk posed by pharmaceutical impurities. This study tested a hypothetical bacterial mutagenicity alert for carbamates and examined the impact it would have on ICH M7 classifications using (Q)SAR predictions from the expert rule-based system Derek Nexus and the statistical-based system Sarah Nexus. Public datasets have a low prevalence of mutagenic carbamates, which highlighted that systems containing an alert for carbamates perform poorly for achieving correct ICH M7 classifications. Carbamates are commonly used as protecting groups and proprietary datasets containing such compounds were also found to have a low prevalence of mutagenic compounds. Expert review of the mutagenic compounds established that mutagenicity was often only observed under certain (non-standard) conditions and more generally that the Ames test may be a poor predictor for the risk of carcinogenicity posed by chemicals in this class. Overall a structural alert for the in vitro bacterial mutagenesis of carbamates does not benefit workflows for assigning ICH M7 classification to impurities. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Perceived Time Progression and Vigilance: Implications for Workload, Stress, and Cerebral Hemodynamics

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-04-01

    and maintaining the data needed , and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other...diagnostics indicate the need for immediate action (Sheridan, 1970, 1980). Consequently, vigilance has a critical impact in a wide range of automated...activating system) needed for continued alertness. Consequently, lethargy increases in observers and signal detection is reduced. However, recent findings

  12. Using Heuristic Evaluation to Improve Sepsis Alert Usability.

    PubMed

    Pertiwi, Ariani Arista Putri; Fraczkowski, Dan; Stogis, Sheryl L; Lopez, Karen Dunn

    2018-06-01

    Sepsis, life-threatening organ dysfunction in response to infection, is an alarmingly common and aggressive illness in US hospitals, especially for intensive care patients. Preventing sepsis deaths rests on the clinicians' ability to promptly recognize and treat sepsis. To aid early recognition, many organizations have employed clinician-facing electronic sepsis alert systems. However, the effectiveness of the alert relies on heavily on the visual interface, textual information, and overall usability. This article reports a usability inspection of a sepsis alert system. The authors found violations in 12 of the 14 usability principles and promote use of this method in practice to systematically identify usability problems. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Safety at The William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre.

    PubMed

    Anderson, James; Grant, Victoria; Elgammal, Mariam; Campbell, Alison; Hampshire, Julia; Hansen, Stig; Russell, Aline J C

    2017-12-01

    We examined the yield from EMFIT bed alarms and staff response time to generalised seizure in a medium term residential assessment unit for epilepsy. The Scottish Epilpesy Centre (SEC) has a Video Observation System (VOS) that provides continuous recording of all patient spaces (external and internal) and allows retention of clinically relevant events. A retrospective audit of daily EMFIT test records, nursing seizure record sheets (seizure type and EMFIT alert status), clinical incident reporting systems and the VOS database of retained clinical events was conducted for an 9 month period from April 1st 2016 till December 31st 2016. All generalized tonic clonic seizures (GTCS) were noted by patient, time and location and staff response time to GTCS was calculated. There were 85 people admitted during the audit period who had 61 GTCS. 50 events were in bed and EMFIT alert status was recorded. On 8 occasions the EMFIT did not alert: 5 events were not of sufficient duration or frequency, in 2 the patient fell from the bed early and 1 event the alarm did not trigger. The average response time to GTCS was 23s. The longest response time was 69s (range, 0-69s, sd 15.76.). The EMFIT bed alarm appears to be a valuable adjunct to safety systems. Within the novel environment of the SEC it is possible to maintain a response time to GTCS that is comparable to hospital based UK video telemetry units. Copyright © 2017 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. PubMedAlertMe - Standalone Windows-based PubMed SDI Software Application

    PubMed Central

    Ma’ayan, Avi

    2008-01-01

    PubMedAlertMe is a Windows-based software system for automatically receiving e-mail alert messages about recent publications listed on PubMed. The e-mail messages contain links to newly available abstracts listed on PubMed describing publications that were selectively returned from a specified list of queries. Links are also provided to directly export citations to EndNote, and links are provided to directly forward articles to colleagues. The program is standalone. Thus, it does not require a remote mail server or user registration. PubMedAlertMe is free software, and can be downloaded from: http://amp.pharm.mssm.edu/PubMedAlertMe/PubMedAlertMe_setup.zip PMID:18402930

  15. Implementing a Commercial Rule Base as a Medication Order Safety Net

    PubMed Central

    Reichley, Richard M.; Seaton, Terry L.; Resetar, Ervina; Micek, Scott T.; Scott, Karen L.; Fraser, Victoria J.; Dunagan, W. Claiborne; Bailey, Thomas C.

    2005-01-01

    A commercial rule base (Cerner Multum) was used to identify medication orders exceeding recommended dosage limits at five hospitals within BJC HealthCare, an integrated health care system. During initial testing, clinical pharmacists determined that there was an excessive number of nuisance and clinically insignificant alerts, with an overall alert rate of 9.2%. A method for customizing the commercial rule base was implemented to increase rule specificity for problematic rules. The system was subsequently deployed at two facilities and achieved alert rates of less than 1%. Pharmacists screened these alerts and contacted ordering physicians in 21% of cases. Physicians made therapeutic changes in response to 38% of alerts presented to them. By applying simple techniques to customize rules, commercial rule bases can be used to rapidly deploy a safety net to screen drug orders for excessive dosages, while preserving the rule architecture for later implementations of more finely tuned clinical decision support. PMID:15802481

  16. Behavioral Modification of Intraoperative Hyperglycemia Management with a Novel Real-time Audiovisual Monitor.

    PubMed

    Sathishkumar, Subramanian; Lai, Manda; Picton, Paul; Kheterpal, Sachin; Morris, Michelle; Shanks, Amy; Ramachandran, Satya Krishna

    2015-07-01

    Hyperglycemia, defined as blood glucose (BG) levels above 200 mg/dl (11.1 mM), is associated with increased postoperative morbidity. Yet, the treatment standard for intraoperative glycemic control is poorly defined for noncardiac surgery. Little is known of the interindividual treatment variability or methods to modify intraoperative glycemic management behaviors. AlertWatch (AlertWatch, USA) is a novel audiovisual alert system that serves as a secondary patient monitor for use in operating rooms. The authors evaluated the influence of use of AlertWatch on intraoperative glycemic management behavior. AlertWatch displays historical patient data (risk factors and laboratory results) from multiple networked information systems, combined with the patient's live physiologic data. The authors extracted intraoperative data for 19 months to evaluate the relationship between AlertWatch usage and initiation of insulin treatment for hyperglycemia. Outcome associations were adjusted for physical status, case duration, procedural complexity, emergent procedure, fasting BG value, home insulin therapy, patient age, and primary anesthetist. Overall, 2,341 patients had documented intraoperative hyperglycemia. Use of AlertWatch (791 of 2,341; 33.5%) was associated with 55% increase in insulin treatment (496 of 791 [62.7%] with and 817 of 1,550 [52.7%] without AlertWatch; adjusted odds ratio [95% CI], 1.55 [1.23 to 1.95]; P < 0.001) and 44% increase in BG recheck after insulin administration (407 of 791 [51.5%] with AlertWatch and 655 of 1,550 [42.3%] in controls; adjusted odds ratio [95% CI], 1.44 [1.14 to 1.81]; P = 0.002). AlertWatch is associated with a significant increase in desirable intraoperative glycemic management behavior and may help achieve tighter intraoperative glycemic control.

  17. Impact of electronic-alerting of acute kidney injury: workgroup statements from the 15(th) ADQI Consensus Conference.

    PubMed

    Hoste, Eric A J; Kashani, Kianoush; Gibney, Noel; Wilson, F Perry; Ronco, Claudio; Goldstein, Stuart L; Kellum, John A; Bagshaw, Sean M

    2016-01-01

    Among hospitalized patients, acute kidney injury is common and associated with significant morbidity and risk for mortality. The use of electronic health records (EHR) for prediction and detection of this important clinical syndrome has grown in the past decade. The steering committee of the 15(th) Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative (ADQI) conference dedicated a workgroup with the task of identifying elements that may impact the course of events following Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) e-alert. Following an extensive, non-systematic literature search, we used a modified Delphi process to reach consensus regarding several aspects of the utilization of AKI e-alerts. Topics discussed in this workgroup included progress in evidence base practices, the characteristics of an optimal e-alert, the measures of efficacy and effectiveness, and finally what responses would be considered best practices following AKI e-alerts. Authors concluded that the current evidence for e-alert system efficacy, although growing, remains insufficient. Technology and human-related factors were found to be crucial elements of any future investigation or implementation of such tools. The group also concluded that implementation of such systems should not be done without a vigorous plan to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of e-alerts. Efficacy and effectiveness of e-alerts should be measured by context-specific process and patient outcomes. Finally, the group made several suggestions regarding the clinical decision support that should be considered following successful e-alert implementation. This paper reflects the findings of a non-systematic review and expert opinion. We recommend implementation of the findings of this workgroup report for use of AKI e-alerts.

  18. Alerts in mobile healthcare applications: requirements and pilot study.

    PubMed

    Kafeza, Eleanna; Chiu, Dickson K W; Cheung, S C; Kafeza, Marina

    2004-06-01

    Recent advances in mobile technologies have greatly extended traditional communication technologies to mobile devices. At the same time, healthcare environments are by nature "mobile" where doctors and nurses do not have fixed workspaces. Irregular and exceptional events are generated in daily hospital routines, such as operations rescheduling, laboratory/examination results, and adverse drug events. These events may create requests that should be delivered to the appropriate person at the appropriate time. Those requests that are classified as urgent are referred to as alerts. Efficient routing and monitoring of alerts are keys to quality and cost-effective healthcare services. Presently, these are generally handled in an ad hoc manner. In this paper, we propose the use of a healthcare alert management system to handle these alert messages systematically. We develop a model for specifying alerts that are associated with medical tasks and a set of parameters for their routing. We design an alert monitor that matches medical staff and their mobile devices to receive alerts, based on the requirements of these alerts. We also propose a mechanism to handle and reroute, if necessary, an alert message when it has not been acknowledged within a specific deadline.

  19. Evaluation of Helmet Mounted Display Alerting Symbology

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    DeMaio, Joe; Rutkowski, Michael (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    Proposed helicopter helmet mounted displays will be used to alert the pilot to a variety of conditions, from threats to equipment problems. The present research was performed under the NASA Safe All-weather Flight Operations Research (SAFOR) program supported by a joint Army/NASA research agreement. The purpose of the research was to examine ways to optimize the alerting effectiveness of helmet display symbology. The research used two approaches to increasing the effectiveness of alerts. One was to increase the ability of the alert to attract attention by using the entire display surface. The other was to include information about the required response in the alert itself. The investigation was conducted using the NASA Ames Research Center's six-degree-of-freedom vertical motion simulator (VMS) with a rotorcraft cockpit. Helmet display symbology was based on the AH-64's pilot night vision system (PNVS), cruise mode symbology. A standardized mission was developed, that consisted of 11 legs. The mission included four tasks, which allowed variation in the frequency of alerts. The general trend in the data points to a small benefit from both the full-screen alert and the partial information alert.

  20. Knowledge Integration and Use-Case Analysis for a Customized Drug-Drug Interaction CDS Service

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kam, Hye Jin; Park, Man Young; Kim, Woojae; Yoon, Duk Yong; Ahn, Eun Kyoung; Park, Rae Woong

    Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) are thought to reduce adverse drug events (ADEs) by monitoring drug-drug interactions(DDIs). However, clinically improper or excessive alerts can result in high alert overrides. A tailored CDS service, which is appropriate for clinicians and their ordering situations, is required to increase alert acceptance. In this study, we conducted a 12-week pilot project adopting a tailed CDSS at an emergency department. The new CDSS was conducted via a stepwise integration of additional new rules. The alert status with changes in acceptance rate was analyzed. The most frequent DDI alerts were related to prescriptions of anti-inflammatory drugs. The percentages of alert overrides for each stage were 98.0%, 96.0%, 96.9%, and 98.1%, respectively. 91.5% of overridden alerts were related to discharge medications. To reduce the potential hazards of ADEs, the development of an effective customized DDI CDSS is required, via in-depth analysis on alert patterns and overridden reasons.

  1. 75 FR 4760 - Review of the Emergency Alert System

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-01-29

    ...; State, Local or Tribal Governments; Non-profit entities. Number of Respondents: 3,569,028. Estimated... hours. Total Annual Cost: $3,086,044. Privacy Impact Assessment: No impact(s). Nature and Extent of... retransmitted the alert; and (3) if they were not able to receive and/ or transmit the alert, their `best effort...

  2. An approach for representing sensor data to validate alerts in Ambient Assisted Living.

    PubMed

    Muñoz, Andrés; Serrano, Emilio; Villa, Ana; Valdés, Mercedes; Botía, Juan A

    2012-01-01

    The mainstream of research in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is devoted to developing intelligent systems for processing the data collected through artificial sensing. Besides, there are other elements that must be considered to foster the adoption of AAL solutions in real environments. In this paper we focus on the problem of designing interfaces among caregivers and AAL systems. We present an alert management tool that supports carers in their task of validating alarms raised by the system. It generates text-based explanations--obtained through an argumentation process--of the causes leading to alarm activation along with graphical sensor information and 3D models, thus offering complementary types of information. Moreover, a guideline to use the tool when validating alerts is also provided. Finally, the functionality of the proposed tool is demonstrated through two real cases of alert.

  3. Effectiveness of a real-time clinical decision support system for computerized physician order entry of plasma orders.

    PubMed

    Yazer, Mark H; Triulzi, Darrell J; Reddy, Vivek; Waters, Jonathan H

    2013-12-01

    We investigated the effect of implementing adaptive plasma ordering criteria in the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, with alerts that were automatically generated if the recipient's antecedent international normalized ratio (INR) did not meet the institutional criteria. In a regional health care system consisting of 11 hospitals using a common CPOE, data on the number of plasma orders and alerts that were generated were collected over a 4-month period before prescribers were required to select an indication for plasma. When adaptive ordering was implemented prescribers had to choose from prepopulated indications for plasma: INR of 1.6 or greater with bleeding, INR of 1.6 or greater before an invasive procedure, therapeutic exchange, massive transfusion, and other. Regardless of the antecedent INR the alert did not trigger if massive transfusion or plasmapheresis was selected. Information on prescribers and recipients was collected during this 5-month period. In the 4-month period before the adaptive alerts were implemented, 42.9% of the plasma orders generated an alert; in the 5-month period thereafter the alert rate was significantly lower at 27.9% (p < 0.0001). The percentage of heeded alerts increased during the adaptive alert period (24.3% vs. 17.1%, respectively, p = 0.004). A significant percentage (45%) of other plasma orders were for periprocedure or bleeding patients whose antecedent INR was less than 1.6. There were significant differences in prescriber specialties among those who ordered plasma using the other indication compared to all plasma orders. Electronic interventions improve compliance with plasma guidelines but as implemented are not sufficient to completely curtail non-evidence-based ordering. © 2013 American Association of Blood Banks.

  4. Automated critical test result notification system: architecture, design, and assessment of provider satisfaction.

    PubMed

    Lacson, Ronilda; O'Connor, Stacy D; Andriole, Katherine P; Prevedello, Luciano M; Khorasani, Ramin

    2014-11-01

    Communicating critical results of diagnostic imaging procedures is a national patient safety goal. The purposes of this study were to describe the system architecture and design of Alert Notification of Critical Results (ANCR), an automated system designed to facilitate communication of critical imaging results between care providers; to report providers' satisfaction with ANCR; and to compare radiologists' and ordering providers' attitudes toward ANCR. The design decisions made for each step in the alert communication process, which includes user authentication, alert creation, alert communication, alert acknowledgment and management, alert reminder and escalation, and alert documentation, are described. To assess attitudes toward ANCR, internally developed and validated surveys were administered to all radiologists (n = 320) and ordering providers (n = 4323) who sent or received alerts 3 years after ANCR implementation. The survey response rates were 50.4% for radiologists and 36.1% for ordering providers. Ordering providers were generally dissatisfied with the training received for use of ANCR and with access to technical support. Radiologists were more satisfied with documenting critical result communication (61.1% vs 43.2%; p = 0.0001) and tracking critical results (51.6% vs 35.1%; p = 0.0003) than were ordering providers. Both groups agreed use of ANCR reduces medical errors and improves the quality of patient care. Use of ANCR enables automated communication of critical test results. The survey results confirm overall provider satisfaction with ANCR but highlight the need for improved training strategies for large numbers of geographically dispersed ordering providers. Future enhancements beyond acknowledging receipt of critical results are needed to help ensure timely and appropriate follow-up of critical results to improve quality and patient safety.

  5. Automated Critical Test Result Notification System: Architecture, Design, and Assessment of Provider Satisfaction

    PubMed Central

    Lacson, Ronilda; O'Connor, Stacy D.; Andriole, Katherine P.; Prevedello, Luciano M.; Khorasani, Ramin

    2015-01-01

    OBJECTIVE Communicating critical results of diagnostic imaging procedures is a national patient safety goal. The purposes of this study were to describe the system architecture and design of Alert Notification of Critical Results (ANCR), an automated system designed to facilitate communication of critical imaging results between care providers; to report providers’ satisfaction with ANCR; and to compare radiologists’ and ordering providers’ attitudes toward ANCR. MATERIALS AND METHODS The design decisions made for each step in the alert communication process, which includes user authentication, alert creation, alert communication, alert acknowledgment and management, alert reminder and escalation, and alert documentation, are described. To assess attitudes toward ANCR, internally developed and validated surveys were administered to all radiologists (n = 320) and ordering providers (n = 4323) who sent or received alerts 3 years after ANCR implementation. RESULTS The survey response rates were 50.4% for radiologists and 36.1% for ordering providers. Ordering providers were generally dissatisfied with the training received for use of ANCR and with access to technical support. Radiologists were more satisfied with documenting critical result communication (61.1% vs 43.2%; p = 0.0001) and tracking critical results (51.6% vs 35.1%; p = 0.0003) than were ordering providers. Both groups agreed use of ANCR reduces medical errors and improves the quality of patient care. CONCLUSION Use of ANCR enables automated communication of critical test results. The survey results confirm overall provider satisfaction with ANCR but highlight the need for improved training strategies for large numbers of geographically dispersed ordering providers. Future enhancements beyond acknowledging receipt of critical results are needed to help ensure timely and appropriate follow-up of critical results to improve quality and patient safety. PMID:25341163

  6. Combining Surveillance Systems: Effective Merging of U.S. Veteran and Military Health Data

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-08-04

    respectively, and better in VA data for 34% and 15%. The VA system tended to alert earlier with a typical H3N2 seasonal influenza affecting older...manageable effect on customary alert rates. Citation: Pavlin JA, Burkom HS, Elbert Y, Lucero-Obusan C, Winston CA, et al. (2013) Combining...facilities within the CBSA. We applied ESSENCE alerting algorithms [11] to weekly CBSA-level outpatient data and analyzed the two data streams (DoD and VA

  7. Contributors to Frequent Telehealth Alerts Including False Alerts for Patients with Heart Failure: A Mixed Methods Exploration

    PubMed Central

    Radhakrishna, K.; Bowles, K.; Zettek-Sumner, A.

    2013-01-01

    Summary Background Telehealth data overload through high alert generation is a significant barrier to sustained adoption of telehealth for managing HF patients. Objective To explore the factors contributing to frequent telehealth alerts including false alerts for Medicare heart failure (HF) patients admitted to a home health agency. Materials and Methods A mixed methods design that combined quantitative correlation analysis of patient characteristic data with number of telehealth alerts and qualitative analysis of telehealth and visiting nurses’ notes on follow-up actions to patients’ telehealth alerts was employed. All the quantitative and qualitative data was collected through retrospective review of electronic records of the home heath agency. Results Subjects in the study had a mean age of 83 (SD = 7.6); 56% were female. Patient co-morbidities (p<0.05) of renal disorders, anxiety, and cardiac arrhythmias emerged as predictors of telehealth alerts through quantitative analysis (n = 168) using multiple regression. Inappropriate telehealth measurement technique by patients (54%) and home healthcare system inefficiencies (37%) contributed to most telehealth false alerts in the purposive qualitative sub-sample (n = 35) of patients with high telehealth alerts. Conclusion Encouraging patient engagement with the telehealth process, fostering a collaborative approach among all the clinicians involved with the telehealth intervention, tailoring telehealth alert thresholds to patient characteristics along with establishing patient-centered telehealth outcome goals may allow meaningful generation of telehealth alerts. Reducing avoidable telehealth alerts could vastly improve the efficiency and sustainability of telehealth programs for HF management. PMID:24454576

  8. Provider risk factors for medication administration error alerts: analyses of a large-scale closed-loop medication administration system using RFID and barcode.

    PubMed

    Hwang, Yeonsoo; Yoon, Dukyong; Ahn, Eun Kyoung; Hwang, Hee; Park, Rae Woong

    2016-12-01

    To determine the risk factors and rate of medication administration error (MAE) alerts by analyzing large-scale medication administration data and related error logs automatically recorded in a closed-loop medication administration system using radio-frequency identification and barcodes. The subject hospital adopted a closed-loop medication administration system. All medication administrations in the general wards were automatically recorded in real-time using radio-frequency identification, barcodes, and hand-held point-of-care devices. MAE alert logs recorded during a full 1 year of 2012. We evaluated risk factors for MAE alerts including administration time, order type, medication route, the number of medication doses administered, and factors associated with nurse practices by logistic regression analysis. A total of 2 874 539 medication dose records from 30 232 patients (882.6 patient-years) were included in 2012. We identified 35 082 MAE alerts (1.22% of total medication doses). The MAE alerts were significantly related to administration at non-standard time [odds ratio (OR) 1.559, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.515-1.604], emergency order (OR 1.527, 95%CI 1.464-1.594), and the number of medication doses administered (OR 0.993, 95%CI 0.992-0.993). Medication route, nurse's employment duration, and working schedule were also significantly related. The MAE alert rate was 1.22% over the 1-year observation period in the hospital examined in this study. The MAE alerts were significantly related to administration time, order type, medication route, the number of medication doses administered, nurse's employment duration, and working schedule. The real-time closed-loop medication administration system contributed to improving patient safety by preventing potential MAEs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  9. Using electronic health record alerts to provide public health situational awareness to clinicians.

    PubMed

    Lurio, Joseph; Morrison, Frances P; Pichardo, Michelle; Berg, Rachel; Buck, Michael D; Wu, Winfred; Kitson, Kwame; Mostashari, Farzad; Calman, Neil

    2010-01-01

    Alerting providers to public health situations requires timeliness and context-relevance, both lacking in current systems. Incorporating decision support tools into electronic health records may provide a way to deploy public health alerts to clinicians at the point of care. A timely process for responding to Health Alert Network messages sent by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was developed by a network of community health centers. Alerts with order sets and recommended actions were created to notify primary care providers of local disease outbreaks. The process, effect, and lessons learned from alerts for Legionella, toxogenic E coli, and measles outbreaks are described. Electronic alerts have the potential to improve management of diseases during an outbreak, including appropriate laboratory testing, management guidance, and diagnostic assistance as well as to enhance bi-directional data exchange between clinical and public health organizations.

  10. Using electronic health record alerts to provide public health situational awareness to clinicians

    PubMed Central

    Lurio, Joseph; Pichardo, Michelle; Berg, Rachel; Buck, Michael D; Wu, Winfred; Kitson, Kwame; Mostashari, Farzad; Calman, Neil

    2010-01-01

    Alerting providers to public health situations requires timeliness and context-relevance, both lacking in current systems. Incorporating decision support tools into electronic health records may provide a way to deploy public health alerts to clinicians at the point of care. A timely process for responding to Health Alert Network messages sent by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene was developed by a network of community health centers. Alerts with order sets and recommended actions were created to notify primary care providers of local disease outbreaks. The process, effect, and lessons learned from alerts for Legionella, toxogenic E coli, and measles outbreaks are described. Electronic alerts have the potential to improve management of diseases during an outbreak, including appropriate laboratory testing, management guidance, and diagnostic assistance as well as to enhance bi-directional data exchange between clinical and public health organizations. PMID:20190067

  11. Computerized Alerts Improve Outpatient Laboratory Monitoring of Transplant Patients

    PubMed Central

    Staes, Catherine J.; Evans, R. Scott; Rocha, Beatriz H.S.C.; Sorensen, John B.; Huff, Stanley M.; Arata, Joan; Narus, Scott P.

