Types of electronic medical records Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Types of electronic medical records - Essay Example †¢ Professional electronic health record is designed to serve less than forty health officers. This means that the software is capable of successfully showing details of less than 40 patients at once. Thus if the request to show information exceeds forty, the system may experience delays or even crash. It is ideal for a medium-sized health institution. †¢ The Enterprise electronic health record software is designed in such a manner that it can handle a large number of requests to display patient’s health records. The software can handle a big number of requests thus making it ideal for large health institutions. It is also used commercially hence given the name enterprise electronic health records software. eClinicalWorks This is one of the biggest and most popular electronic health records vendors. It has a customer base of more than 55, 000 customers who have their records electronically stored. The main reason behind its popularity is the fact that it is easily accessible in most of the health institutions, and hence, the chances of the patient failing to get their records are low. This means that a patient can be treated by different physicians in different locations and still provide the same information to the different medical practitioners. The software popularity and efficiency have won it several electronic health record awards. The software is also widely accepted and also legitimate as it is ONC-ATCB certified. The Aprima electronic health record is popular and acceptable with many people. ... The software can handle a big number of requests thus making it ideal for large health institutions. It is also used commercially hence given the name enterprise electronic health records software. eClinicalWorks This is one of the biggest and most popular electronic health records vendors. It has a customer base of more than 55, 000 customers who have their records electronically stored. The main reason behind its popularity is the fact that it is easily accessible in most of the health institutions, and hence, the chances of the patient failing to get their records are low. This means that a patient can be treated by different physicians in different locations and still provide the same information to the different medical practitioners. The software popularity and efficiency have won it several electronic health record awards. The software is also widely accepted and also legitimate as it is ONC-ATCB certified (Software Advice, 2011). Aprima Electronic Health Record The Aprima ele ctronic health record is popular and acceptable with many people. The software boasts of several features that are not available in the other electronic health record software. Among the unique properties of the Aprima electronic health record software is the feature that incorporates billing and scheduling. This makes it possible for the patient to get the breakdown and total of the treatment charges. The software also reminds the patients of their schedule and appointments with the clinician. The advanced features make it usable by any size or type of practice. The legitimacy of the software is proved by the fact that it is also ONC-ATCB certified. Greenway primeSUITE 2011 This is electronic health record software which has grown to be a market leader in this line of

History of Immigration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

History of Immigration - Essay Example Obadina ( 2003 ) argues that â€Å" the total human loss to Africa over the four centuries of the transatlantic slave trade range from 30 million to 200 million†. When human trading was exported to America, the geographical and socioeconomic factor was fit to slavery. For one, during the beginning of the American colonial times, the colonies were small and in need of a higher population. To attract people in helping populate North American colonies, farmers would pay Europeans in need of work to come to America in exchange of labor service. People from Europe were looking towards in achieving the â€Å"American Dream† when they landed in America. At that time, there were many poor European immigrants who crossed the Atlantic just to risk a new life in America. Consequently, these workers were provided a home to live in and meals to eat. It was at first a mutual relationship as both gained something they needed. Labor terms lasted for years; usually between four to seven years. This was a common agreement that was not viewed as feudal at all. As for children, they would work for about nine years. Indentured servants, as they are called, came from Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, and other European countries. Some indentured servants were never bound by contract. Children were fooled into becoming servants by candy offerings. Some were drunks who were captured and taken to the ships to be sold off. Indentured servants were held tightly together within the ship without being allowed a breath of fresh air until they arrive to their destination in â€Å"the new world.†This was graphically portrayed by the award-winning movie â€Å"Amistad†. It is not uncommon for workers to be beaten or raped and many have committed suicide. Exported African slaves who were being shipped and sold to the colonies went under the same harsh conditions as the indentured servants. The only difference is indentured servants were put on contracts while the African slaves are

A Taxonomy Of Distributed Systems Information Technology Essay

