Medical Treatment Information Research Articles

N10 “I probably am being a naughty boy, but…” Exploring reasons for non-adherence to prescribed medication, as perceived by people living with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Qualitative Study

Abstract Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is treated with medications to induce and maintain remission. However, many people with IBD do not take treatments as prescribed. Identifying and understanding reasons behind medication adherence and non-adherence in IBD is critical. Methods In-depth, semi-structured interviews were audio or video-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Braun and Clarke’s (Braun & Clarke, 2006) principles of thematic data analysis were followed to analyse data. Results Twenty people living with IBD were purposively selected and interviewed. Four main themes were identified (Table1) with related sub-themes; 1) The Context within which adherence needs to happen 2) Battles throughout the IBD “journey” 3) Multiple medical treatment issues and 4) Knowledge, learning, understanding and experience of IBD as a condition and its treatment. From diagnosis and throughout their IBD “journey,” medication adherence in many participants was variable. Adherence was impacted by the context of healthcare received by individuals, their daily activities, physical and emotional well-being and relationships with others. Participants regularly described themselves as experiencing a battle using intense terms such as battling with their IBD, their healthcare professionals (HCPs) and/or their IBD medication. Treatment type (including drug category, for example steroids or immunosuppressants, associated risks and side effects), treatment effectiveness and requirements for taking it, all influenced adherence, as did an individual’s treatment values and beliefs. Gaining knowledge, developing understanding regarding medication and its necessity from the start of diagnosis was critical for adherence. This had strong potential to impact adherence positively and/or negatively, based upon what participants were told, when, and by whom. Yet, treatment information was frequently not offered by HCPs, leading individuals to self-educate and develop a personal understanding of their condition and medication. This, combined with the experiencing of living with IBD, influenced their adherence. Conclusion Medication adherence is a journey, affected by multiple determinants. Determinants may be patient-centred, influenced by HCPs and/or determined by an individual’s knowledge and experience level. Diagnosis is a critical stage where individuals require compassionate care from their personal networks and multidisciplinary HCPs. Clear medical treatment information should also be provided by HCPs, with self-education encouraged via trusted resources. To promote adherence and establish treatment routines, patients must feel fully informed, supported, confident and comfortable in their shared decision-making about treatment, that will suit their lifestyle. References -Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2), 77-101

What information do patients pay more attention to in online physician selection? Information needs model for online medical choice decision-making based on trust theory and fuzzy decision

BackgroundThe development of information technology has reshaped the information flow process in traditional medical activities, giving rise to eHealth. In the context of Internet medical treatment, the massive and heterogeneous information available complicates and challenges patients’ online medical choices. Understanding which indicators on Internet medical platforms should be prioritized by ordinary patients is crucial for effective online medical decision-making. ObjectiveTo address these challenges, this paper introduces an information needs model for online physician selection tailored to experts with different medical preferences. This model aims to provide the methodological support for constructing user profiles on eHealth platforms and for medical service providers. In addition, this study seeks to introduce the strategies used by experts in online physician selection to provide clear guidance and suggestions for ordinary patients making online medical choices. MethodThis paper uses the “Hao Daifu” eHealth platform as the research setting, and selects experts based on their eHealth literacy and online physician selection experience. It describes individual’s preferences in online physician selection using interpersonal trust theory. Furthermore, the paper examines the eHealth platform indicators that experts focus on during the online physician selection process. The importance of these indicators is evaluated using the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets decision-making method. ConclusionThis study presents a method for investigating the comprehensive information needs of patients’ online physician selection. The findings reveal that different patients prioritize different trust dimensions in the physician selection process. Patients mainly rely on hospital qualification indicators – such as grade, ownership, and type – when selecting hospitals. For evaluating doctors, they focus on doctor qualification indicators, represented by professional titles and doctor-patient interaction indicators, represented by efficacy satisfaction.

