Digital television flexibility: A survey of Australians with disability

Flexibility for many viewers comes from digital technologies and their interaction with television broadcasting. Significantly, as television is switched to digital transmissions, viewers with disability have the potential to experience flexibility in the form of accessibility features such as audio descriptions, captions, lip-reading avatars, signing avatars, spoken subtitles and clean audio. This flexibility may in fact provide some people with access to television for the first time. This exploratory study reports results from an online survey of Australians with disabilities conducted during the final months of the simulcast period before analogue signals were switched off in 2013. While captioning emerged as the most desired accessibility feature, differences surfaced when the data were broken into specific impairment types. This article highlights the importance of digital flexibility specific to impairment type, and locates people with disability as a significant group to consider as more changes take place around digital television broadcasting via the NBN

Infections and antimicrobial resistance in long term care facilities: a national prevalence study

BACKGROUND: A point prevalence survey (PPS) was conducted in Italy in 2010, as part of the first European PPS in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs), conducted within the HALT Project. METHODS: The PPS was aimed at estimating the prevalence of infections, antimicrobial resistance, and antibiotic use and to assess the status of infections control programs in this setting. RESULTS: Ninety two LTCFs, located in 11 different Italian regions, participated to the study: 9391 residents were enrolled, 9285 of whom were eligible according to the study criteria. The prevalence of residents with signs/symptoms of infection was 6.5% (606 residents); 438 residents were on antimicrobial treatment (4.7%) and 526 had signs/symptoms (5.7%) but in 324 residents only (3.5/100 residents) the infection satisfied the modified McGeer criteria and was considered confirmed. The most frequent infection site was the respiratory tract (1.27/100 residents). Mostly of the antibiotics were prescribed for respiratory tract infections (42.8% of the antibiotics) and for urinary tract infections (26.6%). The most frequently prescribed classes were quinolones, followed by penicillin plus beta-lactamase inhibitor and 3rd generation cephalosporins. Few infection had a microbiological confirmation, but among the 143 isolated microorganisms 24% were multidrug resistant. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of infections and antimicrobial resistance in LTCFs is significant and infection control and surveillance program are urgently needed

Infections and antimicrobial resistance in long term care facilities: a national prevalence study.

Background. A point prevalence survey (PPS) was conducted in Italy in 2010, as part of the first European PPS in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs), conducted within the HALT Project. Methods. The PPS was aimed at estimating the prevalence of infections, antimicrobial resistance, and antibiotic use and to assess the status of infections control programs in this setting. Results. Ninety two LTCFs, located in 11 different Italian regions, participated to the study: 9391 residents were enrolled, 9285 of whom were eligible according to the study criteria. The prevalence of residents with signs/symptoms of infection was 6.5% (606 residents); 438 residents were on antimicrobial treatment (4.7%) and 526 had signs/symptoms (5.7%) but in 324 residents only (3.5/100 residents) the infection satisfied the modified McGeer criteria and was considered confirmed. The most frequent infection site was the respiratory tract (1.27/100 residents). Mostly of the antibiotics were prescribed for respiratory tract infections (42.8% of the antibiotics) and for urinary tract infections (26.6%). The most frequently prescribed classes were quinolones, followed by penicillin plus beta-lactamase inhibitor and 3rd generation cephalosporins. Few infection had a microbiological confirmation, but among the 143 isolated microorganisms 24% were multidrug resistant. Conclusions. The burden of infections and antimicrobial resistance in LTCFs is significant and infection control and surveillance program are urgently needed

Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia

Whereas entertainment has featured negatively in the broader NBN debate currently occurring in Australia, within the disability sector it has been recognised as revolutionary. Government, industry and technical analysts describe digital television, particularly that delivered via broadband, as potentially enabling to people with vision and hearing impairments through the more widespread provision of accessibility features such as audio description and closed captions. This article interrogates the approach to accessibility taken by two case studies of broadband-based television: Netflix and catch-up TV. Netflix, which is not officially available in Australia, is often presented as the future of television, while catch-up services provide an example of the current broadband-based television paradigm in this country. Although accessibility features may be available on broadcast television or DVD release, each of these forms of broadband-based television has either previously (Netflix) or currently (catch-up) stripped accessible functions to stream online. The discussion reflects on both activist interventions of people with disability and the industry standards

