Analytical fitting of -ray photopeaks in germanium cross strip detectors.

In an ideal germanium detector, fully-absorbed monoenergetic -rays will appear in the measured spectrum as a narrow peak, broadened into a Gaussian of width determined only by the statistical properties of charge cloud generation and the electronic noise of the readout electronics. Multielectrode detectors complicate this picture. Broadening of the charge clouds as they drift through the detector will lead to charge sharing between neighboring electrodes and, inevitably, low-energy tails on the photopeak spectra.

What every dentist needs to know about the use of artificial intelligence in dentistry.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a division of computer science that allows machines to emulate human cognitive processes. In dentistry, AI is applied in clinical decision-making and can aid in detecting disease and predicting patterns based on existing data sets. AI can assist clinicians by quickly analyzing massive amounts of data to improve workflow, identify patterns of disease, provide risk assessment, and create individualized patient-centered treatment plans.

Patient monitoring in the nonoperating room anesthesia (NORA) setting: current advances in technology.

Purpose Of Review: Nonoperating room anesthesia (NORA) procedures continue to increase in type and complexity as procedural medicine makes technical advances. Patients presenting for NORA procedures are also older and sicker than ever. Commensurate with the requirements of procedural medicine, anesthetic monitoring must meet the American Society of Anesthesiologists standards for basic monitoring.

Nonoperating room anesthesia education: preparing our residents for the future.

Purpose Of Review: Nonoperating room anesthesia (NORA) is the fastest growing segment of anesthetic practice. This review provides an overview of knowledge and trends that will need to be introduced to residents as part of their education.

Recent Findings: Topics for the future include, but are not limited to, new medications, artificial intelligence and big data, monitoring depth of hypnosis, translational innovation and collaboration, demographic changes, financial driving forces, destination hubs, medical tourism, and new approaches to education training and self-management.

OR Management and Metrics: How It All Fits Together for the Healthcare System.

Increased healthcare costs and diminishing returns have prompted healthcare administrators to address budget allocations to alleviate institutional costs. Current economic constraints, such as limited Medicaid and Medicare insurance payments, limit our patients' ability to receive urgent surgical interventions as well as access preventative diagnostic tools. Rather than downsizing the workforce, future sustainability must be derived upon effective cost structures supported by improved quality control measures and increased patient accessibility.

The Association of Anesthesia Clinical Directors (AACD) Glossary of Times Used for Scheduling and Monitoring of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures.

The Glossary of Times Used for Scheduling and Monitoring of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures also known as the Procedural Times Glossary (PTG) was originally developed with the support of the Association of Anesthesia Clinical Directors (AACD). The goal was to establish standardized terms to measure and assess the performance of operating room and procedural areas. By incorporating standardized concepts of efficiency and utilization, the PTG codified operating room metrics and facilitated benchmarking and quality improvement initiatives.

Interdisciplinary Dialogue Is Needed When Defining Perioperative Recommendations: Conflicting Guidelines for Anesthetizing Patients for Pilonidal Surgery.

National or international guidelines can help surgeons and anesthesiologists make treatment decisions, but the existence of conflicting recommendations can hinder treatment rather than helping. A case in point is the treatment of pilonidal sinus disease, a chronic subcutaneous infection located in the sacrococcygeal area. Its incidence is rising, reaching almost 100/100,000 inhabitants.

Value-Based Care and Strategic Priorities.

The anesthesia market continues to undergo disruption. Financial margins are shrinking, and buyers are demanding that anesthesia services be provided in an efficient, low-cost manner. To help anesthesiologists analyze their market, Drucker and Porter's framework of buyers, suppliers, quality, barriers to entry, substitution, and strategic priorities allows for a structured analysis.

Demands of Integrated Care Delivery in Interventional Medicine and Anesthesiology: Interdisciplinary Teamwork and Strategy.

Evolving financial and medical constraints fueled by the increasing repertoire of nonoperating room cases and widening scope of patient comorbidities are discussed. The need to integrate finances and care approaches is detailed, and strategic suggestions for broader collaborative practice are suggested.

The future of nonoperating room anesthesia in the 21st century: emphasis on quality and safety.

Purpose Of Review: Nonoperating room anesthesia (NORA) has grown from an insignificant percentage of total anesthesia cases into a major percentage of anesthesia workload over the past 30 years. This trend evidences no signs of abating.

Recent Findings: With the rapid development of novel interventional techniques in cardiology, radiology, gastroenterology and pulmonary medicine and other areas, the core responsibilities of the anesthesia provider will no longer be confined to delivering care in traditional operating rooms.

Operating Room Management at the Edge of Order and Chaos.

The operating room (OR) management literature tends to view management problems as having finite solutions and assumes that equilibrium exists in the intricate encounters that occur every day. In this article, we review complexity theory and assess its applicability to the strategic, tactical, and operational issues facing OR managers. By building on complexity theory and its assumptions, we also show that as complex systems, ORs resemble high-reliability organizations more than they resemble ultra-safe organizations.

Creating a Standardized Operating Room Management Curriculum for Anesthesia Trainees.

As the healthcare environment evolves, physicians are taking on new roles and responsibilities. In addition to clinical care, physicians must now be knowledgeable about administrative concepts and understand healthcare finances. However, these nonclinical subjects usually are not taught during residency training.

Rational design of all organic polymer dielectrics.

To date, trial and error strategies guided by intuition have dominated the identification of materials suitable for a specific application. We are entering a data-rich, modelling-driven era where such Edisonian approaches are gradually being replaced by rational strategies, which couple predictions from advanced computational screening with targeted experimental synthesis and validation. Here, consistent with this emerging paradigm, we propose a strategy of hierarchical modelling with successive downselection stages to accelerate the identification of polymer dielectrics that have the potential to surpass 'standard' materials for a given application.