Health Care Sciences Research Articles

Introduction to A Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections In Acute-Care Hospitals: 2022 Updates.

Since the initial publication of A Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals in 2008, the prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has continued to be a national priority. Progress in healthcare epidemiology, infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, and implementation science research has led to improvements in our understanding of effective strategies for HAI prevention. Despite these advances, HAIs continue to affect ∼1 of every 31 hospitalized patients, leading to substantial morbidity, mortality, and excess healthcare expenditures, and persistent gaps remain between what is recommended and what is practiced.The widespread impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on HAI outcomes in acute-care hospitals has further highlighted the essential role of infection prevention programs and the critical importance of prioritizing efforts that can be sustained even in the face of resource requirements from COVID-19 and future infectious diseases crises.The Compendium: 2022 Updates document provides acute-care hospitals with up-to-date, practical expert guidance to assist in prioritizing and implementing HAI prevention efforts. It is the product of a highly collaborative effort led by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and The Joint Commission, with major contributions from representatives of organizations and societies with content expertise, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society (PIDS), the Society for Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), the Society for Hospital Medicine (SHM), the Surgical Infection Society (SIS), and others.

Recent advances in nanobiosensors for sustainable healthcare applications: A systematic literature review

The need for novel healthcare treatments and drugs has increased due to the expanding human population, detection of newer diseases, and looming pandemics. The development of nanotechnology offers a platform for cutting-edge in vivo non-invasive monitoring and point-of-care-testing (POCT) for rehabilitative disease detection and management. The advancement and uses of nanobiosensors are currently becoming more common in a variety of scientific fields, such as environmental monitoring, food safety, biomedical, clinical, and sustainable healthcare sciences, since the advent of nanotechnology. The identification and detection of biological patterns connected to any type of disease (communicable or not) have been made possible in recent years by several sensing techniques utilizing nanotechnology concerning biosensors and nanobiosensors. In this work, 2218 articles are drawn and screened from six digital databases out of which 17 were shortlisted for this review by using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) technique. As a result, this study uses a systematic methodology to review some recently developed extremely sensitive nanobiosensors, along with their biomedical, point-of-care diagnostics (POCD), or healthcare applications and their capabilities, particularly for the prediction of some fatal diseases based on a few of the most recent publications. The potential of nanobiosensors for medicinal, therapeutic, or other sustainable healthcare applications, notably for ailments diagnostics, is also recognized as a way forward in the manifestation of future trends.

Cell Patterning Technology on Polymethyl Methacrylate through Controlled Physicochemical and Biochemical Functionalization.

In recent years, innovative cell-based biosensing systems have been developed, showing impact in healthcare and life science research. Now, there is a need to design mass-production processes to enable their commercialization and reach society. However, current protocols for their fabrication employ materials that are not optimal for industrial production, and their preparation requires several chemical coating steps, resulting in cumbersome protocols. We have developed a simplified two-step method for generating controlled cell patterns on PMMA, a durable and transparent material frequently employed in the mass manufacturing of microfluidic devices. It involves air plasma and microcontact printing. This approach allows the formation of well-defined cell arrays on PMMA without the need for blocking agents to define the patterns. Patterns of various adherent cell types in dozens of individual cell cultures, allowing the regulation of cell-material and cell-cell interactions, were developed. These cell patterns were integrated into a microfluidic device, and their viability for more than 20 h under controlled flow conditions was demonstrated. This work demonstrated the potential to adapt polymeric cytophobic materials to simple fabrication protocols of cell-based microsystems, leveraging the possibilities for commercialization.

Recruiting the next generation of rural healthcare practitioners: the impact of an online mentoring program on career and educational goals in rural youth.

