Medical Informatics in Ensuring Quality Control of Cancer Care: Promising Directions of Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (5S) ◽  
pp. 554-559
Author(s):  
Dmitry A. Andreev ◽  
Aleksandr A. Zavyalov

The surge in development of oncology informatics facilitates the accommodation of next generation digital approaches into cancer care quality assurance workflow. Hence, the remarkable progress in clinical informatics might shape the construction of the extremely efficient model of quality assurance in real hospital practice. This review reflects the description of innovative approaches to automated assessments of the cancer care quality in real world. The PubMed (Medline) database GOOGLE were used to search for helpful information. Ultimately, 35 sources were included in this review. The processing of big data variables possessing plenty characteristics and integration of those into the unified cancer care databases could give the unbelievably valuable results connecting the diagnostic and treatment indicators with the clinical outcomes especially at patient level. The newly emerging information technology tools include the rapid feedback systems to deliver the results of automated appraisal of care quality to the individual physicians and caregivers. Moreover, such digital systems as CancerLinQ and the CAPTIVE infrastructure can be considered as vigorous examples of state-of-the-art technologies that were trialed in cancer care settings with positive results. This paper reviews some of the elements mentioned above. Clinical oncology informatics has opened a new era in improving the practical instruments for care efficiency and safety assurance. The issues of legal policy for automated data processing using artificial intelligence are actualized. The methodology utility depends mostly on the characteristics of primary data collected, analytical algorithms, software design, and properties of high-speed computing hardware. Integration of all data sources together with brand-new computing systems is an obligatory condition for consistent rolling-out of comprehensive digital cancer care network to achieve the better outcomes in the tough battle with malignant neoplasms.

1984 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. D. Kwon ◽  
D. C. Prevorsek

Abstract Radial tires for automobiles were subjected to high speed rolling under load on a testing wheel to determine the critical speeds at which standing waves started to form. Tires of different makes had significantly different critical speeds. The damping coefficient and mass per unit length of the tire wall were measured and a correlation between these properties and the observed critical speed of standing wave formation was sought through use of a circular membrane model. As expected from the model, desirably high critical speed calls for a high damping coefficient and a low mass per unit length of the tire wall. The damping coefficient is particularly important. Surprisingly, those tire walls that were reinforced with steel cord had higher damping coefficients than did those reinforced with polymeric cord. Although the individual steel filaments are elastic, the interfilament friction is higher in the steel cords than in the polymeric cords. A steel-reinforced tire wall also has a higher density per unit length. The damping coefficient is directly related to the mechanical loss in cyclic deformation and, hence, to the rolling resistance of a tire. The study shows that, in principle, it is more difficult to design a tire that is both fuel-efficient and free from standing waves when steel cord is used than when polymeric cords are used.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelby Devina ◽  
Waluyo Waluyo

The objective of this research was to examine the effect of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, speed, security and privacy and readiness technology tax payers information to e-Filing usage. The object of this study is the individual tax payers in Tangerang City, Karawaci District. The selection of the sample is determined based on convenience sampling method. Data used in this study was primary data, id est: questionnaires. The respondent in this study were 110. Data analysis technique in this study using multiple linear regression. The result of this study were (1) perceived usefulness have a significant impact towards e-Filing usage; (2) perceived ease of use have a significant impact towards e-Filing usage; (3) speed does not have a significant impact towards e-Filing usage; (4) security and privacy does not have a significant impact towards e-Filing usage; (5) readiness technology tax payers information does not have a significant impact towards e-Filing usage; (6) perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, speed, security and privacy and readiness technology tax payers information all simultaneously, have a significant impact towards e-Filing usage. Keywords: e-Filing usage, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, readiness technology tax payers information, security and privacy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-80
Author(s):  
Agnes Ashianti ◽  
Albertus Fani

