Search

Introduction: Implementation of telehealth in high-risk patient populations provides opportunities for continuous interactions and has previously been shown to positively impact practice. However, there is a paucity of studies focused on telehealth in the liver transplant population specific to pharmacist care. Project Aim: Describe the importance of transplant pharmacist treatment decisions between telehealth, in-clinic, and asynchronous (eg chart review and electronic message support) visit types. Design: This was a single-center comparative evaluation of adult liver transplant recipients transplanted between May 1, 2020 and October 31, 2020 with a transplant pharmacist visit between May 1, 2020 and November 30, 2020. The primary outcome was the average number of treatment decisions per encounter and the average number of important treatment decisions per encounter. The importance of these treatment decisions was determined by a panel of three clinicians. Results: Twenty-eight patients met the inclusion criteria with 85 in-clinic, 42 telehealth, and 55 asynchronous visits. For all treatment decisions, there was no statistical difference in average number of treatment decisions per encounter between telehealth visits and in-clinic visits with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.822 (95% CI, 0.674–1.000; P = 0.051). Similarly, for important treatment decisions, there was no statistical difference between telehealth visits and in-clinic visits (OR 0.847; 95% CI, 0.642–1.116; P = 0.238). Conclusion: Transplant pharmacists can deliver recommendations with similar importance via telehealth compared to in-clinic visits based on the number of total and important treatment decisions.

Objectives: To quantify the impact of IV pump relocation for COVID-19 patients from the bedside to outside the patient room on nurse exposure to COVID-19 and conservation of PPE. Design: Original Article Setting: Intensive care units at a single-center teaching hospital. Patients: Critically ill COVID-19 patients under contact and special droplet precautions. Interventions: Relocation of intravenous pumps for COVID-19 patients from bedside to outside the patient room using extension tubing. Measurements and Main Results: The primary objective of the study was to measure the impact of this strategy on COVID-19 exposure, utilizing the number of nurse entries into the patient room as a surrogate endpoint, and extrapolation of this data to determine the reduction or PPE usage. Secondary endpoints included incidence of extravasation, hyperglycemia, hypotension, and diagnosis of CLABSI/bacteremia. A statistically significant reduction in the primary endpoint of the study was observed as room entries prior to pump relocation averaged 15.36 (± 4.10) as opposed to an average of 7.92 (± 2.19) following pump relocation (p < 0.0001). In both pre- and post-pump relocation groups, there was no incidence of extravasation or CLABSI. No significant differences were noted in number of patients experiencing hyperglycemia, hypotensive episodes, or bacteremia. Conclusions: There was a significant decrease in COVID-19 exposure based on the number of nurse entries following the relocation of intravenous pumps from inside to outside of the patient room. These results may be cautiously extrapolated to suggest a decrease in personal protective equipment utilization. Future prospective, randomized controlled trials investigating the impact of this strategy are required.

This paper presents a supplementary system for rehabilitation, which is based on the wireless accelerometer network and integrates with remote monitoring and cross-platform intelligent terminal. System features are analyzed, and then hardware, software and different platforms are discussed and developed. Two tested cases are presented. One is for rehabilitation training of a patient with elbow ligament injury, and the other for a hemiplegic patient. Results show that our developed WSN based system has many great advantages over the traditional counterpart for rehabilitation of the patients.

This paper presents design of a high-g 8-beam piezoresistive micro-accelerometer. Based on mechanics of materials and vibration theory, an analytical model of symmetric beam-mass structure is established to obtain the structural parameters of the micro-accelerometer. Then, finite element method in ANSYS is used to make a 3-dimensional analysis, and results obtained are in good agreement with those from the analytical model. In the end, piezo-resistors of the micro-accelerometer are laid out and sensitivity is discussed.

This paper presents an investigation of the miniaturized radiators for microwave hyperthermia. The physical models are established by using the high frequency structure simulator(HFSS) for 2.4GHz bare antenna, half-bare antenna and coaxial slot antenna for hyperthermia, and tested results using Vector Network Analyzer are also given and compared with the simulation results from HFSS, providing guidance to develop MEMS-based radiators for microwave hyperthermia.

In this paper we studied the micro-knife for minimally invasive surgery and its driving device which is the PZT-4 plates. It works in an ultrasonic vibration mode to realize the precise incision with its sharp tip at one end. We estimated the micro-knife's resonant frequency in longitudinal direction and transverse direction. After the resonance and anti-resonance frequency of the PZT-4 plates were obtained, we chose the PZT-4 plates whose resonant frequency is close to the natural frequency of the Micro-knife and used them to excite the micro-knife into vibration. We mainly study three kinds of the micro-knife which are symmetrical linear, partially unsymmetrical exponential and totally unsymmetrical exponential. The entire micro-knives' vibration was observed and measured by using the high-power digital microscope and CCD equipment in the precision optical platform. The result measured suggests that the micro-knife in an unsymmetrical shape is more suitable for cutting.

In this paper, we present design and fabrication of a temperature sensor of Pt thin film for real time accurately measuring temperature in tumor hyperthermia. Processing parameters for using magnetron sputtering to deposit Pt thin film are obtained through many trial processes in order to get the excellent thin film surface morphology and sensing performance. With finite element analysis in ANSYS, it confirms that the sensor has a fast dynamic response in two special contact situations between tumor and sensor in hyperthermia. The tested results show the developed sensor has a good linear output relationship and its TCR reaches 0.0031/°C, which is close to the industry standard value of the bulk Pt resistor sensor.