There is increasing recognition that encouraging and supporting rural youth to pursue healthcare careers could be a promising strategy for addressing shortages of rural healthcare practitioners. Although rural students in health science programs often return to their home communities to practice, they continue to be underrepresented in these programs. Geographic isolation and small community sizes create barriers to entry for rural students, including a lack of educational and outreach services and a smaller pool of role models with experience in pursuing health science careers. Online mentoring has the potential to overcome these barriers by connecting rural youth with experienced role models from outside their communities; therefore, we tested whether this type of intervention could be used to increase interest in and guide rural youth towards rural healthcare careers. From 2016 to 2020, our intervention, Rural eMentoring BC, matched 364 youth in rural British Columbia to near-peer mentors enrolled in health science programs. Through an online platform, dyads discussed career and educational options and pathways through a semistructured curriculum consisting of eight units. To determine the likelihood of mentees pursuing a career in rural health care after participating in the program, we deployed pre- and post-unit surveys that evaluated their interest in the following areas: healthcare careers, post-secondary education, working rurally, and finding allies. After completing the program, 209 mentees were invited to complete a program evaluation, which consisted of short-answer questions intended to capture their overall impressions of the program. After completing the career exploration unit, 63 students (out of the 103 who completed the unit) indicated that they were interested in healthcare careers, compared to 37 before. However, students' attitudes towards post-secondary education and finding allies did not change after completing those units, nor did their opinion of working rurally (although there was no unit dedicated to this topic). Encouragingly though, most already held positive opinions of these areas before entering the program. Of the 41 students who took our program evaluation, most viewed the program and their mentors favorably; discussion topics they found most useful included career exploration, learning life skills, and learning how to prepare for, and what to expect from, post-secondary education. This study suggests that online mentoring can direct rural youths' career interests toward, and provide a refreshing approach to imparting information about, healthcare professions. Although its longitudinal impacts need to be studied, the changes in attitudes and gains in knowledge observed while participating in this program put these students on the right track for eventually transitioning to health science programs. Arming rural youth with the knowledge and motivation to pursue healthcare careers through near-peer mentorship could be a unique strategy for increasing rural student representation in health science programs, and ultimately the number of rural healthcare professionals.

Mapping the scientific research on integrated care: a bibliometric and social network analysis.

Integrated care (IC) is the cornerstone of the sustainable development of the medical and health system. A thorough examination of the existing scientific literature on IC is essential for assessing the present state of knowledge on this subject. This review seeks to offer an overview of evidence-based knowledge, pinpoint existing knowledge gaps related to IC, and identify areas requiring further research. Data were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, from 2010 to 2020. Bibliometrics and social network analysis were used to explore and map the knowledge structure, research hotspots, development status, academic groups and future development trends of IC. A total of 7,501 articles were obtained. The number of publications on IC was rising in general. Healthcare science services were the most common topics. The United States contributed the highest number of articles. The level of collaboration between countries and between authors was found to be relatively low. The keywords were stratified into four clusters: IC, depression, integrative medicine, and primary health care. In recent years, complementary medicine has become a hotspot and will continue to be a focus. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of global research hotspots and trends in IC, and highlights the characteristics, challenges, and potential solutions of IC. To address resource fragmentation, collaboration difficulties, insufficient financial incentives, and poor information sharing, international collaboration needs to be strengthened to promote value co-creation and model innovation in IC. The contribution of this study lies in enhancing people's understanding of the current state of IC research, guiding scholars to discover new research perspectives, and providing valuable references for researchers and policymakers in designing and implementing effective IC strategies.

Transforming Healthcare and Life Sciences: Unleashing the Potential of the Metaverse

Transforming Healthcare and Life Sciences: Unleashing the Potential of the Metaverse

Educational Insights from Bibliometric Patterns: Examining Depression Research in Malaysia

Bibliometric analysis has emerged as an indispensable tool for interdisciplinary researchers seeking to comprehend the intricate terrain of scientific knowledge. In this present study, bibliometric analysis was employed to investigate depression-related studies in Malaysian publications. The bibliometric datasets were obtained from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, which were utilized in the analysis of the acquired data using SciendoPy and VOSviewer. The results indicate that Malaysia's remarkable increase in the number of papers has enabled it to rank among the top countries beyond Australia and the United Kingdom. The University of Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and Universiti Putra Malaysia played crucial roles and were found to be active institutions. Social sciences, healthcare sciences and services, as well as Geriatrics and Gerontology, were the primary fields related to this domain. Future research endeavors could focus on delving deeper into these topics and scrutinizing novel areas of interest in depression-related studies in Malaysia.

Does it work and can we do it? Hybrid research that answers both questions.

