Recent trends, technical concepts and components of computer-assisted orthopedic surgery systems: A comprehensive review

Computer-assisted orthopedic surgery (CAOS) systems have become one of the most important and challenging types of system in clinical orthopedics, as they enable precise treatment of musculoskeletal diseases, employing modern clinical navigation systems and surgical tools. This paper brings a comprehensive review of recent trends and possibilities of CAOS systems. There are three types of the surgical planning systems, including: systems based on the volumetric images (computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or ultrasound images), further systems utilize either 2D or 3D fluoroscopic images, and the last one utilizes the kinetic information about the joints and morphological information about the target bones. This complex review is focused on three fundamental aspects of CAOS systems: their essential components, types of CAOS systems, and mechanical tools used in CAOS systems. In this review, we also outline the possibilities for using ultrasound computer-assisted orthopedic surgery (UCAOS) systems as an alternative to conventionally used CAOS systems.Web of Science1923art. no. 519

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2005

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2005

Policy Addressing Family Presence During Resuscitation

When hospitals became the primary care setting for very ill patients, visiting hours and restrictions related to family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) became common. During medical crises that occur in hospital settings, families are separated from loved ones because family members may impair resuscitation efforts or such efforts might psychologically traumatize family members. Various national health care organizations have endorsed family presence during resuscitation; however, practices preventing family presence persist. This project used evidence from the peer-reviewed literature to develop a healthcare institution policy that addresses family presence during resuscitation. Theories, concepts, and models that guided this DNP project included: (a) theory of reasoned action; (b) family systems theory; (c) FPDR concepts (nurses\u27 practices and beliefs, critical care professionals\u27 opinions, practice guidelines); and the Plan, Do, Study, Act model. A systematic review of the literature was carried out to develop the policy. An interdisciplinary team of 7 professionals was assembled to contribute to policy development using literature from peer-reviewed journal articles. Products developed included the family presence during resuscitation policy and plans for implementing and evaluating the policy. This project holds potential to contribute to positive social change by giving patients and families the opportunity to witness and understand emergency care practices

Bioengineering, augmented reality, and robotic surgery in vascular surgery: A literature review

Biomedical engineering integrates a variety of applied sciences with life sciences to improve human health and reduce the invasiveness of surgical procedures. Technological advances, achieved through biomedical engineering, have contributed to significant improvements in the field of vascular and endovascular surgery. This paper aims to review the most cutting-edge technologies of the last decade involving the use of augmented reality devices and robotic systems in vascular surgery, highlighting benefits and limitations. Accordingly, two distinct literature surveys were conducted through the PubMed database: the first review provides a comprehensive assessment of augmented reality technologies, including the different techniques available for the visualization of virtual content (11 papers revised); the second review collects studies with bioengineering content that highlight the research trend in robotic vascular surgery, excluding works focused only on the clinical use of commercially available robotic systems (15 papers revised). Technological flow is constant and further advances in imaging techniques and hardware components will inevitably bring new tools for a clinical translation of innovative therapeutic strategies in vascular surgery

ViBreathe: Heart Rate Variability Enhanced Respiration Training for Workaday Stress Management via an Eyes-free Tangible Interface

Slow breathing guiding applications increasingly emerge, showing promise for helping knowledge workers to better cope with workaday stress. However, standard breathing guidance is non-interactive, with rigid paces. Despite their effects being proved, they could cause respiratory fatigue, or lack of training motivation, especially for novice users. To explore new design possibilities, we investigate using heart rate variability (HRV) data to mediate breathing guidance, which results in two HRV-enhanced guidance modes: (i) responsive breathing guidance and (ii) adaptive breathing guidance. These guidance modes are implemented on a soft haptic interface named “ViBreathe”. We conducted a user test (N\ua0=\ua024), and a one-week field deployment (N\ua0=\ua04) with knowledge workers, to understand the user experience of our design. The HRV-enhanced modes were generally experienced to reduce tiresome and improve engagement and comfort. And Vibreathe showed great potential for seamlessly weaving slow breathing practice into work routines. We thereby summarize related design insights and opportunities

Application of Mobile Health Services to Support Patient Self-Management of Chronic Conditions

Background: Chronic conditions are the leading cause of ill-health, disability and premature death, adding huge health and socioeconomic burden to the healthcare system. Although mobile health (mHealth) services have the potential to provide patients with a timely, ubiquitous, and cost-effective means to access healthcare services, to date, much remains to be revealed for their application in chronic condition management. Aim: This doctoral project aims to comprehensively understand the application of mHealth services to support patient self-management of chronic conditions. This aim is achieved through four objectives: (1) to synthesise research evidence about health outcomes of applying mHealth services to support patient self-management of chronic conditions and the essential components to achieve these outcomes, (2) to determine the mechanism for applying mHealth services to support patient self-management of chronic conditions, (3) to explore critical factors and how these factors influence patients\u27 intention to continuously use mHealth services, and (4) to apply the above findings to guide the design of a prototype mHealth service. Methods: To increase the generalisability of the findings, three chronic conditions that could benefit from mHealth services were purposively studied to address the research objectives within the feasibility of available study sites and resources at different stages of the project. First, two literature review studies were conducted to achieve Objective 1. One was a systematic review to investigate health outcomes of mHealth services to support patient self-management of one chronic condition, unhealthy alcohol use, and the essential components to achieve these outcomes. The other was a rapid review on using behavioural theory to guide the design of mHealth services that support patient self-management of another chronic condition, hypertension. Second, two field studies were conducted to achieve Objectives 2 and 3, respectively. One was an interview study that explored patients\u27 perceptions of a mHealth service to support their self-management of hypertension in China. The other was a questionnaire survey study conducted on the same site that explored critical factors influencing patients\u27 intention to continuously use the mHealth service. Third, a clinician-led, experience-based co-design approach was implemented to apply the above-mentioned learning experience to the development practice of a mHealth service that supports patient self-management of obesity before elective surgery in Australia, achieving Objective 4. Results: Literature reviews identify five structural components - context, theory, content, delivery mode, and implementation procedure - which are essential for mHealth services to achieve three health outcomes - behavioural, physiological, and cognitive outcomes. Inductive synthesis of the interview findings lead to a 6A framework that summarises the mechanisms for mHealth services: access, assessment, assistance, awareness, ability, and activation. Mobile health services provide patients with easy access to health assessment and healthcare assistance to increase their self-management awareness and ability, thereby activating their self-management behaviours. Questionnaire survey study finds that patients\u27 intention to continuously use mHealth services can be influenced by the information quality, system quality and service quality by influencing their perceived usefulness and satisfaction with the mHealth services. Guided by Social Cognitive Theory, the developed prototype mHealth service provide patients with functions of automatic push notifications, online resources, goal setting and monitoring, and interactive health-related exchanges that encourage their physical activity, healthy eating, psychological preparation, and a positive outlook for elective surgery. The patients\u27 requirements in two focus group discussions enabled the research team to improve the mHealth service design. Conclusion: Mobile health services guided by behavioural theories can provide patients with easy access to health assessment and healthcare assistance to increase their self-management awareness and ability, thereby activating their self-management behaviours. The effort for designing mHealth services needs to be placed on crafting content (to improve information quality), developing useful functions and selecting a proper delivery mode (to improve system quality), and establishing effective implementation procedures (to improve service quality). These will ensure patients\u27 perceived usefulness and satisfaction with mHealth services, increase their intention to continuously use such services, thus supporting long-term patient self-management of chronic conditions. As demonstrated by the design case, the findings of this PhD project can be generalised to guide the design of other mHealth services that aim to support patient self-management of chronic conditions

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education)