Healthcare
Latest Publications


TOTAL DOCUMENTS

3103
(FIVE YEARS 2633)

H-INDEX

28
(FIVE YEARS 11)

Published By Mdpi Ag

2227-9032

Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 167
Author(s):  
Assaf Gottlieb ◽  
Christine Bakos-Block ◽  
James R. Langabeer ◽  
Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Background: The Houston Emergency Opioid Engagement System was established to create an access pathway into long-term recovery for individuals with opioid use disorder. The program determines effectiveness across multiple dimensions, one of which is by measuring the participant’s reported quality of life (QoL) at the beginning of the program and at successive intervals. Methods: A visual analog scale was used to measure the change in QoL among participants after joining the program. We then identified sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with changes in QoL. Results: 71% of the participants (n = 494) experienced an increase in their QoL scores, with an average improvement of 15.8 ± 29 points out of a hundred. We identified 10 factors associated with a significant change in QoL. Participants who relapsed during treatment experienced minor increases in QoL, and participants who attended professional counseling experienced the largest increases in QoL compared with those who did not. Conclusions: Insight into significant factors associated with increases in QoL may inform programs on areas of focus. The inclusion of counseling and other services that address factors such as psychological distress were found to increase participants’ QoL and success in recovery.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Jung-Fa Tsai ◽  
Tai-Lin Chu ◽  
Edgar Hernan Cuevas Brun ◽  
Ming-Hua Lin

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease that has rapidly spread throughout the last few decades. Most preventive mechanisms to deal with the disease focus on the eradication of the vector mosquito and vaccination campaigns. However, appropriate mechanisms of response are indispensable to face the consequent events when an outbreak takes place. This study applied single and multiple objective linear programming models to optimize the allocation of patients and additional resources during an epidemic dengue fever outbreak, minimizing the summation of the distance travelled by all patients. An empirical study was set in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Data provided by a privately run health insurance cooperative was used to verify the applicability of the models in this study. The results can be used by analysts and decision makers to solve patient allocation problems for providing essential medical care during an epidemic dengue fever outbreak.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mouhafid ◽  
Mokhtar Salah ◽  
Chi Yue ◽  
Kewen Xia

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been endangering human health and life since 2019. The timely quarantine, diagnosis, and treatment of infected people are the most necessary and important work. The most widely used method of detecting COVID-19 is real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Along with RT-PCR, computed tomography (CT) has become a vital technique in diagnosing and managing COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 reveals a number of radiological signatures that can be easily recognized through chest CT. These signatures must be analyzed by radiologists. It is, however, an error-prone and time-consuming process. Deep Learning-based methods can be used to perform automatic chest CT analysis, which may shorten the analysis time. The aim of this study is to design a robust and rapid medical recognition system to identify positive cases in chest CT images using three Ensemble Learning-based models. There are several techniques in Deep Learning for developing a detection system. In this paper, we employed Transfer Learning. With this technique, we can apply the knowledge obtained from a pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to a different but related task. In order to ensure the robustness of the proposed system for identifying positive cases in chest CT images, we used two Ensemble Learning methods namely Stacking and Weighted Average Ensemble (WAE) to combine the performances of three fine-tuned Base-Learners (VGG19, ResNet50, and DenseNet201). For Stacking, we explored 2-Levels and 3-Levels Stacking. The three generated Ensemble Learning-based models were trained on two chest CT datasets. A variety of common evaluation measures (accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score) are used to perform a comparative analysis of each method. The experimental results show that the WAE method provides the most reliable performance, achieving a high recall value which is a desirable outcome in medical applications as it poses a greater risk if a true infected patient is not identified.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Lersi D. Durán ◽  
Ana Margarida Almeida ◽  
Ana Cristina Lopes ◽  
Margarida Figueiredo-Braga