    2008-01-01

    Authors evaluated the impact of computerized alerts on the quality of outpatient laboratory monitoring for transplant patients. For 356 outpatient liver transplant patients managed at LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, this observational study compared traditional laboratory result reporting, using faxes and printouts, to computerized alerts implemented in 2004. Study alerts within the electronic health record notified clinicians of new results and overdue new orders for creatinine tests and immunosuppression drug levels. After implementing alerts, completeness of reporting increased from 66 to >99 %, as did positive predictive value that a report included new information (from 46 to >99 %). Timeliness of reporting and clinicians' responses improved after implementing alerts (p <0.001): median times for clinicians to receive and complete actions decreased to 9 hours from 33 hours using the prior traditional reporting system. Computerized alerts led to more efficient, complete, and timely management of laboratory information. PMID:18308982

  12. Vehicle proximity alert system for highway-railroad grade crossings-prototype research

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2001-04-01

    This report describes testing of prototype vehicle proximity alert system (VPAS) technologies, and presents and evaluates the results. The object was to determine the feasibility of VPAS for possible use in priority vehicles (i.e., emergency vehicles...

  13. Flight controller alertness and performance during spaceflight shiftwork operations.

    PubMed

    Kelly, S M; Rosekind, M R; Dinges, D F; Miller, D L; Gillen, K A; Gregory, K B; Aguilar, R D; Smith, R M

    1998-09-01

    Decreased alertness and performance associated with fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption are issues faced by a diverse range of shiftwork operations personnel. During Space Transportation System (STS) operations, Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) personnel provide 24-hr. coverage of critical tasks. A joint NASA Johnson Space Center and NASA Ames Research Center project was undertaken to examine these issues in flight controllers during MOD shiftwork operations. An initial operational test of procedures and measures was conducted during the STS-53 mission in December 1992. The study measures included a Background Questionnaire, a subjective daily logbook completed on a 24-hour basis (to report sleep patterns, work periods, etc.), and an 8 minute performance and mood test battery administered at the beginning, middle, and end of each shift period. Seventeen flight controllers representing the 3 Orbit shifts participated. The initial results clearly support the need for further data collection during other STS missions to document baseline levels of alertness and performance during MOD shiftwork operations. Countermeasure strategies specific to the MOD environment are being developed to minimize the adverse effects of fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption engendered by shiftwork operations. These issues are especially pertinent for the night shift operations and the acute phase advance required for the transition of day shift personnel into the night for shuttle launch. Implementation and evaluation of the countermeasure strategies to maximize alertness and performance is planned. As STS missions extend to further EDO (extended duration orbiters), and timelines and planning for 24-hour Space Station operations continue, alertness and performance issues related to sleep and circadian disruption will remain highly relevant in the MOD environment.

  14. TALON: the telescope alert operation network system: intelligent linking of distributed autonomous robotic telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    White, Robert R.; Wren, James; Davis, Heath R.; Galassi, Mark; Starr, Daniel; Vestrand, W. T.; Wozniak, P.

    2004-09-01

    The internet has brought about great change in the astronomical community, but this interconnectivity is just starting to be exploited for use in instrumentation. Utilizing the internet for communicating between distributed astronomical systems is still in its infancy, but it already shows great potential. Here we present an example of a distributed network of telescopes that performs more efficiently in synchronous operation than as individual instruments. RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) is a system of telescopes at LANL that has intelligent intercommunication, combined with wide-field optics, temporal monitoring software, and deep-field follow-up capability all working in closed-loop real-time operation. The Telescope ALert Operations Network (TALON) is a network server that allows intercommunication of alert triggers from external and internal resources and controls the distribution of these to each of the telescopes on the network. TALON is designed to grow, allowing any number of telescopes to be linked together and communicate. Coupled with an intelligent alert client at each telescope, it can analyze and respond to each distributed TALON alert based on the telescopes needs and schedule.

  15. [Health alert management and emerging risk].

    PubMed

    Pillonel, J

    2010-12-01

    Following health crisis that have occurred in the nineties (contaminated blood, mad cow, asbestos, etc.) and more recently those generated by the heat wave in 2003 or by emerging infectious pathogens (SARS, West Nile, Chikungunya, H5N1, H1N1…), a real health vigilance system has been progressively developed in France. After a brief historical overview of the health alert system, this article will give the guiding principles of its current organization in France and will present two examples of recent health alerts (Chikungunya in the Reunion Island in 2005-2006 and hepatitis A outbreak in the Côtes-d'Armor in August 2007), that have needed the implementation of preventive measures regarding the blood donor selection. These two examples have shown that the position of the alert in the French health vigilance system needs to be very close to the event. In that case, health alert is a very useful tool for decision making especially when measures have to be taken to prevent transfusion-transmitted pathogens. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  16. Generating Artificial Snort Alerts and Implementing SELK: The Snort-Elasticsearch-Logstash-Kibana Stack

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-09-01

    analyzing Snort alerts. The first section covers the Snort alert-generation program, the methodology involved in developing it, and how it accelerates...guide on system setup. The methodologies described can be translated to the setup and use of the ELK stack for storing and visualizing any data...Figures iv List of Tables iv 1. Introduction 1 2. Methodology 2 2.1. Snort Alert Generation 2 2.2 The SELK Stack 8 3. Discussion and Conclusion 11

  17. Incidence of potential drug interactions in a transplant centre setting and relevance of electronic alerts for clinical practice support.

    PubMed

    Polidori, Piera; Di Giorgio, Concetta; Provenzani, Alessio

    2012-01-01

    Adverse drug events may occur as a result of drug-drug interactions (DDIs). Information technology (IT) systems can be an important decision-making tool for healthcare workers to identify DDIs. The aim of the study is to analyse drug prescriptions in our main hospital units, in order to measure the incidence and severity of potential DDIs. The utility of clinical decision-support systems (CDSSs) and computerised physician order entry (CPOE) in term of alerts adherence was also assessed. DDIs were assessed using a Micromedex® healthcare series database. The system, adopted by the hospital, generates alerts for prescriptions with negative interactions and thanks to an 'acknowledgement function' it is possible to verify physician adherence to alerts. This function, although used previously, became mandatory from September 2010. Physician adherence to alerts and mean monthly incidence of potential DDIs in analysed units, before and after the mandatory 'acknowledgement function', were calculated. The intensive care unit (ICU) registered the greatest incidence of potential DDIs (49.0%), followed by the abdominal surgery unit and dialysis (43.4 and 42.0%, respectively). The cardiothoracic surgery unit (41.6%), step-down unit (38.3%) and post-anaesthesia care unit (30.0%) were comparable. The operating theatre and endoscopy registered the fewest potential DDIs (28.2 and 22.7%, respectively). Adherence to alerts after the 'acknowledgement function' increased by 25.0% in the ICU, 54.0% in the cardiothoracic surgery unit, 52.5% in the abdominal surgery unit, 58.0% in the stepdown unit, 67.0% in dialysis, 51.0% in endoscopy and 48.0% in the post-anaesthesia care unit. In the operating theatre, adherence to alerts decreased from 34.0 to 30.0%. The incidence of potential DDIs after mandatory use of the 'acknowledgement function' decreased slightly in endoscopy (-2.9%), the abdominal surgery unit (-2.7%), dialysis (-1.9%) and the step-down unit (-1.4%). Improving DDI alerts will improved patient safety by more appropriately alerting clinicians.

  18. Providing accurate near real-time fire alerts for Protected Areas through NASA FIRMS: Opportunities and Challenges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ilavajhala, S.; Davies, D.; Schmaltz, J. E.; Wong, M.; Murphy, K. J.

    2013-12-01

    The NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) is at the forefront of providing global near real-time (NRT) MODIS thermal anomalies / hotspot location data to end-users . FIRMS serves the data via an interactive Web GIS named Web Fire Mapper, downloads of NRT active fire, archive data downloads for MODIS hotspots dating back to 1999 and a hotspot email alert system The FIRMS Email Alerts system has been successfully alerting users of fires in their area of interest in near real-time and/or via daily and weekly email summaries, with an option to receive MODIS hotspot data as a text file (CSV) attachment. Currently, there are more than 7000 email alert subscriptions from more than 100 countries. Specifically, the email alerts system is designed to generate and send an email alert for any region or area on the globe, with a special focus on providing alerts for protected areas worldwide. For many protected areas, email alerts are particularly useful for early fire detection, monitoring on going fires, as well as allocating resources to protect wildlife and natural resources of particular value. For protected areas, FIRMS uses the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) supplied by United Nations Environment Program - World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). Maintaining the most up-to-date, accurate boundary geometry for the protected areas for the email alerts is a challenge as the WDPA is continuously updated due to changing boundaries, merging or delisting of certain protected areas. Because of this dynamic nature of the protected areas database, the FIRMS protected areas database is frequently out-of-date with the most current version of WDPA database. To maintain the most up-to-date boundary information for protected areas and to be in compliance with the WDPA terms and conditions, FIRMS needs to constantly update its database of protected areas. Currently, FIRMS strives to keep its database up to date by downloading the most recent WDPA database at regular intervals, processing it, and ingesting it into the FIRMS spatial database. However, due to the large size of database, the process to download, process and ingest the database is quite time consuming. The FIRMS team is currently working on developing a method to update the protected areas database via web at regular intervals or on-demand. Using such a solution, FIRMS will be able access the most up-to-date extents of any protected area and the corresponding spatial geometries in real time. As such, FIRMS can utilize such a service to access the protected areas and their associated geometries to keep users' protected area boundaries in sync with those of the most recent WDPA database, and thus serve a more accurate email alert to the users. Furthermore, any client accessing the WDPA protected areas database could potentially use the solution of real-time access to the protected areas database. This talk primarily focuses on the challenges for FIRMS in sending accurate email alerts for protected areas, along with the solution the FIRMS team is developing. This talk also introduces the FIRMS fire information system and its components, with a special emphasis on the FIRMS email alerts system.

  19. Wearable Smart System for Visually Impaired People

    PubMed Central

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, we present a wearable smart system to help visually impaired persons (VIPs) walk by themselves through the streets, navigate in public places, and seek assistance. The main components of the system are a microcontroller board, various sensors, cellular communication and GPS modules, and a solar panel. The system employs a set of sensors to track the path and alert the user of obstacles in front of them. The user is alerted by a sound emitted through a buzzer and by vibrations on the wrist, which is helpful when the user has hearing loss or is in a noisy environment. In addition, the system alerts people in the surroundings when the user stumbles over or requires assistance, and the alert, along with the system location, is sent as a phone message to registered mobile phones of family members and caregivers. In addition, the registered phones can be used to retrieve the system location whenever required and activate real-time tracking of the VIP. We tested the system prototype and verified its functionality and effectiveness. The proposed system has more features than other similar systems. We expect it to be a useful tool to improve the quality of life of VIPs. PMID:29533970

  20. Wearable Smart System for Visually Impaired People.

    PubMed

    Ramadhan, Ali Jasim

    2018-03-13

    In this paper, we present a wearable smart system to help visually impaired persons (VIPs) walk by themselves through the streets, navigate in public places, and seek assistance. The main components of the system are a microcontroller board, various sensors, cellular communication and GPS modules, and a solar panel. The system employs a set of sensors to track the path and alert the user of obstacles in front of them. The user is alerted by a sound emitted through a buzzer and by vibrations on the wrist, which is helpful when the user has hearing loss or is in a noisy environment. In addition, the system alerts people in the surroundings when the user stumbles over or requires assistance, and the alert, along with the system location, is sent as a phone message to registered mobile phones of family members and caregivers. In addition, the registered phones can be used to retrieve the system location whenever required and activate real-time tracking of the VIP. We tested the system prototype and verified its functionality and effectiveness. The proposed system has more features than other similar systems. We expect it to be a useful tool to improve the quality of life of VIPs.

  1. Development of the U.S. Geological Survey's PAGER system (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wald, D.J.; Earle, P.S.; Allen, T.I.; Jaiswal, K.; Porter, K.; Hearne, M.

    2008-01-01

    The Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) System plays a primary alerting role for global earthquake disasters as part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) response protocol. We provide an overview of the PAGER system, both of its current capabilities and our ongoing research and development. PAGER monitors the USGS’s near real-time U.S. and global earthquake origins and automatically identifies events that are of societal importance, well in advance of ground-truth or news accounts. Current PAGER notifications and Web pages estimate the population exposed to each seismic intensity level. In addition to being a useful indicator of potential impact, PAGER’s intensity/exposure display provides a new standard in the dissemination of rapid earthquake information. We are currently developing and testing a more comprehensive alert system that will include casualty estimates. This is motivated by the idea that an estimated range of possible number of deaths will aid in decisions regarding humanitarian response. Underlying the PAGER exposure and loss models are global earthquake ShakeMap shaking estimates, constrained as quickly as possible by finite-fault modeling and observed ground motions and intensities, when available. Loss modeling is being developed comprehensively with a suite of candidate models that range from fully empirical to largely analytical approaches. Which of these models is most appropriate for use in a particular earthquake depends on how much is known about local building stocks and their vulnerabilities. A first-order country-specific global building inventory has been developed, as have corresponding vulnerability functions. For calibrating PAGER loss models, we have systematically generated an Atlas of 5,000 ShakeMaps for significant global earthquakes during the last 36 years. For many of these, auxiliary earthquake source and shaking intensity data are also available. Refinements to the loss models are ongoing. Fundamental to such an alert system, we are also developing computational and communications infrastructure for rapid and robust operations and worldwide notifications. PAGER’s methodologies and datasets are being developed in an open environment to support other loss estimation efforts and provide avenues for outside collaboration and critique.

  2. Project ALERT: Forging New Partnerships to Improve Earth System Science Education for Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Metzger, E. P.; Ambos, E. L.; Ng, E. W.; Skiles, J.; Simila, G.; Garfield, N.

    2002-05-01

    Project ALERT (Augmented Learning Environment and Renewable Teaching) was founded in 1998, with funding from NASA and the California State University (CSU), to improve earth system science education for pre-service teachers. Project ALERT has formed linkages between ten campuses of the CSU, which prepares about 60 percent of California's teachers, and two NASA centers, Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ALERT has also fostered alliances between earth science and science education faculty. The combined expertise of Project ALERT's diverse partners has led to a wide array of activities and products, including: 1) incorporation in university classrooms of NASA-developed imagery, data, and educational resources; 2) creation and/or enhancement of several courses that bring earth systems science to pre-service teachers; 3) fellowships for CSU faculty to participate in collaborative research and education projects at the NASA Centers; 4) development of teaching modules on such varied topics as volcanoes, landslides, and paleoclimate; and 5) a central web site that highlights resources for teaching introductory Earth system science. An outgrowth of Project ALERT is the increased interest on the part of CSU earth scientists in education issues. This has catalyzed their participation in other projects, including NASA's Project NOVA, Earth System Science Education Alliance, and Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, the Digital Library for Earth System Science Education, and the California Science Project. Project ALERT has also expanded to provide professional development opportunities for in-service teachers, as exemplified by its support of the Bay Area Earth Science Institute (BAESI) at San Jose State University. Each year, BAESI offers 10-15 full-day workshops that supply teachers and teachers-to-be with a blend of science concepts and classroom activities, free instructional materials, and the opportunity to earn inexpensive university credit. These workshops have been enriched by the incorporation of earth and space science information and curricular materials from NASA. In addition, visits to Ames Research Center have given BAESI participants an opportunity to explore the Educator Resource Center, learn about NASA's programs for teachers and students, and experience presentations by NASA scientists engaged in cutting edge research about the earth system. Project ALERT demonstrates the power of a state-based partnership that unites scientists and educators with diverse perspectives and strengths in a synergistic effort to improve science education.

  3. An evidence- and risk-based approach to a harmonized laboratory alert list in Australia and New Zealand.

    PubMed

    Campbell, Craig A; Lam, Que; Horvath, Andrea R

    2018-04-19

    Individual laboratories are required to compose an alert list for identifying critical and significant risk results. The high-risk result working party of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) and the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (AACB) has developed a risk-based approach for a harmonized alert list for laboratories throughout Australia and New Zealand. The six-step process for alert threshold identification and assessment involves reviewing the literature, rating the available evidence, performing a risk analysis, assessing method transferability, considering workload implications and seeking endorsement from stakeholders. To demonstrate this approach, a worked example for deciding the upper alert threshold for potassium is described. The findings of the worked example are for infants aged 0-6 months, a recommended upper potassium alert threshold of >7.0 mmol/L in serum and >6.5 mmol/L in plasma, and for individuals older than 6 months, a threshold of >6.2 mmol/L in both serum and plasma. Limitations in defining alert thresholds include the lack of well-designed studies that measure the relationship between high-risk results and patient outcomes or the benefits of treatment to prevent harm, and the existence of a wide range of clinical practice guidelines with conflicting decision points at which treatment is required. The risk-based approach described presents a transparent, evidence- and consensus-based methodology that can be used by any laboratory when designing an alert list for local use. The RCPA-AACB harmonized alert list serves as a starter set for further local adaptation or adoption after consultation with clinical users.

  4. Real Time Alert System: A Disease Management System Leveraging Health Information Exchange

    PubMed Central

    Anand, Vibha; Sheley, Meena E.; Xu, Shawn; Downs, Stephen M.

    2012-01-01

    Background Rates of preventive and disease management services can be improved by providing automated alerts and reminders to primary care providers (PCPs) using of health information technology (HIT) tools. Methods: Using Adaptive Turnaround Documents (ATAD), an existing Health Information Exchange (HIE) infrastructure and office fax machines, we developed a Real Time Alert (RTA) system. RTA is a computerized decision support system (CDSS) that is able to deliver alerts to PCPs statewide for recommended services around the time of the patient visit. RTA is also able to capture structured clinical data from providers using existing fax technology. In this study, we evaluate RTA’s performance for alerting PCPs when their patients with asthma have an emergency room visit anywhere in the state. Results: Our results show that RTA was successfully able to deliver “just in time” patient-relevant alerts to PCPs across the state. Furthermore, of those ATADs faxed back and automatically interpreted by the RTA system, 35% reported finding the provided information helpful. The PCPs who reported finding information helpful also reported making a phone call, sending a letter or seeing the patient for follow up care. Conclusions: We have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of electronically exchanging important patient related information with the PCPs statewide. This is despite a lack of a link with their electronic health records. We have shown that using our ATAD technology, a PCP can be notified quickly of an important event such as a patient’s asthma related emergency room admission so further follow up can happen in near real time. PMID:23569648

  5. 47 CFR 10.210 - CMAS participation election procedures.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false CMAS participation election procedures. 10.210 Section 10.210 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.210 CMAS participation election procedures...

  6. Intrusion Detection System Visualization of Network Alerts

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-07-01

    Intrusion Detection System Visualization of Network Alerts Dolores M. Zage and Wayne M. Zage Ball State University Final Report July 2010...contracts. Staff Wayne Zage, Director of the S2ERC and Professor, Department of Computer Science, Ball State University Dolores Zage, Research

  7. Implementation of a computer-assisted monitoring system for the detection of adverse drug reactions in gastroenterology.

    PubMed

    Dormann, H; Criegee-Rieck, M; Neubert, A; Egger, T; Levy, M; Hahn, E G; Brune, K

    2004-02-01

    To investigate the effectiveness of a computer monitoring system that detects adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by laboratory signals in gastroenterology. A prospective, 6-month, pharmaco-epidemiological survey was carried out on a gastroenterological ward at the University Hospital Erlangen-Nuremberg. Two methods were used to identify ADRs. (i) All charts were reviewed daily by physicians and clinical pharmacists. (ii) A computer monitoring system generated a daily list of automatic laboratory signals and alerts of ADRs, including patient data and dates of events. One hundred and nine ADRs were detected in 474 admissions (377 patients). The computer monitoring system generated 4454 automatic laboratory signals from 39 819 laboratory parameters tested, and issued 2328 alerts, 914 (39%) of which were associated with ADRs; 574 (25%) were associated with ADR-positive admissions. Of all the alerts generated, signals of hepatotoxicity (1255), followed by coagulation disorders (407) and haematological toxicity (207), were prevalent. Correspondingly, the prevailing ADRs were concerned with the metabolic and hepato-gastrointestinal system (61). The sensitivity was 91%: 69 of 76 ADR-positive patients were indicated by an alert. The specificity of alerts was increased from 23% to 76% after implementation of an automatic laboratory signal trend monitoring algorithm. This study shows that a computer monitoring system is a useful tool for the systematic and automated detection of ADRs in gastroenterological patients.

  8. Aircraft Alerting Systems Standardization Study. Phase IV. Accident Implications on Systems Design.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1982-06-01

    computing and processing to assimilate and process status informa- 5 tion using...provided with capabilities in computing and processing , sensing, interfacing, and controlling and displaying. 17 o Computing and Processing - Algorithms...alerting system to perform a flight status monitor function would require additional sensinq, computing and processing , interfacing, and controlling

  9. 47 CFR 80.1115 - Transmission of a distress alert by a station not itself in distress.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... Safety System (GMDSS) Operating Procedures for Distress and Safety Communications § 80.1115 Transmission of a distress alert by a station not itself in distress. (a) A station in the mobile or mobile-satellite service which learns that a mobile unit is in distress must initiate and transmit a distress alert...

  10. 47 CFR 80.1115 - Transmission of a distress alert by a station not itself in distress.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... Safety System (GMDSS) Operating Procedures for Distress and Safety Communications § 80.1115 Transmission of a distress alert by a station not itself in distress. (a) A station in the mobile or mobile-satellite service which learns that a mobile unit is in distress must initiate and transmit a distress alert...

  11. FT4 Data Analysis Summary (SSI-ARC)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Isaacson, Douglas R.; Gong, Chester; Reardon, Scott Edward; Santiago, Confesor

    2016-01-01

    Standards for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Detect-and-Avoid (DAA) systems are currently being developed under the auspices of the RTCA Special Committee 228 (SC-228). To support the development of these standards, a series of flight tests has been conducted at NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center (NASA-AFRC). The fourth in this series of flight test activities (Flight Test 4, or simply FT4) was conducted during the Spring and Summer of 2016. FT4 supported the objectives of numerous organizations working toward UAS DAA Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) and UAS DAA Radar MOPS. The summary provided herein is limited to the objectives, analysis and conclusions of the NASA Ames Research Center (NASA-ARC) SSI team toward the refinement of UAS DAA MOPS. This document provides a high-level overview of FT4 and the SSI-ARC objectives, a summary of the data analysis methodology and recommendations for UAS DAA MOPS refinements based on the data analysis results. A total of 72 encounters were flown to support SSI-ARC objectives. Test results were generally consistent with acceptable UAS DAA system performance and will be considered in broader SC-228 requirements validation efforts. Observed alert lead times indicated acceptable UAS DAA alerting performance. Effective interoperability between the UAS DAA system and the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) was observed with one notable exception: TCAS Resolutions Advisories (RA) were observed in the absence of any DAA alert on two occasions, indicating the need for alert parameter refinement. Findings further indicated the need for continued work in the areas of DAA Well Clear Recovery logic and alert stability for Mode-C-only intruders. Finally, results demonstrated a high level of compliance with a set of evaluation criteria designed to provide anecdotal evidence of acceptable UAS DAA system performance.

  12. Event-based surveillance of food- and waterborne diseases in Europe: urgent inquiries (outbreak alerts) during 2008 to 2013.

