• KIEAE Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.27-35
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• 2015

Purpose: Healthcare is on the whole a personal and critical service that consumer's use, whereas hospitalization is as a rule painful, because nature nurtures and Sun Light Luminosity for healthcare settings is considered healing. The performance and design of climate responsive buildings such as AKU requires a detailed study of attributes of climate both at micro as well as macro level. The therapeutic value of contact with nature through window view, greenery and landscape is calculated there. Method: A two prong strategy is been devised for this article, at micro level three typical morphologies are analysed by creating same environment of neighboring building on sun shading chart, radiation and temperature range. Since the analysis of local climate helps to determine the design strategies for hospital Healing Environment which is suitable for Karachi climate; in order to track the macro climatic behaviour, a considerable analysis of psychometrics chart for AKU Karachi are designed on Climate Consultant (CC) and analysed by Machine Learning. Climate Consultant proposes different design strategies suitable for Karachi. And on the other hand time wise illumination sources for clinical area which are then measured on psychrometric chart- according to singular space: multi patient admission, secondly: acute ambulatory ward, and tertiary: multi windowed space according to the mushrabiyah and sky light pattern. Result: Our findings support the hypothesis that windowed wall is 75-80% more healing wall; an accelerated evidence was found for healing at macro level if the form of the hospital is designed according to the climatologically preferences, whereas at micro level: the light resource becomes the staff attentiveness determinant. In Conclusion evidence was provided that the actual form of luminosity results consequently in satisfaction while light entering from several set of windows and other sources might be valued if design according to the healing environment. The data added on the sun shading chart to calculate rays entraining into space in patient room equal to 124416.21 Watts/ meter $m^2$ is calculated as precise healing rate-and is confirmed by questionnaire from patients belonging from each clinical stage having different illnesses.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-78
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• 2007

Due to the concern of regional unbalance relating to healthcare resources, the government has set up a plan to expand public healthcare services and a policy to manage the supply of hospital beds. However, it is not clear what standards are needed to measure the degree of unbalance, and to what extent the gap needs to be narrowed. Unlike the previous methodology comparing the proportions of patients who move out from their administrative district to receive medical services, this study examines the inconvenience gap patients experience when they have to move out from their actual living area. The logit and multinomial logit models are employed. The regional unbalance decreases when the degree of movement is measured based on the living area. This result implies that essential standard for achieving regional balance relating to medical services need to be based not on the even distribution of medical resources, but the complications of regional people that require proper medical services.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.4961-4964
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• 2013

Greater use of mobile phone devices seems inevitable because the health industry and cancer care are facing challenges such as resource constraints, rising care costs, the need for immediate access to healthcare data of types such as audio video texts for early detection and treatment of patients and increasing remote aids in telemedicine. Physicians, in order to study the causes of cancer, detect cancer earlier, act in prevention measures, determine the effectiveness of treatment and specify the reasons for the treatment ineffectiveness, need to access accurate, comprehensive and timely cancer data. Mobile devices provide opportunities and can play an important role in consulting, diagnosis, treatment, and quick access to health information. There easy carriage make them perfect tools for healthcare providers in cancer care management. Key factors in cancer care management systems through a mobile phone health approach must be considered such as human resources, confidentiality and privacy, legal and ethical issues, appropriate ICT and provider infrastructure and costs in general aspects and interoperability, human relationships, types of mobile devices and telecommunication related points in specific aspects. The successful implementation of mobile-based systems in cancer care management will constantly face many challenges. Hence, in applying mobile cancer care, involvement of users and considering their needs in all phases of project, providing adequate bandwidth, preparation of standard tools that provide maximum mobility and flexibility for users, decreasing obstacles to interrupt network communications, and using suitable communication protocols are essential. It is obvious that identifying and reducing barriers and strengthening the positive points will have a significant role in appropriate planning and promoting the achievements of mobile cancer care systems. The aim of this article is to explain key points which should be considered in designing appropriate mobile health systems in cancer care as an approach for improving cancer care management.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.453-462
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• 2015

