Frontiers in public health
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Front Public Health · Jan 2014
ReviewSurge Capacity and Capability. A Review of the History and Where the Science is Today Regarding Surge Capacity during a Mass Casualty Disaster.
Disasters which include countless killed and many more injured, have occurred throughout recorded history. Many of the same reports of disaster also include numerous accounts of individuals attempting to rescue those in great peril and render aid to the injured and infirmed. The purpose of this paper is to briefly discuss the transition through several periods of time with managing a surge of many patients. This review will focus on the triggering event, injury and illness, location where the care is provided and specifically discuss where the science is today.
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Front Public Health · Jan 2014
Discharge β-Blocker Use and Race after Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting.
The use of discharge β-blockers after cardiac surgery is associated with a long-term mortality benefit. β-Blockers have been suggested to be less effective in black cardiovascular patients compared with whites. To date, racial differences in the long-term survival of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients who receive β-blockers at discharge have not been examined. ⋯ β-Blocker use at discharge was associated with a survival advantage among black patients after CABG and a similar association was observed in white patients.
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Front Public Health · Jan 2014
Establishing an independent mobile health program for chronic disease self-management support in bolivia.
Mobile health (m-health) work in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) mainly consists of small pilot programs with an unclear path to scaling and dissemination. We describe the deployment and testing of an m-health platform for non-communicable disease (NCD) self-management support in Bolivia. ⋯ By collaborating with LMICs, m-health programs can be transferred from higher-resource centers to LMICs and implemented in ways that improve access to self-management support among people with NCDs.
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Front Public Health · Jan 2014
Using MapMyFitness to Place Physical Activity into Neighborhood Context.
It is difficult to obtain detailed information on the context of physical activity at large geographic scales, such as the entire United States, as well as over long periods of time, such as over years. MapMyFitness is a suite of interactive tools for individuals to track their workouts online or using global positioning system in their phones or other wireless trackers. This method article discusses the use of physical activity data tracked using MapMyFitness to examine patterns over space and time. ⋯ Strengths of MapMyFitness data include objective data collection, low participant burden, extensive geographic scale, and longitudinal series. Limitations include generalizability, behavioral change as the result of technology use, and potential ethical considerations. MapMyFitness is a powerful tool to investigate patterns of physical activity across large geographic and temporal scales.