    PubMed

    Gossner, C M; de Jong, B; Hoebe, C J; Coulombier, D

    2015-06-25

    During 2008 to 2013, 215 outbreak alerts, also known as 'urgent inquiries' (UI), for food- and waterborne diseases were launched in Europe, the majority of them (135; 63%) being related to salmonellosis. For 110 (51%) UI, a potential food vehicle of infection was identified, with vegetables being the most reported category (34;31%). A total of 28% (n = 60) of the outbreaks reported had an international dimension, involving at least two countries (mean: 4; standard deviation: 2; range:2–14). Participating countries posted 2,343 messages(initial posts and replies, excluding updates), with a median of 11 messages per urgent inquiry (range:1–28). Of 60 multicountry UI, 50 involved between two and four countries. The UI allowed early detection of multicountry outbreaks, facilitated the identification of the suspected vehicles and consequently contributed to the timely implementation of control measures. The introduction of an epidemic intelligence information system platform in 2010 has strengthened the role of the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses network in facilitating timely exchange of information between public health authorities of the participating countries.

  13. Continuous glucose monitoring: quality of hypoglycaemia detection.

    PubMed

    Zijlstra, E; Heise, T; Nosek, L; Heinemann, L; Heckermann, S

    2013-02-01

    To evaluate the accuracy of a (widely used) continuous glucose monitoring (CGM)-system and its ability to detect hypoglycaemic events. A total of 18 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus used continuous glucose monitoring (Guardian REAL-Time CGMS) during two 9-day in-house periods. A hypoglycaemic threshold alarm alerted patients to sensor readings <70 mg/dl. Continuous glucose monitoring sensor readings were compared to laboratory reference measurements taken every 4 h and in case of a hypoglycaemic alarm. A total of 2317 paired data points were evaluated. Overall, the mean absolute relative difference (MARD) was 16.7%. The percentage of data points in the clinically accurate or acceptable Clarke Error Grid zones A + B was 94.6%. In the hypoglycaemic range, accuracy worsened (MARD 38.8%) leading to a failure to detect more than half of the true hypoglycaemic events (sensitivity 37.5%). Furthermore, more than half of the alarms that warn patients for hypoglycaemia were false (false alert rate 53.3%). Above the low alert threshold, the sensor confirmed 2077 of 2182 reference values (specificity 95.2%). Patients using continuous glucose monitoring should be aware of its limitation to accurately detect hypoglycaemia. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  14. Alert Response to Motion Onset in the Retina

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Eric Y.; Marre, Olivier; Fisher, Clark; Schwartz, Greg; Levy, Joshua; da Silveira, Rava Azeredo

    2013-01-01

    Previous studies have shown that motion onset is very effective at capturing attention and is more salient than smooth motion. Here, we find that this salience ranking is present already in the firing rate of retinal ganglion cells. By stimulating the retina with a bar that appears, stays still, and then starts moving, we demonstrate that a subset of salamander retinal ganglion cells, fast OFF cells, responds significantly more strongly to motion onset than to smooth motion. We refer to this phenomenon as an alert response to motion onset. We develop a computational model that predicts the time-varying firing rate of ganglion cells responding to the appearance, onset, and smooth motion of a bar. This model, termed the adaptive cascade model, consists of a ganglion cell that receives input from a layer of bipolar cells, represented by individual rectified subunits. Additionally, both the bipolar and ganglion cells have separate contrast gain control mechanisms. This model captured the responses to our different motion stimuli over a wide range of contrasts, speeds, and locations. The alert response to motion onset, together with its computational model, introduces a new mechanism of sophisticated motion processing that occurs early in the visual system. PMID:23283327

  15. An Approach for Representing Sensor Data to Validate Alerts in Ambient Assisted Living

    PubMed Central

    Muñoz, Andrés; Serrano, Emilio; Villa, Ana; Valdés, Mercedes; Botía, Juan A.

    2012-01-01

    The mainstream of research in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is devoted to developing intelligent systems for processing the data collected through artificial sensing. Besides, there are other elements that must be considered to foster the adoption of AAL solutions in real environments. In this paper we focus on the problem of designing interfaces among caregivers and AAL systems. We present an alert management tool that supports carers in their task of validating alarms raised by the system. It generates text-based explanations—obtained through an argumentation process—of the causes leading to alarm activation along with graphical sensor information and 3D models, thus offering complementary types of information. Moreover, a guideline to use the tool when validating alerts is also provided. Finally, the functionality of the proposed tool is demonstrated through two real cases of alert. PMID:22778642

  16. Implications of resolved hypoxemia on the utility of desaturation alerts sent from an anesthesia decision support system to supervising anesthesiologists.

    PubMed

    Epstein, Richard H; Dexter, Franklin

    2012-10-01

    Hypoxemia (oxygen saturation <90%) lasting 2 or more minutes occurs in 6.8% of adult patients undergoing noncardiac anesthesia in operating room settings. Alarm management functionality can be added to decision support systems (DSS) to send text alerts about vital signs outside specified thresholds, using data in anesthesia information management systems. We considered enhancing our DSS to send hypoxemia alerts to the text pagers of supervising anesthesiologists. As part of a voluntary application for an investigative device exemption from our IRB to implement such functionality, we evaluated the maximum potential utility of such an alert system. Pulse oximetry values (Spo(2)) were extracted from our anesthesia information management systems for all cases performed in our main operating rooms and ambulatory surgical center between September 1, 2011, and February 4, 2012 (n = 16,870). Hypoxemic episodes (Spo(2) < 90%) were characterized as either (a) lasting one or more minutes or (b) lasting 2 or more minutes. A single simulated "alert" was modeled as having been sent at the timestamp of the first (a) or the second (b) hypoxemic value. The hypoxemic episode was considered resolved at 1, 3, or 5 minutes after the time of the alert if the Spo(2) value was no longer below the 90% threshold. Two-sided 99% conservative confidence limits were calculated for the percentage of unresolved alerts at the 3 evaluation intervals and compared with 70%, the lower limit of an acceptable true alarm rate for clinical utility. There was at least 1 hypoxemic episode lasting 1 minute or longer in 23% of cases, and at least 1 episode lasting 2 minutes or longer in 8% of cases. Only 7% (99% confidence interval [CI] 6% to 8%) of the 1-minute hypoxemic episodes were unresolved after 3 minutes, and only 8% (99% CI 6%to 9%) of 2-minute episodes after 5 minutes (both P < 10(-6) in comparison with 70% minimum reliability rate). Low utility should be expected for a DSS sending hypoxemia alerts to supervising anesthesiologists, because nearly all hypoxemic episodes will have been resolved before arrival of the anesthesiologist in the operating room. These results suggest that the principal research focus should be on developing more sophisticated alerts and processes within rooms for the anesthesia care provider to initiate treatment promptly, to interpret or correct artifacts, and to make it easier to call for assistance via a rapid communication system.

  17. A Review of Assistive Listening Device and Digital Wireless Technology for Hearing Instruments

    PubMed Central

    Kim, Chun Hyeok

    2014-01-01

    Assistive listening devices (ALDs) refer to various types of amplification equipment designed to improve the communication of individuals with hard of hearing to enhance the accessibility to speech signal when individual hearing instruments are not sufficient. There are many types of ALDs to overcome a triangle of speech to noise ratio (SNR) problems, noise, distance, and reverberation. ALDs vary in their internal electronic mechanisms ranging from simple hard-wire microphone-amplifier units to more sophisticated broadcasting systems. They usually use microphones to capture an audio source and broadcast it wirelessly over a frequency modulation (FM), infra-red, induction loop, or other transmission techniques. The seven types of ALDs are introduced including hardwire devices, FM sound system, infra-red sound system, induction loop system, telephone listening devices, television, and alert/alarm system. Further development of digital wireless technology in hearing instruments will make possible direct communication with ALDs without any accessories in the near future. There are two technology solutions for digital wireless hearing instruments improving SNR and convenience. One is near-field magnetic induction combined with Bluetooth radio frequency (RF) transmission or proprietary RF transmission and the other is proprietary RF transmission alone. Recently launched digital wireless hearing aid applying this new technology can communicate from the hearing instrument to personal computer, phones, Wi-Fi, alert systems, and ALDs via iPhone, iPad, and iPod. However, it comes with its own iOS application offering a range of features but there is no option for Android users as of this moment. PMID:25566400

  18. A review of assistive listening device and digital wireless technology for hearing instruments.

    PubMed

    Kim, Jin Sook; Kim, Chun Hyeok

    2014-12-01

    Assistive listening devices (ALDs) refer to various types of amplification equipment designed to improve the communication of individuals with hard of hearing to enhance the accessibility to speech signal when individual hearing instruments are not sufficient. There are many types of ALDs to overcome a triangle of speech to noise ratio (SNR) problems, noise, distance, and reverberation. ALDs vary in their internal electronic mechanisms ranging from simple hard-wire microphone-amplifier units to more sophisticated broadcasting systems. They usually use microphones to capture an audio source and broadcast it wirelessly over a frequency modulation (FM), infra-red, induction loop, or other transmission techniques. The seven types of ALDs are introduced including hardwire devices, FM sound system, infra-red sound system, induction loop system, telephone listening devices, television, and alert/alarm system. Further development of digital wireless technology in hearing instruments will make possible direct communication with ALDs without any accessories in the near future. There are two technology solutions for digital wireless hearing instruments improving SNR and convenience. One is near-field magnetic induction combined with Bluetooth radio frequency (RF) transmission or proprietary RF transmission and the other is proprietary RF transmission alone. Recently launched digital wireless hearing aid applying this new technology can communicate from the hearing instrument to personal computer, phones, Wi-Fi, alert systems, and ALDs via iPhone, iPad, and iPod. However, it comes with its own iOS application offering a range of features but there is no option for Android users as of this moment.

  19. A Comparison of Blue Light and Caffeine Effects on Cognitive Function and Alertness in Humans

    PubMed Central

    Beaven, C. Martyn; Ekström, Johan

    2013-01-01

    The alerting effects of both caffeine and short wavelength (blue) light have been consistently reported. The ability of blue light to enhance alertness and cognitive function via non-image forming neuropathways have been suggested as a non-pharmacological countermeasure for drowsiness across a range of occupational settings. Here we compare and contrast the alerting and psychomotor effects of 240 mg of caffeine and a 1-h dose of ~40 lx blue light in a non-athletic population. Twenty-one healthy subjects performed a computer-based psychomotor vigilance test before and after each of four randomly assigned trial conditions performed on different days: white light/placebo; white light/240 mg caffeine; blue light/placebo; blue light/240 mg caffeine. The Karolinska Sleepiness Scale was used to assess subjective measures of alertness. Both the caffeine only and blue light only conditions enhanced accuracy in a visual reaction test requiring a decision and an additive effect was observed with respect to the fastest reaction times. However, in a test of executive function, where a distraction was included, caffeine exerted a negative effect on accuracy. Furthermore, the blue light only condition consistently outperformed caffeine when both congruent and incongruent distractions were presented. The visual reactions in the absence of a decision or distraction were also enhanced in the blue light only condition and this effect was most prominent in the blue-eyed participants. Overall, blue light and caffeine demonstrated distinct effects on aspects of psychomotor function and have the potential to positively influence a range of settings where cognitive function and alertness are important. Specifically, despite the widespread use of caffeine in competitive sporting environments, the possible impact of blue light has received no research attention. PMID:24282477

  20. Regulatory alerts for dietary supplements in Canada and the United States, 2005-13.

    PubMed

    Abe, Andrew M; Hein, Darren J; Gregory, Philip J

    2015-06-01

    Dietary supplement regulatory alerts published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada were evaluated and characterized. FDA MedWatch and Health Canada websites were reviewed to identify regulatory alerts regarding dietary supplements from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2013. Alerts were analyzed to identify product characteristics that may be predictive of product quality issues and potential patient harm. A total of 1560 dietary supplement-related regulatory alerts were identified. Of those, 1287 (83%) were identified through Health Canada, and 273 (18%) were identified through FDA MedWatch. The country of origin of dietary supplements associated with regulatory alerts was not provided in most regulatory alerts; however, when their origin was provided, the United States was the most common. Dietary supplements intended for sexual enhancement were the subject of 33% of all regulatory alerts identified. Products purchased online were the most likely to be associated with a regulatory alert. Dietary supplements intended for sexual enhancement, weight loss, and bodybuilding or athletic performance appeared to pose the greatest risk for patient harm due to product contamination with a pharmaceutical such as a phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor or sibutramine. Analysis of Canadian and U.S. regulatory alerts concerning dietary supplements revealed that more than 80% of the composite alerts were issued by Health Canada. The most common intended uses of supplements for which alerts were issued were sexual enhancement, weight loss, and bodybuilding or athletic performance. The most common reason for alerts was the presence of a pharmaceutical contaminant. Copyright © 2015 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. 47 CFR 10.270 - Subscribers' right to terminate subscription.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Subscribers' right to terminate subscription. 10.270 Section 10.270 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.270 Subscribers' right to...

  2. 47 CFR 10.260 - Timing of subscriber notification.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Timing of subscriber notification. 10.260 Section 10.260 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.260 Timing of subscriber notification. A CMS...

  3. Evaluation of BacT/Alert 3D Liquid Culture System for Recovery of Mycobacteria from Clinical Specimens Using Sodium Dodecyl (Lauryl) Sulfate-NaOH Decontamination

    PubMed Central

    Carricajo, A.; Fonsale, N.; Vautrin, A. C.; Aubert, G.

    2001-01-01

    A total of 52 mycobacterial isolates were recovered from 1,197 clinical specimens decontaminated by a sodium dodecyl (lauryl) sulfate (SDS)-NaOH protocol. Of these, 94% were recovered with the BacT/Alert 3D system (Organon Teknika, Durham, N.C.) and 79% were recovered on Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium. Mean times to detection of organisms of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (n = 47) were 22.8 days with LJ medium and 16.2 days with the system. The BacT/Alert 3D system is a rapid and efficient detection system which can be used with an SDS-NaOH decontamination procedure. PMID:11574623

  4. ElarmS Earthquake Early Warning System 2016 Performance and New Research

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chung, A. I.; Allen, R. M.; Hellweg, M.; Henson, I. H.; Neuhauser, D. S.

    2016-12-01

    The ElarmS earthquake early warning system has been detecting earthquakes throughout California since 2007. It is one of the algorithms that contributes to the West Coast ShakeAlert, a prototype earthquake early warning system being developed for the US West Coast. ElarmS is also running in the Pacific Northwest, and in Israel, Chile, Turkey, and Peru in test mode. We summarize the performance of the ElarmS system over the past year and review some of the more problematic events that the system has encountered. During the first half of 2016 (2016-01-01 through 2016-07-21), ElarmS successfully alerted on all events with ANSS catalog magnitudes M>3 in the Los Angeles area. The mean alert time for these 9 events was just 4.84 seconds. In the San Francisco Bay Area, ElarmS detected 26 events with ANSS catalog magnitudes M>3. The alert times for these events is 9.12 seconds. The alert times are longer in the Bay Area than in the Los Angeles area due to the sparser network of stations in the Bay Area. 7 Bay Area events were not detected by ElarmS. These events occurred in areas where there is less dense station coverage. In addition, ElarmS sent alerts for 13 of the 16 moderately-sized (ANSS catalog magnitudes M>4) events that occurred throughout the state of California. One of those missed events was a M4.5 that occurred far offshore in the northernmost part of the state. The other two missed events occurred inland in regions with sparse station coverage. Over the past year, we have worked towards the implementation of a new filterbank teleseismic filter algorithm, which we will discuss. Other than teleseismic events, a significant cause of false alerts and severely mislocated events is spurious triggers being associated with triggers from a real earthquake. Here, we address new approaches to filtering out problematic triggers.

  5. Quality-improvement analytics for intravenous infusion pumps.

    PubMed

    Skledar, Susan J; Niccolai, Cynthia S; Schilling, Dennis; Costello, Susan; Mininni, Nicolette; Ervin, Kelly; Urban, Alana

    2013-04-15

    The implementation of a smart-pump continuous quality-improvement (CQI) program across a large health system is described, with an emphasis on key metrics for outcomes analyses and program refinement. Three years ago, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center health system launched a CQI initiative to help ensure the safe use of 6000 smart pumps in its 14 inpatient facilities. A centralized team led by pharmacists is responsible for the retrieval and interpretation of smart-pump data, which is continuously transmitted to a main server. CQI findings are regularly posted on the health system's interdisciplinary intranet. Monitored metrics include rates of compliance with preprogrammed infusion limits, the top 20 drugs involved in alerts, drugs associated with alert-override rates of ≥90%, numbers of alerts by infusion type, nurse responses to alerts, and alert rate per drug library update. Based on the collected CQI data and site-specific requests, four systemwide updates of the smart-pump drug library were performed during the first 18 months of the program, reducing "nuisance alerts" by about 10% per update cycle and enabling targeted interventions to reduce rapid-infusion errors, other adverse drug events (ADEs), and pump-programming workarounds. Over one 12-month period, bedside alerts prompted nurses to reprogram or cancel continuous infusions an average of 400 times per month, potentially averting i.v. medication ADEs. A smart-pump CQI program is an effective tool for enhancing the safety of i.v. medication administration. The ongoing refinement of the drug library through the development and implementation of key interventions promotes the growth and sustainability of the smart-pump initiative systemwide.

  6. Feature-based alert correlation in security systems using self organizing maps

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, Munesh; Siddique, Shoaib; Noor, Humera

    2009-04-01

    The security of the networks has been an important concern for any organization. This is especially important for the defense sector as to get unauthorized access to the sensitive information of an organization has been the prime desire for cyber criminals. Many network security techniques like Firewall, VPN Concentrator etc. are deployed at the perimeter of network to deal with attack(s) that occur(s) from exterior of network. But any vulnerability that causes to penetrate the network's perimeter of defense, can exploit the entire network. To deal with such vulnerabilities a system has been evolved with the purpose of generating an alert for any malicious activity triggered against the network and its resources, termed as Intrusion Detection System (IDS). The traditional IDS have still some deficiencies like generating large number of alerts, containing both true and false one etc. By automatically classifying (correlating) various alerts, the high-level analysis of the security status of network can be identified and the job of network security administrator becomes much easier. In this paper we propose to utilize Self Organizing Maps (SOM); an Artificial Neural Network for correlating large amount of logged intrusion alerts based on generic features such as Source/Destination IP Addresses, Port No, Signature ID etc. The different ways in which alerts can be correlated by Artificial Intelligence techniques are also discussed. . We've shown that the strategy described in the paper improves the efficiency of IDS by better correlating the alerts, leading to reduced false positives and increased competence of network administrator.

  7. Conditional Outlier Detection for Clinical Alerting

    PubMed Central

    Hauskrecht, Milos; Valko, Michal; Batal, Iyad; Clermont, Gilles; Visweswaran, Shyam; Cooper, Gregory F.

    2010-01-01

    We develop and evaluate a data-driven approach for detecting unusual (anomalous) patient-management actions using past patient cases stored in an electronic health record (EHR) system. Our hypothesis is that patient-management actions that are unusual with respect to past patients may be due to a potential error and that it is worthwhile to raise an alert if such a condition is encountered. We evaluate this hypothesis using data obtained from the electronic health records of 4,486 post-cardiac surgical patients. We base the evaluation on the opinions of a panel of experts. The results support that anomaly-based alerting can have reasonably low false alert rates and that stronger anomalies are correlated with higher alert rates. PMID:21346986

  8. Conditional outlier detection for clinical alerting.

    PubMed

    Hauskrecht, Milos; Valko, Michal; Batal, Iyad; Clermont, Gilles; Visweswaran, Shyam; Cooper, Gregory F

    2010-11-13

    We develop and evaluate a data-driven approach for detecting unusual (anomalous) patient-management actions using past patient cases stored in an electronic health record (EHR) system. Our hypothesis is that patient-management actions that are unusual with respect to past patients may be due to a potential error and that it is worthwhile to raise an alert if such a condition is encountered. We evaluate this hypothesis using data obtained from the electronic health records of 4,486 post-cardiac surgical patients. We base the evaluation on the opinions of a panel of experts. The results support that anomaly-based alerting can have reasonably low false alert rates and that stronger anomalies are correlated with higher alert rates.

  9. The Impact of Alerting Designs on Air Traffic Controller's Eye Movement Patterns and Situation Awareness.

    PubMed

    Kearney, Peter; Li, Wen-Chin; Yu, Chung-San; Braithwaite, Graham

    2018-06-26

    This research investigated controller' situation awareness by comparing COOPANS's acoustic alerts with newly designed semantic alerts. The results demonstrate that ATCOs' visual scan patterns had significant differences between acoustic and semantic designs. ATCOs established different eye movement patterns on fixations number, fixation duration and saccade velocity. Effective decision support systems require human-centred design with effective stimuli to direct ATCO's attention to critical events. It is necessary to provide ATCOs with specific alerting information to reflect the nature of of the critical situation in order to minimize the side-effects of startle and inattentional deafness. Consequently, the design of a semantic alert can significantly reduce ATCOs' response time, therefore providing valuable extra time in a time-limited situation to formulate and execute resolution strategies in critical air safety events. The findings of this research indicate that the context-specified design of semantic alerts could improve ATCO's situational awareness and significantly reduce response time in the event of Short Term Conflict Alert activation which alerts to two aircraft having less than the required lateral or vertical separation.

  10. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration in the National Airspace System (NAS) Project: Advanced Collision Avoidance System for UAS (ACAS Xu) Interoperability White Paper Presentation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fern, Lisa

    2017-01-01

    The Phase 1 DAA Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) provided requirements for two classes of DAA equipment: equipment Class 1 contains the basic DAA equipment required to assist a pilot in remaining well clear, while equipment Class 2 integrates the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance (TCAS) II system. Thus, the Class 1 system provides RWC functionality only, while the Class 2 system is intended to provide both RWC and Collision Avoidance (CA) functionality, in compliance with the Minimum Aviation System Performance (MASPS) for the Interoperability of Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems. The FAAs TCAS Program Office is currently developing Airborne Collision Avoidance System X (ACAS X) to support the objectives of the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation System Program (NextGen). ACAS X has a suite of variants with a common underlying design that are intended to be optimized for their intended airframes and operations. ACAS Xu being is designed for UAS and allows for new surveillance technologies and tailored logic for platforms with different performance characteristics. In addition to Collision Avoidance (CA) alerting and guidance, ACAS Xu is being tuned to provide RWC alerting and guidance in compliance with the SC 228 DAA MOPS. With a single logic performing both RWC and CA functions, ACAS Xu will provide industry with an integrated DAA solution that addresses many of the interoperability shortcomings of Phase I systems. While the MOPS for ACAS Xu will specify an integrated DAA system, it will need to show compliance with the RWC alerting thresholds and alerting requirements defined in the DAA Phase 2 MOPS. Further, some functional components of the ACAS Xu system such as the remote pilots displayed guidance might be mostly references to the corresponding requirements in the DAA MOPS. To provide a seamless, integrated, RWC-CA system to assist the pilot in remaining well clear and avoiding collisions, several issues need to be addressed within the Phase 2 SC-228 DAA efforts. Interoperability of the RWC and CA alerting and guidance, and ensuring pilot comprehension, compliance and performance, will be a primary research area.

  11. 78 FR 44931 - Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-07-25

    ... disseminate emergency alerts and notification information to DLA installation personnel. DATES: This proposed... effectively disseminate emergency alerts and notification information to DLA installation personnel. Routine...

  12. The Simplified Aircraft-Based Paired Approach With the ALAS Alerting Algorithm

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Perry, Raleigh B.; Madden, Michael M.; Torres-Pomales, Wilfredo; Butler, Ricky W.

