Simulation of "North Carolina Protocol for Allocating Scarce Inpatient Critical Care Resources in a Pandemic" in a Multi-hospital Health Care System.

An integrated nonprofit health care system with 13 North Carolina medical centers conducted a time-pressured quality improvement simulation of its plan to implement the "North Carolina Protocol for Allocating Scarce Inpatient Critical Care Resources in a Pandemic" attendant to pandemic scenario planning. Simulation objectives included assessing the plan in terms of a) efficiency and effectiveness; b) comorbidity scoring validity; c) impact by race/ethnicity, gender, age, and payer status; and d) simulation participant impressions of potential impact on clinicians. The simulation scenario involved scoring 14 patients with the constraint that only 10 could be afforded critical care resources.

Global and peak local specific absorption rate control on parallel transmit systems using k-means SAR compression model.

Purpose: To improve the specific absorption rate (SAR) compression model capability in parallel transmission (pTx) MRI systems.

Methods: A k-means clustering method is proposed to group voxels with similar SAR behaviors in the scanned object, providing a controlled upper-bounded estimation of peak local SARs. This k-means compression model and the conventional virtual observation point (VOP) model were tested in a pTx MRI framework.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) MRI: Combining Parallel Excitation and Parallel Reception for Enhanced Imaging.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a critical role in visualizing the structure and functions of the human body. In order to accelerate imaging time and improve image quality, radio-frequency (RF) coil receive arrays are commonly employed to acquire the magnetic resonance (MR) signal. Similarly, multiple transmit coils have been shown to accelerate and refine RF excitation.

Computerized relational database for monitoring clozapine therapy.

The use of a computerized relational database to satisfy the patient-monitoring requirements of clozapine's manufacturer at an Oregon state psychiatric facility is described. The pharmacy department designed a computerized system to efficiently manage the patient-monitoring requirements of clozapine's manufacturer. A relational database program allows information in database files to be readily retrieved and organized into standardized or customized reports.