Dynamic mechanical analysis of alginate/gellan hydrogels under controlled conditions relevant to environmentally sensitive applications.

Hydrogels are natural/synthetic polymer-based materials with a large percentage of water content, usually above 80 %, and are suitable for many application fields such as wearable sensors, biomedicine, cosmetics, agriculture, etc. However, their performance is susceptible to environmental changes in temperature, relative humidity, and mechanical deformation due to their aqueous and soft nature. We investigate the mechanical response of both filled and unfilled alginate/gellan hydrogels using a combined axial-torsional rheometric approach with cylindrical samples of large length/diameter ratio under controlled temperature and relative humidity.

Methodological challenges using routine clinical care data for real-world evidence: a rapid review utilizing a systematic literature search and focus group discussion.

Background: The integration of real-world evidence (RWE) from real-world data (RWD) in clinical research is crucial for bridging the gap between clinical trial results and real-world outcomes. Analyzing routinely collected data to generate clinical evidence faces methodological concerns like confounding and bias, similar to prospectively documented observational studies. This study focuses on additional limitations frequently reported in the literature, providing an overview of the challenges and biases inherent to analyzing routine clinical care data, including health claims data (hereafter: routine data).

Evaluation of Sensitivity and Specificity of Acuity 360 Telemedicine Vision Screening System.

Purpose: Our aim is to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of Acuity 360 telemedicine system, as compared to in-person clinic examination, in identifying clinically significant eye disease. Acuity 360 is a combination of commercially available ocular imaging devices used together to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the structures and diseases of the eye.

Methods: Observational cross-sectional study of consecutively examined patients where 19 remote examiners analyzed 80 patients using Acuity 360 images.

Testing Similarity of Parametric Competing Risks Models for Identifying Potentially Similar Pathways in Healthcare.

The identification of similar patient pathways is a crucial task in healthcare analytics. A flexible tool to address this issue are parametric competing risks models, where transition intensities may be specified by a variety of parametric distributions, thus in particular being possibly time-dependent. We assess the similarity between two such models by examining the transitions between different health states.

Association between continuity of care and inappropriate prescribing in outpatient care in Germany: a cross-sectional analysis conducted as part of the LoChro trial.

Objectives: Potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and potential prescribing omissions (PPOs) are common in multimorbid patients. This study aims to describe PIMs and PPOs in an open-access outpatient setting and to investigate any association between continuity of care (CoC) and PIMs and PPOs in multimorbid older patients.

Design: Cross-sectional study using patient-confirmed outpatient medication plans to describe PIMs and PPOs using the 'Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescription/Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment' version 2.