Quality improvement project to reduce pain and distress associated with immunization visits in pediatric primary care.

This quality improvement project implemented an evidence-based immunization protocol aimed at decreasing pain and distress associated with immunizations for children ages 4 to 6 by utilizing distraction and a benzocaine-based anesthetic spray. The original protocol is used at a large, university-based pediatric primary care hospital. A convenience sample of 30 children from a community-based healthcare center was utilized to assess effectiveness in alternate settings.

Evaluation of the hemodynamic effectiveness of aortic dissection treatments via virtual stenting.

Aortic dissection treatment varies for each patient and stenting is one of a number of approaches that are utilized to Stabilize the condition. Information regarding the hemodynamic forces in the aorta in dissected and virtually stented cases could support clinicians in their choices of treatment prior to medical intervention. Computational fluid dynamics coupled with lumped parameter models have shown promise in providing detailed information that could be used in the clinic; for this, it is necessary to develop personalized workflows in order to produce patient-specific simulations.

Numerical simulation of the fluid structure interactions in a compliant patient-specific arteriovenous fistula.

The objective of the study is to investigate numerically the fluid-structure interactions (FSI) in a patient-specific arteriovenous fistula (AVF) and analyze the degree of complexity that such a numerical simulation requires to provide clinically relevant information. The reference FSI simulation takes into account the non-Newtonian behavior of blood, as well as the variation in mechanical properties of the vascular walls along the AVF. We have explored whether less comprehensive versions of the simulation could still provide relevant results.

Investigating the influence of haemodynamic stimuli on intracranial aneurysm inception.

We propose a novel method to reconstruct the hypothetical geometry of the healthy vasculature prior to intracranial aneurysm (IA) formation: a Frenet frame is calculated along the skeletonization of the arterial geometry; upstream and downstream boundaries of the aneurysmal segment are expressed in terms of the local Frenet frame basis vectors; the hypothetical healthy geometry is then reconstructed by propagating a closed curve along the skeleton using the local Frenet frames so that the upstream boundary is smoothly morphed into the downstream boundary. This methodology takes into account the tortuosity of the arterial vasculature and requires minimal user subjectivity. The method is applied to 22 clinical cases depicting IAs.

A brief, peer-led HIV prevention program for college students in Bangkok, Thailand.

Study Objective: To test the effectiveness of a brief theory-based HIV prevention program led by peers among college students.

Design: A quasi-experimental research using a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design with 2-mo follow-up.

Setting: A university in Bangkok.