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Introduction:Mass gatherings (MGs) often bring together professionals and organizations that collaborate irregularly or have never engaged in joint working. They involve interaction and communication among multiple and diverse services, which can often prove challenging. Planning such an event is of paramount importance for its success, and interorganizational communication ranks among its most important aspects. Nonetheless, there is limited empirical evidence to support interagency communication in MGs.Objective:This study used the 2017 Athens Marathon (Athens, Greece) as the empirical setting to examine how interorganizational communication was perceived among the multiple public health and safety professionals during the planning and implementation phase of the event.Methods:Data comprised 15 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key informants, direct observations of meetings and the event itself, and documentary analysis. Open coding and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data.Results:Findings indicated three key components of interorganizational communication in such an event: (1) shared situational awareness; (2) interorganizational understanding; and (3) implementing liaison officers.Conclusion:This study outlined the factors that influenced interorganizational communication before and during a MG. Practical implications arising from this study may inform the way organizers of marathons and other mass sporting events can engage in effective interorganizational communication.

Background Understanding the factors that affect the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 remains important to keep transmission low and maximize the health benefits of vaccination. We assessed the factors associated with the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 based on contact tracing data. Methods From 1 October to 9 December 2020, 29,385 laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases (index cases, i.e. the first identified laboratory-confirmed cases or with the earliest symptom onset in a setting) and 64,608 traced contacts were identified in Greece. We assessed the prevalence of symptoms in cases, calculated secondary attack rates and assessed factors associated with infectivity and susceptibility to infection. Results There were 11,232 contacts secondarily infected (secondary attack rate: 17.4%, 95% CI:17.0-17.8). Contacts aged 0-11 and 12-17 years were less susceptible to infection than adults 65 years or older (odds ratio (OR) [95% CI]: 0.28 [0.26-0.32] and 0.44 [0.40-0.49], respectively). Index cases aged 65 years or older were more likely to infect their contacts than other adults or children/adolescents. The odds of infection [95% CI] were higher in contacts exposed within the household (1.71 [1.59-1.85] vs. other) and in cases with cough (1.17 [1.11-1.25] vs. no cough). There was an interaction between the age of the index and the age of the contact with contacts 65 years or older having a higher probability of infection when exposed to cases of similar age than to children. Conclusions Our findings highlight the role of age and age mixing in infectivity and susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Precautions are necessary for individuals 65 or older as they have higher infectivity and susceptibility in contact with their peers.

OBJECTIVES: Planning and implementing public health initiatives in mass gatherings such as the Olympic Games pose unique challenges for interorganizational collaboration, which involves interaction among multiple and diverse agencies. Nonetheless, there is limited empirical evidence to support interagency collaboration and public health planning decisions in mass gatherings and how leadership can shape such interactions. We empirically explored these topics in the 2012 London Olympics to identify lessons to inform planning for future mass gatherings.\ud \ud STUDY DESIGN: This is a qualitative case study. \ud \ud METHODS: Data comprised 39 semistructured interviews with key informants conducted before, during, and after the games; in addition, direct observations of field exercises and documentary analysis were also used. Open coding and thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.\ud \ud RESULTS: We identified two main leadership challenges that influenced interagency collaboration: organizational public health leadership and coordinating collaborative decision-making. Two facilitative conditions helped overcome the previous challenges: nurturing interorganizational linkages and creating shared understanding by activating codified frameworks at the organizational level.\ud \ud CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights leadership issues in interagency collaboration in mass gatherings. Practical implications arising from this study may inform the ways the organizers of mass gatherings, public health and safety agencies, and professionals can engage in effective partnerships and joint working.

One of the main reasons for the ever-improving quality of health services in countries that are popular destinations for medical tourism and compete with the quality of services in developed countries is due to the increasing use of modern medical technology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting medical tourism destination selection in Greece. A cross-sectional study with retrospective data collection was carried out. The study sample consisted of 446 adult patients with good knowledge/use of the English language, recently discharged from dialysis and IVF units in Greece who filled in a self-administered questionnaire. Statistical analysis was carried out with the SPSS 21.0 statistical package. Overall, 84.9% of the participants reported that the clinic's state of the art medical equipment appeared to be very important for their final decision. Moreover, 90.8% stated that the comfort of the medical equipment was another significant factor. The use of modern medical technology can improve medical tourism experience and grow the contribution to its market growth.

Purpose Although the accessory soleus muscle is a rare supernumerary muscle of the leg, its presence has been well discussed in the literature. This rare anatomic variation has been described mainly in the anatomic, surgical, and radiology literature. Awareness of the muscle's presence and its clinical presentation can help with diagnosis without surgical exploration. This narrative review summarizes the available data describing the anatomy, clinical presentation, diagnosis, associated pathologies, and treatment options of this accessory muscle. Methods A literature review was performed to provide a comprehensive report of the existing data regarding the accessory soleus muscle. PubMed, Heal Link, and Google Scholar were searched for articles in English reporting on the accessory soleus muscle. The search was conducted using the following key words: "soleus muscle" and "accessory soleus muscle". PubMed was searched primarily, and then cross-referenced articles were found via Heal Link and Google Scholar. Results from non-English studies were excluded. Results A total of 148 articles were reviewed. The majority of the articles was composed of case reports along with a review of the literature. After the initial screening, 33 irrelevant studies, 47 duplicates, and 9 non-English articles were excluded; thus, 59 studies were eligible for analysis. Conclusion Although the accessory soleus muscle is a rare anatomic variation, many cases have been reported in the literature. Nonetheless, the results reported in this literature review are still inconclusive regarding why some patients are symptomatic and others are not, and the recommendation of therapy protocols. Recognizing this anomaly is important in deciding the right diagnosis and planning the appropriate treatment. However, further research is needed to investigate the symptoms' presentations and propose specific treatment protocols.

Recent natural disasters have made disaster training a public priority. Multiple methods of disaster preparedness training have been established in hospitals worldwide. Nevertheless, researchers have not yet discovered the most effective method for training hospital personnel in the area of disaster preparedness.The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that a brief educational intervention would improve hospital staff knowledge about the hospital disaster plan and procedures.A quasi-experimental design was used. The intervention group included 56 professionals and the comparison group included 35 professionals in Greece. The intervention group attended a 5-h course that addressed the basic principles of hospital disaster management. A structured questionnaire was used to estimate the participants' changes in knowledge. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-test, one-way ANOVA and chi-square test were used to analyse the data.The intervention resulted in a significant improvement in knowledge. The mean score was significantly higher immediately after the intervention programme [86; standard error (SE): 2] than before (44.5; SE: 1.7) (P0.001). The mean score 1 month later was significantly lower (77.2; SE: 2.3) than that immediately after the intervention programme (P0.001), but significantly higher than the mean score before the intervention programme (P0.001). Participants in the control group achieved a score of 40 (SE: 2.4), which was significantly lower than the scores of the intervention group after the course (P0.001).The disaster training course had a great benefit for the participants. This study suggests that a brief educational intervention is beneficial, but more must be done.