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Comprehensive cancer services include provision of care to patients with advanced hematologic malignancies, among whom some patients are candidates for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). HCT is a complex and resource-intense medical procedure and optimal transplant outcomes require a high-functioning, multidisciplinary, and cohesive team. The presence of a successful HCT program reflects the commitment from a cancer center to provide comprehensive cancer care services. The program can also serve as a platform for performing cellular therapy procedures such as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies. This chapter reviews the potential pathways to establish an HCT and cellular therapy program along with recommendations on the required infrastructure and personnel. In addition, the chapter provides the foundation for establishing a robust quality program and the resources required for data and research.

We present a prototype system, OptiLoc, that aims at analysing consequences of medical capacity restrictions under the Covid-19 regime as well as at providing medical analysts and decision makers with medical procedure relocation plans for a given area in a given time period. This is achieved by first forecasting the demand of medical procedures of different types at the selected geographical granularity level and then finding relocations which are optimal according to a well defined objective function that takes into account procedure and relocation costs, under constraints imposed by Covid-19 restrictions and hospital capacities. Allocation plans are visualized in a user friendly web-based application. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed system on the data on urological procedures from Poland.

This paper explores the economic incentives for medical procedure innovation. Using a proprietary dataset on billing code applications for emerging medical procedures, we highlight two mechanisms that could hinder innovation. First, the administrative hurdle of securing permanent, reimbursable billing codes substantially delays innovation diffusion. We find that Medicare utilization of innovative procedures increases nearly nine-fold after the billing codes are promoted to permanent (reimbursable) from provisional (non-reimbursable). However, only 29 percent of the provisional codes are promoted within the five-year probation period. Second, medical procedures lack intellectual property rights, especially those without patented devices. When appropriability is limited, specialty medical societies lead the applications for billing codes. We indicate that the ad hoc process for securing billing codes for procedure innovations creates uncertainty about both the development process and the allocation and enforceability of property rights. This stands in stark contrast to the more deliberate regulatory oversight for pharmaceutical innovations.

Robots for rehabilitation tasks require a high degree of safety for the interaction with both the patients and for the operators. In particular, high safety is a stable and intuitive control of the moving elements of the system combined with an external system of sensors able to monitor the position of every aspect of the rehabilitation system (operator, robot, and patient) and overcome in a certain measure all the events that may occur during the robotic rehabilitation procedure. This paper presents the development of an internal torque monitoring system for ASPIRE. This is a parallel robot designed for shoulder rehabilitation, which enables the use of strategies towards developing a HRI (human–robot interaction) system for the therapy. A complete analysis regarding the components of the robotic system is carried out with the purpose of determining the dynamic behavior of the system. Next, the proposed torque monitoring system is developed with respect to the previously obtained data. Several experimental tests are performed using healthy subjects being equipped with a series of biomedical sensors with the purpose of validating the proposed torque monitoring strategy and, at the same time, to satisfy the degree of safety that is requested by the medical procedure.

Coronavirus disease, 2019 (COVID-19) is highly contagious. Chest X-ray (CXR) became the first clinical tool to examine the infection of COVID-19. The progress in the pandemic state of coronavirus makes the entire medical world to rely upon CXR because of its ubiquity and decreased difficulties in the detection of diseases. Most of the chest diseases are curable if observed in the beginning stages. CXR examination is a time-consuming medical procedure that relies on the practitioners’ level of experience. In some instances, medical professionals ignore the illness in the first CXR tests, and during re-examination, disease symptoms may be identified. In this paper, a classification task is carried out with the input of CXR images, and the classification results are declared as COVID-19 positive or COVID-19 negative using deep learning approach.

In recent years, nanomaterials have become increasingly present in medicine, especially in dentistry. Their characteristics are proving to be very useful in clinical cases. Due to the intense research in the field of biomaterials and nanotechnology, the efficacy and possibilities of dental procedures have immensely expanded over the years. The nano size of materials allows them to exhibit properties not present in their larger-in-scale counterparts. The medical procedures in endodontics are time-consuming and mostly require several visits to be able to achieve the proper result. In this field of dentistry, there are still major issues about the removal of the mostly bacterial infection from the dental root canals. It has been confirmed that nanoparticles are much more efficient than traditional materials and appear to have superior properties when it comes to surface chemistry and bonding. Their unique antibacterial properties are also promising features in every medical procedure, especially in endodontics. High versatility of use of nanomaterials makes them a powerful tool in dental clinics, in a plethora of endodontic procedures, including pulp regeneration, drug delivery, root repair, disinfection, obturation and canal filling. This study focuses on summing up the current knowledge about the utility of nanomaterials in endodontics, their characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, and provides a number of reasons why research in this field should be continued.

