marzieh saremian

There is a gap between access to eHealth resources and the skills of consumers to use them, which can help to provide quality eHealth by identifying these skills. The aim of this study was to determine the electronic health literacy score of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences students in 2018.

This descriptive-analysis study was conducted on students of the faculties of Paramedicine, Health and Nutrition at Lorestan University of Medical Sciences in the first semester of 2018-2019. The sampling method was stratified random in proportion to the volume was employed. Data were collected using a questionnaire, which consisted of five parts (Demographic Characteristics, Educational Features, Internet usage questions, Electronic Health Literacy Scale Tool Questions). The Content validity of questionnaire was assessed in an interview with 3 health education experts and 4 health information experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha (overall Cronbach’s alpha was 0.89) Data analysis was conducted with SPSS version 21 statistic software package and descriptive statistics, independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA and Duncan's post hoc tests.

According to the results of this study, the students had a good level of health literacy. There is also a significant difference between the level of health literacy of those access the Internet outside the college and those do not (p<0.05). In addition, the most common place to use the Internet was the dormitory (% 43.8).

Planning for more to access the Internet outside of college for the students, especially in dorms, can help to improve students' health literacy. In addition, conducting workshops on how to search for electronic health information as well as introducing reliable sources and databases can be effective in enhancing students' health literacy

Nowadays, many health information technology (HIT) interventions are developed for self-care management of chronic diseases. Application of these interventions requires patients’ readiness to use HIT. The current study aimed at determining the readiness of patients with chronic diseases referring to the clinics of educational hospitals in Khorramabad, Iran, to use HIT. The current cross sectional study was conducted on patients with chronic diseases referring to the clinics of teaching hospitals in Khoramabad, Iran, in 2016. A sample of 475 patients with chronic diseases was selected by the convenience sampling method. Data were collected using the valid and reliable PRE-HIT (patient readiness to engage in health information technology) questionnaire. This questionnaire is composed of two sections, sociodemographic characteristics and patient readiness factors including health information need, computer/internet experience, computer anxiety, preferred mode of interaction, relationship with doctor, cell-phone expertise, internet privacy concerns, and health news on a four-point Likert-scale. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 20. The results showed that 24.4% (n = 100) of the participants had the experience of using computers. Participants' experience of computer application had a significant relationship with their age, marital status, job, educational level, living place, health status, and disease type (P = 0.001), but it had no significant relationship with their gender. The readiness of patients with chronic diseases and the experience of computer application was at a medium level (mean ± standard deviation (SD) = 2.77 ± 0.59). The highest and lowest scores of readiness were related to the relationship with doctors (mean ± SD = 3.37 ± 0.52) and computer anxiety factors (mean ± SD = 2.30 ± 0.60), respectively. The results of the current study showed that patients’ readiness to engage in HIT was at a medium level. Hence, any plans to use computers and improve readiness of patients with chronic diseases to use HIT can eliminate the challenges of accepting IT by the patients. These can also change patients’ lifestyle and improve self-care management of chronic diseases.

Cellular phones can cause some inappropriate consequences, in addition to having wide applications. Due to the growing popularity of this technology among students, the current study aimed to determine the level of dependency on the cellular phone and its relationship with the academic performance of students of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences.
This descriptive-analysis study was conducted on students of the faculties of Paramedicine, Health and Nutrition at Lorestan University of Medical Sciences in the first semester of 2015-2016. Stratified random sampling was used. Data were collected using a Cellular Phone Dependency Questionnaire (CPDQ), the psychometrics properties of which had been approved. Data analysis was conducted with SPSS software and independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA and Duncan's post hoc tests.
The mean of cellular phone dependence score of students was 40.61 ± 8.08, which was at the average level. The findings of the study showed that 24.7 percent of participants had a weak dependency level, 51.3 percent were average, and 24 percent had a strong level. Furthermore, there was a significant inverse relationship between the cellular phone dependence score and the previous semester's grade point average (r = -0.19, p = 0.03) and overall grade point average (r = -0.2, p = 0.006).
The findings of the study showed that cellular phone dependency causes a reduction in academic performance. Considering the increasing spread of cellular phones among students, performing of planning and controls is essential to prevent its negative consequences.