The objective of this research is to examine the effect of task-technology fit, trust of accounting information systems, and effectiveness of accounting information systems on the individual performance at a supermarket in Tangerang city.  The samples in this study were employees of a supermarket in Tangerang city who used accounting information system in doing its job. The data used in this study is primary data through questionnaires. In data analysis techniques, this study test the reliability of the formula coefficient of Cronbach 's Alpha, validity test by means of correlation using the r counted and r table, test for normality using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the classical assumption, hypothesis testing multiple linear regression, t test, and F test. The results showed that the task-technology fit and trust of accounting information systems each have a significant effect on the individual performance, while the effectiveness of accounting information systems does not significantly influence the individual performance. Task-technology fit, trust of accounting information systems, and the effectiveness of accounting information systems have simultaneous significant effect on the individual performance. Keyword: Task-Technology Fit, Trust of Accounting Information Systems, Effectiveness of Accounting Information Systems, Individual Performance..


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (03) ◽  
pp. 260-263
Author(s):  
Monica Irukulla ◽  
Palwai Vinitha Reddy

AbstractOutcomes in cancer patients are strongly influenced by timeliness and quality of multidisciplinary interventions. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe disruption in cancer care in many countries. This has necessitated several changes in clinical care and workflow, including resource allocation, team segregation and deferment of many elective procedures. Several international oncological societies have proposed guidelines for the care of patients afflicted with breast cancer during the pandemic with a view to optimize resource allocation and maximize risk versus benefit for the individual and society. Clinicians may utilize these recommendations to adapt patient care, based on the current availability of resources and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in each region. This article discusses the guidelines for care of patients afflicted with breast cancer during the pandemic.


When the oscillating electric spark is examined in a rapidly rotating mirror, the successive oscillations render themselves evident in the image as a series of lumnious curved streamers which emanate from the poles and extend towards the centre of the spark gap. These streamers were first observed by Feddersen in 1862, but the work of Schuster and Hemsalech in 1900 may be said to have opened up a new era in the subject. These workers threw the image of the spark on the slit of a spectroscope, and photographed the resulting spectrum on a film which was maintained in rapid rotation in a direction at right angles to that of the incident light. In their photographs they found that the air lines extended straight across from pole to pole, but that the metal lines were represented by curved bands drawn out in the centre of the spark gap. There is a close relation between these bands and the streamers seen in the unanalysed inductive spark. Schuster and Hemsalech carried out their experiments with the smallest possible inductance in series with the spark, and thus made the period of the oscillations so small that the drawing out on the film was insufficient to separate the individual oscillations from each other. Thus their curved lines represent a composite structure, consisting of all the streamers due to the successive oscillations superposed on each other. It follows from their results that the light of the streamers in the spark is entirely produced by the glowing of the metallic vapour of the electrodes, and that, while the luminosity of the air is practically instantaneous in its occurrence, that due to the metal vapour occurs in the centre of the spark gap an appreciable time later than near the poles. The actual process which goes on in the spark and gives rise to this delay in the arrival of the metallic vapour at the centre of the gap is not yet thoroughly understood. Schuster and Hemsalech make the natural supposition that it is due to the fact that the metal of the electrode is vaporised and rendered incandescent by the heat of the spark, and that the vapour takes an appreciable time to diffuse from the electrodes to the centre of the gap. The exception which has been taken to this view has arisen in part from the difficulty of observing the Doppler effect on the metallic lines which should be a concomitant of the diffusion of the vapour from the poles, and in part from the extraordinary results which the authors themselves obtained in some metals for the velocity of the diffusion corresponding to the different lines. In the case of bismuth and, in a less degree, of cadmium the different metallic lines could be divided into groups of different curvatures which indicated different velocities of diffusion towards the centre of the gap. As regards the former matter, there does not seem to be involved any real difficulty to the explanation, as Dr. Schuster has himself recently shown. The curious effect of the different curvatures of the lines of the same element has, however, always remained more or less of a difficulty in the way of a complete acceptance of their view. Schuster and Hemsalech themselves refer to the possibility in the case of bismuth that the metal may be a compound, and that the two kinds of molecules give rise to the differently curved lines. Other explanations have been made by different writers, but it cannot be said that any explanation adequately supported by experiment has been forthcoming. In view of this incompleteness in our knowledge of the constitution of the streamers it seemed to me that further observations with a rotating mirror would possibly be of value, and the investigations recorded below succeed, I think, in throwing a clearer light on the nature of the streamers, and on certain other phenomena which are characteristic of the spark.


