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Decision Support Systems (DSS) is a powerful tool, for facilitates researchers to choose the correct decision based on their final results. Especially in medical cases where doctors could use these systems, to overcome the problem with the clinical misunderstanding. Based on these systems, queries must be constructed based on the particular questions that doctors must answer. In this work, combination between questions and queries would be presented via relational algebra.

Electronic patient records are important for quality health services and efficient patient data management. In emergency care, saving valuable time during patient care is of great significance. One out of two fatalities due to trauma occur half an hour after the injury. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential effect of an electronic trauma documentation system on the length of stay in an emergency department.A 2-year observational study was conducted in the emergency department of a university hospital located in central Greece. The purpose was to compare 3 length-of-stay parameters with and without the use of an electronic documentation system. Ninety-nine trauma patients were monitored with the use of the electronic system, whereas 101 patients were monitored with a paper-based method (control group).Statistical analysis using independent-samples t tests indicated that the time between admission and completion of the planned care was significantly lower in the electronic documentation patient group (100 ± 92 minutes) than in the control group (149 ± 29 minutes) (P.01). A similar effect was found on the total ED length of stay (127 ± 93 minutes in electronic documentation group vs 206 ± 41 minutes in control group, P.01) and the time between completion of care and discharge from the emergency department (26 ± 10 minutes in electronic documentation group vs 57 ± 23 minutes in control group, P.01).We investigated 3 length-of-stay parameters and found that all were lower with the use of the electronic documentation system. This finding is important regarding the quality of trauma patient care because saving time during the first hours after the injury may determine the outcome of the trauma patient.

Background: The aim of this review is to identify the roles and activities of nurses working with people with diabetes and to examine the facilitators and barriers in caring for such people. Methods: A systematic review was conducted. From 531 abstracts reviewed, 29 studies were included (18 studies comprised questionnaire surveys, one was an intervention study, two used both questionnaires and interviews, and eight of them used interviews). Barriers and facilitators were extracted and combined using qualitative synthesis. Results: The literature review revealed three major roles and a number of barriers. A model for achieving enhanced nursing care of patients with diabetes has been developed according to the findings of this literature. Specifically, a stepladder suggesting that through better nursing training and education and by providing adequate resources, time, and synergies to diabetes specialists, nurses will be able to correctly perform their diabetes care roles, which include patient education, advanced care, and psychological support. Conclusions: Taking into serious consideration that a large number of hospital users are people with diabetes and that there is an inconsistency among countries about the work settings of Diabetes Specialist Nurses (DSNs), it is important to give greater focus to inpatient care and perhaps to enhance nurses’ roles by eliminating any barriers that prevent them from providing adequate quality care. Furthermore, integrated care involving the role of DSNs within the inpatient care would have been more beneficial for patients.

The aim of this review is to present mobile health applications which help individuals to change their smoking habit. An online search on scientific databases and mobile application stores was conducted to collect information about m-Health and the smoking cessation. 12 papers found discussing about mobile applications and solutions for quit smoking referred to 4 different technological approaches. Based on the research results, mobile devices and their applications constitute an excellent mean that can help smokers by providing counseling and give them the necessary motivation to smoking cessation.

Chronic Pain (CP) is a condition which is difficult to assess. Existing methods are based on self-management treatments and leaving the big part of the assessment on the patient. According on this method, mHealth applications offer tools to CP patients to self-manage their condition and improve it. All the applications are limited by the type of data they collect and the data based on self-reporting. In the future the applications for CP management will not be based only on this type of data. Multiple types of data will be gathered and analyzed, as well as the specialists will be able to have a better prospective for the patients' pain levels.

Social networks provide an alternative way to communicate and exchange of information with various people. Especially for Health Care Professionals, information ought to be exchanged and shared between individuals for diagnosis and proposed therapies. In this research, the important sources of medical information that people trust, through the exchange of information on social networks, were analyzed based on the perceived information quality using path models. A questionnaire was developed to run the survey. Based on the answers, it seems that the surveyed population does not trust heavily the content of social networks as source of information for healthcare issues. Further research is needed to examine the trustiness of social networks as a Source of Health Care Information.

