Objective:

The purpose of this study is to describe the needs, process and experience of implementing a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system in a leading healthcare organization in Saudi Arabia.

Materials and Methods:

The National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA) deployed the CPOE in a pilot department, which was the intensive care unit (ICU) in order to assess its benefits and risks and to test the system. After the CPOE was implemented in the ICU area, a survey was sent to the ICU clinicians to assess their perception on the importance of 32 critical success factors (CSFs) that was acquired from the literature. The project team also had several meetings to gather lessons learned from the pilot project in order to utilize them for the expansion of the project to other NGHA clinics and hospitals.

Results:

The results of the survey indicated that the selected CSFs, even though they were developed with regard to international settings, are very much applicable for the pilot area. The top three CSFs rated by the survey respondents were: The “before go-live training”, the adequate clinical resources during implementation, and the ordering time. After the assessment of the survey and the lessons learned from the pilot project, NGHA decided that the potential benefits of the CPOE are expected to be greater the risks expected. The project was then expanded to cover all NGHA clinics and hospitals in a phased approach. Currently, the project is in its final stages and expected to be completed by the end of 2011.

Conclusion:

The role of CPOE systems is very important in hospitals in order to reduce medication errors and to improve the quality of care. In spite of their great benefits, many studies suggest that a high percentage of these projects fail. In order to increase the chances of success and due to the fact that CPOE is a clinical system, NGHA implemented the system first in a pilot area in order to test the system without putting patients at risk and to learn from mistakes before expanding the system to other areas. As a result of the pilot project, NGHA developed a list of CSFs to increase the likelihood of project success for the expansion of the system to other clinics and hospitals. The authors recommend a future study for the CPOE implementation to be done that covers the implementation in all the four NGHA hospitals. The results of the study can then be generalized to other hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

Propolis means a gum that is gathered by bees from various plants. It is strongly adhesive resinous substance, collected, transformed, and used by bees to seal holes in their honeycombs. Bees use it to seal holes in their honeycombs, smooth out internal walls, as well as to cover carcasses of intruders who died inside the hive in order to avoid their decomposition. Propolis also protects the colony from diseases because of its antiseptic efficacy and antimicrobial properties. It also has been reported to possess various biological activities, namely anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, and hypolipidemic. The aim of this review is to evaluate the hypoglycemic effect of propolis since a little number of researches studied this effect when we compare with the huge number of papers that reported many other biological activities.

Objective:

To determine level of HIV/AIDS knowledge among first-year MBBS, nursing and pharmacy students of a health university.

Materials and Methods:

A pre-designed, pre-tested, anonymous self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was circulated among available 129, 53 and 55 first-year MBBS, nursing and pharmacy students during Oct’ 09. Data entry, management and analysis were carried out using MS excel and software statistical package.

Result:

Out of the total 237 students, there were 123 (51.9%) female and 103 (44.0%) students from rural native place. A majority of students were able to correctly write the full form of AIDS (95.8%) in comparison to HIV (72.6%) and the difference between two terminologies were known to 87.6%, 81.1% and 70.9% of MBBS, nursing and pharmacy students, respectively. All four common routes of transmission of infection and methods of prevention were known to majority of the lot. However, injecting drug users (IDU) and truck driver as a risk category was correctly reported by 67.5% and 55.3% students, whereas 35.9% incorrectly mentioned that smoking is a risk factor for acquiring infection. A statistically significant (P <0.05) proportion of MBBS followed by nursing and pharmacy students were aware that infection neither spreads by social activities like handshake/playing nor by mosquito bite. However, low level was ascertained with regard to items related to non-curability of infection (57.4%) and availability of anti-retro viral therapy (27.4%).

Conclusion:

Overall high level of knowledge was recorded in the present study with a difference noted among students in three professional streams.

Background:

The teaching of communication skills is gaining increasing attention. However, the opportunities for faculty development are limited. This study highlights an attempt by the Medical Education Unit, King Fahd Hospital of the University, Al-Khobar, to raise the awareness of faculty to this vital area by organizing a one-day workshop.

Method:

A one-day workshop was organized to improve the awareness of the participants to the role of communication skills such as doctor-patient interaction, breaking bad news, counseling and conflict management. In all, 168 participants consisting of faculty members, interns and students, both male and female participated. The sessions included interactive lectures, video demonstrations and role play.

Results:

The feedback from the participants indicated that the objectives of the workshop were largely realized. The presentations by speakers were of high quality. However, the participants wanted more small group activities and video-demonstrations that were relevant to the local environment.