A Taxonomy Of Distributed Systems Information Technology Essay The improvement technology nowadays and as the users of Internet grows extremendously, it has reached a point where the potential benefit of very large scale results distributed application more apparent than ever. Opportunities are emerging to develop large systems that cater to highly dynamic and mobile sets of participants, who desire to interact with each other and stores of online content in a robust manner. These opportunities will inevitably dictate a substantial body of research in the years to follow. Although applications intended to function at this scale have recently begun to appear, there remain a broad set of several issues that must be faced before this emerging class of distributed system can become a reality. One of the current issues in the distributes system is open problem based on taxonomy. 1. Introduction Distributed systems research has historically avoided many hard problems through the carefully calculated use of operating constraints. Scalable resource clusters are assumed to be tucked away in protected facilities and connected by reliable infrastructure [1]. Large systems are assumed to have cooperating nuclei of administrative organizations that do not fail [2]. In peer environments, participants are assumed to behave fairly instead of leaching resources [3]. As the specifications of these systems grow to require operation at a massive scale with highly distributed administration, these assumptions will be strongly challenged as a means of providing useful systems. In short, distributed systems research is quickly approaching a point at which many hard problems cannot be avoided any longer. Prior to embarking on the construction of a large-scale distributed operating system, we felt that it would be useful to survey the landscape of problems that will be faced in the constructio n of this class of system. This paper is a summary of open problem based on taxonomy that must be addressed in order for successful systems of this caliber to be realized. To describe the domain of existing and future distributed systems, we have to design a taxonomy. This model is a two-dimensional space whose axes define the concurrency and conflict of resource access, and the degree of distribution and mobility of resources within the system. From this model, we draw four phyla of application that is point-to-point, multiplexed, fragmented, and peer-to-peer. This last phylum defines our target domain and we apply lessons learned from the other three groups to it. Through our taxonomy, we describe a set of architectural systems problems that must be addressed. 2. A Taxonomy of Distributed Systems We will describe four phyla of distributed systems in a continuous space along two axes. The axe which is access concurrency and resource distribution is a stem from an examination of the evolution of distributed applications. Access concurrency considers the number of simultaneous accesses to a resource and the degree of conflict between these accesses. Access concurrency problems occur as researchers began to move towards time sharing on mainframes. Resource distribution represents how broadly a system is spread across a network infrastructure. Individually, each of these axes represents a steadily increasing gradient of complexity within system architecture. It is in the cases where both axes have high degree that system complexity explodes. Indeed, distributed applications seem to all reside very close to the axes in our models. This observation suggests that there must be some limiting factors that exist, inhibiting the development of complex systems. We now consider the two axe s and four phyla of systems individually. 2.1 Access Concurrency Access concurrency originated with the desire to allow users to share the resources of original mainframe computers. Concurrency mechanisms allow clients to share a resource while preserving the state of that resource during simultaneous accesses. It is worth nothing that without a requirement to avoid conflict, concurrency mechanisms need only act as stateless request multiplexers. Although there are complexity issues in simple multiplexing at the Internet scale, it is conflict avoidance that makes access concurrency especially hard. In order to avoid conflicts between concurrent accesses, extra mechanisms must be put in place. These mechanisms add overhead and complexity to the system. Mechanisms to support access concurrency involve tradeoffs between efficiency and effectiveness. Concurrency control techniques that are very efficient is aim to allow the highest possible amount of simultaneous access, but may do so at the cost of poorly preserving resource state or unfairly schedul ing this access. Techniques that are optimized for effectiveness protect resource state, but may do so by severely limiting concurrency of access. As an example, consider the locking of files to preserve consistency in concurrent systems. Pessimistic locking is most effective at preserving state, but results in a complete loss of concurrency whenever the file is locked for writing. Optimistic locking allows a higher degree of concurrency, but may perform worse in a high state of conflict as many transactions must be aborted. Conflicts may simply be flagged and left for a separate mechanism to resolve later. It is usually happen in the extreme case of efficient concurrency. This is how inconsistencies are addressed after a disconnection in distributed file systems such as Coda. Similar analogies for access concurrency exist with respect to other resources such as process scheduling and memory protection. In this emerging class of large distributed systems, the issue is that a high de gree of concurrency within a system demands efficiency, while individual users will expect effective consistency preservation. Measures, such as conflict resolution, have not been well explored. It is a non-trivial problem to automatically resolve conflicts on information that does not have a high degree of structure, such as files and ad hoc databases (i.e. the Windows registry). Additionally, there exist a set of resources for which resolution may not be appropriate after the fact, and large scale active conflict avoidance is a necessity. 