Shoulder Pain, Kinesiophobia, Emotional State and Muscle Strength in Breast Cancer Surgery Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women. The life expectancy of patients is increasing with advances in treatment. However, lymphovascular, musculoskeletal, and psychogenic complications are reported to be expected in the follow-up period after breast cancer surgery. Kinesiophobia is the behavior of avoiding movement for fear of increased pain. Research on the frequency and interrelationships of kinesiophobia and other complications in the follow-up period is limited. Aim: We aim to evaluate shoulder pain, kinesiophobia, emotional state and muscle strength in female patients who have undergone breast cancer surgery and are in the follow-up period and to examine the relationship between these factors. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 female patients who underwent unilateral breast cancer surgery and were using aromatase inhibitors were included in this cross-sectional descriptive study. Demographic data, details of the surgical procedure and medical treatment information were recorded from the patient files. Hand grip muscle strength was measured by hand dynamometer, the Beck Depression Scale assessed emotional state, and the Tampa Kinesiophobia Scale assessed fear of movement. A Beck Depression Scale score of 10 and above and a Tampa Kinesiophobia Scale of 37 and above were considered significant. Results: The mean age of 50 female patients was 59.31 ± 11.19 years. Sixty percent of the patients had undergone surgery on the right breast and 40% on the left breast. Shoulder pain (n:31) was present in 62%. There were statistically significant correlations between pain and the Tampa kinesiophobia scale and the Beck depression scale (p:0.042, p:0.038). Kinesiophobia was present in 74% of the patients, and 64% had moderate to severe depression. The mean of the Tampa Kinesiophobia scale was 42.86±8.81, and the mean of the Beck depression scale was 15.19±10.98. When the relationship between kinesiophobia and depression was evaluated, a statistically positive significant relationship was found between them (p=0.005, r=0.410). The hand grip strength was 22.16±5.00 kg on the right and 18.22±5.10 kg on the left in patients who underwent left-sided breast cancer surgery. A significant difference was found in the left- and right-hand grip strength of those who underwent left-sided surgery for breast cancer (p

DCSS-UNet: UNet based on State Space Model for Polyp Segmentation

Early and accurate segmentation of medical images can provide valuable information for medical treatment. In recent years, the automatic and accurate segmentation of polyps in colonoscopy images has received extensive attention from the research community of artificial intelligence and computer vision. Many researchers have conducted in-depth research on models based on CNN and Transformer. However, CNN have limited ability to model remote dependencies, which makes it challenging to fully utilize semantic information in images. On the other hand, the complexity of the secondary computation poses a challenge to the transformer. Recently, state-space models (SSMS), such as Mamba, have been recognized as a promising approach. They not only show superior performance in remote interaction, but also maintain linear computational complexity. Inspired by Mamba, we propose DCSS-UNet, where we utilize visual state space (VSS) blocks in VMamba to capture a wide range of contextual information. In the Skip connection phase, we propose Skip Connects Feature Attention modules(SFA) to better communicate information from the encoder. In the decoder stage, we innovatively combined the Temporal Fusion Attention Module(TFAM) to effectively fuse the feature information. In addition, we introduced a custom Loss calculation method, Tversky Loss, for the model to achieve faster convergence and improve segmentation along polyp boundaries. Our model was trained on the Kvasir-SEG and CVC-ClinicDB datasets, and validated on datasets Kvasir-SEG, CVC-ColonDB, CVC-300, and ETIS. The results show that the model achieves good segmentation accuracy and generalization performance with a low number of parameters. We are 6.1% ahead in the Kavirs-SEG dataset and 3.1% ahead in the CVC-ClinicDB dataset compared to VM-UNet.

