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Objective:Give a method for tracing boundary of inner-medium membrane in the ultrasonic image of common carotid artery.Methods: Giving a cost function before the programme begins to search the pixel point set whose cost function have the minimum value. The searching process starts from an initial anchor point given by the precedent programme. The calculation of cost function on each pixel point column on both sides of the initial anchor point will not stop until the terminal conditions are fulfilled. The programme will record the coordinates and pixel values of all the points with the minimum cost function value obtained from the calculation.Results: It can trace the boundary of inner-medium membrane in the CCA image from a clinical exam and can export the processed image with highlighted area. There is a daemon that records the coordinates and pixel values of the point set.Conclusion: This method can trace the boundary of inner-medium membrane in the CCA ultrasonic image when the CCA image is distinct.
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OBJECTIVES: This study investigate the effect of health information technology (IT) expenditure on individual patient-level cost using California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) data obtained from 2000 to 2007. METHODS: We used a traditional cost function and applied hospital fixed effect and clustered error within hospitals. RESULTS: We found that a quadratic function of IT expenditure best fit the data. The quadratic function in IT expenditure predicts a decrease in cost of up to US$1,550 of IT labor per bed, US$27,909 of IT capital per bed, and US$28,695 of all IT expenditure per bed. Moreover, we found that IT expenditure reduced costs more quickly in medical conditions than surgical diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Interest in health IT is increasing more than ever before. Many studies examined the effect of health IT on hospital level cost. However, there have been few studies to examine the relationship between health IT expenditure and individual patient-level cost. We found that IT expenditure was associated with patient cost. In particular, we found a quadratic relationship between IT expenditure and patient-level cost. In other word, patient-level cost is non-linearly (or a polynomial of second-order degree) related to IT expenditure.
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Humans , California , Health Expenditures , Health Planning , Medical InformaticsABSTRACT
Objective: To measure the economies of scope of military hospitals in China. Methods: We collected the panel data of 2005 to 2007 from 57 military hospitals, based on which we constructed the pooled regression model and time fixed effect regression model. The best cost function model was selected according to the result of hypothesis testing, and the model of economies of scope was constructed according to the conception of economies of scope. Then the parameters were estimated by econometric methods, and the coefficient estimates were used to calculate the economies of scope of hospitals of each category. Results: The hypothesis testing results of the two models showed that the pooled regression model was superior to the time fixed effect model. All the military hospitals included in the present study showed economies of scope; the larger and higher level the hospitals, the stronger economies of scope was. Conclusion: Large-scale hospitals can achieve better economies of scope by developing highly relevant main bussiness.
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Objective To study the effect of public hospitals vertical integration on scale economy in Shanghai. MethodsA total of 401 samples of 67 hospitals from 1999 to 2004 in Shanghai were collected.Median regression was performed to estimate the multi-output cost function and marginal cost of discharge patients,and scale economies were calculated.Results The independent variables Beds,W,X1,X23,Region,Level,Y03,and Y04 were all predictors of cost.Conclusion Both integrated tertiary and secondary hospitals had scale economy before and after integration.Integration enhanced the output and improved the efficiency of integrated secondary hospitals.To some extent,patients were dispersed to secondary hospitals.