2.2 Resource Distribution Resource distribution describes the degree to which a system has been spread across a network, and how dynamic resources are within it. Even the smallest degree of resource distribution mandates a substantial amount of overhead within a system. Consider the difference between accesses to a local file versus a remote file service such as NFS. Both cases contain all of the complexity involved in reading a file from disk; however the remote access has the additional responsibilities of locating the service, marshalling data in and out of message structures, interacting across the network, and handling a considerably larger set of potential error cases. Transparency, a hallmark goal of distributed systems only obfuscates this problem by concealing the details of distribution. Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) mechanisms, which were intended to simplify application development is forced distribution to be implemented deep within the system. This occurs directly in many of the problems traditio nally associated with distributed systems such as fragility and inflexibility. The troubling aspect in this line of consideration is that these issues indicate a fundamental flaw at the very onset of approaches to distribution. RPC will only provide one degree of distribution, by passing a call to a single remote host. We have only just entered the arena of distributed systems, and already complexity is overbearing with RPC. A larger problem exists in their distribution by assuming that resources can be accessed in an expressive and reliable manner. In order to access resources, it must be possible to first locate them. Moreover, mechanisms must exist to find them in an ongoing manner if the resources are not static within a system. For instance, the location of a resource may have to be determined through a directory service and refreshed with each successive access. In very large scale or highly dynamic systems, a centralized service may not be sufficient to track resource locatio n and other methods, such as forwarding pointers [4], may have to be employed. Distribution equates almost exactly to extra mechanism, and therefore complexity, within a system. The larger and more distributed a system becomes, the more mechanism will be required to locate, track, and access objects within it. 2.3 Four Phyla of Distributed Applications From the two axes described above, we draw four phyla of distributed applications, shown in Figure 2.3. Note that the respective sizes of these domains are by no means equal, we represent this division as it is for simplicity. What follows is a very brief presentation of each of the four classes. In each case, we supply an example of the phylum to demonstrate its characteristics. We also try to identify weaknesses that exist within the domain that may not be acceptable within more advanced systems. Figure 2.3 : Taxonomy of Distributed Application 2.3.1 Point-to-point The point-to-point phylum represents a very simple set of applications in which a client connects to a resource for un-shared access. Point-to-point examples exist primarily as components of more complex applications, for instance the data channel of an FTP session is point-to-point, in that all of the associated resources are allocated at both ends of the connection at the beginning of a transfer. We would also consider simple RPC to be primarily a point-to-point application, provided that the RPC server handles a single request at a time. Point-to-point applications are characterized by the fact that the distribution aspects of the system are typically quite visible. For example when failure does occur it can be identified and resolved primitively by the user. If an FTP server does not respond or crashes during a transfer, the user can attempt a connection somewhere else. Regarding to this problem it is clearly shows that this is not a good system property; however it is generally tolerable within the domain of simple applications. 2.3.2 Multiplexed Multiplexed applications are those in which resources are delivered with a high degree of concurrency, and possibly conflict control, over a relatively small scale of distribution. We can take file and web server as an excellent examples. It is because they provide a set of centralized resources to large number of concurrent users. Figure 2.3.2 show us the taxonomy of web server. Note that in our model, both file and web servers have a high degree of access concurrency, but are still barely distributed. This is because users typically need only connect to a single point to access resources. There are more distributed examples of multiplexed applications which are distributed striped file systems and scalable data structures [5]. In both of these cases, users may still connect to a single resource, but that resource may forward requests through an additional link to an appropriate secondary server. The risk of failure is more significant in multiplexed systems because failure has the potential to affect a much larger number of users on the resource provision side. A very large multiplexed service is often served by specialized hosting facilities where a very high degree of resource reliability may be assumed. It is commonly used to mitigate those problems. Further precautions may involve the installation of redundant resources that take over in the rare case of system failure. Figure 2.3.2: Taxonomy of web server 2.3.3 Fragmented Resource Fragmented systems are those in which resources are spread across, or move within, a set of connected endpoints. Communication is substantially more complex in these systems as messages may not travel directly to a resource, but instead may lead to a cascade of interactions across the system. Existing fragmented systems, such as the domain name