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Objectives
To develop a time-efficient motor control (MC) test battery while maximising diagnostic accuracy of both a two-level and three-level classification system for patients with non-specific low back pain (LBP).
Design
Case–control study.
Setting
Four private physiotherapy practices in northern Germany.
Participants
Consecutive males and females presenting to a physiotherapy clinic with non-specific LBP (n=65) were compared with 66 healthy-matched controls.
Primary outcome measures
Accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, positive/negative likelihood ratio, area under the curve (AUC)) of a clinically driven consensus-based test battery including the ideal number of test items as well as threshold values and most accurate items.
Results
For both the two and three-level categorisation system, the ideal number of test items was 10. With increasing number of failed tests, the probability of having LBP increases. The overall discrimination potential for the two-level categorisation system of the test is good (AUC=0.85) with an optimal cut-off of three failed tests. The overall discrimination potential of the three-level categorisation system is fair (volume under the surface=0.52). The optimal cut-off for the 10-item test battery for categorisation into none, mild/moderate and severe MC impairment is three and six failed tests, respectively.
Conclusion
A 10-item test battery is recommended for both the two-level (impairment or not) and three-level (none, mild, moderate/severe) categorisation of patients with non-specific LBP.
Use of Emergency Departments by Frail Elderly Patients : Temporal Patterns and Case Complexity
(2019)
Emergency department (ED) care for frail elderly patients is associated with an increased use of resources due to their complex medical needs and frequently difficult psycho-social situation. To better target their needs with specially trained staff, it is vital to determine the times during which these particular patients present to the ED. Recent research was inconclusive regarding this question and the applied methods were limited to coarse time windows. Moreover, there is little research on time variation of frail ED patients’ case complexity. This study examines differences in arrival rates for frail vs. non-frail patients in detail and compares case complexity in frail patients within vs. outside of regular GP working hours. Arrival times and case variables (admission rate, ED length of stay [LOS], triage level and comorbidities) were extracted from the EHR of an ED in an urban German teaching hospital. We employed Poisson time series regression to determine patterns in hourly arrival rates over the week. Frail elderly patients presented more likely to the ED during already high frequented hours, especially at midday and in the afternoon. Case complexity for frail patients was significantly higher compared to non-frail patients, but varied marginally in time only with respect to triage level and ED LOS. The results suggest that frailty-attuned emergency care should be available in EDs during the busiest hours. Based on EHR data, hospitals thus can tailor their staff needs.
This paper describes the methodology and developments towards the TIGER International Recommendation Framework of Core Competencies in Health Informatics 2.0. This Framework is meant to augment the scope from nursing towards a series of six other professional roles, i.e. direct patient care, health information management, executives, chief information officers, engineers and health IT specialists and researchers and educators. Health informatics core competency areas were compiled from various sources that had integrated the literature and were grouped into consistent clusters. The relevance of these core competency areas was rated in a survey by 718 professional experts from 51 countries. Furthermore, 22 local case studies illustrated the competencies and gave insight into examples of local educational practice. The Framework contributes to the overall discourse on how to shape health informatics education to improve quality and safety of care by enabling useful and successful health information systems.
By drawing on the two prevailing economic stardom theories, the paper investigates the sources of superstardom in the US movie industry. For the econometric analysis, we use income and popularity data of screen actresses and actors from the annual Celebrity 100 lists as published by Forbes Magazine. The empirical findings indicate that Hollywood, in contrast to other professional settings, supports two different types of stars. While 'talent stars' exploit acting merit, it is media exposure that drives the income of 'publicity stars'. Apparently, in the motion picture industry both underlying resources are equally important and equally valued. Based on these insights we develop concrete recommendations for the career management of artists and the management of film projects.
Despite normal neurological bedside and electrodiagnostic, some patients with non-specific neck arm pain (NSNAP) have heightened nerve mechanosensitivity upon neurodynamic testing [1, 2]. It remains however unclear whether this is associated with a minor nerve injury. The aim of this study was to evaluate potential differences in somatosensory function among patients with unilateral NSNAP with and without positive neurodynamic tests and healthy controls.
Quantitative sensory testing was performed in 40 patients with unilateral NSNAP; 23 with positive upper limb neurodynamic tests (ULNTPOS) and 17 with negative neurodynamic tests (ULNTNEG). The protocol comprised thermal and mechanical detection and pain thresholds as well as mechanical pain sensitivity, wind-up ratio and dynamic mechanical allodynia. All parameters were measured in the maximal pain area on the affected side as well as over the corresponding area on the unaffected side. Symptom severity, functional deficits, psychological parameters, quality of life and sleep disturbance were also recorded.
Fifty-seven percent of patients with NSNAP had positive neurodynamic tests despite normal bedside neurological integrity tests and nerve conduction parameters. Clinical profiles did not differ between patient groups. Somatosensory profiling revealed a more pronounced loss of function phenotype in ULNTPOS patients compared to healthy controls. Hyperalgesia (cold, heat and pressure pain) was present bilaterally in both NSNAP group. The ULNTNEG subgroup represented an intermediate phenotype between ULNTPOS patients and healthy controls in both thermal and pressure pain thresholds as well as mechanical detection thresholds.
In conclusion, heightened nerve mechanosensitivity was present in over half of patients with NSNAP. Our data suggest that NSNAP presents as a spectrum with some patients showing signs suggestive of a minor nerve dysfunction.
[1] Elvey RL. Physical evaluation of the peripheral nervous system in disorders of pain and dysfunction. J Hand Ther 1997;10:122-129.
[2] van der Heide B, Bourgoin C, Eils G, Garnevall B, Blackmore M. Test-retest reliability and face validity of a modified neural tissue provocation test in patients with cervicobrachial pain syndrome. J Man Manip Ther 2006;14:30-36.
Niche-based species distribution models (SDMs) play a central role in studying species response to environmental change. Effective management and conservation plans for freshwater ecosystems require SDMs that accommodate hierarchical catchment ordering and provide clarity on the performance of such models across multiple scales. The scale-dependence components considered here are: (a) environment spatial structure, represented by hierarchical catchment ordering following the Strahler system; (b) analysis grain, that included 1st to 5th order catchments; and (c) response grain, the grain at which species respond most, represented by local and upstream catchment area effects. We used fish occurrence data from the Danube River Basin and various factors representing climate, land cover and anthropogenic pressures. Our results indicate that the choice of response grain – local vs. upstream area effects – and the choice of analysis grain, only marginally influence the performance of SDMs. Upstream effects tend to better predict fish distributions than corresponding local effects for anthropogenic and land cover factors, in particular for species sensitive to pollution. Key predictors and their relative importance are scale and species dependent. Consequently, choosing proper species dependent spatial scales and factors is imperative for effective river rehabilitation measures.
Niche-based species distribution models (SDMs) have become an essential tool in conservation and restoration planning. Given the current threats to freshwater biodiversity, it is of fundamental importance to address scale effects on the performance of niche-based SDMs of freshwater species’ distributions. The scale effects are addressed here in the context of hierarchical catchment ordering, considered as counterpart to coarsening grain-size by increasing grid-cell size. We combine fish occurrence data from the Danube River Basin, the hierarchical catchment ordering and multiple environmental factors representing topographic, climatic and anthropogenic effects to model fish occurrence probability across multiple scales. We focus on 1st to 5th order catchments. The spatial scale (hierarchical catchment order) only marginally influences the mean performance of SDMs, however the uncertainty of the estimates increases with scale. Key predictors and their relative importance are scale and species dependent. Our findings have useful implications for choosing proper species dependent spatial scales for river rehabilitation measures, and for conservation planning in areas where fine grain species data are unavailable.
Despite similar policy goals, the adoption of eHealth practices took different paths in Austria (AT), Switzerland (CH), and Germany (GER). We seek to provide a rigorous analysis of the current state of hospitals by focusing on three key eHealth areas: electronic patient records (EPR), health information exchange (HIE), electronic patient communication. For validation and in order to gain better contextual insight we applied a mixed method approach by combining survey results from clinical directors with qualitative interview data from eHealth experts of all three countries. Across countries, EPR adoption rates were reported highest (AT: 52%, CH: 78%, GER: 50%), HIE-rates were partly lower (AT: 52%, CH: 14%, GER: 17%), and electronic patient communication was reported lowest overall (AT: 17%, CH: 8%, GER: 19%). Amongst others, results indicate patient awareness about eHealth to be equally weak across countries, which thus may be an important focal point of future policy initiatives.
Rationale:
Dance as an intense kind of performance is associated with high loads on the musculoskeletal system. In particular, the lower limb is exposed to these high loads, which is reported by a high prevalence. Most dancers are affected by injuries during their careers, most in the lower limb. Typical risk factors for dancers include the compensatory turnout, hypermobility, and core stability. The correlation between these factors and lower limb injuries is not fully understood.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between lower limb injuries and the risk factors compensated turnout, hypermobility and core stability. Based on these results, hypotheses can be generated for further studies.
Methods:
This explorative pilot study was conducted at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. All eligible participants were scheduled for a single research appointment if they fulfilled the inclusion criteria of dance experience (ballet, modern, contemporary or jazz) at least one year with dance lessons of at least 5 hours per week. Parameters for the correlation analysis were (1) core stability, measured by the motor control tests battery proposed by Luomajoki, (2) hypermobility, measured by the Beighton Score (3) compensated turnout, measured by the difference between functional turnout and external rotation of both hips, (4) dance hours per week, (5) dance experience in years, (6) professional dance experience in years and (7) dance style (ballet, modern, contemporary, jazz). These parameters were correlated with the numbers of lower limb injuries. Significance level was set at 90% because of the explorative character of the study with the purpose to generate hypotheses.
Results:
Sixteen female dancers with different levels of dance experience (mean 11.3 years) and dance lessons per week (mean 17.6 hours) fulfilled the inclusion criteria and participated in this study. Significant correlations with the numbers of lower limb injuries were found at core stability (rs=0.489, p=0.034, medium effect), dance hours per week (rs=0.459, p=0.048, medium effect) and professional dance experience in years (rs=0.396, p=0.093, medium effect). Two dance styles (modern dance: rs=0.388, p=0.101 and contemporary dance: rs=0.385, p=0.104) were close to the significance level.
Conclusions:
These results show correlations between core stability, dance hours per week, professional dance experience in years and lower limb injuries in dancers.
Due to the limitations of a small and heterogeneous sample size as well as the medium effects, these results should be interpreted with caution, but may provide a basis for further research to this topic in the field of dance research and can be helpful in generating research hypotheses.
Relationship of QST measures between low back and leg sites in people with radicular leg pain
(2019)
Background and Aims
Clinicians and researchers often rely on altered neurological integrity tests in the leg to identify radicular pain, however neurological integrity is often not tested in the low back region even in the presence of pain in this region. There have been suggestions that the low back pain itself could be neuropathic in nature in some patients (Baron et al., 2016). This study aims to explore the relationship between quantitative sensory testing (QST) measures in the leg and low back in participants with radicular leg pain to consider if sensory testing should be performed in both areas in clinical practice.
Methods
13 participants (mean age 48.2 SD 13.8, gender (female) 8) with radicular leg pain were recruited from National Health Service spinal clinics in the UK. After assessment with the clinician, a full QST profile was taken from each participant’s affected leg and low back. Z scores were calculated using data from age matched healthy controls. Correlations using Pearson’s if the data was normally distributed or Kendall’s Tau-b if not, were undertaken between QST scores of the low back and leg. Paired t tests or Mann Whitney tests were performed to assess differences in QST scores between the leg and low back regions.
