scholarly journals The changing demographics of the orthotist/prosthetist workforce in Australia: 2007, 2012 and 2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Ridgewell ◽  
Leigh Clarke ◽  
Sarah Anderson ◽  
Michael P. Dillon
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Australian State ◽  
Changing Demographics ◽  
Service Location ◽  
Over 40 Years ◽  
Improve Access ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Background Previous Australian workforce analyses revealed a small orthotist/prosthetist workforce with a low number of practitioners per 100,000 Australians. In recent years, initiatives were implemented to increase relative workforce size, including a government-led change in immigration policy to facilitate entry of experienced internationally trained orthotist/prosthetists into the Australian workforce. Given these changes, this project aimed to compare demographics of the orthotist/prosthetist workforce in Australia and each state/territory between 2007, 2012 and 2019. Methods This quasi-experiment analysed data from the Australian Orthotic Prosthetic Association (AOPA) database of certified orthotist/prosthetists, to compare changes in the absolute number of practitioners and the number of practitioners per 100,000 population, as well as practitioner age, gender and service location (i.e., metropolitan, regional/remote) across three time points, with a breakdown by each Australian state and territory. Results Between 2007 and 2019, the number of orthotist/prosthetists per 100,000 population increased 90%. Average age reduced significantly between 2007 (41.5 years) and 2019 (35 years) (p = 0.001). While the proportion of female practitioners increased significantly between 2007 (30%) and 2019 (49%), and between 2012 (38%) and 2019 (49%) (p < 0.05); only 22% of the female workforce is over 40 years of age. The proportion of practitioners servicing a regional/remote location did not change over time (range 13–14%). Conclusions Between 2007 and 2019, the national orthotist/prosthetist workforce increased at a rate that exceeded Australia’s population growth, became younger, and more female. However, the number of practitioners per 100,000 population remains below international recommendations; particularly in states outside of Victoria and Tasmania, and in regional/remote areas. In addition, low numbers of mid-late career female practitioners suggest challenges to retention of this particular cohort. These data can help inform workforce initiatives to retain a younger and more female workforce, and improve access to orthotic/prosthetic services.

Demographics of the Australian orthotic and prosthetic workforce 2007–12

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Ridgewell ◽  
Michael Dillon ◽  
Jackie O'Connor ◽  
Sarah Anderson ◽  
Leigh Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Data ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Objective Health ◽  
Healthcare Needs ◽  
The Future ◽  
Over Time

Objective Health workforce data are vital to inform initiatives to meet the future healthcare needs of our society, but there are currently no data describing the Australian orthotic and prosthetic workforce. The aim of the present study was to describe demographic changes in the Australian orthotic and prosthetic workforce from 2007 to 2012. Methods In the present retrospective time series study, data from the Australian Orthotic Prosthetic Association member database were analysed for trends from 2007 to 2012. Data describing the absolute number of practitioners, the number of practitioners per 100 000 population, age, gender, state or territory of residence and service location (i.e. metropolitan, regional and remote) were analysed for significant changes over time using linear regression models. Results Although the number of orthotist/prosthetists in Australia increased (P = 0.013), the number of orthotist/prosthetists per 100 000 population remained unchanged (P = 0.054). The workforce became younger (P = 0.004) and more female (P = 0.005). Only Victoria saw an increase in the proportion of orthotist/prosthetists in regional and remote areas. There was considerable state-to-state variation. Only Victoria (P = 0.01) and Tasmania (P = 0.003) saw an increase in the number of orthotist/prosthetists per 100 000 population. Conclusions The orthotic and prosthetic workforce has increased proportionately to Australia’s population growth, become younger and more female. The proportion of practitioners in regional and remote areas has remained unchanged. These data can help inform workforce initiatives to increase the number of orthotist/prosthetists relative to the Australian population and make the services of orthotist/prosthetists more accessible to Australians in regional and remote areas. What is known about the topic? Currently, there are no demographic data describing changes in the Australian orthotic and prosthetic workforce over time. These data are vital to inform initiatives to increase the size of the workforce, locate practitioners where health services are most needed and thereby plan to meet the future health care needs of our society. What does this paper add? This paper describes changes in the Australian orthotic and prosthetic workforce, where previously these data have not been available as part of federal initiatives to plan for future workforce needs. What are the implications for practitioners? Demographic data describing changes in the orthotic and prosthetic workforce are needed to inform workforce initiatives that improve access in regional and remote Australia, and retain a younger and more female workforce.

