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There are various economic costs included in medical treatment and its complications including direct, indirect, and opportunity expenditures. A substantive chunk constitutes indirect costs particularly those related to the process of generating medical records. This article dwells on the medical costs in general, indirect costs relating to the generation and archiving of an ever-increasing volume of patient records both in printed and electronic versions, and the economic market value of medical databases. The calculations and estimates provided in the article are based on data available on the Internet and the authors’ research and empirical evidence gathered in a tertiary surgical referral center. The analysis indicates that well-maintained electronic medical records can reduce the rate of treatment complications by up to 30% by lessening the administrative burden on physicians by making them more attentive to the tasks for which they are trained. A switch from paper-to-electronic medical records could save as many as over 33000 trees being cut down per year in Poland alone. On a world basis, electronic records obviate the potential rental costs for at least 800000 square meters of storage area for paperrun documents. The market value of medical databases covering the medical records of the entire world’s population is estimated at $100 billion. In conclusion, excessive generation of medical records indirectly results in an increased risk of surgical complications contributing to staff fatigue and burnout. It also increases direct treatment costs. Well-maintained medical records supported by artificial intelligence technologies may substantially reduce the number of complications and thus both direct and indirect costs. The generation of a large nationwide or global medical record database, aside from the underlying technological progress and advances in currently used treatments, may lead to substantial fiscal savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: Osteoarthritis is a feature of the aging process. Here, we adopted in silico 2D finite element modeling (FEM) for the simulation of diseased ankle joints. We delved into the influence of body weight intensity on the stress distribution caused by subchondral cysts imitating degenerative age-related arthritic changes. Methods: FEM was performed using virtually generated pictorial schemes of the ankle joint skeletal contour. It included a constellation of scenarios with solitary or multiple cysts, or the lack thereof, located centrally, peripherally, or both in the talus and tibia at increased fixed levels of body weight. Results: The modeling showed that the highest stress was in the presence of a solitary central cyst in the talus and two centrally located cysts in the talus and the tibia, with the averaged values of 1.81 ± 0.52 MPa and 1.92 ± 0.55 MPa, respectively; there was a significant increase compared with the 1.24 ± 0.35 MPa in the control condition without cysts. An increase in body weight consistently increased the strain on the ankle joint. In contrast, peripherally located cysts failed to affect the stress distribution significantly. Conclusions: We conclude that subchondral central cysts substantially enhance the stress exerted on the ankle joint and its vicinity with body weight dependence. FEM's ability to predict the location and magnitude of subchondral stress changes when confirmed in clinical trials might help to optimize the management of age-related degenerative joint changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current data demonstrate that shortages of medical professionals, particularly concerning physicians and nurses dauntingly persist in many regions of the world, across European countries, and pointedly in Poland. The causes of shortages are multifarious including the issues related to medical education, organization of public healthcare services, state policies, and changing motivational aspects among school-leavers willing to take on exhausting and long studies, and no less so medical profession. This article reviews the various causes of medical staff shortages, and potential ways of improving the situation. It includes a self-reported survey on the attitude of graduates who earlier completed paramedical and natural science studies to upgrade their education toward a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree (graduates of nursing, physiotherapy, and biology) or a Registered Nurse degree (RN) (graduates of physiotherapy and biology) by attending shortened than otherwise nominal study courses. The survey was conducted in Poland in a group of 35 people aged 30-54, with about equal participation of both sexes. Thirteen out of the 35 people (37%) expressed a potential willingness to upgrade their professional education to obtain an MD but none to obtain an RN degree if shortened study modes were launched. The results indicate that the scheme of shortened further postgraduate medical education is a viable option to partially remedy the shortage of physicians, but not nurses whose lack is more acute than that of physicians. Public administration should strive to establish ways and incentives to counteract the shortage of nursing staff [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]