scholarly journals What Makes Some Diseases More Typical than Others? A Survey on the Impact of Disease Characteristics and Professional Background on Disease Typicality

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 004695802097281
Author(s):  
Tore Hofstad ◽  
James A. Hampton ◽  
Bjørn Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Health Professionals ◽  
General Study ◽  
Professional Background ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Disease Characteristics ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Occupational Background ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Behavioral Conditions

Health professionals tend to perceive some diseases as more typical than others. If disease typicalities have implications for health professionals or health policy makers’ handling of different diseases, then it is of great social, epistemic, and ethical interest. Accordingly, it is important to find out what makes health professionals rank diseases as more or less typical. This study investigates the impact of various factors on how typical various diseases are perceived to be by health professionals. In particular, we study the influence of broad disease categories, such as somatic versus psychological/behavioral conditions, and a wide range of more specific disease characteristics, as well as the health professional’s own background. We find that professional background strongly impacted disease typicality. All professionals (MD, RN, physiotherapists and psychologists) considered somatic conditions to be more typical than psychological/behavioral. As expected, psychologists also found psychological/behavioral conditions to be more typical than did other groups. Professions of respondents could be well predicted from their individual typicality judgments, with the exception of physiotherapists and nurses who had very similar judgment profiles. We also demonstrate how various disease characteristics impact typicality for the different professionals. Typicality showed moderate to strong positive correlations with condition severity and mortality, and only non-severe conditions were rated as atypical. Hence, studying how different disease characteristics and occupational background influences health professionals’ perception of disease typicality is the first and important step toward a more general study of how typicality influences disease handling.

scholarly journals Earth-based observations of impact phenomena

1996 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 81-109
Author(s):  
Philip D. Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Hubble Space Telescope ◽  
Common Pattern ◽  
Mid Infrared ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Impact Phenomena ◽  
Infrared Wavelengths ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Size Estimates

Earth-based observations at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths were obtained for at least 15 of the SL9 impacts, ranging from the spectacular G, K and L events to the barely-detected N and V impacts. Although there were a few exceptions, most of the IR lightcurves fit a common pattern of one or two relatively faint precursor flashes, followed several minutes later by the main infrared event as the explosively-ejected plume crashed down onto the jovian atmosphere. Correlations with the impact times recorded by the Galileo spacecraft and plumes imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope lead to an interpretation of the twin precursors in terms of (i) the entry of the bolide into the upper atmosphere, and (ii) the re-appearance of the rising fireball above Jupiter's limb. Positive correlations are observed between the peak IR flux observed during the splashback phase and both pre-impact size estimates for the individual SL9 fragments and the scale of the resulting ejecta deposits. None of the fragments observed to have moved off the main train of the comet by May 1994 produced a significant impact signature. Earth-based fireball temperature estimates are on the order of 750 K, 30-60 sec after impact. For the larger impacts, the unexpectedly protracted fireball emission at 2.3 μm remains unexplained. A wide range of temperatures has been inferred for the splashback phase, where shocks are expected to have heated the re-entering plume material at least briefly to several thousand K, and further modelling is required to reconcile these data.

scholarly journals Digital Twin and CyberGIS for Improving Connectivity and Measuring the Impact of Infrastructure Construction Planning in Smart Cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Shirowzhan ◽  
Willie Tan ◽  
Samad M. E. Sepasgozar
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Smart Devices ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Infrastructure Project ◽  
Smart Technologies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Smart technologies are advancing, and smart cities can be made smarter by increasing the connectivity and interactions of humans, the environment, and smart devices. This paper discusses selective technologies that can potentially contribute to developing an intelligent environment and smarter cities. While the connectivity and efficiency of smart cities is important, the analysis of the impact of construction development and large projects in the city is crucial to decision and policy makers, before the project is approved. This raises the question of assessing the impact of a new infrastructure project on the community prior to its commencement—what type of technologies can potentially be used for creating a virtual representation of the city? How can a smart city be improved by utilizing these technologies? There are a wide range of technologies and applications available but understanding their function, interoperability, and compatibility with the community requires more discussion around system designs and architecture. These questions can be the basis of developing an agenda for further investigations. In particular, the need for advanced tools such as mobile scanners, Geospatial Artificial Intelligence, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Geospatial Augmented Reality apps, Light Detection, and Ranging in smart cities is discussed. In line with smart city technology development, this Special Issue includes eight accepted articles covering trending topics, which are briefly reviewed.

scholarly journals Creating Boundary-Breaking, Marketing-Relevant Consumer Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah J. MacInnis ◽  
Vicki G. Morwitz ◽  
Simona Botti ◽  
Donna L. Hoffman ◽  
Robert V. Kozinets ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Research ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Society ◽  
Business Practitioners ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Breaking Work ◽  
Do So

