Image quality in telehealth: challenges in developing countries

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avijit Chowdhury ◽  
Abdul Hafeez-Baig ◽  
Raj Gururajan ◽  
Amanda McCubbin ◽  
Mirza Akmal Sharif
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Image Quality ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Ict Infrastructure ◽  
Set Up

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying challenges in the telehealth environment in India and Pakistan that impede the delivery of high-quality images between a patient and health care professional. An exploratory study was conducted among healthcare professionals in India and Pakistan to assess their perceptions regarding image quality, which is used for the diagnosis and treatment. This cross-sectional qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals in both India and Pakistan. The interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis, which revealed three major themes. These themes being: ICT infrastructure and connectivity, high-quality images were produced by trained technicians in an organized telemedicine set-up; and image quality can be degraded by multiple transmissions. Findings indicate that in both countries the main underlying challenge is the lack of consistency in the network infrastructure between urban, rural and remote areas. Additionally, training patients to use hand-held devices to take high-quality images future could hold the key to improving the reliability and consequently the quality of images transmitted between patients and health care professionals.

scholarly journals ATTITUDE AND PRACTICING BEHAVIOUR AMONG HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS REGARDING HANDWASHING:A TOOL TO PREVENT EMERGING AND RE-EMERGING INFECTIONS.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Syed Waseem Tahir ◽  
Sahila Nabi ◽  
Shazia Javaid
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Emerging Infections ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Attitude And Practice

Background: Hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to control health care related infection. Every year millions of patients around the world are affected by infections that are transmitted by the health-care professionals(HCPs).(2)(3). Rationale: Nurses and physicians are the main health care workers contacting with patients, representing the vector in the chain of infection. Thus, assessing their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding hand hygiene is very important to decrease the incidence of health care related infection and to improve quality of care. Objective: The objective of our study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of handwashing among healthcare professionals of Kashmir Division. Methods: This study was an institutional based cross sectional study, conducted in various healthcare institutions of Kashmir Division which were selected randomly. A predesigned questionnaire was used to collect the data from the participants. The questionnaires contained questions about four different parts which included sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge of hand washing, attitude and practice of hand washing among healthcare professionals. The questionnaires were distributed to various healthcare professionals working in wards, emergency department, laboratories, outpatient departments, injection and dressing rooms, EPI unit and others. The distributed questionnaires were then collected back. Results: A total of 110 participants were included. Out of total 110 participants,53% were male ,36% were nurses 36% of health professionals were working in IPD (In Patient Department). 89% of the participants agreed that, direct or indirect contacts are the most important routes for transmission of hospital-acquired infections,97% agreed that
 proper and consistent hand washing prevents infections in health facilities,100% agreed that health professionals should always wash their hands immediately when they arrive at health institutions,98% said that they knew steps of handwashing(WHO)/rules of hand hygiene,91% agreed that hand washing is the single most effective mechanism to prevent spread of infection and 95% agreed that wearing jewellery, artificial fingernails, damaged skin and regular use of hand cream are associated with increased likelihood of colonisation of hands with harmful germs. 83% of the participants said that they are committed to the proper rules of hand hygiene all the time,78% said they comply with rules of hand hygiene even in emergencies,80% said that they think when they are wearing gloves it is not necessary to wash hands,92% feel irritated when others don’t follow hand hygiene rules,95% advice others to follow the rules of hand hygiene and 97% said it is easy for you to follow rules of hand hygiene. 40%(each) of the participants said that they always and usually wash hands before touching a patient,100% of the participants said that they always wash hands before performing aseptic and clean procedures, 100% of the participants said that they always wash hands after being at risk of exposure to body fluids and 95% of patients said that they wash hands after coming to and before leaving the hospital. DISCUSSION In this study we had a total of 110 participants. Health professionals had a satisfactory knowledge of hand hygiene but some lacunae are still there as is evident in the result part. Thus from this study we conclude adherence to handwashing is lacking among health professionals, so we need to have regular handwashing sessions for health professionals which will regularly sensitize them, also we need to address the reasons of this poor adherence both at the administrative and personal level. We also recommend to conduct more studies in this field so as to highlight the shortcomings in hand hygiene and then to improve upon them.

scholarly journals Knowledge, attitude and practices towards pharmacovigilance among health care professionals in a teaching and general hospital of South India

