ABSTRACT
Background: This study seeks to evaluate the prevalence of and the association between receiving medical care abroad and the level of trust that citizens from the Western Balkans-Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro-have in their healthcare systems. Method(s): The study is cross-sectional and was carried out during three months (July 25-October 30, 2021) through a self-reported questionnaire administered through the Google Forms platform. The study included approximately two-thousand citizens (N=2,356) aged eighteen (18) to seventy (70). Result(s): More than one-third (37.2%) of respondents stated that they or a relative had received healthcare services abroad during the last twelve (12) months. Citizens of Montenegro had the highest prevalence of receiving healthcare services abroad at 43.8%, followed by those from Bosnia and Herzegovina at 39%. No statistically significant difference was found in the level of trust in the healthcare system in the country between those who received healthcare services abroad (4.41+/-2.88) (out of 10) and those who did not (4.48+/-2.81) (t=-0.587, p=0.557). Conclusion(s): We ultimately conclude that more than one-third of the participants in our study have traveled abroad for healthcare purposes, with females, those living in urban areas, and those who have previously had a negative healthcare experience in their home country all being more likely to rely on health tourism.Copyright © 2023 Maljichi et al.
ABSTRACT
Big data is a very large size of datasets which come from many different sources and are in a wide variety of forms. Due to its enormous potential, big data has gained popularity in recent years. Big data enables us to investigate and reinvent numerous fields, including the healthcare industry, education, and others. Big data specifically in the healthcare sector comes from a variety of sources, including patient medical information, hospital records, findings from physical exams, and the outcomes of medical devices. Covid19 recently, one of the most neglected areas to concentrate on has come under scrutiny due to the pandemic: healthcare management. Patient duration of stay in a hospital is one crucial statistic to monitor and forecast if one wishes to increase the effectiveness of healthcare management in a hospital, even if there are many use cases for data science in healthcare management. At the time of admission, this metric aids hospitals in identifying patients who are at high Length of Stay namely LS risk (patients who will stay longer). Once identified, patients at high risk for LS can have their treatment plans improved to reduce LS and reduce the risk of infection in staff or visitors. Additionally, prior awareness of LS might help with planning logistics like room and bed allotment. The aim of the suggested system is to precisely anticipate the length of stay for each patient on an individual basis so that hospitals can use this knowledge for better functioning and resource allocation using data analytics. This would contribute to improving treatments and services. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Developing an automatic door-opening system that can recognize masks and gauge body temperature is the aim of this project. The new Corona Virus (COVID-19) is an unimaginable pandemic that presents the medical industry with a serious worldwide issue in the twenty-first century. How individuals conduct their lives has substantially changed as a result. Individuals are reluctant to seek out even the most basic healthcare services because of the rising number of sick people who pass away, instilling an unshakable terror in their thoughts.This paper is about the Automatic Health Machine (AHM). In this dire situation, the government provided the people with a lot of directions and information. Apart from the government, everyone is accountable for his or her own health. The most common symptom of corona infection is an uncontrollable rise in body temperature. In this project, we create a novel device to monitor people's body temperatures using components such as an IR sensor and temperature sensor. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
This paper provides an overview of the development and current status of digital mental health in Ireland. It will present the results of the work carried out on this topic as part of Interreg Europe's eMEN project. This charts the trajectory of digital mental health developments in Ireland across three phases: pre-, mid-, and post-COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, the field of digital mental health was gradually growing through a combination of bottom-up and top-down activities. The pandemic triggered a rapid shift to the online provision of mental health services, which often involved remote consultations via video platforms. As we come out of the pandemic, the focus has shifted to consolidating these pandemic-driven changes, as well as continuing to build on existing initiatives. This article outlines the key elements of each phase, as well discussing certain key issues that should be factored into healthcare policies and provision.These include quality assurance frameworks designed to cover a range of digital mental health applications, as well as new ontological frameworks to characterize the emerging ecosystem of technology-based care in the post-pandemic "new normal”. Copyright © 2023 John Libbey Eurotext. Téléchargé;Ce document présente un aperçu de l'évolution et du statut actuel de la santé mentale numérique en Irlande. Il présente les résultats du travail effectué par les auteurs dans le cadre du projet Interreg eMEN. Il décrit la trajectoire d'évolution de la santé mentale numérique en Irlande selon trois phases: avant, pendant et après la pandémie de Covid-19. Avant la pandémie, la santé mentale numérique évoluait progressivement grâce à une combinaison d'activités ascendantes et descendantes. La période de pandémie a déclenché une évolution rapide vers la fourniture en ligne de services de