Neurological disorders affect the lifestyle and the living conditions of a patient. Virtual Reality is a technology that may be used to simulate various types of tasks in a computerized environment guiding the patient and help on rehabilitation. This review try to answer how Virtual Reality technologies can effect on the patients rehabilitation's results. Treatments which involves Virtual Reality applications offer new ways to make the patients more committed to their program and keeps them motivated. Another characteristic of a Virtual Reality treatment is that both patients and therapists can observe the mistakes made during a physiotherapy session. The insert of VR sessions in traditional rehabilitation therapy of patients with neurological disorders have produced positive results.

The need to transmit medical information with images, data and voice from distance via telecommunications has come to our knowledge from ages. The topic has a new interest because of the progress in technology of telecommunications and information systems. The current article makes an effort to inform the reader in a simple way about what Telemedicine is and where it can be used. In this paper is presented the definition and the purpose of telemedicine, followed by the services provide through telemedicine applications. Finally, is analyzed the use of telemedicine in Greece its advantages, benefits and disadvantages, concluding with a final evaluation of it.

The use of applications for mobile devices and wireless sensors is common for the sector of telemedicine. Recently various studies and systems were developed in order to help patients suffering from severe diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and Parkinson's disease. They present a challenge for the sector because such systems demand the flow of accurate data in real time and the use of specialized sensors. In this review will be presented some very interesting applications developed for patients with cardiovascular diseases and Parkinson's disease.

Background: Parental and peer smoking are considered major predictors of smoking in adolescence. We investigate the impact of family and social environment and parental anti-smoking socialization on the intensive and extensive margins of smoking for Greek adolescents. Method and Material: Information on 873 adolescents was collected through a self-reported survey and regression analysis examined associations with five different smoking outcomes (current/lifetime smoking status/intensity and onset). Subgroup analyses and interactions provided further insights. Results: Prevalence of adolescent smoking is high. Family and peer smoking habits and smoking restrictions at home reduce probability and intensity of smoking. Parental smoking increases probability of current smoking by 5% (95% CI: 0.01-0.09) as does having all your friends smoking by 30% (95% CI: 0.16-0.45). Parental anti-smoking advice delays onset of smoking by 0.76 years (95% CI: 0.15-1.39) but does not affect current smoking. Conclusion: Family and social environments play a significant role in preventing or promoting smoking and should be regarded as crucial factors when devising policy to curb adolescent smoking.

rEViEw Abstract introduction: There is an increasing number of people who travel around the world. Every traveler is exposed to nearly all infectious risks which may occur during his travel time. Some of the main risk factors can be water quality, temperature and high humidity and the exposure to multi- resistant microorganisms. To tackle the upcoming problem there is an imperative need to develop a new branch of medicine with the name of travel medicine. review results: A consultation prior to departure for an upcoming trip is required, focusing to a personalized healthcare p lan, based on international scientific protocols and epidemiological studies.Travelers must acquire essential information about the prevailing hygie- ne conditions and climatic differentiations that occur in the region. Additionally there are several health risks upon the arrival at destination. A scheduled visit to a health professional is necessary, especially in the case of travelers suffering from chronic diseases or those taking medication, while vaccination is considered essential for specific destination countries. Healthcare professionals should be able to inform travelers and evaluate their needs. According to research studies on notion and attitudes travelers' specific risks, only few of them are well-informed during a trip. While most studies indicate that travelers have some kind of pre travel medical consultation, not all of them proceed to the required vaccinations and medications. Conclusion: Travelling for business or leisure around the world may be unhealthy. The importance of proper preparation prior to the travel requires to be adequately informed by specialized healthcare professionals, and to receive appropriate vaccinations and medications, when required. The results of the review of notions and attitudes of travelers during the trip indicate not only the need for further development of the branch of travel medicine but especially the need for the expansion and the availability of health services.

Over the course of the last decades there has been a significant interest in assessing the quality of the health care services. Professionals and experts recognize patient satisfaction as an important indicator of the so-called quality. The purpose of the study is to measure patients' satisfaction in a military hospital in relation to educational and staffing levels of the health care workers. The evaluation in the individual level has been done by completing questionnaires. The study involved 109 patients from 2 clinics. According to the results, the majority of the patients indicated high satisfaction level both from physicians and nurses. The high educational level and general competence of the health care personnel are the key elements for the efficient provision of health care services.