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 289
Author(s):  
Zainab Ghazala ◽  
Prakash Kalshetty ◽  
Shrenik Vardhamane
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Pharmaceutical Products ◽  
Multiple Choice Questions ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Significant Difference

Background: Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to detection, monitoring, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug related problem from any pharmaceutical products. The core purpose of pharmacovigilance is to enhance patient care and generate the evidence based information on safety of medicines. The objective of present study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices of the healthcare professionals about pharmacovigilance and to assess the reasons for underreporting of ADRs.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by administering KAP questionnaire to the healthcare professionals. There were 22 multiple choice questions. Ten related to knowledge, 5 related to attitude, and 6 related to practice. One question was asked to determine the reasons for underreporting of ADRs. The performance in each category was graded as good, average and poor if the number of participants giving correct/positive responses were >70%, 50-69%, <50% respectively. Question no 22 was assessed independently to find out reasons for underreporting of ADRs. Data was compiled and analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square and ANOVA test.Results: The response rate in this study was 62.5%. The study included professors (11%), associate professors (6%), assistant professors (20%), postgraduates (26%) and interns (37%). That there was statistically very highly significant difference of mean score of knowledge, attitude and practice among health care professionals (P<0.001). The performance score with respect to attitude of health care professionals towards pharmacovigilance was good as compared to knowledge which was average followed by practice which showed poor performance (72.5% >51.6% >36.8%) (p <0.001).Conclusions: Awareness campaigns, CMEs, workshops on pharmacovigilance should be conducted regularly such that good knowledge about pharmacovigilance can be imparted which can be moulded into good practice.

scholarly journals Assessment of occupational stress and its associated factors among health care professionals working in Gurage Zone Public Hospitals in Southern Ethiopia 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Demamu Haligamo ◽  
Tanimo Haligamo
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Predicting Factors ◽  
Related Stress ◽  
Job Related Stress

Abstract Background: Job-related stress is harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job don’t match the capabilities and needs of the worker. Therefore, if work isn’t properly managed, job stress can happen that leads to illness, absenteeism, high turnover, and decreased productivity that compromise provision of quality service to clients. Workers are backbones of countries development that are at risk of different occupational stresses. And, there’s no information about job-related stress among healthcare professionals and predicting factors around the study area. So, this study is aimed to assess occupational related stress and predicting factors among health care professional working in Gurage Zone public hospitals, Southern Ethiopia by August 2021. Method: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess occupational related stress and predicting factors among health care professionals. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 345 study participants. The data was collected and analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version.23. The association between dependent and independent variables were checked by using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression. Finally, descriptive writings, tables and graphs were used to describe study variables. Result: The result showed that the prevalence of occupation (work-related) stress among healthcare professionals was 78.3%. Wards in which healthcare professionals are working, position of healthcare professionals, working hour and work shift have significant association with stress status of respondents. When compared to Medical ward, professionals working in other wards were 1.62 times more likely to have stress [AOR 1.62 (1.23, 2.13)]. Also, when compared to respondents who are working for 8 hour per day, those working more than 8 hour per day were 70 times more likely to have stress [AOR 70 (85, 582)]. Discussion and Conclusion: According to this study three out of four respondents were found to have stress among healthcare professionals. Regular trainings for healthcare professional should be needed in public hospitals to reduce stresses.

scholarly journals Views of healthcare professionals on recruiting to a psychosocial randomised controlled trial: a qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trefor Aspden ◽  
Megan Armstrong ◽  
Marc Serfaty
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Randomised Controlled Trial ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Randomised Controlled ◽  
Views Of Healthcare Professionals

Abstract Background Randomised controlled trials, and in particular those of psychosocial interventions, often fail to recruit to target, resulting in underpowered trials with poor generalisability of findings. The objectives of this study were to explore the views of healthcare professionals on recruiting to psychosocial research studies, and to explore their views on factors that may hinder or facilitate recruitment. Methods We conducted 14 semi-structured interviews, with healthcare professionals who had been involved in recruitment into a randomised controlled trial of a talking therapy for depression in patients with advanced cancer. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Results Five primary themes were identified, comprised of 11 subthemes. Attitudes towards research were largely positive. Health care professionals identified lack of time and narrow screening criteria as barriers to recruitment, and also noted the tendency to withhold participants from research for reasons other than eligibility (e.g., gatekeeping). The engagement of the study team with the clinical recruitment site, and the frequent presence of a researcher in clinics, were noted as facilitating recruitment. Conclusions Healthcare professionals involved in recruiting to trials of psychosocial interventions hold generally positive views of psychosocial research. However, they report that constraints including space and time limit their ability to recruit, and express anxieties about approaching patients for trial recruitment in the palliative phase of their illness. The findings from this study can inform how best to design trials, and in particular trials of psychosocial interventions, and train health care professionals for the study, to maximise recruitment.

