Promoting prevention with economic arguments – The case of Finnish occupational health services

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Both social and ethical arguments have been used to support preventive occupational health services (OHS). During the 1990s it became more common to support political argumentation for occupational health and safety by converting the consequences of ill health at work into monetary units. In addition, OHS has been promoted as a profitable investment for companies, and this aspect has been used by OHS providers in their marketing.</p> <p>Our intention was to study whether preventive occupational health services positively influence a company's economic performance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We combined the financial statements provided by Statistics Finland and employers' reimbursement applications for occupational health services (OHS) costs to the Social Insurance Institution. The data covered the years 1997, 1999 and 2001 and over 6000 companies. We applied linear regression analysis to assess whether preventive OHS had had a positive influence on the companies' economic performance after two or four years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Resources invested in preventive OHS were not positively related to a company's economic performance. In fact, the total cost of preventive OHS per turnover was negatively correlated to economic performance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Even if OHS has no effect on the economic performance of companies, it may have other effects more specific to OHS. Therefore, we recommend that the evaluation of prevention in OHS should move towards outcome measures, such as sickness absence, disability pension and productivity, when applicable, both in occupational health service research and in practice at workplaces.</p

Task analysis and application services for client relationship management in national level information sharing for social care

Use of confidential client information in health and social services requires client relationship by legislation. Approaches for verifying this relationship between care provider and client vary between different countries: in some cases, access logs are analyzed and in other cases, access to information is determined based on the existence and proof of client relationship. We present an approach of client relationship management from national project for social services IT in Finland. The approach is based on analysis of client relationship and case management tasks of users and information systems, and use of application services and system roles which support dynamic access management with client relationship as one of key constituents for access to information. The traditional user rights and access management is not the key area of this article

Sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon ajanvarauspalvelujen ja palveluohjauksen käsitteet v. 1.2

Tämän dokumentin päätarkoituksena on kuvata keskeisten ajanvaraukseen liittyvien käsitteiden määritelmät ja suhteet. Dokumentti on tuotettu SADe-ohjelman Sote-palvelukokonaisuuden ajanvarauspalvelujen tukiprojektin, HyvisSADe-projektin sekä AVPH (Ajanvaraus ja palvelunhallinta)-toteutusprojektin yhteistyössä

Sote-ajanvarauspalvelujen asiakkaan kalenterirajapinta : iCalendar-soveltamisohje v. 0.6

Tämä dokumentti on soveltamisohje iCalendar-standardin mukaisten kalenterimerkintöjen hyödyntämiseen sähköisissä sote-ajanvarauspalveluissa. Dokumentti on tuotettu SADe-ohjelman Sote-palvelukokonaisuuden ajanvarauspalvelujen tukiprojektin, HyvisSADe-projektin sekä AVPH (Ajanvaraus ja palvelunhallinta)-toteutusprojektin yhteistyössä

Needs for Open Interfaces in Personal Health Record Systems and Citizen eServices – Results from a National Survey

Electronic services for supporting self-care, personal wellbeing management, communication between citizens and service providers, and citizen-centric care processes are developed in many countries and initiatives. Interoperability between these services and between them and information systems for service provision is increasingly needed. Open and standardized interfaces to support such interoperability must be selected or specified according to the needs of stakeholders in each project and environment. We report the results of a national survey related to the needs of open interfaces for self-care, citizen services and personal health records. The survey was performed using a web-based questionnaire focusing on the needs for open interface specifications. Interface needs were classified in nine categories. Respondents (n=23) represented health care solution providers / vendors, health service providers and research organizations. The majority of answers regarding the interface needs were in the category “great need for open interface specifications”. Most highly ranked were the interfaces for personal health record (PHR) information exchange and various needs related to identity and access management and care processes. The results are used as one basis for selecting topics for national collaboration related to open interfaces for self-care, personal health records and citizen-centric care pathways

Integrity of APS, HVOF and HVAF sprayed NiCr and NiCrBSi coatings based on the tensile stress-strain response

The interlamellar cohesion of thermal spray coatings influences greatly their mechanical properties and ability to use coatings in different loading conditions and wear/erosion resistance. In the present study, micro-tensile testing of free-standing coatings was utilized to evaluate the mechanical response of thermally sprayed coatings. In addition, the longitudinal uniaxial fracture strength of free-standing coatings could be determined by a tensile test. The coating materials studied were NiCr and NiCrBSi coatings sprayed by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS), high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF), and high velocity air-fuel (HVAF) processes. The different materials used for the coatings sprayed by different methods yield different microstructures, different stress-strain relation in tensile testing. Different tensile test response was found to be related to cohesion strength between lamellas, and thus was affecting the cavitation erosion wear. The effect of other factors such as hardness and residual stresses on cavitation resistance were also discussed. Such results are crucial to understand the suitability of microstructures obtained by TS processes for different wear conditions.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Spatially-localized bench-top X-ray scattering reveals tissue-specific microfibril orientation in Moso bamboo

Background : Biological materials have a complex, hierarchical structure, with vital structural features present at all size scales, from the nanoscale to the macroscale. A method that can connect information at multiple length scales has great potential to reveal novel information. This article presents one such method with an application to the bamboo culm wall. Moso (Phyllostachys edulis) bamboo is a commercially important bamboo species. At the cellular level, bamboo culm wall consists of vascular bundles embedded in a parenchyma cell tissue matrix. The microfibril angle (MFA) in the bamboo cell wall is related to its macroscopic longitudinal stiffness and strength and can be determined at the nanoscale with wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). Combining WAXS with X-ray microtomography (XMT) allows tissue-specific study of the bamboo culm without invasive chemical treatment. Results : The scattering contribution of the fiber and parenchyma cells were separated with spatially-localized WAXS. The fiber component was dominated by a high degree of orientation corresponding to small MFAs (mean MFA 11 degrees). The parenchyma component showed significantly lower degree of orientation with a maximum at larger angles (mean MFA 65 degrees). The fiber ratio, the volume of cell wall in the fibers relative to the overall volume of cell wall, was determined by fitting the scattering intensities with these two components. The fiber ratio was also determined from the XMT data and similar fiber ratios were obtained from the two methods, one connected to the cellular level and one to the nanoscale. X-ray diffraction tomography was also done to study the differences in microfibril orientation between fibers and the parenchyma and further connect the microscale to the nanoscale. Conclusions : The spatially-localized WAXS yields biologically relevant, tissue-specific information. With the custommade bench-top set-up presented, diffraction contrast information can be obtained from plant tissue (1) from regions-of-interest, (2) as a function of distance (line scan), or (3) with two-dimensional or three-dimensional tomography. This nanoscale information is connected to the cellular level features.Peer reviewe