Summary
Professional interpretation and translation are key issues in the improvement of public health and patient safety in an area of increased migration and multicultural healthcare system needs. ...Patient safety requires clear and reliable communication to avoid errors in diagnosis, treatment, and neglect of informed consent. Due to the range of languages to be covered, telephone and video interpretation (VI) can be expected to face up to the demands for trained interpreters available on short notice and in more remote healthcare sites.
In a pilot project, we implemented a new up to date model video interpretation unit and used a mixed methods approach integrating quantitative and qualitative data in assessing barriers encountered prior to the use of the pilot system and satisfaction with the use of video interpretation in a number of clinical settings, including inpatient and outpatient units, in Austria. Of all respondents (
n
= 144) 71% reported frequently encountering language barriers, only 37% reported the use of professional interpreters, 81% reported using siblings, parents or other non-professional interpreters, while a considerable percentage (66%) reported using gestures or drawings to communicate, resulting in very low overall satisfaction rate (only 12%) with the prior situation.
In the qualitative study the users observed rapid availability, data protection compliance, ability to see the interpreter despite physical distance, absence of potential external influence resulting from personal relationships, user-friendly nature of the technique, legal certainty, absence of the requirement for personal presence, and cost savings as key benefits in the use of the new technology. Of the users of the system 88% (
n
= 58) rated it as very good (72%) or good (16%).
Due to its high lethality among older people, the safety of nursing homes has been of central importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. With test procedures and vaccines becoming available at scale, ...nursing homes might relax prohibitory measures while controlling the spread of infections. By control we mean that each index case infects less than one other person on average. Here, we develop an agent-based epidemiological model for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 calibrated to Austrian nursing homes to identify optimal prevention strategies. We find that the effectiveness of mitigation testing depends critically on test turnover time (time until test result), the detection threshold of tests and mitigation testing frequencies. Under realistic conditions and in absence of vaccinations, we find that mitigation testing of employees only might be sufficient to control outbreaks if tests have low turnover times and detection thresholds. If vaccines that are 60% effective against high viral load and transmission are available, control is achieved if 80% or more of the residents are vaccinated, even without mitigation testing and if residents are allowed to have visitors. Since these results strongly depend on vaccine efficacy against infection, retention of testing infrastructures, regular testing and sequencing of virus genomes is advised to enable early identification of new variants of concern.
Background and objective
To improve the currently low conviction rate in cases of child abuse a forensic examination center for children and adolescents (FOKUS) was established in Vienna, Austria. ...Besides a state of the art treatment combined with forensic documentation, one of FOKUS’ key goals is to identify potential areas for improvements within the process legal proceedings in cases of child abuse through constant scientific monitoring. The accompanying study at hand includes all patients referred to FOKUS within a two year timeframe (
n
= 233), monitoring their progression from first contact with the medical professionals from FOKUS to the end of criminal proceedings. A detailed analysis of case files was performed in those cases that were reported to the legal authorities by the clinicians of FOKUS (
n
= 87). Aim of the study is to investigate which factors contribute to the initiation of legal proceedings and a successful conviction.
Results
Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that main proceedings were opened more often in cases where the offender was an adult (
p
< 0.001) or admitted his guilt (
p
< 0.001) and if digital traces were available (
p
= 0.001) or trial support (
p
= 0.024) present. Furthermore, the combined occurrence of medical documentation and victim disclosure was related to a higher probability of opening main trials.
Conclusion
These findings underline how challenging the successful persecution of an offender in cases of child abuse is.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have recently become popular research themes. However, there are no published bibliometric reports that have analyzed the corresponding scientific ...literature in relation to the application of these technologies in medicine.
We used a bibliometric approach to identify and analyze the scientific literature on VR and AR research in medicine, revealing the popular research topics, key authors, scientific institutions, countries, and journals. We further aimed to capture and describe the themes and medical conditions most commonly investigated by VR and AR research.
The Web of Science electronic database was searched to identify relevant papers on VR research in medicine. Basic publication and citation data were acquired using the "Analyze" and "Create Citation Report" functions of the database. Complete bibliographic data were exported to VOSviewer and Bibliometrix, dedicated bibliometric software packages, for further analyses. Visualization maps were generated to illustrate the recurring keywords and words mentioned in the titles and abstracts.
The analysis was based on data from 8399 papers. Major research themes were diagnostic and surgical procedures, as well as rehabilitation. Commonly studied medical conditions were pain, stroke, anxiety, depression, fear, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. Overall, contributions to the literature were globally distributed with heaviest contributions from the United States and United Kingdom. Studies from more clinically related research areas such as surgery, psychology, neurosciences, and rehabilitation had higher average numbers of citations than studies from computer sciences and engineering.