Body area networks (BANs) have emerged as an enabling technique for e-healthcare systems, which can be used to continuously and remotely monitor patients' health. In BANs, the data of a patient's vital body functions and movements can be collected by small wearable or implantable sensors and sent using shortrange wireless communication techniques. Due to the shared wireless medium between the sensors in BANs, it may be possible to have malicious attacks on e-healthcare systems. The security and privacy issues of BANs are becoming more and more important. To provide secure and correct association of a group of sensors with a patient and satisfy the requirements of data confidentiality and integrity in BANs, we propose a novel enhanced secure sensor association and key management protocol based on elliptic curve cryptography and hash chains. The authentication procedure and group key generation are very simple and efficient. Therefore, our protocol can be easily implemented in the power and resource constrained sensor nodes in BANs. From a comparison of results, furthermore, we can conclude that the proposed protocol dramatically reduces the computation and communication cost for the authentication and key derivation compared with previous protocols. We believe that our protocol is attractive in the application of BANs.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.260-268
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• 2024

Objectives: Regional disparities in cardiovascular care in Korea have led to uneven patient outcomes. Despite the growing need for and access to procedures, few studies have linked regional service availability to mortality rates. This study analyzed regional variation in the utilization of major cardiovascular procedures and their associations with short-term mortality to provide better evidence regarding the relationship between healthcare resource distribution and patient survival. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using nationwide claims data for patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), stent insertion, or aortic aneurysm resection in 2022. Regional variation was assessed by the relevance index (RI). The associations between the regional RI and 30-day mortality were analyzed. Results: The RI was lowest for aortic aneurysm resection (mean, 26.2; standard deviation, 26.1), indicating the most uneven regional distribution among the surgical procedures. Patients undergoing this procedure in regions with higher RIs showed significantly lower 30-day mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.73; 95% confidence interval, 0.55 to 0.96; p=0.026) versus those with lower RIs. This suggests that cardiovascular surgery regional availability, as measured by RI, has an impact on mortality rates for certain complex surgical procedures. The RI was not associated with significant mortality differences for more widely available procedures like CABG (aOR, 0.96), PCI (aOR, 1.00), or stent insertion (aOR, 0.91). Conclusions: Significant regional variation and underutilization of cardiovascular surgery were found, with reduced access linked to worse mortality for complex procedures. Disparities should be addressed through collaboration among hospitals and policy efforts to improve outcomes.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.826-842
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• 2024

As 5G and AI continue to develop, there has been a significant surge in the healthcare industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed immense challenges to the global health system. This study proposes an FL-supported edge computing model based on federated learning (FL) for predicting clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients during hospitalization. The model aims to address the challenges posed by the pandemic, such as the need for sophisticated predictive models, privacy concerns, and the non-IID nature of COVID-19 data. The model utilizes the FATE framework, known for its privacy-preserving technologies, to enhance predictive precision while ensuring data privacy and effectively managing data heterogeneity. The model's ability to generalize across diverse datasets and its adaptability in real-world clinical settings are highlighted by the use of SHAP values, which streamline the training process by identifying influential features, thus reducing computational overhead without compromising predictive precision. The study demonstrates that the proposed model achieves comparable precision to specific machine learning models when dataset sizes are identical and surpasses traditional models when larger training data volumes are employed. The model's performance is further improved when trained on datasets from diverse nodes, leading to superior generalization and overall performance, especially in scenarios with insufficient node features. The integration of FL with edge computing contributes significantly to the reliable prediction of COVID-19 patient outcomes with greater privacy. The research contributes to healthcare technology by providing a practical solution for early intervention and personalized treatment plans, leading to improved patient outcomes and efficient resource allocation during public health crises.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.238-244
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• 2023

