Evaluation of System Modelling Techniques for Waste Identification in Lean Healthcare Applications.

Purpose: Waste identification plays a vital role in lean healthcare applications. While the value stream map (VSM) is among the most commonly used tools for waste identification, it may be limited to visualize the behaviour of dynamic and complex healthcare systems. To address this limitation, system modelling techniques (SMTs) can be used to provide a comprehensive picture of various system-wide wastes.

Three-dimensional echocardiographic analysis of right atrial volume in normal and abnormal hearts: comparison of biplane and multiplane methods.

Background: Although right atrial size has clinical and prognostic importance, few data exist regarding the optimal three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) method for assessing right atrial volume (RAV). While measuring RAV in multiple planes may improve the accuracy, it also increases analysis time. The purpose of this study was to determine the minimum number of planes required for optimal assessment of RAV, using eight-plane 3DE measurements as a reference standard.

3D echocardiography to evaluate right atrial pressure in acutely decompensated heart failure correlation with invasive hemodynamics.

Objectives: This study examined the utility of 3-dimensional right atrial volume index (3D-RAVi), combined with 2-dimensional echocardiographic (2DE) parameters, for the identification of elevated right atrial pressure (RAP) in patients with heart failure.

Background: Accurate noninvasive determination of RAP is clinically important for the management of patients with heart failure. Although 2DE methods have been used to noninvasively estimate RAP, the accuracy of these parameters has limitations when estimating RAP in an individual patient.