The heart team

Modern cardiovascular medicine is complex, dynamic and interactive. Therefore multidisciplinary dialogue between different cardiovascular specialists is required to deliver optimal patient care. This requirement has led to the concept of teams of different specialists caring for patients with complex cardiovascular diseases – hence the concept of “heart teams”. These teams are particularly valuable when complex and/or rapid decision-making is essential. This chapter is intended to provide conceptual and practical considerations for the composition, structure and function of multidisciplinary teams involved in the treatment of complex cardiovascular diseases; discuss strategies for clear and transparent patient communication and promotion of a patient-centric approach; and provide guidance on optimal implementation of the heart team concept in patients requiring myocardial revascularization of a broad spectrum of complex coronary artery disease, from stable angina to acute coronary syndrome patients with mechanical complications and hemodynamic instability.

The role of the heart team in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension

The aim – to present to the medical community the functioning algorithm of the heart team concept in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) in Ukraine. The concept of the CTEPH team implies a multi-disciplinary approach to the diagnosis and, consequently, surgical treatment of CTEPH with the participation of a radiologist, a pulmonologist, a cardiologist, a hematologist, a neurologist, and a cardiac surgeon. Considering the low incidence of the disease, the need for high-tech diagnostic tools, including CT angiography and angiopulmonography, as well as challenges of evaluating the operability of patients and the technical complexity of operations, patients with CTEPH are get together in the so-called reference centers. Within the framework of the CTEPH team concept, specific protocols and «road maps» have been developed for both diagnosis and treatment of the disease. In order to eliminate subjectivity in determining the operability of a patient with CTEPH, a special algorithm has been developed, which is applied to a clinical case for illustration. Monitoring patients with pulmonary embolism who are qualifed for a newly coined definition – postembolic pulmonary syndrome, has become a new task of the reference centers. The new syndrome is suggested to include CTEPH, as well as a similar, but not identical pathological condition, named chronic thromboembolic lung disease. The treatment of choice for CTEPH is pulmonary thrombendarterectomy. Mandatory elements of the surgical protocol include the creation of a «dry» operating field by means of a temporary circulatory arrest under deep hypothermia of 18 °C. Operations for distal lesions of the pulmonary arteries have become a recent achievement. The success of the operation depends on the anatomical type of the lesions, the degree of distal arteriopathy, the extent of the intervention, and the comorbid factors. Immediate and long-term results of the operation are evaluated as good and very good. The long-term survival of patients after surgery is significantly higher than of those who were administered medical treatment.Conclusions. Patients with suspected CTEPH should be referred to a reference expert center for diagnosis verification and operability determining. The standard diagnosis of CTEPH is angiopulmonography with simultaneous measurement of pressure in the right heart; the standard treatment is pulmonary thrombendarterectomy.

Additive Manufacturing With Ceramics

The purpose of this project is to design a device that improves the performance of a ceramic additive manufacturing (AM) 3D printer constructed by Army Research Labs (ARL). ARL modified a standard LulzBot Taz 6 3D printer to print a ceramic slurry mixture of Boron Carbide (B4C) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) instead of plastic filament. Since these compounds are often used in body armor, ARL has been observing the effects on properties when these components are 3D printed. The current printer utilizes an auger in the print head to receive and mix the B4C and SiC slurries and extrude the combined slurry out of the print nozzle. The current design is limited in its ability to thoroughly mix the slurries during the printing process. Therefore, team Concept Creators has designed an improved auger that will increase the mixedness of the slurries, thus increasing the print quality of the composite specimen.

Orchestrator’s interaction in hub-teams facilitating innovation network co-creation

Purpose The purpose of the study is to identify and develop a framework to clarify facilitating orchestrator hub-team roles; their interactions, linked capabilities and activities; and the hub-team concept. This framework is illustrated by a case study of an orchestrator hub-team facilitating cross-country and network co-creation in Northern Sweden, Norway and Finland. Design/methodology/approach The following two approaches are used: a conceptual approach that combines various source materials and concepts related to the “bricolage approach”; and an empirical approach that illustrates the conceptual framework using a longitudinal, qualitative, single-case study and the action research method. Findings By combining research related to three differing yet somewhat overlapping research perspectives, three facilitating orchestrator hub-team roles are identified, linked to orchestrator capabilities and activities relevant to innovative value creation in extensive networks including both private and public actors highlighting the role of people in networks. An orchestrator hub-team framework and five related activity categories are developed and introduced. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to research on the orchestration of innovative co-creation in extensive networks and network management by clarifying the facilitating orchestrator hub-team roles and their related capabilities and activities, and thereby describing the role of a centrally positioned hub-team. Practical implications The hub-team framework may bring structure and understanding to hub-teams, thus easing and enabling orchestration and value co-creation. Originality/value This study offers a further developed, integrated framework for intermediating the facilitating roles of a hub-team orchestrating extensive network and public/private co-creation.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF STAFF SELECTION BY A MODERN MANAGER

The article is dedicated to staff selection depending on the conditions of a modern organization and the nature of its functioning. Currently, staff selection at the request of a particular leader has become very common. The same tendency is observed in all countries and at all levels of the organization. There is no doubt that HR decisions are based not only on business interests but also psychological characteristics. Particular attention is paid to such concepts as team, leader, personality, as well as to psychological characteristics that emphasize the exceptional role of a leader in staff selection. It was found that the psychological component occupies a very important place in the team concept. Moreover, it plays a dominant role, both in terms of staff selection and team functioning. A team, as a modern form of social organization, embodies various psychological potential for its further expression. In some cases, positive psychological atmosphere can be an effective positive mechanism for society functioning. In other cases, psychological mood may already be different and aimed at selfish interests of the members of this organization, which do not coincide with the interests of other people.

How Engineering Design Students’ Psychological Safety Impacts Team Concept Generation and Screening Practices

Psychological safety has been shown to be a consistent, generalizable, and multilevel predictor of outcomes in performance and learning across fields. While work in this field has suggested that psychological safety can impact the creative process, particularly in the generation of ideas and in the discussions surrounding idea development, there has been limited investigations of psychological safety in the engineering domain. Without this knowledge we do not know when fostering psychological safety in a team environment is most important. This study provides the first attempt at answering this question through an empirical study with 53 engineering design student teams over the course of a 4- and 8-week design project. Specifically, we sought to identify the role of psychological safety on the number and quality (judged by goodness) of ideas generated. In addition, we explored the role of psychological safety on ownership bias and goodness in the concept screening process. The results of the study identified that while psychological safety was not related to the number of ideas a team developed, it was positively related to the quality (goodness) of the ideas developed. In addition, while no relationship was found between psychological safety and ownership bias during concept screening, the results showed that teams with high psychological safety selected a higher percentage of their team members ideas.