santé mentale, notamment les consultations à distance via des plateformes vidéo. Au sortir de la pandémie, l'accent est mis sur la consolidation des changements induits par la pandémie, ainsi que sur la poursuite du développement des initiatives déjà lancées auparavant. Cet article présente les éléments clés de chaque phase et examine certaines questions essentielles à prendre en compte dans les politiques et l'offre de soins. Il s'agit notamment des cadres d'assurance qualité destinés à couvrir les applications de santé mentale numérique, ainsi que de nouveaux cadres ontologiques pour caractériser l'écosystème émergent des soins basés sur la technologie dans la « nouvelle normalité» post-pandémique. Copyright © 2023 John Libbey Eurotext. Téléchargé;Este documento ofrece una panorámica de la evolución y el estado actual de la salud mental digital en Irlanda. Presenta los resultados del trabajo de los autores sobre este tema como parte del proyecto Interreg eMEN. Describe la trayectoria de evolución de la salud mental digital en Irlanda según tres fases: antes, durante y después de la pandemia de la COVID-19. Antes de la pandemia, la salud mental digital evolucionaba gradualmente mediante una combinación de actividades ascendentes y descendentes. El periodo pandémico desencadenó una rápida evolución hacia la prestación en línea de servicios de salud mental, en particular las consultas a distancia a través de plataformas de vídeo. Después de la pandemia, la atención se ha centrado en consolidar los cambios provocados por la pandemia, así como en seguir desarrollando las iniciativas ya puestas en marcha anteriormente. Este artículo presenta los elementos claves de cada fase y examina algunas de las cuestiones fundamentales que deben tenerse en cuenta en las políticas y la prestación de asistencia. Entre ellas se incluyen en primer lugar los marcos de garantía de calidad con el fin de cubrir las aplicaciones digitales de salud mental, así como los nuevos marcos ontológicos para caracterizar el ecosistema emergente de atención basada en la tecnología en la "nueva normalidad” pospandémica. Copyright © 2023 John Lib ey Eurotext. Téléchargé
ABSTRACT
Introduction The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a significant impact on health services around the world. Many hospitals and clinics were overwhelmed by the influx of patients, leading to delays and disruptions in care. The fear of contracting the virus also led to a decrease in the number of people seeking medical care, even for urgent or life-threatening conditions. Various studies have reported a decrease in overall utilization of maternal health services. However, it remains vital to find the reasons for reduced utilization along with the experiences of the women as well as healthcare workers during the pandemic. Objective The objective of this study was to identify the facilitators and barriers to maternal healthcare services utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods It was a qualitative study conducted in a rural area of Haryana, India. Twelve in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted with health workers and four focused group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with pregnant women. Textual analysis was done for both IDIs as well as FGDs. Qualitative analysis was done manually. Results The identified themes were complete cessation of services, no outpatient department (OPD) services for many months, no antenatal care (ANC) services for two months, disruption of supply of medicines, unavailability of drugs, fear of getting COVID-19 infection, mandatory COVID-19 negative report for admission in hospital, and increased referral from government health facilities during the pandemic and lockdown. Conclusion Maternal healthcare services suffered during COVID-19 for various reasons including the closure of health facilities, limited supply of stocks, or fear of the disease among pregnant women. This evidence can be used to prepare as well as manage healthcare services in future.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The purpose of thispaper is to explore the experiences of parents and carers of children with chronic health conditions in accessing healthcare during the Covid-19 pandemic. Children with chronic conditions typically rely on both planned and unplanned care, and contact with healthcare professionals over extensive periods of time. Their distinct care needs render these children vulnerable to even to minor changes in healthcare provision. The wide-ranging care disruptions during the pandemic were therefore likely drastically to affect their health and wellbeing; an assessment of the effects of Covid-19 policies on healthcare access and quality of care delivered for this group is needed. METHODS: From 25/01/2022 to 25/05/2022, four focus groups were held with parents/carers of children with diabetes, neurodivergence, mental health conditions, and medical complexities to explore their experiences in navigating the healthcare system during the pandemic. Interviews were transcribed and then subjected to thematic analysis using NVivo qualitative research software. RESULTS: Our results indicate that children with chronic health conditions (and their parents/carers) experienced difficulties accessing healthcare during the pandemic. Problems with late diagnosis, prolonged waiting times, and deficiencies with telemedicine were identified, as were impacts of healthcare disruptions on children's wellbeing, and the wellbeing of wider families. We found that children with neurodivergence and those with mental health conditions were particularly affected with their health needs repeatedly de-prioritised. Furthermore, the loss of contact with multi-specialty clinical teams profoundly affected parents and carers, leaving them feeling isolated in managing their children's health. These diminished relationships became another vector for uncertainty in supporting children's health. CONCLUSION: The effects of healthcare disruptions on the welfare of children with chronic conditions (and their families), are well evidenced in this work, providing deeper understandings of the relationships between these children, their families and clinicians. The evidence in this paper aims to inform future policy and ethical guidelines so that the needs of children with long-term health conditions can be properly considered in times of crisis.