Usability evaluation of emergency information systems in educational hospitals in Kerman, Iran

BACKGROUND

Smart and practical health information systems and applications with fewer errors are crucial for healthcare facilities. One method that ensures the proper design of health information systems (HIS) and applications is usability evaluation.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to evaluate the usability of the emergency information systems used at the emergency departments of four educational hospitals in Kerman, Iran.

METHOD

This study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the information systems' errors and shortages were identified using a semi-structured questionnaire by users (nurses and the IT staff). In the second phase, based on the results of the first phase, two questionnaires were designed for each group of users to their opinions about the usability of the emergency information systems.

RESULTS

The average score of "reducing and facilitating user's daily activities" was significantly different among hospitals (p = 0.03). Shahid Beheshti Hospital obtained the lowest usability score (17.5), and Afzalipour Hospital received the highest usability score (21.75). Moreover, the average score in "use of the HIS" for nurses and IT staff was 2.93 and 3.54 on a scale of 5, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Usability evaluation of health information systems is essential to ensure that these systems provide sufficient and accurate information and requirements for users and health care providers. Also, modifying health information systems based on the user views and expectations improves the quality of the system and user-system Interaction.

Data forwarding: A new VoteRank and Assortativity based approach to improve propagation time in social networks

With the rapid development of social networks, studying and analyzing their structures and behaviors has become one of the most important requirements of businesses. Social network analysis can be used for many different purposes such as product ads, market orientation detection, influential members detection, predicting user behaviors, recommender systems improvements, etc. One of the newest research topics in social network analysis is the enhancement of the information propagation performance in different aspects based on application. In this paper, a new method is proposed to improve few metrics such as distribution time and precision on social networks. In this method, the local attributes of nodes and also the structural information of the network is used to forward data across the network and reduce the propagation time. First of all, the centrality and Assortativity are calculated for all nodes separately to select two sets of nodes with the highest values for both criteria. Then, the initial active nodes of the network are selected by calculating the intersection of the two sets. Next, the distribution paths are detected based on the initial active nodes to calculate the propagation time. The performance analysis results show that the proposed method has better outcomes in comparison to other state-of-the-art methods in terms of distribution time, precision, recall, and AUPR criteria.

Comparison between cheatham-platinum stent and self-expandable uncovered nitinol stent in patients with coarctation of aorta – a randomized controlled trial

Background

Endovascular treatment is considered the main therapeutic approach for native coarctation of aorta (CoA) in adult patients. Balloon-expandable stents (BE) have been introduced as the primary choice for coarctoplasty. However during the recent years, self-expandable (SE) stents with acceptable radial force have been suggested as an alternative. Still, no randomized controlled (RCT) trials have compared the efficacy and safety of both strategies.

Methods

The present study is a prospective, single center, parallel-group, open-label RCT on patients with native CoA (Figure). Patients were randomized into Bare Cheatham-Platinum Stents and Uncovered Nitinol Stent (SE). All patients were scheduled to be followed in 1-, 6-, 12-month and 36-month intervals. The present report, focuses on the one-year outcome of the study.

Results

Of 101 patients with native CoA referred to our center, 93 patients have been randomized into BE- (47 patients) and SE-arm (46 patients). One year follow up is scheduled to be completed on March 2020. In the preliminary analysis of 62 patients, 1 intraprocedural stent migration has occurred in each group. No aortic perforation was detected in the study. Vascular access site complications were similar between the two groups (3 (6.3%) in BE versus 1 (2.1%) in SE, p value= 0.432). One nonfatal stroke occurred in BE group. No mortality or bailout surgical repair happened in one year study in the two groups. One patient with re-coarctations were detected during one year follow up in each of the groups (p value=0.210). No aortic pseudoaneurysm or aneurysmal formation were observed in 12-month follow up aortic CT angiography.

Conclusion

The preliminary results showed no significant difference in efficacy and safety of both treatment modalities. The final result is pending.

Study Flow Chart

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding source: None

Inherited thrombophilia in mechanical valve malfunction

Mechanical valve malfunction due to thrombosis is an important and life-threatening complication in patients with prosthetic valves. Our study was performed to determine the prevalence of thrombophilia genes among patients with acute thrombosis of the mechanical pulmonary valves despite acceptable anticoagulation levels. In this cross-sectional comparative study thirthy two consecutive patients with acute thrombosis of pulmonary mechanical valve who had international normalized ratio (INR) levels for prothrombin time of at least 2 at the time of presentation and in the preceding three months were enrolled and the prevalence rates of thrombophilia factor genes among them was assessed. The results showed that 24 patients (75%) had thrombophilia gene mutations. The affected patients had mutations in one gene in 37.5% of cases, two genes in 31.3%, and three genes in 6.3%. Prevalence rate of Factor V Leiden (FVL), prothrombin (PTH), Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-I), Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR), and endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) gene mutations was 3.1%, 6.3%, 50%, 37.5%, and 25%, respectively. In our study the prevalence of thrombophilia factor gene mutations of patients with acute thrombosis of pulmonary valve was higher than that reported in the general population.

Spatial accessibility of the population to urban health centres in Kermanshah, Islamic Republic of Iran: a geographic information systems analysis

Geographic information systems (GIS) analysis has not been widely used in underdeveloped countries to ensure that vulnerable populations have accessibility to primary health-care services. This study applied GIS methods to analyse the spatial accessibility to urban primary-care centres of the population in Kermanshah city, Islamic Republic of Iran, by age and sex groups. In a descriptive-analytical study over 3 time periods, network analysis, mean centre and standard distance methods were applied using ArcGIS 9.3. The analysis was based on a standard radius of 750 m distance from health centres, walking speed of 1 m/s and desired access time to health centres of 12.5 mins. The proportion of the population with inadequate geographical access to health centres rose from 47.3% in 1997 to 58.4% in 2012. The mean centre and standard distance mapping showed that the spatial distribution of health centres in Kermanshah needed to be adjusted to changes in population distribution.

Comparison of Canal Preparation Pattern of K3 and ProTaper Rotary Files in Curved Resin Blocks

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare canal preparation pattern of K3 and ProTaper rotary files in curved resin blocks.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Twenty-four resin blocks were used in this experimental study and randomly divided into two groups. Their initial images were scanned. After preparation, their images were scanned again in the same position. Pre and post preparation images were superimposed by Photoshop software and the removed resin was measured in 5 different points, and then analyzed statistically by ANOVA and t-test.

RESULTS

At O point (orifice), significantly (p<0.05) more outer canal wall was removed in the ProTaper group than in the K3 group. There was no significant difference at any other points of outer wall. Removed material of inner canal wall was not significantly different between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Under the condition of this study, both systems performed acceptable preparation pattern except at the beginning of the curve.