The conducted bibliometric analysis unequivocally reveals the versatile emerging applications of VR and AR in medicine. With the further maturation of the technology and improved accessibility in countries where VR and AR research is strong, we expect it to have a marked impact on clinical practice and in the life of patients.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Aim
Centring on nursing homes, we analysed the implementation process of a tablet‐ and videoconferencing‐based telemedicine application from the perspectives of management, nursing staff and ...physicians.
Design
We used a qualitative design based on interviews to explore diverse perspectives on the implementation of telemedicine.
Methods
We conducted fourteen face‐to‐face or online interviews with a purposeful sample of five managers, six nurses and three general practitioners treating residents in Austrian nursing homes during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We condensed data using thematic analysis.
Results
Nursing home management implemented telemedicine rapidly, using a top‐down approach met with ambivalence by staff. On the part of nurses, their professional understanding of person‐centred care was challenged. Telemedicine also impacted cooperation between nurses and physicians, influencing their respective understanding of their roles. Working experience with digital nursing documentation had a positive effect on users' acceptance of the telemedicine solution.
Social media has been extensively used for the communication of health-related information and consecutively for the potential spread of medical misinformation. Conventional systematic reviews have ...been published on this topic to identify original articles and to summarize their methodological approaches and themes. A bibliometric study could complement their findings, for instance, by evaluating the geographical distribution of the publications and determining if they were well cited and disseminated in high-impact journals.
The aim of this study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the current literature to discover the prevalent trends and topics related to medical misinformation on social media.
The Web of Science Core Collection electronic database was accessed to identify relevant papers with the following search string: ALL=(misinformati* OR "wrong informati*" OR disinformati* OR "misleading informati*" OR "fake news*") AND ALL=(medic* OR illness* OR disease* OR health* OR pharma* OR drug* OR therap*) AND ALL=("social media*" OR Facebook* OR Twitter* OR Instagram* OR YouTube* OR Weibo* OR Whatsapp* OR Reddit* OR TikTok* OR WeChat*). Full records were exported to a bibliometric software, VOSviewer, to link bibliographic information with citation data. Term and keyword maps were created to illustrate recurring terms and keywords.
Based on an analysis of 529 papers on medical and health-related misinformation on social media, we found that the most popularly investigated social media platforms were Twitter (n=90), YouTube (n=67), and Facebook (n=57). Articles targeting these 3 platforms had higher citations per paper (>13.7) than articles covering other social media platforms (Instagram, Weibo, WhatsApp, Reddit, and WeChat; citations per paper <8.7). Moreover, social media platform-specific papers accounted for 44.1% (233/529) of all identified publications. Investigations on these platforms had different foci. Twitter-based research explored cyberchondria and hypochondriasis, YouTube-based research explored tobacco smoking, and Facebook-based research studied vaccine hesitancy related to autism. COVID-19 was a common topic investigated across all platforms. Overall, the United States contributed to half of all identified papers, and 80% of the top 10 most productive institutions were based in this country. The identified papers were mostly published in journals of the categories public environmental and occupational health, communication, health care sciences services, medical informatics, and medicine general internal, with the top journal being the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
There is a significant platform-specific topic preference for social media investigations on medical misinformation. With a large population of internet users from China, it may be reasonably expected that Weibo, WeChat, and TikTok (and its Chinese version Douyin) would be more investigated in future studies. Currently, these platforms present research gaps that leave their usage and information dissemination warranting further evaluation. Future studies should also include social platforms targeting non-English users to provide a wider global perspective.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
With the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the world has been experiencing an extraordinary state of emergency. As patients entering a doctor's practice can potentially infect medical ...staff and other patients, using digital alternatives wherever possible is a potential solution to avoiding face-to-face encounters. In these conditions, telemedicine is becoming increasingly relevant. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine telemedicine use and gathered experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria.
In June 2020, a representative group of Austrian respondents (
= 1000) was asked via online survey whether they had contacted a doctor during spring of 2020, and, if so, whether they had used a telemedical method to do so. The survey also reflected gathered experiences and degrees of satisfaction with the use of telemedicine.
A third (33%) of those who contacted a doctor during the target period did so using telemedical tools. The majority of those with previous telehealth experience were satisfied with the help they received. Patients commonly used a telephone to contact their doctors. The overall assessment of telemedical aids tended to be positive, with more than half (53%) of those surveyed seeing significant advantages, and a 90% satisfaction rate among the respondents who used telehealth services.
The outcomes from this work hint at fairly high acceptance of telemedical communication tools in the studied group of the Austrian population. Based on the high rate of satisfaction among patients who used telehealth, it is expected that the use of telehealth services will increase further in the near future.
Digital technology uses in cardiology have become a popular research focus in recent years. However, there has been no published bibliometric report that analyzed the corresponding academic ...literature in order to derive key publishing trends and characteristics of this scientific area.
We used a bibliometric approach to identify and analyze the academic literature on digital technology uses in cardiology, and to unveil popular research topics, key authors, institutions, countries, and journals. We further captured the cardiovascular conditions and diagnostic tools most commonly investigated within this field.
