AMPATH Surgical App: Open Appendectomy

Background/Objective: Due to a geographic shortage of surgical providers within Kenya, doctors without surgical training are expected to complete emergency surgical procedures. The Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) surgical team is developing an education module, delivered via mobile phone app and self-made simulators, dedicated to the skills necessary to complete open appendectomy. We hypothesize that our model and curriculum will provide a low-cost method of effectively simulating the open appendectomy. Methods: After developing a step-based curriculum, an initial prototype of a model for the appendectomy was constructed. Expert academic surgeons from Indiana University were identified to test the prototype by performing an open appendectomy on the model. Feedback on both the model and the procedure was obtained via recorded video and REDCap. Results: A total of 8 expert surgeons were consulted on the model, each presented with an updated version of the appendectomy model and procedure based on feedback. Experts provided feedback on the model and each substep of the curriculum. Overall, the curriculum was clear with each substep receiving a median score of at least 82 out of 100 for clarity. While the model received lower scores in utility and “realism, expert feedback was incorporated in an iterative process such that latter models demonstrated net improvement in the realism and utility of several substeps, including “the appendectomy”. Conclusion: A low-cost appendectomy model with corresponding curriculum was developed, and refined with expert feedback, to facilitate this project’s transition to its next stage – testing on medical trainees. Additionally, the model and curriculum will enable the development of an AI algorithm to give the learner real-time feedback as they perform the simulation. Implications: Ultimately, this study may create a platform that increases access to best possible practice and improves outcomes in settings where surgical education is limited.

Download Full-text

A low cost mobile phone dark-field microscope for nanoparticle-based quantitative studies

Design and Quality for Biomedical Technologies XI ◽

10.1117/12.2295853 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Dali Sun ◽

Ye Hu

Keyword(s):

Mobile Phone ◽

Low Cost ◽

Dark Field ◽

Quantitative Studies

Download Full-text

888. Improving outcomes with revised preoperative universal decolonization protocol

Open Forum Infectious Diseases ◽

10.1093/ofid/ofaa439.1076 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S479-S479

Author(s):

Silvia I Gnass

Keyword(s):

Surgical Procedures ◽

Baseline Period ◽

Surgical Team ◽

Team Members ◽

Surgical Infection ◽

Before And After ◽

Trial Basis ◽

The Impact ◽

Before And After Study ◽

Patient Infection

Abstract Background In order to improve outcomes, including reduced surgical infection rate and costs, a revised universal preoperative decolonization protocol was implemented on a trial basis. Methods In a 12 month before and after study at a public teaching hospital in southern California, an alcohol based nasal antiseptic was introduced in place of nasal povidone iodine (PVI) for all surgical patients pre-operatively, paired with chlorhexidine (CHG) bathing which was already in place. All surgical procedures were included, the most common being cholecystectomy, cesarean section and hip fracture. The alcohol nasal antiseptic was selected to replace the PVI nasal antiseptic based on efficacy, staff preference and cost. At the same time, surgical team members began self-application of the alcohol nasal antiseptic each day prior to surgical procedures. This was not mandatory and compliance was not tracked, though informal feedback and observation revealed most surgical team members were applying the nasal antiseptic prior to cases daily. Results In comparison to the 6 month baseline period where there were 27 SSI in 1188 procedures, during the 6 month study period there were 10 SSI in 1253 procedures, representing a 63% reduction (p=.0162) for all types of procedures. We have observed a reduction of 17 SSIs in 2019, compared to the previous year, during the 6 months period. That means a saving of $589,420 during the same period. Conclusion Preoperative universal decolonization with alcohol based nasal antiseptic in place of nasal PVI, paired with CHG bathing, was effective in reducing SSI rate and associated costs. Further study is needed to measure and assess the impact of surgical team member nasal decolonization on patient infection risk and rate. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

Download Full-text

EP.WE.782Retrospective analysis of acute surgical admissions during COVID-19 pandemic

