Technology and Health Care - Volume 24, issue s1

Authors: Li, Chih-Ping | Fang, Yu-Wen

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Dementia is a syndrome characterized by the progressive decline in cognitive function and memory that impairs a person's ability to function normally. Although dementia mainly affects older people, it is not a normal part of aging. The population of Taiwan is experiencing a multi-decade ageing trend and regrettably the absolute numbers of people with dementia is also rapidly rising. In 2008, the Taiwan Government initiated a ``Ten-Year Long-term Care Plan'' to categorize dementia's disability and severity, and it evaluates access to home care, respite care services, daycare or home nursing care. This review figure out the features of the features …of ``Taiwan Dementia Policy: A Framework for Prevention and Care'' and discuss care pathway network as a guideline for people with dementia in Taiwan. The expectation is for many Taiwanese providers and patients in need simply don't know what services are available or how to access them. A properly designed dementia website could be one such effective tool to meet this need. There is an ongoing risk that future resources allocated will not reach the intended individuals unless this implementation problem is addressed urgently. Show more

Keywords: Dementia, care pathway, lasting power of attorney

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151091

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S337-S344, 2016

Authors: Chou, Hsi-Chiang | Wang, Yi-Ming | Chang, Huai-Yuan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The phenomenon of aging populations has produced widespread health awareness and magnified the need for improved medical quality and technologies. Statistics show that ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death for older people and people with reduced mobility; therefore, wheelchairs have become their primary means of transport. Hence, an arrhythmia-detecting smart wheelchair was proposed in this study to provide real-time electrocardiography (ECG)-monitoring to patients with heart disease and reduced mobility. A self-developed, handheld ECG-sensing instrument was integrated with a wheelchair and a lab-written, arrhythmia-detecting program. The measured ECG data were transmitted through a Wi-Fi module and analyzed and …diagnosed using the human-machine interface. Show more

Keywords: Smart wheelchairs, Wi-Fi module, electrocardiography interface

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151092

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S345-S355, 2016

Authors: Lo, Rong-Chin | Huang, Wen-Lin | Hsiao, Yu-Lin

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In recent years, positron emission tomography imaging (PET) and Computed tomography (CT) fusion images can be observed metabolic information, they can get a more accurate spatial information. People have to construct 3D models in the first place when they try to examine images from different angles. Once a cross-section which we want to inspect has been revealed, it can be observed from any angles. However, a issue people encounter in above-mentioned procedures is that they have to either process images fusion at the beginning and then reconstruct the 3D models with these images to generate section or rebuilt the 3D …models with these images and fuse section images as the second step. The main objective of this research is to discriminate the divergences and merits between two types of procedures.This research discovers that two different procedures will exactly bring about dissimilar types of images. Therefore, this research particularly aims at the analysis of two images and evaluates the extent of fringe and remaining information. We calculates entropy and standard deviation of the images. Nevertheless, finding section on 3D models first and fusing images secondly will generate the images which retain more information. Show more

Keywords: PET, CT, PET/CT fusion, 3D model

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151093

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S357-S367, 2016

Authors: Lin, Hsin-Hsin

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: It was noted worldwide while learning fundamental skills and facing skills assessments, nursing students seemed to experience low confidence and high anxiety levels. Could simulation-based learning help to enhance students' self-efficacy and performance? Its effectiveness is mostly unidentified. This study was conducted to provide a shared experience to give nurse educators confidence and an insight into how simulation-based teaching can fit into nursing skills learning. A pilot study was completed with 50 second-year undergraduate nursing students, and the main study included 98 students where a pretest-posttest design was adopted. Data were gathered through four questionnaires and a performance assessment under …scrutinized controls such as previous experiences, lecturers' teaching skills, duration of teaching, procedure of skills performance assessment and the inter-rater reliability. The results showed that simulation-based learning significantly improved students' self-efficacy regarding skills learning and the skills performance that nurse educators wish students to acquire. However, technology anxiety, examiners' critical attitudes towards students' performance and their unpredicted verbal and non-verbal expressions, have been found as possible confounding factors. The simulation-based learning proved to have a powerful positive effect on students' achievement outcomes. Nursing skills learning is one area that can benefit greatly from this kind of teaching and learning method. Show more

