Evaluation of the Early Impact of COVID-19 on Physiotherapy Clinical Placement Learning Models and Client Case-Mix

Clinical placements are fundamental to entry-level physiotherapy education and provide an opportunity for students to translate theory into practice within authentic clinical environments. Student success during clinical placement is a core requirement of physiotherapy programs and a critical component of the pathway to graduation, registration, and then employment. The registration of a physiotherapist confirms that as a student, they have met the profession’s rigorous accreditation requirements. COVID-19 has significantly disrupted physiotherapy clinical placements across Australia, with many placements postponed or cancelled in the early public health response. These placement disruptions may preclude students from demonstrating mandatory pre-registration accreditation requirements, ultimately reducing the number of eligible new-graduate physiotherapists. Creating sustainable clinical placements whilst upholding the professional standard of entry level graduates during the pandemic, calls for innovative solutions to monitor student placement experiences. A Clinical Portfolio was implemented to improve monitoring processes and enable dynamic responses to potentially altered student learning experiences as COVID-19 public health measures evolved. In doing so, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on physiotherapy student placements between May and June 2020 through examining client case-mix, demographics and learning model documented in each student’s Clinical Portfolio. These data sets allowed for comparison of learning model and case-mix during the pandemic with previous literature monitoring typical physiotherapy clinical placement experience, and providing support for ensuring the registration of the cohort impacted. 

Impact of Literacy on Obesity and Hypertension: A Quality Improvement Project

Social determinants of health (SDoH) are defined as factors, including things such as food security, housing, literacy, finances, and work and school environments, that affect health risks and outcomes (About Social, 2021). Healthcare disparities are often affected by one’s social determinants. National data shows low-income populations present with considerable unmet needs, including food, housing, clothing, and quality health care. Closing the health disparities gap has long been the focus of healthcare organizations across the board. The care coordination model (CCM) enables organizations to improve care through collaboration. CCM looks at care coordination from the perspective of a patient-centered medical home. One aspect of the model is providing patient support through education, helping patients with barriers to care, and difficulties they may encounter. Communities and healthcare organizations can improve healthcare disparities caused by SDoH, improving patient outcomes and their quality of life through the use of the CCM. Effectively educating patients on recognizing how SDoH affect their health and by providing resources to mediate their SDoH can empower patients to manage their health care and outcomes

Quantifying Quality of Life

Describes technological methods and tools for objective and quantitative assessment of QoL Appraises technology-enabled methods for incorporating QoL measurements in medicine Highlights the success factors for adoption and scaling of technology-enabled methods This open access book presents the rise of technology-enabled methods and tools for objective, quantitative assessment of Quality of Life (QoL), while following the WHOQOL model. It is an in-depth resource describing and examining state-of-the-art, minimally obtrusive, ubiquitous technologies. Highlighting the required factors for adoption and scaling of technology-enabled methods and tools for QoL assessment, it also describes how these technologies can be leveraged for behavior change, disease prevention, health management and long-term QoL enhancement in populations at large. Quantifying Quality of Life: Incorporating Daily Life into Medicine fills a gap in the field of QoL by providing assessment methods, techniques and tools. These assessments differ from the current methods that are now mostly infrequent, subjective, qualitative, memory-based, context-poor and sparse. Therefore, it is an ideal resource for physicians, physicians in training, software and hardware developers, computer scientists, data scientists, behavioural scientists, entrepreneurs, healthcare leaders and administrators who are seeking an up-to-date resource on this subject

Quantifying Quality of Life

Describes technological methods and tools for objective and quantitative assessment of QoL Appraises technology-enabled methods for incorporating QoL measurements in medicine Highlights the success factors for adoption and scaling of technology-enabled methods This open access book presents the rise of technology-enabled methods and tools for objective, quantitative assessment of Quality of Life (QoL), while following the WHOQOL model. It is an in-depth resource describing and examining state-of-the-art, minimally obtrusive, ubiquitous technologies. Highlighting the required factors for adoption and scaling of technology-enabled methods and tools for QoL assessment, it also describes how these technologies can be leveraged for behavior change, disease prevention, health management and long-term QoL enhancement in populations at large. Quantifying Quality of Life: Incorporating Daily Life into Medicine fills a gap in the field of QoL by providing assessment methods, techniques and tools. These assessments differ from the current methods that are now mostly infrequent, subjective, qualitative, memory-based, context-poor and sparse. Therefore, it is an ideal resource for physicians, physicians in training, software and hardware developers, computer scientists, data scientists, behavioural scientists, entrepreneurs, healthcare leaders and administrators who are seeking an up-to-date resource on this subject

