An IoT-Focused Intrusion Detection System Approach Based on Preprocessing Characterization for Cybersecurity Datasets.

Security in IoT networks is currently mandatory, due to the high amount of data that has to be handled. These systems are vulnerable to several cybersecurity attacks, which are increasing in number and sophistication. Due to this reason, new intrusion detection techniques have to be developed, being as accurate as possible for these scenarios.

Health insurance literacy: disparities by race, ethnicity, and language preference.

Objectives: To measure Connecticut's Affordable Care Act qualified health plan enrollees' health insurance literacy (HIL) by race, ethnicity, and language preference.

Study Design: Statewide landline and cell phone telephonic survey.

Methods: Geographically balanced cohort that oversampled black and Hispanic enrollees.

Reduced Cost Of Specialty Care Using Electronic Consultations For Medicaid Patients.

Specialty care accounts for a significant and growing portion of year-over-year Medicaid cost increases. Some referrals to specialists may be avoided and managed more efficiently by using electronic consultations (eConsults). In this study a large, multisite safety-net health center linked its primary care providers with specialists in dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, and orthopedics via an eConsult platform.

A cost-effectiveness analysis of cardiology eConsults for Medicaid patients.

Objectives: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of electronic consultations (eConsults) for cardiology compared with traditional face-to-face consults.

Study Design: Cost-effectiveness analysis for a subset of Medicaid-insured patients in a cluster-randomized trial of eConsults versus the traditional face-to-face consultation process in a statewide federally qualified health center.

Methods: A total of 369 Medicaid patients were referred for cardiology consultations by primary care providers who were randomly assigned to use either eConsults or their usual face-to-face referral process.

Smart CEI Moncloa: An IoT-based Platform for People Flow and Environmental Monitoring on a Smart University Campus.

Internet of Things platforms for Smart Cities are technologically complex and deploying them at large scale involves high costs and risks. Therefore, pilot schemes that allow validating proof of concepts, experimenting with different technologies and services, and fine-tuning them before migrating them to actual scenarios, are especially important in this context. The IoT platform deployed across the engineering schools of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in the Moncloa Campus of International Excellence represents a good example of a test bench for experimentation with Smart City services.

Application of a Multimedia Service and Resource Management Architecture for Fault Diagnosis.

Nowadays, the complexity of global video products has substantially increased. They are composed of several associated services whose functionalities need to adapt across heterogeneous networks with different technologies and administrative domains. Each of these domains has different operational procedures; therefore, the comprehensive management of multi-domain services presents serious challenges.

Impact of the elimination of cost sharing for mammographic breast cancer screening among rural US women: A natural experiment.

Background: Rural US women experience disparities in breast cancer screening and outcomes. In 2006, a national rural health insurance provider, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), eliminated out-of-pocket costs for screening mammography.

Methods: This study evaluated the elimination of cost sharing as a natural experiment: it compared trends in screening before and after the policy change.

Breast cancer screening utilization and understanding of current guidelines among rural U.S. women with private insurance.

Women living in rural areas of the U.S. face disparities in screening mammography and breast cancer outcomes.

The health care and productivity costs of back and neck pain in a multi-employer sample of utility industry employees.

Objective: To determine the cost of back and/or neck (B/N) pain among predominantly rural employees insured through an employee benefits trust.

Methods: Eligible employees had 1 year or more of medical coverage and completed a survey subsequently linked to their claims data. B/N pain costs consisted of medical and pharmacy claims, over-the-counter expenses, and presenteeism and absenteeism costs valued according to median occupational earnings.

Managing the space between visits: a randomized trial of disease management for diabetes in a community health center.

Background: Diabetes outcomes are worse for underserved patients from certain ethnic/racial minority populations. Telephonic disease management is a cost-effective strategy to deliver self-management services and possibly improve diabetes outcomes for such patients.

Objective: We conducted a trial to test the effectiveness of a supplemental telephonic disease management program compared to usual care alone for patients with diabetes cared for in a community health center.

Disease management to promote blood pressure control among African Americans.

African Americans have a higher prevalence of hypertension and poorer cardiovascular and renal outcomes than white Americans. The objective of this study was to determine whether a telephonic nurse disease management (DM) program designed for African Americans is more effective than a home monitoring program alone to increase blood pressure (BP) control among African Americans enrolled in a national health plan. A prospective randomized controlled study (March 2006-December 2007) was conducted, with 12 months of follow-up on each subject.