Keywords: Self-efficacy, fundamental nursing skills, simulation-based learning

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151094

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S369-S375, 2016

Authors: Lai, Yi-Horng

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Comorbidities are the presence of one or more additional disorders or diseases co-occurring with a primary disease or disorder. The purpose of this study is to identify diseases that co-occur with HIV/AIDS and analyze the gender differences. Data was collected from 536 HIV/AIDS outpatient department medical records out of 1,377,469 outpatient department medical records from 1997 to 2010 in Taiwan. In this study, the comorbidity relationships are presented in the phenotypic disease network (PDN), and ϕ -correlation is used to measure the distance between two diseases on the network.

Keywords: Phenotypic Disease Network (PDN), HIV/AIDS, network analysis

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151095

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S377-S383, 2016

Authors: Huang, Chung-Chi | Liu, Hsiao-Man | Huang, Chung-Lin

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Physical fitness and health of white collar business person is getting worse and worse in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a system which can enhance physical fitness and health for people. Although the exercise prescription can be generated after diagnosing for customized physical fitness and healthcare. It is hard to meet individual execution needs for general scheduling of physical fitness and healthcare system. So the main purpose of this research is to develop an intelligent scheduling of execution for customized physical fitness and healthcare system. The results of diagnosis and prescription for customized physical fitness and healthcare …system will be generated by fuzzy logic Inference. Then the results of diagnosis and prescription for customized physical fitness and healthcare system will be scheduled and executed by intelligent computing. The scheduling of execution is generated by using genetic algorithm method. It will improve traditional scheduling of exercise prescription for physical fitness and healthcare. Finally, we will demonstrate the advantages of the intelligent scheduling of execution for customized physical fitness and healthcare system. Show more

Keywords: Prescription, scheduling of execution, intelligent system, customized system, physical fitness, healthcare

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151096

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S385-S392, 2016

Authors: Hsu, Chih-Yu | Lai, Yeong-Lin | Chen, Chih-Cheng | Lee, Yu-Tzu | Tseng, Kuo-Kun | Lai, Yeong-Kang | Zheng, Chun-Yi | Jheng, Huai-Cian

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper presents the time sequence image analysis technique of positron emission tomography (PET) using a wavelet transformation method. The abdominal cavity of a person taking [18 F]Fluoro-2-deoxy-2-D-glucose (18 F-FDG) was scanned by the dynamic PET. The organ selection with dynamic PET images was conducted by the wavelet transformation to implement automatic selection of the region of interest (ROI). The image segmentation was carried out by the processes of sampling, wavelet transformation, erosion, dilation, and superimposition. Wavelet constructed image (WCI) contours were created by sampling 512 images from 1960 consecutive dynamic sequence PET images. The image segmentation technology developed can …help doctors automatically select ROI, accurately identify lesion locations of organs, and thus effectively reduce human operation time and errors. Show more

Keywords: Image segmentation, positron emission tomography (PET), region of interest (ROI), wavelet transformation

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151105

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S393-S400, 2016

Authors: Fang, Yu-Wen | Li, Chih-Ping | Wang, Mei-Hua

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The research aimed to develop a nursing information system in order to simplify the admission procedure for caring clinical in-patient, enhance the efficiency of medical information documentation. Therefore, by correctly delivering patients' health records, and providing continues care, patient safety and care quality would be effectively improved. The study method was to apply Spiral Model development system to compose a nursing information team. By using strategies of data collection, working environment observation, applying use-case modeling, and conferences of Joint Application Design (JAD) to complete the system requirement analysis and design. The Admission Care Management Information System (ACMIS) mainly included: (1) …Admission nursing management information system. (2) Inter-shift meeting information management system. (3) The linkage of drug management system and physical examination record system. The framework contained qualitative and quantitative components that provided both formative and summative elements of the evaluation. System evaluation was to apply information success model, and developed questionnaire of consisting nurses' acceptance and satisfaction. The results of questionnaires were users' satisfaction, the perceived self-involvement, age and information quality were positively to personal and organizational effectiveness. According to the results of this study, the Admission Care Management Information System was practical to simplifying clinic working procedure and effective in communicating and documenting admission medical information. Show more