scholarly journals Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Healthcare Professionals Towards Adverse Drug Reactions Monitoring and Reporting: A Cross-Sectional Study in Lahore, Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Furqan Hashmi ◽  
Sara Mustafa Khan ◽  
Sulman Qureshi ◽  
Usman Rashid Malik ◽  
Naveel Atif ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Adverse Drug Reactions ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Categorical Variables ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Drug Reactions ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
History Of

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Avoiding adverse reactions requires comprehensive knowledge about how they can be monitored, controlled, and reported. Objectives: The current study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, practices, and perceptions of the health care professionals concerning the adverse drug reactions monitoring and reporting in Lahore, Pakistan. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan, from October 2018 to December 2018. Descriptive statistics were obtained and the Pearson chi-square test was used to analyze the association between categorical variables. Results: In total, 150 pharmacists, physicians, and nurses were approached, that 40, 39, and 46 of them responded, respectively. Almost 95% pharmacists, 17.3% of nurses, and 58.9% of physicians correctly defined the “pharmacovigilance”, while 70, 10, and 30.5%, respectively, defined ADRs correctly. The current study revealed that 87% of pharmacists, 82.5% of physicians, and 82.6% of nurses had a history of identifying ADR in patients. Out of which only 52, 41, and 19% of pharmacists, physicians, and nurses had a history of reporting adverse drug reactions, respectively. Conclusions: This study revealed inadequate knowledge of health care professionals. Most healthcare professionals were motivated to report identified ADRs. However, the responsibility lies with the governing authorities to provide them with a suitably efficient platform to practice proper ADR reporting and monitoring. Educational campaigns and training, financial incentives, and simplification of the reporting process might change the levels of knowledge and attitude.

scholarly journals Exploring healthcare professionals’ knowledge, attitude, and practices towards pharmacovigilance: a cross-sectional survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rabia Hussain ◽  
Mohamed Azmi Hassali ◽  
Furqan Hashmi ◽  
Tayyaba Akram
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Tertiary Care ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Pharmacovigilance System ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Adr Reporting ◽  
Post Marketing Surveillance

Abstract Background Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is a method of monitoring the safety of drugs and is the basic strategy for the post-marketing surveillance of the suspected drugs. Despite its importance, there is very little reporting of ADRs by healthcare professionals. The present study has evaluated the knowledge, attitude and practices of health care professionals (HCPs) regarding pharmacovigilance activities in Lahore, Pakistan. Methods A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was employed, and a convenience sampling was opted to collect the data among physicians, pharmacists and nurses working in tertiary care public hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan from September 2018 to January 2019. Results Of the 384 questionnaires distributed, 346 health care professionals responded to the questionnaire (90.10% response rate). Most participants had good knowledge about ADR reporting, but pharmacist had comparatively better knowledge than other HCPs regarding ADR (89.18%) pharmacovigilance system (81.08%), its centres (72.97%) and function (91.89%). Most of the participants exhibited positive attitude regarding ADR reporting, such as 49.1% of physicians (P < 0.05), 70.2% pharmacists and 76.1% nurses showed a positive attitude that they are the most important HCPs to report an ADR. About 64.3% of physicians (P < 0.05) emphasized that consulting other colleagues is important before reporting an ADR. Of all, 77.7% physicians, 75.7% pharmacists and 68% of nurses had positive attitude that ADR reporting is a professional obligation and 67.6% of the pharmacists stated that they have reported ADRs in their workplace and 77.2% nurses have verbally reported ADRs to the concerned personnel or department. Conclusion Among all HCPs, pharmacists had better knowledge about ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance. All HCPs had positive attitude and inclination towards ADR reporting. The discrepancies were observed in the practices related to ADR reporting, whereas most of the participants including physicians and nurses did not report any ADR. Based on the above, strategies are needed to educate, train, and empower the HCPs in the domain of pharmacovigilance.

scholarly journals Views of healthcare professionals on recruiting to trials of psychosocial research: a qualitative study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trefor Aspden ◽  
Megan Armstrong ◽  
Marc Serfaty
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Randomised Controlled ◽  
Views Of Healthcare Professionals