service (DNS), are frequently structured as a hierarchy of coupled administrative domains. Note that there do not have many examples of highly fragmented systems. Considered as a whole, the global DNS database is fragmented across a considerable number of hosts. However this is doubtlessly orders of magnitude smaller than the scope desired by advocates of universal Internet-scale directory services, such as LDAP, which have yet to see broad acceptance within the network. The distribution of administration presents a difficulty within the ongoing provision of fragmented systems. In a centralized resource, a single administrative body is capable of quickly affecting changes across the scope of a system. In a fragmented resource, issues arise in how changes should be applied and who is allowed to do them. In the case of DNS, updates must frequently be submitted to human administrators, who authenticate and apply changes by hand. In existing systems this is an acceptable property, DNS lookups are handled with an acceptable degree of expedience, and the frequency of change is small enough typically to be handled off-line. This is not, however, an approach that provides a high degree of scalability. 2.3.4 Peer to peer The client-server model assumes that certain machines are better suited for providing certain services. For instance, a file server may be a system with a large amount of disk space and backup facilities. A peer-to-peer model (Figure 2.3.4) assumes that each machine has somewhat equivalent capabilities, that no machine is dedicated to serving others. An example of this is a collection of PCs in a small office or home. Networking allows people to access each otherà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s files and send email but no machine is relegated to a specific set of services. Peer to peer applications are highly distributed and involve a high degree of potentially conflicting, concurrent access to resources. This is a fairly hypothetical description, as very few such applications currently exist at the Internet scale. Peer-based file sharing applications, such as Gnutella [6], are initial steps within this domain but only begin to enter the phylum. Gnutella does not need to address any conflict issues, nor has it proven able to scale. In this class of application, the acceptable weaknesses within the other phyla compound and cannot be avoided. Failure has a high potential impact, but resources cannot be protected. Administration is distributed and the coupling between administrative domains may become much more dynamic. We discuss these issues more extensively in the next section. Figure 2.3.4 3. Conclusion The purpose of this paper has been to identify open problem based on taxonomy that necessarily must be addressed in order to develop advanced, Internet-scale distributed systems. Regarding to the explanations above, we can highlight that the open problem in taxonomy that contains in access concurrency and resource distribution. We also must consider the four phyla of distributed system; point-to-point, multiplexed, fragmented resource and peer to peer to identify weaknesses that exist within the domain that may not be acceptable within more advanced systems. Projects to develop environments for ubiquitous, invisible, and pervasive distributed applications have, and continue to be, very exciting research that will need to address many of these issues in order to realize their visions.

Euthanasia and the Right to Die Essay -- Doctor Assisted Suicide

The Oxford English Dictionary defines euthanasia as â€Å"the action of inducing a gentle and easy death† (Oxford English Dictionary). Many people around the world would like nothing more than to end their lives because they are suffering from painful and lethal diseases; suffering people desperately seek doctors to help them end their lives. Many people see euthanasia as murder, so euthanasia is illegal in many countries. Euthanasia is an extremely controversial issue that has many complex factors behind it including medical costs, murder and liberty rights. Should people have the rights to seek euthanasia from doctors who are well trained in dealing with euthanasia? The bases for western knowledge, the Greek and Roman empires, usually supported euthanasia. Although they did not like giving â€Å"’a deadly drug to anybody, not even if asked for,’† by the patient, they preferred a gentle death as opposed to their patients suffering a miserable life (ProCon). It was not until the middle ages that euthanasia was actively opposed. In the middle ages the predominate religions of Europe were Christian and Judaism; these two religions did not approve of euthanasia because not only was suicide itself a sin, but the doctor who helped the patients would have committed the sin of murder. The three major religions that influence the world, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, all see suicide as a sin. These three religions have a major impact on the world today, so the trend of criminalizing euthanasia continued up into the modern era with euthanasia still being illegal in many parts of the world. The first law explicitly prohibiting euthanasia in the United States was enacted in New York in 1828 (ProCon). Since then many more states have outlawed ... ...2011. . Opposing Viewpoints."Introduction to Euthanasia: Opposing Viewpoints." Euthanasia. Ed. Carrie Snyder. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. http://ic.galegroup.com.library.collin.edu/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010134107&userGroupName=txshracd2497&jsid=af2eacb374dfea6a89c0773d16c35a50 Oxford English Dictionary. "Euthanasia." Def. 3. Oxford English Dictionary. Sept. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. . ProCon. "Historical Timeline." Euthanasia - ProCon.org. ProCon.org, 28 Sept. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. .