Keywords: Satisfaction, admission care, nursing information system

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151106

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S401-S406, 2016

Authors: Huang, Chung-Chi | Huang, Chung-Lin | Liu, Hsiao-Man

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In recent years, it is quite important to develop a customized system which can enhance physical fitness and health for people. And the system reliability is more important. In the paper, a fool-proofing design and crisis management for customized physical fitness and healthcare system is proposed. It is designed to prevent the failure of the various mechanisms of customized physical fitness and healthcare system, including records, surveillance, assessments, predictions, diagnosis, prescription, and scheduling. It is separated into (1) fool-proofing design module (2) crisis management module. The fool-proofing indexes are set to prevent the failure of the various mechanisms. The states …of the various mechanisms are managed by the auto-checked fool-proofing indexes. If mistakes prevention was fail, we have to execute the crisis management for stopping harmful results. The crisis management will find the error level and response the solution by using fuzzy method. By the experiments, we can find the advantages of the fool-proofing design and crisis management for customized physical fitness and healthcare system. And it is effective to prevent the failure of the various mechanisms of intelligent customized physical fitness and healthcare system. Show more

Keywords: Fool-proofing, crisis management, intelligent system, customized system, physical fitness, healthcare

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151107

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S407-S413, 2016

Authors: Zhang, Yujuan | Song, Na | Fu, Jiamin | Liu, Yanling | Yu, Yanrong | Shi, Qiaofa | Fu, Yingyuan | Zhou, Nanjing | Yuan, Keng | Zhao, Lin | Zhang, Quan | Min, Weiping

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: RNA interference (RNAi) employs double-stranded RNA or siRNA (small interfering RNA) to silence gene expression in cells. The widespread use of RNAi therapeutics requires the development of clinically suitable, safe and effective delivery vehicles. PEI (Poly(ethylene imine)) carrying the positive charges has attracted considerable attention for siRNA delivery. Gold nanorods (GNRs) exhibit specially localized surface plasmon resonance when excited by the visible and near-infrared laser, which is useful for photothermal therapy. However, the toxicity derived from a large amount of the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) during GNR synthesis severely limits their medical applications. Here, we report the synthesis of GNRs-PEI/GNRs-PEI-folate …to improve biocompatibility, siRNA delivery and photothermal therapy of GNRs. Firstly, GNRs were synthesized according to the seed-mediated template-assisted protocol. The characterization results of GNRs showed: the size was length about 218 nm and width about 26.8 nm; the Zeta potential was +38.1 mV derived from CTAB on their surface; the dipole resonance extinction spectrum peak was 752 nm which is effective for photothermal therapy in vivo. Secondly, we synthesized PEI-MUA (Mercaptoundecanoic acid) and PEI-MUA-folate based on the chemical reaction between amino group of PEI and carboxyl group of MUA or Folate. PEI-MUA or PEI-MUA-folate to replace CTAB on GNRs obtained the GNRs-MUA-PEI system or the GNRs-MUA-PEI-folate system due to the solid conjugation between the thiol group of MUA and GNRs. The products were measured using the FTIR Spectrometer, and the spectra suggest MUA-PEI or PEI-MUA-folate has successfully replaced CTAB on the surface of GNRs. Finally, GNRs-MUA-PEI was incubated with siRNA-Cy3. The unbound siRNA-Cy3 was measured the intensity of fluorescence for calculating the uploaded amount of siRNA by GNRs-MUA-PEI, and the results indicate that the uploaded percentage of siRNA is about 70%. We conclude that the GNRs-MUA-PEI system is an effective siRNA loading vehicle. Show more

Keywords: GNRs-PEI, GNRs-PEI-folate, siRNA delivery, photothermal therapy

DOI: 10.3233/THC-151108

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 24, no. s1, pp. S415-S420, 2016