Thermoregulation and subjective thermal perception of N95 respirator users: Influence of significant workloads

Working under a significant metabolic rate while wearing an N95 mask increased the heat stress that users of protective clothing experienced. This study investigated in a climatic chamber preset at 25 degrees C and a relative humidity of 65% the changes in thermoregulation and thermal perception of 13 men and 12 women when performing exercises involving different metabolic consumption for 60 min first without wearing an N95 mask for 30 min and then donning a mask. The physiological parameters include the metabolic rate, tympanic temperature, heart rate, skin temperature, skin moisture, and transepidermal water loss (TEWL). Thermal perceptions, including thermal sensation, humidity sensation, thermal comfort, and thermal acceptance were surveyed. The results show that both N95 mask use and exercising contributed to vigorous thermoregulation, particularly in women. The tympanic temperature was between 35.5 degrees C and 36.5 degrees C during the experiment for both sexes. Skin temperature during the exercise with or without donning a mask was not influenced by the change in workload, indicating a balance in heat exchange between the body and ambient air. Skin moisture increased by 58.91% and 49.99% when the users of masks performed exercises involving moderate and very high metabolic rates, respectively, compared to levels when a mask was not worn. The TEWL of women and men when wearing a mask and jogging increased by 16.35% and 14.89%, respectively, compared to when not wearing the mask. These results suggests a potential thermal stress from using N95 masks and working in a warm environment when the users are not acclimatized.

Exogenous Shocks and Business Process Management

Business process management (BPM) drives corporate success through effective and efficient processes. In recent decades, knowledge has been accumulated regarding the identification, discovery, analysis, design, implementation, and monitoring of business processes. This includes methods and tools for tackling various kinds of process change such as continuous process improvement, process reengineering, process innovation, and process drift. However, exogenous shocks, which lead to unintentional and radical process change, have been neglected in BPM research although they severely affect an organization’s context, strategy, and business processes. This research note conceptualizes the interplay of exogenous shocks and BPM in terms of the effects that such shocks can have on organizations’ overall process performance over time. On this foundation, related challenges and opportunities for BPM via several rounds of idea generation and consolidation within a diverse team of BPM scholars are identified. The paper discusses findings in light of extant literature from BPM and related disciplines, as well as present avenues for future (BPM) research to invigorate the academic discourse on the topic.

Innovation and Control of Health Technology Management Procedures Applying Six Sigma Methodology

The National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER. Its acronym in Spanish) is a public healthcare institution that provides medical attention, teaching and scientific research centered on diseases of the respiratory system. In 2019, the hospital held 228 beds and over six thousand medical devices for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of patients. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Hospital to convert 215 conventional care beds to intensive care beds, assigned exclusively to critical COVID-19 patients. This resulted in a higher demand of Health Technology Management (HTM) resources which were reflected by a 60% increase in the Hospital’s medical devices. Therefore, the technical staff of the Department of Biomedical Engineering grew by 300%. Thus, the objective of this work was to innovate HTM procedures through the application of Six Sigma Methodology and two Lean tools: 5S and Kanban, to control the activities carried out at the Hospital. Procedures for dealing with work orders and inventory control of supplies (accessories, consumables, and spare parts) that medical equipment require for its operation were analyzed. Additionally, three activities related to HTM were analyzed: tool control, work area control and information flow among all 5 personnel work shifts. In total, seven innovation strategies were proposed and implemented in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the INER. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.