Co-Designing an Initiative to Increase Shared Access to Older Adults' Patient Portals: Stakeholder Engagement.

Background: The patient portal is a widely available secure digital platform offered by care delivery organizations that enables patients to communicate electronically with clinicians and manage their care. Many organizations allow patients to authorize family members or friends-"care partners"-to share access to patient portal accounts, thus enabling care partners to receive their own identity credentials. Shared access facilitates trilateral information exchange among patients, clinicians, and care partners; however, uptake and awareness of this functionality are limited.

Characterization of the ultrasound beam produced by the MIST therapy, wound healing system.

The MIST Therapy wound healing device (Celleration, Eden Prairie, MN, USA), which uses low-frequency ultrasound to deliver an atomized saline spray to acute wounds, was evaluated in a laboratory environment. The output of the MIST device was characterized by its frequency, transmission in the presence and absence of the saline spray and intensity. When measured up to 500 mm away from the transducer tip, the transmission of 39.

Monitoring the use and outcomes of new devices and procedures: how does coding affect what Hospital Episode Statistics contribute? Lessons from 12 emerging procedures 2006-10.

Background: New devices and procedures are often introduced into health services when the evidence base for their efficacy and safety is limited. The authors sought to assess the availability and accuracy of routinely collected Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data in the UK and their potential contribution to the monitoring of new procedures.

Methods: Four years of HES data (April 2006-March 2010) were analysed to identify episodes of hospital care involving a sample of 12 new interventional procedures.

Remote measurement of the leak around the uncuffed tracheal tube: objective measurement and physical characteristics.

Background: We have developed a technique for measuring a characteristic of the tracheal tube (TT)-trachea interface: the leak conductance (LC). This study aimed to validate the technique in the laboratory and to compare LC with measurements of fractional volume loss (FVL) in neonates undergoing mechanical ventilation.

Methods: LC, expressed as leak flow at a lung pressure of 10 cm H(2)O, was derived remotely from ventilator pressure and flow signals.

Automated non-invasive blood pressure devices: are they suitable for use?

Objectives: Measurement of blood pressure by a trained observer using a mercury sphygmomanometer is accepted as the gold standard, but there has been an increase in the use of automated devices employing the oscillometric technique. Not all such devices have been clinically validated, and some do not carry an appropriate CE mark. This survey aimed to assess the state of the European Union market for automated non-invasive blood pressure devices in terms of information provided by companies relating to compliance, validation and intended use.