2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Feinberg

On 28 October 1918, a group of Czech nationalists stood on the steps of the Obecni Dům (Municipal House) in Prague and proclaimed their independence from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, allying themselves with the new state of Czechoslovakia. Their declaration marked the beginning of a new era in the Czech lands, one in which Czechs, as the majority nation, hoped to redefine the terms of political discourse. The new Czechoslovak Republic, its Czech supporters declared, would be the antithesis of the Habsburg regime. In the place of a multinational Monarchy, they would erect a democratic nation-state. The second half of this political vision was complicated by the fact that the new Czechoslovakia actually contained many ethnic groups, but Czechs still tended to imagine their new Republic as the political expression of the Czech nation. At the same time, this “Czech-centered” politics also emphasized the democratic basis of the new country. Czechoslovakia, Czech leaders said, would be a state governed by its people and dedicated to protecting their rights and freedoms as individuals. A political culture that rested on both ethnic nationalism and democratic values obviously contained some internal tensions: the need to protect the interests of one specific nation and the duty to protect the individual rights of all citizens could rub uncomfortably against each other. Yet, at that moment in 1918, most Czechs failed to register this potential for ideological conflict, instead seeing an essential link between democratic politics and the good of the Czech nation. For many Czechs, democracy itself was a need of the nation, a political structure crucial to Czech national self-realization. This idea came from one prominent conception of Czech nationhood that had captured the public imagination in the fall of 1918. According to this strain of Czech national ideology, the Czech nation had a sort of democratic character. This meant that only an egalitarian, democratic government would suit a “Czech” state. So, paradoxically, a universal language of rights and freedoms was the key to building a truly national Czechoslovak Republic. It was with a state that emphasized equality and personal freedom that the Czechs would fulfill their national destiny.


2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Freijser ◽  
Lucio Naccarella ◽  
Rosemary McKenzie ◽  
Meinir Krishnasamy

Continuity of care is integral to the quality and safety of care provided to people with cancer and their carers. Further evidence is required to examine the contribution Nurse Cancer Care Coordinator (NCCC) roles make in improving the continuity. The aim of the present study was to clarify the assumptions underpinning the NCCC roles and provide a basis for ongoing evaluation. The project comprised a literature review and a qualitative study to develop program logic. The participants who were purposively sampled included policy makers, practitioners, patient advocates, and researchers. Both the literature and participant reports found that NCCC roles are diverse and responsive to contextual influences to coordinate care at the individual (patient), organisational, and systems levels. The application of the program logic for the development of NCCC roles was explored. The conceptualisation of NCCC roles was also examined in relation to Boundary Spanning and Relational Coordination theory. Further research is required to examine how NCCCs contribute to improving equity, safety, quality and coordination of care. The project has implications for research, policy and practice, and makes explicit existing assumptions to provide a platform for further development and evaluation of these roles.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (28_suppl) ◽  
pp. 42-42
Author(s):  
Benjamin Urick ◽  
Sabree Burbage ◽  
Christopher Baggett ◽  
Jennifer Elston Lafata ◽  
Hanna Kelly Sanoff ◽  
...  

