Technology and health care : official journal of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2014
ReviewRole of music in the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): a literature review.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a pulmonary disease characterized by airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. It is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020. The objective of the study was to examine the impact of music on psychological and physiological outcomes among individuals with COPD. ⋯ More research of a longer duration and with a larger sample size is needed to examine the impact of music interventions on clinical, functional, psychological and physiological outcomes among COPD individuals.
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2012
ReviewMerits and capabilities of helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) in traumatized patients.
Since the introduction of helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) into the civilian rescue system, there is an ongoing discussion on its potential benefits in terms of time- and cost-effectiveness as well as clinical outcome improvement. Currently, the use of HEMS seems to provide a survival benefit in traumatized patients due to several aspects compared to ground emergency medical service (GEMS). ⋯ However, these aspects should be considered carefully as specific circumstances referring to rescue teams, on-scene management as well as preclinical durations, triaging of trauma patients and subsequent treatment at different hospitals have to be attended. In the present review current aspects of HEMS compared to GEMS are discussed.
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2012
ReviewOn the efficiency of FES cycling: a framework and systematic review.
Research and development in the art of cycling using functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the paralysed leg muscles has been going on for around thirty years. A range of physiological benefits has been observed in clinical studies but an outstanding problem with FES-cycling is that efficiency and power output are very low. The present work had the following aims: (i) to provide a tutorial introduction to a novel framework and methods of estimation of metabolic efficiency using example data sets, and to propose benchmark measures for evaluating FES-cycling performance; (ii) to systematically review the literature pertaining specifically to the metabolic efficiency of FES-cycling, to analyse the observations and possible explanations for the low efficiency, and to pose hypotheses for future studies which aim to improve performance. ⋯ Performance assessments should be carried out at a well-defined operating point, i.e. under conditions of well controlled work rate and cadence, because these variables have a strong effect on energy expenditure. Future work should focus on the two main factors which affect FES-cycling performance, namely: (i) unfavourable biomechanics, i.e. crude recruitment of muscle groups, non-optimal timing of muscle activation, and lack of synergistic and antagonistic joint control; (ii) non-physiological recruitment of muscle fibres, i.e. mixed recruitment of fibres of different type and deterministic constant-frequency stimulation. We hypothesise that the following areas may bring better FES-cycling performance: (i) study of alternative stimulation strategies for muscle activation including irregular stimulation patterns (e.g. doublets, triplets, stochastic patterns) and variable frequency stimulation trains, where it appears that increasing frequency over time may be profitable; (ii) study of better timing parameters for the stimulated muscle groups, and addition of more muscle groups: this path may be approached using EMG studies and constrained numerical optimisation employing dynamic models; (iii) development of optimal stimulation protocols for muscle reconditioning and FES-cycle training.
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2012
ReviewPrevention and diagnosis of retained foreign bodies through the years: past, present, and future technologies.
Post operative retained foreign bodies are a rare but recalcitrant problem. We detail reports of interventions over the last two centuries and review the most current interventions using automated data identity capture and computer aided detection. This was one of earliest areas in which multidisciplinary collaboration was achieved in patient safety. This multidisciplinary collaboration was unique because most other initiatives had been internal: among the disciplines working in the OR i.e. surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists; this collaboration, to achieve optimal patient safety at that point in time was between surgeons and radiologists to ensure a lack of post operative retained foreign bodies.
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Technol Health Care · Jan 2009
ReviewWireless solutions for managing diabetes: A review and future prospects.
Diabetes is rapidly growing in prevalence worldwide. The number of people with diabetes was 171 million in 2000 and will grow to 366 million by 2030. One reason for this is a growing elderly population, but younger people are increasingly likely to develop diabetes due to an increase in mean weight and a decrease in exercise. ⋯ In this paper, the needs for information, change in lifestyle, health monitoring, and management of medication and complications in diabetes are analysed. They form a basis for following review of available wireless solutions for managing diabetes. Finally, future prospects of mobile management of diabetes are discussed.