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents the results of an investigation of a proposed concept for closely spaced parallel runways called the Simplified Aircraft-based Paired Approach (SAPA). This procedure depends upon a new alerting algorithm called the Adjacent Landing Alerting System (ALAS). This study used both low fidelity and high fidelity simulations to validate the SAPA procedure and test the performance of the new alerting algorithm. The low fidelity simulation enabled a determination of minimum approach distance for the worst case over millions of scenarios. The high fidelity simulation enabled an accurate determination of timings and minimum approach distance in the presence of realistic trajectories, communication latencies, and total system error for 108 test cases. The SAPA procedure and the ALAS alerting algorithm were applied to the 750-ft parallel spacing (e.g., SFO 28L/28R) approach problem. With the SAPA procedure as defined in this paper, this study concludes that a 750-ft application does not appear to be feasible, but preliminary results for 1000-ft parallel runways look promising.

  13. 76 FR 24875 - Notice of Public Information Collection(s) Being Submitted for Review and Approval to the Office...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-05-03

    ...: 3060-1113. Title: Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS). Form No.: N/A. Type of Review: Revision of a..., Alert and Response Network (``WARN'') Act, including inter alia, a requirement that within 30 days of... the Commission indicating whether or not it intends to transmit emergency alerts as part of the...

  14. Case-Based Multi-Sensor Intrusion Detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schwartz, Daniel G.; Long, Jidong

    2009-08-01

    Multi-sensor intrusion detection systems (IDSs) combine the alerts raised by individual IDSs and possibly other kinds of devices such as firewalls and antivirus software. A critical issue in building a multi-sensor IDS is alert-correlation, i.e., determining which alerts are caused by the same attack. This paper explores a novel approach to alert correlation using case-based reasoning (CBR). Each case in the CBR system's library contains a pattern of alerts raised by some known attack type, together with the identity of the attack. Then during run time, the alert streams gleaned from the sensors are compared with the patterns in the cases, and a match indicates that the attack described by that case has occurred. For this purpose the design of a fast and accurate matching algorithm is imperative. Two such algorithms were explored: (i) the well-known Hungarian algorithm, and (ii) an order-preserving matching of our own device. Tests were conducted using the DARPA Grand Challenge Problem attack simulator. These showed that the both matching algorithms are effective in detecting attacks; but the Hungarian algorithm is inefficient; whereas the order-preserving one is very efficient, in fact runs in linear time.

  15. 21 CFR Appendix E to Subpart A of... - Elements To Be Considered in Developing a Two-Way Alert System

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... hazards evaluation and classification —Language of communication and transmission of information 2. Crisis Management System —Crisis analysis and communication mechanisms —Establishment of contact points —Reporting... Considered in Developing a Two-Way Alert System 1. Documentation —Definition of a crisis/emergency and under...

  16. Impact of real-time electronic alerting of acute kidney injury on therapeutic intervention and progression of RIFLE class.

    PubMed

    Colpaert, Kirsten; Hoste, Eric A; Steurbaut, Kristof; Benoit, Dominique; Van Hoecke, Sofie; De Turck, Filip; Decruyenaere, Johan

    2012-04-01

    To evaluate whether a real-time electronic alert system or "AKI sniffer," which is based on the RIFLE classification criteria (Risk, Injury and Failure), would have an impact on therapeutic interventions and acute kidney injury progression. Prospective intervention study. Surgical and medical intensive care unit in a tertiary care hospital. A total of 951 patients having in total 1,079 admission episodes were admitted during the study period (prealert control group: 227, alert group: 616, and postalert control group: 236). Three study phases were compared: A 1.5-month prealert control phase in which physicians were blinded for the acute kidney injury sniffer and a 3-month intervention phase with real-time alerting of worsening RIFLE class through the Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology telephone system followed by a second 1.5-month postalert control phase. A total of 2593 acute kidney injury alerts were recorded with a balanced distribution over all study phases. Most acute kidney injury alerts were RIFLE class risk (59.8%) followed by RIFLE class injury (34.1%) and failure (6.1%). A higher percentage of patients in the alert group received therapeutic intervention within 60 mins after the acute kidney injury alert (28.7% in alert group vs. 7.9% and 10.4% in the pre- and postalert control groups, respectively, p μ .001). In the alert group, more patients received fluid therapy (23.0% vs. 4.9% and 9.2%, p μ .01), diuretics (4.2% vs. 2.6% and 0.8%, p μ .001), or vasopressors (3.9% vs. 1.1% and 0.8%, p μ .001). Furthermore, these patients had a shorter time to intervention (p μ .001). A higher proportion of patients in the alert group showed return to a baseline kidney function within 8 hrs after an acute kidney injury alert "from normal to risk" compared with patients in the control group (p = .048). The real-time alerting of every worsening RIFLE class by the acute kidney injury sniffer increased the number and timeliness of early therapeutic interventions. The borderline significant improvement of short-term renal outcome in the RIFLE class risk patients needs to be confirmed in a large multicenter trial.

  17. Sounding the Alert: Designing an Effective Voice for Earthquake Early Warning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Burkett, E. R.; Given, D. D.

    2015-12-01

    The USGS is working with partners to develop the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system (http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3083/) to protect life and property along the U.S. West Coast, where the highest national seismic hazard is concentrated. EEW sends an alert that shaking from an earthquake is on its way (in seconds to tens of seconds) to allow recipients or automated systems to take appropriate actions at their location to protect themselves and/or sensitive equipment. ShakeAlert is transitioning toward a production prototype phase in which test users might begin testing applications of the technology. While a subset of uses will be automated (e.g., opening fire house doors), other applications will alert individuals by radio or cellphone notifications and require behavioral decisions to protect themselves (e.g., "Drop, Cover, Hold On"). The project needs to select and move forward with a consistent alert sound to be widely and quickly recognized as an earthquake alert. In this study we combine EEW science and capabilities with an understanding of human behavior from the social and psychological sciences to provide insight toward the design of effective sounds to help best motivate proper action by alert recipients. We present a review of existing research and literature, compiled as considerations and recommendations for alert sound characteristics optimized for EEW. We do not yet address wording of an audible message about the earthquake (e.g., intensity and timing until arrival of shaking or possible actions), although it will be a future component to accompany the sound. We consider pitch(es), loudness, rhythm, tempo, duration, and harmony. Important behavioral responses to sound to take into account include that people respond to discordant sounds with anxiety, can be calmed by harmony and softness, and are innately alerted by loud and abrupt sounds, although levels high enough to be auditory stressors can negatively impact human judgment.

  18. TALON - The Telescope Alert Operation Network System : intelligent linking of distributed autonomous robotic telescopes

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    White, R. R.; Wren, J.; Davis, H. R.

    2004-01-01

    The internet has brought about great change in the astronomical community, but this interconnectivity is just starting to be exploited for use in instrumentation. Utilizing the internet for communicating between distributed astronomical systems is still in its infancy, but it already shows great potential. Here we present an example of a distributed network of telescopes that performs more efficienfiy in synchronous operation than as individual instruments. RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) is a system of telescopes at LANL that has intelligent intercommunication, combined with wide-field optics, temporal monitoring software, and deep-field follow-up capability all working in closed-loop real-time operation.more » The Telescope ALert Operations Network (TALON) is a network server that allows intercommunication of alert triggers from external and internal resources and controls the distribution of these to each of the telescopes on the network. TALON is designed to grow, allowing any number of telescopes to be linked together and communicate. Coupled with an intelligent alert client at each telescope, it can analyze and respond to each distributed TALON alert based on the telescopes needs and schedule.« less

  19. A low-cost wireless system for autonomous generation of road safety alerts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Banks, B.; Harms, T.; Sedigh Sarvestani, S.; Bastianini, F.

    2009-03-01

    This paper describes an autonomous wireless system that generates road safety alerts, in the form of SMS and email messages, and sends them to motorists subscribed to the service. Drivers who regularly traverse a particular route are the main beneficiaries of the proposed system, which is intended for sparsely populated rural areas, where information available to drivers about road safety, especially bridge conditions, is very limited. At the heart of this system is the SmartBrick, a wireless system for remote structural health monitoring that has been presented in our previous work. Sensors on the SmartBrick network regularly collect data on water level, temperature, strain, and other parameters important to safety of a bridge. This information is stored on the device, and reported to a remote server over the GSM cellular infrastructure. The system generates alerts indicating hazardous road conditions when the data exceeds thresholds that can be remotely changed. The remote server and any number of designated authorities can be notified by email, FTP, and SMS. Drivers can view road conditions and subscribe to SMS and/or email alerts through a web page. The subscription-only form of alert generation has been deliberately selected to mitigate privacy concerns. The proposed system can significantly increase the safety of travel through rural areas. Real-time availability of information to transportation authorities and law enforcement officials facilitates early or proactive reaction to road hazards. Direct notification of drivers further increases the utility of the system in increasing the safety of the traveling public.

  20. 47 CFR 10.230 - New CMS providers participation in CMAS.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false New CMS providers participation in CMAS. 10.230 Section 10.230 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.230 New CMS providers participation in CMAS...

  1. 47 CFR 10.250 - Notification to existing subscribers of non-participation in CMAS.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Notification to existing subscribers of non-participation in CMAS. 10.250 Section 10.250 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.250...

  2. 47 CFR 10.220 - Withdrawal of election to participate in CMAS.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    .... 10.220 Section 10.220 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.220 Withdrawal of election... subscribers as well as the Federal Communications Commission at least sixty (60) days prior to the withdrawal...

  3. 47 CFR 10.280 - Subscribers' right to opt out of CMAS notifications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Subscribers' right to opt out of CMAS notifications. 10.280 Section 10.280 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.280 Subscribers' right...

  4. For Emergency Alerts, Some Colleges Try Sirens

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Young, Jeffrey R.

    2008-01-01

    Colleges and universities, ever more mindful of campus safety, are installing outdoor sirens. The systems can blast spoken messages or tone alerts of danger--and one of the preset messages on many of the public-address systems warns: "There is a shooter on campus. Seek shelter immediately." As college officials reviewed their…

  5. Climatological Study to Determine the Impact of Icing on the Low Level Windshear Alert System. Volume II. Statistics.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1989-01-01

    The climatological study was performed to determine the impact of icing on the performance of the Low Level Winshear Alert System (LLWAS). : This report Presents the Icing Statisctical profile in the form of data tables and histograms of 106 LLWAS si...

  6. Climatological Study to Determine the Impact of Icing on the Low Level Windshear Alert System. Volume I. Analysis.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1989-09-01

    The climatological study was performed to determine the impact of icing on the performance of Low Level Windshear Alert System (LLWAS). : This report presents the icing statistical profile in the form of data tables and histograms of 106 LLWAS sites....

  7. Validation of the CME Geomagnetic forecast alerts under COMESEP alert system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dumbovic, Mateja; Srivastava, Nandita; Khodia, Yamini; Vršnak, Bojan; Devos, Andy; Rodriguez, Luciano

    2017-04-01

    An automated space weather alert system has been developed under the EU FP7 project COMESEP (COronal Mass Ejections and Solar Energetic Particles: http://comesep.aeronomy.be) to forecast solar energetic particles (SEP) and coronal mass ejection (CME) risk levels at Earth. COMESEP alert system uses automated detection tool CACTus to detect potentially threatening CMEs, drag-based model (DBM) to predict their arrival and CME geo-effectiveness tool (CGFT) to predict their geomagnetic impact. Whenever CACTus detects a halo or partial halo CME and issues an alert, DBM calculates its arrival time at Earth and CGFT calculates its geomagnetic risk level. Geomagnetic risk level is calculated based on an estimation of the CME arrival probability and its likely geo-effectiveness, as well as an estimate of the geomagnetic-storm duration. We present the evaluation of the CME risk level forecast with COMESEP alert system based on a study of geo-effective CMEs observed during 2014. The validation of the forecast tool is done by comparing the forecasts with observations. In addition, we test the success rate of the automatic forecasts (without human intervention) against the forecasts with human intervention using advanced versions of DBM and CGFT (self standing tools available at Hvar Observatory website: http://oh.geof.unizg.hr). The results implicate that the success rate of the forecast is higher with human intervention and using more advanced tools. This work has received funding from the European Commission FP7 Project COMESEP (263252). We acknowledge the support of Croatian Science Foundation under the project 6212 „Solar and Stellar Variability".

  8. Development of a standardized, citywide process for managing smart-pump drug libraries.

    PubMed

    Walroth, Todd A; Smallwood, Shannon; Arthur, Karen; Vance, Betsy; Washington, Alana; Staublin, Therese; Haslar, Tammy; Reddan, Jennifer G; Fuller, James

    2018-06-15

    Development and implementation of an interprofessional consensus-driven process for review and optimization of smart-pump drug libraries and dosing limits are described. The Indianapolis Coalition for Patient Safety (ICPS), which represents 6 Indianapolis-area health systems, identified an opportunity to reduce clinically insignificant alerts that smart infusion pumps present to end users. Through a consensus-driven process, ICPS aimed to identify best practices to implement at individual hospitals in order to establish specific action items for smart-pump drug library optimization. A work group of pharmacists, nurses, and industrial engineers met to evaluate variability within and lack of scrutiny of smart-pump drug libraries. The work group used Lean Six Sigma methodologies to generate a list of key needs and barriers to be addressed in process standardization. The group reviewed targets for smart-pump drug library optimization, including dosing limits, types of alerts reviewed, policies, and safety best practices. The work group also analyzed existing processes at each site to develop a final consensus statement outlining a model process for reviewing alerts and managing smart-pump data. Analysis of the total number of alerts per device across ICPS-affiliated health systems over a 4-year period indicated a 50% decrease (from 7.2 to 3.6 alerts per device per month) after implementation of the model by ICPS member organizations. Through implementation of a standardized, consensus-driven process for smart-pump drug library optimization, ICPS member health systems reduced clinically insignificant smart-pump alerts. Copyright © 2018 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Electronic Health Record Alert-Related Workload as a Predictor of Burnout in Primary Care Providers.

    PubMed

    Gregory, Megan E; Russo, Elise; Singh, Hardeep

    2017-07-05

    Electronic health records (EHRs) have been shown to increase physician workload. One EHR feature that contributes to increased workload is asynchronous alerts (also known as inbox notifications) related to test results, referral responses, medication refill requests, and messages from physicians and other health care professionals. This alert-related workload results in negative cognitive outcomes, but its effect on affective outcomes, such as burnout, has been understudied. To examine EHR alert-related workload (both objective and subjective) as a predictor of burnout in primary care providers (PCPs), in order to ultimately inform interventions aimed at reducing burnout due to alert workload. A cross-sectional questionnaire and focus group of 16 PCPs at a large medical center in the southern United States. Subjective, but not objective, alert workload was related to two of the three dimensions of burnout, including physical fatigue (p = 0.02) and cognitive weariness (p = 0.04), when controlling for organizational tenure. To reduce alert workload and subsequent burnout, participants indicated a desire to have protected time for alert management, fewer unnecessary alerts, and improvements to the EHR system. Burnout associated with alert workload may be in part due to subjective differences at an individual level, and not solely a function of the objective work environment. This suggests the need for both individual and organizational-level interventions to improve alert workload and subsequent burnout. Additional research should confirm these findings in larger, more representative samples.

  10. Development and preliminary evidence for the validity of an instrument assessing implementation of human-factors principles in medication-related decision-support systems—I-MeDeSA

    PubMed Central

    Zachariah, Marianne; Seidling, Hanna M; Neri, Pamela M; Cresswell, Kathrin M; Duke, Jon; Bloomrosen, Meryl; Volk, Lynn A; Bates, David W

    2011-01-01

    Background Medication-related decision support can reduce the frequency of preventable adverse drug events. However, the design of current medication alerts often results in alert fatigue and high over-ride rates, thus reducing any potential benefits. Methods The authors previously reviewed human-factors principles for relevance to medication-related decision support alerts. In this study, instrument items were developed for assessing the appropriate implementation of these human-factors principles in drug–drug interaction (DDI) alerts. User feedback regarding nine electronic medical records was considered during the development process. Content validity, construct validity through correlation analysis, and inter-rater reliability were assessed. Results The final version of the instrument included 26 items associated with nine human-factors principles. Content validation on three systems resulted in the addition of one principle (Corrective Actions) to the instrument and the elimination of eight items. Additionally, the wording of eight items was altered. Correlation analysis suggests a direct relationship between system age and performance of DDI alerts (p=0.0016). Inter-rater reliability indicated substantial agreement between raters (κ=0.764). Conclusion The authors developed and gathered preliminary evidence for the validity of an instrument that measures the appropriate use of human-factors principles in the design and display of DDI alerts. Designers of DDI alerts may use the instrument to improve usability and increase user acceptance of medication alerts, and organizations selecting an electronic medical record may find the instrument helpful in meeting their clinicians' usability needs. PMID:21946241

  11. Rapid deployable global sensing hazard alert system

    DOEpatents

    Cordaro, Joseph V; Tibrea, Steven L; Shull, Davis J; Coleman, Jerry T; Shuler, James M

    2015-04-28

    A rapid deployable global sensing hazard alert system and associated methods of operation are provided. An exemplary system includes a central command, a wireless backhaul network, and a remote monitoring unit. The remote monitoring unit can include a positioning system configured to determine a position of the remote monitoring unit based on one or more signals received from one or more satellites located in Low Earth Orbit. The wireless backhaul network can provide bidirectional communication capability independent of cellular telecommunication networks and the Internet. An exemplary method includes instructing at least one of a plurality of remote monitoring units to provide an alert based at least in part on a location of a hazard and a plurality of positions respectively associated with the plurality of remote monitoring units.

  12. Primary Care Providers' Opening of Time-Sensitive Alerts Sent to Commercial Electronic Health Record InBaskets.

    PubMed

    Cutrona, Sarah L; Fouayzi, Hassan; Burns, Laura; Sadasivam, Rajani S; Mazor, Kathleen M; Gurwitz, Jerry H; Garber, Lawrence; Sundaresan, Devi; Houston, Thomas K; Field, Terry S

    2017-11-01

    Time-sensitive alerts are among the many types of clinical notifications delivered to physicians' secure InBaskets within commercial electronic health records (EHRs). A delayed alert review can impact patient safety and compromise care. To characterize factors associated with opening of non-interruptive time-sensitive alerts delivered into primary care provider (PCP) InBaskets. We analyzed data for 799 automated alerts. Alerts highlighted actionable medication concerns for older patients post-hospital discharge (2010-2011). These were study-generated alerts sent 3 days post-discharge to InBaskets for 75 PCPs across a multisite healthcare system, and represent a subset of all urgent InBasket notifications. Using EHR access and audit logs to track alert opening, we performed bivariate and multivariate analyses calculating associations between patient characteristics, provider characteristics, contextual factors at the time of alert delivery (number of InBasket notifications, weekday), and alert opening within 24 h. At the time of alert delivery, the PCPs had a median of 69 InBasket notifications and had received a median of 379.8 notifications (IQR 295.0, 492.0) over the prior 7 days. Of the 799 alerts, 47.1% were opened within 24 h. Patients with longer hospital stays (>4 days) were marginally more likely to have alerts opened (OR 1.48 [95% CI 1.00-2.19]). Alerts delivered to PCPs whose InBaskets had a higher number of notifications at the time of alert delivery were significantly less likely to be opened within 24 h (top quartile >157 notifications: OR 0.34 [95% CI 0.18-0.61]; reference bottom quartile ≤42). Alerts delivered on Saturdays were also less likely to be opened within 24 h (OR 0.18 [CI 0.08-0.39]). The number of total InBasket notifications and weekend delivery may impact the opening of time-sensitive EHR alerts. Further study is needed to support safe and effective approaches to care team management of InBasket notifications.

  13. Is there a link between the hospital-acquired injurious fall rates in US acute care hospitals and these institutions' implementation levels of computerized systems?

    PubMed

    Tzeng, Huey-Ming; Hu, Hsou Mei; Yin, Chang-Yi

    2011-12-01

    Medicare no longer reimburses acute care hospitals for the costs of additional care required due to hospital-acquired injuries. Consequently, this study explored the effective computerized systems to inform practice for better interventions to reduce fall risk. It provided a correlation between type of computerized system and hospital-acquired injurious fall rates at acute care hospitals in California, Florida, and New York. It used multiple publicly available data sets, with the hospital as the unit of analysis. Descriptive and Pearson correlation analyses were used. The analysis included 462 hospitals. Significant correlations could be categorized into two groups: (1) meaningful computerized systems that were associated with lower injurious fall rates: the decision support systems for drug allergy alerts, drug-drug interaction alerts, and drug-laboratory interaction alerts; and (2) computerized systems that were associated with higher injurious fall rates: the decision support system for drug-drug interaction alerts and the computerized provider order entry system for radiology tests. Future research may include additional states, multiple years of data, and patient-level data to validate this study's findings. This effort may further inform policy makers and the public about effective clinical computerized systems provided to clinicians to improve their practice decisions and care outcomes.

  14. Pilot Non-Conformance to Alerting System Commands During Closely Spaced Parallel Approaches

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pritchett, Amy R.; Hansman, R. John

    1997-01-01

    Pilot non-conformance to alerting system commands has been noted in general and to a TCAS-like collision avoidance system in a previous experiment. This paper details two experiments studying collision avoidance during closely-spaced parallel approaches in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), and specifically examining possible causal factors of, and design solutions to, pilot non-conformance.

  15. Novel online monitoring and alert system for anaerobic digestion reactors.

    PubMed

    Dong, Fang; Zhao, Quan-Bao; Li, Wen-Wei; Sheng, Guo-Ping; Zhao, Jin-Bao; Tang, Yong; Yu, Han-Qing; Kubota, Kengo; Li, Yu-You; Harada, Hideki

    2011-10-15

    Effective monitoring and diagnosis of anaerobic digestion processes is a great challenge for anaerobic digestion reactors, which limits their stable operation. In this work, an online monitoring and alert system for upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors is developed on the basis of a set of novel evaluating indexes. The two indexes, i.e., stability index S and auxiliary index a, which incorporate both gas- and liquid-phase parameters for UASB, enable a quantitative and comprehensive evaluation of reactor status. A series of shock tests is conducted to evaluate the response of the monitoring and alert system to organic overloading, hydraulic, temperature, and toxicant shocks. The results show that this system enables an accurate and rapid monitoring and diagnosis of the reactor status, and offers reliable early warnings on the potential risks. As the core of this system, the evaluating indexes are demonstrated to be of high accuracy and sensitivity in process evaluation and good adaptability to the artificial intelligence and automated control apparatus. This online monitoring and alert system presents a valuable effort to promote the automated monitoring and control of anaerobic digestion process, and holds a high promise for application.

  16. Effects of an air pollution personal alert system on health service usage in a high-risk general population: a quasi-experimental study using linked data.