Examining the effects of social assistance on suicide-related behaviour among impoverished older adults in Korea using a nationwide cohort study from 2010–2019

Suicide rates among older adults in Korea are one of the highest in the world. Although prior research found that poverty is associated with suicide mortality among older adults in Korea, it is unknown whether being a recipient of social assistance may reduce suicide risk among older adults living in poverty. We examined the impact of the public assistance program on suicide-related behaviour (SRB). Data from a nationwide cohort in the Korean National Health Insurance Database, including demographic and medical treatment information, linked to the vital statistics for 2010–19 was used. The entire Korean population born before 1951 was included (n = 7,889,086). Flexible parametric survival model was performed to assess whether the risk of SRB hospitalisation and death differed across a) different levels of socioeconomic status, and b) social assistance status among the poor, using gender-stratified models. Older age, chronic disease, poverty, and being out of the labour market were associated with higher SRB hospitalisation and death for both genders. Among those living in poverty, social assistance recipients had lower rates for SRB death and hospitalisation, compared to the low-income non-recipients. Men who were non-recipients had 0.21 higher hazards ratio (95%CI 0.20 to 0.22) for SRB deaths compared to recipients, and the difference was 0.11 (95%CI 0.10 to 0.11) in women, with similar patterns for SRB hospitalizations. Poverty was associated with higher SRB death and hospitalisation among older adults in Korea. Social assistance targeting the older population may help reduce SRB.

A lightweight chaos-based encryption scheme for IoT healthcare systems

The Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed the healthcare industry by enabling new services and capabilities through connected devices and sensors. These devices, such as smartwatches and fitness tracker bands, can monitor various health metrics such as heart rate, blood pressure, and sleep quality. However, the security of these systems is a critical concern, as the unauthorized disclosure or access of healthcare information could have serious consequences for patients. This information can include personal and medical data, diagnostic and treatment information, as well as private locations. Lightweight encryption schemes are commonly used in IoT systems to protect this sensitive data. These schemes are designed to be fast and efficient, allowing them to encrypt and decrypt data in real-time, which is important for systems with limited computing power or storage capacity. In the last decade, there has been a significant increase in research and development in chaos cryptography. Due to chaotic systems’ unpredictable and sensitive nature, they can provide robust cryptographic schemes for data transmission between embedded devices. This makes it difficult for attackers to intercept and manipulate the data. Therefore, this work proposes a chaos-based lightweight encryption scheme for IoT healthcare systems with a primary application in the encryption of wearable devices. The proposed encryption scheme is based on a 2D 4-scroll chaotic attractor system, uniquely characterized for this work. The scheme is tested on an ARM-based microcontroller for encrypting PPG (Photoplethysmogram) biosignal data. The obtained results show that the chaos-based lightweight encryption scheme effectively improves the security of healthcare IoT systems while maintaining the real-time flow of data.

Analysis of clinical diagnostic characteristics of 26131 patients with pneumoconiosis in Hunan Province

Objective: To analyze the clinical diagnostic characteristics of pneumoconiosis patients of migrant workers in Hunan Province, and to provide scientific basis for the prevention and treatment of pneumoconiosis. Methods: In February 2022, through the Hunan Provincial Medical Treatment and Assistance Information Platform for Pneumoconiosis Migrant Workers, the cases of irresponsible subjects with pneumoconiosis that were first diagnosed clinically in Hunan Province from January 2017 to December 2021 were collected, and analyzed their gender, age, length of service, types of pneumoconiosis, stages of pneumoconiosis, and comorbidities. Results: From January 2017 to December 2021, there were a total of 26131 cases of irresponsible pneumoconiosis patients diagnosed clinically in Hunan Province, with males accounting for 99.8% (26072 cases) and an average age of (60.66±8.04) years old. Among the 26131 patients, coal workers' pneumoconiosis and silicosis were the main causes, with 16816 and 9078 cases respectively, accounting for 99.1% of the diagnosed cases. There were 8640 cases (33.1%) of stageⅠpneumoconiosis, 6601 cases (25.2%) of stage Ⅱ pneumoconiosis, and 10890 cases (41.7%) of stage Ⅲ pneumoconiosis. 2051 patients experienced complications. The average age of exposure to dust of 26131 patients was (17.81±9.69) years, and the age of exposure to dust in silicosis patients was (14.60±9.62) years. The working age of coal worker's pneumoconiosis was (19.60±9.26) years. Compared with coal workers' pneumoconiosis patients, silicosis patients had a shorter working time exposed to dust, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05) . Conclusion: Coal workers' pneumoconiosis and silicosis are mainly diagnosed for the first time in migrant workers' pneumoconiosis patients in Hunan Province. Pneumoconiosis patients should be diagnosed in time, which is conducive to treatment and rehabilitation.

