Food Environments Near Home and School Related to Consumption of Soda and Fast Food

Outlines how retail food environments affect adolescents' consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food, including county-by-county variations. Discusses implications for health outcomes and policy recommendations improve food environments

Barriers to the adoption of health information technology

Information Technology (IT) is successfully applied in a diverse range of fields. Though, the field of Medical Informatics is more than three decades old, it shows a very slow progress compared to many other fields in which the application of IT is growing rapidly. The spending on IT in health care is shooting up but the road to successful use of IT in health care has not been easy. This paper discusses about the barriers to the successful adoption of information technology in clinical environments and outlines the different approaches used by various countries and organisations to tackle the issues successfully. Investing financial and other resources to overcome the barriers for successful adoption of HIT is highly important to realise the dream of a future healthcare system with each customer having secure, private Electronic Health Record (EHR) that is available whenever and wherever needed, enabling the highest degree of coordinated medical care based on the latest medical knowledge and evidence. Arguably, the paper reviews barriers to HIT from organisations’ alignment in respect to the leadership; with their stated values when accepting or willingness to consider the HIT as a determinant factor on their decision-making processes. However, the review concludes that there are many aspects of the organisational accountability and readiness to agree to the technology implementation

BCAS: A Web-enabled and GIS-based Decision Support System for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Cancer

For decades, geographical variations in cancer rates have been observed but the precise determinants of such geographic differences in breast cancer development are unclear. Various statistical models have been proposed. Applications of these models, however, require that the data be assembled from a variety of sources, converted into the statistical models’ parameters and delivered effectively to researchers and policy makers. A web-enabled and GIS-based system can be developed to provide the needed functionality. This article overviews the conceptual web-enabled and GIS-based system (BCAS), illustrates the system’s use in diagnosing and treating breast cancer and examines the potential benefits and implications for breast cancer research and practice

Complex Care Management Program Overview - Technology

This report provides an overview of technology based complex care management programs, including:Cook County Health and Hospitals System - Computer Assisted Quality of Life and Symptom Assessment of Complex PatientsUniversity of Missouri - TigerPlaceWenatchee Valley Medical Center - Health Buddy -- Patient Telemonitoring Progra

A Decision Technology System To Advance the Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Cancer

Geographical variations in cancer rates have been observed for decades. Described spatial patterns and trends have provided clues for generating hypotheses about the etiology of cancer. For breast cancer, investigators have demonstrated that some variation can be explained by differences in the population distribution of known breast cancer risk factors such as menstrual and reproductive variables (Laden, Spiegelman, and Neas, 1997; Robbins, Bescianini, and Kelsey, 1997; Sturgeon, Schairer, and Gail, 1995). However, regional patterns also may reflect the effects of Workshop on Hormones, Hormone Metabolism, Environment, and Breast Cancer (1995): (a) environmental hazards (such as air and water pollution), (b) demographics and the lifestyle of a mobile population, (c) subgroup susceptibility, (d) changes and advances in medical practice and healthcare management, and (e) other factors. To accurately measure breast cancer risk in individuals and population groups, it is necessary to singly and jointly assess the association between such risk and the hypothesized factors. Various statistical models will be needed to determine the potential relationships between breast cancer development and estimated exposures to environmental contamination. To apply the models, data must be assembled from a variety of sources, converted into the statistical models’ parameters, and delivered effectively to researchers and policy makers. A Web-enabled decision technology system can be developed to provide the needed functionality. This chapter will present a conceptual architecture for such a decision technology system. First, there will be a brief overview of a typical geographical analysis. Next, the chapter will present the conceptual Web-based decision technology system and illustrate how the system can assist users in diagnosing and treating breast cancer. The chapter will conclude with an examination of the potential benefits from system use and the implications for breast cancer research and practice

EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds

This agency portal provides background information on habitats from streams and rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries to rocky coasts, sandy beaches, coral reefs and ocean environments, their importance, monitoring and assessment programs, regulations and protection. Also features databases and mapping links, publications, kids activities and teacher resources on water and aquatic environments, project grants and training opportunities. Posts government announcements and policy reports and links to watershed-related projects by partnership agencies and organizations. Educational levels: Middle school, High school

Monitoring sound levels and soundscape quality in the living rooms of nursing homes : a case study in Flanders (Belgium)

Recently there has been an increasing interest in the acoustic environment and its perceptual counterpart (i.e., the soundscape) of care facilities and their potential to affect the experience of residents with dementia. There is evidence that too loud sounds or poor soundscape quality more generally can affect negatively the quality of life of people with dementia and increase agitation. The AcustiCare project aims to use the soundscape approach to enhance the Quality of Life (QoL) of residents and to reduce Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD), as well as improving the everyday experience of nursing homes for both residents and staff members. In order to gain further insights into the sound environments of such facilities, sound level monitoring and soundscape data collection campaigns were conducted in the living rooms of five nursing homes in Flanders. Results showed that sound levels (dB) and loudness levels (sone) did not vary significantly between days of the week, but they did so between moments of the day and between living rooms. From the perceptual point of view, several soundscape attributes and the perceived prominence of different sound source types varied significantly between the living rooms investigated, and a positive correlation was found between sound levels and the number of persons present in the living rooms. These findings claim for further attention on the potential role of the sound domain in nursing homes, which should promote (and not only permit) better living and working conditions for residents and staff members of nursing homes

Internet of robotic things : converging sensing/actuating, hypoconnectivity, artificial intelligence and IoT Platforms

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is evolving rapidly and influencing newdevelopments in various application domains, such as the Internet of MobileThings (IoMT), Autonomous Internet of Things (A-IoT), Autonomous Systemof Things (ASoT), Internet of Autonomous Things (IoAT), Internetof Things Clouds (IoT-C) and the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) etc.that are progressing/advancing by using IoT technology. The IoT influencerepresents new development and deployment challenges in different areassuch as seamless platform integration, context based cognitive network integration,new mobile sensor/actuator network paradigms, things identification(addressing, naming in IoT) and dynamic things discoverability and manyothers. The IoRT represents new convergence challenges and their need to be addressed, in one side the programmability and the communication ofmultiple heterogeneous mobile/autonomous/robotic things for cooperating,their coordination, configuration, exchange of information, security, safetyand protection. Developments in IoT heterogeneous parallel processing/communication and dynamic systems based on parallelism and concurrencyrequire new ideas for integrating the intelligent “devices”, collaborativerobots (COBOTS), into IoT applications. Dynamic maintainability, selfhealing,self-repair of resources, changing resource state, (re-) configurationand context based IoT systems for service implementation and integrationwith IoT network service composition are of paramount importance whennew “cognitive devices” are becoming active participants in IoT applications.This chapter aims to be an overview of the IoRT concept, technologies,architectures and applications and to provide a comprehensive coverage offuture challenges, developments and applications