Efficacy of Installation of Temporary Bathing Transfer Aids by Older Adults.

Grab bars facilitate bathing and reduce the risk of falls during bathing. Suction cup handholds and rim-mounted tub rails are an alternative to grab bars. The objective of this study was to determine whether older adults could install handholds and tub rails effectively to support bathing transfers.

Evacuation solutions for individuals with functional limitations in the built environment: a scoping review protocol.

Background: Whether due to aging, disability, injury, or other circumstances, an increasing number of Canadians experience functional limitations that reduce their ability to participate in activities of daily life. While the built environment has become increasingly accessible, existing Canadian evacuation guidelines lack comprehensive strategies for evacuating individuals with functional limitations from buildings during emergencies. To inform guideline revisions, a map of existing solutions for evacuating such individuals is required.

Effect of intermittent deployment of an electronic monitoring system on hand hygiene behaviors in healthcare workers.

Background: Improving hand hygiene compliance among healthcare professionals is the most effective way to reduce healthcare-acquired infections. Electronic systems developed to increase hand hygiene performance show promise but might not maintain staff participation over time. In this study, we investigated an intermittent deployment strategy to overcome potentially declining participation levels.

Secondary measures of hand hygiene performance in health care available with continuous electronic monitoring of individuals.

Background: Hand hygiene (HH) compliance in health care is usually measured against versions of the World Health Organization's "Your 5 Moments" guidelines using direct observation. Such techniques result in small samples that are influenced by the presence of an observer. This study demonstrates that continuous electronic monitoring of individuals can overcome these limitations.

Effect of electronic real-time prompting on hand hygiene behaviors in health care workers.

Background: Poor hand hygiene by health care workers is a major cause of nosocomial infections. This research evaluated the ability of an electronic monitoring system with real-time prompting capability to change hand hygiene behaviors.

Methods: Handwashing activity was measured by counting dispenser activations on a single nursing unit before, during, and after installation of the system.

A system for portable sleep apnea diagnosis using an embedded data capturing module.

Unlabelled: Sleep apnea (SA) is a very common disease with serious health consequences, yet is very under-diagnosed, partially because of the high cost and limited accessibility of in-laboratory polysomnography (PSG). The purpose of this work is to introduce a newly developed portable system for the diagnosis of SA at home that is both reliable and easy to use. The system includes personal devices for recording breath sounds and airflow during sleep and diagnostic algorithms to process the recorded data.