Objectives: Discuss the experience and practice of multidisciplinary cooperation of diabetic foot in China and analyze its impact on the quality of care.Methods: This study observed the medical procedure by interviewing 12 key personnel in-depth. We extracted data from medical records and assessed the effect of MDT in three dimensions: quality, efficiency, and cost, to eventually achieve a final conclusion.Results: The studied reform includes the following three aspects: the adjustment of hospital buildings layout and disciplines, one-stop outpatient, and one-stop inpatient service. After the multidisciplinary collaboration, the rate of above-knee amputation is reduced by 3.63%, the disability score per 100 diabetic foot patients decreases by 6.12, the average length of stay decreases significantly, and the cost of hospitalization shows an increasing trend.Conclusions: Multidisciplinary collaboration is performed based on spatial layout adjustment and clinical pathway optimization, which provide more comprehensive and integrated care than a general medical team or a single specialist, thereby reducing the rate of disability, shortening the length of hospitalization. Besides, the new measurable indicator called disability score per 100 diabetic foot patients has been verified to evaluate the living ability of patients after surgery. This paper provides a reference for organizational reform of multidisciplinary diseases to support treatment and management of other multiorgan diseases.

PM2.5 can be inhaled by human body through nasal cavity. This kind of material belongs to a fine particle material, and the surface area of fine particle material is relatively large, and the stored harmful substances will be more, which will cause air to be polluted to a great extent. Moreover, the visibility of air is reduced because aerosol and other substances are attached to the surface of PM2.5. This paper mainly studies the sources of urban environmental pollutants and the related aspects of elderly care by edge calculation. Nursing care after anesthesia in the post-sedation care unit some time ago the recuperation room, where patients are accepting consideration and observing their anesthesia for older people from the impacts of sedation. Nursing care incorporates all parts of patient consideration after the medical procedure. The consideration incorporates pulse, circulatory strain, breath, and breath checking. The boundary value problems of pain comprise of help or using prescriptions, for example, narcotics and mitigating medications to experience effects of need. In the setting of outpatient medical procedures, it would be ideal if they follow the accompanying strides with recuperation room nurture direction and self-care methods for patients.

Background Oral food challenges (OFCs) assist in the diagnosis of food allergies and are essential to determine whether an allergy has been outgrown. During the OFC, a medical procedure e introduces foods suspected to be allergenic orally in increasing doses. Mild skin reactions such as urticaria or rarely serious life-threatening reactions such as anaphylaxis may develop. Objective In this study, we aimed to retrospectively evaluate the clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients who experienced anaphylaxis during open OFCs in a tertiary care children’s hospital. Methods Patients who underwent OFCs to confirm the presence of a food allergy or to assess tolerance status at the University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Dr. Sami Ulus Maternity and Children Training and Research Hospital, Pediatric Allergy and Immunology Outpatient Clinic between 1 January 2013 and 1 February 2016, were included in the study. Patients’ data were obtained retrospectively from electronic medical records and challenge chart reviews. Results A total of 623 OFCs were performed during the period studied. Nine patients (1.4%) between 13 and 67 months of age (mean age: 38.3 months) developed anaphylaxis during their OFC. Conclusion OFCs should be performed in a hospital or outpatient office under medical supervision that is adequate for anaphylaxis intervention by an allergy specialist. Close observation of objective and subjective symptoms is essential during the challenge because there are no laboratory tests that can predict an anaphylactic diagnosis or the severity of the reaction.

We examine the heterogeneous effects of reference pricing, a health insurance reform introduced by the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), on the distribution of spending by patients and insurers. Using medical claims data for CalPERS and a comparison group not subject to reference pricing, we use the changes-in-changes approach to estimate the quantile treatment effects of the program across different medical procedures. We find that the quantile treatment effects vary across the patient spending distributions, with a range of positive and negative estimates of the QTE, depending on the medical procedure considered. However, across all procedures, the insurer's spending distributions tend to shift left, with the largest reductions occurring in the right-tail of the spending distributions. These effects are not captured by mean estimates but have important policy implications.

Objective This study explored the acceptability and feasibility of the use of low-cost virtual reality (VR) glasses, and the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Scale and Children’s Fear Scale scales, for pain and fear reduction in children admitted at the septic ward of CoRSU Rehabilitation Hospital in Uganda. Methods In total, 79 children aged 4–17 years of age were offered to watch cartoons using VR glasses while undergoing painful dressing procedures. Before and after the procedure, children were asked to index current pain; children and their caregivers were asked to rate anticipated fear. Focus group discussions with 13 children, 10 caregivers and 9 nurses explored acceptability and feasibility. Quantitative data were analyzed using STATA15, NVIVO12 was used for qualitative data analysis. Results The VR glasses were accepted by 76 (96%) of the children. Children, caregivers, and nurses mentioned the glasses were helpful in distracting children from the medical procedure and felt the use of the glasses helped reduce child fear and pain. Nurses felt it made their work easier. The Wong-Baker Faces Pain Scale was an acceptable and feasible method to measure pain, while the Children’s Fear Scale was more difficult to interpret for our study population as they felt the faces on the scale were hard to read and identify with. Conclusions The use of VR glasses may offer an acceptable and effective pain and fear reduction method in resource-constrained settings and should be further explored in a randomized controlled trial.