Digital interventions are important tools to promote mental health literacy among university students. “Depression in Portuguese University Students” (Depressão em Estudantes Universitários Portugueses, DEEP) is an audiovisual intervention describing how symptoms can be identified and what possible treatments can be applied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of this intervention. A random sample of 98 students, aged 20–38 years old, participated in a 12-week study. Participants were recruited through social media by the academic services and institutional emails of two Portuguese universities. Participants were contacted and distributed into four study groups (G1, G2, G3 and G4): G1 received the DEEP intervention in audiovisual format; G2 was given the DEEP in text format; G3 received four news articles on depression; G4 was the control group. A questionnaire was shared to collect socio-demographic and depression knowledge data as a pre-intervention method; content was then distributed to each group following a set schedule; the depression knowledge questionnaire was then administered to compare pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up literacy levels. Using the Scheffé and Least Significant Difference (LSD) multiple comparisons test, it was found that G1, which received the DEEP audiovisual intervention, differed significantly from the other groups, with higher depression knowledge scores in post-intervention stages. The DEEP audiovisual intervention, compared to the other formats used (narrative text format; news format), proved to be an effective tool for increasing depression knowledge in university students.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Ping-Shun Chen ◽  
Gary Yu-Hsin Chen ◽  
Li-Wen Liu ◽  
Ching-Ping Zheng ◽  
Wen-Tso Huang

This study investigates patient appointment scheduling and examination room assignment problems involving patients who undergo ultrasound examination with considerations of multiple examination rooms, multiple types of patients, multiple body parts to be examined, and special restrictions. Following are the recommended time intervals based on the findings of three scenarios in this study: In Scenario 1, the time interval recommended for patients’ arrival at the radiology department on the day of the examination is 18 min. In Scenario 2, it is best to assign patients to examination rooms based on weighted cumulative examination points. In Scenario 3, we recommend that three outpatients come to the radiology department every 18 min to undergo ultrasound examinations; the number of inpatients and emergency patients arriving for ultrasound examination is consistent with the original time interval distribution. Simulation optimization may provide solutions to the problems of appointment scheduling and examination room assignment problems to balance the workload of radiological technologists, maintain high equipment utilization rates, and reduce waiting times for patients undergoing ultrasound examination.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Joaquim Carreras ◽  
Naoya Nakamura ◽  
Rifat Hamoudi

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a subtype of mature B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma characterized by a poor prognosis. First, we analyzed a series of 123 cases (GSE93291). An algorithm using multilayer perceptron artificial neural network, radial basis function, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), and conventional statistics, correlated 20,862 genes with 28 MCL prognostic genes for dimensionality reduction, to predict the patients’ overall survival and highlight new markers. As a result, 58 genes predicted survival with high accuracy (area under the curve = 0.9). Further reduction identified 10 genes: KIF18A, YBX3, PEMT, GCNA, and POGLUT3 that associated with a poor survival; and SELENOP, AMOTL2, IGFBP7, KCTD12, and ADGRG2 with a favorable survival. Correlation with the proliferation index (Ki67) was also made. Interestingly, these genes, which were related to cell cycle, apoptosis, and metabolism, also predicted the survival of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (GSE10846, n = 414), and a pan-cancer series of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA, n = 7289), which included the most relevant cancers (lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, stomach, liver, etcetera). Secondly, survival was predicted using 10 oncology panels (transcriptome, cancer progression and pathways, metabolic pathways, immuno-oncology, and host response), and TYMS was highlighted. Finally, using machine learning, C5 tree and Bayesian network had the highest accuracy for prediction and correlation with the LLMPP MCL35 proliferation assay and RGS1 was made. In conclusion, artificial intelligence analysis predicted the overall survival of MCL with high accuracy, and highlighted genes that predicted the survival of a large pan-cancer series.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 156
Author(s):  
Sarah Ciotti ◽  
Shannon A. Moore ◽  
Maureen Connolly ◽  
Trent Newmeyer

