Capital equipment

Molecular classification of cancer has entered clinical routine to inform diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment decisions. At the same time, new tumor entities have been identified that cannot be defined histologically. For central nervous system tumors, the current World Health Organization classification explicitly demands molecular testing, e.g., for 1p/19q-codeletion or IDH mutations, to make an integrated histomolecular diagnosis. However, a plethora of sophisticated technologies is currently needed to assess different genomic and epigenomic alterations and turnaround times are in the range of weeks, which makes standardized and widespread implementation difficult and hinders timely decision making...

A new generation of mobile sensing approaches offers significant advantages over traditional platforms in terms of test speed, control, low cost, ease-of-operation, and data management, and requires minimal equipment and user involvement. The marriage of novel sensing technologies with cellphones enables the development of powerful lab-on-smartphone platforms for many important applications including medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and food safety analysis. This paper reviews the recent advancements and developments in the field of smartphone-based food diagnostic technologies, with an emphasis on custom modules to enhance smartphone sensing capabilities...

BACKGROUND: Scaling up surgical and trauma care in low- and middle-income countries could prevent nearly 2 million annual deaths. Various survey instruments exist to measure surgical and trauma capacity, including Personnel, Infrastructure, Procedures, Equipment, and Supplies (PIPES) and International Assessment of Capacity for Trauma (INTACT). OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate surgical and trauma capacity in the Bolivian department of Potosí using a combined PIPES and INTACT tool, with additional questions to further inform intervention targets...

Hospital capital investment is important for acquiring and maintaining technology and equipment needed to provide health care. Reduction in capital investment by a hospital has negative implications for patient outcomes. Most hospitals rely on debt and internal cash flow to fund capital investment. The great recession may have made it difficult for hospitals to borrow, thus reducing their capital investment. I investigated the impact of the great recession on capital investment made by California hospitals...

BACKGROUND: Immunization is regarded as the single most cost-effective way to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases. With the rising cost of the National Immunization Programme (NIP) in Sri Lanka, immunization costing studies could help programme managers to ensure sustainable immunization financing in the country. METHODS: Four medical officer of health (MOH) divisions in Kalutara district were included, to estimate the cost incurred for the NIP programme. Fifteen immunization clinics from urban and rural settings were selected from the selected MOH divisions, by a simple random sampling method...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine how the developed taxonomy of cognitive work analysis (CWA) can be applied in combination with statistical analysis regarding different socio-technical categories. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study applied a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Workers (n=120) and managers (n=85) in the chemical industry were asked in a questionnaire how different OSH measures were being implemented. The exploration of the qualitative CWA taxonomy consisted of an analysis of the following topics: (1) Work domain; (2) Control task; (3) Strategies; (4) Social organization and cooperation; and (5) Worker competencies...

BACKGROUND: In the early 2000s, electronic surveillance systems began to be developed to collect and transmit data on infectious diseases in low-income countries (LICs) in real-time using mobile technologies. Such surveillance systems, however, are still very rare in Africa. Among the non-infectious epidemics to be surveilled are road traffic injuries, which constitute major health events and are the fifth leading cause of mortality in Africa. This situation also prevails in Burkina Faso, whose capital city, Ouagadougou, is much afflicted by this burden...

BACKGROUND: The global lack of anesthesia capacity is well described, but country-specific data are needed to provide country-specific solutions. We aimed to assess anesthesia capacity in Madagascar as part of the development of a Ministry of Health national surgical plan. METHODS: As part of a nationwide surgical safety quality improvement project, we surveyed 19 of 22 regional hospitals, representing surgical facilities caring for 75% of the total population. The assessment was divided into 3 areas: anesthesia workforce density, infrastructure and equipment, and medications...

BACKGROUND: Maternal mortality and morbidity are public health problems in Nepal. In rural communities, many women give birth at home without the support of a skilled birth attendant, despite the existence of rural birthing centers. The aim of this study was to explore the barriers and provide pragmatic recommendations for better service delivery and use of rural birthing centers. METHODS: We conducted 26 in-depth interviews with service users and providers, and three focus group discussions with community key informants in a rural community of Rukum district...

The new USP standard for handling hazardous drugs (HDs) will require millions of dollars in capital outlays for facility and equipment upgrades and also requires in-depth assessments of each HD that facilities handle, significant workflow and work practice changes, and thorough staff training.