(1) Background: The use of virtual reality (VR) in improving patient comfort related to medical procedures in oncology patients raised the question of whether similar benefits could be obtained by patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). (2) Methods: In this prospective, randomized, controlled, single-center clinical trial, a total of 90 patients with IBD treated with vedolizumab were enrolled and randomized in a 1:1 allocation to either the VR immersion group or the routine-treated group. The primary outcome was to evaluate whether VR could decrease stress and anxiety related to a medical procedure. The secondary outcome was to assess the safety of the VR. (3) Results: A statistically significant improvement in well-being and psychological comfort (p = 0.046), feeling of relaxation (p = 0.046), sense of influence on the treatment process (p &lt, 0.001), improved perception of the way the drug works (p &lt, 0.001), improved positive attitude while waiting for the next administration of the drug (p = 0.026), and increased motivation for treatment (p = 0.026) was noticed in the intervention group. There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of complications in the intervention and control groups. (4) Conclusions: The use of VR had a positive effect on the reduction of stress associated with vedolizumab treatment and could improve compliance.

Young pediatric patients who undergo venipuncture or capillary blood sampling often experience high levels of pain and anxiety. This often results in distressed young patients and their parents, increased treatment times, and a higher workload for healthcare professionals. Social robots are a new and promising tool to mitigate children’s pain and anxiety. This study aims to purposefully design and test a social robot for mitigating stress and anxiety during blood draw of children. We first programmed a social robot based on the requirements expressed by experienced healthcare professionals during focus group sessions. Next, we designed a randomized controlled experiment in which the social robot was applied as a distraction method to measure its capacity to mitigate pain and anxiety in children during blood draw in a children’s hospital setting. Children who interacted with the robot showed significantly lower levels of anxiety before actual blood collection, compared to children who received regular medical treatment. Children in the middle classes of primary school (aged 6–9) seemed especially sensitive to the robot’s ability to mitigate pain and anxiety before blood draw. Children’s parents overall expressed strong positive attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of the social robot for mitigating pain and anxiety. The results of this study demonstrate that social robots can be considered a new and effective tool for lowering children’s anxiety prior to the distressing medical procedure of blood collection.

The current health crisis has led to the emergence of new practices, new tools, and an increased use of digital health. Unfortunately, these are too often developed in a way that defies all logic or which has nothing to do with public health. Oral health professionals have been particularly affected during this crisis, and the use of digital health, and especially teledentistry, has been considered in many countries. However, the development of teledentistry is not free of bogus “good” ideas. It is time that teledentistry be adequately considered, while ensuring the quality of the medical procedure and with the aim of reducing inequalities in terms of access to oral healthcare and public health problems.

In the age of pandemic, health services face even more often tragic and irreconcilable dilemmas. A physician is obliged to provide medical procedure whenever a delay in providing it could cause a risk of loss of life, serious injury or health disorder, and in every other urgent case. However, each medical intervention, although necessary and urgent, may be risky for a patient in the age of pandemic, as a doctor may be potentially infected by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2). While it is widely known medical staff is more likely to be exposed to become a source of infection, the risk related to each medical procedure becomes inevitable. The physicians face a serious dilemma as they are aware they might be infected, not having any symptoms or pending the test results while at the same time the necessity to perform medical procedure might occur live-saving. It seems a physician cannot prematurely resign from medical assistance with reference to a potential infection risk. However, the risk has to be reasonably estimated and responsibly reduced. If the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is high enough to exceed potential advantages of the medical intervention, this intervention might occur unjustified. It might not apply to super urgent lifesaving situations in which failure to provide treatment may lead to patient’s death. It is necessary to minimize the risk to achievable level in order to avoid infection.

