Health care

Modern dairy farm management requires meaningful data and careful analysis to maximize profitability, cow health, and welfare. Current data platforms, such as DairyComp, lack robust integrated data analysis tools. Producers and consultants need dedicated tools to turn collected data sets into assets for informed decision-making processes. The DairyCoPilot app allows users to rapidly extract health and production data from DairyComp, then compile and analyze the data using a menu-driven point-and-click approach...

INTRODUCTION: Telemedicine is a useful tool for decreasing hospital stress, patient suffering, ambulance needs, hospital anxiety, and costs while improving the standard of care. Nonetheless, the lack of awareness regarding telemedicine poses a barrier to its application, presenting several difficulties in underdeveloped nations like Ethiopia. This review evaluates Ethiopian-specific telemedicine knowledge and associated factors. METHODS: This systematic review was conducted using a search of several online databases in addition to the main databases, like Medline, PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct...

BACKGROUND: The use of routinely collected health data for secondary research purposes is increasingly recognised as a methodology that advances medical research, improves patient outcomes, and guides policy. This secondary data, as found in electronic medical records (EMRs), can be optimised through conversion into a uniform data structure to enable analysis alongside other comparable health metric datasets. This can be achieved with the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model (OMOP-CDM), which employs a standardised vocabulary to facilitate systematic analysis across various observational databases...

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a preventable cause of cervical cancer, the commonest cancer among women in Uganda. The Uganda Ministry of Health included the HPV vaccine in the free routine immunization schedule since 2015. Five years after this policy, we assessed the uptake of the HPV vaccine and associated socio-demographic factors among young women living in fishing communities in Central Uganda in 2020. We analyzed secondary data from 94 young women aged 9-25 years who were recruited from the two fishing communities (Kasenyi landing site and Koome Island) in a primary study that aimed to promote awareness of maternal and childhood vaccines...

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed additional and specific challenges on the lives and wellbeing of informal unpaid carers. Addressing an important gap in the existing literature, this systematic review (prospectively registered with PROSPERO CRD42022376012) synthesises and evaluates the quantitative evidence examining the association between unpaid caregiving and mental health (compared to non-caring), during the pandemic. Five databases were searched (Medline, PsycInfo, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science) from Jan 1, 2020, to March 1, 2023...

BACKGROUND: Quantitative studies have provided valuable statistical insights into Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among patients with Heart Failure (HF), yet they often lack the depth to fully capture the nuanced, subjective experiences of living with HF particularly in the specific context of Jordan. This study explores the personal narratives of HF patients to understand the full impact of HF on their daily lives, revealing HRQoL aspects that quantitative metrics often miss. This is crucial in developing regions, where the increasing prevalence of HF intersects with local healthcare practices, cultural views, and patient expectations, providing key insights for tailored interventions and better patient care...

Clinical assessment of body condition is crucial in captive and free-ranging reptiles, since a large percentage of diseases result from inadequate nutrition. However, preventive health care is restricted by the lack of a practical method for the assessment in tortoises. Pre-existing evaluation systems based on weight and shell measurements are laborious and ignore the clinical presentation of the animal. The present study aimed to facilitate the assessment by establishing a body condition score. A total of 373 Hermann's Tortoises (Testudo hermanni) (n = 281 tortoises kept as pets in Germany and n = 92 tortoises originating from a free-ranging population (68) or a rearing station (24) in France) were examined and data (weight (g), carapace length (cm), width (cm), height (cm)) were recorded in a standard protocol between October 2020 and October 2021...

BACKGROUND: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are inherited genetic variants that can be easily determined in everyday clinical practice using a simple blood or even saliva test. They have the potential to serve as non-invasive biomarkers to predict cancer-specific patient outcomes after resection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Specifically, two recent analyses led to the identification and validation of three SNPs in the CD44 and CHI3L2 genes (SNPrs187115, SNPrs353630, SNPrs684559) that can be utilised as predictive biomarkers to help select patients who are likely to benefit from pancreatic resection...

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to pose a global public health threat. The pandemic overstretched already weak health systems in low- and low-middle-income countries, including Ethiopia. There is a paucity of studies on the impact of COVID-19 on antenatal care access, uptake, and provision in Ethiopia. This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on antenatal care provision in the Sidama region, Ethiopia. METHODS: A concurrent mixed-methods study was conducted between 14 February and 10 May 2022 at 15 public hospitals in the Sidama region...

