Background. Timely pulmonary function testing is crucial to improving diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary diseases. Perceptions of poor access at an academic pulmonary function laboratory prompted analysis of system demand and capacity to identify factors contributing to poor access. Methods. Surveys and interviews identified stakeholder perspectives on operational processes and access challen...

OBJECTIVES An intervention to improve migrants' access to healthcare was piloted in Mumbai with purpose of informing health policy and planning. This paper aims to describe the process of building partnership for improving migrants' access to healthcare of the pilot intervention, including the role played by different stakeholders and the contextual factors affecting the intervention. METHODS...

In the recent years much attention has been paid to the way to develop security services for ATM networks. This has resulted in the creation of working groups within the standardization authorities to deal with this problem. The ATM-forum security working group is to the point to release its version 1.0 specification and other solutions have been widely exposed in several international conferen...

The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is a very important support tool for patients and healthcare professionals but it has some barriers that prevent its successful integration within the healthcare practice. These barriers comprise not only security concerns but also costs, in terms of time and effort, as well as relational and educational issues that can hinder its proper use. Access control i...

Although the general concepts provided by the standard concurrency control theory (e. g. [BHG87]) remain a solid guide for systems behavior and design, a look at implementation-driven research (e. g. ARIES/IM [ML92]) shows that there is a nontrivial gap between the usual abstract model and practical DBMS situations. For example, most theoretical work on concurrency control has ignored access to...

The problem of patient no-shows (patients who do not arrive for scheduled appointments) is significant in many health care settings, where no-show rates can vary widely. No-shows reduce provider productivity and clinic efficiency, increase health care costs, and limit the ability of a clinic to serve its client population by reducing its effective capacity. In this article, we examine the probl...

Pharmaceuticals are often considered as the most significant cost driver of health care expenditures and at the same time have a major impact on patients’ curative processes and outcomes. Other pieces of evidence emphasize that drugs are the input for the production of good health. They are considered as the most important and expensive element in the healthy supply chain and are more associate...

Despite (or perhaps in part because of) these two mechanisms, confusion exists for the public about who is a pain specialist. Chiropractors, acupuncturists, naturopaths and many other providers can claim and – sometimes – advertise expertise in pain management. The American Academy of Pain Management uses an examination to qualify applicants and presents a certificate. While we desperately need...