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The amount of scientific data is doubling every year. Szalay and Gray discuss how scientific methods are evolving from paper notebooks to huge online databases.

Facility management (FM) has become an important topic in research on the operation and maintenance phase. Managing the work of FM effectively is extremely difficult owing to the variety of environments. One of the difficulties is the performance of two-dimensional (2D) graphics when depicting facilities. Building information modeling (BIM) uses precise geometry and relevant data to support the facilities depicted in three-dimensional (3D) object-oriented computer-aided design (CAD). This paper proposes a new and practical methodology with application to FM that uses an integrated 2D barcode and the BIM approach. Using 2D barcode and BIM technologies, this study proposes a mobile automated BIM-based facility management (BIMFM) system for FM staff in the operation and maintenance phase. The mobile automated BIMFM system is then applied in a selected case study of a commercial building project in Taiwan to verify the proposed methodology and demonstrate its effectiveness in FM practice. The combined results demonstrate that a BIMFM-like system can be an effective mobile automated FM tool. The advantage of the mobile automated BIMFM system lies not only in improving FM work efficiency for the FM staff but also in facilitating FM updates and transfers in the BIM environment.

Surveillance of healthcare-associated infections is a cornerstone of infection prevention programs, and reporting of infection rates is increasingly required. Traditionally, surveillance is based on manual medical records review; however, this is very labor intensive and vulnerable to misclassification. Existing electronic surveillance systems based on classification algorithms using microbiology results, antibiotic use data, and/or discharge codes have increased the efficiency and completeness of surveillance by preselecting high-risk patients for manual review. However, shifting to electronic surveillance using multivariable prediction models based on available clinical patient data will allow for even more efficient detection of infection. With ongoing developments in healthcare information technology, implementation of the latter surveillance systems will become increasingly feasible. As with current predominantly manual methods, several challenges remain, such as completeness of postdischarge surveillance and adequate adjustment for underlying patient characteristics, especially for comparison of healthcare-associated infection rates across institutions.

Background Hospital discharge summaries are a key communication tool ensuring continuity of care between primary and secondary care. Incomplete or untimely communication of information increases risk of hospital readmission and associated complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the introduction of a new electronic discharge system (NewEDS) was associated with improvements in the completeness and timeliness of discharge information, in Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, England. Methods A before and after longitudinal study design was used. Data were collected using the gold standard auditing tool from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). This tool contains a checklist of 57 items grouped into seven categories, 28 of which are classified as mandatory by RCP. Percentage completeness (out of the 28 mandatory items) was considered to be the primary outcome measure. Data from 773 patients discharged directly from the acute medical unit over eight-week long time periods (four before and four after the change to the NewEDS) from August 2010 to May 2012 were extracted and evaluated. Results were summarised by effect size on completeness before and after changeover to NewEDS respectively. The primary outcome variable was represented with percentage of completeness score and a non-parametric technique was used to compare pre-NewEDS and post-NewEDS scores. Results The changeover to the NewEDS resulted in an increased completeness of discharge summaries from 60.7% to 75.0% ( p  < 0.001) and the proportion of summaries created under 24 h from discharge increased significantly from 78.0% to 93.0% ( p  < 0.001). Furthermore, five of the seven grouped checklist categories also showed significant improvements in levels of completeness ( p  < 0.001), although there were reduced levels of completeness for three items (p < 0.001). Conclusion The introduction of a NewEDS was associated with a significant improvement in the completeness and timeliness of hospital discharge communication.

This week, the U.S. National Academies released an overview report * on the challenges of maintaining the integrity of scientific research data in an age of revolutionary digital technologies. The report, Ensuring the Integrity, Accessibility, and Stewardship of Research Data in the Digital Age , provides a framework for dealing with the challenges to the community generated by the onrush of digital technology. As chairs of the report committee, we hope that it moves the research community forward, collectively, to consider the integrity of data in ways that best support the advancement of scientific, engineering, and medical knowledge, as well as the maintenance of public trust.

From autonomous weapons, which could be 'clever' enough to distinguish friend from foe and act accordingly, to medical diagnoses based on rapid and accurate analysis and interpretation of health-care data, these machines may not yet be classed as fully intelligent, but they are reaching a point at which they can mimic and potentially outperform specific 'intelligent' human abilities.