A research autopsy is a post-mortem medical procedure performed on a deceased individual with the primary goal of collecting tissue to support basic and translational research. This approach has increasingly been used to investigate the pathophysiological mechanisms of cancer evolution, metastasis and treatment resistance. In this Review, we discuss the rationale for the use of research autopsies in cancer research and provide an evidence-based discussion of the quality of post-mortem tissues compared with other types of biospecimens. We also discuss the advantages of using post-mortem tissues over other types of biospecimens, including the large amounts of tissue that can be obtained and the extent of multiregion sampling that is achievable, which is not otherwise possible in living patients. We highlight how the research autopsy has supported the identification of the clonal origins and modes of spread among metastases, the extent that selective pressures imposed by treatments cause bottlenecks leading to parallel and convergent tumour evolution, and the creation of rare tissue banks and patient-derived model systems. Finally, we comment on the future of the research autopsy as an integral component of precision medicine strategies.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find determinants of the effectiveness of the business improvement processes that create value for services offered to patients in healthcare industries. The words patients and customers are used interchangeably throughout without any distinction. The features that distinguish medical services of different types and their inter-related factors are examined. The aim is to come up with a model of value vs cost that can help healthcare managers examine and use this exercise as an example of improvement micro-projects to help reduce cost and eliminate the patient’s dissatisfaction gaps. Design/methodology/approach The list of factors or attributes influencing the creation of value of a given medical process or a single procedure is described. The factors in the value creation are examined that will help in the categories for the risk analysis to determine the value-added benefits for the patient outcome. The cost analysis is approached from two angles to include: the cost of the service, and the costs of poor quality of service. Findings The model describes the value for the patient satisfaction depending on the quality level or grade of the treatment or procedures used and the cost factor. The analysis is done at several levels with special reference to case examples. A search for various analogous models in similar service providing situation used in business process management of other process types is highlighted and discussed. Originality/value The model is an interesting generic illustration for considering value vs cost in all patient care strategies. It enables the position of various medical procedures that can be applied to the same disease in order to keep the variations as minimum as possible within the quality control specification limits. The importance in different aspects of check-points or hold points for inspection is also discussed.

Summary Malpractice claims are a regularly increasing concern in gastrointestinal surgery. The goal of this study was to compare the current status of claims in two different French-speaking communities by a retrospective descriptive study of surgeons’ experiences, from the beginning of their practice up until December 31 2014. Data included the number, the reasons, and the results of medicolegal claims and their jurisdictions. Forty-three surgeons participated in this study. Two hundred medicolegal claims were analyzed. The mean number was 5.8 per surgeon. Bariatric surgery, colorectal surgery and parietal surgery were the most exposed. Forty-six (23%) faults were noted, while no fault was pronounced in 139 (69.5%) cases. The main reasons for lodging complaints were nosocomial infections, anastomotic leaks, poor postoperative care, hollow organ perforation, peripheral neurologic complication, and insufficient preoperative information. Forty-four percent of the complaints were analyzed by the conciliation and compensation commissions and 43.5% by the High Court. In the French-speaking group, there were 13 complaints, two of which gave rise to compensation. French surgeons are highly exposed to complaints: in French law, clumsiness or technical maladdress is considered as a fault. The patient should be informed preoperatively of all possible severe risks of a medical procedure. In Belgium, complications are exceptional and are considered random therapeutic events. Adhering to the recommendations emanating from the French High Authority of Health and Learned Societies as well as accreditation issued by the same High Authority should allow to decrease the number of undesirable events related to care and malpractice.

BackgroundVirtual reality (VR) may enhance the effectiveness of psychological interventions for acute pain. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of VR-based interventions for pain associated with medical procedures.MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO until June 17th 2018. We identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs), comparing VR-based psychological interventions to usual care, for pain intensity (primary outcome) or affective and cognitive components of pain (secondary outcomes), assessed real-time or retrospectively. Two independent reviewers performed study selection and data extraction. Risk of bias was independently evaluated by three raters using the revised Cochrane Collaboration tool. A random-effects model using the Paule and Mandel estimator was used for pooling effect sizes.Results27 RCTs (1452 patients) provided enough data for meta-analysis. Compared to usual care, VR-based interventions reduced pain intensity both real-time (9 RCTs, Hedges' g = 0.95, 95% CI 0.32–1.57) and retrospectively (22 RCTs, g = 0.87, 95% CI 0.54–1.21). Results were similar for cognitive (8 RCTs, g = 0.82, 95% CI 0.39–1.26) and affective pain components (14 RCTs, g = 0.55, 95% CI 0.34–0.77). There was marked heterogeneity, which remained similarly high in sensitivity analyses. Across domains, few trials were rated as low risk of bias and there was evidence of publication bias. Adverse events were rare.ConclusionsThough VR-based interventions reduced pain for patients undergoing medical procedures, inferring clinical effectiveness is precluded by the predominance of small trials, with substantial risk of bias, and by incomplete reporting.

Oncoplastic medical procedure consolidates plastic careful systems with sound careful oncologicstandards. The objective is to totally extract the malignant growth, with wide careful edges whilekeeping up or improving cosmesis. For huge, inadequately characterized, or ominously arrangedtumors, standard lumpectomies may prompt unsuitable restorative outcomes notwithstandingclose or included resection edges. Comparable issues may happen for littler tumors in littlebosoms. Joining of the two careful orders evades or limits poor restorative outcomes after wideextraction. It builds the quantity of ladies who can be treated with breast‐conserving medicalprocedure by permitting bigger bosom extractions with progressively satisfactory correctiveoutcomes. Oncoplastic medical procedure requires a multidisciplinary approach and exhaustivepreoperative arranging. It is totally important to enroll the participation and coordination ofcareful oncology, plastic medical procedure, radiology, pathology, restorative oncology, andradiation oncology. Oncoplastic medical procedure requires a way of thinking that the presenceof the bosom after tumor extraction is significant.