Medical Informatics and Data Analysis

During recent years, the use of advanced data analysis methods has increased in clinical and epidemiological research. This book emphasizes the practical aspects of new data analysis methods, and provides insight into new challenges in biostatistics, epidemiology, health sciences, dentistry, and clinical medicine. This book provides a readable text, giving advice on the reporting of new data analytical methods and data presentation. The book consists of 13 articles. Each article is self-contained and may be read independently according to the needs of the reader. The book is essential reading for postgraduate students as well as researchers from medicine and other sciences where statistical data analysis plays a central role

Grasp Your Pain: A Tangible Tool to Explore the Logging and Assessment of Pain

Pain is a subjective and innate experience that can be difficult to describe. Chronic pain is associated with decreased quality of life, and it is prevalent in cancer populations. With a growing elderly population, the global cancer burden is expected to rapidly advance in the coming years. Expressing pain and symptom experiences is essential for patients to receive proper treatment and care. Self-reporting tools are useful and reliable measures of patients' symptoms. A commonly used assessment form in palliative care is ESAS-r, the revised Edmonton Symptom Assessment System. It lets the patient rate a list of symptoms, on a scale from 0 to 10, depending on their intensity. Research suggests that ESAS-r only captures a snapshot of the patients' symptom profile, and that is burdensome to patients and clinical staff. There is a need for self-assessment tools that are easy to use, non-intrusive, and can be used in situ. The research in this thesis explores the use of a tangible tool (Grasp), and squeezing as an input method to log pain/symptoms experiences. Grasp consists of a small stone-like object. When squeezed, it logs the time and duration of the interaction. Squeezes are then visualized on an accompanying interface. Through a Mixed Methods Research approach, a pilot study and clinical trial were conducted. The former gathered participant (N=8) opinions on Grasp, and the use of squeeze duration to log experiences. The latter explored the implementation of Grasp alongside ESAS-r in a cancer ward (nurses = 6, patients = 8). Two broad research questions were examined: RQ1: How can tangible interaction through Grasp support the logging of experiences? and RQ2: How do palliative cancer patients and nurses experience Grasp as a tool for the logging, assessment, and communication of pain and symptoms compared to ESAS-r? Findings from the pilot suggest that there is potential in using Grasp and squeeze duration to log events, and that interacting with the tool potentially can help distract or externalize from negative experiences. Participants from both studies found Grasp easy to use, and visualizations intuitive and meaningful. Nurses and patients were generally satisfied with Grasp as a tool, and it helped paint a wider image of the patients' symptoms compared to ESAS-r alone. However, patients were sometimes too ill to use Grasp, and the research was limited by barriers related to clinical environments. Further research is needed to explore the potential of tangible interaction and squeezing as an input method with other patient groups. There is also the aspect of the affective interaction that should be investigated further.Masteroppgave i informasjonsvitenskapINFO390MASV-INF

Front-Line Physicians' Satisfaction with Information Systems in Hospitals

Day-to-day operations management in hospital units is difficult due to continuously varying situations, several actors involved and a vast number of information systems in use. The aim of this study was to describe front-line physicians' satisfaction with existing information systems needed to support the day-to-day operations management in hospitals. A cross-sectional survey was used and data chosen with stratified random sampling were collected in nine hospitals. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The response rate was 65 % (n = 111). The physicians reported that information systems support their decision making to some extent, but they do not improve access to information nor are they tailored for physicians. The respondents also reported that they need to use several information systems to support decision making and that they would prefer one information system to access important information. Improved information access would better support physicians' decision making and has the potential to improve the quality of decisions and speed up the decision making process.Peer reviewe

Informatics for Health 2017 : advancing both science and practice

Conference report, The Informatics for Health congress, 24-26 April 2017, in Manchester, UK.Introduction : The Informatics for Health congress, 24-26 April 2017, in Manchester, UK, brought together the Medical Informatics Europe (MIE) conference and the Farr Institute International Conference. This special issue of the Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics contains 113 presentation abstracts and 149 poster abstracts from the congress. Discussion : The twin programmes of “Big Data” and “Digital Health” are not always joined up by coherent policy and investment priorities. Substantial global investment in health IT and data science has led to sound progress but highly variable outcomes. Society needs an approach that brings together the science and the practice of health informatics. The goal is multi-level Learning Health Systems that consume and intelligently act upon both patient data and organizational intervention outcomes. Conclusions : Informatics for Health demonstrated the art of the possible, seen in the breadth and depth of our contributions. We call upon policy makers, research funders and programme leaders to learn from this joined-up approach.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe