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Several countries are facing significant troubles of health services, particularly rising prices. Innovative technologies and services are expected to help boost medical quality and cut costs. In this sense, there is a lack of innovative work in spite of a growing interest in open innovation and approaches that advocate for expanded cooperation among various actors in healthcare. This article describes the findings of a study concerning the commitment of the healthcare sector to open innovation. The search for literature focused on English-language papers up to 12 January 2020. Based on the indicated criteria for inclusion, 29 articles were included. The results show that most experiments concentrate on the areas of pharmaceutical research (drug discovery) and health informatics (health information systems and infrastructures) that were brought out as concepts or applied as pilots and prototypes. The participation of the healthcare sector is limited in open innovation, and more work is required with an emphasis on how to get open innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health care providers need a better understanding of virtual care to recognise and use it for service delivery. Aim: To provide a more comprehensive definition of the concept of virtual care. Method: This study was conducted based on Walker and Avant's concept analysis method. A comprehensive review of the published texts in English from 2012 to 2022 was performed using the PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, Science Direct, Ovid, CINAHL and Google Scholar databases. Results: The main aspects and attributes of virtual care, including the use of any information and communication technology in various formats such as platforms, telephone calls, messages, email consultation, remote monitoring, secure and two‐way digital communication between health care providers and patients, the possibility of providing remote care synchronously or asynchronously, more interaction between patients and caregivers, the possibility of transferring information between patients and health care providers and within the teams themselves, symptom management, sending diagnostic results in the form of video visits, and providing follow‐up care, are attributes that distinguish virtual care from telehealth, telemedicine and other methods of providing remote healthcare services. Conclusion: Considering the positive and negative consequences of implementing virtual care, the findings of this study developed a basis for an operational definition of the concept so that providers can understand the meaning of virtual care and consider it when providing virtual care to patients. The findings of this study can be used in many international and national contexts in the health care system and in future studies on interventions to increase the use of virtual care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Collaboration has become a crucial element of effective healthcare delivery in the emergency department (ED). In high‐pressure environments, healthcare providers can prioritize patients by consulting with other specialists to gain diverse perspectives and arrive at a shared understanding of the best course of action. It was conducted for the purpose of designing and evaluating the collaborative decision‐making application for patient care in the ED. Methods: The present applied research study was conducted between April 1, 2021 and May 31, 2023 at Imam Reza Hospital of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The study was conducted in three phases: exploration, development, and evaluation, utilizing modern technologies such as Flutter and Node.js to design and program the application. The effectiveness of the system was evaluated using established measures, including the think‐aloud protocol, user experience questionnaire, and Likert‐scale questionnaires developed by Ghadri et al. Results: The average scale for attractiveness was 2.03, perspicuity was 2.90, efficiency was 2.40, dependability was 1.93, stimulation was 2.48, and novelty was 2.78. Additionally, 71% of physicians gave a very good rating to the accessibility of necessary information at any time, motivation to use the system for accessing information, usefulness of the system compared to the time spent using it throughout the day. Furthermore, 57% of physicians gave a very positive rating to sharing information and knowledge, ease of using the search function and accessing the system, user control and monitoring, free access to the system, and support from colleagues and system users. Conclusion: The study suggests that introducing Information and Communication Technology such as medical apps can improve healthcare delivery by streamlining patient care, promoting effective teamwork, and reducing medical errors and treatment delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common problem in women that affects their quality of life. According to the current evidence, 15%-50% of severe pelvic organ prolapse (POP) surgeries lead to de novo urinary incontinence (UI). This study aimed at determining the risk factors and characteristics of de novo SUI after POP surgeries in a systematic review. Material and methods: We conducted a systematic search of articles in English related to the risk of UI after POP surgery published until December 2019 in the selected bibliographic databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and ProQuest. Results: The initial search resulted in 2,363 studies, and after reviewing the titles and abstracts, 146 studies were identified. Moreover, 2 independent reviewers, using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklists, evaluated the risk of biases in the selected studies. Finally, 40 studies met the inclusion criteria. The most important predictors of UI after POP surgery were positive pessary testing, age >50 years, and maximum urethral closure pressure (MUCP) <60 cmH2O. Conclusion: Positive pessary testing, older age, and low MUCP were the most important risk factors for de novo incontinence after POP surgeries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities are dealing with a huge volume of data, but they use them less than expected levels. The aim of the current study was to use visual information for supporting the decision-making process. In this cross-sectional study, 30 academic managers were recruited at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. A structured interview was prepared for collecting data based on the related literature. The instrument was approved in terms of validity and reliability (a=98%). SPSS 21 was used for analyzing data. Then, a list of 85 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) was organized for designing the digital dashboard. A three-layer architecture was selected as the architectural pattern, and the conceptual model of the system was developed by applying the UML. Finally, the Qlikview was utilized to design the dashboard for the visualization of information. Twelve main features, including 85 KPIs, were determined for designing dashboards. User interface items were visualized using the most important features and KPIs. By applying a designed dashboard, academic managers can identify trends, strengths, and weaknesses. Moreover, visualized information can help users to gain insights and make decisions as quickly as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In estimating the risk of heart disease due to non-deterministic risk factors, often diagnosis of angiographic disease is difficult for physicians. For modeling and application of this uncertain and imprecise modality, decision support systems based on fuzzy logic are appropriate and an effective approach. Smartphone-based applications can facilitate the efficient use of these systems in form of evidence-based medicine. The aim of this applied study was developing and evaluating an application to diagnose angiographic disease conditions and the severity of heart attacks through a smartphone-based clinical decision support system. Android application development environment was utilized after extraction of linguistic rules and definition of membership functions needed for decisions. A smartphone-based application was designed using these guidelines and utilizing fuzzy modeling. Then, the app was evaluated in terms of accuracy using the popular Cleveland dataset. According to the results, 10 fuzzy rules for modeling, seven input variables and one decision variable were extracted. Programming was done in Eclipse. The evaluation results indicate that the accuracy of the program was 94%. Decision support systems within the context of mobile health have become some of the most efficient and influential information technology tools in recent years. They can improve patient-care management, provide easier access to the information needed for healthcare decisions and ultimately reduce healthcare costs while improving its quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]