    PubMed

    Lyons, R A; Rodgers, S E; Thomas, S; Bailey, R; Brunt, H; Thayer, D; Bidmead, J; Evans, B A; Harold, P; Hooper, M; Snooks, H

    2016-05-23

    There is no evidence to date on whether an intervention alerting people to high levels of pollution is effective in reducing health service utilisation. We evaluated alert accuracy and the effect of a targeted personal air pollution alert system, airAware, on emergency hospital admissions, emergency department attendances, general practitioner contacts and prescribed medications. Quasi-experimental study describing accuracy of alerts compared with pollution triggers; and comparing relative changes in healthcare utilisation in the intervention group to those who did not sign-up. Participants were people diagnosed with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or coronary heart disease, resident in an industrial area of south Wales and registered patients at 1 of 4 general practices. Longitudinal anonymised record linked data were modelled for participants and non-participants, adjusting for differences between groups. During the 2-year intervention period alerts were correctly issued on 208 of 248 occasions; sensitivity was 83.9% (95% CI 78.8% to 87.9%) and specificity 99.5% (95% CI 99.3% to 99.6%). The intervention was associated with a 4-fold increase in admissions for respiratory conditions (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 3.97; 95% CI 1.59 to 9.93) and a near doubling of emergency department attendance (IRR=1.89; 95% CI 1.34 to 2.68). The intervention was associated with increased emergency admissions for respiratory conditions. While findings may be context specific, evidence from this evaluation questions the benefits of implementing near real-time personal pollution alert systems for high-risk individuals. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  17. Environment Agency England flood warning systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strong, Chris; Walters, Mark; Haynes, Elizabeth; Dobson, Peter

    2015-04-01

    Context In England around 5 million homes are at risk of flooding. We invest significantly in flood prevention and management schemes but we can never prevent all flooding. Early alerting systems are fundamental to helping us reduce the impacts of flooding. The Environment Agency has had the responsibility for flood warning since 1996. In 2006 we invested in a new dissemination system that would send direct messages to pre-identified recipients via a range of channels. Since then we have continuously improved the system and service we offer. In 2010 we introduced an 'opt-out' service where we pre-registered landline numbers in flood risk areas, significantly increasing the customer base. The service has performed exceptionally well under intense flood conditions. Over a period of 3 days in December 2013, when England was experiencing an east coast storm surge, the system sent nearly 350,000 telephone messages, 85,000 emails and 70,000 text messages, with a peak call rate of around 37,000 per hour and 100% availability. The Floodline Warnings Direct (FWD) System FWD provides warnings in advance of flooding so that people at risk and responders can take action to minimise the impact of the flood. Warnings are sent via telephone, fax, text message, pager or e-mail to over 1.1 million properties located within flood risk areas in England. Triggers for issuing alerts and warnings include attained and forecast river levels and rainfall in some rapidly responding locations. There are three levels of warning: Flood Alert, Flood Warning and Severe Flood Warning, and a stand down message. The warnings can be updated to include relevant information to help inform those at risk. Working with our current provider Fujitsu, the system is under a programme of continuous improvement including expanding the 'opt-out' service to mobile phone numbers registered to at risk addresses, allowing mobile registration to the system for people 'on the move' and providing access to registration via third parties. The 'Future Flood Warning System' Our research shows that people want more choice on how they access and receive warnings. Many want a service tailored to their own risk, rather than that of their community. They also want more information about the forecast and the situation to that they can make decisions personal to their circumstances. Our future flood warning system will build upon the success of our existing service and will aim to: • provide our customers with a more flexible and personalised self-service approach which caters for the diverse range of user needs • alert people wherever they are, not just in properties • be flexible enough to respond to user feedback to make improvements and utilise new technology as it becomes available • provide real-time visualisation of system performance, to assist our flood response • capture greater levels of information from the recipients of our warnings • be efficient for operators of the system and utilise automation where relevant • take a risk based approach to resilience to provide the highest level of reliability when needed at a reduced cost

  18. A business rules design framework for a pharmaceutical validation and alert system.

    PubMed

    Boussadi, A; Bousquet, C; Sabatier, B; Caruba, T; Durieux, P; Degoulet, P

    2011-01-01

    Several alert systems have been developed to improve the patient safety aspects of clinical information systems (CIS). Most studies have focused on the evaluation of these systems, with little information provided about the methodology leading to system implementation. We propose here an 'agile' business rule design framework (BRDF) supporting both the design of alerts for the validation of drug prescriptions and the incorporation of the end user into the design process. We analyzed the unified process (UP) design life cycle and defined the activities, subactivities, actors and UML artifacts that could be used to enhance the agility of the proposed framework. We then applied the proposed framework to two different sets of data in the context of the Georges Pompidou University Hospital (HEGP) CIS. We introduced two new subactivities into UP: business rule specification and business rule instantiation activity. The pharmacist made an effective contribution to five of the eight BRDF design activities. Validation of the two new subactivities was effected in the context of drug dosage adaption to the patients' clinical and biological contexts. Pilot experiment shows that business rules modeled with BRDF and implemented as an alert system triggered an alert for 5824 of the 71,413 prescriptions considered (8.16%). A business rule design framework approach meets one of the strategic objectives for decision support design by taking into account three important criteria posing a particular challenge to system designers: 1) business processes, 2) knowledge modeling of the context of application, and 3) the agility of the various design steps.

  19. Diagnostic accuracy of a screening electronic alert tool for severe sepsis and septic shock in the emergency department.

    PubMed

    Alsolamy, Sami; Al Salamah, Majid; Al Thagafi, Majed; Al-Dorzi, Hasan M; Marini, Abdellatif M; Aljerian, Nawfal; Al-Enezi, Farhan; Al-Hunaidi, Fatimah; Mahmoud, Ahmed M; Alamry, Ahmed; Arabi, Yaseen M

    2014-12-05

    Early recognition of severe sepsis and septic shock is challenging. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of an electronic alert system in detecting severe sepsis or septic shock among emergency department (ED) patients. An electronic sepsis alert system was developed as a part of a quality-improvement project for severe sepsis and septic shock. The system screened all adult ED patients for a combination of systemic inflammatory response syndrome and organ dysfunction criteria (hypotension, hypoxemia or lactic acidosis). This study included all patients older than 14 years who presented to the ED of a tertiary care academic medical center from Oct. 1, 2012 to Jan. 31, 2013. As a comparator, emergency medicine physicians or the critical care physician identified the patients with severe sepsis or septic shock. In the ED, vital signs were manually entered into the hospital electronic heath record every hour in the critical care area and every two hours in other areas. We also calculated the time from the alert to the intensive care unit (ICU) referral. Of the 49,838 patients who presented to the ED, 222 (0.4%) were identified to have severe sepsis or septic shock. The electronic sepsis alert had a sensitivity of 93.18% (95% CI, 88.78% - 96.00%), specificity of 98.44 (95% CI, 98.33% - 98.55%), positive predictive value of 20.98% (95% CI, 18.50% - 23.70%) and negative predictive value of 99.97% (95% CI, 99.95% - 99.98%) for severe sepsis and septic shock. The alert preceded ICU referral by a median of 4.02 hours (Q1 - Q3: 1.25-8.55). Our study shows that electronic sepsis alert tool has high sensitivity and specificity in recognizing severe sepsis and septic shock, which may improve early recognition and management.

  20. Improving safety and operational efficiency in residential care settings with WiFi-based localization.

    PubMed

    Doshi-Velez, Finale; Li, William; Battat, Yoni; Charrow, Ben; Curtis, Dorothy; Curthis, Dorothy; Park, Jun-geun; Hemachandra, Sachithra; Velez, Javier; Walsh, Cynthia; Fredette, Don; Reimer, Bryan; Roy, Nicholas; Teller, Seth

    2012-07-01

    To assess the effectiveness of a wireless network (WiFi-based) localization system (devices mounted on resident wheelchairs) in decreasing caretaker time spent searching for residents and providing alerts of residents going outdoors in a skilled nursing facility. A controlled study over two 2-month periods approved by the institutional review board. A long-term skilled nursing facility in Massachusetts specializing in multiple sclerosis previously instrumented with wireless network infrastructure. Nineteen residents and 9 staff members at the facility for the first 2-month period; 9 residents and 3 staff members at the facility for the second 2-month period. Software was installed on 4 staff computers to display the locations of residents enrolled in the study. This software was made available to enrolled staff for the second half of the first 2-month period and the entirety of the second 2-month study. In the second 2-month study, the software was modified to provide alerts if any 1 of 9 participating "high-risk"' residents went outdoors, and the accuracy of the alert system was evaluated. In the first 2-month study, 9 staff members recorded the amount of time it took them to locate participating residents (as and when needed during the course of their daily activities). In the second 2-month study, 3 staff members recorded whether outdoor-alerts correctly identified a resident leaving the building or if it was a false alarm. In both phases, participating staff members made frequent use of the system (44 searches and 215 outdoor alerts). Overall, the localization information decreased the average time needed to find residents by about two-thirds (from 311.1 seconds to 110.9 seconds). For outdoor alerts, the system had a false-alarm rate of 9.1% (under normal facility operations); systematic tests of the outdoor-alert system carried out by the authors had a false-negative, or missed-alarm, rate of 1.7%. Using timely resident location information can provide significant gains for both operational efficiency (finding residents) and enhanced resident safety (outdoor alerts). This approach may provide an inexpensive alternative for facilities that have sufficient wireless infrastructure; future work should assess its effectiveness in additional settings. Copyright © 2012 American Medical Directors Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Reducing Unnecessary and Duplicate Ordering for Ovum and Parasite Examinations and Clostridium difficile PCR in Immunocompromised Patients by Using an Alert at the Time of Request in the Order Management System

    PubMed Central

    Shuptar, Susan L.; Milord, Philippe; Essick, Connor J.; Nevrekar, Reshma; Granovsky, Svetlana L.; Seo, Susan K.; Martin, Steven C.; Pessin, Melissa S.

    2015-01-01

    We implemented hospital information system (HIS) alerts to deter unnecessary test orders for ovum and parasite (O&P) exams and Clostridium difficile PCR. The HIS alerts decreased noncompliant O&P orders (orders after >72 h of hospitalization) from 49.8% to 30.9%, an overall decrease of 19%, and reduced noncompliant C. difficile PCR orders (orders <7 days after a previous positive result) from 30.6% to 19.2%, an overall decrease of 31.9%. PMID:26063860

  2. Probabilistic rainfall warning system with an interactive user interface

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Koistinen, Jarmo; Hohti, Harri; Kauhanen, Janne; Kilpinen, Juha; Kurki, Vesa; Lauri, Tuomo; Nurmi, Pertti; Rossi, Pekka; Jokelainen, Miikka; Heinonen, Mari; Fred, Tommi; Moisseev, Dmitri; Mäkelä, Antti

    2013-04-01

    A real time 24/7 automatic alert system is in operational use at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). It consists of gridded forecasts of the exceedance probabilities of rainfall class thresholds in the continuous lead time range of 1 hour to 5 days. Nowcasting up to six hours applies ensemble member extrapolations of weather radar measurements. With 2.8 GHz processors using 8 threads it takes about 20 seconds to generate 51 radar based ensemble members in a grid of 760 x 1226 points. Nowcasting exploits also lightning density and satellite based pseudo rainfall estimates. The latter ones utilize convective rain rate (CRR) estimate from Meteosat Second Generation. The extrapolation technique applies atmospheric motion vectors (AMV) originally developed for upper wind estimation with satellite images. Exceedance probabilities of four rainfall accumulation categories are computed for the future 1 h and 6 h periods and they are updated every 15 minutes. For longer forecasts exceedance probabilities are calculated for future 6 and 24 h periods during the next 4 days. From approximately 1 hour to 2 days Poor man's Ensemble Prediction System (PEPS) is used applying e.g. the high resolution short range Numerical Weather Prediction models HIRLAM and AROME. The longest forecasts apply EPS data from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The blending of the ensemble sets from the various forecast sources is performed applying mixing of accumulations with equal exceedance probabilities. The blending system contains a real time adaptive estimator of the predictability of radar based extrapolations. The uncompressed output data are written to file for each member, having total size of 10 GB. Ensemble data from other sources (satellite, lightning, NWP) are converted to the same geometry as the radar data and blended as was explained above. A verification system utilizing telemetering rain gauges has been established. Alert dissemination e.g. for citizens and professional end users applies SMS messages and, in near future, smartphone maps. The present interactive user interface facilitates free selection of alert sites and two warning thresholds (any rain, heavy rain) at any location in Finland. The pilot service was tested by 1000-3000 users during summers 2010 and 2012. As an example of dedicated end-user services gridded exceedance scenarios (of probabilities 5 %, 50 % and 90 %) of hourly rainfall accumulations for the next 3 hours have been utilized as an online input data for the influent model at the Greater Helsinki Wastewater Treatment Plant.

  3. Usability Flaws in Medication Alerting Systems: Impact on Usage and Work System.

    PubMed

    Marcilly, R; Ammenwerth, E; Roehrer, E; Pelayo, S; Vasseur, F; Beuscart-Zéphir, M-C

    2015-08-13

    Previous research has shown that medication alerting systems face usability issues. There has been no previous attempt to systematically explore the consequences of usability flaws in such systems on users (i.e. usage problems) and work systems (i.e. negative outcomes). This paper aims at exploring and synthesizing the consequences of usability flaws in terms of usage problems and negative outcomes on the work system. A secondary analysis of 26 papers included in a prior systematic review of the usability flaws in medication alerting was performed. Usage problems and negative outcomes were extracted and sorted. Links between usability flaws, usage problems, and negative outcomes were also analyzed. Poor usability generates a large variety of consequences. It impacts the user from a cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and attitudinal perspective. Ultimately, usability flaws have negative consequences on the workflow, the effectiveness of the technology, the medication management process, and, more importantly, patient safety. Only few complete pathways leading from usability flaws to negative outcomes were identified. Usability flaws in medication alerting systems impede users, and ultimately their work system, and negatively impact patient safety. Therefore, the usability dimension may act as a hidden explanatory variable that could explain, at least partly, the (absence of) intended outcomes of new technology.

  4. Usability Flaws in Medication Alerting Systems: Impact on Usage and Work System

    PubMed Central

    Ammenwerth, E.; Roehrer, E.; Pelayo, S.; Vasseur, F.; Beuscart-Zéphir, M.-C.

    2015-01-01

    Summary Objectives Previous research has shown that medication alerting systems face usability issues. There has been no previous attempt to systematically explore the consequences of usability flaws in such systems on users (i.e. usage problems) and work systems (i.e. negative outcomes). This paper aims at exploring and synthesizing the consequences of usability flaws in terms of usage problems and negative outcomes on the work system. Methods A secondary analysis of 26 papers included in a prior systematic review of the usability flaws in medication alerting was performed. Usage problems and negative outcomes were extracted and sorted. Links between usability flaws, usage problems, and negative outcomes were also analyzed. Results Poor usability generates a large variety of consequences. It impacts the user from a cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and attitudinal perspective. Ultimately, usability flaws have negative consequences on the workflow, the effectiveness of the technology, the medication management process, and, more importantly, patient safety. Only few complete pathways leading from usability flaws to negative outcomes were identified. Conclusion Usability flaws in medication alerting systems impede users, and ultimately their work system, and negatively impact patient safety. Therefore, the usability dimension may act as a hidden explanatory variable that could explain, at least partly, the (absence of) intended outcomes of new technology. PMID:26123906

  5. Use of a novel electronic maternal surveillance system to generate automated alerts on the labor and delivery unit.

    PubMed

    Klumpner, Thomas T; Kountanis, Joanna A; Langen, Elizabeth S; Smith, Roger D; Tremper, Kevin K

    2018-06-26

    Maternal early warning systems reduce maternal morbidity. We developed an electronic maternal surveillance system capable of visually summarizing the labor and delivery census and identifying changes in clinical status. Automatic page alerts to clinical providers, using an algorithm developed at our institution, were incorporated in an effort to improve early detection of maternal morbidity. We report the frequency of pages generated by the system. To our knowledge, this is the first time such a system has been used in peripartum care. Alert criteria were developed after review of maternal early warning systems, including the Maternal Early Warning Criteria (MEWC). Careful consideration was given to the frequency of pages generated by the surveillance system. MEWC notification criteria were liberalized and a paging algorithm was created that triggered paging alerts to first responders (nurses) and then managing services due to the assumption that paging all clinicians for each vital sign triggering MEWC would generate an inordinate number of pages. For preliminary analysis, to determine the effect of our automated paging algorithm on alerting frequency, the paging frequency of this system was compared to the frequency of vital signs meeting the Maternal Early Warning Criteria (MEWC). This retrospective analysis was limited to a sample of 34 patient rooms uniquely capable of storing every vital sign reported by the bedside monitor. Over a 91-day period, from April 1 to July 1, 2017, surveillance was conducted from 64 monitored beds, and the obstetrics service received one automated page every 2.3 h. The most common triggers for alerts were for hypertension and tachycardia. For the subset of 34 patient rooms uniquely capable of real-time recording, one vital sign met the MEWC every 9.6 to 10.3 min. Anecdotally, the system was well-received. This novel electronic maternal surveillance system is designed to reduce cognitive bias and improve timely clinical recognition of maternal deterioration. The automated paging algorithm developed for this software dramatically reduces paging frequency compared to paging for isolated vital sign abnormalities alone. Long-term, prospective studies will be required to determine its impact on patient outcomes.

  6. 47 CFR 11.52 - EAS code and Attention Signal Monitoring requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... technologies, such as instant messaging and email) the distribution of Common Alert Protocol (CAP)-formatted... Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to enable (whether through “pull” interface technologies...

  7. 47 CFR 11.52 - EAS code and Attention Signal Monitoring requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... technologies, such as instant messaging and email) the distribution of Common Alert Protocol (CAP)-formatted... Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to enable (whether through “pull” interface technologies...

  8. 47 CFR 11.52 - EAS code and Attention Signal Monitoring requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... technologies, such as instant messaging and email) the distribution of Common Alert Protocol (CAP)-formatted... Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to enable (whether through “pull” interface technologies...

  9. Impact of Homeland Security Alert level on calls to a law enforcement peer support hotline.

    PubMed

    Omer, Saad B; Barnett, Daniel J; Castellano, Cherie; Wierzba, Rachel K; Hiremath, Girish S; Balicer, Ran D; Everly, George S

    2007-01-01

    The Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) was established by the Department of Homeland Security to communicate the risk of a terrorist event. In order to explore the potential psychological impacts of HSAS we analyzed the effects of terror alerts on the law enforcement community. We used data from the New Jersey Cop 2 Cop crisis intervention hotline. Incidence Rate Ratios--interpreted as average relative increases in the daily number of calls to the Cop 2 Cop hotline during an increased alert period--were computed from Poisson models. The hotline received a total of 4,145 initial calls during the study period. The mean daily number of calls was higher during alert level elevation compared to prior 7 days (7.68 vs. 8.00). In the Poisson regression analysis, the Incidence Rate Ratios of number of calls received during elevated alert levels compared to the reference period of seven days preceding each change in alert were close to 1, with confidence intervals crossing 1 (i.e. not statistically significant) for all lag periods evaluated. This investigation, in the context of New Jersey law enforcement personnel, does not support the concern that elevating the alert status places undue stress upon alert recipients.

  10. Wireless alerting system using vibration for vehicles dashboard

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raj, Sweta; Rai, Shweta; Magaramagara, Wilbert; Sivacoumar, R.

    2017-11-01

    This paper aims at improving the engine life of any vehicle through a continuous measurement and monitoring of vital engine operational parameters and providing an effective alerting to drivers for any abnormality. Vehicles currently are using audio and visible alerting signals through alarms and light as a warning to the driver but these are not effective in noisy environments and during daylight. Through the use of the sense of feeling a driver can be alerted effectively. The need to no other vehicle parameter needs to be aided through the mobile display (phone).Thus a system is designed and implements to measure engine temperature, RPM, Oil level and Coolant level using appropriate sensors and a wireless communication (Bluetooth) is established to actuate a portable vibration control device and to read the different vehicle sensor readings through an android application for display and diagnosis.

  11. Alarms based on real-time sensor glucose values alert patients to hypo- and hyperglycemia: the guardian continuous monitoring system.

    PubMed

    Bode, Bruce; Gross, Kenneth; Rikalo, Nancy; Schwartz, Sherwyn; Wahl, Timothy; Page, Casey; Gross, Todd; Mastrototaro, John

    2004-04-01

    The purposes of this study were to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the Guardian Continuous Monitoring System (Medtronic MiniMed, Northridge, California) and to demonstrate that the application of real-time alarms to continuous monitoring alerts users to hypo and hyperglycemia and reduces excursions in people with diabetes. A total of 71 subjects with type 1 diabetes, mean hemoglobin A1c of 7.6 +/- 1.1%, age 44.0 +/- 11.4 years, and duration of diabetes 23.6 +/- 10.6 years were enrolled in this two-period, randomized, multicenter study. Subjects were randomized into either an Alert group or a Control group. The accuracy of the Guardian was evaluated by treating the study data as a single-sample correlational design. Effectiveness of the Guardian alerts was evaluated by comparing the Alert group with the Control group. The mean (median) absolute relative error between home blood glucose meter readings and sensor values was 21.3% (17.3%), and the Guardian, on average, read 12.8 mg/dL below the concurrent home blood glucose meter readings. The hypoglycemia alert was able to distinguished glucose values < or =70 mg/dL with 67% sensitivity, 90% specificity, and 47% false alerts. The hyperglycemia alert showed a similar ability to detect sensor values > or =250 mg/dL with 63% sensitivity, 97% specificity, and 19% false alerts. The Alert group demonstrated a median decrease in the duration of hypoglycemic excursions (-27.8 min) that was significantly greater than the median decrease in the duration of hypoglycemic excursions in the Control group (-4.5 min) (P = 0.03). A marginally significant increase in the frequency of hyperglycemic excursions (P = 0.07) between Period 1 and Period 2 was accompanied by a decrease of 9.6 min in the duration of hyperglycemic excursions in the Alert group. Glucose measurements differ between blood samples taken from the finger and interstitial fluid, especially when levels are changing rapidly; however, these results demonstrate that the Guardian is reasonably accurate while performing continuous glucose monitoring. The subjects' responses to hypoglycemia alerts resulted in a significant reduction in the duration of hypoglycemic excursions; however, overtreating hypoglycemia may have resulted in a marginally significant increase in the frequency of hyperglycemic excursions.

  12. 47 CFR 10.280 - Subscribers' right to opt out of CMAS notifications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Subscribers' right to opt out of CMAS... MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.280 Subscribers' right to opt out of CMAS notifications. (a) CMS providers may provide their subscribers with the option to...

  13. 47 CFR 10.280 - Subscribers' right to opt out of CMAS notifications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Subscribers' right to opt out of CMAS... MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Election to Participate in Commercial Mobile Alert System § 10.280 Subscribers' right to opt out of CMAS notifications. (a) CMS providers may provide their subscribers with the option to...

  14. Development of the Runway Incursion Advisory and Alerting System (RIAAS): Research Summary

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jones, Denise R. (Technical Monitor); Cassell, Rick

    2005-01-01

    This report summarizes research conducted on an aircraft based Runway Incursion Advisory and Alerting System (RIAAS) developed under a cooperative agreement between Rannoch Corporation and the NASA Langley Research Center. A summary of RIAAS is presented along with results from simulation and flight testing, safety benefits, and key technical issues.

  15. 47 CFR 11.11 - The Emergency Alert System (EAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... through the use of a single set of EAS equipment at the hub station (or common studio or control point... the FCC in any agreements. (e) Other technologies and public service providers, such as low earth... 47 Telecommunication 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false The Emergency Alert System (EAS). 11.11 Section...

  16. 47 CFR 11.11 - The Emergency Alert System (EAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... through the use of a single set of EAS equipment at the hub station (or common studio or control point... the FCC in any agreements. (e) Other technologies and public service providers, such as low earth... 47 Telecommunication 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false The Emergency Alert System (EAS). 11.11 Section...

  17. 47 CFR 11.11 - The Emergency Alert System (EAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... through the use of a single set of EAS equipment at the hub station (or common studio or control point... the FCC in any agreements. (e) Other technologies and public service providers, such as low earth... 47 Telecommunication 1 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false The Emergency Alert System (EAS). 11.11 Section...

  18. Aircraft Alerting Systems Criteria Study. Volume II. Human Factors Guidelines for Aircraft Alerting Systems

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1977-05-01

    Effect of Mixing Flashing and Steady Irrelevant Lights, Ergonomics, Vol. 6 (3), 1963, pp. 27-294. Creelman , C. D., Detection of Signals of Uncertain...Frequency, Acoustical Sok. America-J, Vol. 32 (7), July 1960, pp. 805-10. Creelman , C. D., Detection, Discrimination, and Loudness of Short Tones

  19. A randomised, clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of hospital and community-based reminder systems for increasing uptake of influenza and pneumococcal vaccine in hospitalised patients aged 65 years and over.

