Military Medical Research
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Military Medical Research · Jan 2018
ReviewAssistive technologies for pain management in people with amputation: a literature review.
The prevalence of limb amputation is increasing globally as a devastating experience that can physically and psychologically affect the lifestyle of a person. The residual limb pain and phantom limb pain are common disabling sequelae after amputation surgery. ⋯ There is a great potential to design, fabricate, and manufacture some portable, wireless, smart, and thin devices/technologies to stimulate the spinal cord or peripheral nerves by electrical, thermal, mechanical, and pharmaceutical stimulus. Although some preliminary efforts have been done, more attention must be paid by researchers, clinicians, designers, engineers, and manufacturers to the post amputation pain and its treatment methods.
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Military Medical Research · Oct 2017
ReviewStrategy and technology to prevent hospital-acquired infections: Lessons from SARS, Ebola, and MERS in Asia and West Africa.
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are serious problems for healthcare systems, especially in developing countries where public health infrastructure and technology for infection preventions remain undeveloped. Here, we characterized how strategy and technology could be mobilized to improve the effectiveness of infection prevention and control in hospitals during the outbreaks of Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Asia and West Africa. Published literature on the hospital-borne outbreaks of SARS, Ebola, and MERS in Asia and West Africa was comprehensively reviewed. ⋯ We recommend that governments worldwide enforce disaster risk management, even when no outbreaks are imminent. Quarantine and ventilation functions should be taken into consideration in architectural design of hospitals and healthcare facilities. We also recommend that health authorities invest in training healthcare workers for disease outbreak response, as their preparedness is essential to reducing disaster risk.