42 Background: As value-based payment models for cancer care expand, the need for measures which reliably assess the quality of care provided increases. This is especially true for models like the Oncology Care Model (OCM) that rely on quality rankings to determine potential shared savings. Under models like these, unreliable measures may result in arbitrary application of value-based payments. The goal of this project is to evaluate the extent to which measures used within the OCM are reliable indicators of provider performance. Methods: Data for this project came from North Carolina Medicare claims from 2015-2017. Episodes were attributed to physician practices at the tax identification number (TIN) level, lasted 6 months, and were divided into two performance years beginning 1/1/2016 and 7/1/2016. TINs with fewer than 20 attributed patients were excluded. Three claims-based OCM measures were used in this evaluation: 1) proportion of episodes with all-cause hospital admissions; 2) proportion of episodes with all-cause emergency department (ED) visits or observation stays; and 3) proportion of patients that died who were admitted to hospice for 3 days or more. Risk adjustment followed the method described by measure specifications from the OCM. Reliability was calculated as the ratio of between practice variation (e.g. signal) to the sum of between practice variation and within practice variation (e.g. noise). Variance estimates were derived from hierarchical logistic regression models used for risk adjustment. Results: For the hospitalization and ED visit measures, episode counts for years 1 and 2 were 30,746 and 28,430 and TIN counts were 86 and 84, respectively. Hospice use measures had fewer episodes (2,677 and 2,428) and TINs (36 and 33). Across all measures, median reliability scores failed to achieve the recommended 0.7 threshold and only hospice had a median reliability score above 0.5 (Table). Conclusions: These findings suggest claims-based measures included in the OCM may produce imprecise estimates of provider performance and are vulnerable to random variation. Consideration should be given to developing alternative measures which may be more reliable estimates of provider performance and to increasing minimum denominator requirements for existing measures.[Table: see text]


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 12042-12042
Author(s):  
Sofia Sánchez-Román ◽  
Yanin Chavarri Guerra ◽  
Andrea Morales Morales Alfaro ◽  
Daniela Ramirez Maza ◽  
Andrea de la O Murillo ◽  
...  

12042 Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the well-being of people not only due to the disease but also because of stay-at-home orders, social distancing, unemployment, and different kinds of loses. Older adults have particularly suffered during the pandemic, with increased health-related concerns and anxiety leading to increased vulnerability. However, little is known about the effects of the pandemic on older adults with cancer living in developing countries. They are facing issues related to their diagnosis and treatment, as well as the effects of the pandemic on their care and on the well-being of their families. To improve care for this vulnerable population, we studied the concerns and difficulties associated with COVID-19 among older Mexican adults with cancer. Methods: We included patients age ≥65 with the 10 most common tumors in Mexico according to GLOBOCAN and within 3-24 months of cancer diagnosis at two public hospitals in Mexico City. Patients were contacted telephonically and asked to complete a survey reporting the difficulties encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic and to rate their concerns associated with cancer care management using a 0-10 Likert-type scale, with higher ratings meaning increased concerns. Focused interviews were used to describe the individual experience of selected patients and their relatives related to COVID-19 and cancer care. Results: Between April 20, 2020 and December 1, 2021, 67 patients (mean age 71.9, min 65, max 90; 35.8% female; 62.7% living with a partner) were included. The most common tumors were prostate (43%), colon (16%), and lung (12%). 46% had Stage IV disease, and 61% had a life expectancy of more than a year. Twenty-five percent of patients reported encountering at least one difficulty in obtaining cancer care due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 43% of the patients reported difficulties with accessing follow-up cancer care; 39% reported issues with obtaining medications, including chemotherapy; and 34% reported problems obtaining medical care in general, including oncology visits. Regarding concerns, 33% of the patients reported being “very worried” or “extremely worried” about the COVID-19 pandemic. The most relevant concerns were related to getting infected with COVID-19 (or having a family member who became infected) (mean rating 7.9, SD 2.9); not being able to pay for cancer treatments or medical care (mean rating 6.9, SD 3.5); and worsening of cancer due to delayed care during the pandemic (mean rating 6.6, SD 3.7). Conclusions: A significant proportion of older adults with cancer in Mexico faced difficulties obtaining cancer treatment and follow-up care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their most relevant concerns included getting infected, financial losses, and progression of disease. Creating systems to provide continued cancer care for vulnerable populations in developing countries is essential to face the COVID-19 pandemic.


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