Barriers of six sigma in healthcare organizations

Six Sigma approach is based on decreasing defects and variations in the products and processes, and it provides important benefits to healthcare organizations. This study aims to identify managers’ opinions, who work in private healthcare organizations, about the reasons behind not using Six Sigma in their organizations. The research was performed between December 2016 and March 2018 in private healthcare organizations (private hospitals and medical centers) operating in Turkey and not using Six Sigma approach. Data were collected from managers, who have knowledge about Six Sigma, through using surveys. In this study, survey methodology was used to collect data. According to the results, the biggest barrier related to not using Six Sigma is based on the lack of knowledge about Six Sigma. The other important barrier about the diffusion of Six Sigma within this organizations is related to the lack of support from top management and leaders. Another finding about the reasons of not applying Six Sigma approach is that there is not a statistically significant difference among managers in terms of their managerial position. In order to overcome the lack of knowledge about Six Sigma, it is advised that managers should take steps in the direction of promoting Six Sigma within their current organization, and provide necessary support and leadership about the process

Statistical shape modeling of the left ventricle: myocardial infarct classification challenge

Statistical shape modeling is a powerful tool for visualizing and quantifying geometric and functional patterns of the heart. After myocardial infarction (MI), the left ventricle typically remodels in response to physiological challenges. Several methods have been proposed in the literature to describe statistical shape changes. Which method best characterizes left ventricular remodeling after MI is an open research question. A better descriptor of remodeling is expected to provide a more accurate evaluation of disease status in MI patients. We therefore designed a challenge to test shape characterization in MI given a set of three-dimensional left ventricular surface points. The training set comprised 100 MI patients, and 100 asymptomatic volunteers (AV). The challenge was initiated in 2015 at the Statistical Atlases and Computational Models of the Heart workshop, in conjunction with the MICCAI conference. The training set with labels was provided to participants, who were asked to submit the likelihood of MI from a different (validation) set of 200 cases (100 AV and 100 MI). Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were used as the outcome measures. The goals of this challenge were to (1) establish a common dataset for evaluating statistical shape modeling algorithms in MI, and (2) test whether statistical shape modeling provides additional information characterizing MI patients over standard clinical measures. Eleven groups with a wide variety of classification and feature extraction approaches participated in this challenge. All methods achieved excellent classification results with accuracy ranges from 0.83 to 0.98. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were all above 0.90. Four methods showed significantly higher performance than standard clinical measures. The dataset and software for evaluation are available from the Cardiac Atlas Project website1

Reconstruction of coronary arteries from X-ray angiography: A review.

Despite continuous progress in X-ray angiography systems, X-ray coronary angiography is fundamentally limited by its 2D representation of moving coronary arterial trees, which can negatively impact assessment of coronary artery disease and guidance of percutaneous coronary intervention. To provide clinicians with 3D/3D+time information of coronary arteries, methods computing reconstructions of coronary arteries from X-ray angiography are required. Because of several aspects (e.g. cardiac and respiratory motion, type of X-ray system), reconstruction from X-ray coronary angiography has led to vast amount of research and it still remains as a challenging and dynamic research area. In this paper, we review the state-of-the-art approaches on reconstruction of high-contrast coronary arteries from X-ray angiography. We mainly focus on the theoretical features in model-based (modelling) and tomographic reconstruction of coronary arteries, and discuss the evaluation strategies. We also discuss the potential role of reconstructions in clinical decision making and interventional guidance, and highlight areas for future research