scholarly journals Telemammography for breast cancer screening: a cost-effective approach in Argentina

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. e100351
Author(s):  
Victoria Alba Malek Pascha ◽  
Li Sun ◽  
Ramiro Gilardino ◽  
Rosa Legood
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Cancer Screening ◽  
Breast Cancer Screening ◽  
Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Mammography Screening ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Access To Healthcare ◽  
Over 40 Years ◽  
Improve Access

ObjectivesArgentina is a low and middle-income country (LMIC) with a highly fragmented healthcare system that conflicts with access to healthcare stated by the country’s Universal Health Coverage plan. A tele-mammography network could improve access to breast cancer screening decreasing its mortality. This research aims to conduct an economic evaluation of the implementation of a tele-mammography program to improve access to healthcare.MethodsA cost-utility analysis was performed to explore the incremental benefit of annual tele-mammography screening for at-risk Argentinian women over 40 years old. A Markov model was developed to simulate annual mammography or tele-mammography screening in two hypothetical population-based cohorts of asymptomatic women. Parameter uncertainty was evaluated through deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Model structure uncertainty was also explored to test the robustness of the results.ResultsIt was estimated that 31 out of 100 new cases of breast cancer would be detected by mammography and 39/100 by tele-mammography. The model returned an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of £26 051/quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) which is lower than the WHO-recommended threshold of £26 288/QALY for Argentina. Deterministic sensitivity analysis showed the ICER is most sensitive to the uptake and sensitivity of the screening tests. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed tele-mammography is cost-effective in 59% of simulations.DiscussionTele-mammography should be considered for adoption as it could improve access to expertise in underserved areas where adherence to screening protocols is poor. Disaggregated data by province is needed for a better- informed policy decision. Telemedicine could also be beneficial in ensuring the continuity of care when health systems are under stress like in the current COVID-19 pandemic.ConclusionThere is a 59% chance that tele-mammography is cost-effective compared to mammography for at-risk Argentinian women over 40- years old, and should be adopted to improve access to healthcare in underserved areas of the country.

scholarly journals Does the Arc of Science Bend Towards Impact? Four Decades of Empirical Research Published in JADD Since the DSM-III

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Doehring
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Intervention Research ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Impact ◽  
Population Impact ◽  
Community Based Programs ◽  
Over 40 Years ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThe present study explored the shift from understanding to intervention to population impact in the empirical research published in this journal at five points of time over 40 years since the release of DSM-III. Two-thirds of the more than 600 original studies identified involved basic research, a pattern that is consistent with previous analyses of research funding allocations and that did not change over time. One of every eight studies involved intervention research, which occurred in community-based programs only about one-quarter of the time. These gaps in intervention research and community impact did not improve over time. The findings underscore the need to broaden the training and experience of researchers, and to re-consider priorities for research funding and publication.

Telemedicine Basics

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Guenevere Burke ◽  
Jared Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Emergency Medicine ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Improve Access

Telemedicine is a rapidly growing field in health care and emergency medicine. Telemedicine, telehealth, and virtual health refer to the use of telecommunications technology and electronic information to support health and provide care over distance. It has been used to improve access to health care in geographically remote areas for decades, but its use and recognized benefits have expanded considerably over the years, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter provides a brief overview of the history of telemedicine, introduces key terms, and reviews basic definitions that are foundational to telemedicine practice. Finally, it summarizes a wide array of telehealth applications in emergency medicine, which are detailed further in later chapters.

New aliens in Australia: 18 years of vertebrate interceptions

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Toomes ◽  
Pablo García-Díaz ◽  
Talia A. Wittmann ◽  
John Virtue ◽  
Phillip Cassey
Keyword(s):  
Pet Trade ◽  
Psittacula Krameri ◽  
Boa Constrictor ◽  
Australian State ◽  
Commonwealth Government ◽  
Increasing Risk ◽  
Alien Vertebrates ◽  
Invasion Pathway ◽  
And Control ◽  
Over Time

