Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in health care: where are we? A scoping review

Purpose: (RFID) is a technology that uses radio waves for data collection and transfer, so data is captured efficiently, automatically and in real time without human intervention. This technology, alone or in addition to other technologies has been considered as a possible solution to reduce problems that endanger public health or to improve its management. This scoping review aims to provide readers with an up-to-date picture of the use of this technology in health care settings. Methods: This scoping review examines the state of RFID technology in the healthcare area for the period 2017-2022, specifically addressing RFID versatility and investigating how this technology can contribute to radically change the management of public health. The guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) have been followed. Literature reviews or surveys were excluded. Only articles describing technologies implemented on a real environment or on prototypes were included. Results: The search returned 366 results. After screening, based on title and abstract, 58 articles were considered suitable for this work. 11 articles were reviewed because they met the qualifying requirements. The study of the selected articles highlighted six matters that can be profitably impacted by this technology Conclusion: The selected papers show that this technology can improve patient safety by reducing medical errors, that can occur within operating rooms. It can also be the solution to overcome the problem of the black market in counterfeiting drugs, or as a prevention tool. Further research is needed, especially on data management, security, and privacy, given the sensitive nature of medical information. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Creation of a system for the coding of medical devices

Medical devices have different nomenclatures for their classification. Some of the most significant nomenclatures are the Universal Medical Device Nomenclature System (UMDNS) and the Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN) by the Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI). In Italy the main are CIVAB and “Classificazione Nazionale Dispositivi Medici” (National Classification for Medical Devices - CND). The aim of this study is to create a system to automatically decode several device models from CIVAB to UMDNS code. All medical devices are coded with a table which is based on their definitions presented in these nomenclatures. The coding is lastly applied to a list of models of medical devices, developed by different companies

Deep Learning for Predicting Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is one of the most debilitating cardiac disorders. It is a costly disease in terms of both lives and financial outlays, given the high rate of hospital re-admissions and mortality. Heart failure (HF) is notoriously difficult to identify on time, and is frequently accompanied by additional comorbidities that further complicate diagnosis. Many decision support systems (DSS) have been developed to facilitate diagnosis and to raise the standard of screening and monitoring operations, even for non-expert staff. This is confirmed in the literature by records of highly performing diagnosis-aid systems, which are unfortunately not very relevant to expert cardiologists. In order to assist cardiologists in predicting the trajectory of HF, we propose a deep learning-based system which predicts severity of disease progression by employing medical patient history. We tested the accuracy of four models on a labeled dataset, composed of 1037 records, to predict CHF severity and progression, achieving results comparable to studies based on much larger datasets, none of which used longitudinal multi-class prediction. The main contribution of this work is that it demonstrates that a fairly complicated approach can achieve good results on a medium size dataset, providing a reasonably accurate means of determining the evolution of CHF well in advance. This potentially constitutes a significant aid for healthcare managers and expert cardiologists in designing different therapies for medication, healthy lifestyle changes and quality of life (QoL) management, while also promoting allocation of resources with an evidence-based approach. © 2022 by the authors

Model of thermo-optic nonlinear dynamics of photonic crystal cavities

The wavelength scale confinement of light offered by photonic crystal (PhC) cavities is one of the fundamental features on which many important on-chip photonic components are based, opening silicon photonics to a wide range of applications from telecommunications to sensing. This trapping of light in a small space also greatly enhances optical nonlinearities and many potential applications build on these enhanced light-matter interactions. In order to use PhCs effectively for this purpose it is necessary to fully understand the nonlinear dynamics underlying PhC resonators. In this work, we derive a first principles thermal model outlining the nonlinear dynamics of optically pumped silicon two-dimensional (2D) PhC cavities by calculating the temperature distribution in the system in both time and space. We demonstrate that our model matches experimental results well and use it to describe the behavior of different types of PhC cavity designs. Thus, we demonstrate the model's capability to predict thermal nonlinearities of arbitrary 2D PhC microcavities in any material, only by substituting the appropriate physical constants. This renders the model critical for the development of nonlinear optical devices prior to fabrication and characterization

Bridging the gap between 3D navigation and semantic search. The INCEPTION platform

The paper presents the main outcomes and future development of the INCEPTION project, “Inclusive Cultural Heritage in Europe through 3D semantic modelling”, funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Work Programme Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflective Societies (Call Reflective-7-2014, Advanced 3D modelling for accessing and understanding European cultural assets) and completed in May 2019. In particular, the key-targeted project achievement will be presented: a specific cloud-based platform conceived to accomplish the main objectives of accessing, understanding and strengthening European Cultural Heritage by means of enriched 3D models. The need for digital data interpretation, in addition to documentation, guided the overall process of the cross-disciplinary work methodology, based on new methods and tools for 3D surveying and H-BIM modelling, new approaches and methodologies for Cultural Heritage 3D data inclusive access and exploitation by means of the Platform