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Telemedicine , Humans , Child , Caregivers , Pandemics , Health Services Accessibility , Chronic Disease , Parents , PolicyABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disruption in healthcare delivery for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). African, Caribbean, and Black women living with HIV (ACB WLWH) in British Columbia (BC) faced barriers to engage with HIV care services prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that were intensified by the transition to virtual care during the pandemic. This paper aims to assess which factors influenced ACB WLWH's access to, utilization and affordability of, and motivation to engage with HIV care services. This study utilized a qualitative descriptive approach using in-depth interviews. Eighteen participants were recruited from relevant women's health, HIV, and ACB organizations in BC. Participants felt dismissed by healthcare providers delivering services only in virtual formats and suggested that services be performed in a hybrid model to increase access and utilization. Mental health supports, such as support groups, dissolved during the pandemic and overall utilization decreased for many participants. The affordability of services pertained primarily to expenses not covered by the provincial healthcare plan. Resources should be directed to covering supplements, healthy food, and extended health services. The primary factor decreasing motivation to engage with HIV services was fear, which emerged due to the unknown impact of the COVID-19 virus on immunocompromised participants.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , HIV Infections , Humans , Female , HIV Infections/epidemiology , HIV Infections/therapy , HIV Infections/psychology , Pandemics , HIV , Motivation , COVID-19/epidemiology , Caribbean Region/epidemiology , Costs and Cost AnalysisABSTRACT
The deadly virus COVID-19 has heavily impacted all countries and brought a dramatic loss of human life. It is an unprecedented scenario and poses an extreme challenge to the healthcare sector. The disruption to society and the economy is devastating, causing millions of people to live in poverty. Most citizens live in exceptional hardship and are exposed to the contagious virus while being vulnerable due to the inaccessibility of quality healthcare services. This study introduces ubiquitous computing as a state-of-The-Art method to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and spare more ICU beds for those truly needed. Ubiquitous computing offers a great solution with the concept of being accessible anywhere and anytime. As COVID-19 is highly complicated and unpredictable, people infected with COVID-19 may be unaware and still live on with their life. This resulted in the spread of COVID-19 being uncontrollable. Therefore, it is essential to identify the COVID-19 infection early, not only because of the mitigation of spread but also for optimal treatment. This way, the concept of wearable sensors to collect health information and use it as an input to feed into machine learning to determine COVID-19 infection or COVID-19 status monitoring is introduced in this study. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic disturbed the smooth functioning of healthcare services throughout the world. New practices such as masking, social distancing and so on were followed to prevent the spread. Further, the severity of the problem increases for the elderly people and people having co-morbidities as proper medical care was not possible and as a result many deaths were recorded. Even for those patients who recovered from Covid could not get proper health monitoring in the Post-Covid phase as a result many deaths and severity in health conditions were reported after the Covid recovery i.e., the Post-Covid era. Technical interventions like the Internet of Things (IoT) based remote patient monitoring using Medical Internet of Things (M-IoT) wearables is one of the solutions that could help in the Post-Covid scenarios. The paper discusses a proposed framework where in a variety of IoT sensing devices along with ML algorithms are used for patient monitoring by utilizing aggregated data acquired from the registered Post-Covid patients. Thus, by using M-IoT along with Machine Learning (ML) approaches could help us in monitoring Post-Covid patients with co-morbidities for and immediate medical help. © 2023 SCPE.
ABSTRACT
This study explores the determinants of patient satisfaction in the healthcare industry in a developing country. The effect of healthcare services, supportive services, and auxiliary services were conceptualized in three models. After checking the measurement properties of the survey instrument, the hypotheses were tested using the data collected from 748 in-patients from five super specialty hospitals in Tiruchirappalli in southern India. The physicians' services, intensive care unit (ICU) services, operation theatre (OT) services, and outpatient department (OPD) services had a significant positive influence on patient satisfaction. The results also suggest supportive services, including nurse, technical, and administrative services, played an essential role in increasing patient satisfaction. Finally, patients were satisfied with the registration process, transportation, and housekeeping services, including cleanliness in the hospitals. The results did not find support for pharmacy services, emergency services, and hospital security impacting patient satisfaction. The findings provide recommendations for the administrators of healthcare units to improve patient satisfaction.
