Epidemiology of Orthopedic Fractures and Other Injuries among Inpatients Admitted due to Traffic Accidents: A 10-Year Nationwide Survey in Taiwan

To investigate the major injury patterns associated with traffic accidents and evaluate the risk factors of the main injury, a survey of Taiwan’s national insurance admission data between 2002 and 2011 was performed. The incidence of traffic-accidents-related hospitalization was between 9.17% and 11.54% and the average mortality rate of the inpatients admitted due to traffic accidents was 0.68%. Of all inpatients due to road traffic accidents in Taiwan, orthopedic fractures were the most common injuries that accounted for 29.36% of them. There were a total of 391,197 cases of three orthopedic fracture groups that were divided into (1) fracture of upper limb, (2) fracture of lower limb, and (3) fracture of spine and trunk. An increase in national medical cost used for inpatients with orthopedic fractures was noted and ranged from US$45.6 million to US$ 86 million annually. These orthopedic fracture patterns were frequently associated with other injuries especially head injuries (ranged from 14% to 26%). A significant relation to male gender, older age, low income, and admission to high-level hospital to the observed fracture patterns was observed

Ubiquitous Emergency Medical Service System Based on Wireless Biosensors, Traffic Information, and Wireless Communication Technologies: Development and Evaluation

This study presents a new ubiquitous emergency medical service system (UEMS) that consists of a ubiquitous tele-diagnosis interface and a traffic guiding subsystem. The UEMS addresses unresolved issues of emergency medical services by managing the sensor wires for eliminating inconvenience for both patients and paramedics in an ambulance, providing ubiquitous accessibility of patients’ biosignals in remote areas where the ambulance cannot arrive directly, and offering availability of real-time traffic information which can make the ambulance reach the destination within the shortest time. In the proposed system, patient’s biosignals and real-time video, acquired by wireless biosensors and a webcam, can be simultaneously transmitted to an emergency room for pre-hospital treatment via WiMax/3.5 G networks. Performances of WiMax and 3.5 G, in terms of initialization time, data rate, and average end-to-end delay are evaluated and compared. A driver can choose the route of the shortest time among the suggested routes by Google Maps after inspecting the current traffic conditions based on real-time CCTV camera streams and traffic information. The destination address can be inputted vocally for easiness and safety in driving. A series of field test results validates the feasibility of the proposed system for application in real-life scenarios

Bcl-2-Like Protein 11 Deletion Polymorphism Predicts Survival in Advanced Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

IntroductionGermline Bcl-2-like protein 11 (BIM) deletion polymorphism in Asian is a poor predictive factor for treatment outcomes to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in malignancies. We explored the impact of BIM deletion polymorphism on treatment outcome of advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).MethodsWe prospectively collected tissue samples, blood, and clinical data from two cohorts of advanced NSCLC patients. BIM deletion polymorphism was correlated with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) TKIs and chemotherapy treatment.ResultsBIM deletion polymorphism was detected in blood of 16.2% (33 of 204) patients. The PFS to first-line EGFR-TKIs in 153 patients were 8.6 and 4.6 months for patients with wild-type BIM and BIM deletion polymorphism, respectively (p = 0.004). Among 120 patients who received chemotherapies, the PFS to chemotherapies were 5.6 and 3.5 months for patients with wild-type BIM and BIM deletion polymorphism, respectively (p = 0.050). The OS of all 204 patients was 24.8 and 16.8 months for patients with wild-type BIM and BIM deletion polymorphism, respectively (p = 0.005). Multivariate analyses suggested that BIM deletion polymorphism was an independent predictor for shorter PFS to EGFR-TKIs (hazard ratio [HR] 2.15, p = 0.002), PFS to chemotherapy (HR 2.40, p = 0.016), and OS (HR 1.65, p = 0.039).ConclusionsBIM deletion polymorphism predicts shorter PFS to EGFR-TKIs and OS in advanced NSCLC