Results
There were no significant correlations (P>0.05) in any of the QST measures between the leg and the low back regions. However, only vibration detection threshold measures showed statistically significant differences between the leg and low back (p<0.001), with the low back region showing greater loss of function (mean -2.84) than the leg (mean -0.61).
Conclusions
Significantly lower vibration thresholds were found in the back compared to the leg. This may suggest some alteration in posterior primary ramus large diameter afferent nerve function, and indicate that the low back pain itself may indeed have a neuropathic component. Our findings suggest that sensory testing of the lumbar spine may be advisable in this group of individuals. The small sample size means that these results must be taken with some caution, however these results warrant further investigation in people with radicular leg pain.
Talent scarcity in emerging economies such as India poses challenges for companies. Limited labour market participation among well-educated women has been observed. The reasons that professionals decide not to pursue a further corporate career remain unclear. By investigating their career decision making, this handout summerizes research results from a study that aims to highlight the contextual factors that impact those decisions.
Following a qualitative research design interviews with internationally experienced Indian business professionals show that rebellion against Indian societal and family expectations is essential to following a career path, especially for women. The current institutional framework of society and organizations serves as a legitimizing façade veiling traditional practices that hinder females’ careers.
Objectives: To identify emancipatory strategies to strengthen the social protagonism of recyclable materials collectors in the light of entrepreneurial Nursing care.
Methods: Qualitative study carried out in two stages: field approach from healthcare interventions in a Recycling Materials Association, and individual interviews conducted between October and December 2018.
Results: The analysis resulted in three thematic categories: Social contribution of recyclable materials collectors; From the assistentialist perception to entrepreneurial Nursing care; Emancipatory strategies of recycling work.
Final Considerations: The emancipatory strategies to strengthen the social protagonism of recyclable materials collectors in the light of entrepreneurial Nursing care are related to the appreciation, recognition and enhancement of social work that has been already performed by these professionals, and to the creation of spaces for the socialization of experiences, expectations and perspectives.
Climate change is the biggest social challenge facing the globalised world. The aim of this paper is to investigate the requirements for governance structures in regional sustainability programmes against climate change.
The study is an explorative case study. It is based on a literature review and expert interviews. It also involves the participatory observation of working groups meetings, and a design thinking workshop.
In spite of their enormous importance, little is known about the institutional conditions of the regional governance of climate change projects in Germany.
For this reason, the research project focuses on the important aspect of networking and governance structures. Consequently, the investigation will contribute to answering the question of which institutional framework conditions can raise the likelihood of climate change projects having a sustainable effect.
The outcomes of the application
This research has not only practical implications for the single case. The exploration of the critical factors of success also offers other regions important food for thought in shaping their governance structures. In particular, the design thinking process and the business network in the District of Steinfurt offer valuable points of reference.
Background:
Midwifery care in Germany is a legal right for every woman (SGB V). Midwives work employed or freelance in hospitals or in community services, providing maternal care from pregnancy until the end of breastfeeding (Sayn-Wittgenstein 2007). Increasingly, a shortage of midwifery care has been observed, forcing hospitals to understaff or to close their birth units, leaving women and their families without care (Sander et al. 2018). At the same time, birth rates are rising, thus leading to an increasing demand of midwifery care (Destatis 2019). As off today there is no central register for midwives across Germany’s 16 states. Therefor the exact number of registered midwives as well as the scope of services provided by midwives are not known (Niedersächsisches Landesgesundheitsamt 2019). Given the present situation, it seems to be imperative to establish effective midwifery workforce planning.
The aim of this poster is to identify already existing health workforce planning approaches and to determine the extent to which those can be transferred to the German system of midwifery care.
Methods:
Health workforce planning approaches, already being used on a national and international level, have been analysed, focusing their applicability to midwifery services in Germany.
Results:
Particular elements of the workforce planning approaches already being used in Germany for registered physicians seem to be adoptable. However, they need to be adjusted and enhanced to ensure the characteristics of midwifery in the German public health services. Internationally used approaches are not readily transferable due to systemic differences in health care systems.