The Web of Science electronic database was queried to identify relevant papers on digital technology uses in cardiology. Publication and citation data were acquired directly from the database. Complete bibliographic data were exported to VOSviewer, a dedicated bibliometric software package, and related to the semantic content of titles, abstracts, and keywords. A term map was constructed for findings visualization.
The analysis was based on data from 12,529 papers. Of the top 5 most productive institutions, 4 were based in the United States. The United States was the most productive country (4224/12,529, 33.7%), followed by United Kingdom (1136/12,529, 9.1%), Germany (1067/12,529, 8.5%), China (682/12,529, 5.4%), and Italy (622/12,529, 5.0%). Cardiovascular diseases that had been frequently investigated included hypertension (152/12,529, 1.2%), atrial fibrillation (122/12,529, 1.0%), atherosclerosis (116/12,529, 0.9%), heart failure (106/12,529, 0.8%), and arterial stiffness (80/12,529, 0.6%). Recurring modalities were electrocardiography (170/12,529, 1.4%), angiography (127/12,529, 1.0%), echocardiography (127/12,529, 1.0%), digital subtraction angiography (111/12,529, 0.9%), and photoplethysmography (80/12,529, 0.6%). For a literature subset on smartphone apps and wearable devices, the Journal of Medical Internet Research (20/632, 3.2%) and other JMIR portfolio journals (51/632, 8.0%) were the major publishing venues.
Digital technology uses in cardiology target physicians, patients, and the general public. Their functions range from assisting diagnosis, recording cardiovascular parameters, and patient education, to teaching laypersons about cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This field already has had a great impact in health care, and we anticipate continued growth.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Online information on COVID-19 vaccination may influence people's perception and willingness to be vaccinated. Official websites of vaccination programs have not been systematically assessed before.
...This study aims to assess and compare the readability and content quality of web-based information on COVID-19 vaccination posted on official/governmental websites. Furthermore, the relationship between evaluated website parameters and country vaccination rates were calculated.
By referring to an open data set hosted at Our World in Data, the 58 countries/regions with the highest total vaccination count as of July 8, 2021, were identified. Together with the websites from the World Health Organization and European Union, a total of 60 vaccination campaign websites were targeted. The "frequently asked questions" or "questions and answers" section of the websites were evaluated in terms of readability (Flesch Reading Ease score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level), quality (Health On the Net Foundation code HONcode certification and Quality Evaluation Scoring Tool), and content stating vaccination duration of protection and potential side effects.
In terms of readability, the Flesch Reading Ease score of the vaccination frequently asked questions websites ranged between 11.2 and 69.5, with a mean of 40.9 (SD 13.2). Meanwhile, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level ranged between 6.5 and 17.6, with a mean of 12.1 (SD 2.8). In terms of quality, only 2 websites were HONcode certified, and the Quality Evaluation Scoring Tool score of the websites ranged between 7 and 20, with a mean of 15.3 (SD 3.1). Half of the websites (25/50) did not present a publication date or date of the last update. Regarding the duration of protection offered by the vaccines, 46% (23/50) of the websites stated that they do not know, and another 40% (20/50) did not address it. Five side effects of the vaccinations were most frequently mentioned, namely, fever/chill (41/50, 82%), various injection site discomfort events (eg, swelling, redness, or pain; 39/50, 78%), headache (36/50, 72%), fatigue (33/50, 66%), and muscle/joint pain (31/50, 62%).
In general, the content quality of most of the evaluated websites was good, but HONcode certification should be considered, content should be written in a more readable manner, and a publication date or date of the last update should be presented.
The modern healthcare system is directly related to the development of digital health tools and solutions. Pills with digital sensors represent a highly innovative class of new pharmaceuticals. The ...aim of this work was to analyze the patent landscape and to systematize the main trends in patent protection of digital pills with ingestible sensors worldwide; accordingly, to identify the patenting leaders as well as the main prevailing areas of therapy for patent protection, and the future perspectives in the field. In July 2022, a search was conducted using Internet databases, such as the EPO, USPTO, FDA and the Lens database. The patent landscape analysis shows an increase in the number of patents related to digital pills with ingestible sensors for mobile clinical monitoring, smart drug delivery, and endoscopy diagnostics. The leaders in the number of patents issued are the United States, the European Patent Office, Canada, Australia, and China. The following main areas of patenting digital pills with ingestible sensors were identified: treatment in the field of mental health; HIV/AIDS; pain control; cardiovascular diseases; diabetes; gastroenterology (including hepatitis C); oncology; tuberculosis; and transplantology. The development of scientific and practical approaches towards the implementation of effective and safe digital pills will improve treatment outcomes, increase compliance, reduce hospital stays, provide mobile clinical monitoring, have a positive impact on treatment costs and will contribute to increased patient safety.
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