Conclusion:

By and large, the one-day workshop was found to be a practical model for an initial attempt to raise awareness. Further work is needed to organize more intensive workshops on specific issues related to communication skills.

Objective:

The increased prevalence of breast cancer in recent years characterized by young age and delayed presentation has alerted women to randomly seek medical advice randomly. Breast cancer awareness programs are scarce and when available function on a very limited scale. In an attempt to increase cancer awareness among women, school teachers were targeted as missionaries to the community. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficiency of the breast cancer awareness campaign mounted by the author.

Material and Methods:

This survey was undertaken in 2005 with school teachers in Al Khobar district, Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia as the target. A breast cancer campaign was designed with lectures and workshops and delivered to school teachers in seven separate sessions. Each session was attended by 100-150 female teachers selected by their administration. Pre and post workshop questionnaires were distributed to assess knowledge of cancer symptoms, risk factors, attitudes towards breast self-examination (BSE), mammography, and common misconceptions.

Results:

The majority demonstrated minimal basic background knowledge on breast cancer, methods of conducting BSE or the need for mammography. The pre workshop questionnaires showed that 5% agreed and performed BSE, 14% thought that mammography may be needed, while 81% did not think any of these modalities were necessary. Post workshop questionnaire demonstrated positive results, 45% agreed to perform BSE, 45% agreed to the need of mammographic screening while 10% still did not see the necessity of these procedures and refused the knowledge or the search for asymptomatic lesions.

Conclusion:

In order to succeed, breast cancer programs should be structured and implemented on a wide scale preferably tailored to fit individual communities. School teachers as educators help to convey the message to a large sector of the population by enhancing the knowledge of the younger generation on the necessity and the importance of early detection of cancer.

Background:

Despite the dearth of allied health professionals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the demand for them has increased. Like any other geographic location, KSA, has its own pattern of diseases. Therefore, the curriculum of the health professionals should be appropriately designed to meet the health needs of hospitals and clinics.

Objectives:

To demonstrate that changes in the curriculum of Allied (Applied) Health Sciences in KSA are necessary, and how these changes should be implemented. This paper also recommends that these changes must: (1) be based on the current needs of the community, (2) satisfy the health requirements of the Saudi community as well as the realities of its health practices. The Allied Health Colleges must: (1) undertake a long-term review of the curriculum, (2) ensure that the curriculum reform is continuous, (3) target faculty development, (4) target student evaluation.

Hospitals are important sites for the generation of hazardous waste. Each hospital has its own profile for the generation and transportion of waste according to its location. It is extremely important to manage hospital generated waste properly in order to avoid health and environmental risks.

This article reports the plan designed and used by the hospital waste management committee in King Fahad Hospital of the University , Alhkobar, Saudi Arabia, for the safe management of hospital generated waste starting from the collection areas to the final disposal procedure. The plan was in four stages: background information, identification of problems, intervention and monitoring. The possible solutions for problems encountered are suggested.

This plan which was efficient and cost effective can be used in other medical establishments.

Searching for references is part of everyday life in medicine. Since the arrival of the Internet, it has provided great promise for clinicians because of its ready provision of access to large amounts of knowledge and information. But because of the overload of information, searching for particular information has now become a tedious time-consuming and frustrating task. This article describes effective ways, tips, tools, detailed search techniques and strategies for searching for medical information. It also lists some useful resource and database sites that can help in the search for accurate information.

Objectives:

To verify whether the first national campaign for poliomyelitis vaccination achieved its objectives.

Setting:

Al-Khobar area in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Materials & Methods:

Randomized samples have been obtained using the Bowleg's proportional allocation scheme. At the first stage, housing blocks of 8-10 houses were selected using random sampling procedure. At a second stage, 2 houses from each block were selected in a 1 or 4 order. Both Saudi and non-Saudi nationals living in these households were screened using pretested questionnaire administered at a face-to-face by trained interviewers. The questionnaire covered areas that included number of children vaccinated, reasons for non vaccination, whether or not the vaccinated child has received certificate of vaccination as well as placement of stickers on the door of the vaccinated households.

Result:

A total of 107 households were surveyed in Al-Khobar. The total populations surveyed was 527 people including 213 adults and 314 children (152 of the children were aged 5 years or less). In all the households surveyed, all eligible children age 5 years or less were vaccinated. All of the vaccinated children obtained a vaccination certificate.

Conclusion:

The overall percentage coverage in Al-Khobar was 100%. This denotes the success of the campaign. A nationwide survey is suggested to corroborate these findings.