TO INVESTIGATION THE PESONEL CHARACTERISTICS THE FOOTBALL REFEREES IN THE AREA OF ANKARA

Durum saptaması olan bu araştırma, Türkiye Profesyonel Futbol Liglerinde görev alan futbol hakemlerinin kişilik özelliklerini saptamak ve çeşitli değişkenlere göre aralarındaki farklılıkları belirlemek amacıyla yapılmıştır. Araştırmanın örneklemini, 2005-2006 futbol sezonunda Ankara Bölgesine kayıtlı 6 Bayan ve 62 Erkek olmak üzere 68 profesyonel futbol hakemi oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak; Ankara bölgesi klasman futbol hakemlerinin kişilik özelliklerini belirlemek için Sıfat Tarama Listesi (Adjective Check List) adlı kişilik testi ile Hakem Kişisel Bilgi Formu kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada elde edilen veriler ; iki grubun karşılaştırılması için Mann- Whitney U ve ikiden çok grubun karşılaştırılması için Kruskal Wallis testleri ile analiz edilmiştir. İşlemler için ACL bilgisayar programı ve SPSS for Windows paket programı kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre; 1. Örneklem grubunu oluşturan Ankara Bölgesi Klasman Futbol Hakemlerinin en baskın beş kişilik özelliğinin; ideal benlik, başatlık, özgüven, yaratıcı kişilik ve düzen olduğu görülmektedir. 2. Hakemler klasman alt ölçeğine göre anlamlı bir farklılık göstermemektedir. 3. Hakemler cinsiyet değişkenine göre danışmaya hazır bulunuşluk alt ölçeğinde anlamlı bir farklılık göstermektedir 4. Hakemler meslek değişkenine göre şefkat alt ölçeğinde anlamlı bir farklılık göstermektedir. 5. Hakemler eğitim durumu alt ölçeğine göre anlamlı bir farklılık göstermemektedir. 6. Hakemler ekonomik durum değişkenine göre duyguları anlama, şefkat, yakınlık, danışmaya hazır oluş ve ideal benlik alt ölçeklerinde anlamlı farklılık göstermektedir. 7. Hakemler hakemliği seçme değişkenine göre sebat, düzen, değişiklik ve yaratıcı kişilik alt ölçeklerinde anlamlı farklılık göstermektedir. 8. Hakemler memnuniyet değişkeni derecesine göre sebat, düzen, bağımsızlık, saldırganlık, değişiklik ve uyarlık alt ölçeklerinde anlamlı farklılıklar göstermektedir. 9. Hakemler çalışma süresi alt ölçeğine göre anlamlı bir farklılık göstermemektedir. 10. Hakemler yaş değişkenine göre sebat ve düzen alt ölçeklerine göre anlamlı farklılıklar göstermektedir.This research has been conducted to identify and differentiate the characteristics of football referees charged in Turkish Professional Football Leagues on the basis of the following criteria. The sample of research is composed of 68 prefessional football refereas 6 females 68 males, who are registered in Ankara district in 2005-2006 football season. The personality test of Adjective Check List and Personal Information Forms for Referees have been used to identify the characteristics of Ankara District Classified Football Referees. Data obtained from research are analysied with Mann-Whitney U test in order to compare two groups and Kruskal Wallis test in order to compare more than two groups. For these proceedings ACL computer programme and SPSS for Windows programme are used. According to the findings; 1. The most dominant five characteristics of the Ankara District Classified Football Referees forming the sample group are seen as; ideal self, dominance, self confidence, creativity and orderliness. 2. No significant difference has been observed on the sub scale of referees' classification. 3. A significant difference is observed among the male and female referees on readiness for asking advise sub scale. 4. Referees are observed to differ on the affection sub scale according to their occupations. 5. No significant difference has been observed on the sub scale of referees' education.. 6. Referees on the basis of their economic situation, differ on empathy, affection, proximity, readiness for asking advice and ideal self sub scales. 7. According to the differences in their choice of becoming a referee, perseverence, orderliness, independence, tolerance for change and creativity sub scales were observed to be significantly different among referees. 8. Referees show a significant difference on the basis of perseverence, orderliness, independence, agressiveness, tolerance for change and obedience sub scales according to their job satisfaction degrees. 9. According to work time sub scale, no significant difference is observed. 10. According to the age variable of referees, there is a meaningful difference on perseverence and orderliness sub scales

Altı Sigma Yaklaşımı ve Sağlık Kurumlarından Örnekler

Sağlık hizmetlerinde verimliliğin sağlanması, kaynakların doğru kullanılması, değişkenliğin ve israfın önlenmesi, hasta memnuniyetinin yükseltilmesi ile ilgili bilimsel çalışmalara giderek daha fazla ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. Bu ve benzeri konularda ortaya çıkan sorunların çözümünde sağlık sektörünün başvurabileceği önemli araçlardan biri de altı sigma yaklaşımıdır. Çalışmada altı sigma yaklaşımının tanımı ve önemi, yaklaşımda kullanılan metodolojiler, Altı Sigma Rolleri ve Sorumlulukları ile Sağlık Kuruluşlarında Altı Sigma Uygulamalarına ilişkin örnekler verilmiştir