A wide range of health care systems have been implemented, to support medical opinions, which are defined as Decision Support Systems. In this work a pilot information system was developed based on patients health records data combined with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology, which could be used as an advisor in cases where epidemiological diseases are taking place.

The aim of the current paper is the imparting of useful information to both patients and people in general regarding the development of mental conditions based on drug addictions, through e-health. It will provide all related information in order to achieve the empowerment of the selected sample regarding their conditions in terms of conceptualizing their health status. The general part is consisting of an overview on patient empowerment and e-health. The special part refers to the details of developing and presenting the above mentioned website. The information presented in the web site is addressing the general population and not only patients suffering a mental condition or addiction. The website contains the related articles and information obtained from the related bibliographical search. The main goal of the website is to impart concise information on the related issues.

The last six years the global community is facing an economic crisis that first appeared in USA. This crisis has a lot of impacts especially in health sector. Unemployment, job insecurity and the loss of disposable income have a significant impact in health too. The main objective of this research was to investigate the quality of life of the general population in Greece during the financial crisis. To collect the data it has been used the Greek version of Short Form (36) Health Survey (SF-36v2). In general, income, level of education, cohabitation and parenthood had a significant impact in quality of life. As a conclusion, unemployed participants' score was lower in the entire dimensions and in the two summary scales too.

Nowadays the social networks have been developed into an advanced communications tool, which is important for all people to contact each other. These specific networks do offer lots of options as well as plenty of advantages and disadvantages. The social websites are many in number and titles, such as the facebook, the twitter, the bandoo etc. One of the most important function-mechanisms for the social network websites, are the marketing tools. The future goal is suggested to be the evolution of these programs. The development of these applications, which is going to lead into a new era for the social digital communication between the internet users, all around the globe.

In recent years the costs of hospital care in developed countries absorbed a high proportion of total health resources. In Greece, after the establishment of the National Health System (NHS), funding for hospitals comes mainly from the state budget, and social insurance, therefore auditing of hospital cost is imperative to ensure their viability, especially at this time when the country is tested by economic crisis. Overtime many factors for the increase of hospital cost have been mentioned, such as the rapid development of medical technology, the low level of organization of the hospital system and the low productivity of human resources. The problem of rising health expenditure over the past decades is a worldwide phenomenon and it has brought about many changes in traditional retrospective methods for financing in the hospital sector, with prospective financial forms that combine patient composition and needs, and the productive activity of hospital need to the rationalization and contain expenditures. The system of Diagnosis Related Groups was a revolutionary success over the past decades and has now achieved worldwide recognition.

The importance of recognizing the symptoms of Internet addiction constitutes the first step for treatment. Internet use can be pathological, and the percentage of addicted people is increasing while people become dependent on technology and Internet continues to develop. This study is a systematic litterature review. An electronic literature search was conducted using as keywords internet addiction, psychological implications, internet abuse etc. to the following databases: Medline, PubMed and Google Schoolar. The majority of research was conducted in Europe and in North America. We found 20 surveys. 9 were excluded on the basis of screening due to full text articles were not available. The final number of included surveys was 11. Hospitals and clinics have to emerge with outpatient treatment services for Internet addiction recovery, and in some cases there may be a need for addiction rehabilitation centers as admitted from people with Internet addiction into inpatient care.

The purpose of this study is register the opinion of nurses on the compatibility of the Nursing Information System with the provision of nursing care, and the ease of learning of the subsystem. This paper is an empirical study that was conducted using a questionnaire in Cancer and Oncology Hospital "Agios Savvas". Specifically, 121 nurses (108 women and 13 men) of all education levels participated in the survey. According to user responses, 86% agreed partially that the subsystem was easy to learn, and 40.5 % of this 86% believe that the clinical subsystem adequately supports nursing care, mainly engaged in designing the necessary processes, and followed by reducing errors. In conclusion, we can consider that the use of information systems in nursing is important for improving clinical practice and quality of patient care.

