The Role of Expert Systems in Improving the Test Requesting Patterns of Clinicians

Author(s):  
Margaret Peters ◽  
P M G Broughton

The many strategies proposed for influencing the test requesting patterns of clinicians have had only limited success, largely because they are labour intensive and depend on motivation and commitment. Clinical protocols which have been locally agreed between laboratory staff and clinicians are potentially one of the more successful strategies, but detailed study of their application in different clinical settings has been limited by practical problems. Expert systems offer a way of implementing locally agreed protocols and, consequently, of assisting the identification, audit and refinement of laboratory testing strategies. Where these systems have been applied in specialist units they have resulted in savings in time by both clinical and laboratory staff, and an overall reduction in the number of clinical chemistry tests done within and out of hours. These systems offer promise as a method of improving laboratory utilization.

1984 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
G H White ◽  
R N Walmsley

Abstract Results of clinical chemistry tests are often initially interpreted by relatively inexperienced junior medical staff, and therefore a major role of clinical chemists is to ensure that their laboratory tests are utilized and interpreted appropriately. The cases described below demonstrate the interaction of a diagnostic problem and clinical inexperience in an area where clinical chemists can, and should be, of professional assistance.


Author(s):  
Benjamin F. Trump ◽  
Irene K. Berezesky ◽  
Raymond T. Jones

The role of electron microscopy and associated techniques is assured in diagnostic pathology. At the present time, most of the progress has been made on tissues examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and correlated with light microscopy (LM) and by cytochemistry using both plastic and paraffin-embedded materials. As mentioned elsewhere in this symposium, this has revolutionized many fields of pathology including diagnostic, anatomic and clinical pathology. It began with the kidney; however, it has now been extended to most other organ systems and to tumor diagnosis in general. The results of the past few years tend to indicate the future directions and needs of this expanding field. Now, in addition to routine EM, pathologists have access to the many newly developed methods and instruments mentioned below which should aid considerably not only in diagnostic pathology but in investigative pathology as well.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (01) ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
M. Hermans

SummaryThe author presents his personal opinion inviting to discussion on the possible future role of psychiatrists. His view is based upon the many contacts with psychiatrists all over Europe, academicians and everyday professionals, as well as the familiarity with the literature. The list of papers referred to is based upon (1) the general interest concerning the subject when representing ideas also worded elsewhere, (2) the accessibility to psychiatrists and mental health professionals in Germany, (3) being costless downloadable for non-subscribers and (4) for some geographic aspects (e.g. Belgium, Spain, Sweden) and the latest scientific issues, addressing some authors directly.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Henrietta Bannerman

John Cranko's dramatic and theatrically powerful Antigone (1959) disappeared from the ballet repertory in 1966 and this essay calls for a reappraisal and restaging of the work for 21st century audiences. Created in a post-World War II environment, and in the wake of appearances in London by the Martha Graham Company and Jerome Robbins’ Ballets USA, I point to American influences in Cranko's choreography. However, the discussion of the Greek-themed Antigone involves detailed consideration of the relationship between the ballet and the ancient dramas which inspired it, especially as the programme notes accompanying performances emphasised its Sophoclean source but failed to recognise that Cranko mainly based his ballet on an early play by Jean Racine. As Antigone derives from tragic drama, the essay investigates catharsis, one of the many principles that Aristotle delineated in the Poetics. This well-known effect is produced by Greek tragedies but the critics of the era complained about its lack in Cranko's ballet – views which I challenge. There is also an investigation of the role of Antigone, both in the play and in the ballet, and since Cranko created the role for Svetlana Beriosova, I reflect on memories of Beriosova's interpretation supported by more recent viewings of Edmée Wood's 1959 film.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Evans

The Many Voices of Lydia Davis shows how translation, rewriting and intertextuality are central to the work of Lydia Davis, a major American writer, translator and essayist. Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2013, Davis writes innovative short stories that question the boundaries of the genre. She is also an important translator of French writers such as Maurice Blanchot, Michel Leiris, Marcel Proust and Gustave Flaubert. Translation and writing go hand-in-hand in Davis’s work. Through a series of readings of Davis’s major translations and her own writing, this book investigates how Davis’s translations and stories relate to each other, finding that they are inextricably interlinked. It explores how Davis uses translation - either as a compositional tool or a plot device - and other instances of rewriting in her stories, demonstrating that translation is central for understanding her prose. Understanding how Davis’s work complicates divisions between translating and other forms of writing highlights the role of translation in literary production, questioning the received perception that translation is less creative than other forms of writing.