Little is known about charge sensitivity or charge awareness among intensive care unit (ICU) providers in the United States. In a survey of 295 ICU providers at a large, academic medical center, 92.5% of respondents agreed that controlling health care expenses is partly their responsibility. However, 87.4% of respondents reported that they did not know the charges for most of the tests and medications they prescribe. Among surveyed participants, the correct charge for a medical procedure or test was selected only 35% of the time. While ICU providers overwhelmingly agree that controlling expenses is their responsibility, charge awareness is low and likely limits their ability to make value-based decisions.

Background The past four years has seen a rapid roll-out of male medical circumcision services in South Africa in response to clinical trials showing circumcision prevents HIV acquisition in heterosexual men. Clinics conduct substantial numbers of circumcisions per day. We report three cases of glans amputation in adolescents attending high volume clinics where modified Models of Optimising Volume and Efficiency (MOVE) are implemented. Case presentations Three cases of glans amputation in young healthy men that presented for voluntary medical male circumcision. The procedures were performed by highly experienced medical officers in two cases. All these cases shared characteristics: younger males with immature genitalia, forceps guided circumcision, and likely operator fatigue. Voluntary male medical circumcision programs should include regular monitoring and evaluation and training of operators to ensure high quality surgical techniques such as working in clean areas and taking frequent breaks. Conclusion Circumcision is a relatively simple medical procedure, however regular training and quality control in high volume Male Medical Circumcision sites is essential to prevent rare catastrophic adverse events.

WOS: 000471895800013 PubMed: 31203776 This study was conducted to find out the effects of different means of games used during pediatric blood draw on the levels of procedure-induced fear and anxiety. Patient descriptive information form and selected scales were completed for both the experimental and control group before the blood drawing procedure. During the blood draw procedure, the children in the experimental group listened to music and watched video games. Following the blood draw procedure, the children were given the Fear of Medical Procedure Scale and State Anxiety Inventory for a second time. The results of the study showed that differences between pre- and postprocedure average total scores of Fear of Medical Procedure Scale were statistically significant for all groups (p < .05). As a conclusion, it was found that making children listen to music or watch a video during blood draw was effective in decreasing their medical procedure fear levels and state anxiety.

Ultrasound (US)-guided intervention is a well-established medical procedure and offers advantages such as real-time guidance, portability, reduced cost, shortened procedure time compared with computed tomography, and lack of ionizing radiation. Ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) are a useful adjunct to US-guided procedures. The addition of microbubble UCAs during US-guided interventions can assist with biopsy planning and lesion selection, aid in identification of target lesions, and direct the biopsy toward viable tissue. Ultrasound contrast agents have been in use outside of the United States for many years and have been used off label at select institutions across the United States before the Food and Drug Administration approval of Lumason (Bracco Diagnostics) for liver lesion evaluation in April 2016. After Food and Drug Administration approval, the use of UCAs has expanded rapidly, and UCAs are being used for a variety of clinical applications. Ultrasound contrast agents have been shown to be safe, and there is no renal toxicity. In this article, we will discuss the indications and techniques for using contrast-enhanced ultrasound during US-guided interventions, and we will present case examples where contrast-enhanced ultrasound added value.

Summary In Crete, as in the rest of the Ottoman Empire, patients who suffered from hernias and other diseases that required surgery made statements to the court of law that absolved the surgeons of liability in case of death as a result of the operation. These statements also included information about the medical condition concerned, the surgeon, the medical procedure and the fee to be paid. In this article, we discuss such statements of the period 1670–1760 from the town of Kandiye (mod. Heraklion). On one hand, we demonstrate that a critical analysis of the statements reveals a dynamic society, which actively overcomes its ideology of submission to God and religious prejudices when it comes to dealing with health issues. On the other hand, we argue that, as the statements were made before the official court of law, they constitute a facet of the Ottomanisation of Cretan society and its practices.

Background One-stage revision arthroplasty has currently a limited use in treatment of a periprosthetic infection despite obvious economic benefits in comparison with two-stage revisions. This operation involves the removal of all implant components, radical surgical debridement, joint irrigation, installation of a new implant, and a long course of antibiotic therapy. Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness of one-stage revision arthroplasty in the treatment of patients with periprosthetic infection of the hip joint. Material and methods Results of treatment of 14 patients with periprosthetic hip infection who underwent the procedure of a single-stage revision arthroplasty in the period from 2009 to 2018 were analyzed. The average follow-up was 2.7 years (range, 1 to 10 years). Results Twelve (86 %) out of 14 patients with periprosthetic infection of the hip joint completed one-stage treatment successfully. Two (14 %) patients developed recurrent infection and had a two-stage revision arthroplasty using an antibacterial spacer. In accordance with the Harris Hip Score scale, the functional state of the limbs at a one-years follow-up after treatment averaged 77.7 points (range, 36 to 95). Conclusions One-stage revision is quite a laborious medical procedure, for which sufficient experience of orthopedic surgeons and a specialized hospital service. This method of treatment provided suppression of infection in 86 % of our cases. Negative factors in using one-stage revision were polymicrobial infection and implant dislocation in the early postoperative period.

