An intelligent healthcare management system: a new approach in work-order prioritization for medical equipment maintenance requests.

The effective maintenance management of medical technology influences the quality of care delivered and the profitability of healthcare facilities. Medical equipment maintenance in Jordan lacks an objective prioritization system; consequently, the system is not sensitive to the impact of equipment downtime on patient morbidity and mortality. The current work presents a novel software system (EQUIMEDCOMP) that is designed to achieve valuable improvements in the maintenance management of medical technology. This work-order prioritization model sorts medical maintenance requests by calculating a priority index for each request. Model performance was assessed by utilizing maintenance requests from several Jordanian hospitals. The system proved highly efficient in minimizing equipment downtime based on healthcare delivery capacity, and, consequently, patient outcome. Additionally, a preventive maintenance optimization module and an equipment quality control system are incorporated. The system is, therefore, expected to improve the reliability of medical equipment and significantly improve safety and cost-efficiency.

A practical and feasible control system for bifunctional myoelectric hand prostheses.

This paper presents an implementation of a practical and low-cost hardware-based control system for multifunctional myoelectric hand prostheses. The model utilizes a mode-switching technique in order to voluntarily control the operation of a dual-mode prosthetic device in two degrees of freedom: grasp/release and pronation/supination. This system was designed specifically to cater to the increasing needs of patients in developing countries, where myoelectric prostheses are scarce and extremely expensive. The design relied entirely on locally-available commercial components and aimed at allowing small prosthetics producers the freedom to utilize and modify the design according to their clients' preferences and requirements. Evaluation tests revealed excellent control and ability to execute basic hand and wrist functions even with short training periods, although results varied with the underlying level of muscular activity.

Optimization of ultrasound array designs for high intensity focused treatment of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

This paper describes the optimization of designing a two-dimensional (2-D) ultrasound phased array to be used for the treatment of both prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia. The optimization study took into consideration the physical constraints of the conventional method of treatment, and arrived at an optimized array design with the overall dimensions of 10 cm x 2.2 cm. The optimization study also addressed the following additional parameters: The maximum possible depth of penetration (DOP), the maximum possible steering angle, the Grating lobe level, the operating frequency, and the element size. In optimizing the design, the DOP and the steering angle are maximized while the grating lobe value is minimized. A 56 x 12 element 2-D array was found to be the optimum choice allowing both focusing and steering within the entire prostate without inducing damage at locations other than that of the focal point.

Selective detection of extracellular glutamate in brain tissue using microelectrode arrays coated with over-oxidized polypyrrole.

We describe the selective measurement of extracellular glutamate concentration in rodent brain using ceramic-based platinum microelectrode arrays (MEAs) coated with electropolymerized, over-oxidized polypyrrole (OPP) as a permselective barrier to interference from dopamine and ascorbate. OPP-coated MEAs displayed similar sensitivity (97 +/- 9 nA microM(-1) cm(-2)) and response time (ca. 1 s) to glutamate as previously described Nafion-coated MEAs but, unlike Nafion-coated MEAs, were unresponsive to 5 microM dopamine. Such OPP-coated MEAs afforded selective detection of evoked glutamate release in the dopamine-rich striatum of the mouse brain.