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The service supply chain aims at managing the adequate flow of information, processes, and capacity across its members to provide product service that meets customer expectations. This study focuses on healthcare organisations' need for supply chain coordination to deliver quality services. Based on previous experiences in the literature, we examine the interrelatedness of elements such as updated technologies (technological innovations) in the form of e-business and medical solutions using the internet. Additionally, lean practices, human capital, and their impact on building an effective supply chain and, therefore, the delivery of quality services are examined. The study's objectives were to discuss and report through a detailed methodology the evaluation of critical hypotheses found during the literature review process, particularly applicable to the health sector in Colombia and Latin America. Initial findings from the structural equation modelling analysis show that the use of technologies has no impact on lean practices, quality of the service, and building an effective supply chain. This study shows the relevant role of human capital in delivering an effective supply chain when organisations implement technological innovations affecting service quality.

Flexible ureterorenoscopy is increasingly used as a first-line treatment for patients with renal lithiasis and proximal ureteral calculi, with varying success rates among different groups of authors and with great heterogeneity in defining the minimum size to assess stone-free rate. The article presents a literature review on the state of the art in flexible ureterorenoscopy, as well as it clarifies different concepts, while offering tips and tricks that have been implemented in a reference center for the management of urolithiasis, aiming to reduce complications, while improving stone-free rate and the performance of the procedure for urologists.

La ureterorrenoscopia flexible es cada vez más utilizada como tratamiento de primera línea para pacientes con litiasis renal y del uréter proximal, con tasas de éxito variables entre los diferentes grupos de autores y con gran heterogeneidad a la hora de definir el tamaño mínimo para definir tasa libre de cálculo. Se presenta una revisión de la literatura sobre el estado del arte en ureterorrenoscopia flexible, se aclaran diferentes conceptos y se exponen consejos y trucos que se han implementado en un centro de referencia para el manejo de litiasis urinaria, con el objetivo de disminuir las complicaciones, mejorar la tasa libre de cálculos y mejorar el desempeño del procedimiento al urólogo.

We investigated the kinetics of conversion of hemin to β-hematin in aqueous-acetate medium in the absence and in the presence of two concentrations of chloroquine by using 11 reported kinetic equations. The two best kinetic equations are the combination of order 1 and Avrami and the combination of second order and logistic equations, based on the statistical parameter variance and overall errors. The best fitted equations are composed of two terms from which we model the formation of β-hematin as the result of two processes: the availability of reactive precursors and the formation of nucleation and growth sites. The crystals exhibit needle-like morphologies about 760-nm-long and 140-nm-wide. However, the increment of chloroquine favors the formation of crystal twinning with nonhomogenous distribution, crystals with lower sizes of similar heights and widths, and crystals symmetrically tapered at the ends of the needles. The lattice volumes, obtained from Rietveld analysis of powder X-ray diffraction patterns, were not regularly affected by chloroquine. The main IR absorption bands did not appreciably change in positions nor in intensities with varying chloroquine concentration. However, important changes were observed in the 2000–4000 cm–1region. We used density functional theory calculations to understand these changes.

Background & aims: One of the most frequent complications in patients with cancer and malnutrition is the surgical wound healing delay or failure. Some studies have shown that arginine improves wound healing in rodents and in healthy human beings. The main objective of this study was to assess the effect of early postoperative enteral immunonutrition on the wound healing process in patients undergoing surgery for gastric cancer.