Objectives: To evaluate the effects of a home-based balance training programme using visual feedback (Nintendo Wii Fit game with balance board) on balance and functional abilities in subjects with Parkinson's disease, and to compare the effects with a group of paired healthy subjects. Subjects: Ten subjects with moderate Parkinson's disease ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: To improve and assess the effectiveness of disease management programs (DMPs), it is critical to understand how many people drop out of disease management programs and why. METHODS: We used routine data provided by a statutory health insurance fund from the regions North Rhine, North Wurttemberg and Hesse. ...

The judicious use of antibiotics is an important strategy to preserving efficacy in the treatment of infectious diseases. Infectious disease practitioners are poised to provide patient-specific recommendations for appropriate agents and to optimize dosage and duration of therapy. Antimicrobial stewardship programs (involving pharmacists, physicians and other healthcare providers) are increasing ...

This project is about the usability of Learning Management Systems (LMS), focusing on the specific case of the open source system Moodle. Specifically, this project is about communication and collaboration tools that are used by teachers on the system. This study investigates whether usability problems hamper the use teachers make ...

Providing a context for learning information and requiring learners to teach specific content has been demonstrated to enhance knowledge retention. To enhance students' appreciation of the role of science and specifically histology in clinical reasoning, disease diagnosis, and treatment, a new teaching format was created to provide clinical context, promote ...

Contagious equine metritis (CEM), a contagious venereal disease of horses, invaded Japan in 1980 and spread in the Thoroughbred population of the Hidaka-Iburi district of Hokkaido. To eradicate CEM, we ran a program aimed at detecting Taylorella equigenitalis, the causal agent, in carrier horses by using the PCR test, followed ...

Purpose The implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program at a health system is described. Summary In 2008, the Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Epidemiology (CASE) was formed at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (SLEH) to improve the quality of care for patients as it related to antimicrobial therapy. The charter of ...

Cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease contributes to disability, caregiver strain, and diminished quality of life. Cognitive rehabilitation, a behavioral approach to improve cognitive skills, has potential as a treatment option to improve and maintain cognitive skills and increase quality of life for those with Parkinson's disease-related cognitive dysfunction. Four cognitive ...

Significance: Maternal health and diet during gestation are critical for predicting fetal outcomes, both immediately at birth and in adulthood. While epigenetic modifications have previously been tightly-linked to carcinogenesis, recent advances in the field have suggested that numerous adulthood diseases, including those characteristic of metabolic syndrome, could be programmed in ...

Various cueing techniques as well as treadmill training have been shown to be effective in the gait rehabilitation of patients with Parkinson disease. We present a novel setup combining both dynamic visual cueing and body weight-supported treadmill training. A nonambulatory patient with Parkinson disease received six training sessions. Continuous improvement ...

By improving lipid standardization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Lipid Standardization Program and Cholesterol Reference Method Laboratory Network have contributed to the marked reduction in heart disease deaths since 1980. The objective of this study was to estimate the benefits (ie, the value of reductions in heart ...

ABSTRACT: Exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) is an effective yet often underutilized therapy for the induction of remission in pediatric Crohn disease (CD). NASPGHAN formed the Enteral Nutrition Working Group (ENWG) to review the use of enteral nutrition therapy in pediatric CD. The group was composed of five pediatric gastroenterologists and ...

BACKGROUND:: Despite the growing popularity of disease management programs for chronic conditions, evidence regarding the effect of these programs has been mixed. In addition, few peer-reviewed studies have examined the effect of these programs on publicly insured populations. OBJECTIVES:: To examine the effect of a telephone-based health coaching disease management ...

To assess the impacts of chronic disease assistance program (CDAP) on economic parameters, human resource and pharmacy structure and pharmaceutical care on the retail industry in Trinidad and Tobago. A partially perceptual retrospective investigation was carried out in 60 pharmacies from all regions (North East, North West, Central and South) ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The objectives of this study were to characterize the satisfaction of Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellows with their training and to understand how opinions about training have changed over time. METHODS: Anonymous survey studies were conducted with questions designed to include areas related to the 6 ACGME core competencies. ...

Rising chronic disease prevalence among Medicare beneficiaries, including new enrollees, is a key driver of health care spending. Randomized trials have shown that lifestyle modification interventions such as those in the National Diabetes Prevention Program clinical trial reduce the incidence of chronic disease and that community-based programs applying the same ...