The provision of health care has undergone radical changes during the last years. Geography plays an important role in understanding the dynamics of health, as well as the reasons why a disease is spreading. In general, a Geographic Information System (GIS) is based on the same principals with a traditional relational database. The main idea behind this study is the methodological approach as far as the implementation of a real- time electronic healthcare record is concerned, for the descriptive statistical analysis that uses geographical information to identify spatial data related to accidents. The purpose of developing such a health care record is to record the patients who were injured in accidents. The database that will be used for the development of the EHR is based on Microsoft Office 2007, which is considered to be one of the best tools for developing databases. The main table of the database includes the fields with demographics, ie name, surname, age, sex, address and place of birth. The primary key of the table Demographics is Patient_ID. The demographics from the table are connected to the table Admission with a relationship type one- to- many. The combination of these features in a graphic representation can be used to display the health problems on the map, so that the proper health policies can be applied. The results of the monitoring could be used as pilot instructions for spatial epidemiological analysis.

Hospital healthcare the last dictate becomes an important subject for analysis which includes factors such as epidemiological indexes and many others like Surgical, Economic, Organizational, Structural issues necessary for the overall evaluation of the general hospital performance. The social cost includes the private cost, the public expenditures and the external cost affecting the society at large from an incoming event, a current action and / or a policy change. For that reason, the calculation of these social costs over time (t) could be defined as a social measure to dictate the variability of social indicators on society. In this study epidemiological factor based on the social cost maybe introduced with the main goal being the evaluation of the hospital healthcare performance.

The consequences of demographic ageing, demographic and social-economic changes, changes in the structure of family, in the shrinkage of Welfare state, influenced the lifestyle of the older people and their social relations. The institution of Open Care Centers for the Elderly (KAPI) was created in the context of these conditions. This cross-sectional study examined the lifestyle of the older people who are member of KAPI and their association with all HRQoL dimensions. The results of this research showed that the main reason for the participants to become members of the KAPI was entertainment and/or companionship (98.4%). Additionally subjects who suffered from a chronic disease had significantly lower scores on all HRQoL dimensions, while participants who were members in the activity groups of KAPI had significantly higher scores. The elderly within the KAPI have many opportunities to meet with other persons of their age, and develop various activities and interests.

The paper deals with the investigation of the information seeking behavior of nursing staff of a private hospital in Greece. It is assumed that the information seeking behaviour has an effect on the nursing care and practices. A survey was conducted through a specially designed questionnaire distributed within 2013 to registered nurses of a major private Hospital in Athens. Nonparametric descriptive statistics have been carried out through SPSS version 20. The information needs of nurses are related to their work role and include information for nursing interventions and hospital infections control. The online scientific content is considered as the main source of information, while lack of time is considered as the main obstacle when seeking information. Regarding the effects of information, nurses believe that information quality and availability influences nursing care as well as nursing practices. Development of appropriate information services and information literacy skills for nurses is required.

The education in First Aid through health education programs can help in promoting the health of the population. Meanwhile, the development of alternative forms of education with emphasis on distance learning implemented with e-learning creates an innovative system of knowledge and skills in different population groups. The main purpose of this research proposal is to investigate the effectiveness of the educational program to candidates educators about knowledge and emergency preparedness at school. The study used the Solomon four group design (2 intervention groups and 2 control groups). Statistical analysis showed significant difference within the four groups. Intervention groups had improved significantly their knowledge showing that the program was effective and that they would eventually deal with a threatening situation with right handlings. There were no statistical significant findings regarding other independent variables (pgt;0,05).The health education program with the implementation of synchronous distance learning succeeded to enhance the knowledge of candidates educators.

Summary Objectives: Health informatics is a well established and important multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary field that not only involves informatics but also medicine, nursing, engineering, biology and other-related subjects. The program has been organized on the basis of an inter-university approach with the participation of five Greek universities. The paper aims at providing a current description of the academic program and a preliminary evaluation of the implementation phase. Methods: The paper presents a case study of a curriculum implementation from the phase of curriculum development to the phase of implementation and evaluation. Due to the interdisciplinary character of the course appropriate procedures were undertaken to ensure that mixed backgrounds can assimilate the broad spectrum of the teaching material taught. In the first stages of the implementation international students mainly from Europe attended the course. In addition, local graduates provided an extra dimension to the multi-layered difficulties and challenges of such a course implementation. Results: The students registered in the course were from different backgrounds and disciplines. They were mainly from health sciences and engineering schools. The interdisciplinary arrangement of the course facilitated the proper exchange of thoughts, skills, and knowledge among and between students and teachers. Conclusions: The postgraduate course in health informatics at the University of Athens has now been running for more than fifteen consecutive years and is one of the first and longest standing courses in Europe. Continuous evaluation and adaptation is required to fit within the changing and evolving amazing field of biomedical and health informatics.

