For successful health technology innovation and implementation it is key to, in an early phase, understand the problem and whether a proposed innovation is the best way to solve the problem. This review performed an initial exploration of published tools that support innovators in academic research and early stage development with awareness and guidance along the end-to-end process of development, evaluation and implementation of health technology innovations. Tools were identified from scientific literature as well as in grey literature by non-systematic searches in public research databases and search engines, and based on expert referral.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThree-dimensional (3D) imaging techniques are promising new tools for measuring breast volume, for example in gender-affirming therapy. Transgender individuals can be treated with gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT). A robust method for monitoring breast volume changes is critical to be able to study the effects of feminizing GAHT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTechnology has a major impact on the way nurses work. Data-driven technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), have particularly strong potential to support nurses in their work. However, their use also introduces ambiguities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The evolution of eHealth development has shifted from standalone tools to comprehensive digital health environments, fostering data exchange among diverse stakeholders and systems. Nevertheless, existing research and implementation frameworks have primarily emphasized technological and organizational aspects of eHealth implementation, overlooking the intricate legal, ethical, and financial considerations. It is essential to discover what legal, ethical, financial, and technological challenges should be considered to ensure successful and sustainable implementation of eHealth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancers (Basel)
August 2023
Unintentional local temperature effects can occur during irreversible electroporation (IRE) treatment, especially near the electrodes, and most frequently near the tip. Partial electrical insulation of the IRE electrodes could possibly control these temperature effects. This study investigated and visualized the effect of partial electrical insulation applied to the IRE electrodes on the electric field line pattern and temperature gradient.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Increasing life expectancy is resulting in a growing demand for long-term care; however, there is a shortage of qualified health care professionals (HCPs) to deliver it. If used optimally, technology can provide a solution to this challenge. HCPs play an important role in the use of technology in long-term care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine the differences in thermal effects on vocal folds between four fiber-routed lasers.
Methods: In this experimental laboratory study the thermal effects of an AcuPulse Duo CO (CO AP), UltraPulse Duo CO (CO UP), KTP, and Blue laser were analyzed using a Schlieren technique on a human tissue mimicking gel model. Power, laser duration, laser fiber distance to tissue and mode (continuous wave [CW] vs pulsed [P] modes) were evaluated in varying combinations in order to compare the effects of the tested lasers and to explore the individual effect on thermal expansion and incision depth of each setting.
Objectives/hypothesis: To provide insight in the thermal effects of individual laser settings in target tissues to optimize flexible endoscopic CO laser surgery treatment.
Study Design: Experimental laboratory study.
Methods: Thermal effects of the CO laser using a fiber delivery system were visualized using the color Schlieren technique in combination with a polyacrylamide gel tissue model.
J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol
July 2020
Background: For clinical care and research in vitiligo, photographs with the use of ultraviolet (UV) light or Wood's lamp are often made. Conventional cameras are insensitive to UV light. The use of a UV camera (UV photography) might improve image quality and ameliorate the assessment of target lesions in vitiligo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDifferent devices have been used to enhance topical drug delivery. Aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of different skin pretreatment regimens in topical drug delivery. In six ex vivo human abdominal skin samples, test regions were pretreated with fractional CO and Er:YAG laser (both 70 and 300 μm ablation depth, density of 5%), microneedling (500 μm needle length), fractional radiofrequency (ablation depth of ± 80-90 μm), and no pretreatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultispectral imaging (MSI) is a new, non-invasive method to continuously measure oxygenation and microcirculatory perfusion, but has limitedly been validated in healthy volunteers. The present study aimed to validate the potential of multispectral imaging in the detection of microcirculatory perfusion disturbances during a vascular occlusion test (VOT). Two consecutive VOT's were performed on healthy volunteers and tissue oxygenation was measured with MSI and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComparing and selecting an adequate spectral filter array (SFA) camera is application-specific and usually requires extensive prior measurements. An evaluation framework for SFA cameras is proposed and three cameras are tested in the context of skin analysis. The proposed framework does not require application-specific measurements and spectral sensitivities together with the number of bands are the main focus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: User-independent quantitative measures of cutaneous allergic reactions can help the physicians manage and evaluate the treatment of cutaneous allergic reactions. In this paper, we present and validate a method to quantify the elevation, volume and area of cutaneous allergic reactions to red tattoos.
