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This article explores the models and frameworks developed on "research impact'. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of related literature through scoping study method. The present research investigates the nature, objectives, approaches, and other main attributes of the research impact models. It examines to analyze and classify models based on their characteristics. Forty-seven studies and 10 reviews published between 1996 and 2020 were included in the analysis. The majority of models were developed for the impact assessment and evaluation purposes. We identified three approaches in the models, namely outcome-based, process-based, and those utilized both of them, among which the outcome-based approach was the most frequently used by impact models and evaluation was considered as the main objective of this group. The process-based ones were mainly adapted from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation logic model and were potentially eligible for impact improvement. We highlighted the scope of processes and other specific features for the recent models. Given the benefits of the process-based approach in enhancing and accelerating the research impact, it is important to consider such approach in the development of impact models. Effective interaction between researchers and stakeholders, knowledge translation, and evidence synthesis are the other possible driving forces contributing to achieve and improve impact.

Background: Pre-hospital emergency technicians are crucial in managing patients with acute psychiatric symptoms. They must quickly assess the condition, make a primary diagnosis, and refer the patient to the appropriate treatment center. Insufficient skills in these situations can cause serious harm. Educating technicians on dealing with these patients may enhance their knowledge and skills; however, we do not know the extent and longevity of this improvement and which areas are affected. This study investigates the impact of training on pre-hospital emergency technicians' knowledge and skills. Methods: This quasi-experimental study involved pre-hospital emergency technicians in Robat Karim and Nasim Shahr counties from December 2022 to January 2022. The technicians received workshops on interacting with psychiatric patients. The training topics included the basic principles of coping with a psychiatric patient. They also covered a step-by-step approach to dealing with an aggressive patient, dealing with a patient threatening suicide, managing agitation, managing a patient suffering from panic attacks, and finally dealing with a delirious patient. A pre-test assessed their baseline knowledge and skills, followed by a post-test after training and another test three months later. The test results were analyzed. Results: This study involved forty male participants ranging in age from 25 to 44 and with work experience ranging from five to twenty years. As a result of training in dealing with acute psychiatric patients, technicians developed significant skills and knowledge immediately after training, and these improvements remained significant three months after training. Nevertheless, the correct answers decreased during the three-month follow-up compared to the pre-test. Education was less effective at managing panic, delirium, and agitation. Conclusion: In conclusion, technicians' knowledge and skills can be effectively enhanced through training; however, the impact diminishes with time. Theories and practical methods, periodic repetition, and real-world internships are the best ways to maximize training effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present systematic review and meta-analysis were aimed to assess the current and lifetime prevalence of alcohol consumption among school and university students in Iran. Method: Online databases including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and domestic scientific databases including SID, Magiran, IRANDOC, RICeST were searched systematically from inception to December 2019, using Persian and English languages. Following a random-effects meta-analysis, we estimated the pooled current and lifetime prevalence of alcohol consumption among school and university students in Iran. Heterogeneity was assessed with the Cochran Q statistic and quantified with the I 2 statistic. Results: Of the 319 identified records, 64 articles met the inclusion criteria. The students’ overall pooled prevalence of current and lifetime alcohol consumption was 11.7% (95% CI, 10.0–13.4) and 14.5% (95% CI, 12.1–16.9), respectively. Prevalence of current and lifetime alcohol consumption among school students were 15.2% (95% CI, 7.8–11.5), and 15.4% (95% CI, 12.5–18.4) respectively, prevalence of current and lifetime alcohol consumption in university students were 9.7% (95% CI, 7.8–11.5), 13.7% (95% CI, 10.3– 17.2) respectively. Conclusions: Based on findings, it seems necessary to implement and formulate primary and comprehensive prevention strategies and policies based on various cultures, regions, geographies, ages, and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this narrative review, we investigate the potential opportunities and benefits, as well as the challenges and concerns of integrating the Internet of Things in healthcare. The opportunities include enhanced patient monitoring and management, improved efficiency and resource utilization, personalized and precision medicine, empowering patients and promoting self-management, and data-driven decision-making, while the challenges include security and privacy risks, interoperability and integration, regulatory and compliance issues, ethical considerations and impact on healthcare professionals and patients. These challenges must be carefully weighed against the benefits before deployment of the IoMT-enabled services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development and implementation of Internet of Medical Things has made interoperability a serious challenge. In this scoping review, we provide an overview of the interoperability challenge, as reported in the health literature, and highlight the proposed solutions. After searching between January 2018 and June 2023 in Compendex via Engineering Village and PubMed, we found 18 publications. The interoperability challenges identified were device heterogeneity, system heterogeneity, data standardization, security and safety, system and architecture standard, system and workflow integration and regulatory and compliance requirements. Solutions included ontology approaches, conceptual semantic frameworks, improved standards, design of middleware, and using blockchain technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) has been described in various clinical settings including after hepatitis B virus (HBV) immunization. The purpose of study was to characterize the prevalence of OBI among immunized children from a subset of general population and the parents of OBI‐positive cases. Methods: Sera of 1200 children from general population who have been previously immunized by HBV vaccine were assayed for anti‐HBs. 660 were randomly selected for HBV DNA testing by different polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods and were analysed by direct sequencing on surface genes. Results: None of participants were positive for HBsAg and anti‐HBc. 549 (45.7%) and 651 (54.3%) cases had anti‐HBs > 10 mIU/mL (responders) and < 10 mIU/mL (nonresponders) respectively. Of 660 selected specimens, 91 (16%) of children were positive for OBI. 23 (25.2%) and 68 (74.8%) of HBV DNA positive cases were belonged to responders and nonresponders, respectively, showing significant difference (P <.001). The mean levels of anti‐HBs in OBI‐positive and OBI‐negative groups, showed no considerable variations. The mean viral load for OBI‐positive cases showed substantial differences between responders and nonresponders (P =.007). Of 49 parents (98 individuals) of OBI‐positive children 11 (22%) and 18 (36%) were positive for anti‐HBc and anti‐HBs respectively. Molecular testing was positive in 32 subjects (16 couples, 32.6%). In total, 6 mothers and 11 fathers were positive for OBI. Conclusion: A proportion of OBI‐positive vaccinated children could be existed in different populations. This finding could be arisen from vertical HBV transmission or vertical OBI possibly from their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Iranian chronic HBV carrier's population has shown a unique pattern of genotype D distribution all around the country. The aim of this study was to explore more details of evolutionary history of carriers based on structural surface proteins from different provinces. Materials and Methods: Sera obtained from 360 isolates from 12 Different regions of country were used for amplification and sequencing of surface proteins. A detailed mutational analysis was undertaken. Results: The total ratio for Missense/Silent nucleotide substitutions was 0.96. Sistan and Kermanshah showed the lowest rate of evolution between provinces (P = 0.055). On the other hand, Khorasan Razavi and Khoozestan contained the highest ratio (P = 0.055). The rest of regions were laid between these two extremes. Azarbayjan and Guilan showed the highest proportion of immune epitope distribution (91.3% and 96%, respectively). Conversely, Sistan and Tehran harbored the least percentage (66.6% and 68.8%, respectively). Kermanshah province contained only 5.2%, whereas Isfahan had 54.5% of B cell epitope distribution. In terms of T helper epitopes, all provinces showed a somehow homogeneity: 22.58% (Fars) to 46.6% (Khuzestan). On the other hand, distribution of substitutions within the CTL epitopes showed a wide range of variation between 6.6% (Khuzestan) and 63% (Kermanshah). Conclusion: Further to low selection pressure found in Iranian population, the variations between different regions designate random genetic drift within the surface proteins. These finding would have some applications in terms of specific antiviral regimen, design of more efficient vaccine and public health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: It is generally believed that the attributes of shared environment affect health of residents beyond the individual risk factors. This study investigates some individual and neighborhood characteristics that may affect self-rated health (SRH) in Iran. METHODS: Questions were asked about the social capital, economic status and SRH of 1,982 citizens from 200 randomly selected locations in Tehran. The neighborhood characteristics were assessed by an observational checklist. A multilevel model was designed. RESULTS: SRH was significantly different between neighborhoods (P-value < 0.001) and between economic groups (P-value < 0.001). At the individual level, social capital (SC) and being married had a positive association with SRH, while age, being female and bad economic statuses were negatively associated with SRH. At the neighborhood level, neighborhoods with higher average education were positively association with SRH, and living in neighborhoods under construction had a negative association with SRH. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the importance of shared social and physical environment, as well as individual characteristics on health, although the mechanisms may still be controversial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The effect of psychosocial work environment on personal and organizational aspects of employees is well-known; and it is of fundamental importance to have valid tools to evaluate them. This study aims to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Persian version of Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ). Methods: The questionnaire was translated into Persian and then back translated into English by two translators separately. The wording of the final Persian version was established by comparing the translated versions with the original questionnaire. One hundred three health care workers completed the questionnaire. Chronbach's alpha was calculated, and factor analysis was performed. Results: Factor analysis revealed acceptable validity for the five contexts of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.73 to 0.82 in different contexts. Conclusion: This study revealed that the Persian version of COPSOQ is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring psychosocial factors at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) has the oldest and highest number of research centers among all Iranian medical universities, this study was conducted to evaluate scientific output of research centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) using scientometric indices and the affecting factors. Moreover, a number of scientometric indicators were introduced. