ABSTRACT
Medical waste management is a challenging problem that not only directly affects the environment but also people's health. This urgent issue is getting more and more attention in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. New infections are increasing exponentially in all countries globally, especially developing countries with large populations (e.g., India, Brazil, Bangladesh). Studies on the spread of the disease have listed one of the causes of this crisis as the Covid-19 waste treatment process not being followed correctly and the difficulty of data retrieval. Vietnam was also severely damaged by the Covid-19 epidemic, although the government initially controlled the disease very well. The Covid-19 waste treatment process in Vietnam is still being processed manually and with a combination of many departments. Data sharing and tracking are also tricky because they are centrally stored in different facilities/departments. In addition, there is a lack of synchronization and transparency of shared data. This paper is one of the first attempts to fill that gaps by applying Blockchain technology and decentralized storage. Relevant parties will retrieve all data, and the source of waste can be easily traced. We also implemented a proof-of-concept based on the Hyperledger Fabric platform to demonstrate the idea's feasibility. In the evaluation, we observe the process of initializing and querying data. These initial efforts will lay the groundwork for more in-depth studies to create an initiative for Vietnam's medical waste treatment process when faced with a new wave of infections or another epidemic. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
This paper presented the case study of using Virtual Reality (VR) to elevate interest, engagement, and creativity in an interior design studio in the new normal era. Via the case-study approach, the author studied the VR experience of 13 students using Gravity Sketch in Meta/Oculus Quest 2 headsets to design a custom luminaire. Results showed an overall high interest and engagement regarding the VR experience, a moderate increase in novelty, and a significant increase in style for creativity. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2019 has seen unprecedented demand for medical equipment and supplies. However, the problem of waste treatment has not yet been given due attention, i.e., the traditional waste treatment process is done independently, and it is not easy to share the necessary information. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the interaction between parties is minimized to limit infections. To evaluate the current system at medical centers, we also refer to the traditional waste treatment processes of four hospitals in Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh cities (Vietnam). Almost all hospitals are handled independently, lacking any interaction between the stakeholders. In this article, we propose a decentralized blockchain-based system for automating waste treatment processes for medical equipment and supplies after usage among the relevant parties, named Medical-Waste Chain. It consists of four components: medical equipment and supplies, waste centers, recycling plants, and sorting factories. Medical-Waste Chain integrates blockchain-based Hyperledger Fabric technology with decentralized storage of medical equipment and supply information, and securely shares related data with stakeholders. We present the system design, along with the interactions among the stakeholders, to ensure the minimization of medical waste generation. We evaluate the performance of the proposed solution using system-wide timing and latency analysis based on the Hyperledger Caliper engine. Our system is developed based on the hybrid-blockchain system, so it is fully scalable for both on-chain and off-chain-based extensions. Moreover, the participants do not need to pay any fees to use and upgrade the system. To encourage future use of Medical-Waste Chain, we also share a proof-of-concept on our Github repository.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: In this study, an interdisciplinary research team at a Midwest US University collaborated with a local county to co-envision interior design strategies for five county buildings: three libraries and two government buildings to reduce in-person contact in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The authors' interdisciplinary team used a community-based participatory design process which focused on creating consensus, while seeking out divergent perspectives among stakeholders to serve the needs of diverse users. The design process involved meetings with stakeholders remotely and analyzing survey results from the target occupants collected by the county. Findings: The county with a population of 550,321 is the second most populous and diverse county in the state. The authors' collaborative efforts resulted in short-and long-term recommendations for the interior space planning to promote health, safety, and well-being for the county's diverse user groups of young children, adults, elderly and vulnerable populations. The short-term recommendations focus on service redesigns that can be implemented as the state shifts out of the stay-at-home order and the community returns to the county's public-facing buildings. The long-term recommendations focus on experiences and design strategies that can be carried forward to future-proof buildings in a post-COVID era and provide models for other counties. Research limitations/implications: One limitation is the dynamic nature of how rapidly our team responded to a critical need in the community to develop tangible interior design solutions during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic for the county. The solutions we proposed were based on the scientific evidence available earlier on during that phase of the pandemic. The authors hope to conduct further studies in the future and conduct assessments of our rapid design responses. Practical implications: This paper documents a dynamic experience during a once in a lifetime pandemic and thus contributes to further the body of knowledge about the role of interior design in shaping health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value: The article presents a timely interdisciplinary response to the COVID-19 pandemic to promote community safety inside public buildings at the county. The interior design solutions reflected intensive literature reviews, critical space planning, innovative use of lighting, and thoughtful furniture/material selections. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Background. Patients with COVID-19 receive high rates of antibiotic therapy, despite viral origin of infection. Reports of bacterial coinfection range from 3.5 to 8% in the early phase of infection. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between diagnostic tests and antibiotic utilization in patients admitted with COVID-19 at the University of Maryland Medical Center to better inform future prescribing practices. Methods. Retrospective cohort study of adult patients with a positive SARSCoV-2 PCR on admission from March 2020 through June 2020. Associations between diagnostic tests employed and antibiotic initiation and duration were explored using bivariate analysis (SPSS®). Results. Baseline characteristics of 224 included patients are reported in Table 1. Excluding SARS-CoV-2 PCRs, most frequently performed diagnostic tests included blood cultures (65.6%), MRSA nasal surveillance (45.1%), respiratory cultures (36.2%), respiratory viral panel (RVP) (33.0%), and Legionella (28.6%) and pneumococcal (26.3%) urine antigens. Positivity of RVP, Legionella, pneumococcus, blood, and respiratory tests were low (1.3%, 0.4%, 0.9%, 1.8%, and 6.7%, respectively). A total of 62% of patients were initiated on antibacterial therapy with a median cumulative antibiotic duration of 77.9 hours (IQR 41.4, 111.8). History of chronic respiratory disease (76% vs. 58.6%;P=0.025), any degree of oxygen requirement on admission (72% vs. 42.6%;P=0.006), and performance of blood cultures (70.7% vs. 46.8%, P< 0.0001) were associated with antibiotic initiation. Positive bacterial diagnostic respiratory culture (median duration 72.8h [IQR 46.7, 96.6] vs. 97.3h [IQR 79.8, 194.1];P=0.027) and positive blood culture (median duration 80.1h [IQR 42.1, 111.7] vs. 97.5h [IQR 71.8, 164.8];P=0.046) were associated with longer antibiotic duration. Patients who did not have respiratory cultures performed had similar antibiotic durations as those with negative respiratory cultures. Table 1. Baseline Characteristics Conclusion. Despite low coinfection rates, negative diagnostic tests did not result in shorter empiric antibacterial duration. These findings highlight the ongoing need for both diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship in COVID-19.