Imaging-guided interventions or interventional radiology (IR) are intended to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the medical procedure regardless of the organ, as well as the safety and comfort of the patient. Currently IR concerns all medico-surgical specialties with a number of acts constantly increasing, and is today a major field of innovation that responds to a strong societal demand to move towards more and more effective treatments, but also less and less invasive. The ambulatory shift in IR is a major prospect of saving and improving the quality of care. In the field of innovations, technical developments are major for both guidance methods and interventional radiology equipment. These developments affect all organ pathologies, but it is certainly in the field of oncology that progress is fastest, with personalized medicine with new drugs targeted to optimize tolerance to treatment and maximize effects. The aim of this article is to make this specialty better known, its organization both in terms of training and the permanence of care.

Medical informed consent is the process by which a 'competent', non-coerced individual receives sufficient information including risks of a medical procedure and gives permission for it to occur. The capacity to give an informed consent might be impaired during labour. This study aimed to examine women's abilities to understand and remember during labour. Women were prospectively recruited at 36 weeks of gestation and randomised to undertake questionnaires which assessed their ability to understand and remember information. They were randomised to: (1) information given in labour only, written format (2) information in labour, verbal (3) information at 36 weeks plus labour, written (4) information at 36 weeks plus labour, verbal. Immediate comprehension and retention was assessed at 36 weeks, in labour, and 24-72 hours after birth. Forty-nine women completed the questionnaires regarding understanding and retention of information at 36 weeks, six intrapartum, and five postpartum (90% attrition). Women receiving information at 36 weeks and in labour

Living-donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) offers the best medical outcomes in terms of graft and patient survival for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. LDKT involves a medically and psychologically suitable individual willingly agreeing to donate a kidney to a loved one or stranger. It is a unique situation in which a healthy person consents to having a medical procedure for another person’s benefit. LDKT raises numerous ethical issues, particularly with respect to voluntary consent, risks and benefits, and vulnerability. In recent years, the discovery of APOL1, a gene associated with increased risk of chronic kidney disease and ESRD in African Americans, and unique situations arising from requests to undergo living donation from persons who are not traditionally healthy or have social circumstances that may challenge influence-free, informed decision making have challenged the ethics of LDKT. In this article, we discuss the ethical issues surrounding three emerging situations in LDKT: living kidney donors with life-limiting illness, incarcerated living kidney donors, and APOL1 genotyping in the context of living donor candidate evaluation.

Introduction With the rising costs of cancer care, it is critical to evaluate the overall cost-efficiency of care in real-world settings. In the United States, breast cancer accounts for the largest portion of cancer care spending due to high incidence and prevalence. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between breast cancer costs in the first 6 months after diagnosis and clinical outcomes by care source (direct or purchased) in the universal-access US Military Health System (MHS). Materials and Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of data from the Department of Defense Central Cancer Registry and MHS Data Repository administrative records. The institutional review boards of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the Defense Health Agency reviewed and approved the data linkage. We used the linked data to identify women aged 40–64 who were diagnosed with pathologically-confirmed breast cancer between 2003 and 2007 with at least 1 year of follow-up through December 31, 2008. We identified cancer treatment from administrative data using relevant medical procedure and billing codes and extracted costs paid by the MHS for each claim. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models estimated hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for recurrence or all-cause death as a function of breast cancer cost in tertiles. Results The median cost per patient (n = 2,490) for cancer care was $16,741 (interquartile range $9,268, $28,742) in the first 6 months after diagnosis. In direct care, women in the highest cost tertile had a lower risk for clinical outcomes compared to women in the lowest cost tertile (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.35, 0.96). When outcomes were evaluated separately, there was a statistically significant inverse association between higher cost and risk of death (p-trend = 0.025) for women receiving direct care. These associations were not observed among women using purchased care or both care sources. Conclusions In the MHS, higher breast cancer costs in the first 6 months after diagnosis were associated with lower risk for clinical outcomes in direct care, but not in purchased care. Organizational, institutional, and provider-level factors may contribute to the observed differences by care source. Replication of our findings in breast and other tumor sites may have implications for informing cancer care financing and value-based reimbursement policy.