Electronic patient records are important in patient data management. Aim of this 2-year study was to investigate the effect of an e-documentation system on the ED length of stay. The study compared three length of stay parameters with and without the use of a prototype e-documentation system. 99 of trauma patients were monitored with the use of the electronic system and 101 patients (control group) were monitored with traditional methods. Time between the admission and completion of care was significantly lower in the e-documentation group (100±92 minutes, control group: 149±29 minutes). Similar effect was also found to the total ED length of stay (127±93 vs. 206±41 minutes) and time between completion of care and ED exit (26±10 vs. 57±23 minutes). LOS was reduced with the e-documentation system. This is important for the quality of trauma patient care, since saving time during the first hours after the accident usually determines the outcome of trauma patients.

The use of illegal drugs generates a wide range of social harms depending on various ways, according to the policy definition of the problem. The challenge is the way to model the impact of illegal drugs use during a long time period considering the factors that affects the process. Based on these models, estimation could be measured and prediction could be achieved. The illegal drugs use might affect the economic and social structure of the public system leading to direct and effective decisions to overcome the problematic. For that reason, calculation of social cost related to the use of illegal could be introduced over time (t) as a proposed social measure to define the variability of social indicator on society. In this work, a theoretical approach for the calculation of social cost of illegal drugs is proposed and models over time are defined.

Health and safety at the work place is an important issue of the modern society, as there are a lot of factors and parameters which may influence health in the working environment. The aim of this research gives with a simple and comprehensible everything that is related with workers health and it also facilitate the developers computer work to create more advanced systems targeted in health informatics in the near future. Through bibliographic research risk factors were identified and categorized in order to be more functional. These types of categories include the natural, biological, chemical and transverse risk factors. Detailed information was also presented regarding the types of work, the Personal Protective Equipment the sex, the age, the education and the training at the work place. Based on the class diagram of Unified Modeling Language (UML), an object-oriented model was developed, in which every possible correlation of the above mentioned risk factors with the hygiene and safety of workers was presented.

The sexually transmitted diseases are a group of infectious diseases with increasing incidence worldwide. In recent years, these diseases have taken epidemic proportions in many countries and huge efforts have been made to prevent them. The gonococcus infections, the HPV virus, AIDS, chlamydia, herpes genitalia, hepatitis B and C, the trichomonas and syphilis are the most common sexually transmitted diseases. This paper describes the clinical and epidemiological symptoms and the preventive measures that should be taken for each disease. lt also presents the dimensions of the sexually transmitted diseases in adolescents who are particularly a "sensitive" group. One of the most important and widely disseminated measures of prevention is the use of condoms. We can also see the importance of and other preventive measures which can be taken against sexually transmitted diseases. Finally, it is noted also the role of the state to treat these diseases, which are unfortunately quite common, and the measures taken by it to prevent and treat them.

Public health and health care are important issues for developing countries and access to health care is a significant factor that contributes to a healthy population. In response to these issues, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been working on the development of methods and models for measuring physical accessibility to health care using several layers of information integrated in a GIS. This paper describes the methodological approach for the development of a real time electronic health record, based on the statistical and geographic information for the identification of various diseases and accidents that can happen in a specific place.

Nowadays, it is globally observed that the incidence of food borne diseases is understated, as they are self-curable disease with mostly mild symptoms. As a result, many patients remain undiagnosed without seeking care in health services. In Greece, food borne diseases are the most common infectious diseases declared. There are more than 250 different food borne diseases described, caused either by biological agents (viruses, parasites, bacteria), or by physical and chemical causes. The purpose of this study is twofold: at first is to inform the population with the use of social networks on issues concerning food borne diseases and subsequently, is to create a Facebook page.

Medical data are, most of the times, very complex both in form and content. One of the greatest challenges for the IT community in healthcare is to enable the full utilization of these data by information systems. This explicit variety combined with the fact that data usually derives from diverse systems are great obstacles to this task. The result is that data stored in medical information systems usually do not accurately represent reality. In order to eliminate the fallacy between stored and real data, specialized applications that facilitate and accelerate data import into information systems must be developed. This is the goal of Natural Language Processing, the scientific field that combines computer science and linguistics. As a result NLP systems use applications for the coding and standardization of information, known as controlled medical vocabularies. The result of these processes is data that can be used by various technologies, such as clinical data warehouses and decision support systems, the functionality of which is fully dependable on the completeness and accuracy of the data on which their analysis is imposed.