Perspectives on medication safety from vulnerable older migrants and their relatives-A qualitative explorative study.

Little is known about the combined effect of several risk factors occurring simultaneously, and the perspectives of patients with language barriers or dementia are lacking because these patients are often excluded as research participants. This study aimed at investigating medication safety among older migrants with cognitive disorders who use five or more medications daily from the perspective of older patients and their relatives. Eight semi-structured interviews with patients and relatives were conducted in their homes. The study adopted an inductive hermeneutic phenomenological approach and used both "Analyzing the present" and "Systematic text condensation" as inspiration for the analysis. Three main themes were identified: (i) potential medication safety and threats, (ii) communication and missing medication information and (iii) everyday life with medication. Threats to medication safety included medication perceptions, health perceptions, and cognitive impairment of the patient as well as miscommunication among departments, wrong diagnosis and medication, and unlocked medication cabinets. However, most families expressed having no problems concerning medication, which could be a result of limited engagement of the patient and relatives in the medical treatment and limited medication information provided to the families by healthcare professionals.

Telehealth Intervention of Cardiovascular Diseases Patients: A Quantitative Study

Telehealth provides medical treatment, patient education, self-care, and health information using digital communication technology. Telehealth involves remote data exchange between a patient and a healthcare provider. Telehealth may enhance health care in underdeveloped countries. This research examines how Pakistani physicians and nurses see telemedicine for cardiovascular disease therapy. We employed non-probability sampling to pick respondents for this quantitative investigation. In this research, 30 individuals completed a well-designed questionnaire. 63 percent were male, 37 percent female. The researchers concluded that telemedicine intervention is useful for cardiovascular disease and possibly many other illnesses and ailments. These findings did not prove it was always useful. International NGOs are helping telehealth expand. These organisations help poor rural Pakistanis improve their health. Telehealth and personal health information has spread via electronic and social media. Telehealth helps battle cardiovascular problems by connecting patients in urban and rural Pakistan to competent hospitals and institutes. Telehealth may reduce patient wait times. Telehealth platform users who continuously address their particular health challenges may outperform the overall population, according to the research. Telehealt make treatment easier and more accessible for patients. There aren't enough physicians, nurses, hospital beds, specialists, or appointments on patients' chosen

DATA SECURITY IN HEALTHCARE USING IOT

While the Internet of Things (IoT) has been instrumental in healthcare data transmission, it also presents vulnerabilities and security risks to patients’ personalized health information for remote medical treatment. Currently most published security solutions available for healthcare data don't seem to be focused on data flow all the way from IoT sensor devices placed on a patient’s body through network routers to doctor’s offices. In this project, the IoT network facilitates healthcare data transmission for remote medical treatment, explored security risks related to unsecured data transmission, especially between IoT sensor devices and network routers, then proposed an encrypted security solution initiated at IoT sensor devices. Our proposed solution provides a cryptography algorithm embedded into the sensor device such that packets generated with patient’s health data are encrypted right at the sensor device before being transmitted. The proof of concept has been verified employing a lab setup with two level encryption at the IoT sensor level and two level decryption at the receiving end at the doctor’s office. Test results are promising for an end to-end security solution of healthcare data transmission in IoT. This project also provides further research avenues on IoT sensor driven security.

Real-World Efficacy of Bevacizumab in Patients With Recurrent Epithelial Ovarian Cancer.

BackgroundBevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy prolonged the progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) in large-scale randomized controlled trials. However, real-world data for the use of bevacizumab in Asian patients with EOC is lacking. This study investigated the efficacy of adding bevacizumab to chemotherapy and compared it with that of chemotherapy alone in patients with recurrent EOC using real-world data from an Asian population.MethodWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from a tertiary medical center in central Taiwan. Patients who had EOC with first relapse between 2011 and 2019 were enrolled. Patients’ medical histories, medication treatment, and relevant information were collected. The outcomes were PFS and overall survival (OS). The Kaplan-Meier plot was used to generate a survival curve for OS and PFS. Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to determine the associations of Bevacizumab treatment with OS and PFS with adjustment of relevant variables. Subgroup analyses were conducted to determine if there was a significant variation in the aforementioned associations.ResultsAfter a median follow-up of 23 months, 67% of patients in the Bevacizumab group and 81% of patients in the non-Bevacizumab group had disease progression or death. There was no significant between-group difference in OS (p = 0.475). The median duration of PFS was 18.9 and 9.6 months, respectively, favoring those who were treated with Bevacizumab. After multivariate adjustment, treatment with Bevacizumab was associated with a lower risk of disease progression (hazard ratio 0.33, 95% CI 0.13-0.85, p = 0.021). The improvement in PFS was consistent in the subgroups of different histological types, different disease stages at diagnosis, different treatment-free intervals, those undergoing or not undergoing secondary cytoreductive surgery, diverse chemotherapy regimens.ConclusionOur findings provided crucial insights into the efficacy of bevacizumab for the treatment of recurrent EOC in the real-world setting.

Differences or Disorders of sex development in Boys: impact on fertility

Differences or disorders of sex development (DSD) include various congenital conditions in which chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex development is atypical. The incidence varies according to the category of DSD but the total incidence is high if hypospadias and undescended testes are included. Fertility prospects may be a concern for DSD patients and their parents. With the development of modern medical technologies and treatment opportunities, fertility diagnostics, information, and treatment have changed. Assisted reproductive technology has developed during the past decades and has become more available with an improving success rate. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection and testicular sperm retrieval, have further improved the possibilities for men with DSD to become biological parents. Some studies have determined the presence of germ cells in the gonads of patients with DSD suggesting that the potential for fertility may be higher than previously thought. However, fertility outcomes among individuals with DSD have not been fully investigated. Moreover, previous study showed that information on fertility problems and treatment possibilities given to patients with DSD needs to be improved. The use of registries to study fertility outcomes is essential for a better knowledge of fertility in patients with these rare conditions.

A blockchain-based keyword search scheme with dual authorization for electronic health record sharing

Electronic health record is an electronic file that records people’s medical treatment and physical examination information in an all-around way which is an important branch of building a smart medical system. The sharing of electronic health records not only helps people use medical resources anytime and anywhere to deal with tricky physical conditions but also provides valuable and true reference materials for medical practitioners in related research. However, the current electronic health record sharing schemes have the problems of electronic health record data leakage, access authorization mechanism incomplete, inflexible operation of electronic health record data, low search efficiency, and untrustworthy cloud server provider. To solve these challenging problems, we propose a new blockchain-based keyword search scheme with dual authorization for electronic health record sharing. The certificateless cryptosystem avoids certificate management and key escrow. The construction of the authorization matrix realizes the dual authorization of the identities of users and the corresponding searchable departments. Also, the matrix can manage the access rights of users. The signal value of the ciphertext index can realize the authority management of ciphertext index. The ciphertext MAC verification code stored in the blockchain can verify the legality of ciphertext, and the smart contract is used to ensure fair transactions. Therefore, our scheme is more suitable for sharing confidential and sensitive electronic health records. The security proof concludes that the proposed scheme is indistinguishability under the keyword guessing attack. Besides, the result of performance analysis and comparison simulations show that the proposed scheme has higher performance than some related schemes.