Microbial water quality monitoring is crucial for managing water resources and protecting public health. However, institutional testing activities in sub-Saharan Africa are currently limited. Because the economics of water quality testing are poorly understood, the extent to which cost may be a barrier to monitoring in different settings is unclear. This study used cost data from 18 African monitoring institutions (piped water suppliers and health surveillance agencies in six countries) and estimates of water supply type coverage from 15 countries to assess the annual financial requirements for microbial water testing at both national and regional levels, using World Health Organization recommendations for sampling frequency...

Palm kernel shell biochars (PKSB) ejected as residues from a gasifier have been used for solid fuel briquette production. With this approach, palm kernel shells can be used for energy production twice: first, by producing rich syngas during gasification; second, by compacting the leftover residues from gasification into high calorific value briquettes. Herein, the process parameters for the manufacture of PKSB biomass briquettes via compaction are optimized. Two possible optimum process scenarios are considered...

T cells play a key role in the adaptive immune response, and the ability to manipulate T cells for therapeutic uses has advanced in the past decade. Infusion of expanded or engineered T cells can potentially be used to treat cancer, viral infections, graft-versus-host disease, and organ transplant rejection. The role that blood banks play in the manufacture and distribution of T-cell therapeutics is still being defined. Given the regulatory framework of blood banks, they are well positioned to collect raw material for manufacture of T-cell therapies and to distribute finished product to hospitals in support of clinical trials or eventually for licensed products...

Vacuum injection casting (VIC) is important for research and development (R&D) of materials that are prone to oxidation at high temperatures, particularly metals and metallic alloys (e.g., metallic glasses and high entropy alloys). VIC in R&D laboratories often involves initial melting/alloying in a prior step, transporting the sample to a dedicated vacuum chamber, re-melting the sample in a quartz tube, and finally injecting the melt with an inert gas to a dedicated mold. Here we present a new approach to laboratory VIC that requires no sample transfer (for a variety of materials), no dedicated vacuum chamber/space nor dedicated mold, and hence provides more versatility and higher efficiency and yet lowers the capital equipment cost...

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Introduction No study on hospital staff preparedness for managing blast injuries has been conducted in Libya. The internal conflict in Libya since 2011 and the difficulties faced by the hospitals has highlighted the need for such studies. Hypothesis Physicians working in Tripoli (capital city Libya) hospitals are inadequately prepared for the management of blast injuries. METHODS: A survey was conducted in all 13 hospitals in Tripoli between June 2014 and May 2015 by using interviews based on a questionnaire consisting of 29 questions covering physicians' education related to blast injury, hospital management of mass casualties, and aspects of hospital preparedness for such incidents...

CONTEXT: PET/CT scan service is one of the capital intensive and revenue-generating centres of a tertiary care hospital. The cost associated with the provisioning of PET services is dependent upon the unit costs of the resources consumed. AIMS: The study aims to determine the cost of providing PET/CT Scan services in a hospital. METHODS AND MATERIAL: This descriptive and observational study was conducted in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at a tertiary apex teaching hospital in New Delhi, India in the year 2014-15...

Investment, especially through merger and acquisition (M&A), is a leading topic of concern among health care managers. In addition, the implications of this activity for organization and market concentration are of great interest to policy makers. Using a sample of 2256 firm-year observations in the health care industry during the period from 1985 to 2011, this article provides novel evidence that managers learn from financial markets in making capital expenditure (CAPEX) and M&A investment decisions. Within the industry, managers in the Drugs subsector are most likely to do so, whereas managers in the Medical Equipment and Supplies are least likely to do so...

106 Background: The objective of this work was to develop recommendations for the organization and delivery of focal tumor ablation services. New, minimally-invasive ablation technologies such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation (MWA), and transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) offer treatment options for patients with a variety of cancers. These emerging therapies can improve patient care (minimize side-effects, offer more rapid recovery with comparable or enhanced outcomes) compared to traditional approaches...

In this work a biotechnological multiproduct batch plant that manufactures four different recombinant proteins for human application is described in some detail. This batch plant design is then optimized with regards to the size of equipment using a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation recently developed by us in order to find a hypothetical new biotechnological batch plant based on the information of real known processes for the production of the four recombinant protein products. The real plant was divided for practical purposes into two sub-processes or facilities: a fermentation facility and a purification facility...