ABSTRACT
An elderly squire indicated the importance of medication intake in everyday life. Some individuals forget to take medicine on time. Also, monitor using the scheduled medicine to help people with an illness. In addition, technology has increased for utilization in healthcare. According to Harvard Medical School by Stephanie Watson about the technology advancement is flourishing in the Philippines, and telehealth stays with innovation to improve digital health platforms. In addition, healthcare services are facing challenges with Covid-19. On the other hand, telehealth gives good service, and about 91% of consumers use digital healthcare services. Also, A reminder system should be simple, familiar, flexible, and recognizable.Technology can positively impact the lives of older people, including their physical and mental health and daily activities. Technology can help people become active. It also increases awareness and motivation to increase physical activity. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Today's hospitals have become extremely dependent on technology to providing valuable patient services. From collecting as well as administering data of patients to delivering advanced therapies. The network infrastructure of the hospital is charged to provide various solution that are mission critical to address the increasing demands of healthcare services. Software Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualization will improve infrastructure agility, making it easier to design, deliver and use networking services in a dynamic and scalable environment. Combining SDN and NFV provides significant benefits throughout the infrastructure network. Additionally, external parties are able to use infrastructure services in order to establish new service offerings. The infrastructure services are opened for many parties like developers of applications and service vendors. In this article, we first highlight some of the issues in the hospital information system (HIS) and healthcare services which network infrastructure will eventually confront. Then, concepts of SDN as well as NFV are presented. In addition, description of the benefits that SDN and NFV have for HIS and healthcare services. Finally, a new multi-layer architecture based on SDN and NFV is proposed and how this architecture can deal with the existing challenges of HIS and healthcare services. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
The devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed years of cyclic inequalities faced by disadvantaged and minority communities. Unequal access to healthcare and a lack of financial resources further exacerbates their suffering, especially during a pandemic. In such critical conditions, information technology-based healthcare services can be an efficient way of increasing access to healthcare for these communities. In this paper, we put forward a decision model for guiding the distribution of IT-based healthcare services for racial minorities. We augment the Health Belief Model by adding financial and technology beliefs. We posit that financial inclusion of minority populations increases their ability to access technology and, by extension, IT-based healthcare services. Financial inclusion and the use of secure private technologies like federated learning can indeed enable greater access to healthcare services for minorities. Therefore, we incorporate financial, health, and technology tools to develop a model for equitable delivery of healthcare services and test its applicability in different use-case scenarios. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Rapid improvements in healthcare services and affordable IoT in the past decade have been a big help in dealing with the issue of fewer medical facilities. Unfortunately, some people still choose not to get immunized, thus fear and reluctance remain a part of human existence despite widespread vaccination initiatives. Therefore, it is important to screen this group of potential spreaders as soon as possible since they may become infected and transfer viruses to others. It is in this context that the pharmaceutical sector might benefit from highly developed health monitoring systems. This work has created and tested a multi-node architecture based on Fog computing to perform real-time initial screening and recording of such individuals, therefore addressing the demand and reducing the unpredictability of the scenario. In addition to capturing photographs of the subject's face, the suggested device also recorded the subject's current body temperature and GPS locations. As an added bonus, the suggested system could upload information to a remote server over the internet. To test the viability of the proposed system, a thorough examination of the existing work environment was carried out, including implementation and evaluations. From the results of the statistical analysis, it was seen that the suggested IoT Fog-enabled ecosystem may be put to good use. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are becoming indispensable nowadays for the healthcare industry. The utilization of ICT in healthcare services has accelerated even faster after the commencement of the COVID-19 outbreak. This study aims to perform a scientometric analysis of scholarly literature on airborne diseases in the discipline of science and technology. It explores the recent advancement of internet technologies in healthcare to control the prevalence of deadly airborne illnesses by applying analytical approaches. It presents publication trends, citation structure, influential sources, co-citation, and co-occurrence network analysis using the CiteSpace tool. It identifies the important research topics, current research hotspots, most active research areas, and leading technologies in this scientific knowledge domain. It inferred significant results from analyses that will benefit researchers and the academic fraternity across the globe to understand the evolving paths and recent scientific progress of ICT in airborne disease management. © 2022 Association for Computing Machinery.