Interpretation of Rehabilitation Medicine Specialty Indicators in National Report on the Services， Quality and Safety in Medical Care System

Since 2016, Peking University Third hospital has been entrusted by the National Health Commission to undertake the work of National Center for Healthcare Quality Management in Rehabilitation Medicine. For five consecutive years, it has compiled the National Report on the Services, Quality and Safety in Medical Care System (the section of rehabilitation medicine) (hereinafter referred to as the report), making up the gap in relevant data of rehabilitation medicine in China. This paper aims to interpret the indicators extracted and analyzed in the report, in order to continuously improve the integrity rate and accuracy rate of rehabilitation medical service and quality and safety investigation, and promote the continuous improvement of the quality of rehabilitation medical care in China. The index is composed of two kinds of indexes: quality control index and resource consumption index. The quality control index includes structure index, process quality index and result quality index, and consists of 16 major items and 149 sub-items. The report is carried out by the National Clinical Improvement System (NCIS), and the quality, accuracy and completeness of the data report will be used as the reference for hospital evaluation and key specialty setting. In NCIS indicators, data collection can be divided into the following four forms: automatic extraction of home page, extraction of medical records, manual reading of medical records and provision of relevant departments. This paper focuses on the early rehabilitation intervention, ADL improvement rate, complications and other key indicators, structural indicators and other process quality indicators. In recent years, National Center for Healthcare Quality Management in Rehabilitation Medicine has found that whether the rehabilitation medicine department has established an information system is an important factor determining the accuracy and convenience of quality control data extraction. Rehabilitation medical treatment and quality control information system is changing from information to intelligent, information management will combine with artificial intelligence natural language analysis and other emerging technologies, it can simplify and accurately the extraction process of quality control data, constantly improve the efficiency of rehabilitation medical quality control.

The Lived Experiences of Parents Having a Child With a Brain Tumor During the Shared Decision-Making Process of Treatment.

A pediatric brain tumor requires multimodal therapy that can have serious effects on the ill child that can involve shared decision-making (SDM). Understanding this experience of SDM from the parents' point of view is understudied. The aim of this study was to explore the nature of lived experiences of parents during the SDM process when their child is being treated for a brain tumor. This was a descriptive phenomenology study using in-depth interviews with parents who had a child with a brain tumor. Six major themes emerged: (1) early confusion associated with medical decision-making, (2) determining treatment via decision-making, (3) faith strengthening the direction of decision-making, (4) constructing consensus based on partnership, (5) adjusting lifestyle to coexist with the illness, and (6) positive energy and abundant support are able to open a window to the soul. Shared decision-making is a process, and the experiences start with parental confusion about medical treatment. The process involves building a trusting relationship with health professionals that includes sharing medical treatment information and is eventually associated with normalizing the life of both the child and the rest of the family. Trusting relationships and partnership are vital for SDM to be successful. It is essential during the SDM process to strengthen parental resilience by supplying sufficient information and to support parental efforts to normalize their family life.

An Ageing Population Creates New Challenges Around Consent to Medical Treatment.

Obtaining consent for medical treatment in older adults raises a number of complex challenges. Despite being required by ethics and the law, consent for medical treatment is not always validly sought in this population. The dynamic nature of capacity, particularly in individuals who have dementia or other cognitive impairments, adds complexity to obtaining consent. Further challenges arise in ensuring that older people comprehend the medical treatment information provided and that consent is not vitiated by coercion or undue influence. Existing mechanisms to address issues surrounding consent for older adults only address incapacity and raise further challenges. As the ageing population increases, these issues are likely to become more profound, thus action is required to address these challenges. Raising awareness, more education, engaging with people with dementia, and conducting further research would assist in beginning to overcome these challenges.

Nursing staff's assessments of medication management process in the psychiatric and operative domains: A cross-sectional study after introduction of an electronic medication chart.

