Economic efficiency of primary care for CVD prevention and treatment in Eastern European countries.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the main cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but it also is highly preventable. The prevention rate mainly depends on the patients' readiness to follow recommendations and the state's capacity to support patients. Our study aims to show that proper primary care can decrease the CVD-related morbidity rate and increase the economic efficiency of the healthcare system.

Artificial intelligence techniques: An efficient new approach to challenge the assessment of complex clinical fields such as airway clearance techniques in patients with cystic fibrosis?

Objective: To construct an artificial intelligence application to assist untrained physiotherapists in determining the appropriate physiotherapy exercises to improve the quality of life of patients with cystic fibrosis.

Subjects: A total of 42 children (21 boys and 21 girls), age range 6-18 years, participated in a clinical survey between 2001 and 2005.

Methods: Data collected during the clinical survey were entered into a neural network in order to correlate the health state indicators of the patients and the type of physiotherapy exercise to be followed.