Common low back pain represents a major public health problem due to its direct cost to health care and to various socio economic consequences. Although low back pain may be caused by medical conditions, such as any kind of infections or cancer, the vast majority of the cases are attributed to mechanical or muscle skeletal conditions. Nurses and other health care professionals are on the top of the list for experiencing low back pain based on the duties performed in their working environment. The objective of this study involves the development of an educational program for the nursing stuff focused on the prevention of low back pain.

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The infection is often asymptomatic, but once established, chronic infection can progress to scarring of the liver (fibrosis), and advanced scarring (cirrhosis) which is generally apparent after many years. The main goal of this work is the investigation of the important factors that affect hepatitis C. Epidemiological and Statistical analysis using non-parametric tests (Kruskal-Willis, Mann-Whitney) are considered to present the amount of significant differences between important factors. Proposed model are analyzed when logistic regression is applied.

The aim of this study is to examine the infections control methods in ICU as well as the issue of quality in health services provided, as they constitute an important quality assurance indicator. Moreover, nowadays the causes of Nosocomial infections are known and so do the measures for their control. There is a need however for an information resource that will promote specialized and general guidelines. The measures include the appropriate use of gloves, cleaning and disinfection of the ICU environment and hand washing which is the most important of all. Therefore an effort was made to develop an easy to navigate webpage with practical and comprehensible clinical guidelines. Additionally, it gives to all visitors the opportunity for further information research with the use of the included links. For the development of the web side existing clinical guide lines were scrutinizes as well as studies that concern the effectiveness of the measures mentioned and for the identification of quality assurance criteria.

Liver cancer requires a considerable attention of health care scientists worldwide. A holistic treatment includes patient information about risk factors, education on pragmatic evaluation of the symptoms, as well as presentation of best and individualized treatment methods. In this direction, Internet seems to be a powerful tool that has an essential role. The aim of this study is the development of a web site in order to inform and present treatment options on liver cancer, it consists of four parts. In the first part, the presentation of the disease's knowledge base is attempted, whereas in the second part this knowledge base is organized in two conceptual entities: (a) information and (b) treatment. In the third part the importance of internet in the health care sector is highlighted. In the fourth and last part the web site is presented and a brief illustration of several relevant theories and specific implementation tools. The critical success factor of the implementation phase is considered to be the selection of the appropriate methods and development tools. Finally, the constant need for ongoing site maintenance is discussed and thus, is proposed to formulate one of the main aspects for further research, along with several issues concerning site usability.

Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Globalization describes the interplay of macro-social forces across cultures. The purpose of this study is a systematic review of the bibliography on the impacts of globalization in health. The consequences of globalization on health present a twofold dimension, on the one hand affects the health of the population and on the other hand organization and functioning of health systems. As a result of globalization, there has been an undeniable economic development and technological progress to support the level of health around the world, improving the health status of certain populations with a beneficial increase in life expectancy.In many aspects globalization is good but there are many problems too.

Introduction: Social networks (1) have been embedded in our daily life for a long time. They constitute a powerful tool used nowadays for both searching and exchanging information on different issues by using Internet searching engines (Google, Bing, etc.) and Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.). In this paper, are presented the results of a research based on the frequency and the type of the usage of the Internet and the Social Networks by the general public and the health professionals. Objectives: The objectives of the research were focused on the investigation of the frequency of seeking and meticulously searching for health information in the social media by both individuals and health practitioners. The exchanging of information is a procedure that involves the issues of reliability and quality of information. Methods: In this research, by using advanced statistical techniques an effort is made to investigate the participant’s profile in using social networks for searching and exchanging information on health issues. Results: Based on the answers 93 % of the people, use the Internet to find information on health-subjects. Considering principal component analysis, the most important health subjects were nutrition (0.719 %), respiratory issues (0.79 %), cardiological issues (0.777%), psychological issues (0.667%) and total (73.8%). Conclusions: The research results, based on different statistical techniques revealed that the 61.2% of the males and 56.4% of the females intended to use the social networks for searching medical information. Based on the principal components analysis, the most important sources that the participants mentioned, were the use of the Internet and social networks for exchanging information on health issues. These sources proved to be of paramount importance to the participants of the study. The same holds for nursing, medical and administrative staff in hospitals.