The perceived disconnect between research and clinic contexts may thus result in frontline clinicians and administrators questioning the approachability and applicability of science to their day-to-day work with patients and families in integrated care. Science grinds along so painstakingly slowly that even within the research community, some thought leaders have called for a moratorium on RCTs in favor of approaches that will yield more immediate public health impact (Kessler & Glasgow, 2011). The aim of this editorial is to describe a both/and research approach called "hybrid studies" and to discuss achievable strategies for doing this kind of work on the front lines. Sure, you can get a multimillion-dollar grant and do a formal research study, but real people on the frontlines can do this type of work too! Hybrid studies have the capacity to answer the two essential questions in healthcare science concurrently and advance the progress of science translation (usable science). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Bayesian record linkage with variables in one file.

In many healthcare and social science applications, information about units is dispersed across multiple data files. Linking records across files is necessary to estimate the associations of interest. Common record linkage algorithms only rely on similarities between linking variables that appear in all the files. Moreover, analysis of linked files often ignores errors that may arise from incorrect or missed links. Bayesian record linking methods allow for natural propagation of linkage error, by jointly sampling the linkage structure and the model parameters. We extend an existing Bayesian record linkage method to integrate associations between variables exclusive to each file being linked. We show analytically, and using simulations, that the proposed method can improve the linking process, and can result in accurate inferences. We apply the method to link Meals on Wheels recipients to Medicare enrollment records.

Expanding Interdisciplinarity: A Bibliometric Study of Medical Education Using the Medical Education Journal List-24 (MEJ-24).

Interdisciplinary research, which integrates input (e.g., data, techniques, theories) from two or more disciplines, is critical for solving wicked problems. Medical education research is assumed to be interdisciplinary. However, researchers have questioned this assumption. The present study, a conceptual replication, clarifies the nature of medical education interdisciplinarity by analyzing the citations of medical education journal articles. The authors retrieved the cited references of all articles in 22 medical education journals between 2001-2020 from Web of Science (WoS). We then identified the WoS classifications for the journals of each cited reference. We analyzed 31,283 articles referencing 723,683 publications. We identified 493,973 (68.3%) of those cited references in 6,618 journals representing 242 categories, which represents 94% of all WoS categories. Close to half of all citations were categorized as "education, scientific disciplines" and "healthcare sciences and services". Over the study period, the number of references consistently increased as did the representation of categories to include a diversity of topics such as business, management, and linguistics. Our study aligns with previous research, suggesting that medical education research could be described as inwardly focused. However, the observed growth of categories and their increasing diversity over time indicates that medical education displays increasing interdisciplinarity. Now visible, the field can raise awareness of and promote interdisciplinarity, if desired, by seeking and highlighting opportunities for future growth.

A new statistical methodology using the sine function: Control chart with an application to survival times data.

Statistical methodologies have a wider range of practical applications in every applied sector including education, reliability, management, hydrology, and healthcare sciences. Among the mentioned sectors, the implementation of statistical models in health sectors is very crucial. In the recent era, researchers have shown a deep interest in using the trigonometric function to develop new statistical methodologies. In this article, we propose a new statistical methodology using the trigonometric function, namely, a new trigonometric sine-G family of distribution. A subcase (special member) of the new trigonometric sine-G method called a new trigonometric sine-Weibull distribution is studied. The estimators of the new trigonometric sine-Weibull distribution are derived. A simulation study of the new trigonometric sine-Weibull distribution is also provided. The applicability of the new trigonometric sine-Weibull distribution is shown by considering a data set taken from the biomedical sector. Furthermore, we introduce an attribute control chart for the lifetime of an entity that follows the new trigonometric sine-Weibull distribution in terms of the number of failure items before a fixed time period is investigated. The performance of the suggested chart is investigated using the average run length. A comparative study and real example are given for the proposed control chart. Based on our study of the existing literature, we did not find any published work on the development of a control chart using new probability distributions that are developed based on the trigonometric function. This surprising gap is a key and interesting motivation of this research.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Plagiarism by Undergraduate Healthcare Science in Gauteng