Abstract ContextAustralia has a high diversity of endemic vertebrate fauna. Yet, transnational human activities continue to increase the rate of transportation, introduction and establishment of new alien vertebrates in Australia, to the detriment of environmental and socioeconomic services. Eradication of invasive vertebrates is often costly and without guarantee of success; therefore, methods for detecting, intercepting and preventing the transport of alien species earlier in the invasion pathway provide substantial benefit. AimTo anticipate emergent threats to Australian biosecurity posed by the transport and introduction of new alien vertebrates over time. MethodsWe collated vertebrate interception data from various mainland Australian State, Territory and Commonwealth government reporting agencies, including data from a previously published study, at both pre-border and post-border stages from 1999 to 2016. Using generalised linear and generalised additive modelling, we predicted trends in interception frequency using predictors such as vertebrate taxa, detection category and alien status. Key resultsInterception frequency increased over time for all vertebrate classes, for pre-border stowaways and for post-border captive and at-large interceptions, with no saturation in the accumulation of new species over time. Five species were responsible for almost half of all incidents, of which red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans), boa constrictors (Boa constrictor) and corn snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) are prominent in Australia’s illegal alien pet trade. Rose-ringed parakeets (Psittacula krameri) are prominent in the legal alien cage-bird trade, which remains poorly regulated. Asian common toads (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) were frequently detected as stowaways, and most stowaway incidents originated from Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, via shipping. Data deficiency for pre-border incidents increased rapidly in 2015 and 2016. ConclusionsAustralia is subject to a persistent and increasing risk of alien vertebrate introductions and incursions over time, owing partly to emergent trends in the alien pet trade as well as increased global trade and tourism. ImplicationsThe future of Australia’s biosecurity remains dependent on stringent border security to prevent the arrival of novel species, but our findings also highlight the importance of ongoing management and control of high-risk species already present, often illegally, within Australia.

scholarly journals Creating Cohesive, Coherent Immigration Policy

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pia M. Orrenius ◽  
Madeline Zavodny
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Initial Design ◽  
Unauthorized Immigration ◽  
Key Features ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Us Immigration

US immigration policy has serious limitations, particularly when viewed from an economic perspective. Some shortcomings arise from faulty initial design, others from the inability of the system to adapt to changing circumstances. In either case, a reluctance to confront politically difficult decisions is often a contributing factor to the failure to craft laws that can stand the test of time. We argue that, as a result, some key aspects of US immigration policy are incoherent and mutually contradictory —new policies are often inconsistent with past policies and undermine their goals. Inconsistency makes policies less effective because participants in the immigration system realize that lawmakers face powerful incentives to revise policies at a later date. US policies regarding unauthorized immigration, temporary visas, and humanitarian migrants offer examples of incoherence and inconsistency. This article explores key features of an integrated, coherent immigration policy from an economic perspective and how policymakers could better attempt to achieve policy consistency across laws and over time.

scholarly journals Not an age of depression after all? Incidence rates may be stable over time

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. S. PAYKEL
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
Cohort Effects ◽  
Prevalence Rates ◽  
Important Paper ◽  
Period Effects ◽  
Over 40 Years ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Time Point

In an important paper in this issue Murphy et al. (pp. 503–512) report on incidence rates for depression over 40 years in the Stirling County Study. Incidence rates remained stable, contrary to most evidence that is principally based on prevalence or retrospective lifetime prevalence. Incidence rates were only a little higher in women than in men.Incidence rates are assuming increasing importance in psychiatry as they do in other areas of epidemiology. Prevalence rates are complex, depending not only on incidence of new cases of the disorder, but its persistence, and in a recurrent disorder, recurrence. Incidence rates are unbiased by these factors, a particularly valuable attribute when considering risk factors. In depression, development and widespread use of antidepressants, newer patterns of care, and in the opposite direction, increased urbanization with its accompanying social pressures, could have produced considerable changes in outcome in the last 40 years. Changes in enumerated prevalences alone could reflect changed length of episodes and rates of recurrence, so giving a misleading picture as to what has happened to the disorder.The Stirling County Study is one of the classics of epidemiology. Its originator, Alexander Leighton, is an author of the present paper with his wife, Jane Murphy, who has directed the study since the mid-1970s. Representative community samples were studied cross-sectionally in 1952, 1969 and 1992, and the previously studied samples restudied on follow-up at the later points. The design enables a separation of period effects, involving all subjects at one time point, from cohort effects. In this study similar temporal stability of prevalence has been found (Murphy et al. 2000b) to that now reported for incidence.