Studio di prevalenza europeo su infezioni correlate all'assistenza e uso degli antibiotici negli ospedali per acuti

Lo studio è stato condotto nel perìodo settembre-ottobre 2011 ed hanno partecipato 49 ospedali di 19 regioni/Province autonome. Sono stati raccolti dati su 14.784 Pazienti (mediana in ciascun ospedale pari a 247; range 44-1071): 40% degenti in area medica, 33% in area chirurgica, 8% in ginecologia/ostetricia, 7% In terapia intensiva, 5% in pediatria, 3% in psichiatria, 2% in geriatria e 2% in riabilitazione. Il 49,8% dei pazienti aveva 65 anni o più. Il 66,8% dei pazienti studiati era portatore, il giorno dello studio, di almeno un dispositivo invasivo: il 55,9% di un catetere vascolare periferico; il 24,7% di un catetere urinario; il 12,1% di un catetere vascolare centrale; il 3,0% dei pazienti era intubato. La prevalenza di pazienti con almeno una infezione correlata all'assistenza (infezione comparsa dopo 48 ore dai ricovero in ospedale o presente al ricovero in un paziente trasferito da un altro ospedale per acuti) è del 6.3%. La prevalenza di infezioni varia: per dimensioni dell'ospedale: da 3,2% negli ospedali di piccole dimensioni a 6,8% in quelli di grandi dimensioni; per disciplina di ricovero: da 1,1% In pediatria a 14,8% in terapia intensiva; per classe di età: da 3,3% in età neonatale/pediatrica a 7,7% negli anziani; per gravità delle condizioni cllniche di base, da 4,5% nei pazienti con patologia "non fatale" secondo McCabea 13,0% in quella con patologia rapidamente fatale; per esposizione a procedure invasive: da 5,6% nei pazienti non intubati a 30,9% in quelli intubati; da 4,2% nei pazienti non esposti a catetere vascolare centrale a 21,4% negli esposti a tali dispositivi; da 4% nei pazienti senza catetere urinario a 13,2% in quelli cateterizzati. Le infezioni più frequentemente riportate sono quelle respiratorie (24,1%), urinarie (20,8%), le infezioni del sito chirurgico (16,2%) le batteriemie (15,8%). Escherìchla coli, Klebslella pneumonlae, Pseudomonas aeruglnosa e Staphylococcus aureus rappresentano più del 40% di tutti gli isolamenti. Sono tutti frequentemente antibicoresistenti: il 34% di E.coli e 65,2% di K.pneumonìae è resistente alle cefalosporine di III generazione; 48,9% di K.pneumonlae e 39,1% di P.aeruginosa è resistente ai carbapenemi; 58.6% di S.aureus è resistente alla meticillina. La prevalenza osservata di pazienti con almeno un trattamento antibiotico è pari a 44%. Il trattamento era motivato da terapia nel 53% dei casi, da profilassi nel 43% (di cui nel 56% dei casi profilassi medica e nel 44% chirurgica), da altro o non indicato nel rimanente 4%. Le classi di antibiotico utilizzate più frequentemente sono i fluorochinoloni, le cefalosporine di terza generazione e le associazioni di penicilline, incluse le associazioni con gli inibitori delle beta-lattamasi

The Italian national surgical site infection surveillance programme and its positive impact, 2009 to 2011.

Programmes surveying surgical site infection (SSI) have been implemented throughout the world and are associated with a reduction in SSI rates. We report data on non-prosthetic surgery from the Italian SSI surveillance programme for the period 2009 to 2011. Participation in the programme was voluntary. We evaluated the occurrence of SSI, based on protocols from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, within 30 days of surgery. Demographic data, risk factors, type of surgery and presence of SSI were recorded. The National Coordinating Centre analysed the pooled data. On 355 surgical wards 60,460 operations were recorded, with the number of surveyed intervention doubling over the study period. SSI was observed in 1,628 cases (2,6%) and 60% of SSI were diagnosed through 30-days post discharge surveillance. Operations performed in hospitals with at least two years of surveillance showed a 29% lower risk of SSI. Longer intervention duration, American Society of Anesthesiologists’ (ASA) score of at least three, and pre-surgery hospital stay of at least two days were associated with increased risk of SSI, while videoscopic procedures had reduced SSI rates. Implementation of a national surveillance programme was helpful in reducing SSI rates and should be prioritised in all healthcare systems