Plagiarism is a growing concern in Healthcare Sciences in the current digital era. Plagiarism threatens institutions’ integrity and academic reputation; therefore, it is essential to understand all contributing factors to eradicate unethical practices effectively. The study aimed to establish the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of plagiarism among Healthcare Science students at a selected higher education institution in Gauteng. A cross-sectional study was used, with a total population of 803 second to fourth-year students from the School of Healthcare Sciences, and 83 students completing the survey. Ethical clearance and approval (617/2021) were obtained from the ethics and research committee of a selected higher educational institution in Gauteng. An adapted Likert scale self-reported questionnaire was sent via a Google form link to the teaching platform with the consent form embedded. The statistical Package for Social Science was used to analyse demographic data descriptively, and Spearman’s rho test determined the correlation between study variables. Most students were female (94.0%) and non-native English speakers (71.1%). The majority (83.1%) of the students reported understanding the instances of plagiarism; however, approximately one-third (36.1%) were unable to identify specific instances correctly. Just over half (56.6%) of the students felt self-plagiarism should not be punishable. The correlation between the knowledge of plagiarism and negative attitudes towards plagiarism was found to be statistically significant (p=0.009). The results demonstrated low practice of plagiarism, possibly due to a lack of self-awareness. Therefore, continuous in-depth education on plagiarism and improved policies should be fostered to promote the integrity of future healthcare professionals.

Organization of the work of the «Healthy Moscow» pavilions in order to conduct preventive examinations of the adult population in park areas, squares and recreation areas of the city of Moscow

In modern conditions of global threats caused by infectious risks, the importance of programs and preventive examinations of the working-age population is increasing, which make it possible to identify groups of people at increased risk in the formation of health disorders, and to obtain objective data on the dynamics of morbidity and mortality of the population, to conduct long-term monitoring. The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that it is based on a patient-centered approach that involves the individualization of the patient's diagnosis, professional counseling about risk factors and a healthy lifestyle, accompanying the patient until the completion of the examination, diagnosis and treatment. The organization of preventive examinations of the population within the framework of the Healthy Moscow program was the result of coordinated work and the realization of the professional potential of various services in the healthcare system, education, science and public administration. The successful experience of implementing the Healthy Moscow program can be scaled up to other cities and regions of Russia, which will contribute to the development of the country's healthcare system and improve the quality of life.

The state of quantum computing applications in health and medicine

Abstract Quantum computing hardware and software have made enormous strides over the last years1. Questions around quantum computing’s impact on research and society have changed from “if” to “when/how”. The 2020s have been described as the “quantum decade”, and the first production solutions that drive scientific and business value are expected to become available over the next years. Medicine, including fields in healthcare and life sciences, has seen a flurry of quantum-related activities and experiments in the last few years (although medicine and quantum theory have arguably been entangled ever since Schrödinger’s cat2). The initial focus was on biochemical and computational biology problems3,4,5,6,7,8; recently, however, clinical and medical quantum solutions have drawn increasing interest. The rapid emergence of quantum computing in health and medicine necessitates a mapping of the landscape. In this review, clinical and medical proof-of-concept quantum computing applications are outlined and put into perspective. These consist of over 40 experimental and theoretical studies from the last few years. The use case areas span genomics, clinical research and discovery, diagnostics, and treatments and interventions. Quantum machine learning (QML) in particular has rapidly evolved and shown to be competitive with classical benchmarks in recent medical research. Near-term QML algorithms, for instance, quantum support vector classifiers and quantum neural networks, have been trained with diverse clinical and real-world data sets. This includes studies in generating new molecular entities as drug candidates, diagnosing based on medical image classification, predicting patient persistence, forecasting treatment effectiveness, and tailoring radiotherapy. The use cases and the applied algorithms are summarized. In addition, this review provides an outlook on medicine in the quantum era. There has been much discussion about healthcare’s journey towards precision medicine and the quadruple aim (better health, lower costs, enhanced patient experiences, and improved healthcare practitioner work lives)9. While a range of technical and ethical challenges remain, quantum computing is poised to become a key enabler for advancing towards the holy grail: keeping people healthy through proactive medical care and guidance at the level of an individual.

Cell Electrospinning: Revolutionising Cell Scaffolding for Healthcare.

Electrospinning is a century-old technology, which has recently found its vast applicability to many areas of research and development and its utility in industry. In the context of the life and health sciences, electrospinning for many years has been explored as a unique approach to scaffolding, on which cells are manually or through automated means seeded with cells. Unfortunately, this approach has seen little being achieved, as the voids generated between fibers within a scaffold negate cell infiltration throughout the entire scaffold. This limitation is a bottleneck for electrospinning in its true applicability to the healthcare and medical sciences.

