scholarly journals Use of Digital Technology to Enhance Tuberculosis Control: Scoping Review

10.2196/15727 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. e15727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yejin Lee ◽  
Mario C Raviglione ◽  
Antoine Flahault

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, with around 1.5 million deaths reported in 2018, and is a major contributor to suffering worldwide, with an estimated 10 million new cases every year. In the context of the World Health Organization’s End TB strategy and the quest for digital innovations, there is a need to understand what is happening around the world regarding research into the use of digital technology for better TB care and control. Objective The purpose of this scoping review was to summarize the state of research on the use of digital technology to enhance TB care and control. This study provides an overview of publications covering this subject and answers 3 main questions: (1) to what extent has the issue been addressed in the scientific literature between January 2016 and March 2019, (2) which countries have been investing in research in this field, and (3) what digital technologies were used? Methods A Web-based search was conducted on PubMed and Web of Science. Studies that describe the use of digital technology with specific reference to keywords such as TB, digital health, eHealth, and mHealth were included. Data from selected studies were synthesized into 4 functions using narrative and graphical methods. Such digital health interventions were categorized based on 2 classifications, one by function and the other by targeted user. Results A total of 145 relevant studies were identified out of the 1005 published between January 2016 and March 2019. Overall, 72.4% (105/145) of the research focused on patient care and 20.7% (30/145) on surveillance and monitoring. Other programmatic functions 4.8% (7/145) and electronic learning 2.1% (3/145) were less frequently studied. Most digital health technologies used for patient care included primarily diagnostic 59.4% (63/106) and treatment adherence tools 40.6% (43/106). On the basis of the second type of classification, 107 studies targeted health care providers (107/145, 73.8%), 20 studies targeted clients (20/145, 13.8%), 17 dealt with data services (17/145, 11.7%), and 1 study was on the health system or resource management. The first authors’ affiliations were mainly from 3 countries: the United States (30/145 studies, 20.7%), China (20/145 studies, 13.8%), and India (17/145 studies, 11.7%). The researchers from the United States conducted their research both domestically and abroad, whereas researchers from China and India conducted all studies domestically. Conclusions The majority of research conducted between January 2016 and March 2019 on digital interventions for TB focused on diagnostic tools and treatment adherence technologies, such as video-observed therapy and SMS. Only a few studies addressed interventions for data services and health system or resource management.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yejin Lee ◽  
Mario C Raviglione ◽  
Antoine Flahault

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, with around 1.5 million deaths reported in 2018, and is a major contributor to suffering worldwide, with an estimated 10 million new cases every year. In the context of the World Health Organization’s End TB strategy and the quest for digital innovations, there is a need to understand what is happening around the world regarding research into the use of digital technology for better TB care and control. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this scoping review was to summarize the state of research on the use of digital technology to enhance TB care and control. This study provides an overview of publications covering this subject and answers 3 main questions: (1) to what extent has the issue been addressed in the scientific literature between January 2016 and March 2019, (2) which countries have been investing in research in this field, and (3) what digital technologies were used? METHODS A Web-based search was conducted on PubMed and Web of Science. Studies that describe the use of digital technology with specific reference to keywords such as TB, digital health, eHealth, and mHealth were included. Data from selected studies were synthesized into 4 functions using narrative and graphical methods. Such digital health interventions were categorized based on 2 classifications, one by function and the other by targeted user. RESULTS A total of 145 relevant studies were identified out of the 1005 published between January 2016 and March 2019. Overall, 72.4% (105/145) of the research focused on patient care and 20.7% (30/145) on surveillance and monitoring. Other programmatic functions 4.8% (7/145) and electronic learning 2.1% (3/145) were less frequently studied. Most digital health technologies used for patient care included primarily diagnostic 59.4% (63/106) and treatment adherence tools 40.6% (43/106). On the basis of the second type of classification, 107 studies targeted health care providers (107/145, 73.8%), 20 studies targeted clients (20/145, 13.8%), 17 dealt with data services (17/145, 11.7%), and 1 study was on the health system or resource management. The first authors’ affiliations were mainly from 3 countries: the United States (30/145 studies, 20.7%), China (20/145 studies, 13.8%), and India (17/145 studies, 11.7%). The researchers from the United States conducted their research both domestically and abroad, whereas researchers from China and India conducted all studies domestically. CONCLUSIONS The majority of research conducted between January 2016 and March 2019 on digital interventions for TB focused on diagnostic tools and treatment adherence technologies, such as video-observed therapy and SMS. Only a few studies addressed interventions for data services and health system or resource management.


2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. R. Burrough

Swine dysentery is a severe enteric disease in pigs, which is characterized by bloody to mucoid diarrhea and associated with reduced growth performance and variable mortality. This disease is most often observed in grower–finisher pigs, wherein susceptible pigs develop a significant mucohemorrhagic typhlocolitis following infection with strongly hemolytic spirochetes of the genus Brachyspira. While swine dysentery is endemic in many parts of the world, the disease had essentially disappeared in much of the United States by the mid-1990s as a result of industry consolidation and effective treatment, control, and elimination methods. However, since 2007, there has been a reported increase in laboratory diagnosis of swine dysentery in parts of North America along with the detection of novel pathogenic Brachyspira spp worldwide. Accordingly, there has been a renewed interest in swine dysentery and Brachyspira spp infections in pigs, particularly in areas where the disease was previously eliminated. This review provides an overview of knowledge on the etiology, pathogenesis, and diagnosis of swine dysentery, with insights into risk factors and control.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (09) ◽  
pp. S11-S16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Bretl

There is growing public consensus that the system of mass incarceration in the United States needs reform. More than 2.2 million residents (0.73%) of the United States were held in state or federal prisons or in local jails at the end of year 2010 [1]. This incarceration rate is the highest in the world, and disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities: 4.35% of black males were held in custody compared to 0.68% of white males in 2010.