Methods: The skin surface of allergic tattoo reactions was imaged using an optical 3D scanner.
The emerging technology of spectral filter array (SFA) cameras has great potential for clinical applications, due to its unique capability for real time spectral imaging, at a reasonable cost. This makes such cameras particularly suitable for quantification of dynamic processes such as skin oxygenation. Skin oxygenation measurements are useful for burn wound healing assessment and as an indicator of patient complications in the operating room.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Hormone treatment induces feminization of the body in transwomen and masculinization in transmen. However, the effect of hormone treatment on facial characteristics is still unknown.
Aim: We aimed to study whether hormone treatment induces facial feminization and masculinization and how this potential change affects satisfaction and self-esteem.
Background And Objectives: Topical drug delivery can be increased by pretreatment of the skin with ablative fractional laser (AFXL). Several physical penetration enhancement techniques have been investigated to further improve AFXL-assisted drug delivery. This study investigated the influence of three of these techniques, namely massage, acoustic pressure wave treatment, and pressure vacuum alterations (PVP) on the distribution of the fluorescent drug indocyanine green (ICG) at different depths in the skin after topical application on AFXL pretreated skin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Each ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI sequence for breast cancer generates thousands of images in a 4D stack that need to be reviewed by a radiologist.
Purpose: To assess whether color intensity projections (CIP) effectively summarizes-using only the time of arrival (ToA) and amount of signal enhancement (AoE) of the contrast agent-the thousands of ultrafast images.
Study Type: Retrospective cohort clinical trial.
Background And Objective: Endoscopic third ventriculostomy is used to treat hydrocephalus. Different laser wavelengths have been proposed for laser-assisted endoscopic third ventriculostomies over the last decades. The aim of this study was to evaluate Thulium laser endoscopic third ventriculostomy heat penetration in the surrounding environment of the floor of the third ventricle in an in vitro setting with visualization of thermal distribution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDue to the high rates of epidural failure (3-32%), novel techniques are required to objectively assess the successfulness of an epidural block. In this study we therefore investigated whether thermographic temperature measurements have a higher predictive value for a successful epidural block when compared to the cold sensation test as gold standard. Epidural anesthesia was induced in 61 patients undergoing elective abdominal, thoracic or orthopedic surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdequate assessment of burn wounds is crucial in the management of burn patients. Thermography, as a noninvasive measurement tool, can be utilized to detect the remaining perfusion over large burn wound areas by measuring temperature, thereby reflecting the healing potential (HP) (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Subtle motion of an epileptic patient examined with co-registered EEG and functional MRI (EEG-fMRI) may often lead to spurious fMRI activation patterns when true epileptic spikes are contaminated with motion artefacts. In recent years, methods relying on reference signals for correcting these subtle movements in the EEG have emerged. In this study, the performance of two reference-based devices are compared to the template-based method with regard to their ability to remove movement-related artifacts in EEG measured during scanning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImpedance cardiography (ICG) is a method to evaluate cardiac-stroke volume and cardiac-output by measuring the cardiac-synchronous changes in the dynamic trans-thoracic electrical impedance (ΔZ). Clinical evaluations on the accuracy of ICG showed varying results. Consequently, the classic assumption in ICG-the aorta as a main source of ΔZ-is questioned and subsequently investigated in simulation studies using mathematical models of the electrical resistivity of the human body.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe excimer laser assisted non-occlusive anastomosis (ELANA) technique is used to make anastomoses on intracerebral arteries. This end-to-side anastomosis is created without temporary occlusion of the recipient artery using a 308-nm excimer laser with a ring-shaped multi-fiber catheter to punch an opening in the arterial wall. Over 500 patients have received an ELANA bypass.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) uses short duration, high-voltage electrical pulses to induce cell death via nanoscale defects resulting from altered transmembrane potential. The technique is gaining interest for ablations in unresectable pancreatic and hepatobiliary cancer. Metal stents are often used for palliative biliary drainage in these patients, but are currently seen as an absolute contraindication for IRE due to the perceived risk of direct heating of the metal and its surroundings.
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