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed to evaluate a 5-year scientific performance of research centers of TUMS. Data were collected through questionnaires, annual evaluation reports of the Ministry of Health, and also from Scopus database. We used appropriate measures of central tendency and variation for descriptive analyses. Moreover, uni-and multi-variable linear regression were used to evaluate the effect of independent factors on the scientific output of the centers. Results: The medians of the numbers of papers and books during a 5-year period were 150.5 and 2.5 respectively. The median of the "articles per researcher" was 19.1. Based on multiple linear regression, younger age centers (p=0.001), having a separate budget line (p=0.016), and number of research personnel (p<0.001) had a direct significant correlation with the number of articles while real properties had a reverse significant correlation with it (p=0.004). Conclusion: The results can help policy makers and research managers to allocate sufficient resources to improve current situation of the centers. Newly adopted and effective scientometric indices are is suggested to be used to evaluate scientific outputs and functions of these centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective(s): Infection caused by Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 (HTLV-I) can be observed in some areas of Iran in form of endemic. Most of the cases are asymptomatic, and few cases progress to malignancies and neural diseases. Designing and implementing a model to screen people especially in endemic regions can help timely detection of infected people and improve the prognosis of the disease. Materials and Methods: In this study, results of the complete blood count (CBC-diff) for 599 healthy people and the patients with different types of Leukemia and HTLV-I have been examined. Modeling was made using CHAID method. The final model was carried out based on the number of white blood cells (WBC), platelets, and percentages of eosinophils. Results: The accuracy of the final model was 91%. By applying this model to the CBC-diff results of people without symptoms or miscellaneous patients in endemic regions of our country, disease carriers can be identified and referred for supplementary tests. Conclusion: With regard to the prevalence of different complications in infected people, these individuals can be identified earlier, leading to the improvement of the prognosis of this disease and the increase of the health status especially in endemic regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Residence characteristics can affect health of residents. This paper reports the development of an instrument assessing these aspects of neighborhoods. Materials and Methods: Literature search and focus group discussions with residents were carried out and relevant items were extracted. Five experts reviewed and commented on the items. An observation instrument with 54 items was composed and completed by two independent observers in 20 randomly selected locations. Due to lack of acceptable reliability in some items, the checklist was revised. The new 22-items checklist in four categories (general characteristics, public green area characteristics, access to services and undesirable features) was completed by two independent trained observers in 28 randomly selected locations. Results: The items in the final checklist had kappa statistics ranging from 0.63 to 1, with an exception of the item assessing “presence of beggars, homeless or working/street children”, with kappa as low as 0.27 due to variability of their presence in different times. Average Kappa statistics was 0.78 for general characteristics, 0.79 for public green area characteristics, 0.84 for access to services, and 0.54 for undesirable features. Conclusion: Neighborhood and health observation instrument seems to have good reliability in city of Tehran. It can probably be used in other large cities of Iran and similar cities elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a relatively new medical technology with various applications. This study aims to evaluate the performance of this technology in diagnosis and treatment of heart and neurological diseases. Methods: In this systematic review, electronic databases including the Cochrane library (DARE, NHS EEDs, CENTRAL and Cochrane systematic reviews), MEDLINE5 EMBASE and TRIP were searched which retrieved 25 articles. Inclusion criteria were studies in which MRI 3 Tesla was compared with a reference standard method including MRI 1.5 Tesla, and the outcomes were sensitivity, specificity, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and safety. Findings: 25 papers were included. Most of them had a relatively good quality. The majority showed that the diagnostic performance (sensitivity and specificity) of 3 Tesla was higher than 1.5 Tesla. The SN of 3 Tesla varied between 79 and 91% compared to 79 and 90% for 1.5 Tesla. The SP of 3 Tesla varied between 76 and 95% for 3 Tesla compared to 67 and 87% for 1.5 Tesla. Most of studies showed that the technical quality of images was higher with 3 Tesla compared to 1.5 Tesla. Both 1.5 and 3 Tesla were safe although 3 Tesla led to slightly more sensory stimuli. Conclusion: The diagnostic and technical performance of 3 Tesla is slightly higher than 1.5 Tesla. 3 Tesla is slightly better in diagnosis of some specific cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the design of computerized decision aid (DA) and a protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial to study the effects of computerized DA on decisional conflict and knowledge of pregnant Iranian women pertaining to the mode of delivery: Caesarean section vs. vaginal delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the emergence of COVID-19 outbreak, various types of AI-assisted medical imaging has been applied to help in screening, diagnosis and management of the disease. Objective: We aim to describe computed tomography and radiography as two popular AI-assisted medical imaging modalities in diagnosis and management of COVID-19. Material and Methods: We provide an overview of AI-assisted CT and AIassisted radiography projects and their applications. We also discussed some relevant projects in Iran. Our models formed with an innovative preprocessing approach to remove possible batch effects and artifacts and also to deploy data from multiple sources for end-to-end training of Deep Neural Networks (DNN). Results: This projects showed that the use of artificial intelligence in the analysis of plain chest radiographs (CXR) can be very helpful in the rapid screening of suspected individuals (Sensitivity >95%) and the diagnosis of Covid-19 disease, especially in areas or cases where CT scan is not easily accessible. In addition, the system designed for AI-assisted CT was successful in calculating the size and volume of the infected areas for a more effective treatment of COVID-19 patients. The accuracy score of the models in AI-assisted CT is above 95%. Conclusion: AI-assisted medical imaging has been applied in COVID-19 pandemic both to improve accuracy of the diagnosis and to help answer the increased workload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]