Dances With Wolves

The film â€Å"Dances With Wolves† initiates with Lt. John Dunbar in fear of having his leg amputated by the doctors, he would rather die than to live without his leg. In his attempt to die, he decides to become a distraction to the enemy by riding in front of them and be the main target. While they were trying to shoot him, the rest of the union he belongs to overcome the enemy.Consequently Dunbar is named a hero and is offered a station wherever he liked. He chooses the frontier, so he can see it before it is gone. When he finally arrives, he finds the place completely deserted. Right away he starts fixing the setting, but with less motivation as time goes by. He is alone and with no news from the army for over a month, his horse Cisco and a wolf he named Two Socks are his only companions. He is then found by the Sioux who decide to try to talk to him rather than to kill him.With passions Dumbar and the Sioux start to learn each others language and commence to communicate wi th ease, after a while they became trusted friends and Dumbar is even offered to move in with the Sioux, an offer he accepts. Dunbar and Stands With A Fist, a white woman who lived with the Sioux since childhood, fall in love with each other and marry. Because of this, he is even more accepted as a good man, he is even given a name, Dances With Wolves. When moving to the winter camp with the Sioux, Dumbar goes back to his soddy to get his journal, but when he arrived he found that U.S. troops had already gotten there and mistook his for an Indian because of his clothing. He was mistreated and they killed both Cisco and Two Socks.A group of Sioux men go to find Dumbar and find him, with the help of him, they killed the solders that had him cuffed. They then return with the rest of their people, but Dumbar knows that he is putting their lives in danger by being with them because he knows that the U.S. solders will hunt him down. Therefore he decides to leave with his wife in order to protect the Sioux. The best for this country is to expand and that is exactly what we have done. We fought to improve our country and we took out anyone who was standing in the way. Western expansion was the best way to head, but there was a problem, the Native Americans were living in the Great Plains, we had to take over this land. After all it is Gods will, our destiny, for our great country to expand west.It is manifest destiny and it is inevitable. The more land we have, the more powerful our country will be. I  do not feel any remorse what so ever for the Indians, they are nothing but thieves who are worth nothing more than the exodusters. Having all this land, the Homestead Act was passed, now any citizen or intended citizen who was head of the house hold was given 160 acres of land for free. I can predict our country will have a bright future. The only serious problem I can think of is for the farmers. Since the Railroad Industry has no competition, they can charge however much they want, and the farmers have to pay a ridiculous amount to transport their grain.The United Staters are despicable people who take things without asking. The U.S. Government does not understand that land cannot be owned. We have lived in this land for many years and it was not right that we were forced out of our home. We had done nothing to the U.S. Government, yet they wanted war. Even worst, they do not understand the Importance of buffalo. Buffalo provides a lot more than just food, it is essential for survival. The buffalo was needed for clothing, tools, weapons and other gadgets. To make everything even worst, the Dawes Act was passed. They wanted to Americanize us, they wanted to force us to leave our culture.Leaving my culture is like becoming someone I am not, leave my whole life behind, what a disgrace, I would rather die. The one person who I clash with all the time is my mother. Although she raised me, most of our views are different. I find her making many judg ments in everyone’s actions, and even though I know that judgment is inevitable, I believe she takes it too far. Even if someone’s action were innocent, if it had a negative outcome, she said they were irresponsible and a bad person.Although I do think people should think before they act, if they meant no harm then they are not bad people, because not everything turns out as expected. My mothers and I started arguing in the beginning of my 7th grade years, after I turned 12. At that age I started becoming more opinionated and defending my believes. My mother was outraged that I did not have her exact mentality and ever since that age it has been an on-going battle between us about everything we did not fully agree on, which is mostly everything.This film was an excellent tool to connect to what we are studding in class. Watching this movie gave me an ever greater understanding of what had taken place, how, and how everyone felt about it. To be able to see actual people going through this helped me realize that it was all real and that it actually happened.  Reminding me that it was real just made this learning experience more interesting.