An obesity/cardiometabolic risk reduction disease management program: a population-based approach.

Obesity is a critical health concern that has captured the attention of public and private healthcare payers who are interested in controlling costs and mitigating the long-term economic consequences of the obesity epidemic. Population-based approaches to obesity management have been proposed that take advantage of a chronic care model (CCM), including patient self-care, the use of community-based resources, and the realization of care continuity through ongoing communications with patients, information technology, and public policy changes. Payer-sponsored disease management programs represent an important conduit to delivering population-based care founded on similar CCM concepts.

Return on investment in disease management: a review.

The results of 44 studies investigating financial impact and return on investment (ROI) from disease management (DM) programs for asthma, congestive heart failure (CHF), diabetes, depression, and multiple illnesses were examined. A positive ROI was found for programs directed at CHF and multiple disease conditions. Some evidence suggests that diabetes programs may save more than they cost, but additional studies are needed.

Gender-specific care of the patient with diabetes: review and recommendations.

Background: Men and women differ in their experience of diabetes mellitus (DM). For optimal prevention and treatment of the disease, these differences must be acknowledged. Unfortunately, most studies of diabetes have focused almost exclusively on men.

Cost-effectiveness of fixed-dose combination of isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine therapy for blacks with heart failure.

Background: Fixed-dose combination of isosorbide dinitrate/hydralazine (ISDN/HYD) improved clinical outcomes in the African-American Heart Failure Trial (A-HeFT). We assessed the resource use, costs of care, and cost-effectiveness of ISDN/HYD therapy in the A-HeFT trial population.

Methods And Results: We obtained resource use data from A-HeFT, assigning costs through the use of US federal sources.

A cohort study of the impact of a national disease management program on HEDIS diabetes outcomes.

Diabetes disease management programs (DDMP) are proliferating, but their overall impact in improving quality of care using Health Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) quality metrics has not been well studied. Furthermore, DDMPs are usually ongoing, but the incremental benefits of continuing the program beyond the initial patient educational intervention have not been rigorously tested. This study evaluates the impact of length of DDMP participation on diabetes-related HEDIS 2002 quality indicators across 20 health plans.

Principles for assessing disease management outcomes.

Disease management (DM) is rapidly becoming an important force in the late 20th and early 21st century as a strategy for managing the chronic illness of large populations. Given the increasing visibility of DM programs, the clinical, economic and financial impact of this support are vital to DM program accountability and its acceptance as a solution to the twin challenges of achieving affordable, quality health care. Measuring and reporting outcomes in DM is difficult.

A primer on bariatric surgery: treatment of last resort for morbid obesity.

Morbid obesity represents the highest risk state of a growing national problem that is eminently preventable and therefore highly relevant to the disease management community. The obesity epidemic, the failure of conservative treatments to achieve long-term weight loss and heightened media attention to positive short-term results of bariatric procedures among national celebrities has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of surgeries performed every year. Familiarity with the clinical issues surrounding morbid obesity and bariatric surgery is therefore essential to the disease management community.

Integrating disease management into the outpatient delivery system during and after managed care.

Managed care introduced disease management as a replacement strategy to utilization management. The focus changed from influencing treatment decisions to supporting self-care and compliance. Disease management rendered operational many elements of the chronic care model, but it did so outside the delivery system, thus escaping the financial limitations, cultural barriers, and inertia inherent in effecting radical change from within.

Effectiveness of a disease management program for patients with diabetes.

Diabetes disease management programs (DDMPs) are proliferating, but their effectiveness in improving quality and mitigating health care spending has been difficult to measure. Using two quasi-experimental methods, this study analyzed the first-year results of a multistate DDMP for people with diabetes sponsored by a national managed care organization. In both analyses, overall cost of care were significantly lower in DDMP sites, and the payer saved more than it spent.

Strategies to control costs and quality: a focus on outcomes research for disease management.

Rapid adoption of disease management has outpaced systematic evaluation of its net value in improving health outcomes and mitigating healthcare cost. This article identifies areas in which outcomes research in disease management is needed to demonstrate its value or to enhance its performance. Patient identification for disease management relies on administrative database queries but the trade-offs in sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of alternative queries are not well known.