The O3-Vet project: a veterinary electronic patient record based on the web technology and the ADT-IHE actor for veterinary hospitals

Development of a Machine Vision Method for the Monitoring of Laying Hens and Detection of Multiple Nest Occupations

Free range systems can improve the welfare of laying hens. However, the access to environmental resources can be partially limited by social interactions, feeding of hens, and productivity, can be not stable and damaging behaviors, or negative events, can be observed more frequently than in conventional housing systems. In order to reach a real improvement of the hens' welfare the study of their laying performances and behaviors is necessary. With this purpose, many systems have been developed. However, most of them do not detect a multiple occupation of the nest negatively affecting the accuracy of data collected. To overcome this issue, a new "nest-usage-sensor" was developed and tested. It was based on the evaluation of thermografic images, as acquired by a thermo-camera, and the performing of patter recognitions on images acquired from the nest interior. The sensor was setup with a "Multiple Nest Occupation Threshold" of 796 colored pixels and a template of triangular shape and sizes of 43 × 33 pixels (high per base). It was tested through an experimental nesting system where 10 hens were reared for a month. Results showed that the evaluation of thermografic images could increase the detection performance of a multiple occupation of the nest and to apply an image pattern recognition technique could allow for counting the number of hens in the nest in case of a multiple occupation. As a consequence, the accuracy of data collected in studies on laying performances and behaviors of hens, reared in a free-range housing system, could result to be improved.

First Results of a Detection Sensor for the Monitoring of Laying Hens Reared in a Commercial Organic Egg Production Farm Based on the Use of Infrared Technology

The development of a monitoring system to identify the presence of laying hens, in a closed room of a free-range commercial organic egg production farm, was the aim of this study. This monitoring system was based on the infrared (IR) technology and had, as final target, a possible reduction of atmospheric ammonia levels and bacterial load. Tests were carried out for three weeks and involved 7 ISA (Institut de Sélection Animale) brown laying hens. The first 5 days was used to set up the detection sensor, while the other 15 days were used to evaluate the accuracy of the resulting monitoring system, in terms of sensitivity and specificity. The setup procedure included the evaluation of different color background (CB) thresholds, used to discriminate the information contents of the thermographic images. At the end of this procedure, a CB threshold equal to an increase of 3 °C from the floor temperature was chosen, and a cutoff level of 196 colored pixels was identified as the threshold to use to classify a positive case. The results of field tests showed that the developed monitoring system reached a fine detection accuracy (sensitivity = 97.9% and specificity = 94.9%) and the IR technology proved to be a possible solution for the development of a detection sensor necessary to reach the scope of this study.

Survey of electronic veterinary medical record adoption and use by independent small animal veterinary medical practices in Massachusetts

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the proportion of independent small animal veterinary medical practices in Massachusetts that use electronic veterinary medical records (EVMRs), determine the purposes for which EVMRs are used, and identify perceived barriers to their use.

DESIGN

Survey.

SAMPLE

100 veterinarians.

PROCEDURES

213 of 517 independent small animal veterinary practices operating in Massachusetts were randomly chosen for study recruitment. One veterinarian at each practice was invited by telephone to answer a hardcopy survey regarding practice demographics, medical records type (electronic, paper, or both), purposes of EVMR use, and perceived barriers to adoption. Surveys were mailed to the first 100 veterinarians who agreed to participate. Practices were categorized by record type and size (large [≥ 5 veterinarians], medium [3 to 4 veterinarians], or small [1 to 2 veterinarians]).

RESULTS

84 surveys were returned; overall response was 84 of 213 (39.4%). The EVMRs were used alone or together with paper records in 66 of 82 (80.5%) practices. Large and medium-sized practices were significantly more likely to use EVMRs combined with paper records than were small practices. The EVMRs were most commonly used for ensuring billing, automating reminders, providing cost estimates, scheduling, recording medical and surgical information, and tracking patient health. Least common uses were identifying emerging infectious diseases, research, and insurance. Eleven veterinarians in paper record-only practices indicated reluctance to change, anticipated technological problems, time constraints, and cost were barriers to EVMR use.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Results indicated EVMRs were underutilized as a tool for tracking and improving population health and identifying emerging infectious diseases. Efforts to facilitate adoption of EVMRs for these purposes should be strengthened by the veterinary medical, human health, and public health professions.

The O3-Vet project: integration of a standard nomenclature of clinical terms in a veterinary electronic medical record for veterinary hospitals

In order to improve the hospital information system of the Chilean University Hospital, the Veterinary Medicine School of Universidad de Chile made a research cooperation with Università San Raffaele Roma to develop and test a new release of the O3-Vet software application. O3-Vet was selected by the Chilean University mainly for two reasons: (1) it uses human medicine standardized technologies such as "Health Level 7" (HL7) and "Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise" (IHE), which allow a good level of data sharing and hospital management; (2) it is open source, which means it can be adapted to specific hospital needs. In the new release, a subset of diagnostic terms was added from the "Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms" (SNOMED CT), selected by the "American Animal Hospital Association" (AAHA) to standardize the filing of clinical data and its retrieval. Results from a limited survey of veterinarians of the University (n=9) show that the new release improved the management of the Chilean University Hospital and the ability to retrieve useful clinical data.

Connecting knowledge resources to the veterinary electronic health record: opportunities for learning at point of care

Electronic health records (EHRs) provide clinical learning opportunities through quick and contextual linkage of patient signalment, symptom, and diagnosis data with knowledge resources covering tests, drugs, conditions, procedures, and client instructions. This paper introduces the EHR standards for linkage and the partners-practitioners, content publishers, and software developers-necessary to leverage this possibility in veterinary medicine. The efforts of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Electronic Health Records Task Force to partner with veterinary practice management systems to improve the use of controlled vocabulary is a first step in the development of standards for sharing knowledge at the point of care. The Veterinary Medical Libraries Section (VMLS) of the Medical Library Association's Task Force on Connecting the Veterinary Health Record to Information Resources compiled a list of resources of potential use at point of care. Resource details were drawn from product Web sites and organized by a metric used to evaluate medical point-of-care resources. Additional information was gathered from questions sent by e-mail and follow-up interviews with two practitioners, a hospital network, two software developers, and three publishers. Veterinarians with electronic records use a variety of information resources that are not linked to their software. Systems lack the infrastructure to use the Infobutton standard that has been gaining popularity in human EHRs. While some veterinary knowledge resources are digital, publisher sites and responses do not indicate a Web-based linkage of veterinary resources with EHRs. In order to facilitate lifelong learning and evidence-based practice, veterinarians and educators of future practitioners must demonstrate to veterinary practice software developers and publishers a clinically-based need to connect knowledge resources to veterinary EHRs.

Near-field wireless magnetic link for an ingestible cattle health monitoring pill

Cattle health assessment is receiving increased attention due to threats that disease and bioterrorism pose to producer profits and to the safety of the food supply. Ingestible pill technology offers a promising means to obtain these physiologic data, since a bovine reticulum is an environment sheltered from outside elements that offers direct access to feed intake and heart/lung data. Traditional radio-frequency links are inappropriate for this application, as water absorption severely limits transmission ranges through tissue. This paper presents the initial design of a communications link that utilizes magnetic induction for signal transport and should be well-suited for a tissue medium. The link consists of a transmitter/receiver pair that employs loop antennae frequency matched at 125 kHz. Optimization of the link design offers the potential to achieve transmission distances of several feet through tissue.