Consumer research often fails to have broad impact on members of the marketing discipline, on adjacent disciplines studying related phenomena, and on relevant stakeholders who stand to benefit from the knowledge created by rigorous research. The authors propose that impact is limited because consumer researchers have adhered to a set of implicit boundaries or defaults regarding what consumer researchers study, why they study it, and how they do so. The authors identify these boundaries and describe how they can be challenged. By detailing five impactful articles and identifying others, they show that boundary-breaking, marketing-relevant consumer research can influence relevant stakeholders including academics in marketing and allied disciplines as well as a wide range of marketplace actors (e.g., business practitioners, policy makers, the media, society). Drawing on these articles, the authors articulate what researchers can do to break boundaries and enhance the impact of their research. They also indicate why engaging in boundary-breaking work and enhancing the breadth of marketing’s influence is good for both individual researchers and the fields of consumer research and marketing.

Emergency preparedness training preferences and perceived barriers to training among various healthcare providers and public health practitioners in Massachusetts

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-106
Author(s):  
John Broach, MD, MPH, MBA, FACEP ◽  
Mary-Elise Smith, MA, MD, FACEP
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Emergency Preparedness ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
Training Topic ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Training Preferences ◽  
The Impact

Introduction: Emergency preparedness training is vital to a wide range of healthcare and public health disciplines. Although agencies may try to tailor their training efforts based on perceived need, the topics and methods of instruction may be misguided, resulting in wasted effort and poor participation in training events. Objective: The objective of this study was to understand in a rigorous way, the training preferences and barriers to training among practitioners in Massachusetts.Methods: In August 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health distributed an online survey to health professionals in Massachusetts regarding their emergency preparedness training topic preferences and any perceived barriers and challenges associated with obtaining this training. A total of 796 healthcare and public health professionals responded to the survey and answered some or all of the questions asked.Results: The results of the survey identified important differences in preference for some topics based on a provider's practice location and discipline. However, Community Recovery and Community Preparedness were seen as desirable by all disciplines with more than 80 percent of respondents rating each of these issues as being highly important. Barriers to training were also assessed. Time spent away from work was the most commonly identified barrier (77.41 percent). Travel distance and financial constraints were also rated highly with scores of 65.48 and 63.71 percent, respectively.Conclusions: This study demonstrates important areas of agreement with respect to desired training topics and points out areas where providers in different disciplines and from different geographic areas may have differing educational preferences. Even within the limitation of this investigation, we expect that this study will be a valuable tool for those attempting to effectively target emergency preparedness training and structure course offerings in ways that minimize the impact of barriers to training.

scholarly journals The Brain Drain Potential of Students in the African Health and Nonhealth Sectors

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Crush ◽  
Wade Pendleton
Keyword(s):  
Brain Drain ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Public Health Systems ◽  
African Health ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Very High

The departure of health professionals to Europe and North America is placing an intolerable burden on public health systems in many African countries. Various retention, recall, and replacement policies to ameliorate the impact of this brain drain have been suggested, none of which have been particularly successful to date. The key question for the future is whether the brain drain of health sector skills is likely to continue and whether the investment of African countries in training health professionals will continue to be lost through emigration. This paper examines the emigration intentions of trainee health professionals in six Southern African countries. The data was collected by the Southern African Migration Program (SAMP) in a survey of final-year students across the region which included 651 students training for the health professions. The data also allows for the comparison of health sector with other students. The analysis presented in this paper shows very high emigration potential amongst all final-year students. Health sector students do show a slightly higher inclination to leave than those training to work in other sectors. These findings present a considerable challenge for policy makers seeking to encourage students to stay at home and work after graduation.

scholarly journals Positive Youth Development: Interactions Between Healthy Lifestyle Behaviours and Psychosocial Variables

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Gaspar de Matos ◽  
Teresa Santos ◽  
Marta Reis ◽  
Adilson Marques
Keyword(s):  
Youth Development ◽  
Positive Youth Development ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Psychosocial Variables ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Lifestyle Behaviours ◽  
Positive Indicators ◽  
The Impact

The Positive Youth Development - PYD concept emphasised the importance of strengthening developmental assets in youth’s networks and contexts. This paper examines the correlation between PYD, healthy lifestyle behaviours and psychosocial variables (self-regulation, resilience, and anxiety); and the impact of PYD and psychosocial variables on healthy lifestyle behaviours. 2700 youths (73.3% girls; mean age 21.3±2.79 years) were included. Results showed that all variables mostly had significantly correlational associations. Specifically, the linear regression model evidenced that the promotion of PYD and self-regulation, along with the reduction of anxiety can be relevant for improving healthy lifestyle behaviours. Such results suggest a dynamic interdependence between all the present variables, reinforcing the need to study positive indicators for youth development. Having more knowledge in this area can help health professionals, educators, and policy-makers, in order to better plan interventions/policies and to improve an integral healthy perspective for youths, based on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work.