Conclusions:
The development of new specific workforce and service planning approaches for midwifery care in Germany is crucial to meet present and future needs of women and their families during the childbirth period.
Rationale: Three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis has proved helpful in the diagnosis of different musculoskeletal syndromes and identifying injurious movement patterns in high string players. Furthermore, an optoelectronic 3D motion capture system allows an accurate and objective assessment of upper body posture and motion during violin and viola performance. However, no reference upper body model of high string players has been proposed as yet. Moreover, a more physiological shoulder model that separates the joints of the shoulder complex has not been reported. Especially in view of given the role of the scapula in the normal movement of the humerus, it cannot be disregarded when evaluating musculoskeletal strain in the shoulder.
The International Society of Biomechanics recommends definitions of joint coordinate systems for the report of upper body joint motion using anatomical landmarks as reference for the placement of surface markers. Using markers on the skin for some of the proposed locations is, however, inappropriate when an instrument is being played. There are skin movement artifacts, e. g. caused by the movement of the scapula underneath the skin, whereas some markers interfere with the instrument on the shoulder or might be occluded by the bowing arm in motion.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a marker-based method for quantifying 3D upper body kinematics of high string players and to demonstrate its clinical feasibility in violin and viola performance. The method is intended to provide an objective evaluation of high string players’ motor strategies, especially in the shoulder complex, while minimizing skin movement artifacts, marker occlusions and limitations in instrument placement.
Methods: A custom marker set was developed consisting of thirty-one single markers to define the anatomical coordinate systems of sixteen upper body segments including the pelvis, thorax, spine and head, as well as both scapulae, upper arms, forearms and hands. Twenty-one of these markers as well as two pre-built and four custom-made rigid marker clusters were used for tracking the segment motions.
Twelve professional violinists without history of musculoskeletal or neurological problems were recruited for assessing the clinical feasibility of the method. They were asked to perform a single sequence of two consecutive musical notes on each of two adjacent strings (G- and D-string) in real time, played at 50 bpm with tempo audibly regulated by a metronome, and using a standardized violin and bow. The participants played up- and down-bow alternately using the whole length of the bow.
A custom biomechanical model was applied to the motion capture data and the rotation angles of fifteen joints were calculated. The location of each glenohumeral joint rotation center was computed by upper arm movements with respect to the scapula based on a functional method. For a description of the motion patterns, minimum, maximum and range of angular motion were averaged across participants for each string and rotation. Inter-subject variability was assessed by calculating the standard deviation (SD) at each sample of the angle-time series between participants for each rotation and for both strings. Then SD was averaged over sequences for each rotation and string. For comparing mean rotation angles between strings over time, random effect models were used.
Results: The highest range of motion was observed in the right elbow flexion and right wrist flexion/extension. Also, high ranges of motion (> 10°) were found in all right glenohumeral rotations and right wrist deviation and pronation/supination. In conclusion, lumbar and thoracic spine, thorax, neck, and left upper limb were quite static, while large motion occurred in the right upper limb during up and down bowing.
Most rotation angles showed a reasonable inter-subject variability except for left and right glenohumeral plane of elevation as well as left glenohumeral internal/external rotation, and left and right wrist pronation/supination (> 10°).
Significant differences in the rotation angles between G- and D-string bowing were detected especially in the left wrist and right shoulder joints.
Conclusions: This is the first study that used quantitative 3D analysis to explore the upper body kinematics of high string players during performance, providing a detailed view of the motor control in the shoulder as well as in the lumbar and thoracic spine. The biggest advantage over previously published methods is the more physiological shoulder and spine models while providing a simple application.
The method was found to give consistent motion patterns across participants and to be sensitive to differences between adjacent strings. Although the method appears to be valid, more rigorous validation is necessary. Since there is no gold standard with which we could compare results, we were only able to assess the clinical feasibility. We believe that our method represents a good compromise between accuracy and practicability for clinical application.