Background: Many patients use online resources to educate themselves on surgical procedures and make well-informed healthcare decisions. The aim of our study was to evaluate the quality and readability of online resources exploring shoulder arthroplasty. Methods: An internet search pertaining to shoulder arthroplasty (partial, anatomic, and reverse) was conducted using the three most popular online search engines. The top 25 results generated from each term in each search engine were included. Webpages were excluded if they were duplicates, advertised by search engines, subpages of other pages, required payments or subscription, or were irrelevant to our scope. Webpages were classified into different source categories. Quality of information was assessed by HONcode certification, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) criteria, and DISCERN benchmark criteria. Webpage readability was assessed using the Flesch reading ease score (FRES). Results: Our final dataset included 125 web pages. Academic sources were the most common with 45 web pages (36.0%) followed by physician/private practice with 39 web pages (31.2%). The mean JAMA and DISCERN scores for all web pages were 1.96±1.31 and 51.4±10.7, respectively. The total mean FRES score was 44.0±11.0. Only nine web pages (7.2%) were HONcode certified. Websites specified for healthcare professionals had the highest JAMA and DISCERN scores with means of 2.92±0.90 and 57.96±8.91, respectively (P<0.001). HONcode-certified webpages had higher quality and readability scores than other web pages. Conclusions: Web-based patient resources for shoulder arthroplasty information did not show high-quality scores and easy readability. When presenting medical information, sources should maintain a balance between readability and quality and should seek HONcode certification as it helps establish the reliability and accessibility of the presented information. Level of evidence: IV.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.109-119
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• 2020

Soil-transmitted helminths and Schistosoma haematobium affect more than 3 billion people globally and mainly occur in sub-Saharan Africa. The present study assessed the overall infection status of a 1716-student cohort of schoolchildren in Zanzibar and applied mass drug administration (MDA) to the cohort from 2007 to 2009. Schools in Pemba, Zanzibar, had a much higher prevalence of soil-transmitted helminth infections than those in Unguja, and the Chaani, Ghana, and Machui schools of Unguja exhibited high S. haematobium infection rates. The MDA program only partially controlled parasite infections, owing to high rates of re-infection. The infection rate of S. haematobium across all 10 schools, for example, was only reduced by 1.8%, and even this change not significant, even though the S. haematobium infection rates of the Chaani and Mzambarauni schools were significantly reduced from 64.4 and 23.4%, respectively, at the first screening, to 7.3 and 2.3% at the last screening. The overall infection rate of Ascaris lumbricoides was reduced from 36.0% at the first screening to 22.6% at the last screening. However, the infection rates for both Trichuris trichiura and hookworm were generally unaffected by MDA. In the future, parasite control programs should involve strategically designed MDA schedules and holistic intervention (e.g., sanitation improvement, hygiene behavior changes, and control of intermediated hosts).

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.21-31
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• 2012

This is a case study of Gangnam S University Hospital applying a par level transfer system for reagent materials. The purpose of this study is evaluated on the cutting down on inventory expenses and medical service revenue in the point of resource based view. The data was acquired through the financial statement of Gangnam S Hospital for the fiscal year 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and compared with the Korea health industry statistics index for hospital accounts based on the materials in Korea Health Industry Development Institute. The results of the study are as follows. Medical reagent materials expenditure cut down as 305 million won through 2009 fiscal year. Medical profits for the Gangnam S University hospital's income statement in 2011 show well over acquired 3.37 billion won through the enlarged diagnostic test numbers. In conclusion, Gangnam S University Hospital health statistics's index shows very high profits. The results of this study have some limitations in terms of generalization as only one hospital in Seoul. Further studies with relationship inventory performance and enlarged reagent materials are expected in this area.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.4643-4660
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• 2014

Integrity authentication of biometric data in Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is a critical issue because the sensitive data transmitted over broadcast wireless channels could be attacked easily. However, traditional cryptograph-based integrity authentication schemes are not suitable for WBAN as they consume much computational resource on the sensor nodes with limited memory, computational capability and power. To address this problem, a novel lightweight integrity authentication scheme based on reversible watermark is proposed for WBAN and implemented on a TinyOS-based WBAN test bed in this paper. In the proposed scheme, the data is divided into groups with a fixed size to improve grouping efficiency; the histogram shifting technique is adopted to avoid possible underflow or overflow; local maps are generated to restore the shifted data; and the watermarks are generated and embedded in a chaining way for integrity authentication. Our analytic and experimental results demonstrate that the integrity of biometric data can be reliably authenticated with low cost, and the data can be entirely recovered for healthcare applications by using our proposed scheme.