The influence of patient age and schizophrenia diagnosis on providers’ decision-making

Stigma is a complex issue that can significantly affect people with serious mental illness (SMI) and older adults due to their increased risk of cognitive deficits and somatic conditions. Both of these populations can experience stigma from healthcare providers, which may serve as a barrier to seeking and remaining in treatment, and contribute to inequality in the amount and quality of treatment these populations receive. The present study partially replicated previous research by assessing if healthcare providers have more stigmatizing attitudes and are less likely to provide referrals to patients with SMI compared to patient’s without SMI. This study also extended this research by assessing healthcare providers attitudes and decision-making towards older adults and older adults with SMI. The results of the present study indicate that providers expected the patient with SMI to be less competent and were less likely to recommend they receive a referral for a sleep study compared to patients without SMI. Additionally, providers expected the older adult patient to have more difficulty reading and understanding educational material compared to the younger adult patient

Primary care behavioral health in the time of COVID-19

People are commonly receiving mental health treatment from primary care providers rather than from behavioral health providers. To address this issue, the healthcare system has begun to integrate behavioral health providers into primary care clinics, known as integrated primary care (IPC). Research suggests that IPC can lead to a number of benefits, including increased likelihood of patients receiving the appropriate standard of care, as well as reduction in healthcare costs due to medical cost offset. While IPC is a promising method of healthcare delivery, additional research is needed to optimize this system. Additionally, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted the mental and physical health needs of the United States population, especially for low income and racial and ethnic minority populations. However, there is little research on how this has impacted the presenting problems seen in IPC, or how IPC utilization may have been impacted. This study will examine patient characteristics and IPC utilization of two clinics serving a low income and racial and ethnic minority population and assess how patient and provider characteristics are impacting the process of IPC

Sistema de visão computacional aplicado à inspeção automática interna de tubos de pequeno diâmetro

Orientador: Alessandro ZimmerCoorientador: Alceu Britto JúniorDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Tecnologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica. Defesa : Curitiba, 26/07/2018Inclui referências: p. 56-58Resumo: Esta dissertação apresenta os principais aspectos de desenvolvimento de um sistema de aquisição e processamento de imagens que pode ser inserido em sistemas de tubos metálicos de termoelétricas a fim de se capturar imagens da região interna de tais tubos para análise. Após a imagem ser capturada, esta é processada resultando vários segmentos, nos quais são aplicados uma análise de textura e então utilizado um classificador para identificar de maneira automática alguns tipos de corrosão ou defeito. Os testes experimentais feitos com base em um conjunto de 2,615 imagens mostraram que os modelos propostos de classificação podem atingir taxas de acerto entre 90% e 94% ao classificarem um conjunto de images para teste, obtidas com um modelo de câmera, factível as dimensões demandadas do projeto, e 100% nas imagens de teste, obtidas com outro modelo de câmera, com dimensões não factíveis ao projeto final. Palavras-chave: Inspeção visual. Textura. Fusão de características. Inspeção automática.Abstract: This dissertation presents the main aspects of the design of an image acquisition and processing approach that can be inserted into thermoelectric metal pipe systems and travel inside the pipes to capture images from the inner surface of such pipes for further analysis. After the image capture, a texture analysis of its internal surface is carried out to classify automatically segments from the image that present some type of corrosion or defects. The experimental results on a dataset of 2,615 images have shown that proposed classification models can achieve accuracy between 90% and 94% on the test set, using a feasible camera for the project and 100% using another camera model. Keywords: Visual inspection. Texture. Fusion of features. Automatic inspection

DO RISK PERCEPTIONS INFLUENCE PHYSICIAN\u27S RESISTANCE TO USE ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS? AN EXPLORATORY RESEARCH IN GERMAN HOSPITALS

IT in health care can lower the cost of health care delivery, improve the quality of care for patients and reduce medical errors.Given these strong advantages, it is interesting that technology diffusion for process support in hospitals is somewhat slow.The major process of a hospital -delivering patient care- is still supported by traditional paper files in the vast majority ofGerman hospitals.In this paper, we ask what the barriers towards implementing and using an electronic medical record (EMR) -the electronicpatient file- might be. Technology resistance theories indicate that perceived risks are a major inhibitor towards systemsacceptance. In the absence of thorough empirical studies, we start our investigation by conducting exploratory research intothe risks hospital-based physicians associate with using an EMR. A list of possible risks was derived from the literature and10 physicians were interviewed to gather their assessment. Our findings show that, indeed, physicians associate several riskswith adopting EMRs, thereby suggesting these risks will need to be mitigated to enable proper user acceptance

An International Comparison of Factors Inhibiting Physicians\u27 use of Hospital Information Systems

Finding ways to strengthen health care systems is a matter of great concern all around the world. Health care operations struggle with limited resources and diminishing workforce capabilities, making it imperative for effective and efficient operations. Hospital information systems (HIS) can help achieve this mission, providing reliable, timely, and relevant information about patient characteristics, reimbursement, and status of tests and quality metrics. However, there are still barriers toward the adoption of HIS by health care professionals. This study explores the inhibitors perceived by physicians for adopting HIS. The main motivation for this research is to answer the question: What are the factors inhibiting physicians\u27 use of Hospital Information Systems? This research question is of great interest as physicians are considered to be the key to successful HIS deployment, adoption and use. This study takes a qualitative research approach, employing ninety-eight (98) interviews at nine different hospitals, complemented by more than 40 hours of workplace shadowing. We conducted our research in the United States, Chile and Germany, as the three countries have developed healthcare systems but take different approaches to fostering the use of IT in hospitals and have implemented at different organizational levels. Our findings show that the alignment of user, system and process is important as expected. However, the results point out that leadership and organizational setting play vital roles, although they were often neglected in previous studies

Safe Autonomous Driving in Adverse Weather: Sensor Evaluation and Performance Monitoring

The vehicle's perception sensors radar, lidar and camera, which must work continuously and without restriction, especially with regard to automated/autonomous driving, can lose performance due to unfavourable weather conditions. This paper analyzes the sensor signals of these three sensor technologies under rain and fog as well as day and night. A data set of a driving test vehicle as an object target under different weather conditions was recorded in a controlled environment with adjustable, defined, and reproducible weather conditions. Based on the sensor performance evaluation, a method has been developed to detect sensor degradation, including determining the affected data areas and estimating how severe they are. Through this sensor monitoring, measures can be taken in subsequent algorithms to reduce the influences or to take them into account in safety and assistance systems to avoid malfunctions.Comment: Accepted for the 35th IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV 2023), 6 page

Differential Effects of X-Irradiation and Cyclosporin-A Administration on the Thymus with Respect to the Generation of Cyclosporin-A-Induced Autoimmunity

Cyclosporin A (CsA), a potent inhibitor of T-cell activation, has been shown to have several effects on thymocyte maturation, thymic stromal cells, and the generation of autoreactive T cells. In Lewis rats, the combination of lethal irradiation, syngeneic bone marrow transplantation, and a 4-week course of CsA administration causes the development of an autoimmune disease (CsA-AI) resembling allogeneic graft-versus-host disease. This occurs upon withdrawal of CsA, provided the thymus receives irradiation and is present during CsA treatment. In this study, the separate effects of irradiation or CsA treatment on thymic stromal cells and thymocytes, compared to the combinatory effects, were examined using immunohistochemistry and tricolor flow cytometric analysis