British Journal of Surgery ◽

10.1093/bjs/znab308.091 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 108 (Supplement_7) ◽

Author(s):

Shenbaga Rajamanikam ◽

Suzzana Argyropoulos ◽

Reza Arsalani Zadeh

Keyword(s):

Length Of Stay ◽

Hospital Stay ◽

Surgical Procedures ◽

Length Of Hospital Stay ◽

Period Length ◽

Surgical Patients ◽

Surgical Team ◽

Surgical Operations

Abstract Background COVID-19 pandemic has affected the number of surgical admissions and the number of emergency general surgical operations performed. COVID-19 pandemic has also led to changes in how some of the acute surgical patients were managed. Aim of the study was to compare acute surgical admissions and number of emergency general surgical procedures in this period. Material and Method We retrospectively analyzed acute surgical admissions during the pandemic from 20/3/20 to 19/4/20 and compared it with acute surgical admissions during pre-COVID-19 period from 1/11/2019 to 30/11/2019. Results During the COVID-19 pandemic 97 patients were assessed and admitted by the General surgical team, during the pre COVID-19 period 205 patients were assessed and admitted by the General surgical team. The number of acute surgical admissions during COVID-19 pandemic dropped by 53%. There were 46% less emergency surgeries performed during COVID 19 pandemic period. Length of stay during and before the COVID-19pandemic were 4.1 vs 4.4 days. Conclusion During the COVID-19 pandemic number of acute surgical admissions and the number of emergency surgeries were fewer than during pre COVID-19 pandemic. Length of hospital stay was less during COVID-19 pandemic.

Download Full-text

An IoT based Low-cost Weather Monitoring System for Smart Farming

Agricultural Science Digest - A Research Journal ◽

10.18805/ag.d-370 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

L.P.S.S.K. Dayananda ◽

A. Narmilan ◽

P. Pirapuraj

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystal ◽

Mobile Phone ◽

Real Time ◽

Monitoring System ◽

Liquid Crystal Display ◽

Low Cost ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

Weather Data ◽

The Internet ◽

Arduino Uno

Background: Weather monitoring is an important aspect of crop cultivation for reducing economic loss while increasing productivity. Weather is the combination of current meteorological components, such as temperature, wind direction and speed, amount and kind of precipitation, sunshine hours and so on. The weather defines a time span ranging from a few hours to several days. The periodic or continuous surveillance or the analysis of the status of the atmosphere and the climate, including parameters such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity and barometric pressure, is known as weather monitoring. Because of the increased usage of the internet, weather monitoring has been upgraded to smart weather monitoring. The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the new technology that can help with many precision farming operations. Smart weather monitoring is one of the precision agriculture technologies that use sensors to monitor correct weather. The main objective of the research is to design a smart weather monitoring and real-time alert system to overcome the issue of monitoring weather conditions in agricultural farms in order for farmers to make better decisions. Methods: Different sensors were used in this study to detect temperature and humidity, pressure, rain, light intensity, CO2 level, wind speed and direction in an agricultural farm and real time clock sensor was used to measured real time weather data. The major component of this system was an Arduino Uno microcontroller and the system ran according to a program written in the Arduino Uno software. Result: This is a low-cost smart weather monitoring system. This system’s output unit were a liquid crystal display and a GSM900A module. The weather data was displayed on a liquid crystal display and the GSM900A module was used to send the data to a mobile phone. This smart weather station was used to monitor real-time weather conditions while sending weather information to the farmer’s mobile phone, allowing him to make better decisions to increase yield.