“My Left Foot” by Christy Brown Essay

â€Å"When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?'† -Sydney Harris One of the themes in My Left Foot is Christy Brown’s struggles with Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral Palsy is a disease that is caused from birth. Premature babies are most at risk for the disease, and most that are born with it do not cry in the first five minutes of birth unlike normal babies. The cause of the disease is still unknown like many â€Å"birth defects.† The mother and father of the baby often feel guilty for the baby’s condition, but the truth is that it still often occurs even when the mother has strictly followed her physician’s advice in caring for herself and the developing infant. The disease disrupts bodily functions and the symptoms may vary. Many subjects are unable to speak but their brains are fully functional and therefore are trapped in their own world, unable to express their feelings or thoughts. In the book the doctors told Christy’s mother that he would never be able to communicate and would be a â€Å"vegetable† the rest of his life. Unlike a lot of patients with the same illness Christy with a lot of determination turned his life around. He learned to express himself through writing and painting, doing this only with the use of his left foot. Christy’s story makes you look twice at your problems and reassess your life. Inspiration â€Å"A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.† -Sigmund Freud With the mass flow of books, movies, and media in the modern world it is hard to find a great book or movie. Every once and a while you come across a book that changes the way you look at the world. It changes you perspective and outlook on life. My left foot is that kind of book, and Christy Brown is that kind of person. Christy Brown was born into a poor Irish family of fifteen. In addition to those problems he was born with Cerebral Palsy. There was not much know about the disease at the time and doctors didn’t know what to do with Christy and thought he would never be able to communicate with the outside world. They told his mother: â€Å"For your own sake, don’t look at this boy as you would to the others.† But his mother thought otherwise. She, with out a shade of doubt knew that Christy could understand her and would be able to communicate somehow. She was right; against all odds he, with the help and determination of his mother, learned how to write. Even if the only way he could was with his left foot. He struggled everyday to learn and form new letters. He could have just curled up in his own world and not face the immense struggles of his everyday life, But he strived to be able to do the things every normal person could do. Because of his handicap he saw the world from a different perspective. He wrote this great book about his life and now he inspires with his motivational life story. We see his struggles and it lets us look at our problems in a whole different light, and it inspires us to try a little harder. Alone Many people approach severe disfigurement and disability with great fear, and are uneasy around an individual with anything too different than that of â€Å"normal† society. Christy Brown grew up not knowing why people would stare, snicker, or look away. He new there was something different but he didn’t know what it was. He was unacquainted with the strange disease that plagued him everyday of his life. Imagining the feeling one would have inside them  makes me shutter with dismay. When he was young he would be towed around by his brothers and friends in the old battered-up wagon that was know as â€Å"The Chariot†, and was included in their games and fun. But with so much use the old wagon broke and his connection with the world was unplugged. But as he always had done before he found his piece of normal life trough painting. As he grew older, out of childhood, he began to see himself in a different way. He began to see why he was the target of so many discomforting stares. He began to understand his disease and that no matter how hard he tried he would never be able to fit in like everyone else. He fell into dark depression for a period of time. It only grew worse as time went on. No matter how happy he was he always new he was strange to everyone else.