Computer-aided recording of automatic endoscope washing and disinfection processes as an integral part of medical documentation for quality assurance purposes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The reprocessing of medical endoscopes is carried out using automatic cleaning and disinfection machines. The documentation and archiving of records of properly conducted reprocessing procedures is the last and increasingly important part of the reprocessing cycle for flexible endoscopes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This report describes a new computer program designed to monitor and document the automatic reprocessing of flexible endoscopes and accessories in fully automatic washer-disinfectors; it does not contain nor compensate the manual cleaning step. The program implements national standards for the monitoring of hygiene in flexible endoscopes and the guidelines for the reprocessing of medical products. No FDA approval has been obtained up to now. The advantages of this newly developed computer program are firstly that it simplifies the documentation procedures of medical endoscopes and that it could be used universally with any washer-disinfector and that it is independent of the various interfaces and software products provided by the individual suppliers of washer-disinfectors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The computer program presented here has been tested on a total of four washer-disinfectors in more than 6000 medical examinations within 9 months.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We present for the first time an electronic documentation system for automated washer-disinfectors for medical devices e.g. flexible endoscopes which can be used on any washer-disinfectors that documents the procedures involved in the automatic cleaning process and can be easily connected to most hospital documentation systems.</p

Early growth response 1 regulates hematopoietic support and proliferation in human primary bone marrow stromal cells

Human bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) are key elements of the hematopoietic environment and they play a central role in bone and bone marrow physiology. However, how key stromal cell functions are regulated is largely unknown. We analyzed the role of the immediate early response transcription factor EGR1 as key stromal cell regulator and found that EGR1 was highly expressed in prospectivelyisolated primary BMSC, down-regulated upon culture, and low in noncolony-forming CD45neg stromal cells. Furthermore, EGR1 expression was lower in proliferative regenerating adult and fetal primary cells compared to adult steady-state BMSC. Overexpression of EGR1 in stromal cells induced potent hematopoietic stroma support as indicated by an increased production of transplantable CD34+ CD90+ hematopoietic stem cells in expansion co-cultures. The improvement in bone marrow stroma support function was mediated by increased expression of hematopoietic supporting genes, such as VCAM1 and CCL28. Furthermore, EGR1 overexpression markedly decreased stromal cell proliferation whereas EGR1 knoc

Stochastic simulation in surface reconstruction and application to 3D mapping

Three dimensional terrain maps are useful representations of environments for various robotic applications. Unfortunately, sensor data (from which such maps are built) is uncertain and contains errors which are usually not accounted for in existing terrain building algorithms. In real-time applications, it is necessary to quantify these uncertainties to allow map construction decisions to be made online. This paper addresses this issue by providing a representation that explicitly accounts for sensing uncertainty. This is achieved through the use of stochastic simulation techniques. The result is in an algorithm for online 3D multi-resolution surface reconstruction of unknown, and unstructured environments. Results of the surface reconstruction algorithm in a real environment are presented

Dynamic modelling of wheel-terrain interaction of a UGV

Understanding the vehicle-terrain interaction is essential for autonomous and safe operations of skid-steering unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic processes involved in this interaction, using the vehicle kinetics and the theory of terramechanics to derive systematically shear displacement, reaction force, and load distribution for a wheel. The new model is then summarized in the form of an algorithm to allow for computation of characteristic performance of the interaction such as slip ratios, rolling resistance, and moment of turning resistance for a number of terrain types. Given the current state of the vehicle and terrain parameters, the model can be used to estimate its next states and to predict the vehicle running path. The development is illustrated by simulation and verified with experimental data. © 2007 IEEE