Motor inactivity is typical in the later stages of Alzheimer's disease although there is evidence that physical exercise can reduce depression and enhance performance of daily activities. The aim of this study was to determine whether a walking program could reduce the functional and cognitive decline of elderly nursing home ...

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are often referred to pulmonary rehabilitation programs to manage their symptoms and the consequences of the disease on their lives. Finding ways to target programs to a specific patient's needs could help improve individual response to the program. The purpose of this study was ...

Several students of Bioengineering complain about the excess of theoretical classes and the difficulty to assimilate the subject taught. This work presents a strategy to mix theory and practice when teaching, thus motivating students to engage in their studies.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Although physical therapy and falls prevention education are argued to reduce falls and disability in people with idiopathic Parkinson's disease, this has not yet been confirmed with a large scale randomised controlled clinical trial. The study will investigate the effects on falls, mobility and quality of life of ...

We implemented the Duke Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Transition Program for adolescents with SCD and investigated the knowledge about SCD; concerns and emotions about transitioning; and the initial impact of the Transition Program. Thirty-three adolescents participated in the initial study. Gaps in knowledge included ethnicities affected by SCD and inheritance ...

Objectives of the study were to describe the frequency of acne in late adolescent and adult students and to evaluate psychosocial impact of the disease. It was a cross-sectional study conducted in four institutions, from June to August 2008. Questionnaires with Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI) were filled by 950 ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suffer from dysrhythmic and disturbed gait, impaired balance, and decreased postural responses. These alterations lead to falls, especially as the disease progresses. Based on the observation that postural control improved in patients with vestibular dysfunction after audio-biofeedback training, we tested the feasibility and ...

We consider the problem of outcomes based budget allocations to chronic disease prevention programs across the United States (US) to achieve greater geographical healthcare equity. We use Diabetes Prevention and Control Programs (DPCP) by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an example. We present a multi-criteria robust ...

PURPOSE: Stone disease is a highly prevalent condition associated with substantial cost and morbidity. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a primary prevention strategy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A decision analysis model was constructed to compare the cost of ad hoc management of symptomatic stones vs the cost of primary prevention. A ...

Bedside thoracic ultrasound is gaining popularity among non-radiologists, because of its advantages in the diagnosis and management of pleural disease. However, it has significant potential pitfalls and formal training is essential to avoid harm. This review gives an overview of the utility of ultrasound and discusses training.

The Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, was created in 2001. This article outlines its origins, principles, clinical programs, training activities, research programs, organizational structure, leadership, and contributions to Makerere University and its College of Health Sciences.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluating the impact of disease management programs on healthcare expenditures for patients with diabetes, depression, heart failure or COPD. METHODS: Systematic Pubmed search for studies reporting the impact of disease management programs on healthcare expenditures. Included were studies that contained two or more components of Wagner's chronic care model ...

INTRODUCTION:: Virtual reality (VR) simulation provides unique training opportunities. This study evaluates whether the deliberate practice (DP) can be successfully applied to simulated laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) for enhancement of the quality of surgical skills. METHODS:: Twenty-six inexperienced surgeons underwent a training program for LC on a VR simulator. Trainees were ...

SUMMARY: A graphical user interface for the FoldX protein design program has been developed as a plugin for the YASARA molecular graphics suite. The most prominent FoldX commands such as free energy difference upon mutagenesis and interaction energy calculations can now be run entirely via a windowed menu system and ...

OBJECTIVE: To study the implementation of a patient education program on relapses and relapse therapy into routine care. METHODS: 31 health care professionals took part in a one day train-the-trainer program (TTTP) and subsequently 261 persons with MS (pwMS) took part in the education program. Evaluation was carried out in ...

Leprosy is an Infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae and acquired through droplet infection. India has been carrying the 2/3rd global leprosy burden. Inadequate or incorrect information and knowledge about the disease and its treatment are the root causes of many stigmas and inhibitions prevalent in the various sections of ...

In 2years, the New York newborn screening program has analyzed approximately 500,000 samples for succinylacetone (SUAC), the biomarker for Tyrosinemia, type I. There have been five screen-positive results. Two of these results were considered borderline, and a repeat specimen was requested. In three cases, an immediate referral was made to ...

Research suggests that medical student empathy erodes during undergraduate medical education. The authors evaluated the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy Medical Student Version (JSPE-MS) scores of two consecutive medical school classes to assess the impact of an educational intervention on the preservation of empathy. The authors conducted a before-and-after study ...