Abstract Background: Randomised controlled trials, and in particular those of psychosocial interventions, often fail to recruit to target, resulting in underpowered trials with poor generalisability of findings. The objectives of this study was to explore the views of healthcare professionals on recruiting to psychosocial research studies, and to explore their views on factors that may hinder or facilitate recruitment. Methods: We conducted 14 semi-structured interviews, with healthcare professionals who had been involved in recruitment into a randomised controlled trial of a talking therapy for depression in patients with advanced cancer. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Six primary themes were identified, comprised of 15 subthemes. Attitudes towards research were largely positive. Health care professionals identified lack of time and narrow screening criteria as barriers to recruitment, and also noted the tendency to withhold participants from research for reasons other than eligibility (e.g., gatekeeping). The engagement of the study team with the clinical recruitment site, and the frequent presence of a researcher in clinics, were noted as facilitating recruitment. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals involved in recruiting to trials of psychosocial interventions hold generally positive views of psychosocial research, but report that constraints limit their ability to recruit. The findings from this study can inform how best to design trials, and in particular trials of psychosocial interventions, and train health care professionals for the study, to maximise recruitment. Trial registration: Controlled Trials ISRCTN07622709, registered 15 July 2011

scholarly journals Stress and Maladaptive Coping of Italians Health Care Professionals during the First Wave of the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1586
Author(s):  
Paolo Grandinetti ◽  
Martina Gooney ◽  
Florian Scheibein ◽  
Roberta Testa ◽  
Gaetano Ruggieri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Maladaptive Coping ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Coping Behaviour ◽  
Coping Behaviours

Stress during the pandemic has had an impact on the mental health of healthcare professionals (HCPs). However, little is known about coping and “maladaptive” coping behaviours of this population. This study investigates “maladaptive” coping behaviours and their correlation with stress, anxiety and insomnia of Italian HCPs during the pandemic. It reports on a cross-sectional, descriptive and correlational study based on a survey of 1955 Italian HCPs. Overall participants reported increases in cigarette smoking, time spent online and video playing. Overall reported alcohol consumption decreased but increased in those reporting drinking more than once a week. Those reporting starting smoking during the pandemic were found to have higher SAS and PSS scores. Those reporting being online for 3 or more hours were found to have higher ISS scores. Doctors who reported playing video games were found to have higher PSS, ISS and SAS scores whilst nurses who reported playing video games were found to have higher ISS scores. Doctors who reported playing for longer than one hour had higher PSS scores. Online behaviours may be a coping behaviour of HCPs affected by the pandemic. However, this is an underexplored area for the wellbeing of HCPs. These deficits need to be addressed going forward.

The Preschool Stuttering Screen for Health Care Professionals

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-62
Author(s):  
Joseph Donaher ◽  
Christina Deery ◽  
Sarah Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Differential Diagnosis ◽  
Preschool Children ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Developmental Profile

Healthcare professionals require a thorough understanding of stuttering since they frequently play an important role in the identification and differential diagnosis of stuttering for preschool children. This paper introduces The Preschool Stuttering Screen for Healthcare Professionals (PSSHP) which highlights risk factors identified in the literature as being associated with persistent stuttering. By integrating the results of the checklist with a child’s developmental profile, healthcare professionals can make better-informed, evidence-based decisions for their patients.

Studying and More: Part-Time Employment as an Educational Challenge?

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Silke Heuse ◽  
Cathrin Dietze ◽  
Daniel Fodor ◽  
Edgar Voltmer
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Professional Students ◽  
Educational Challenge ◽  
Part Time

Background: Future health-care professionals face stress both during education and in later professional life. Next to educational trainings, many students are forced to assume part-time employment. Objective: Applying the Job Demands-Resources Model to the educational context, we investigate which role part-time employment plays next to health-care professional students’ education-specific demands and resources in the prediction of perceived stress. Method: In this cross-sectional study, data from N = 161 health-care students were analysed, testing moderation models. Results: Education-specific demands were associated with higher and education-specific resources with lower amounts of perceived stress. Part-time employment functioned as moderator, i.e. demands were less associated with stress experiences in students who were employed part-time. Conclusion: Identifying part-time employment as a resource rather than a demand illustrates the need to understand students’ individual influences on stress. Both educators and students will benefit from reflecting these resources to support students’ stress management.

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