Cloud-based e-health Applications in Palestine: Challenges and Success Opportunities

Healthcare service costs are rising all over the world. That is mainly due to the lack of healthcare professionals and IT services. Cloud computing is an emerging trend that provides a robust infrastructure that enables delivering low-cost services over the internet. In this paper, we conducted an analytical study on the e-health services in Palestine to investigate the current state-of-art and examine all challenges and opportunities to benefit from this technology. Collected data has been analyzed and the results revealed that there is a clear gap between the IT service models provided by Palestinian healthcare service provider, and the potential models based on latest IT trends; mainly, cloud computing

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

Rational design of Ag-ZnO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite with promising antimicrobial activity under LED light illumination

Surface plasmon resonance effect, Fenton's reaction, plant extract, and nanoparticles have all proven to be efficient in killing or reducing the activity of numerous microorganisms. To study the synergetic effects among these key parameters, Ag-ZnO-Fe3O4 nanocomposites have been synthesized via solution combustion approach in the presence of aqueous extract of Thymus vulgaris leaves. The successful construction of Ag-ZnO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite and its purity were confirmed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectra, and energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy analyses. Dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy measurements showed that the size of the obtained particles is in the nanoscale. The synthesized nanocomposite showed broad inhibition against the selected bacteria and yeast under LED light. UV-vis absorption measurement showed that the heterostructure exhibits broad plasmonic peak centered around 434 nm. Hot charge carriers are generated in Ag under LED light illumination and separated through Ag-ZnO heterojunction resulting in the production of a considerable amount of (OH)-O-center dot radicals as confirmed by ESR analysis. Moreover, Ag acts as H2O2 donator and photogenerated electrons provider for the Fenton's reaction, resulting in the generation of much more (OH)-O-center dot radicals. Therefore, Ag-ZnO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite shows improved microbial activity under LED light illumination