    PubMed

    MacIntyre, C R; Kainer, M A; Brown, G V

    2003-01-01

    Hospitalisation represents an opportunity to identify unimmunised people at risk for the complications of influenza and pneumococcal disease. We conducted a randomised controlled trial of two strategies to increase uptake of influenza and pneumococcal vaccines in eligible, hospitalised subjects aged 65 years or more, admitted between May and September 1998 to a Melbourne hospital. Unvaccinated participants were allocated randomly to alert systems for hospital staff or community general practitioners (GPs). Follow-up occurred at 1 and 3 months. The baseline vaccination rates were 70% for influenza (426/606) and 41% (248/606) for pneumococcal disease. For unvaccinated subjects, the hospital alert resulted in 67% uptake compared to 55% following a GP alert for pneumococcal vaccine; and 63% in hospital compared to 53% following a GP alert for influenza vaccine. Although there was a trend toward a higher uptake in hospital, neither of these differences was statistically significant. The majority (75%) of vaccinations following a GP alert occurred within 1 month of discharge. Despite hospital and community-based reminder systems, there are still significant missed opportunities for vaccination. We did not demonstrate significant differences between hospital and GP reminder systems, but there was a trend towards higher uptake with opportunistic vaccination in hospital. Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

  20. A novel active heads-up display for driver assistance.

    PubMed

    Doshi, Anup; Cheng, Shinko Yuanhsien; Trivedi, Mohan Manubhai

    2009-02-01

    In this paper, we introduce a novel laser-based wide-area heads-up windshield display which is capable of actively interfacing with a human as part of a driver assistance system. The dynamic active display (DAD) is a unique prototype interface that presents safety-critical visual icons to the driver in a manner that minimizes the deviation of his or her gaze direction without adding to unnecessary visual clutter. As part of an automotive safety system, the DAD presents alerts in the field of view of the driver only if necessary, which is based upon the state and pose of the driver, vehicle, and environment. This paper examines the effectiveness of DAD through a comprehensive comparative experimental evaluation of a speed compliance driver assistance system, which is implemented on a vehicular test bed. Three different types of display protocols for assisting a driver to comply with speed limits are tested on actual roadways, and these are compared with a conventional dashboard display. Given the inclination, drivers who are given an overspeed warning alert reduced the time required to slow down to the speed limit by 38% (p < 0.01) as compared with the drivers not given the alert. Additionally, certain alerts decreased distraction levels by reducing the time spent looking away from the road by 63% (p < 0.01). Ultimately, these alerts demonstrate the utility and promise of the DAD system.

  1. Using statistical anomaly detection models to find clinical decision support malfunctions.

    PubMed

    Ray, Soumi; McEvoy, Dustin S; Aaron, Skye; Hickman, Thu-Trang; Wright, Adam

    2018-05-11

    Malfunctions in Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems occur due to a multitude of reasons, and often go unnoticed, leading to potentially poor outcomes. Our goal was to identify malfunctions within CDS systems. We evaluated 6 anomaly detection models: (1) Poisson Changepoint Model, (2) Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) Model, (3) Hierarchical Divisive Changepoint (HDC) Model, (4) Bayesian Changepoint Model, (5) Seasonal Hybrid Extreme Studentized Deviate (SHESD) Model, and (6) E-Divisive with Median (EDM) Model and characterized their ability to find known anomalies. We analyzed 4 CDS alerts with known malfunctions from the Longitudinal Medical Record (LMR) and Epic® (Epic Systems Corporation, Madison, WI, USA) at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA. The 4 rules recommend lead testing in children, aspirin therapy in patients with coronary artery disease, pneumococcal vaccination in immunocompromised adults and thyroid testing in patients taking amiodarone. Poisson changepoint, ARIMA, HDC, Bayesian changepoint and the SHESD model were able to detect anomalies in an alert for lead screening in children and in an alert for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in immunocompromised adults. EDM was able to detect anomalies in an alert for monitoring thyroid function in patients on amiodarone. Malfunctions/anomalies occur frequently in CDS alert systems. It is important to be able to detect such anomalies promptly. Anomaly detection models are useful tools to aid such detections.

  2. Building a Communication, Education, an Outreach Program for the ShakeAlert National Earthquake Early Warning Program - Recommendations for Public Alerts Via Cell Phones

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    DeGroot, R. M.; Long, K.; Strauss, J. A.

    2017-12-01

    The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and its partners are developing the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System for the West Coast of the United States. To be an integral part of successful implementation, ShakeAlert engagement programs and materials must integrate with and leverage broader earthquake risk programs. New methods and products for dissemination must be multidisciplinary, cost effective, and consistent with existing hazards education and communication efforts. The ShakeAlert Joint Committee for Communication, Education, and Outreach (JCCEO), is identifying, developing, and cultivating partnerships with ShakeAlert stakeholders including Federal, State, academic partners, private companies, policy makers, and local organizations. Efforts include developing materials, methods for delivery, and reaching stakeholders with information on ShakeAlert, earthquake preparedness, and emergency protective actions. It is essential to develop standards to ensure information communicated via the alerts is consistent across the public and private sector and achieving a common understanding of what actions users take when they receive a ShakeAlert warning. In February 2017, the JCCEO convened the Warning Message Focus Group (WMFG) to provide findings and recommendations to the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions on the use of earthquake early warning message content standards for public alerts via cell phones. The WMFG represents communications, education, and outreach stakeholders from various sectors including ShakeAlert regional coordinators, industry, emergency managers, and subject matter experts from the social sciences. The group knowledge was combined with an in-depth literature review to ensure that all groups who could receive the message would be taken into account. The USGS and the participating states and agencies acknowledge that the implementation of ShakeAlert is a collective effort requiring the participation of hundreds of stakeholders committed to ensuring public accessibility.

  3. Sleep Deprivation and Sustained Attention Performance: Integrating Mathematical and Cognitive Modeling

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-01-01

    Gluck,a David F. Dingesc aAir Force Research Laboratory, Mesa bThe Pennsylvania State University , University Park cUniversity of Pennsylvania School...possible using either model- ing approach in isolation. 2.1. Biomathematical models of alertness Biomathematical models of alertness have been developed...window into the information process- ing mechanisms in the cognitive system and how they may be affected by decreased alert- ness. The next section

  4. Effects of conflict alerting system reliability and task difficulty on pilots' conflict detection with cockpit display of traffic information.

    PubMed

    Xu, Xidong; Wickens, Christopher D; Rantanen, Esa M

    2007-01-15

    A total of 24 pilots viewed dynamic encounters between their own aircraft and an intruder aircraft on a 2-D cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) and estimated the point and time of closest approach. A three-level alerting system provided a correct categorical estimate of the projected miss distance on 83% of the trials. The remaining 17% of alerts were equally divided between misses and false alarms, of large and small magnitude. Roughly half the pilots depended on automation to improve estimation of miss distance relative to the baseline pilots, who viewed identical trials without the aid of automated alerts. Moreover, they did so more on the more difficult traffic trials resulting in improved performance on the 83% correct automation trials without causing harm on the 17% automation-error trials, compared to the baseline group. The automated alerts appeared to lead pilots to inspect the raw data more closely. While assisting the accurate prediction of miss distance, the automation led to an underestimate of the time remaining until the point of closest approach. The results point to the benefits of even imperfect automation in the strategic alerts characteristic of the CDTI, at least as long as this reliability remains high (above 80%).

  5. Influence of infectious disease seasonality on the performance of the outbreak detection algorithm in the China Infectious Disease Automated-alert and Response System

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Ruiping; Jiang, Yonggen; Guo, Xiaoqin; Wu, Yiling; Zhao, Genming

    2017-01-01

    Objective The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention developed the China Infectious Disease Automated-alert and Response System (CIDARS) in 2008. The CIDARS can detect outbreak signals in a timely manner but generates many false-positive signals, especially for diseases with seasonality. We assessed the influence of seasonality on infectious disease outbreak detection performance. Methods Chickenpox surveillance data in Songjiang District, Shanghai were used. The optimized early alert thresholds for chickenpox were selected according to three algorithm evaluation indexes: sensitivity (Se), false alarm rate (FAR), and time to detection (TTD). Performance of selected proper thresholds was assessed by data external to the study period. Results The optimized early alert threshold for chickenpox during the epidemic season was the percentile P65, which demonstrated an Se of 93.33%, FAR of 0%, and TTD of 0 days. The optimized early alert threshold in the nonepidemic season was P50, demonstrating an Se of 100%, FAR of 18.94%, and TTD was 2.5 days. The performance evaluation demonstrated that the use of an optimized threshold adjusted for seasonality could reduce the FAR and shorten the TTD. Conclusions Selection of optimized early alert thresholds based on local infectious disease seasonality could improve the performance of the CIDARS. PMID:28728470

  6. Foodborne Norovirus State of Affairs in the EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed

    PubMed Central

    Papapanagiotou, Elias P.

    2017-01-01

    The European Union Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (EU RASFF) database is an invaluable instrument for analyzing notifications involving norovirus in food. The aim of this work was to carry out a thorough research of the alert and border rejection notifications submitted in the RASFF database from its onset until 31 August 2017. Some conclusions of interest were: (i) Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway have contributed the majority of alert notifications as notifying countries, (ii) France and Serbia have been cited more often in alert notifications as countries of origin, (iii) Italy and Spain have submitted the majority of border rejection notifications, (iv) Third Countries implicated more frequently in border rejection notifications for norovirus in bivalve molluscs were Vietnam and Tunisia, whereas in fruits and vegetables were China and Serbia, (v) “risk dispersion” from norovirus-contaminated food was narrow since, in just over half of all alert notifications and all of the border rejection notifications, only up to three countries were involved, and (vi) both raw (oysters and berries) and cooked (mussels) food products can present a health risk to consumers. The information retrieved from the RASFF database on norovirus-contaminated food could prove helpful in the planning of future norovirus risk analysis endeavors. PMID:29186840

  7. Influence of infectious disease seasonality on the performance of the outbreak detection algorithm in the China Infectious Disease Automated-alert and Response System.

    PubMed

    Wang, Ruiping; Jiang, Yonggen; Guo, Xiaoqin; Wu, Yiling; Zhao, Genming

    2018-01-01

    Objective The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention developed the China Infectious Disease Automated-alert and Response System (CIDARS) in 2008. The CIDARS can detect outbreak signals in a timely manner but generates many false-positive signals, especially for diseases with seasonality. We assessed the influence of seasonality on infectious disease outbreak detection performance. Methods Chickenpox surveillance data in Songjiang District, Shanghai were used. The optimized early alert thresholds for chickenpox were selected according to three algorithm evaluation indexes: sensitivity (Se), false alarm rate (FAR), and time to detection (TTD). Performance of selected proper thresholds was assessed by data external to the study period. Results The optimized early alert threshold for chickenpox during the epidemic season was the percentile P65, which demonstrated an Se of 93.33%, FAR of 0%, and TTD of 0 days. The optimized early alert threshold in the nonepidemic season was P50, demonstrating an Se of 100%, FAR of 18.94%, and TTD was 2.5 days. The performance evaluation demonstrated that the use of an optimized threshold adjusted for seasonality could reduce the FAR and shorten the TTD. Conclusions Selection of optimized early alert thresholds based on local infectious disease seasonality could improve the performance of the CIDARS.

  8. Real-time monitoring of the human alertness level

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alvarez, Robin; del Pozo, Francisco; Hernando, Elena; Gomez, Eduardo; Jimenez, Antonio

    2003-04-01

    Many accidents are associated with a driver or machine operator's alertness level. Drowsiness often develops as a result of repetitive or monotonous tasks, uninterrupted by external stimuli. In order to enhance safety levels, it would be most desirable to monitor the individual's level of attention. In this work, changes in the power spectrum of the electroencephalographic signal (EEG) are associated with the subject's level of attention. This study reports on the initial research carried out in order to answer the following important questions: (i) Does a trend exist in the shape of the power spectrum, which will indicate the state of a subject's alertness state (drowsy, relaxed or alert)? (ii) What points on the cortex are most suitable to detect drowsiness and/or high alertness? (iii) What parameters in the power spectrum are most suitable to establish a workable alertness classification in human subjects? In this work, we answer these questions and combine power spectrum estimation and artificial neural network techniques to create a non-invasive and real - time system able to classify EEG into three levels of attention: High, Relaxed and Drowsiness. The classification is made every 10 seconds o more, a suitable time span for giving an alarm signal if the individual is with insufficient level of alertness. This time span is set by the user. The system was tested on twenty subjects. High and relaxed attention levels were measured in randomise hours of the day and drowsiness attention level was measured in the morning after one night of sleep deprivation.

  9. The effect of automated alerts on preoperative anemia management.

    PubMed

    Dilla, Andrew; Wisniewski, Mary Kay; Waters, Jonathan H; Triulzi, Darrell J; Yazer, Mark H

    2015-04-01

    This study evaluated the role of an automated anemia notification system that alerted providers about anemic pre-operative patients. After scheduling surgery, the alert program continuously searched the patient's laboratory data for hemoglobin value(s) in the medical record. When an anemic patient according to the World Health Oganization's criteria was identified, an email was sent to the patient's surgeon, and/or assistant, and/or patient's primary care physician suggesting that the anemia be managed before surgery. Thirteen surgeons participated in this pilot study. In 11 months, there were 70 pre-surgery anemia alerts generated on 69 patients. The surgeries were 60 orthopedic, 7 thoracic, 2 general surgery, and 1 urological. The alerts were sent 15 ± 10 days before surgery. No pre-operative anemia treatment could be found in 37 of 69 (54%) patients. Some form of anemia management was found in 32 of 69 (46%) patients. Of the 23 patients who received iron, only 3 of 23 (13%) of these patients started iron shortly after the alert was generated. The alert likely resulted in the postponement of one surgery for anemia correction. Although anemia diagnosis and management can be complex, it was hoped that receipt of the alert would lead to the management of all anemic patients. Alerts are only effective if they are received and read by a healthcare provider empowered to treat the patient or to make an appropriate referral. Automated preoperative alerts alone are not likely to alter surgeons' anemia management practices. These alerts need to be part of a comprehensive anemia management strategy.

  10. A lightweight Web of Things Open Platform to facilitate context data management and personalized healthcare services creation.

    PubMed

    Corredor, Iván; Metola, Eduardo; Bernardos, Ana M; Tarrío, Paula; Casar, José R

    2014-04-29

    In the last few years, many health monitoring systems have been designed to fullfil the needs of a large range of scenarios. Although many of those systems provide good ad hoc solutions, most of them lack of mechanisms that allow them to be easily reused. This paper is focused on describing an open platform, the micro Web of Things Open Platform (µWoTOP), which has been conceived to improve the connectivity and reusability of context data to deliver different kinds of health, wellness and ambient home care services. µWoTOP is based on a resource-oriented architecture which may be embedded in mobile and resource constrained devices enabling access to biometric, ambient or activity sensors and actuator resources through uniform interfaces defined according to a RESTful fashion. Additionally, µWoTOP manages two communication modes which allow delivering user context information according to different methods, depending on the requirements of the consumer application. It also generates alert messages based on standards related to health care and risk management, such as the Common Alerting Protocol, in order to make its outputs compatible with existing systems.

  11. A Lightweight Web of Things Open Platform to Facilitate Context Data Management and Personalized Healthcare Services Creation

    PubMed Central

    Corredor, Iván; Metola, Eduardo; Bernardos, Ana M.; Tarrío, Paula; Casar, José R.

    2014-01-01

    In the last few years, many health monitoring systems have been designed to fullfil the needs of a large range of scenarios. Although many of those systems provide good ad hoc solutions, most of them lack of mechanisms that allow them to be easily reused. This paper is focused on describing an open platform, the micro Web of Things Open Platform (µWoTOP), which has been conceived to improve the connectivity and reusability of context data to deliver different kinds of health, wellness and ambient home care services. µWoTOP is based on a resource-oriented architecture which may be embedded in mobile and resource constrained devices enabling access to biometric, ambient or activity sensors and actuator resources through uniform interfaces defined according to a RESTful fashion. Additionally, µWoTOP manages two communication modes which allow delivering user context information according to different methods, depending on the requirements of the consumer application. It also generates alert messages based on standards related to health care and risk management, such as the Common Alerting Protocol, in order to make its outputs compatible with existing systems. PMID:24785542

  12. Debris flow hazards mitigation--Mechanics, prediction, and assessment

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Chen, C.-L.; Major, J.J.

    2007-01-01

    These proceedings contain papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Debris-Flow Hazards Mitigation: Mechanics, Prediction, and Assessment held in Chengdu, China, September 10-13, 2007. The papers cover a wide range of topics on debris-flow science and engineering, including the factors triggering debris flows, geomorphic effects, mechanics of debris flows (e.g., rheology, fluvial mechanisms, erosion and deposition processes), numerical modeling, various debris-flow experiments, landslide-induced debris flows, assessment of debris-flow hazards and risk, field observations and measurements, monitoring and alert systems, structural and non-structural countermeasures against debris-flow hazards and case studies. The papers reflect the latest devel-opments and advances in debris-flow research. Several studies discuss the development and appli-cation of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technologies in debris-flow hazard/risk assessment. Timely topics presented in a few papers also include the development of new or innovative techniques for debris-flow monitoring and alert systems, especially an infra-sound acoustic sensor for detecting debris flows. Many case studies illustrate a wide variety of debris-flow hazards and related phenomena as well as their hazardous effects on human activities and settlements.

  13. Photoreceptor System for Melatonin Regulation and Phototherapy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Glickman, Gena (Inventor); Brainard, George (Inventor)

    2010-01-01

    The present invention involves a light system for stimulating or regulating neuroendocrine, circadian, and photoneural systems in mammals based upon the discovery of peak sensitivity ranging from 425-505 nm; a light meter system for quantifying light which stimulates or regulates mammalian circadian, photoneural, and neuroendocrine systems. The present invention also relates to translucent and transparent materials, and lamps or other light sources with or without filters capable of stimulating or regulating neuroendocrine, circadian, and photoneural systems in mammals. Additionally, the present invention involves treatment of mammals with a wide variety of disorders or deficits, including light responsive disorders, eating disorders, menstrual cycle disorders, non-specific alerting and performance deficits, hormone-sensitive cancers, and cardiovascular disorders.

  14. The Traffic-Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) in the glass cockpit

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chappell, Sheryl L.

    1988-01-01

    This volume contains the contributions of the participants in the NASA Ames Research Center workshop on the traffic-alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) implementation for aircraft with cathode ray tube (CRT) or flat panel displays. To take advantage of the display capability of the advanced-technology aircraft, NASA sponsored this workshop with the intent of bringing together industry personnel, pilots, and researchers so that pertinent issues in the area could be identified. During the 2-day workshop participants addressed a number of issues including: What is the optimum format for TCAS advisories. Where and how should maneuver advisories be presented to the crew. Should the maneuver advisories be presented on the primary flight display. Is it appropriate to have the autopilot perform the avoidance maneuver. Where and how should traffic information be presented to the crew. Should traffic information be combined with weather and navigation information. How much traffic should be shown and what ranges should be used. Contained in the document are the concepts and suggestions produced by the workshop participants.

  15. Attention as an Organ System: Implications for Education, Training and Rehabilitation

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-03-31

    nucleotide genotype (CC, CT and TT) t iti 521a pos on - . Mapping the genetic variation of executive attention onto brain activityfMRI results: N=16 MAOA ...EDUCATION AND EXPERTISE SUMMARY Attention System Alert Orient Executive Individuality Implications for Training, Expertise Pathology and Genes ...Curran 2001) , SUMMARY Attention System Alert Oreint Executive Individuality Implications for Training, Expertise Pathology and Genes , Rehabilitation

  16. A Near Real-time Decision Support System Improving Forest Management in the Tropics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tabor, K.; Musinsky, J.; Ledezma, J.; Rasolohery, A.; Mendoza, E.; Kistler, H.; Steininger, M.; Morton, D. C.; Melton, F. S.; Manwell, J.; Koenig, K.

    2013-12-01

    Conservation International (CI) has a decade of experience developing near real-time fire and deforestation monitoring and forecasting systems that channel monitoring information from satellite observations directly to national and sub-national government agencies, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and local communities. These systems are used to strengthen forest surveillance and monitoring, fire management and prevention, protected areas management and sustainable land use planning. With support from a NASA Wildland Fires grant, in September 2013 CI will launch a brand new near real-time alert system (FIRECAST) to better meet the outstanding needs and challenges users face in addressing ecosystem degradation from wildland fire and illegal forest activities. Outreach efforts and user feedback have indicated the need for seasonal fire forecasts for effective land use planning, faster alert delivery to enhance response to illegal forest activities, and expanded forest monitoring capabilities that enable proactive responses and that strengthen forest conservation and sustainable development actions. The new FIRECAST system addresses these challenges by integrating the current fire alert and deforestation systems and adding improved ecological forecasting of fire risk; expanding data exchange capabilities with mobile technologies; and delivering a deforestation alert product that can inform policies related to land use management and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). In addition to demonstrating the capabilities of this new real-time alert system, we also highlight how coordination with host-country institutions enhances the system's capacity to address the implementation needs of REDD+ forest carbon projects, improve tropical forest management, strengthen environmental law enforcement, and facilitate the uptake of near real-time satellite monitoring data into business practices of these national/sub-national institutions.

  17. 47 CFR 10.460 - Retransmission frequency. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Retransmission frequency. [Reserved] 10.460 Section 10.460 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL MOBILE ALERT SYSTEM Alert Message Requirements § 10.460 Retransmission frequency. [Reserved] ...

  18. DAIDALUS: Detect and Avoid Alerting Logic for Unmanned Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Munoz, Cesar; Narkawicz, Anthony; Hagen, George; Upchurch, Jason; Dutle, Aaron; Consiglio, Maria; Chamberlain, James

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents DAIDALUS (Detect and Avoid Alerting Logic for Unmanned Systems), a reference implementation of a detect and avoid concept intended to support the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems into civil airspace. DAIDALUS consists of self-separation and alerting algorithms that provide situational awareness to UAS remote pilots. These algorithms have been formally specified in a mathematical notation and verified for correctness in an interactive theorem prover. The software implementation has been verified against the formal models and validated against multiple stressing cases jointly developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and NASA. The DAIDALUS reference implementation is currently under consideration for inclusion in the appendices to the Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Unmanned Aircraft Systems presently being developed by RTCA Special Committee 228.

  19. Real-time Automated Sampling of Electronic Medical Records Predicts Hospital Mortality

    PubMed Central

    Khurana, Hargobind S.; Groves, Robert H.; Simons, Michael P.; Martin, Mary; Stoffer, Brenda; Kou, Sherri; Gerkin, Richard; Reiman, Eric; Parthasarathy, Sairam

    2016-01-01

    Background Real-time automated continuous sampling of electronic medical record data may expeditiously identify patients at risk for death and enable prompt life-saving interventions. We hypothesized that a real-time electronic medical record-based alert could identify hospitalized patients at risk for mortality. Methods An automated alert was developed and implemented to continuously sample electronic medical record data and trigger when at least two of four systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria plus at least one of 14 acute organ dysfunction parameters was detected. The SIRS/OD alert was applied real-time to 312,214 patients in 24 hospitals and analyzed in two phases: training and validation datasets. Results In the training phase, 29,317 (18.8%) triggered the alert and 5.2% of such patients died whereas only 0.2% without the alert died (unadjusted odds ratio 30.1; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 26.1, 34.5; P<0.0001). In the validation phase, the sensitivity, specificity, area under curve (AUC), positive and negative likelihood ratios for predicting mortality were 0.86, 0.82, 0.84, 4.9, and 0.16, respectively. Multivariate Cox-proportional hazard regression model revealed greater hospital mortality when the alert was triggered (adjusted Hazards Ratio 4.0; 95%CI 3.3, 4.9; P<0.0001). Triggering the alert was associated with additional hospitalization days (+3.0 days) and ventilator days (+1.6 days; P<0.0001). Conclusion An automated alert system that continuously samples electronic medical record-data can be implemented, has excellent test characteristics, and can assist in the real-time identification of hospitalized patients at risk for death. PMID:27019043

  20. AGILE/GRID Science Alert Monitoring System: The Workflow and the Crab Flare Case

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bulgarelli, A.; Trifoglio, M.; Gianotti, F.; Tavani, M.; Conforti, V.; Parmiggiani, N.