Bridging the gap between 3D navigation and semantic search. The INCEPTION platform

The paper presents the main outcomes and future development of the INCEPTION project, “Inclusive Cultural Heritage in Europe through 3D semantic modelling”, funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Work Programme Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflective Societies (Call Reflective-7-2014, Advanced 3D modelling for accessing and understanding European cultural assets) and completed in May 2019. In particular, the key-targeted project achievement will be presented: a specific cloud-based platform conceived to accomplish the main objectives of accessing, understanding and strengthening European Cultural Heritage by means of enriched 3D models. The need for digital data interpretation, in addition to documentation, guided the overall process of the cross-disciplinary work methodology, based on new methods and tools for 3D surveying and H-BIM modelling, new approaches and methodologies for Cultural Heritage 3D data inclusive access and exploitation by means of the Platform

Follow-Up of Coiled Cerebral Aneurysms at 3T: Comparison of 3D Time-of-Flight MR Angiography and Contrast-Enhanced MR Angiography

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Our aim was to compare contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) and 3D time-of-flight (TOF) MRA at 3T for follow-up of coiled cerebral aneurysms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-two patients treated with Guglielmi detachable coils for 54 cerebral aneurysms were evaluated at 3T MRA. 3D TOF MRA (TR/TE = 23/3.5; SENSE factor = 2.5) and CE-MRA by using a 3D ultrafast gradient-echo sequence (TR/TE = 5.9/1.8; SENSE factor = 3) enhanced with 0.1-mmol/kg gadobenate dimeglumine were performed in the same session. Source images, 3D maximum intensity projection, 3D shaded surface display, and/or 3D volume-rendered reconstructions were evaluated in terms of aneurysm occlusion/patency and artifact presence. RESULTS: In terms of clinical classification, the 2 MRA sequences were equivalent for 53 of the 54 treated aneurysms: 21 were considered fully occluded, whereas 16 were considered to have a residual neck and 16 were considered residually patent at follow-up MRA. The remaining aneurysm appeared fully occluded at TOF MRA but had a residual patent neck at CE-MRA. Visualization of residual aneurysm patency was significantly ( P = .001) better with CE-MRA compared with TOF MRA for 10 (31.3%) of the 32 treated aneurysms considered residually patent with both sequences. Coil artifacts were present in 5 cases at TOF MRA but in none at CE-MRA. No relationship was apparent between the visualization of patency and either the size of the aneurysm or the interval between embolization and follow-up. CONCLUSION: At follow-up MRA at 3T, unenhanced TOF and CE-MRA sequences are similarly effective at classifying coiled aneurysms as occluded or residually patent. However, CE-MRA is superior to TOF MRA for visualization of residual patency and is associated with fewer artifacts

Semantic Web Technologies Meet BIM for Accessing and Understanding Cultural Heritage

Within the EU funded project INCEPTION – Inclusive Cultural Heritage in Europe through 3D semantic modelling, the key-targeted achievement is the development of a specific cloud based platform, in order to accomplish the main objectives of accessing, understanding and strengthening European Cultural Heritage by means of enriched 3D models. The whole INCEPTION project is based on the close connection between state-of-the-art architectural modeling technologies (BIM, Building Information Modeling) and the latest cutting-edge web technologies. The platform is grounded on semantic web technologies and makes extensive use of WebGL and RESTful APIs, in order to enrich heritage 3D models by using Semantic Web standards. The INCEPTION platform will be a space for interchange of information and for the dialogue among professionals, students, scholars, curators, non-expert users, etc. Furthermore, the Semantic Web structure interlinks the platform with external Cultural Heritage available linked data and makes it gradually enhanced by specific flexible data structures provided as project specific ontologies. The paper will describe solutions based on the match between BIM, Cloud and Semantic Web

Heritage-led ontologies: Digital platform for supporting the regeneration of cultural and historical sites

The increasing application of digital technologies to cultural heritage (CH) is wide and well documented, including a variety of tools such as digital archives, online guides and HBIM repositories. Several vocabularies and ontologies were designed to order heritage data and make CH more accessible and exploitable. However, these tools have often focused on a particular dimension of CH producing high value in separate sectors (e.g. access to conservation of historic buildings and data valorisation for restoration of heritage assets) but lacking ways for adapting or replicating the model to urban complex systems. Moreover, many studies and tools show large effort in cataloguing and archiving, but less in providing tools for designing and managing. The ROCK platform, developed within the Horizon 2020 (H2020) funded project ROCK (GA 730280), addresses the need for a management and interventionoriented interoperable tool, aimed at storing, visualizing, elaborating and linking data on cultural heritage. The use of already existing ontologies was not sufficient for developing a tool to deal with the complexity of urban systems and heterogeneous data sources. Instead, a participative methodology was set in place for the development of a context-based semantic framework to define the needs and requirements of heritage-led regeneration actions