Talking EPC - speech pathologists' views of the Enhanced Primary Care items four years on

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jemma Skeat ◽  
Angela Morgan ◽  
Tristan Nickless
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
General Practitioners ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Allied Health ◽  
Allied Health Professionals ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Speech Pathologists ◽  
Effective Use

Background.Allied health professionals have provided services under Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) since 2004; however, the experiences and views of AHPs about the initiative and how it has been utilised have not been well explored. Objective.We examined speech pathologists’ views and experiences under EPC. Methods.A survey of speech pathologists in private practice who provide services under EPC was undertaken. Results.Speech pathologists provide EPC services to a wide range of clients with communication and swallowing disorders. The five EPC sessions provide a ‘starting point’ for therapy for some clients, and supplement existing therapy for others. Speech pathologists expressed concern about the accessibility of the program, and its understanding and use in practice, but noted that the program can be valuable for clients who are able to negotiate the hurdles, and for themselves in terms of increased referrals and collaboration with general practitioners. Conclusions.Education around eligibility, access, and reporting requirements is needed for clients, GPs and allied health professionals in order to reduce the frustrating aspects of this program, and support its ongoing use. What is known about the topic?The Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) program relies on collaboration between general practitioners and allied health professionals, and aims to improve the management of chronic and complex conditions in the community. The experiences and views of allied health professionals (AHPs) in implementing the EPC program since 2004 are important to inform evaluation of the effectiveness, usefulness and value of the program. What does this paper add?We explored speech pathologists’ perspectives on EPC, including their experiences and views about the program. The paper informs understanding of the use of EPC in practice, for example, how sessions are provided to clients over the 12-month period, as well as how those who use it – allied health professionals – perceive the value and practicality of this program. What are the implications for practitioners?Education for GPs, clients and AHPs is needed to facilitate a more efficient and effective use of EPC. Policy makers should consider the views and experiences of AHPs when reviewing the EPC initiative, in order to understand aspects such as the accessibility of the programs for clients, and the perceived value for AHPs.

Monitoring knowledge translation and the impact of HI in European countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Delnord ◽  
L A Abboud ◽  
H Van Oyen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Knowledge Translation ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Public Health Professionals ◽  
Impact Index ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background National health information systems (NHIS) report on the health of populations, the determinants of health and service use within countries. Thus far, the evaluation of HIS has largely focused on data production, and less on their impact in policy and practice. This entails that there is no standardized framework for monitoring the uptake of Health Information (HI) in the healthcare system. Methods An international Delphi with public health professionals and policy makers allowed reaching agreement on criteria for monitoring the impact of NHIS, based on four domains: (a) Health information Evidence Quality, (b) HIS Responsiveness, (c) Stakeholder Engagement, and (d) Knowledge Integration. Next, we pretested the Index among participating countries in the European Joint Action on Health Information. Results Over 130 public health professionals and policy-makers from 38 countries participated in the Delphi. The panel reached agreement on 30 criteria to monitor the impact of HIS in policy and practice; these constitute the HI-Impact Index. Eight countries participated in pretesting the HI-Impact Index. InfAct country representative found the HIS evaluation tool user friendly and the time needed to fill the evaluation acceptable. They noted however the need to refine the auditing guidelines further as to who shall be responsible for conducting the evaluation (i.e. multistakeholder evaluation vs. single governing body), and which type of population health data sources should be included as part of the evaluation. Conclusions Knowledge translation facilitates the implementation of practices that will benefit population health and well-being. The HI-Impact Index addresses a growing demand for more transparency and accountability in the use of HI and scientific evidence within countries. Next steps consist in further piloting the HI-Impact Index for use in specific health areas (i.e. maternal and child health, cancer, antimicrobial resistance).

scholarly journals Digital Mis/Disinformation and Public Engagment with Health and Science Controversies: Fresh Perspectives from Covid-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
An Nguyen ◽  
Daniel Catalan-Matamoros
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Vast Array ◽  
Climate Change Denial ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Recent Developments

Digital media, while opening a vast array of avenues for lay people to effectively engage with news, information and debates about important science and health issues, have become a fertile land for various stakeholders to spread misinformation and disinformation, stimulate uncivil discussions and engender ill-informed, dangerous public decisions. Recent developments of the Covid-19 infodemic might just be the tipping point of a process that has been long simmering in controversial areas of health and science (e.g., climate-change denial, anti-vaccination, anti-5G, Flat Earth doctrines). We bring together a wide range of fresh data and perspectives from four continents to help media scholars, journalists, science communicators, scientists, health professionals and policy-makers to better undersand these developments and what can be done to mitigate their impacts on public engagement with health and science controversies.

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