Syndromic surveillance systems perform real-time analysis of health data to enable early identification of potential public health threats, evaluating whether distributional parameters have been increased beyond a threshold. This paper presents the applied data analysis methods in five non-industrial surveillance systems. Four time series and spatial cluster analysis methods were found to be implemented: SMART, EWMA, CuSum and WSARE. Combined use both spatial and time series methods is found in the presented surveillance applications. Data analysis methods for syndromic surveillance are a constantly emerging field, while new statistical methods and algorithms are implemented into surveillance systems.

Distributed systems and grid computing systems are used to connect several computers to obtain a higher level of performance, in order to solve a problem. During the last decade, projects use the World Wide Web to aggregate individuals' CPU power for research purposes. This paper presents the existing active large scale distributed and grid computing projects with research focus in human health. There have been found and presented 11 active projects with more than 2000 Processing Units (PUs) each. The research focus for most of them is molecular biology and, specifically on understanding or predicting protein structure through simulation, comparing proteins, genomic analysis for disease provoking genes and drug design. Though not in all cases explicitly stated, common target diseases include research to find cure against HIV, dengue, Duchene dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, various types of cancer and influenza. Other diseases include malaria, anthrax, Alzheimer's disease. The need for national initiatives and European Collaboration for larger scale projects is stressed, to raise the awareness of citizens to participate in order to create a culture of internet volunteering altruism.

SummaryBackground: Medicine and biomedical sciences have become data-intensive fields, which, at the same time, enable the application of data-driven approaches and require sophisticated data analysis and data mining methods. Biomedical informatics provides a proper interdisciplinary context to integrate data and knowledge when processing available information, with the aim of giving effective decision-making support in clinics and translational research.Objectives: To reflect on different perspectives related to the role of data analysis and data mining in biomedical informatics. Methods: On the occasion of the 50th year of Methods of Information in Medicine a symposium was organized, which reflected on opportunities, challenges and priorities of organizing, representing and analysing data, information and knowledge in biomedicine and health care. The contributions of experts with a variety of backgrounds in the area of biomedical data analysis have been collected as one outcome of this symposium, in order to provide a broad, though coherent, overview of some of the most interesting aspects of the field.Results: The paper presents sections on data accumulation and data-driven approaches in medical informatics, data and knowledge integration, statistical issues for the evaluation of data mining models, translational bioinformatics and bioinformatics aspects of genetic epidemiology.Conclusions: Biomedical informatics represents a natural framework to properly and effectively apply data analysis and data mining methods in a decision-making context. In the future, it will be necessary to preserve the inclusive nature of the field and to foster an increasing sharing of data and methods between researchers.

Patient Safety (PS) is a major concern that involves a wide range of roles in healthcare, including those who are directly and indirectly involved, and patients as well. In order to succeed into developing a safety culture among healthcare providers, carers and patients, there should be given great attention into building appropriate education and training tools, especially addressing those who plan patient safety activities. The framework described in this policy paper is based on the results of the European Network for Patient Safety (EUNetPaS) project and analyses the principles and elements of the guidance that should be provided to those who design and implement Patient Safety Education and training activities. The main principles that it should be based on and the core teaching objectives-expected outcomes are addressed. Once the main context and considerations are properly set, the guidance should define the general schema of the content that should be included in the Education and Training activities, as well as how these activities would be delivered. It is also important that the different roles of the recipients are clearly distinguished and linked to their role-specific methods, proper delivery platforms and success stories. Setting these principles into practice when planning and implementing interventions, primarily aims to enlighten and support those who are enrolled to design and implement Patient Safety education and training teaching activities. This is achieved by providing them with a framework to build upon, succeeding to build a collaborative, safety conscious and competent environment, in terms of PS. A guidelines web platform has been developed to support this process.