BACKGROUND: Chronic heart failure (CHF) poses a significant burden on both patients and their family caregivers (FCs), as it is associated with psychological distress and impaired quality of life (QOL). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) supports QOL by focusing on value living and facilitates acceptance of psychological difficulties by cultivating psychological flexibility. A protocol is presented that evaluates the effectiveness of a dyad ACT-based intervention delivered via smartphone on QOL and other related health outcomes compared with CHF education only...

BACKGROUND: It is crucial to deliver a child at nearby primary healthcare facilities to prevent subsequent maternal or neonatal complications. In low-resource settings, such as Nepal, it is customary to forgo the neighboring primary healthcare facilities for child delivery. Reports are scanty about the extent and reasons for bypassing local health centers in Nepal. This study sought to determine the prevalence and contributing factors among women bypassing primary healthcare facilities for childbirth...

BACKGROUND: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow, is the most common and fatal type of adult leukemia. Therapeutic web portals have great potential to facilitate AML research advances and improve health outcomes by increasing the availability of data, the speed and reach of new knowledge, and the communication between researchers and clinicians in the field. However, there is a need for stakeholder research regarding their optimal features, utility, and implementation...

INTRODUCTION: Patient satisfaction with clinical services can have an effect on retention in HIV care and adherence to antiretroviral therapy. This study assessed patient satisfaction and its association with retention and viral suppression in Zambézia Province, Mozambique. METHODS: Monthly exit interviews with persons living with HIV were completed from August 2017-January 2019 in 20 health facilities; clinical data were extracted from medical records. Regression analyses assessed the effect of satisfaction scores on retention and viral suppression, adjusting for age, sex, education, civil status, time on treatment, and site...

OBJECTIVES: Mortality due to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a major global health problem. Knowledge of epidemiological data on ARDS is crucial to design management, treatment strategies, and optimize resources. There is ample data regarding mortality of ARDS from high-income countries; in this review, we evaluated mortality due to ARDS in Latin America. DATA SOURCES: We searched in PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and Latin American and Caribbean Health Science Literature databases from 1967 to March 2023...

Unprecedented heat waves can affect all persons, but some are more sensitive to the effects of heat, including children and adults with underlying health conditions, pregnant women, and outdoor workers. Many regions of the United States experienced record-breaking high temperatures in 2023, with populations exposed to extremely high temperatures for prolonged periods. CDC examined emergency department (ED) visits associated with heat-related illness (HRI) from the National Syndromic Surveillance Program and compared daily HRI ED visit rates during the warm-season months (May-September) of 2023 with those during 2018-2022...

An anthropocentric scope for clinical medical ethics (CME) has largely separated this area of bioethics from environmental concerns. In this article, we first identify and reconcile the ethical issues imposed on CME by climate change including the dispersion of related causes and effects, the transdisciplinary and transhuman nature of climate change, and the historic divorce of CME from the environment. We then establish how several moral theories undergirding modern CME, such as virtue ethics, feminist ethics, and several theories of justice, promote both a flourishing of human medical practice and the environment...

As the price of pharmaceuticals and biologicals rises so does the number of patients who cannot afford them. In this article, we argue that physicians have a moral duty to help patients access affordable medicines. We offer three grounds to support our argument: (i) the aim of prescribing is to improve health and well-being which can only be realized with secure access to treatment; (ii) there is no morally significant difference between medicines being unavailable and medicines being unaffordable, so the steps physicians are willing to take in the first case should extend to the second; and (iii) as the primary stakeholder with a duty to put the individual patient's interests first, the medical professional has a duty to address cost-barriers to patient care...

We explored how menarcheal experiences and attitudes toward menstruation of Mexican adolescents have changed in the last 20 years. Two questionnaires were applied to female adolescent students, and the results were compared with those obtained in 2002-3 when adolescents of the same ages were surveyed using the same questionnaires. Although some aspects of menstrual education have not changed, the secrecy surrounding menstruation has diminished. In contrast, the belief that menstruation is disabling and keeps women from their normal activities has increased...

In this article, we explore associations between women's health and participation in working life, work ability and sickness absence. Through interviews with nurses and hospital managers, we identified three main occupational barriers connected to biological and physiological sex differences: considerations on women's health, work organization and work environment as conditions for health, and equality and expectations in society. We find that individual experiences, job systems, and societal attitudes affect each other negatively, and that systemic problems tend to be individualized...

BACKGROUND: The transformation in global demography and the shortage of health care workers require innovation and efficiency in the field of health care. Digital technology can help improve the efficiency of health care. The Mercury Advance SMARTcare solution is an example of digital technology. The system is connected to a hybrid mattress and is able to detect patient movement, based on which the air pump either starts automatically or sends a notification to the app. Barriers to the adoption of the system are unknown, and it is unclear if the solution will be able to support health care workers in their work...