Download Full-text

Liquid Metal Ink Enabled Rapid Prototyping of Electrochemical Sensor for Wireless Glucose Detection on the Platform of Mobile Phone

Journal of Medical Devices ◽

10.1115/1.4031659 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Liting Yi ◽

Jingjing Li ◽

Cangran Guo ◽

Lei Li ◽

Jing Liu

Keyword(s):

Liquid Metal ◽

Mobile Phone ◽

Detection System ◽

Point Of Care ◽

Low Cost ◽

Smart Phone ◽

Disease Diagnosis ◽

Glucose Detection ◽

Sensor Material ◽

Liquid Metal Ink

Pervasive detection of blood glucose is rather critical for the real-time disease diagnosis which would provide valuable guidance for treatment planning. Here, we established a health care platform for this purpose through incorporating the glucose detection with liquid metal printed sensor and the smart phone monitoring system together. The liquid metal ink composed of bismuth indium stannic (BIS) alloy was identified as an appropriate sensor material to be quickly written or printed on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) substrate at around 59 °C to form desired electrodes. It thus eliminated the complicated procedures as usually required in conventional sensor fabrication strategies. The alloy electrodes were characterized via cyclic voltammetry to demonstrate their practical functionality. Further, unlike using the commonly adopted glucometer, a smart phone was developed as the data acquisition and display center to help improve the portability and ubiquitous virtue of the detection system. Glucose solution in different concentrations was assayed via this platform. It was shown that there is a good linear relationship between the concentration and the integral value of the curve recorded by the mobile phone, which confirms the feasibility of the present method. This quantitative point-of-care system has pervasive feature and is expected to be very useful for future low-cost electrochemical detection.

Download Full-text

A Low-Cost Water Quality Monitoring System for the Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar Using a Participatory Approach

Water ◽

10.3390/w11101984 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 1984 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Thanda Thatoe Nwe Win ◽

Thom Bogaard ◽

Nick van de Giesen

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Mobile Phone ◽

Low Cost ◽

School Teacher ◽

Water Quality Monitoring ◽

Quality Monitoring ◽

Quality Data ◽

Water Quality Data ◽

Lower Accuracy

Newly developed mobile phone applications in combination with citizen science are used in different fields of research, such as public health monitoring, environmental monitoring, precipitation monitoring, noise pollution measurement and mapping, earth observation. In this paper, we present a low-cost water quality mobile phone measurement technique combined with sensor and test strips, and reported the weekly-collected data of three years of the Ayeyarwady River system by volunteers at seven locations and compared these results with the measurements collected by the lab technicians. We assessed the quality of the collected data and their reliability based on several indicators, such as data accuracy, consistency, and completeness. In this study, six local governmental staffs and one middle school teacher collected baseline water quality data with high temporal and spatial resolution. The quality of the data collected by volunteers was comparable to the data of the experienced lab technicians for sensor-based measurement of electrical conductivity and transparency. However, the lower accuracy (higher uncertainty range) of the indicator strips made them less useful in the Ayeyarwady with its relatively small water quality variations. We showed that participatory water quality monitoring in Myanmar can be a serious alternative for a more classical water sampling and lab analysis-based monitoring network, particularly as it results in much higher spatial and temporal resolution of water quality information against the very modest investment and running costs. This approach can help solving the invisible water crisis of unknown water quality (changes) in river and lake systems all over the world.

Download Full-text

Patient Safety in Microvascular Plastic Surgery

Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery ◽

10.1055/s-0039-1693142 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (09) ◽

pp. 631-639

Author(s):

Salih Colakoglu ◽

Seth Tebockhorst ◽

Tae W. Chong ◽

David W. Mathes

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Patient Safety ◽

Adverse Events ◽

Surgical Procedures ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Surgical Team ◽

Related Risk ◽

Prophylactic Measures ◽

Patients At Risk ◽

Preventable Harm

Patient safety is defined as freedom from accidental or preventable harm produced by medical care. The identification of patient- and procedure-related risk factors enables the surgical team to carry out prophylactic measures to reduce the rate of complications and adverse events.The purpose of this review is to identify the characteristics of patients, practitioners, and microvascular surgical procedures that place patients at risk for preventable harm, and to discuss evidence-based prevention practices that can potentially help to generate a culture of patient safety.

Download Full-text