Univ. of Pittsburgh Pathology Informatics Rotation 2004
Pretest 7/12/2004

Name:_____________________________

Circle the letter of the best answer to the following questions.
1.	Which of the following has a significant effect on the apparent speed of desktop computers?
	a.	Main (frontside) bus clock speed
	b.	Processor clock speed
	c.	Hard drive speed
	d.	Amount of RAM
	e.	All of the above

2.	Which of the following is usually a function of the operating system?
	a.	Defining the data format used by word processing programs
	b.	The initial phase of computer startup when it is powered on
	c.	Managing memory during computer operation
	d.	Determining the specific layout of data within a hard drive
	e.	All of the above

3.	What is defined by the version of the Health Level 7 (HL7) standard in current use (version 2.x)?
	a.	Intersystem text messages and the positions of data elements in those messages
	b.	Intersystem text messages and the contents of data elements in those messages
	c.	Intersystem binary messages and the binary format of the data elements
	d.	A comprehensive data model for the electronic health record

4.	Which of the following is true regarding Ethernet networks?
	a.	Ethernet LANs inherently have a star topology
	b.	Ethernet handles collisions by requiring the conflicting devices to wait a small 
		amount of time before trying to communicate again
	c.	Category 4 cable supports both 10 Mbit and 100 Mbit Ethernet
	d.	10baseT cabling uses a connector similar to telephone line connectors (RJ-11)
	e.	All of the above

5.	Which of the following are true regarding file formats?
	a.	The characters that mark the ends of lines between text files differ between 
		Windows, Macintosh and Unix computers
	b.	Excel can read tab- and comma-delimited files directly
	c.	Word or Powerpoint files can be made to look like generic files by removing their 
		filename extensions (.doc and .ppt), but they can still be opened within those 
		programs
	d.	RTF is an ASCII-based standard word processor format
	e. 	All are true


6.	Which of the following standards provides codes that identify laboratory tests
	a.	ICD-10
	b.	CPT
	c. 	LOINC
	d.	HL7

7.	Which of the following diagramming techniques is used to express the structure of a relational database during database design?
	a.	An ER (entity-relationship) diagram
	b.	A UML Class diagram
	c.	A flow chart
	d.	A use-case diagram

8.	The basic storage elements of a relational database are:
	a.	Classes and attributes
	b.	Objects and members
	c.	Tables and records
	d.	Frames and slots

9.	Which of the following is a common architecture for enterprise systems
	a.	Model-view-controller
	b.	Presentation layer-middleware-data storage
	c.	Abstract class-superclass-subclass
	d.	Module-class-method

10.	What is meant by a legacy system?
	a.	A software program that is developed by volunteers and made available free of charge
	b.	A system that uses outdated technology but that must be maintained due to the value of 
		the data it contains and the difficulty replacing it
	c.	A system that uses data formats mandated in government regulations
	d.	A system that is licensed in perpetuity rather than requiring periodic subscription 
		payments

11.	Which of the following are true of a packet-switching network?
	a.	The response to overload is connection failure
	b.	All packets take the same route from the sender to the receiver
	c.	Packets usually contain entire files
	d.	They use a store-and-forward paradigm
	e.	All of the above

12.	Which of the following is true of XML (Extensible Markup Language)?
	a.	XML is a framework for creating markup languages
	b.	The XML standard is maintained by Sun Microsystems
	c.	XML has not yet been used in the development of healthcare data standards
	d.	XML provides pre-defined markup elements for representing relational records
	e.	All of the above


13.	Which of the following statements is true regarding system security?
	a.	The greatest threat to healthcare systems comes from inappropriate user behavior 
		(sharing passwords, inappropriate discussion or release of data, etc.)
	b.	The security problems that have occurred with the Windows OS are primarily related to 
		its prevalence
	c.	Enterprise system vendors generally recommend application of Microsoft security 
		patches to healthcare production systems as soon as possible after release of the patch
	d.	The presence of a firewall protects against viruses that users may bring into the system on 
		laptops that have been connected to the Internet at home and are also used at work

14.	A system to recommend diagnoses based on positive and negative surface markers in flow cytometry studies might best be implemented as a:
	a.	Neural network
	b.	Bayesian belief network
	c.	Rule-based expert system
	d.	Partitioning classifier

15.	Which of the following image formats would be the best for representing a black and white diagram?
	a. 	jpeg
	b.	png (Portable network graphics)
	c.	gif (Graphics interchange format)
	d.	tiff (Tagged image file format)

16.	"Vendor lock-in" refers to:
	a.	The period after a price quote during which the quote cannot be changed
	b.	A set of vendors who agree to create interfaces between their systems
	c.	The negotiation period after one RFP is selected as the leader
	d.	A situation in which multiple software packages from a vendor purposely integrate better 
		with each other than with other vendors' software, making selection of "best of breed" 
		systems difficult 
	
17.	A scope document:
	a.	Is written by the customer to provide a vendor with an overview of users' needs and 
		current environment
	b.	Is written by the vendor to describe the features of a software package
	c.	Is written by developers to define the details of a project's implementation
	d.	Is written by the customer to describe the financial and business case limitations for a 
		project

18.	The GNU public license allows:
	a.	Unlimited use for a set period of time for a fixed fee, with no redistribution or additional 
		development
	b.	Unlimited use without a license fee, with no redistribution or additional development
	c.	Unlimited use for a fixed fee, with redistribution and additional development allowed
	d. 	Unlimited use without fee with redistribution allowed. Any additional development must 
		also carry the GNU public license.


19.	Medical error has been difficult to study because:
	a.	Medical errors are relatively rare
	b.	Medical errors may not produce outcomes that are clearly distinguishable as outliers
	c.	Errors are generally caught before they significantly affect patient outcomes
	d.	Medical culture has typically responded to error by assigning individual blame and 
		penalties rather than systematic study
	e.	a and c are correct
	f.	b and d are correct

20.	Which of the following are true with respect to drug therapy errors?
	a.	Drug therapy errors are the most common cause of iatrogenic illness
	b.	Overall, more than 50% of drug-related errors are related to physician ordering
	c.	Rule-based systems associated with physician order entry have reduced adverse drug 
		reactions more than 50%
	d.	Computer monitoring of lab data and chart review both detect drug therapy errors, but 
		these groups of errors are different with relatively little overlap
	e.	All of the above