Implementation of Patient Engagement in the Netherlands: A Stimulating Environment within a Large Academic Medical Centre.

Patients are the official third party of the Dutch healthcare system, apart from healthcare providers and insurers. Radboud university medical center (Radboudumc) is a regional centre for specialized secondary care in the Netherlands. Here innovation is recognized as a decisive factor when it comes to the implementation of patient engagement.

Patient-Specific Actual-Size Three-Dimensional Printed Models for Patient Education in Glioma Treatment: First Experiences.

Background: Patients with cancer need high-quality information about disease stage, treatment options, and side effects. High-quality information can also improve health literacy, shared decision making, and satisfaction. We created patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) models of tumors including surrounding functional areas and assessed what patients with glioma value (or fear) about the models when they are used to educate them about the relationship between their tumor and specific brain parts, the surgical procedure, and risks.

Personalized Consent Flow in Contemporary Data Sharing for Medical Research: A Viewpoint.

Background: Health data personally collected by individuals with wearable devices and smartphones is becoming an important data source for healthcare, but also for medical research.

Objective: To describe a new consent model that allows people to control their personally collected health data and determine to what extent they want to share these for research purposes.

Methods: We developed, in close collaboration with patients, researchers, healthcare professionals, privacy experts, and an accredited Medical Ethical Review Committee, an innovative concept called "personalized consent flow" within a research platform connected to a personal health record.

Foot lengthening and shortening during gait: a parameter to investigate foot function?

Introduction: Based on the windlass mechanism theory of Hicks, the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) flattens during weight bearing. Simultaneously, foot lengthening is expected. However, changes in foot length during gait and the influence of walking speed has not been investigated yet.

Cortical thickness is associated with gait disturbances in cerebral small vessel disease.

Although gait disturbances are present in a substantial portion of patients with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), their pathogenesis has not been clarified as they are not entirely explained by the white matter lesions (WMLs) and lacunar infarcts. The role of cortical thickness in these patients remains largely unknown. We aimed to assess the regions of cortical thickness associated with distinct gait parameters in patients with SVD, and whether these associations were dependent on WMLs and lacunar infarcts.

Abundance and bionomics of Ochlerotatus j. japonicus in two counties in southwestern Virginia.

Movement of Ochlerotatus japonicus japonicus into virus-endemic areas in the USA has raised concern about its vector potential and prompted monitoring of its spread. The abundance and seasonal distribution of Oc. japonicus in southwestern Virginia was measured in 2003 and 2004 using gravid traps.

Does ink age inside of a pen cartridge?

In questioned document examination and ink dating, it has been assumed that the ink inside of a pen cartridge does not begin aging until the ink is dispensed onto paper. Positive ion laser desorption (LD) mass spectra were obtained of ink-on-paper samples containing methyl violet, from new and old pens. Mass spectral studies with methyl violet have established the mechanism for how the dye degrades over time, and have provided structural information concerning the dye's degradation products.

Evaluation of laser desorption mass spectrometry and UV accelerated aging of dyes on paper as tools for the evaluation of a questioned document.

Laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) may be used for the detection and identification of dyes found in inks. Naturally-aged and artificially-aged blue and black ballpoint pen inks containing the cationic dye methyl violet were analyzed on paper. The average molecular weight of the dye sample was calculated from LD mass spectral data and plotted versus time.

Evaluation of desorption/ionization mass spectrometric methods in the forensic applications of the analysis of inks on paper.

Fast atom bombardment and laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) provide molecular level information concerning an ink's composition. Two ink-jet printer inks, Ink A containing the cationic dye Methyl Violet 2B, and Ink B containing the anionic dye, Solvent Black, were studied. Both positive and negative ion detection modes of the mass spectrometer were used.

Criteria for evaluating performance of third-year medical students.

Background: Evaluating medical student performance in clinical settings is an aspect of teaching that educators sometimes find difficult. This study was conducted to determine evaluation criteria for clinical performance that were considered important by physician faculty. These criteria were subsequently used in the student evaluation process for a decentralized clerkship in family medicine.