This qualitative research study, a critical content analysis, explores Canadian media reporting of childhood in Canada during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Popular media plays an important role in representing and perpetuating the dominant social discourse in highly literate societies. In Canadian media, the effects of the pandemic on children and adolescents’ health and wellbeing are overshadowed by discussions of the potential risk they pose to adults. The results of this empirical research highlight how young people in Canada have been uniquely impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Two dominant narratives emerged from the data: children were presented “as a risk” to vulnerable persons and older adults and “at risk” of adverse health outcomes from contracting COVID-19 and from pandemic lockdown restrictions. This reflects how childhood was constructed in Canadian society during the pandemic, particularly how children’s experiences are described in relation to adults. Throughout the pandemic, media reports emphasized the role of young people’s compliance with public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save the lives of older persons.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
Bhakti Patel ◽  
Amgad N. Makaryus

The tremendous advances in digital information and communication technology have entered everything from our daily lives to the most intricate aspects of medical and surgical care. These advances are seen in electronic and mobile health and allow many new applications to further improve and make the diagnoses of patient diseases and conditions more precise. In the area of digital radiology with respect to diagnostics, the use of advanced imaging tools and techniques is now at the center of evaluation and treatment. Digital acquisition and analysis are central to diagnostic capabilities, especially in the field of cardiovascular imaging. Furthermore, the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into the world of digital cardiovascular imaging greatly broadens the capabilities of the field both with respect to advancement as well as with respect to complete and accurate diagnosis of cardiovascular conditions. The application of AI in recognition, diagnostics, protocol automation, and quality control for the analysis of cardiovascular imaging modalities such as echocardiography, nuclear cardiac imaging, cardiovascular computed tomography, cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging, and other imaging, is a major advance that is improving rapidly and continuously. We document the innovations in the field of cardiovascular imaging that have been brought about by the acceptance and implementation of AI in relation to healthcare professionals and patients in the cardiovascular field.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Catriona Young ◽  
Alison I. C. Donaldson ◽  
Christine H. McAlpine ◽  
Marc Locherty ◽  
Adrian D. Wood ◽  
...  

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is provided differently across Scotland. The Scottish Care of Older People (SCoOP) CGA Audit was a national audit conducted in 2019 to assess this variation in acute hospitals. Two versions of audit questionnaires about the provision of CGA were developed (one each for larger hospitals and remote/rural areas) and piloted. The questionnaires were sent to representatives from all hospitals in Scotland using the REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) system. The survey asked each service to provide information on CGA service delivery at the ‘front door’. The questionnaire was open for completion between February and July 2019. Of the 28 Scottish hospitals which receive acute admissions, we received information from 26 (92.9% response rate). Reporting sites included seven hospitals from remote and rural locations in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Significant variations were observed across participating sites for all key aspects studied: dedicated frailty units, routes of admission, staffing, liaison with other services and rehabilitation provision. The 2019 SCoOP CGA audit highlights areas of CGA services that could be improved and variation in specialist CGA service access, structure and staffing at the front door across Scotland. Whether this variation has an impact on the outcomes of older people requires further evaluation.


Healthcare ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Lisa Monoscalco ◽  
Rossella Simeoni ◽  
Giovanni Maccioni ◽  
Daniele Giansanti

Cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly important aspect to investigate for the adoption and use of care robots, in term of both patients’ safety, and the availability, integrity and privacy of their data. This study focuses on opinions about cybersecurity relevance and related skills for physiotherapists involved in rehabilitation and assistance thanks to the aid of robotics. The goal was to investigate the awareness among insiders about some facets of cybersecurity concerning human–robot interactions. We designed an electronic questionnaire and submitted it to a relevant sample of physiotherapists. The questionnaire allowed us to collect data related to: (i) use of robots and its relationship with cybersecurity in the context of physiotherapy; (ii) training in cybersecurity and robotics for the insiders; (iii) insiders’ self-assessment on cybersecurity and robotics in some usage scenarios, and (iv) their experiences of cyber-attacks in this area and proposals for improvement. Besides contributing some specific statistics, the study highlights the importance of both acculturation processes in this field and monitoring initiatives based on surveys. The study exposes direct suggestions for continuation of these types of investigations in the context of scientific societies operating in the rehabilitation and assistance robotics. The study also shows the need to stimulate similar initiatives in other sectors of medical robotics (robotic surgery, care and socially assistive robots, rehabilitation systems, training for health and care workers) involving insiders.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document