    2013-10-01

    During the first five years of the AGILE mission we have observed many gamma-ray transients of Galactic and extragalactic origin. A fast reaction to unexpected transient events is a crucial part of the AGILE monitoring program, because the follow-up of astrophysical transients is a key point for this space mission. We present the workflow and the software developed by the AGILE Team to perform the automatic analysis for the detection of gamma-ray transients. In addition, an App for iPhone will be released enabling the Team to access the monitoring system through mobile phones. In 2010 September the science alert monitoring system presented in this paper recorded a transient phenomena from the Crab Nebula, generating an automated alert sent via email and SMS two hours after the end of an AGILE satellite orbit, i.e. two hours after the Crab flare itself: for this discovery AGILE won the 2012 Bruno Rossi prize. The design of this alert system is maximized to reach the maximum speed, and in this, as in many other cases, AGILE has demonstrated that the reaction speed of the monitoring system is crucial for the scientific return of the mission.

  1. Comparison of 'time to detection' values between BacT/ALERT VIRTUO and BacT/ALERT 3D instruments for clinical blood culture samples.

    PubMed

    Congestrì, Francesco; Pedna, Maria Federica; Fantini, Michela; Samuelli, Michela; Schiavone, Pasqua; Torri, Arianna; Bertini, Stefania; Sambri, Vittorio

    2017-09-01

    The early detection of bacteraemia and fungemia is of paramount importance to guide antimicrobial therapy in septic patients. In this study the 'time to detection' (TTD) value for the new blood culture system BacT/ALERT VIRTUO (VIRTUO) was evaluated in 1462 positive clinical bottles and compared with the TTD for 1601 positive clinical bottles incubated in the BacT/ALERT 3D system (BTA-3D). The most representative microorganisms isolated from bottles incubated in both blood culture systems were divided into eight categories (in order of frequency): coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), Escherichia coli, Enterobacteriaceae (other than E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus spp, viridans group streptococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida spp. The comparison of TTD values for the two blood culture systems strongly indicated that growth of the first five groups listed above was detected earlier with VIRTUO than with BTA-3D (p < 0.05). The new VIRTUO blood culture system can reduce the TTD for more than 75% of isolated microorganisms. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  2. A fresh look at runway incursions: onboard surface movement awareness and alerting system based on SVS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vernaleken, Christoph; Mihalic, Lamir; Güttler, Mathias; Klingauf, Uwe

    2006-05-01

    Increasing traffic density on the aerodrome surface due to the continuous worldwide growth in the number of flight operations does not only cause capacity and efficiency problems, but also increases the risk of serious incidents and accidents on the airport movement area. Of these, Runway Incursions are the by far most safety-critical. In fact, the worst-ever accident in civil aviation, the collision of two Boeing B747s on Tenerife in 1977 with 583 fatalities, was caused by a Runway Incursion. Therefore, various Runway Safety programs have recently been initiated around the globe, often focusing on ground-based measures such as improved surveillance. However, as a lack of flight crew situational awareness is a key causal factor in many Runway Incursion incidents and accidents, there is a strong need for an onboard solution, which should be capable of interacting cooperatively with ground-based ATM systems, such as A-SMGCS where available. This paper defines the concept of preventive and reactive Runway Incursion avoidance and describes a Surface Movement Awareness & Alerting System (SMAAS) designed to alert the flight crew if they are at risk of infringing a runway. Both the SVS flight deck displays and the corresponding alerting algorithms utilize an ED 99A/RTCA DO-272A compliant aerodrome database, as well as airport operational, traffic and clearance data received via ADS-B or other data links, respectively. The displays provide the crew with enhanced positional, operational, clearance and traffic awareness, and they are used to visualize alerts. A future enhancement of the system will provide intelligent alerting for conflicts caused by surrounding traffic.

  3. Early warning of active fire hotspots through NASA FIRMS fire information system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ilavajhala, S.; Davies, D.; Schmaltz, J. E.; Murphy, K. J.

    2014-12-01

    Forest fires and wildfires can threaten ecosystems, wildlife, property, and often, large swaths of populations. Early warning of active fire hotspots plays a crucial role in planning, managing, and mitigating the damaging effects of wildfires. The NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) has been providing active fire location information to users in easy-to-use formats for the better part of last decade, with a view to improving the alerting mechanisms and response times to fight forest and wildfires. FIRMS utilizes fires flagged as hotspots by the MODIS instrument flying aboard the Aqua and Terra satellites and sends early warning of detected hotspots via email in near real-time or as daily and weekly summaries. The email alerts can also be customized to send alerts for a particular region of interest, a country, or a specific protected area or park. In addition, a web mapping component, named "Web Fire Mapper" helps query and visualize hotspots. A newer version of Web Fire Mapper is being developed to enhance the existing visualization and alerting capabilities. Plans include supporting near real-time imagery from Aqua and Terra satellites to provide a more helpful context while viewing fires. Plans are also underway to upgrade the email alerts system to provide mobile-formatted messages and short text messages (SMS). The newer version of FIRMS will also allow users to obtain geo-located image snapshots, which can be imported into local GIS software by stakeholders to help further analyses. This talk will discuss the FIRMS system, its enhancements and its role in helping map, alert, and monitor fire hotspots by providing quick data visualization, querying, and download capabilities.

  4. 2005 Science and Technology for Chem-Bio Information Systems (S and T CBIS). Volume 2 - Wednesday

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-10-28

    historical example of using both an audible and visual alerting method. In April 1775, Revere hung two lanterns in the bell-tower of Christ Church in...individual building systems, outdoor systems, telephone notification systems and a network of alert sensors . Fire protection systems are often... sensor , be it a pushbutton at a gate, a wireless “panic” button or a CBRNE detector, may be programmed to trigger notifications without further

  5. Performance of the BacT Alert 3D System Versus Solid Media for Recovery and Drug Susceptibility Testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a Tertiary Hospital in Korea.

    PubMed

    Kim, Seoung-Cheol; Jeon, Bo-Young; Kim, Jin-Sook; Choi, In Hwan; Kim, Jiro; Woo, Jeongim; Kim, Soojin; Lee, Hyeong Woo; Sezim, Monoldorova; Cho, Sang-Nae

    2016-10-01

    Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health problem, and accurate and rapid diagnosis of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extended drug-resistant (XDR) TB is important for appropriate treatment. In this study, performances of solid and liquid culture methods were compared with respect to MDR- and XDR-TB isolate recovery and drug susceptibility testing. Sputum specimens from 304 patients were stained with Ziehl-Neelsen method. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) isolates were tested for recovery on Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium and the BacT Alert 3D system. For drug susceptibility testing of Mtb, isolates were evaluated on M-KIT plates and the BacT Alert 3D system. The recovery rates were 94.9% (206/217) and 98.2% (213/217) for LJ medium and the BacT Alert 3D system, respectively (kappa coefficient, 0.884). The rate of drug resistance was 13.4% for at least one or more drugs, 6.0% for MDR-TB and 2.3% for XDR-TB. M-KIT plate and BacT 3D Alert 3D system were comparable in drug susceptibility testing for isoniazid (97.7%; kappa coefficient, 0.905) and rifampin (98.6%; kappa coefficient, 0.907). Antibiotic resistance was observed using M-KIT plates for 24 of the total 29 Mtb isolates (82.8%). The liquid culture system showed greater reduction in the culture period, as compared with LJ medium; however, drug susceptibility testing using M-KIT plates was advantageous for simultaneous testing against multiple drug targets.

  6. Design and Evaluation of an Electronic Override Mechanism for Medication Alerts to Facilitate Communication Between Prescribers and Pharmacists.

    PubMed

    Russ, Alissa L; Chen, Siying; Melton, Brittany L; Saleem, Jason J; Weiner, Michael; Spina, Jeffrey R; Daggy, Joanne K; Zillich, Alan J

    2015-07-01

    Computerized medication alerts can often be bypassed by entering an override rationale, but prescribers' override reasons are frequently ambiguous to pharmacists who review orders. To develop and evaluate a new override mechanism for adverse reaction and drug-drug interaction alerts. We hypothesized that the new mechanism would improve usability for prescribers and increase the clinical appropriateness of override reasons. A counterbalanced, crossover study was conducted with 20 prescribers in a simulated prescribing environment. We modified the override mechanism timing, navigation, and text entry. Instead of free-text entry, the new mechanism presented prescribers with a predefined set of override reasons. We assessed usability (learnability, perceived efficiency, and usability errors) and used a priori criteria to evaluate the clinical appropriateness of override reasons entered. Prescribers rated the new mechanism as more efficient (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, P = 0.032). When first using the new design, 5 prescribers had difficulty finding the new mechanism, and 3 interpreted the navigation to mean that the alert could not be overridden. The number of appropriate override reasons significantly increased with the new mechanism compared with the original mechanism (median change of 3.0; interquartile range = 3.0; P < 0.0001). When prescribers were given a menu-based choice for override reasons, clinical appropriateness of these reasons significantly improved. Further enhancements are necessary, but this study is an important first step toward a more standardized menu of override choices. Findings may be used to improve communication through e-prescribing systems between prescribers and pharmacists. © The Author(s) 2015.

  7. Bacterial contamination of platelet components not detected by BacT/ALERT®.

    PubMed

    Abela, M A; Fenning, S; Maguire, K A; Morris, K G

    2018-02-01

    To investigate the possible causes for false negative results in BacT/ALERT ® 3D Signature System despite bacterial contamination of platelet units. The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) routinely extends platelet component shelf life to 7 days. Components are sampled and screened for bacterial contamination using an automated microbial detection system, the BacT/ALERT ® 3D Signature System. We report on three platelet components with confirmed bacterial contamination, which represent false negative BacT/ALERT ® results and near-miss serious adverse events. NIBTS protocols for risk reduction of bacterial contamination of platelet components are described. The methodology for bacterial detection using BacT/ALERT ® is outlined. Laboratory tests, relevant patient details and relevant follow-up information are analysed. In all three cases, Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the platelet residue and confirmed on terminal sub-culture using BacT/ALERT ® . In two cases, S. aureus with similar genetic makeup was isolated from the donors. Risk reduction measures for bacterial contamination of platelet components are not always effective. Automated bacterial culture detection does not eliminate the risk of bacterial contamination. Visual inspection of platelet components prior to release, issue and administration remains an important last line of defence. © 2017 British Blood Transfusion Society.

  8. Microcontroller based driver alertness detection systems to detect drowsiness

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adenin, Hasibah; Zahari, Rahimi; Lim, Tiong Hoo

    2018-04-01

    The advancement of embedded system for detecting and preventing drowsiness in a vehicle is a major challenge for road traffic accident systems. To prevent drowsiness while driving, it is necessary to have an alert system that can detect a decline in driver concentration and send a signal to the driver. Studies have shown that traffc accidents usually occur when the driver is distracted while driving. In this paper, we have reviewed a number of detection systems to monitor the concentration of a car driver and propose a portable Driver Alertness Detection System (DADS) to determine the level of concentration of the driver based on pixelated coloration detection technique using facial recognition. A portable camera will be placed at the front visor to capture facial expression and the eye activities. We evaluate DADS using 26 participants and have achieved 100% detection rate with good lighting condition and a low detection rate at night.

  9. Lack of utility of a decision support system to mitigate delays in admission from the operating room to the postanesthesia care unit.

    PubMed

    Ehrenfeld, Jesse M; Dexter, Franklin; Rothman, Brian S; Minton, Betty Sue; Johnson, Diane; Sandberg, Warren S; Epstein, Richard H

    2013-12-01

    When the phase I postanesthesia care unit (PACU) is at capacity, completed cases need to be held in the operating room (OR), causing a "PACU delay." Statistical methods based on historical data can optimize PACU staffing to achieve the least possible labor cost at a given service level. A decision support process to alert PACU charge nurses that the PACU is at or near maximum census might be effective in lessening the incidence of delays and reducing over-utilized OR time, but only if alerts are timely (i.e., neither too late nor too early to act upon) and the PACU slot can be cleared quickly. We evaluated the maximum potential benefit of such a system, using assumptions deliberately biased toward showing utility. We extracted 3 years of electronic PACU data from a tertiary care medical center. At this hospital, PACU admissions were limited by neither inadequate PACU staffing nor insufficient PACU beds. We developed a model decision support system that simulated alerts to the PACU charge nurse. PACU census levels were reconstructed from the data at a 1-minute level of resolution and used to evaluate if subsequent delays would have been prevented by such alerts. The model assumed there was always a patient ready for discharge and an available hospital bed. The time from each alert until the maximum census was exceeded ("alert lead time") was determined. Alerts were judged to have utility if the alert lead time fell between various intervals from 15 or 30 minutes to 60, 75, or 90 minutes after triggering. In addition, utility for reducing over-utilized OR time was assessed using the model by determining if 2 patients arrived from 5 to 15 minutes of each other when the PACU census was at 1 patient less than the maximum census. At most, 23% of alerts arrived 30 to 60 minutes prior to the admission that resulted in the PACU exceeding the specified maximum capacity. When the notification window was extended to 15 to 90 minutes, the maximum utility was <50%. At most, 45% of alerts potentially would have resulted in reassigning the last available PACU slot to 1 OR versus another within 15 minutes of the original assignment. Despite multiple biases that favored effectiveness, the maximum potential benefit of a decision support system to mitigate PACU delays on the day on the surgery was below the 70% minimum threshold for utility of automated decision support messages, previously established via meta-analysis. Neither reduction in PACU delays nor reassigning promised PACU slots based on reducing over-utilized OR time were realized sufficiently to warrant further development of the system. Based on these results, the only evidence-based method of reducing PACU delays is to adjust PACU staffing and staff scheduling using computational algorithms to match the historical workload (e.g., as developed in 2001).

  10. Computer-assisted upper extremity training using interactive biking exercise (iBikE) platform.

    PubMed

    Jeong, In Cheol; Finkelstein, Joseph

    2012-01-01

    Upper extremity exercise training has been shown to improve clinical outcomes in different chronic health conditions. Arm-operated bicycles are frequently used to facilitate upper extremity training however effective use of these devices at patient homes is hampered by lack of remote connectivity with clinical rehabilitation team, inability to monitor exercise progress in real time using simple graphical representation, and absence of an alert system which would prevent exertion levels exceeding those approved by the clinical rehabilitation team. We developed an interactive biking exercise (iBikE) platform aimed at addressing these limitations. The platform uses a miniature wireless 3-axis accelerometer mounted on a patient wrist that transmits the cycling acceleration data to a laptop. The laptop screen presents an exercise dashboard to the patient in real time allowing easy graphical visualization of exercise progress and presentation of exercise parameters in relation to prescribed targets. The iBikE platform is programmed to alert the patient when exercise intensity exceeds the levels recommended by the patient care provider. The iBikE platform has been tested in 7 healthy volunteers (age range: 26-50 years) and shown to reliably reflect exercise progress and to generate alerts at pre-setup levels. Implementation of remote connectivity with patient rehabilitation team is warranted for future extension and evaluation efforts.

  11. A new, ultra-low latency data transmission protocol for Earthquake Early Warning Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hill, P.; Hicks, S. P.; McGowan, M.

    2016-12-01

    One measure used to assess the performance of Earthquake Early Warning Systems (EEWS) is the delay time between earthquake origin and issued alert. EEWS latency is dependent on a number of sources (e.g. P-wave propagation, digitisation, transmission, receiver processing, triggering, event declaration). Many regional seismic networks use the SEEDlink protocol; however, packet size is fixed to 512-byte miniSEED records, resulting in transmission latencies of >0.5 s. Data packetisation is seen as one of the main sources of delays in EEWS (Brown et al., 2011). Optimising data-logger and telemetry configurations is a cost-effective strategy to improve EEWS alert times (Behr et al., 2015). Digitisers with smaller, selectable packets can result in faster alerts (Sokos et al., 2016). We propose a new seismic protocol for regional seismic networks benefiting low-latency applications such as EEWS. The protocol, based on Güralp's existing GDI-link format is an efficient and flexible method to exchange data between seismic stations and data centers for a range of network configurations. The main principle is to stream data sample-by-sample instead of fixed-length packets to minimise transmission latency. Self-adaptive packetisation with compression maximises available telemetry bandwidth. Highly flexible metadata fields within GDI-link are compatible with existing miniSEED definitions. Data is sent as integers or floats, supporting a wide range of data formats, including discrete parameters such as Pd & τC for on-site earthquake early warning. Other advantages include: streaming station state-of-health information, instrument control, support of backfilling and fail-over strategies during telemetry outages. Based on tests carried out on the Güralp Minimus data-logger, we show our new protocol can reduce transmission latency to as low as 1 ms. The low-latency protocol is currently being implemented with common processing packages. The results of these tests will help to highlight latency levels that can be achieved with next-generation EEWS.

  12. Alert Workplace From Healthcare Workers' Perspective: Behavioral and Environmental Strategies to Improve Vigilance and Alertness in Healthcare Settings.

    PubMed

    Sagah Zadeh, Rana; Shepley, Mardelle; Sadatsafavi, Hessam; Owora, Arthur Hamie; Krieger, Ana C

    2018-04-01

    This study aims to identify the behavioral and environmental strategies that healthcare workers view as helpful for managing sleepiness, improving alertness, and therefore optimizing workplace safety. Reduced alertness is a common issue in healthcare work environments and is associated with impaired cognitive performance and decision-making ability as well as increased errors and injuries. We surveyed 136 healthcare professionals at a primary care clinic, an acute care hospital, and a mental health clinic. Nonstructured, semistructured, and structured questionnaires were used to elicit relevant information which was analyzed using qualitative content analysis and logistic regression models, respectively. In order by frequency of endorsement: dietary intervention; physical mobility; cognitive, sensory, or social stimulation; personal lifestyle strategies; and rest/nap opportunities were reported as behavioral strategies used to address workplace alertness. Compared to other environmental features, daylight and thermal comfort were perceived to be more important to addressing workplace alertness ( p < .05). By optimizing the physical environment and organizational policies and providing education programs, we have an opportunity to support healthcare professionals in managing sleepiness and maintaining alertness at work. In addition, such system level interventions may reduce unhealthy choices such as frequent caffeine intake to keep alert. The development of multidisciplinary evidence-based guidelines is needed to address sleepiness and alertness to improve workplace safety in healthcare facilities.

  13. Alert!: In Emergencies, Schools Use Technology to Get the Message out Quickly

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Violino, Bob

    2008-01-01

    This article describes how a growing number of community colleges have begun deploying emergency alert systems that can be used to send information via e-mail and text messaging directly to students' cell phones and other portable devices. Such systems enable authorized campus administrators to send messages to thousands of people within minutes.…

  14. 47 CFR 11.11 - The Emergency Alert System (EAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... through the use of a single set of EAS equipment at the hub station (or common studio or control point... as low earth orbiting satellites, that wish to participate in the EAS may contact the FCC's Public... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false The Emergency Alert System (EAS). 11.11 Section...

  15. 47 CFR 11.11 - The Emergency Alert System (EAS).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... through the use of a single set of EAS equipment at the hub station (or common studio or control point... as low earth orbiting satellites, that wish to participate in the EAS may contact the FCC's Public... 47 Telecommunication 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false The Emergency Alert System (EAS). 11.11 Section...

  16. Tone-activated, remote, alert communication system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Baker, C. D.; Couvillon, L. A.; Hubbard, W. P.; Kollar, F. J.; Postal, R. B.; Tegnelia, C. R.

    1971-01-01

    Pocket sized transmitter, frequency modulated by crystal derived tones, with integral loop antenna provides police with easy operating alert signal communicator which uses patrol car radio to relay signal. Communication channels are time shared by several patrol units.

  17. Potential for driver attention monitoring system development

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1985-06-01

    The objective of this effort was to determine the potential of developing techniques and : methods for reducing the occurrence of highway accidents attributable to degraded : driver alertness. : Lapses in driver alertness are thought to be a maior fa...

  18. Modeling Pilot Behavior for Assessing Integrated Alert and Notification Systems on Flight Decks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cover, Mathew; Schnell, Thomas

    2010-01-01

    Numerous new flight deck configurations for caution, warning, and alerts can be conceived; yet testing them with human-in-the-Ioop experiments to evaluate each one would not be practical. New sensors, instruments, and displays are being put into cockpits every day and this is particularly true as we enter the dawn of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). By modeling pilot behavior in a computer simulation, an unlimited number of unique caution, warning, and alert configurations can be evaluated 24/7 by a computer. These computer simulations can then identify the most promising candidate formats to further evaluate in higher fidelity, but more costly, Human-in-the-Ioop (HITL) simulations. Evaluations using batch simulations with human performance models saves time, money, and enables a broader consideration of possible caution, warning, and alerting configurations for future flight decks.

  19. Development of a SNOMED CT based national medication decision support system.

    PubMed

    Greibe, Kell

    2013-01-01

    Physicians often lack the time to familiarize themselves with the details of particular allergies or other drug restrictions. Clinical Decision Support (CDS), based on a structured terminology as SNOMED CT (SCT), can help physicians get an overview, by automatically alerting allergy, interactions and other important information. The centralized CDS platform based on SCT, controls Allergy, Interactions, Risk Situation Drugs and Max Dose restrictions by the help of databases developed for these specific purposes. The CDS will respond to automatic web service requests from the hospital or GP electronic medication system (EMS) during prescription, and return alerts and information. The CDS also contains a Physicians Preference Database where the physicians individually can set which kind of alerts they want to see. The result is clinically useful information physicians can use as a base for a more effective and safer treatment, without developing alert fatigue.

  20. Preventing Heat Injuries by Predicting Individualized Human Core Temperature

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-10-14

    hardware/software warning system of an impending rise in TC and generate alerts to potentially prevent heat injuries. PREVENTING HEAT INJURIES BY...TC estimates, provides ahead-of-time alerts about an impending rise in TC and 2) an individualized model that uses non-invasive measurements of AC...PREDICTION AND ALERT ALGORITHMS Here, we detail the development of an algorithm that uses a time series of recent-past TC measurements to provide

  1. Bar Code Medication Administration Technology: Characterization of High-Alert Medication Triggers and Clinician Workarounds.

    PubMed

    Miller, Daniel F; Fortier, Christopher R; Garrison, Kelli L

    2011-02-01

    Bar code medication administration (BCMA) technology is gaining acceptance for its ability to prevent medication administration errors. However, studies suggest that improper use of BCMA technology can yield unsatisfactory error prevention and introduction of new potential medication errors. To evaluate the incidence of high-alert medication BCMA triggers and alert types and discuss the type of nursing and pharmacy workarounds occurring with the use of BCMA technology and the electronic medication administration record (eMAR). Medication scanning and override reports from January 1, 2008, through November 30, 2008, for all adult medical/surgical units were retrospectively evaluated for high-alert medication system triggers, alert types, and override reason documentation. An observational study of nursing workarounds on an adult medicine step-down unit was performed and an analysis of potential pharmacy workarounds affecting BCMA and the eMAR was also conducted. Seventeen percent of scanned medications triggered an error alert of which 55% were for high-alert medications. Insulin aspart, NPH insulin, hydromorphone, potassium chloride, and morphine were the top 5 high-alert medications that generated alert messages. Clinician override reasons for alerts were documented in only 23% of administrations. Observational studies assessing for nursing workarounds revealed a median of 3 clinician workarounds per administration. Specific nursing workarounds included a failure to scan medications/patient armband and scanning the bar code once the dosage has been removed from the unit-dose packaging. Analysis of pharmacy order entry process workarounds revealed the potential for missed doses, duplicate doses, and doses being scheduled at the wrong time. BCMA has the potential to prevent high-alert medication errors by alerting clinicians through alert messages. Nursing and pharmacy workarounds can limit the recognition of optimal safety outcomes and therefore workflow processes must be continually analyzed and restructured to yield the intended full benefits of BCMA technology. © 2011 SAGE Publications.