Appointment scheduling is considered as one of the important aspects of patient flow management. Today, the advent of Internet into the realm of health care has paved the way for employing an internet-based booking system for visiting physicians. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the online outpatient booking system in Iranian hospitals.
The present study was an applied descriptive study. In this study, all outpatient appointment booking websites in Iranian hospitals were evaluated. The methods of outpatients booking in the hospitals (N = 598) were determined based on information available at their active websites. Finally, 31 active online booking systems were identified and investigated using a localized checklist, including 59 items in 6 sections.
The results showed that only 13.03% of Iranian hospitals had an active online booking system. All the online booking systems had a weak quality based on the total score percentage (17.10%). The highest score percentages were related to sections of online security features (45%) and details of health insurance (42%), while the clinical data section received the lowest score (7.25%). The most frequent item was the patient’s name in the patient demographics section (27 websites).
The outpatient appointment system in Iranian hospitals is done more traditionally through walk-ins to the health centers. The online outpatient booking systems have poor quality. Hence, codification and communication of national standards for designing hospital websites, periodical evaluation of appointment booking websites by ministry of health, and survey of the users of this method can enhance the qualitative level of these websites.

Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) process, archive and transmit the medical images, so it has created a revolutionary in the field of medical images. In this study, after determining features related to the use of PACS, the status of this system in the teaching hospitals of Tehran City, Iran, was investigated.
In this descriptive study, through searching the databases, the features of a comprehensive PACS were identified and a checklist was designed. The validity of checklist was approved by 5 specialists and Kappa formula was used to examine the inter-rater reliability (0.74). The study population consisted of 27 Tehran teaching hospitals which had PACS and were evaluated through census method in 2016. PACS features in the studied hospitals then were assessed and the results were presented.
There were some similarities and differences in the following features: storing images in Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) format, using Health Level Seven International (HL7) standard, image optimization, automatic image compression, support of teleradiology, integration with radiology information system, type of relationship with other systems, network type to exchange images, and the way of sending images.
The results showed that to gain benefits from this technology, designing or choosing systems that have the highest performance appropriate to user's circumstances and needs in essential. Thus, more studies to investigate PACS features used in medical diagnostic centers can underlie the designing or selecting high-quality systems by producers and managers.

In recent years, information technology has been introduced in the nursing departments of many hospitals to support their daily tasks. Nurses are the largest end user group in Hospital Information Systems (HISs). This study was designed to evaluate data processing in the Nursing Information Systems (NISs) utilized in many university hospitals in Iran.
Methods and Materials: This was a cross‑sectional study. The population comprised all nurse managers and NIS users of the five training hospitals in Khorramabad city (N = 71). The nursing subset of HIS‑Monitor questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed by the descriptive‑analytical method and the inductive content analysis.
The results indicated that the nurses participating in the study did not take a desirable advantage of paper (2.02) and computerized (2.34) information processing tools to perform nursing tasks. Moreover, the less work experience nurses have, the further they utilize computer tools for processing patient discharge information. The “readability of patient information” and “repetitive and time‑consuming documentation” were stated as the most important expectations and problems regarding the HIS by the participating nurses, respectively.
The nurses participating in the present study used to utilize paper and computerized information processing tools together to perform nursing practices. Therefore, it is recommended that the nursing process redesign coincides with NIS implementation in the health care centers.

One of the innovative aspects of information technology that has been used in health organizations due to its unique capabilities is mobile devices. Knowing the threats and risks of mobile devices and information security leads to a better management and reduction in the negative consequences of problems. The purpose of this study was to identify threats and security risks of information associated with using mobile devices in health domain.

This article is a narrative review. We searched keywords related to information security of mobile devices in the field of health through related databases, in Persian and English language articles published from 2005 to 2014. Also related articles in the selected articles list have been analyzed. Then the most important threats and dangers have been recognized and presented in a systematic way.

According to this survey, the main security risks of mobile devices in the field of health generally included 16 cases. Some of these cases could be the mobile devices being lost or stolen, targeted threats of hackers, and malware.

The health organizations need to consider all security challenges about mobile devices, especially those related to security. Thus they can take full advantage of these tools consciously.

The use of telehealth programs in rural areas has led to increase access to health care services for patients in these areas. Implementing the activities in the proper places can be accompanied with achieving a higher efficiency. This study aimed to identify and prioritize the factors influencing places of rural health centers equipped with telehealth services using Analytical Hierarchy Process. This study was a descriptive cross sectional study and performed in 2014. Participants were 30 persons including expert people working in network development and faculty members of health information management and technology department. The data collection tools were two researcher-made questionnaires. The tool's validity and reliability were previously confirmed. We used SPSS (version 16) and Expert Choice (version 11) for data analyses. Findings of this study revealed that all criteria and sub-criteria for electronic services quality evaluation have been confirmed. Among these criteria and sub-criteria, "population", "access" and "the communication networks” had the highest priority and “distance from military areas” had the lowest priority. The identification and prioritization of the affecting factors on the determination of places of health centers with telehealth services are key elements in equity distribution of these centers. Furthermore, this proper distribution leads to appropriate access to high quality health care services, saving time and money, and reducing unnecessary transfer. Additionally, these can increase the quality of planning and the quality of life in patients particularly in remote areas.