In German ecumenical dialogue, a lot of attention is being given to bioethical issues, especially when the German state introduces new regulations resulting from the political, social, cultural and economic transformations. An example of this is the document of the Catholic and the Evangelical Churches “Christian Patient Protection” (2010) that, thanks to the substantive value, is an aid in clarifying the rights and, at the same time, the responsibilities of a patient at the last stage of life which is the dying. An integral part of the document in question is an attached form that facilitates patient’s practical determination of medical procedure intended by him / her which is in line with the applicable statutory law and moral standards. A particular challenge for the assessment of medical procedures for a patient is sometimes occurring persistent vegetative state. In this case, the two Churches agreed in this document the differences in their respective positions with regard to specific medical procedures.

Blood transfusion is the single most frequent in-hospital medical procedure, a life-saving intervention for millions of recipients worldwide every year. Storage in the blood bank is an enabling strategy for this critical procedure, as it logistically solves the issue of making ~110 million units available for transfusion every year. Unfortunately, storage in the blood bank promotes a series of biochemical and morphological changes to the red blood cell that compromise the integrity and functionality of the erythrocyte in vitro and in animal models, and could negatively impact transfusion outcomes in the recipient. Areas covered: While commenting on the clinical relevance of the storage lesion is beyond the scope of this manuscript, here we will review recent advancements in our understanding of the storage lesion as gleaned through omics technologies. We will focus on how the omics-scale appreciation of the biological variability at the donor and recipient level is impacting our understanding of red blood cell storage biology. Expert commentary: Omics technologies are paving the way for personalized transfusion medicine, a discipline that promises to revolutionize a critical field in medical practice. The era of recipient-tailored additives, processing, and storage strategies may not be too far distant in the future.

Organ transplantation is a medical procedure which a healthy organ is removed from the living or cadaver donor to be transplanted into the recipient whose related organ is no more functioning properly. There are two types of organ transplantation: living-donor and cadaver-donor transplantation. After the donation, related organs are taken from the patient following the brain death in the ICU and transplanted to the recipient. Organs can be used only when the brain death is confirmed and declared in the ICU. Brain death is the irreversible state of loss in the brain functions. According to the article 14 of the law No 2238, when a patient is officially brain-dead, the organs or tissues can be taken with the consent of their spouse, children of age, mother/father, siblings in order or an acquaintance of any of them if the rest is not present. Organ donation is when an individual gives their consent by documentation, with free will, and allow their tissues and organs to be donated for the treatment of other patients after the end of their life medically. According to the law no 2238, any citizen who is mentally healthy and above 18 years of age, can donate their organs and obtain an organ donation card. Organ transplantation is a very serious medical issue in Turkey as it is in other countries and the donation rates should be increased by informing the public and getting more participation. Success in organ transplantation can be obtained by a higher number of organ donations.

After a medical procedure left Xi Xi with limited mobility in her right arm and hand, she began making teddy bears as a form of physical therapy. She dressed these teddies, who are personalities fr...

The question of whether a medical procedure is to be considered experimental or routine practice has enormous practical implications. In transplant surgery, as compared with pharmacologic clinical trials, the transition from experimental procedure to normal care is far from clear cut. Clinical trials comprise 4 well-established phases of evaluation going from phase I, aimed at assessing safety and identifying side effects in a few healthy volunteers, to phase IV, which involves entire populations and is aimed at long-term postmarketing surveillance. In transplant surgery, technical progress and experimentation follow more atypical and individual routes. As compared with pharmacologic research, the decision about “routine practice readiness” of a surgical procedure does not rely on a standardized formal act but rather on experts' capacity to find a consensus based on best practices and on ad-hoc criteria as well. Independent assessment by a panel of experts and oversight by an institutional review board are key to facilitating meaningful protection of transplant recipients and allowing the research to go forward. The framework of the human subjects protection regulations should also consider the transplant of organs that have previously been part of a research project.

Background: Home dialysis patients may be at an increased risk of adverse events after transitional states. The home dialysis virtual ward (HDVW) trial was conducted in Canadian dialysis centers and aimed to evaluate potential care gaps and patient satisfaction during the HDVW. Methods: The HDVW was a multicenter single-arm trial including peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis patients after 4 different events (hospital discharge, medical procedure, antibiotics, completion of training). Telephone-led interviews using a standardized assessment tool were performed over a 2-week period to assess a patient’s care and adjust treatment as required. Upon completion, patients were surveyed to evaluate their perceived impact on domains of care using a rating scale; 1 not satisfied to 10 completely satisfied. Results: The HDVW trial included 193 patients with a median number of potential care gaps/interventions of 1 (0–2) per patient. Patients admitted to the HDVW after hospital discharge were at a higher risk of potential gaps in care (OR 2.16, 95% CI 1.29–3.62), while longer dialysis vintage was ­associated with a lower number of gaps/interventions (OR 0.97 per year, 95% CI 0.95–0.98). A total of 105/193 (54%) patients completed satisfaction surveys. Patients were highly satisfied with the HDVW (median rating scale score 8, IQR 2) and felt it had a positive impact (rating scale score ≥7) on their overall health, understanding of treatment and access to a nephrologist. Conclusion: The HDVW was effective at identifying several potential care gaps, and patients were satisfied across several domains of care. This intervention may be valuable in supporting home dialysis patients during care transitions.

