Road information collection and sharing system.

Walking is an important factor in good health, and people derive many benefits from travelling by foot. However, walking entails risks such as traffic accidents and falls. If people recognize specific risks before walking, then they may avoid such accidents. This paper proposes a road information collection and sharing tool for the public. The proposed system stores passive risks from the properties of the landscape and active risks identified by people. Moreover, it realizes an easy way to access such risk information. When people know and avoid these risks, they will be able to walk safely.

Embedded ubiquitous services on hospital information systems.

A Hospital Information Systems (HIS) have turned a hospital into a gigantic computer with huge computational power, huge storage and wired/wireless local area network. On the other hand, a modern medical device, such as echograph, is a computer system with several functional units connected by an internal network named a bus. Therefore, we can embed such a medical device into the HIS by simply replacing the bus with the local area network. This paper designed and developed two embedded systems, a ubiquitous echograph system and a networked digital camera. Evaluations of the developed systems clearly show that the proposed approach, embedding existing clinical systems into HIS, drastically changes productivity in the clinical field. Once a clinical system becomes a pluggable unit for a gigantic computer system, HIS, the combination of multiple embedded systems with application software designed under deep consideration about clinical processes may lead to the emergence of disruptive innovation in the clinical field.

Modified technique for improving tubeless cutaneous ureterostomy by Ariyoshi method.

OBJECTIVES: The cutaneous ureterostomy is the simplest urinary diversion method; however, it often causes stomal stenosis, requiring sustained catheterization with regular catheter exchange. In an attempt to prevent stomal stenosis after surgery, the fascia (S-U fascia) between the spermatic cords and the ureters, which is usually cut off, was preserved. The remaining capillaries in the fascia could supply blood to the ureters, which is one of the most important factors for ureter patency. METHODS: In 58 patients (93 renal units) undergoing cutaneous ureterostomy, 36 patients (66 renal units) were treated by the modified technique. RESULTS: The surgeries carried out with the modified technique were significantly different in the type of operation, the side relationship, and the catheter-free rate using the univariate analysis by means of the predicted tests, in comparison with 22 patients (27 renal units) that were treated with the conventional technique. Multivariate analysis for the type of operation determined that of the side relationship and the method, only the latter was a significant factor. The modified method allowed approximately 90% of the patients to have a catheter-free life; otherwise 74% of the patients had stomal stenosis, followed by catheterization. CONCLUSION: The presented cutaneous ureterostomy technique to preserve the fascia is useful not only to prevent stomal stenosis and maintaining good quality of life without catheterization, but also to apply to other types of ureter surgery.

Dolphin project--cooperative regional clinical system centered on clinical information center.

In 2001, a system was created to improve patient service, improve the quality of medical care, and achieve efficient medical care. A Data Center was established to accumulate and manage clinical information in the regions and share clinical information safely and appropriately. The system has already been in operation for 3 years. Even though a patient may have been examined at multiple hospitals, his medical record information will be integrated at the Center. This ensures medical care continuity and enables the patient to view his own medical records at home. Its usefulness in obtaining informed consent has been demonstrated as well. XML instances established in the MML standards (MML (Medical Markup Language): http.//www.medxml.net/E_mml30/mmlv3_E_index.htm Accessed July 2004; Jpn. J. Med. Informatics (JJMI) 17(3):203-207, 1997; J. Med. Syst. 24(3):195-211, 2000; J. Med. Syst. 27(4):357-366, 2003; J. Med. Syst. 28(6):523-533, 2004) are used for Electronic Medical Record System data exchange between the Data Center and each medical institution. The openness provided by XML makes it possible to connect diverse electronic medical records to the Center. As of the year 2004, over 10 types of electronic medical records have an MML interface, enabling connection to the Center.