Research shows that sustained employment contributes to a higher quality of life for those with multiple sclerosis (MS). Occupational therapists can work to create therapeutic interventions that assist people with MS with maintaining employment. To detail the problem-focused coping strategies that academics with MS employ to enable them to teach ...

Fatigue is considered to be one of the most common and disabling symptoms among individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of this study is to investigate if an intensive, short-term inpatient rehabilitation program is able to improve fatigue in MS, and if fatigue is able to negatively influence the ...

Time constraints and lack of awareness of risk factors for future chronic disease development prevent many young adults from accessing lifestyle programs offered by local health services. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a rural pharmacy-based multidisciplinary healthy lifestyle pilot program on reducing risk factors for chronic disease ...

The aim of the present manuscript is to present a user-friendly and flexible platform for transforming Kubios HRV output files to an .xls-file format, used by MS Excel. The program utilizes either native or bundled Java and is platform-independent and mobile. This means that it can run without being installed ...

Alberta maintains a universal screening program for congenital hypothyroidism, a condition which, when treated promptly prevents neurological impairment. Because the program relies on multiple stakeholders working in different areas, it is not known how effective the overall process is in achieving timely treatment initiation. Our objective was to analyze and ...

What prevents people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from attending and completing pulmonary rehabilitation programs? Qualitative design using semi-structured interviews. 19 adults with COPD who had declined to participate and 18 adults with COPD who had not completed a pulmonary rehabilitation program at a metropolitan teaching hospital. A lack ...

Few research in multiple sclerosis (MS) has focused on physical rehabilitation of upper limb dysfunction, though the latter strongly influences independent performance of activities of daily living. Upper limb rehabilitation technology could hold promise for complementing traditional MS therapy. Consequently, this pilot study aimed to examine the feasibility of an ...

Limited data exist on the effects of Disease Modifying Treatments (DMTs) on direct and indirect costs among employees treated for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The objective was to compare costs and absences among employees treated with DMTs (e.g., interferons [IFNs]: IFN-β1a-IM = Avonex = 'A', IFN-β1b = Betaseron = 'B', IFN-β1a-SC = Rebif = 'R', or glatiramer acetate = Copaxone = 'C') for MS pre and post ...

We present a computer program developed for estimating penetrance rates in autosomal dominant diseases by means of family kinship and phenotype information contained within the pedigrees. The program also determines the exact 95% credibility interval for the penetrance estimate. Both executable (PenCalc for Windows) and web versions (PenCalcWeb) of the ...

This article explores a collaboration between the health, social care and education faculties at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK to address the Labour government's aims to promote healthy eating, language learning and cultural awareness in children, and collaborative working among professionals. The Eating Abroad Together project used healthy ...

This paper explores Rycroft's views on narcissistic barriers to the formation of analytic identity, together with the analyst's relation to (or ablation of) his forbears. It sketches Rycroft's relation to his training analysts, Ella Sharpe and Sylvia Payne and the British Freudian tradition, delineating a line of descent running from ...

This study describes a qualitative study of student advocates' experiences of their work with low-income women struggling with symptoms of depression. Using an advocacy model called Relationship-Centered Advocacy, these 1st-year counseling psychology graduate students worked intensively with their "partners" for 9 months. Advocate-partner teams met together each week, developing collaborative ...

A cross-sectional study was conducted on dental students at Bahadurgarh, Haryana, for the assessment of periodontal health and possible associated factors. A total of 329 students were examined clinically by periodontists. Students with bleeding on probing and attachment loss ≥ 2 mm were assessed further for extent of bone loss ...

Candida spp. are currently the fourth most common cause of bloodstream infections in US hospitals, and the third most common cause of bloodstream infections in the intensive care unit. Over the last 2 decades there has been a shift towards a greater involvement of non-Candida albicans spp. as the cause ...

Iridescent colours have been fascinating to humans throughout history; they are flashy, shimmering, dynamic, and examples surround us, from the commonly seen iridescent sheen of oily street puddles to the exotic, gaudy displays of birds-of-paradise featured in nature documentaries. Iridescent colours and the structures that produce them have unique properties ...

The use of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) has dramatically increased over the last decade. This increase is multifaceted with regard to the number of patients receiving NIV and in the increasingly varied disease conditions for which NIV is being used. Successful development of an NIV program depends on many variables, but ...