2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 7512505113p1-7512505113p1
Author(s):  
Joseph Cipriani ◽  
Megan Davis ◽  
Emily Gralinski ◽  
Stephanie Monforte ◽  
Jacqueline Strausser

Abstract Date Presented 04/19/21 Refugees across the world are an ever-growing population, including in the United States. The purpose of this study was to conduct a scoping review of research from 2014 through 2018 relevant to OT practice with refugee populations. Fourteen peer-reviewed research articles were examined. A trend of more published evidence-based interventions emerged compared to earlier reviews, in addition to assessing needs of this nontraditional population. Implications for OT practice will be presented. Primary Author and Speaker: Joseph Cipriani Additional Authors and Speakers: Shifra Leiser


Author(s):  
Ashley Hunt

As we begin to think about the United States as a carceral state, this means that the scale of incarceration practices have grown so great within it that they have a determining effect on the shape of the the society as a whole. In addition to the budgets, routines, and technologies used is the culture of that carceral state, where relationships form between elements of its culture and its politics. In terms of its visual culture, that relationship forms a visuality, a culture and politics of vision that both reflects the state’s carceral qualities and, in turn, helps to structure and organize the society in a carceral manner. Images, architecture, light, presentation and camouflage, surveillance, and the play of sight between groups of people and the world are all materials through which the ideas of a society are worked out, its politics played out, its technology implemented, its rationality or common sense and identities forming. They also shape the politics of freedom and control, where what might be a free, privileged expression to one person could be a dangerous exposure to another, where invisibility or inscrutability may be a resource. In this article, these questions are asked in relation to the history of prison architecture, from premodern times to the present, while considering the multiple discourses that overlap throughout that history: war, enslavement, civil punishment, and freedom struggle, but also a discourse of agency, where subordinated peoples can or cannot resist, or remain hostile to or in difference from the control placed upon them.


2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R Hines

Federal and state governments in the United States use income and payroll taxes as their primary tools to collect revenue. Relative to the United States, governments in the rest of the world rely much more heavily on taxing consumption. Heavy American reliance on income rather than consumption taxation has not served the U.S. economy well. The inefficiency associated with taxing the return to capital means that the tax system reduces investment in the United States and distorts intertemporal consumption by Americans. While the economic logic of consumption taxation is compelling even for a closed economy, it is even more powerful for an open economy exposed to the world capital market. Consumption taxes in the form of excises can be designed to help protect the environment and control other externalities. Excise taxes can also serve the function of more closely aligning tax burdens with the benefits that taxpayers receive from certain government services. Understandable concerns arise about the distributional consequences of consumption taxation, but a system that relies heavily on consumption taxes, particularly if accompanied by an income tax, can be as progressive as any income tax the United States would realistically want to adopt.


Author(s):  
Jeanette N. Cleveland ◽  
Lynn M. Shore ◽  
Kemol Anderson ◽  
Lena-Alyeska Huebner ◽  
Diana Sanchez

This chapter discusses diversity and diversity management within the United States and globally and presents the historical underpinnings of the systematic efforts to increase heterogeneity at the workplace. Starting with social exclusion, the authors describe the historical approaches to addressing the challenges that come with increasing diversity, including governmental endeavors, human resource management, diversity management, and inclusion. In addition, developments in other parts of the world such as Europe and Asia are compared, elaborating on the cultural differences that contribute to these variations. The chapter offers a brief review of the evolving definitions of discrimination and diversity management as well as the emerging group- and macro-level theories of diversity in the literature. Next, the parameters of a diverse and inclusive work environment are articulated along with how an ideal diverse inclusive workplace might be conceptualized. Finally, the authors provide a preliminary outline of steps to achieving this ultimate goal.


2021 ◽  
Vol 124 ◽  
pp. 108328
Author(s):  
Jane R. von Gaudecker ◽  
Janice M. Buelow ◽  
Wendy R. Miller ◽  
Andrea L. Tanner ◽  
Joan K. Austin

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 186-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malini Ratnasingam ◽  
Lee Ellis

Background. Nearly all of the research on sex differences in mass media utilization has been based on samples from the United States and a few other Western countries. Aim. The present study examines sex differences in mass media utilization in four Asian countries (Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore). Methods. College students self-reported the frequency with which they accessed the following five mass media outlets: television dramas, televised news and documentaries, music, newspapers and magazines, and the Internet. Results. Two significant sex differences were found when participants from the four countries were considered as a whole: Women watched television dramas more than did men; and in Japan, female students listened to music more than did their male counterparts. Limitations. A wider array of mass media outlets could have been explored. Conclusions. Findings were largely consistent with results from studies conducted elsewhere in the world, particularly regarding sex differences in television drama viewing. A neurohormonal evolutionary explanation is offered for the basic findings.


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