2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Patterson

This article addresses the increasingly popular approach to Freud and his work which sees him primarily as a literary writer rather than a psychologist, and takes this as the context for an examination of Joyce Crick's recent translation of The Interpretation of Dreams. It claims that translation lies at the heart of psychoanalysis, and that the many interlocking and overlapping implications of the word need to be granted a greater degree of complexity. Those who argue that Freud is really a creative writer are themselves doing a work of translation, and one which fails to pay sufficiently careful attention to the role of translation in writing itself (including the notion of repression itself as a failure to translate). Lesley Chamberlain's The Secret Artist: A Close Reading of Sigmund Freud is taken as an example of the way Freud gets translated into a novelist or an artist, and her claims for his ‘bizarre poems' are criticized. The rest of the article looks closely at Crick's new translation and its claim to be restoring Freud the stylist, an ordinary language Freud, to the English reader. The experience of reading Crick's translation is compared with that of reading Strachey's, rather to the latter's advantage.


2009 ◽  
Vol 150 (46) ◽  
pp. 2101-2109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Csécsei ◽  
Anita Trauninger ◽  
Sámuel Komoly ◽  
Zsolt Illés

The identification of autoantibodies generated against the brain isoform water channel aquaporin4 in the sera of patients, changed the current diagnostic guidelines and concept of neuromyelitis optica (NMO). In a number of cases, clinical manifestation is spatially limited to myelitis or relapsing optic neuritis creating a diverse. NMO spectrum. Since prevention of relapses provides the only possibility to reduce permanent disability, early diagnosis and treatment is mandatory. In the present study, we discuss the potential role of neuroimaging and laboratory tests in differentiating the NMO spectrum from other diseases, as well as the diagnostic procedures and therapeutic options. We also present clinical cases, to provide examples of different clinical settings, diagnostic procedures and therapeutic decisions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Susan M. Bridges ◽  
Cynthia K.Y. Yiu ◽  
Colman P. McGrath

In clinical dental consultations in multilingual contexts, medical interpreting is often performed by the supporting staff as part of routine triadic formulations. As academic dentistry becomes increasingly internationalised, issues of language and culture add to the interactional complexity of clinical communication and education. A multivariate approach was adopted to investigate one case of multilingualism in dentistry in Asia. Collection of both survey (n=86) and interactional data provided empirical evidence regarding language use and language demands across integrated Polyclinics. Descriptive statistics of Dental Surgery Assistant (DSA) perception data and conversation analysis (CA) of mediated interpretation indicate that, as members of the oral healthcare team, DSAs in Hong Kong are an essential resource in their role of intercultural mediators between patients and clinicians, both staff and students. Discussion of sociolinguistic notions of place-as-location and place-as-meaning supports a wider conceptualisation of the role of support staff as interpreters in clinical settings. Implications are drawn for policy, curriculum and staff development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 967-971
Author(s):  
Poonam Thakre ◽  
Waqar M. Naqvi ◽  
Trupti Deshmukh ◽  
Nikhil Ingole ◽  
Sourabh Deshmukh

The emergence in China of 2019 of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) previously provisionally names 2019-nCoV disease (COVID19) caused major global outbreak and is a major public health problem. On 30 January 2020, the WHO declared COVID19 to be the sixth international public health emergency. This present pandemic has engrossed the globe with a high rate of mortality. As a front line practitioner, physiotherapists are expected to be getting in direct contact with patients infected with the virus. That’s why it is necessary for understanding the many aspects of their role in the identification, contains, reduces and treats the symptoms of this disease. The main presentation is the involvement of respiratory system with symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat, sneezing and characteristics of pneumonia leads to ARDS(Acute respiratory distress syndrome) also land up in multiorgan dysfunction syndrome. This text describes and suggests physiotherapy management of acute COVID-19 patients. It also includes recommendations and guidelines for physiotherapy planning and management. It also covers the guidelines regarding personal care and equipment used for treatment which can be used in the treatment of acute adult patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.


2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-243
Author(s):  
Verena Mayer

How do we understand other minds? The current debate uses the iridescent term “empathy” to explain our quite different mindreading capacities. Since no alternatives seemed to be available the discussion has been mostly in a deadlock between “simulation theory” and “theory theory”. Only recently the relevance of phenomenological findings on the issue has been brought forward. In this paper Husserl’s two concepts of “Einfühlung”, as developed in the second volume of his Ideas, are set against the background of the latest discussion. Husserl’s explanation of empathy in terms of analogical experience highlights the transcendental role of empathy in the context of constitution. At the same time it may solve some of the many riddles left by the recent debate.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document