  2. Identification of Patients Expected to Benefit from Electronic Alerts for Acute Kidney Injury.

    PubMed

    Biswas, Aditya; Parikh, Chirag R; Feldman, Harold I; Garg, Amit X; Latham, Stephen; Lin, Haiqun; Palevsky, Paul M; Ugwuowo, Ugochukwu; Wilson, F Perry

    2018-06-07

    Electronic alerts for heterogenous conditions such as AKI may not provide benefit for all eligible patients and can lead to alert fatigue, suggesting that personalized alert targeting may be useful. Uplift-based alert targeting may be superior to purely prognostic-targeting of interventions because uplift models assess marginal treatment effect rather than likelihood of outcome. This is a secondary analysis of a clinical trial of 2278 adult patients with AKI randomized to an automated, electronic alert system versus usual care. We used three uplift algorithms and one purely prognostic algorithm, trained in 70% of the data, and evaluated the effect of targeting alerts to patients with higher scores in the held-out 30% of the data. The performance of the targeting strategy was assessed as the interaction between the model prediction of likelihood to benefit from alerts and randomization status. The outcome of interest was maximum relative change in creatinine from the time of randomization to 3 days after randomization. The three uplift score algorithms all gave rise to a significant interaction term, suggesting that a strategy of targeting individuals with higher uplift scores would lead to a beneficial effect of AKI alerting, in contrast to the null effect seen in the overall study. The prognostic model did not successfully stratify patients with regards to benefit of the intervention. Among individuals in the high uplift group, alerting was associated with a median reduction in change in creatinine of -5.3% ( P =0.03). In the low uplift group, alerting was associated with a median increase in change in creatinine of +5.3% ( P =0.005). Older individuals, women, and those with a lower randomization creatinine were more likely to receive high uplift scores, suggesting that alerts may benefit those with more slowly developing AKI. Uplift modeling, which accounts for treatment effect, can successfully target electronic alerts for AKI to those most likely to benefit, whereas purely prognostic targeting cannot. Copyright © 2018 by the American Society of Nephrology.

  3. Reducing Unnecessary and Duplicate Ordering for Ovum and Parasite Examinations and Clostridium difficile PCR in Immunocompromised Patients by Using an Alert at the Time of Request in the Order Management System.

    PubMed

    Otto, Caitlin C; Shuptar, Susan L; Milord, Philippe; Essick, Connor J; Nevrekar, Reshma; Granovsky, Svetlana L; Seo, Susan K; Babady, N Esther; Martin, Steven C; Tang, Yi-Wei; Pessin, Melissa S

    2015-08-01

    We implemented hospital information system (HIS) alerts to deter unnecessary test orders for ovum and parasite (O&P) exams and Clostridium difficile PCR. The HIS alerts decreased noncompliant O&P orders (orders after >72 h of hospitalization) from 49.8% to 30.9%, an overall decrease of 19%, and reduced noncompliant C. difficile PCR orders (orders <7 days after a previous positive result) from 30.6% to 19.2%, an overall decrease of 31.9%. Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

  4. How to Present Evidence-Based Usability Design Principles Dedicated to Medication-Related Alerting Systems to Designers and Evaluators? Results from a Workshop.

    PubMed

    Marcilly, Romaric; Monkman, Helen; Villumsen, Sidsel; Kaufman, David; Beuscart-Zephir, Marie-Catherine

    2016-01-01

    Medication alerting system use errors and lack of adoption are often attributed to usability issues. Previous work has used evidence from the literature to reveal usability principles specific to medication alerting systems and identify potential consequences of violating these principles. The current study sought to explore how best to convey these principles to designers and evaluators of these systems to facilitate their work. To this aim, a workshop with 19 participants was used to generate ideas and opinions on how to deliver these topic-specific design principles in a way that would be most helpful for them. Participants generated ideas for how (e.g., a collaborative, continuously updated forum) and what (e.g., illustrations, checklists, evidence sources and strength, consequences of violations) information is most useful to disseminate usability principles for medication alerting systems. Participants, especially designers, expressed desire to use these principles in practice and avoid previously documented mistakes and therefore make design and evaluation of these systems more effective and efficient. Those insights are discussed in terms of feasibility and logistical challenges to developing the proposed documentation). To move this work forward, a more collaborative approach of Human Factors specialists in medical informatics is necessary.

  5. Superorbital Periodic Modulation in Wind-Accretion High-Mass X-Ray Binaries from Swift Burst Alert Telescope Observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Corbet, Robin H. D.; Krimm, Hans A.

    2013-01-01

    We report the discovery using data from the Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) of superorbital modulation in the wind-accretion supergiant high-mass X-ray binaries 4U 1909+07 (= X 1908+075), IGR J16418-4532, and IGR J16479-4514. Together with already known superorbital periodicities in 2S 0114+650 and IGR J16493-4348, the systems exhibit a monotonic relationship between superorbital and orbital periods. These systems include both supergiant fast X-ray transients and classical supergiant systems, and have a range of inclination angles. This suggests an underlying physical mechanism which is connected to the orbital period. In addition to these sources with clear detections of superorbital periods, IGR J16393-4643 (= AX J16390.4-4642) is identified as a system that may have superorbital modulation due to the coincidence of low-amplitude peaks in power spectra derived from BAT, Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer Proportional Counter Array, and International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory light curves. 1E 1145.1-6141 may also be worthy of further attention due to the amount of low-frequency modulation of its light curve. However, we find that the presence of superorbital modulation is not a universal feature of wind-accretion supergiant X-ray binaries.

  6. New ways of looking at sector demand and sector alerts

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-03-31

    This report presents the latest results of research conducted at the Volpe Center on improving air traffic demand predictions and enhancing the Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) Monitor/Alert function for identifying potential congestion at Natio...

  7. STCA, TCAS, Airproxes and Collision Risk

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brooker, Peter

    2005-09-01

    The focus here is on the performance of and interaction between the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and the controller's short-term conflict alert (STCA) system. The data source used is UK Airprox Board Reports of close encounters between aircraft, and the focus is on commercial air transport aircraft using UK controlled airspace with a radar service. Do the systems work well together? Are controllers surprised when they find out that a pilot has received a TCAS resolution advisory? What do TCAS and STCA events say about collision risk? Generally, the systems seem to work together well. On most occasions, controllers are not surprised by TCAS advisories: either they have detected the problem themselves or STCA has alerted them to it. The statistically expected rate of future mid-air collisions is estimated by extrapolation of Airprox closest encounter distances.

  8. INITIAL EXPLORATION OF NEWLY IMPLEMENTED PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: THE CASE OF A U.S. SILVER ALERT PROGRAM.

    PubMed

    Yamashita, Takashi; Carr, Dawn C; Brown, J Scott

    2014-01-01

    Public health policies are designed for specific subsets of the population. Evidence that a policy is effectively designed should be based on whether it effectively addresses its mission. A critical factor is determining whether utilization patterns reflect the mission and the efficacy of public health policies, particularly during early stages of implementation. We assert that utilization patterns can be effectively assessed using geographic information systems (GIS). This paper uses the Silver Alert program, a recently implemented public health policy, as a case for how and why GIS can be used to examine utilization patterns. GIS are employed to visualize and spatially analyze a new health policy--North Carolina's Silver Alert policy. We use visualized data and spatial statistics to assess utilization patterns and mission adherence. Results show disproportionate utilization patterns of the Silver Alert policy. In particular, an outstanding number of Silver Alerts were used in Wake County and its surrounding counties, which are both the political and media center of North Carolina. Other counties, including populous counties, had few if any alerts. Findings suggest that the North Carolina's Silver Alert policy needs to be adjusted to more effectively address its mission. We identify several factors that need further examination prior to a statewide evaluation. From this case study, we propose ways future programs, particularly the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014, might use GIS to examine utilization patterns as a means to better understand whether and in what ways the health care needs of the public are being met with such a policy.

  9. Impact of faxed health alerts on the preparedness of general practitioners during communicable disease outbreaks.

    PubMed

    Rosewell, Alexander; Patel, Mahomed; Viney, Kerri; Marich, Andrew; Lawrence, Glenda L

    2010-03-01

    The NSW Department of Health (NSW Health) faxed health alerts to general medical practitioners during measles outbreaks in March and May 2006. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of randomly selected general practitioners (GPs) (1 per medical practice) in New South Wales to investigate the effectiveness of faxing health alerts to GPs during a communicable disease outbreak. Fax transmission data allowed comparison of GPs sent and not sent the measles alert for self-reported awareness and practice actions aimed at the prevention and control of measles. A total of 328 GPs participated in the study. GPs who were sent the alert were more likely to be aware of the measles outbreak (RR 1.18, 95% CI 1.02, 1.38). When analysed by whether a fax had been received from either NSW Health or the Australian General Practice Network, GPs who reported receiving a faxed measles alert were more likely to be aware of the outbreak (RR 2.56, 95% CI 1.84, 3.56), to offer vaccination to susceptible staff (RR 6.46, 95% CI 2.49, 16.78), and be aware of other infection control recommendations. Respondents reported that the faxed alerts were useful with 65% reporting that the alerts had reminded them to consider measles in the differential diagnosis. This study shows that faxed health alerts were useful for preparing GPs to respond effectively to a communicable disease outbreak. The fax alert system could be improved by ensuring that all general practices in New South Wales are included in the faxstream database and that their contact details are updated regularly.

  10. Evaluation of prescriber responses to pharmacogenomics clinical decision support for thiopurine S-methyltransferase testing.

    PubMed

    Ubanyionwu, Samuel; Formea, Christine M; Anderson, Benjamin; Wix, Kelly; Dierkhising, Ross; Caraballo, Pedro J

    2018-02-15

    Results of a study of prescribers' responses to a pharmacogenomics-based clinical decision support (CDS) alert designed to prompt thiopurine S -methyltransferase (TPMT) status testing are reported. A single-center, retrospective, chart review-based study was conducted to evaluate prescriber compliance with a pretest CDS alert that warned of potential thiopurine drug toxicity resulting from deficient TPMT activity due to TPMT gene polymorphism. The CDS alert was triggered when prescribers ordered thiopurine drugs for patients whose records did not indicate TPMT status or when historical thiopurine use was documented in the electronic health record. The alert pop-up also provided a link to online educational resources to guide thiopurine dosing calculations. During the 9-month study period, 500 CDS alerts were generated: in 101 cases (20%), TPMT phenotyping or TPMT genotyping was ordered; in 399 cases (80%), testing was not ordered. Multivariable regression analysis indicated that documentation of historical thiopurine use was the only independent predictor of test ordering. Among the 99 patients tested subsequent to CDS alerts, 70 (71%) had normal TPMT activity, 29 (29%) had intermediate activity, and none had deficient activity. The online resources provided thiopurine dosing recommendations applicable to 24 patients, but only 3 were prescribed guideline-supported doses after CDS alerts. The pretest CDS rule resulted in a large proportion of neglected alerts due to poor alerting accuracy and consequent alert fatigue. Prescriber usage of online thiopurine dosing resources was low. Copyright © 2018 by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Collaborative knowledge acquisition for the design of context-aware alert systems.

    PubMed

    Joffe, Erel; Havakuk, Ofer; Herskovic, Jorge R; Patel, Vimla L; Bernstam, Elmer Victor

    2012-01-01

    To present a framework for combining implicit knowledge acquisition from multiple experts with machine learning and to evaluate this framework in the context of anemia alerts. Five internal medicine residents reviewed 18 anemia alerts, while 'talking aloud'. They identified features that were reviewed by two or more physicians to determine appropriate alert level, etiology and treatment recommendation. Based on these features, data were extracted from 100 randomly-selected anemia cases for a training set and an additional 82 cases for a test set. Two staff internists assigned an alert level, etiology and treatment recommendation before and after reviewing the entire electronic medical record. The training set of 118 cases (100 plus 18) and the test set of 82 cases were explored using RIDOR and JRip algorithms. The feature set was sufficient to assess 93% of anemia cases (intraclass correlation for alert level before and after review of the records by internists 1 and 2 were 0.92 and 0.95, respectively). High-precision classifiers were constructed to identify low-level alerts (precision p=0.87, recall R=0.4), iron deficiency (p=1.0, R=0.73), and anemia associated with kidney disease (p=0.87, R=0.77). It was possible to identify low-level alerts and several conditions commonly associated with chronic anemia. This approach may reduce the number of clinically unimportant alerts. The study was limited to anemia alerts. Furthermore, clinicians were aware of the study hypotheses potentially biasing their evaluation. Implicit knowledge acquisition, collaborative filtering and machine learning were combined automatically to induce clinically meaningful and precise decision rules.

  12. Feedback mechanisms including real-time electronic alerts to achieve near 100% timely prophylactic antibiotic administration in surgical cases.

    PubMed

    Nair, Bala G; Newman, Shu-Fang; Peterson, Gene N; Wu, Wei-Ying; Schwid, Howard A

    2010-11-01

    Administration of prophylactic antibiotics during surgery is generally performed by the anesthesia providers. Timely antibiotic administration within the optimal time window before incision is critical for prevention of surgical site infections. However, this often becomes a difficult task for the anesthesia team during the busy part of a case when the patient is being anesthetized. Starting with the implementation of an anesthesia information management system (AIMS), we designed and implemented several feedback mechanisms to improve compliance of proper antibiotic delivery and documentation. This included generating e-mail feedback of missed documentation, distributing monthly summary reports, and generating real-time electronic alerts with a decision support system. In 20,974 surgical cases for the period, June 2008 to January 2010, the interventions of AIMS install, e-mail feedback, summary reports, and real-time alerts changed antibiotic compliance by -1.5%, 2.3%, 4.9%, and 9.3%, respectively, when compared with the baseline value of 90.0% ± 2.9% when paper anesthesia records were used. Highest antibiotic compliance was achieved when using real-time alerts. With real-time alerts, monthly compliance was >99% for every month between June 2009 and January 2010. Installation of AIMS itself did not improve antibiotic compliance over that achieved with paper anesthesia records. However, real-time guidance and reminders through electronic messages generated by a computerized decision support system (Smart Anesthesia Messenger, or SAM) significantly improved compliance. With such a system a consistent compliance of >99% was achieved.

  13. Mexican Seismic Alert System's SAS-I algorithm review considering strong earthquakes felt in Mexico City since 1985

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cuellar Martinez, A.; Espinosa Aranda, J.; Suarez, G.; Ibarrola Alvarez, G.; Ramos Perez, S.; Camarillo Barranco, L.

    2013-05-01

    The Seismic Alert System of Mexico (SASMEX) uses three algorithms for alert activation that involve the distance between the seismic sensing field station (FS) and the city to be alerted; and the forecast for earthquake early warning activation in the cities integrated to the system, for example in Mexico City, the earthquakes occurred with the highest accelerations, were originated in the Pacific Ocean coast, whose distance this seismic region and the city, favors the use of algorithm called Algorithm SAS-I. This algorithm, without significant changes since its beginning in 1991, employs the data that generate one or more FS during P wave detection until S wave detection plus a period equal to the time employed to detect these phases; that is the double S-P time, called 2*(S-P). In this interval, the algorithm performs an integration process of quadratic samples from FS which uses a triaxial accelerometer to get two parameters: amplitude and growth rate measured until 2*(S-P) time. The parameters in SAS-I are used in a Magnitude classifier model, which was made from Guerrero Coast earthquakes time series, with reference to Mb magnitude mainly. This algorithm activates a Public or Preventive Alert if the model predicts whether Strong or Moderate earthquake. The SAS-I algorithm has been operating for over 23 years in the subduction zone of the Pacific Coast of Mexico, initially in Guerrero and followed by Oaxaca; and since March 2012 in the seismic region of Pacific covering the coasts among Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero and Oaxaca, where this algorithm has issued 16 Public Alert and 62 Preventive Alerts to the Mexico City where its soil conditions increase damages by earthquake such as the occurred in September 1985. This work shows the review of the SAS-I algorithm and possible alerts that it could generate from major earthquakes recordings detected by FS or seismometers near the earthquakes, coming from Pacific Ocean Coast whose have been felt in Mexico City, in order to observe the performance SAS-I algorithm.

  14. Attentional networks in developmental dyscalculia

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background Very little is known about attention deficits in developmental dyscalculia, hence, this study was designed to provide the missing information. We examined attention abilities of participants suffering from developmental dyscalculia using the attention networks test - interactions. This test was designed to examine three different attention networks--executive function, orienting and alerting--and the interactions between them. Methods Fourteen university students that were diagnosed as suffering from developmental dyscalculia--intelligence and reading abilities in the normal range and no indication of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder--and 14 matched controls were tested using the attention networks test - interactions. All participants were given preliminary tests to measure mathematical abilities, reading, attention and intelligence. Results The results revealed deficits in the alerting network--a larger alerting effect--and in the executive function networks--a larger congruity effect in developmental dyscalculia participants. The interaction between the alerting and executive function networks was also modulated by group. In addition, developmental dyscalculia participants were slower to respond in the non-cued conditions. Conclusions These results imply specific attentional deficits in pure developmental dyscalculia. Namely, those with developmental dyscalculia seem to be deficient in the executive function and alertness networks. They suffer from difficulty in recruiting attention, in addition to the deficits in numerical processing. PMID:20157427

  15. Attentional networks in developmental dyscalculia.

    PubMed

    Askenazi, Sarit; Henik, Avishai

    2010-01-07

    Very little is known about attention deficits in developmental dyscalculia, hence, this study was designed to provide the missing information. We examined attention abilities of participants suffering from developmental dyscalculia using the attention networks test - interactions. This test was designed to examine three different attention networks--executive function, orienting and alerting--and the interactions between them. Fourteen university students that were diagnosed as suffering from developmental dyscalculia--intelligence and reading abilities in the normal range and no indication of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder--and 14 matched controls were tested using the attention networks test-interactions. All participants were given preliminary tests to measure mathematical abilities, reading, attention and intelligence. The results revealed deficits in the alerting network--a larger alerting effect--and in the executive function networks--a larger congruity effect in developmental dyscalculia participants. The interaction between the alerting and executive function networks was also modulated by group. In addition, developmental dyscalculia participants were slower to respond in the non-cued conditions. These results imply specific attentional deficits in pure developmental dyscalculia. Namely, those with developmental dyscalculia seem to be deficient in the executive function and alertness networks. They suffer from difficulty in recruiting attention, in addition to the deficits in numerical processing.

  16. Targeting the Soviet Army along the Sino-Soviet Border. Sanitized

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1978-03-31

    consisting usually of larches, pines, firs and spruces . Over 75’ of Eastern Siberia and 49% of the Far East economic region are forested, the densest...momentum of the Soviet strategic progra’i in both quality, diversity and numbers of systems. New high throwight missiles. are being introduced...model area in defense alert and maneuver scenario 1!./114 14 Site/weapons ratios for targetl~ag defense alert sites 121 15 Outlays fir offensive alert

  17. Use of Circadian Lighting System to improve night shift alertness and performance of NRC Headquarters Operations Officers

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Baker, T.L.; Morisseau, D.; Murphy, N.M.

    1995-04-01

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission`s (NRC) Headquarters Operations Officers (HOOs) receive and respond to events reported in the nuclear industry on a 24-hour basis. The HOOs have reported reduced alertness on the night shift, leading to a potential deterioration in their on-shift cognitive performance during the early morning hours. For some HOOs, maladaptation to the night shift was also reported to be the principal cause of: (a) reduced alertness during the commute to and from work, (b) poor sleep quality, and (c) personal lifestyle problems. ShiftWork Systems, Inc. (SWS) designed and installed a Circadian Lighting System (CLS) at both the Bethesdamore » and Rockville HOO stations with the goal of facilitating the HOOs physiological adjustment to their night shift schedules. The data indicate the following findings: less subjective fatigue on night shifts; improved night shift alertness and mental performance; higher HOO confidence in their ability to assess event reports; longer, deeper and more restorative day sleep after night duty shifts; swifter adaptation to night work; and a safer commute, particularly for those with extensive drives.« less

  18. Real-Time Mapping alert system; user's manual

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Torres, L.A.

    1996-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey has an extensive hydrologic network that records and transmits precipitation, stage, discharge, and other water- related data on a real-time basis to an automated data processing system. Data values are recorded on electronic data collection platforms at field monitoring sites. These values are transmitted by means of orbiting satellites to receiving ground stations, and by way of telecommunication lines to a U.S. Geological Survey office where they are processed on a computer system. Data that exceed predefined thresholds are identified as alert values. These alert values can help keep water- resource specialists informed of current hydrologic conditions. The current alert status at monitoring sites is of critical importance during floods, hurricanes, and other extreme hydrologic events where quick analysis of the situation is needed. This manual provides instructions for using the Real-Time Mapping software, a series of computer programs developed by the U.S. Geological Survey for quick analysis of hydrologic conditions, and guides users through a basic interactive session. The software provides interactive graphics display and query of real-time information in a map-based, menu-driven environment.

  19. Lay persons alerted by mobile application system initiate earlier cardio-pulmonary resuscitation: A comparison with SMS-based system notification.

    PubMed

    Caputo, Maria Luce; Muschietti, Sandro; Burkart, Roman; Benvenuti, Claudio; Conte, Giulio; Regoli, François; Mauri, Romano; Klersy, Catherine; Moccetti, Tiziano; Auricchio, Angelo

    2017-05-01

    We compared the time to initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by lay responders and/or first responders alerted either via Short Message Service (SMS) or by using a mobile application-based alert system (APP). The Ticino Registry of Cardiac Arrest collects all data about out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) occurring in the Canton of Ticino. At the time of a bystander's call, the EMS dispatcher sends one ambulance and alerts the first-responders network made up of police officers or fire brigade equipped with an automatic external defibrillator, the so called "traditional" first responders, and - if the scene was considered safe - lay responders as well. We evaluated the time from call to arrival of traditional first responders and/or lay responders when alerted either via SMS or the new developed mobile APP. Over the study period 593 OHCAs have occurred. Notification to the first responders network was sent via SMS in 198 cases and via mobile APP in 134 cases. Median time to first responder/lay responder arrival on scene was significantly reduced by the APP-based system (3.5 [2.8-5.2]) compared to the SMS-based system (5.6 [4.2-8.5] min, p 0.0001). The proportion of lay responders arriving first on the scene significantly increased (70% vs. 15%, p<0.01) with the APP. Earlier arrival of a first responder or of a lay responder determined a higher survival rate. The mobile APP system is highly efficient in the recruitment of first responders, significantly reducing the time to the initiation of CPR thus increasing survival rates. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Feature Selection Using Information Gain for Improved Structural-Based Alert Correlation

    PubMed Central

    Siraj, Maheyzah Md; Zainal, Anazida; Elshoush, Huwaida Tagelsir; Elhaj, Fatin

    2016-01-01

    Grouping and clustering alerts for intrusion detection based on the similarity of features is referred to as structurally base alert correlation and can discover a list of attack steps. Previous researchers selected different features and data sources manually based on their knowledge and experience, which lead to the less accurate identification of attack steps and inconsistent performance of clustering accuracy. Furthermore, the existing alert correlation systems deal with a huge amount of data that contains null values, incomplete information, and irrelevant features causing the analysis of the alerts to be tedious, time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, this paper focuses on selecting accurate and significant features of alerts that are appropriate to represent the attack steps, thus, enhancing the structural-based alert correlation model. A two-tier feature selection method is proposed to obtain the significant features. The first tier aims at ranking the subset of features based on high information gain entropy in decreasing order. The‏ second tier extends additional features with a better discriminative ability than the initially ranked features. Performance analysis results show the significance of the selected features in terms of the clustering accuracy using 2000 DARPA intrusion detection scenario-specific dataset. PMID:27893821

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