scholarly journals A nomenclature for the standard linguistic description of the kinematics of networks

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaderick P Pabico ◽  
Eliezer A Albacea
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Collaboration Network ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Linguistic Description ◽  
Friendship Relations ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Kinematic Properties ◽  
Over Time

The rate of change \(\partial M/\partial t\) of some metric \(M\) measured as one of the kinematic properties of a network described by a graph \(G\) transitioning from \(G(V_{t}, E_{t})\) to \(G(V_{t+\partial t}, E_{t+\partial t})\) over time range \(\partial t\) has been described in the literature with linguistic descriptions that often provide ambiguity. For example, one rate of change \((\partial M/\partial t)_{1}\) has been described as ``dynamic'' and another \((\partial M/\partial t)_{2}\) as ``highly dynamic'' but \((\partial M/\partial t)_{1}>(\partial M/\partial t)_{2}\). We propose in this paper a nomenclature for the standard linguistic description of the kinematics of networks in the hope that description in the literature will be standardized and understood with the corresponding quantitative meaning. We termed a network as ``static'' when \(\partial M/\partial t=0\), as ``non-volatile'' when \(0<\partial M/\partial t\le 1\), and as ``volatile'' when \(\partial M/\partial t>1\). In the development of the linguistic nomenclature, we borrowed heavily from the standard used in signal theory to provide linguistic descriptions to various ranges for \(\partial M/\partial t>1\). We described the kinematics of example real-world networks where the proposed nomenclature was used: (1) The collaboration network of Filipino Computer Scientists; (2) The network created from friendship relations among Batangas and Laguna Facebook users; and (3) The network created from the followed-follower relations among the top ten globally influential Twitter users.

scholarly journals A nomenclature for the standard linguistic description of the kinematics of networks

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaderick P Pabico ◽  
Eliezer A Albacea
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Collaboration Network ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Linguistic Description ◽  
Friendship Relations ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Kinematic Properties ◽  
Over Time

The rate of change \(\partial M/\partial t\) of some metric \(M\) measured as one of the kinematic properties of a network described by a graph \(G\) transitioning from \(G(V_{t}, E_{t})\) to \(G(V_{t+\partial t}, E_{t+\partial t})\) over time range \(\partial t\) has been described in the literature with linguistic descriptions that often provide ambiguity. For example, one rate of change \((\partial M/\partial t)_{1}\) has been described as ``dynamic'' and another \((\partial M/\partial t)_{2}\) as ``highly dynamic'' but \((\partial M/\partial t)_{1}>(\partial M/\partial t)_{2}\). We propose in this paper a nomenclature for the standard linguistic description of the kinematics of networks in the hope that description in the literature will be standardized and understood with the corresponding quantitative meaning. We termed a network as ``static'' when \(\partial M/\partial t=0\), as ``non-volatile'' when \(0<\partial M/\partial t\le 1\), and as ``volatile'' when \(\partial M/\partial t>1\). In the development of the linguistic nomenclature, we borrowed heavily from the standard used in signal theory to provide linguistic descriptions to various ranges for \(\partial M/\partial t>1\). We described the kinematics of example real-world networks where the proposed nomenclature was used: (1) The collaboration network of Filipino Computer Scientists; (2) The network created from friendship relations among Batangas and Laguna Facebook users; and (3) The network created from the followed-follower relations among the top ten globally influential Twitter users.

Multiple Scotlands

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Anderson ◽  
Corinne Roughley
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Minimum Size ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Population Changes ◽  
Remote Areas ◽  
Urbanized Areas ◽  
Agrarian Systems ◽  
Over Time

The parish database shows major variations in trends and timings of population changes in less urbanized areas of Scotland. Even within parishes, people increasingly concentrated into larger villages and towns at the expense of more remote areas. The critical minimum size for settlements increased over time, but depended on distance from other larger places and on whether a locality became more than just a centre for agricultural activity. Mining and factory industry were key sources of growth even in many rural areas but caused major legacy problems as they collapsed. Fishing and its related activities increasingly concentrated on a small number of large centres. Transport hubs, administrative and school infrastructure, and large-scale retail facilities were dependent on, but also supported, population size. Agrarian systems varied widely across Scotland and each produced its own pattern of population sex ratios, migration, and change.

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