ABSTRACT
Digitizing healthcare services can provide many new benefits and opportunities. However, it can also introduce new research challenges in terms of protecting the security and privacy of patient data and electronic health records. The global COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing security incidents and breaches put patient information at risk, and organizations are under pressure to enhance the credibility and reliability of the health facilities and databases they operate. This minitrack encourages research in emerging problems and opportunities for security and privacy in healthcare. It addresses new approaches and strategies to improve the capabilities for protecting healthcare information and reducing misinformation, especially surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
mHealth technology has the potential to transform healthcare and realize the goal of precision medicine through systematic data collection and use. Meanwhile, mHealth applications developed during COVID-19 have had limited effect, as people have been reluctant to adopt them due to a lack of trust and willingness to share data. The aim of this empirical study is to provide insights into young people's use, trust, and willingness to share data through mHealth apps as future users of healthcare services. A survey comprising 484 Danish students was conducted. It focuses on mHealth app use, willingness to share data, and trust. The findings show that the trustworthiness of the technology and data requesting organization is important for establishing trust in mHealth apps. These insights indicate how young people can be motivated to trust mHealth apps, which can be used to develop future apps and exploit the untapped potential of the collected data. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Evidence suggests that COVID-19 may impair access to sexual and reproductive health services and safe abortion. The purpose of this systematic review was investigating the changes of abortion services in the COVID-19 pandemic era. We searched PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus for relevant studies published as of August 2021, using relevant keywords. RCT and non-original studies were excluded from the analysis and 17 studies of 151 included in our review. Requests to access medication abortion by telemedicine and demand for self-managed abortion were the main findings of identified studies. Women requested an abortion earlier in their pregnancy, and were satisfied with tele-abortion care due to its flexibility, and ongoing telephone support. Presenting telemedicine services without ultrasound has also been reported. Visits to clinics were reduced based on the severity of the restrictions, and abortion clinics had less revenue, more costs, and more changes in the work style of their healthcare providers. Telemedicine was reported safe, effective, acceptable, and empowering for women. Reasons for using tele-abortion were privacy, secrecy, comfort, using modern contraception, employing of women, distance from clinics, travel restrictions, lockdowns, fear of COVID-19, and political reasons (abortion prohibition). Complications of women using tele-abortion were pain, lack of psychological support, bleeding, and need to blood transfusions. The results of this study showed that using telemedicine and teleconsultations for medical abortion in the pandemic conditions may be extended after pandemic. Findings can be used by reproductive healthcare providers and policy makers to address the complications of abortion services.Trail registration This study is registered in PROSPERO with number CRD42021279042.
COVID-19 pandemic shocks the international community, especially health policymakers around the world. The most important consequence of this outbreak has been direct and indirect impacts on health service provisions in all parts of the health system, including sexual and reproductive health services. We reviewed numerous studies investigating healthcare related to abortion in the pandemic era that showed women had more requests to access medical abortion, more than surgical. They preferred self-managed abortion process by telemedicine. Presenting telemedicine services without ultrasound has also been reported. Visits to clinics were reduced, and this decrease was reported based on the severity of the restrictions. Abortion clinics had reduced revenue, increased costs, and changed work style of their healthcare providers. Reasons for using telemedicine were fear of COVID-19, travel restrictions, lockdowns, more privacy, secrecy, and comfort. Telemedicine was reported safe, effective, acceptable, satisfying, and empowering for women. Maternal complications using tele-abortion were pain, bleeding, and need to blood transfusions. These findings can be used by policy makers and reproductive healthcare providers to address the complications of abortion management.
Subject(s)
Abortion, Induced , COVID-19 , Telemedicine , Pregnancy , Humans , Female , Pandemics , Communicable Disease Control , Abortion, Induced/psychology , ContraceptionABSTRACT
We measured rates of hospital admissions for mental health disorders and self-poisoning during the pandemic in patients without COVID-19, compared to those admitted before the pandemic. Data were collected from 01/04/2019 to 31/03/2021, including the pandemic period from 01/03/2020. There were 10 173 (47.7% men) from the pre-pandemic and 11 019 (47.5% men) from the pandemic periods; mean age = 68.3 year. During the pandemic, admission rates for mental health disorders and self-poisoning were higher for any given age and sex. Self-poisoning was increased with toxic substances, sedatives and psychotropic drugs, but reduced with nonopioid analgesics. Patients admitted with mental health disorders had lower readmission rates within 28 days during the pandemic, but did not differ in other outcomes. Outcomes from self-poisoning did not change between the two study periods.