The European Union Network for Patient Safety (EUNetPaS) is a project funded and supported by the European Commission within the 2007 Public Health Programme and aims to encourage and enhance the collaboration of participating EU countries in the field of Patient Safety. One of its major objectives is to promote Patient Safety (PS) education and training in Member States, through building a platform for mutual exchange of experience and knowledge on methods of planning and implementing sustainable learning activities. Towards this direction, a methodology has been applied, based on a three axes schema, which describes the roles, the awareness level and the competences of the PS Education and Training Activities. Based on this scheme, a questionnaire has been developed and distributed across EU organizations though National Contact Points, as a tool for information collection. Looking to the above structure, a web-based resource has been developed aiming to facilitate the information collection and sharing, in a truly networking environment.

The aim of the study was to describe computed tomography (CT) findings in middle ear cholesteatoma in pediatric patients. A cohort of 32 children with cholesteatoma (3-14 years old) entered the study. From them, 30 presented acquired cholesteatoma (AC), and 2 presented congenital cholesteatoma. All of the children were investigated using CT before surgery of the middle ear and mastoid. Computed tomography was performed with 1- or 2-mm axial and coronal sections of both temporal bones. Nineteen children with AC (63.3%) revealed a diffuse soft-tissue density isodense with muscle, whereas in 6 of them, the mass mimicked inflammation. The remaining revealed localized soft-tissue mass with partially lobulated contour. In AC, ossicular erosion was detected in 23 cases (76.7%), abnormal pneumatization in 19 cases (63.3%), and erosion-blunting of spur and enlargement of middle ear or mastoid in 8 cases (26.7%). The 2 congenital cholesteatomas revealed soft-tissue mass with polypoid densities, while a semicircular canal fistula was detected in one of them. High-resolution CT facilitates early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of pediatric cholesteatoma by assessing the anatomic abnormalities and the extent of disease, which are crucial in middle ear and mastoid surgery.

According to a common definition, interprofessional education (IPE) is described as "occasions when two or more professions learn from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care". The Leonardo project under the name European Interprofessional Education Network (EIPEN) in health and social care, has been dealing with the challenges of interprofessional education. The EIPEN project tries to develop a transnational network of universities and employers in the six participating countries and at the same time to promote good practices in interprofessional learning and teaching in health and social care. IPE provides opportunities for students and practitioners to learn with, from and about each other during qualifying and post-qualifying training and in their practice. IPE in health and social care includes the education and training of practitioners in human and animal medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy and all other health professions including public and environmental health and health promotion, and social work. The outcomes of the EIPEN Project will provide means, material and guidelines for the enhancement of professional education in the multi-disciplinary field of Health Informatics. The methodology on the development of the Greek Interprofessional Network was based on a series of workshops aiming to document the educational process in healthcare institutes and universities followed by the assessment of the needs for the development of an interprofessional environment. The outcomes will provide means, material and guidelines for the enhancement of professional education in the multi-disciplinary field of Health Informatics.

The Leonardo project under the name European Interprofessional Education Network (EIPEN) in health and social care, has been dealing with the challenges of Interprofessional Education (IPE). The EIPEN project tries to develop a transnational network of universities and employers in the six participating countries and at the same time to promote good practices in Interprofessional LearningTeaching in healthsocial care. IPE provides opportunities for students and practitioners to learn with, from and about each other during qualifying and post-qualifying training and in their practice. IPE in health and social care includes the education and training of practitioners in human and animal medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy and all other health professions including public and environmental health and health promotion, and social work. The outcomes of the EIPEN Project will provide means, material and guidelines for the enhancement of professional education in the multidisciplinary field of Health Informatics.

An educational system has been developed which consists of a module to help both teachers to design courses with different levels of knowledge regarding epidemiology and students to get acquainted with the field of epidemiology.The software development product Director was used to develop the software application. The capacity required to install the software is 130MB although each individual component is not greater than 1.2 megabytes in order to facility its handling. The user interface of the system employs colour, text, complementary voices and animation. Moreover, exercises have been designed to facilitate the learning process and to allow students and teachers to interchange information with it.The system has been evaluated by a number of 65 students both graduate and undergraduate. Half of them were attending the undergraduate course in Nursing. The rest were graduate students attending a Master's Course in Health Informatics and Health Management. The first group of students had some prior knowledge of Epidemiology. The latter group had different levels of knowledge (none, little prior knowledge or an intermediate level of knowledge), of Epidemiology. The scope of this research is to prove the efficiency of Multimedia in teaching the rather difficult subject of Epidemiology.