한국 바이오헬스 산업의 미국 수입거부 대응 방안 연구 : FDA 위반코드 분석을 중심으로

한국 바이오헬스 산업의 미국 수입거부 대응 방안 연구 : FDA 위반코드 분석을 중심으로

Types of Transaction Costs in Forms of Medical Care in Germany: Development of a Typology

Introduction: Transaction costs in forms of medical care is a new perspective in health science. Healthcare Management itself seems to get a new role of importance in these days. Objectives and research findings: In an increasingly competitive environment, cost optimisations need to be the focus of science and practice. Especially in the field of healthcare. Without the money of the insurances most people would not be able to get medical care in Germany. Core work concepts: The development of a convincing typology as a new approach in this field of expertise. Transaction costs play a big role in this context. Methodology: Developing a typology and defining types without losing sight of the specific features of forms of medical care is tried and within this the using of typology development. Outcome: The formation of three different informative types of transaction costs is achieved with this paper and it generates new areas for researchers additionally. Summary: Knowledge of the three types of transaction costs is helpful for theory and practice in the upcoming field of health care science

Investigating the Connections Between Delivery of Care, Reablement, Workload, and Organizational Factors in Home Care Services: Mixed Methods Study.

Home care is facing increasing demand due to an aging population. Several challenges have been identified in the provision of home care, such as the need for support and tailoring support to individual needs. Goal-oriented interventions, such as reablement, may provide a solution to some of these challenges. The reablement approach targets adaptation to disease and relearning of everyday life skills and has been found to improve health-related quality of life while reducing service use. The objective of this study is to characterize home care system variables (elements) and their relationships (connections) relevant to home care staff workload, home care user needs and satisfaction, and the reablement approach. This is to examine the effects of improvement and interventions, such as the person-centered reablement approach, on the delivery of home care services, workload, work-related stress, home care user experience, and other organizational factors. The main focus was on Swedish home care and tax-funded universal welfare systems. The study used a mixed methods approach where a causal loop diagram was developed grounded in participatory methods with academic health care science research experts in nursing, occupational therapy, aging, and the reablement approach. The approach was supplemented with theoretical models and the scientific literature. The developed model was verified by the same group of experts and empirical evidence. Finally, the model was analyzed qualitatively and through simulation methods. The final causal loop diagram included elements and connections across the categories: stress, home care staff, home care user, organization, social support network of the home care user, and societal level. The model was able to qualitatively describe observed intervention outcomes from the literature. The analysis suggested elements to target for improvement and the potential impact of relevant studied interventions. For example, the elements "workload" and "distress" were important determinants of home care staff health, provision, and quality of care. The developed model may be of value for informing hypothesis formulation, study design, and discourse within the context of improvement in home care. Further work will include a broader group of stakeholders to reduce the risk of bias. Translation into a quantitative model will be explored.

Novartis Oncology Spain: Agile innovation and the RWE cell

Healthcare and life science companies are transforming their business models from product development toward precision medicine. Vasant Narasimhan was appointed in 2018 as the new CEO of Novartis—a global pharma company. He champions a multi-faceted strategic intent: 1) transform the company from “selling pills” to investing heavily in discovering of new treatments that combine life sciences and digital technologies. In Spain, José Marcilla, the Director General of Novartis Oncology, pioneered an organizational transformation by developing (1) a cell-based innovation organization and process and (2) a new startup accelerator. This case explores both initiatives and their far-reaching consequences. The “Spanish experiment” helped to develop of digital services that reach the patient in a highly regulated environment. This duo of cases—Novartis Oncology Spain: Agile Innovation and The RWE (real wold evidence) Cell—gives students the opportunity to examine the motivations behind the transformation at Novartis, explore the implementation of its strategic intent, and ask what is the appropriate pace for such a dramatic change. The case is taught as a single class for decision-making regarding which cells and startups are suitable to be continued given the innovation horizons. By walking with students through these innovation horizons, the case enables decisions to be made about whether this pioneering Spanish program should be continued or not.

Innovative Data Mining Techniques for Healthcare and Social Sciences

Innovative Data Mining Techniques for Healthcare and Social Sciences