Ther Adv Gastrointest Endosc
June 2025
Celiac disease (CeD) is a widely diffused chronic autoimmune disorder triggered by the ingestion of gluten, in genetically predisposed individuals. Small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) plays a pivotal role as a noninvasive tool for diagnosing and monitoring CeD. This review aims to summarize the current and potential future role of SBCE in the field of CeD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Breast cancer is a global health problem, and sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is the standard procedure for early-stage breast cancer. Technetium-99 (TC-99), alone or combined with blue dye (BD) are conventional tracers for SLNB, but they have safety, availability, and cost limitations. Indocyanine green (ICG) is an alternative tracer that has been gaining acceptance among healthcare professionals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisabil Rehabil Assist Technol
February 2025
Background: The escalating prevalence of diabetes, with its multifaceted complications, poses a pressing challenge for healthcare systems globally. In response, the advent of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems, offering technological solutions for daily diabetes management, presents significant opportunities. However, the widespread adoption faces several barriers, linked both to the technological configuration of the devices and to the psychological dimension of patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite the demonstrated greater efficacy of microprocessor knees (MPK) over mechanical knees (MK), the latter is still widely used by persons with transfemoral amputation. Besides motivations related to local insurance policies, quality of life (QoL) and satisfaction with the prosthesis play a key role in user preference.
Objective: The aim of this study is to compare QoL and satisfaction in a large sample of MPK and MK users and to assess how these outcomes are explained by clinical and demographic characteristics.
National healthcare systems face multiple challenges, including the increasing demand for care and decreasing availability of healthcare professionals. Digital health technologies represent opportunities that offer improved efficiency, accessibility, and patient care. In this scenario, Digital Therapeutics are technological advancements to treat or alleviate a disease and deliver a medical intervention with evidence-based therapeutic impacts and regulatory approval.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Catheterization of central vessels can be associated with early and late, potentially fatal complications. A proactive approach is imperative to reduce the frequency and magnitude of adverse events. Recently, the GAVeCeLT has proposed a protocol called SICA-PED (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIEEE J Transl Eng Health Med
February 2024
Objective: Recent advancements in augmented reality led to planning and navigation systems for orthopedic surgery. However little is known about mixed reality (MR) in orthopedics. Furthermore, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to boost the capabilities of MR by enabling automation and personalization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Digital transformation has sparked profound change in the healthcare sector through the development of innovative digital technologies. Digital Therapeutics offer an innovative approach to disease management and treatment. Care delivery is increasingly patient-centered, data-driven, and based on real-time information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInnovating in Medical Device (MD) industry is challenging. This study aims to develop and validate an evidence-based framework that helps innovators of small and large enterprises (SEs and LEs) assess their readiness for successful MD development and deployment. We conducted a key-informant process (stage 1) where 25 international experts identified a list of emergent Health Technology Assessment (HTA) themes they believed were essential to company success.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
March 2023
Stroke is the third leading cause of death and disability overall worldwide. Upper limb impairment is a common consequence for stroke survivors, having negative impact on their quality of life. Robotic rehabilitation, through repetitive and monitored movements, can improve their status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The rising incidence of chronic diseases among the population, further exacerbated by the phenomenon of aging, is a primary concern and a serious challenge for the healthcare systems worldwide. Among the wide realm of health digital technologies, the rise of Digital Therapeutics (DTx), which are medical devices able to deliver evidence-based treatments to manage and treat diseases, opens new opportunities. However, their diffusion and usage are still fragmented among countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: We aim (i) to redesign sepsis's clinical pathway and fit the organizational requirements of a novel machine-learning algorithm incorporating a novel biomarker test and (ii) to assess adoption drivers of the new combined technology.
Background: There is an urgent need to achieve sepsis' early detection and diagnostic excellence.
Methods: A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews conducted at the target site and across other Italian hospitals.
: Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is of paramount relevance for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. However, past evidence shows that there are physical and cognitive issues that might limit the usage of glucometers by T2DM patients aged 65 years and over. : Our aim was to investigate the physical and cognitive issues related to the usage of glucometers by T2DM patients aged 65 years and over.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Healthcare contexts are witnessing a growing use of applications to support clinical processes and to communicate between peers and with patients. An increasing number of hospital professionals use instant-messaging applications such as WhatsApp in their daily work. Previous research has mainly focused on the advantages and risks of WhatsApp usage in different clinical settings, but limited evidence is available about whether and how individual and organizational determinants can influence the use of WhatsApp in hospitals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPast studies showed that hospital characteristics affect hospital performance in terms of 30-day unplanned readmissions, proving the existence of a "hospital effect". However, the stability over time of this effect has been under-investigated. This study offers new evidence about the stability over time of the hospital effect on 30-day unplanned readmissions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The healthcare sector is an interesting target for fraudsters. The availability of a great amount of data makes it possible to tackle this issue with the adoption of data mining techniques, making the auditing process more efficient and effective. This research has the objective of developing a novel data mining model devoted to fraud detection among hospitals using Hospital Discharge Charts (HDC) in Administrative Databases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Controlling the quality of care through readmissions and mortality for patients with heart failure (HF) is a national priority for healthcare regulators in developed countries. In this longitudinal cohort study, using administrative data such as hospital discharge forms (HDFs), emergency departments (EDs) accesses, and vital statistics, we test new covariates for predicting mortality and readmissions of patients hospitalized for HF and discuss the use of combined outcome as an alternative.
Methods: Logistic models, with a stepwise selection method, were estimated on 70% of the sample and validated on the remaining 30% to evaluate 30-day mortality, 30-day readmissions, and the combined outcome.
The implementation of hospital-wide Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) is still an unsolved quest for many hospital managers. EMRs have long been considered a key factor for improving healthcare quality and safety, reducing adverse events for patients, decreasing costs, optimizing processes, improving clinical research and obtaining best clinical performances. However, hospitals continue to experience resistance from professionals to accepting EMRs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study aims at gathering evidence about the relation between 30-day mortality and 30-day unplanned readmission and patient and hospital factors. By definition, we refer to 30-day mortality and 30-day unplanned readmission as the number of deaths and non-programmed hospitalizations for any cause within 30 days after the incident heart failure (HF). In particular, the focus is on the role played by hospital-level factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Hospital wards are required to exploit current knowledge and explore for new knowledge. Ambidexterity (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthcare is moving towards new patterns and models, with an increasing attention paid to prevention. Smart technologies for mobile health care are emerging as new instruments to monitor the state of essential parameters in citizens. A very debated subject in literature is the critical role played by citizens' acceptance and willingness to pay for mobile health technologies, especially whereas the services provided are preventive rather than curative.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJMIR Mhealth Uhealth
January 2019
Background: Technological tools such as Web-based social networks, telemedicine, apps, or wearable devices are becoming more widespread in health care like elsewhere. Although patients are the main users, for example, to monitor symptoms and clinical parameters or to communicate with the doctor, their perspective is seldom analyzed, and to the best of our knowledge, no one has focused on the patients' health care advocacy associations' point of view.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess patients' health care advocacy associations' opinions about the use, usefulness, obstacles, negative aspects, and impact of health apps and wearable devices through a Web-based survey.