To describe nursing staff's assessments of medication management process in the psychiatric and operative domains after introduction of an electronic medication chart. The medication management process includes all structures and practices within the organisation that guide and support medication administration and related procedures. A cross-sectional survey. A Finnish version of the Medication Administration System - Nurses Assessment of Satisfaction (modified MAS-NAS) paper-based questionnaire was sent to all nursing staff (N=855) working in operative (n=498) and psychiatric (n=357) domains in one central hospital. Data were analysed using statistical methods. In total, 324 nursing staff members participated. More than half agreed that medication management is efficient (64%), safe for patients (76%), and that the current medication administration system provides the necessary medical treatment information (e.g. prescriptions by physicians, medication data) (64%). Respondents' overall satisfaction with medication management process was slightly above average on a scale from 1 to 10 (mean=6.2; SD=1.8; median=7, range 2-9). Respondents who used electronic medication chart reported higher overall satisfaction with medication management process (median=7, mean=6.1, SD=1.8 and range 2-9) than those not using it (median=6.5, mean=6.3, SD=1.6 and range 2-9). No statistically significant difference was found (U=8552.000, p=0.33). This study revealed several problems in the medication management process. The results can be used in developing the medication management process. Electronic medication chart should be used and developed further in terms of efficacy, safety and access. One year after the electronic medication chart was introduced, only half of the respondents had used it. That is why implementation of electronic systems or technological applications should be carefully considered as a whole.

Understanding the multi-dimensional nature of informational language in health care interactions

AbstractMuch of the corpus-based research on medical discourse has focused on “involved” language (e.g., 1st person pronouns, discourse markers) and its importance in creating patient rapport (Adolphs, Brown, Carter, Crawford, &amp; Sahota, 2004;Skelton &amp; Hobbes, 1999;Staples, 2016). However, in the broader literature on health care interactions, providers’ information provision is equally important in patient-centered care (Ong, de Haes, Joos, &amp; Lammes, 1995). This paper investigates the ways in which providers and patients use informational language in medical discourse using multidimensional analysis (MDA;Biber, 1988). We first examine three corpora of medical interactions and then focus a new MDA on one type of interaction that requires more informational language use: discussions of disease and treatment options. The analysis revealed multifaceted aspects of information provision that differ depending on the nature of the information, including providers’ procedural information for medical treatment and impersonal information provision for explaining the disease.

IoT Sensor Initiated Healthcare Data Security

While the Internet of Things (IoT) has been instrumental in healthcare data transmission, it also presents vulnerabilities and security risks to patients’ personalized health information for remote medical treatment. Currently most published security solutions available for healthcare data are not focused on data flow all the way from IoT sensor devices placed on a patient’s body through network routers to doctor’s offices. In this paper, we studied how the IoT network facilitates healthcare data transmission for remote medical treatment, explored security risks associated with unsecured data transmission, especially between IoT sensor devices and network routers, and then proposed an encrypted security solution initiated at IoT sensor devices. Our proposed solution provides a cryptography algorithm embedded into the sensor device such that the packets generated with patient’s health data are encrypted right at the sensor device before being transmitted. The proof of concept has been verified using a lab setup with two level encryption at the IoT sensor level and two level decryption at the receiving end at the doctor’s office. Test results are promising for an end-to-end security solution of healthcare data transmission in IoT. This paper also opens up further research avenues on IoT sensor driven security.

The effect of medical and psychotherapeutic treatment models for schizophrenia on stigma and recovery expectations

It is common practice to inform patients about causes and treatment models when starting psychiatric treatment or psychotherapy for schizophrenia. However, previous research indicates that focusing on etiological models increases stigmatizing beliefs. This raises the question of whether contemporary, medical or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based treatment models share this negative side effect. This experiment tested whether providing information about medical vs. CBT-based vs. combined treatment models affects stigmatizing attitudes towards schizophrenia and the expected efficacy of these treatments. Participants received acase vignette of aperson with schizophrenia including either: (1)no treatment details, or adescription of treatment with (2)medication, (3)CBT, or (4)medication and CBT. Next, stigmatizing attitudes (stereotypes, affective reactions, and desired social distance) were assessed and participants rated the perceived effectiveness of different treatment methods. No treatment model showed an effect on stigmatizing attitudes. Medical and CBT treatment information (alone or in combination) had apositive effect on subjective efficacy ratings for the respective treatment. There appear to be no negative side effects of (biogenetic) models when presented in acontext emphasizing recovery. Moreover, medication and CBT treatment information showed additive positive effects on the rating of treatment strategies. Acombined treatment model integrating various evidence-based methods appears to be most useful in clinical practice.