Due to the inclusion of multi-segmented shoulder and spine models, it will improve understanding of the motor strategies adopted by high string players and may contribute to injury prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
In dem Sammelband werden Reformprojekte vorgestellt, die Teilnehmende eines afrikanisch-asiatischen Qualifizierungsprogramms für Dekane an ihren Heimathochschulen umgesetzt haben. In den Projekten haben sie Veränderungen in verschiedenen Bereichen initiiert. Dazu gehören Verbesserungen in Forschung und Lehre sowie die Einführung einer Qualitätssicherung.
Im "DIES International Deans' Course" werden Managementfähigkeiten für Fakultätsmanager:innen im afrikanischen und südostasiatischen Raum vermittelt. Die Autorinnen und Autoren zeigen, dass es auch unter schwierigen Bedingungen möglich ist, erfolgreiche Änderungsprozesse auf den Weg zu bringen. Alle Beiträge des Bandes sind auf Englisch verfasst.
Keynes’ Grandchildren and Easterlin’s Paradox. What Is Keeping Us from Reducing Our Working Hours?
(2019)
In 1930 Keynes famously predicted that 100 years later-i.e. in 2030-the “economic problem” would be solved and we would be living in an “age of leisure and of abundance” working only 3 h a day. In the same text, Keynes stated that there are absolute and relative needs (“in the sense that we feel them only if their satisfaction lifts us above, makes us feel superior to, our fellows”), but he thought that relative needs are of minor importance. Richard Easterlin’s work, on the other hand, suggests that relative needs are pervasive and that wellbeing depends much more on one’s relative income than Keynes once thought.
It will be argued in this text that Richard Easterlin’s findings, in spite of proving Keynes off the mark in his understatement of relative needs, strengthens the case for working time reductions: the larger the proportion of goods subject to the relative-income effect, the greater are the benefits of working fewer hours. Perhaps the main explanation for why we are still sticking to the 40-h work-week is that the Easterlin paradox has not been widely understood yet.
Although user participation may facilitate the realisation of IT innovations, various literature analyses show only minimal to moderate evidence for such effects possibly due to disregard of mediating factors. Against this background, this study examines the extent to which joint intrapreneurship of clinical leaders and IT leaders as well as a distinct innovation culture mediate the effect of user participation on hospitals’ IT innovativeness. IT innovativeness was measured by the availability and usability of IT functions and by the perceived ‘innovative power’ of a hospital. An empirical model was developed and tested with data from 168 clinical leaders and IT leaders who participated pairwise in a survey representing 84 German hospitals. Three parallel mediation analyses indicated that the participation of users could only lead to IT innovativeness if they were accompanied by intrapreneurial leadership on the part of clinical directors and IT leaders and if a pronounced innovation culture prevailed.
Aim
Manual cranial bone tissue techniques (CBTT) are used by physiotherapists as a tool for assessment and treatment of complaints in the craniocervical, face, and head regions. The goal of this study was to determine whether CBTT were able to discriminate between subjects with cervical and/or temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and a healthy group. In addition, the inter-rater reliability when applying CBTT was also investigated.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted and included 60 participants. Six standardized passive techniques were applied and judged for resistance, compliance, and sensory answer. In order to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of these techniques a cohort of participants was measured twice (by two evaluators) prospectively. A logistic regression model and Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) analyses were used to determining the discriminative validity of these techniques.
Results
Logistic regression identified a significant difference for five techniques for resistance and/or compliance and/or the sensory answer between the groups. Based on the Area Under the Curve (AUC) analysis, the discriminative ability of the temporal rotation to distinguish between the groups was fair to good (for resistance AUC = 0.7775 and for compliance AUC = 0.8065). The highest agreement between the two assessors was for the resistance with occipital compression (73%) technique.
Conclusion
This study highlights that some of the CBTT could be potentially useful in distinguishing subjects with cervical and/or TMD from healthy subjects. Inter-rater reliability was moderate. CBTT could be potentially integrated in the examination of participants with complaints in the craniofacial region.