Several lines of evidence suggest that children born via Cesarean section (C-section) are at greater risk for adverse health outcomes including allergies, asthma and obesity. Vaginal seeding is a medical procedure in which infants born by C-section are swabbed immediately after birth with vaginal secretions from the mother. This procedure has been proposed as a way to transfer the mother's vaginal microbiome to the child, thereby restoring the natural exposure that occurs during vaginal birth that is interrupted in the case of babies born via C-section. Preliminary evidence indicates partial restoration of microbes. However, there is insufficient evidence to determine the health benefits of the procedure. Several studies, including trial, are currently underway. At the same time, in the clinic setting, doctors are increasingly being asked to by expectant mothers to have their babies seeded. This article reports on the current research on this procedure and the issues it raises for regulators, researchers, physicians, and patients.

Purpose: This article aims to present a standardization of the technique of transanal therapeutic irrigation, which is an old technique that has passed through history and is now used as a medical procedure to assist in the treatment of defecation disorders. Methods: This protocol was developed in patients with myelomeningocele submitted to the standard transanal therapeutic irrigation technique, in accordance with the protocol established at the Clinic of defecation disorders at a public university hospital in Brazil. The presented standard technique highlights the following topics: preparation of the patient before the treatment; interdisciplinary approach; training of the patient or the family member responsible for the patient and the step-by-step technique itself. The research ethics committee at the university approved this study. Discussion: Transanal therapeutic irrigation is indicated in neurogenic bowel dysfunctions and functional disorders of defecation. Training the patient or a family member responsible for irrigation is performed on three consecutive days, all of them supervised by the nurse. This technique aims to re-establish control over defecation and bowel function, and consists in an infusion of warm tap water through the anus, which allows the patient to evacuate daily the stool and keep the colon empty for longer periods. This avoids fecal incontinence and increases the quality of life of patients with defecation disorders. Conclusion: Transanal therapeutic irrigation is an effective, well-tolerated and safe procedure, which is better compared to the standard clinical care. Resumo: Objetivo: Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar uma padronização da técnica de irrigação transanal terapêutica, uma técnica antiga que passou pela história e tem sido utilizada como procedimento médico para auxiliar no tratamento de distúrbios de defecação. Métodos: Este protocolo foi desenvolvido em pacientes com mielomeningocele submetidos à técnica de irrigação terapêutica transanal padrão, de acordo com o protocolo estabelecido na Clínica de Distúrbios da Defecação de um hospital universitário público no Brasil. A técnica padrão apresentada destaca os seguintes tópicos: preparação do paciente antes do tratamento; Abordagem interdisciplinar; treinamento do paciente ou do membro da família responsável pelo paciente e a técnica passo a passo em si. O comitê de ética em pesquisa da universidade aprovou este estudo. Discussão: A irrigação transanal terapêutica está indicada nas disfunções intestinais neurogênicas e nos distúrbios funcionais da defecação. O treinamento do paciente ou de um familiar responsável pela irrigação é realizado em três dias consecutivos, todos supervisionados por uma enfermeira. Esta técnica visa restabelecer o controle sobre a evacuação e a função intestinal, e consiste em uma infusão de água da torneira quente através do ânus, que permite ao paciente evacuar diariamente as fezes e manter o cólon vazio por períodos mais longos. Isso evita a incontinência fecal e aumenta a qualidade de vida dos pacientes com distúrbios de defecação. Conclusão: A irrigação terapêutica transanal é um procedimento efetivo, bem tolerado e seguro, o qual é melhor quando comparado ao tratamento clínico padrão. Keywords: Spinal cord injuries, Fecal incontinence, Constipation, Quality of life, Stomas, Therapeutic irrigation, Palavras-chave: Traumatismos da medula espinhal, Incontinência fecal, Constipação, Qualidade de vida, Estomas, Irrigação terapêutica

The debate over ‘medical tourism’ versus ‘travel for medical treatment’ largely centres on the role of the voluntary leisure or touristic component. This study provides empirical evidence regarding the nature of leisure tourism occurring during medical travel, drawing on interviews with individuals who have returned from travel overseas for medical treatment. We identify four influences: the medical procedure; personal factors (e.g. travel experience, resilience, accompanying companions); destination factors; and financial matters. The most significant of these is the nature of the medical procedure, its level of invasiveness and requirements for post treatment recovery, and whether or not the patient-traveller suffered any complications. The ‘hotel-isation’ of hospitals (‘hospitels’) contributes to participants' perceptions of this type of travel being touristic in nature, even if no other conventional touristic activities are engaged in. We also observe similarities between medical tourism and business travel, both being hybrid forms of tourism, with variable leisure components.