Computer methods and programs in biomedicine
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Comput Methods Programs Biomed · Nov 2014
Detection of c, d, and e waves in the acceleration photoplethysmogram.
Analyzing the acceleration photoplethysmogram (APG) is becoming increasingly important for diagnosis. However, processing an APG signal is challenging, especially if the goal is to detect its small components (c, d, and e waves). ⋯ In this paper, a novel algorithm that can detect c, d, and e waves simultaneously in APG signals of healthy subjects that have low amplitude waves, contain fast rhythm heart beats, and suffer from non-stationary effects was developed. The performance of the proposed method was tested on 27 records collected during rest, resulting in 97.39% sensitivity and 99.82% positive predictivity.
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Comput Methods Programs Biomed · Nov 2014
Scheduling prioritized patients in emergency department laboratories.
This research focuses on scheduling patients in emergency department laboratories according to the priority of patients' treatments, determined by the triage factor. The objective is to minimize the total waiting time of patients in the emergency department laboratories with emphasis on patients with severe conditions. The problem is formulated as a flexible open shop scheduling problem and a mixed integer linear programming model is proposed. ⋯ Then, the response surface methodology is applied for tuning the GA parameters. The algorithm is tested on a set of real data from an emergency department. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the efficiency of the emergency department by reducing the total waiting time of prioritized patients.
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The research and development of mechatronic aids for surgery is a persistent challenge in the field of robotic surgery. This paper presents a new haptic pedal conceived to assist surgeons in the operating room by transmitting real-time surgical information through the foot. An effective human-robot interaction system for medical practice must exchange appropriate information with the operator as quickly and accurately as possible. ⋯ A new haptic channel is thus explored to complement and improve existing systems. A preliminary set of experiments has been carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed system in a virtual surgical drilling task. The results of the experiments show the effectiveness of the haptic pedal in providing surgical information through the foot.
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Comput Methods Programs Biomed · Jul 2014
Emergency department utilization can indicate early diagnosis of digestive tract cancers: A population-based study in Taiwan.
Patients who visit emergency department (ED) may have symptoms of occult cancers. ⋯ The health system could identify high risk patients early by real-time review of their ED utilization before the diagnosis of digestive tract cancers. We proposed a follow-up methodology for daily screening of patients with high risk of digestive tract cancer by informatics system in the ED.
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Comput Methods Programs Biomed · May 2014
Impact of sensor and measurement timing errors on model-based insulin sensitivity.
A model-based insulin sensitivity parameter (SI) is often used in glucose-insulin system models to define the glycaemic response to insulin. As a parameter identified from clinical data, insulin sensitivity can be affected by blood glucose (BG) sensor error and measurement timing error, which can subsequently impact analyses or glycaemic variability during control. This study assessed the impact of both measurement timing and BG sensor errors on identified values of SI and its hour-to-hour variability within a common type of glucose-insulin system model. ⋯ Identified values of SI were mostly (90th percentile) within 29% of the true value when influenced by both sources of error. However, these effects may be overshadowed by physiological factors arising from the critical condition of the patients or other under-modelled or un-modelled dynamics. Thus, glycaemic control protocols that are designed to work with data from glucometers need to be robust to these errors and not be too aggressive in dosing insulin.