Conference Proceeding
Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Conference Proceeding (169) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (169)
Keywords
- physiotherapy (5)
- performing artists (3)
- Physiotherapie (2)
- biomechanics (2)
- clinical examination (2)
- electromyography (2)
- funktionelle Stimmstörung (2)
- muscle activity (2)
- muscle fatigue (2)
- musculoskeletal (2)
Institute
- Fakultät WiSo (169) (remove)
Biomechanical analyses are capable of capturing and evaluating human motions. In addition to the major biomechanical fields of kinetics and kinematics, electromyography (EMG) provides a reliable way to analyse neuromuscular activities, e.g. inter- and intramuscular coordination or fatigue behavior. Based on these parameters it is possible to conclude to clinically relevant parameters such as motor control, muscular coordination or compensation strategies with different loads. In addition to this, EMG can be used in treatment itself, e.g. biofeedback-training with an EMG is an effective and evidenced based tool to improve neuromuscular control. The purpose of this workshop is to show the advantages of implementing EMG in performing artists´ health and to demonstrate additional therapy and diagnostic options.
This workshop briefly introduces the theoretical principles of EMG and the clinical applications in the context of performing artists´ health. It explains why EMG provides an additional value in the clinical reasoning process and supports the therapist, but decision making in the clinical reasoning process should never be based on EMG solely.
In the further course of the workshop the use of EMG in diagnostics and therapy (biofeedback) with performing artists is practically demonstrated and discussed with the participants.
Approach of Presentation:
1. Short presentation: introduction and understanding of EMG (educational objective 1)
2. Short case presentation of a performing artist to introduce EMG in the field of performing artists´ health and clinical reasoning (educational objective 2)
3. Interactive practical demonstration (diagnosis and biofeedback-training) as the central part of the workshop. Questions and comments will be discussed directly throughout the group (educational objective 3)
Clinical Significance:
EMG based functional neuromuscular diagnostics and biofeedback-training provides both the therapist as well as the performing artist with additional value in their clinical work.
Educational Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to…
1. understand and describe the basic principles of EMG
2. understand and describe the importance of EMG in the context of performing artists´ health, physical therapy and clinical reasoning
3. use EMG on performing artists in the performance process
Nostalgia is a construct that, even when rooted in lived experiences, serves the ultimate purpose of creating a desired sense of world. Fundamental cognitive competencies, including memory and imagination, are utilized by the nostalgic subject to fulfill a need for narrative coherence. A temporal or spatial distance is necessary for the occurrence of a nostalgic episode, which can be conceptualized as a “had been” state of being, as direct access to the experience is often impossible. Nostalgia may thus be viewed as a tool for sense-making rather than solely as a yearning for the past. The nostalgic narrative form is a construct that permits human subjects to comprehend their existence in the world while drawing upon their roots. These tools for sense-making serve as bridges between past experiences and current conditions. Ultimately, nostalgic identity is not just about longing for the past but also about utilizing the past as a resource for navigating the labyrinths of the present. Analyses are conducted to examine the medium of music video at three levels - auditory, visual, and linguistic - in order to investigate the strategies and techniques employed by the Iranian diaspora to create nostalgic narratives. Samples of original pieces and renditions are contrasted in order to identify elements of nostalgic narrativity. Drawing on empirical research, it is argued that the unity of a music video arises from the integration of separate layers of sensory and conceptual inputs that have been composed towards an affective resonance and narrative coherence.
Background: Multilingual children with suspected SLCN are often overlooked or their needs not accurately differentiated regarding the necessity of language support or therapy. The purpose of the study was to conceptualize, carry out and evaluate a local language support (LS) project within linguistically and culturally diverse (LCD) families and its effects on all collaborating participants.
Methods: Eight SLT students and one lecturer took part in the LS-project, alongside equivalent numbers of family liaison personnel. Students visited more than 10 young children aged between 2-6 years, and for each child 10 weekly home visits were carried out. Language enhancement was documented, several case studies with children and interviews with five liaison personnel conducted.
Results: All SLT students perceived changes in the behaviour and communication of participating children. Children in the case studies developed from pre-verbal to verbal means of communication and family liaison personnel reported positive changes alongside parental wishes to continue the support.
Conclusion: Local language support projects with LCD families can lead to positive differences regarding their children's communication development and better inclusion in mainstream society. SLT students benefit from working with LCD families and their collaborative support together with family liaison personnel, and vice versa.
Learning Outcomes: To differentiate the influence of language enhancement vs. formalized SLT therapy. To enhance the relationship with LCD clientele and collaboration with liaison personnel in SLCN settings. To incorporate life-long learning and intercultural sensitization.
Purpose
Sedentary behaviour (SED) and low level of physical activity (PA) might be associated with the development or worsening of pain. Still, studies assessing physical behaviours by accelerometry in individuals with orofacial pain are limited. This study aims to assess whether women with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) present different patterns of physical behaviours in days with (DWP) or without pain (DWoP).
Methods
Twenty-nine out of forty-four women (mean age 29.21 sd 7.96) were diagnosed with TMD and monitored over seven days using a thigh-worn accelerometer. DWP was determined when subjects presented pain in one of the craniocervical regions (head, jaw and neck) with intensity of at least 3 in the numerical rating scale. To be considered a DWoP, the individual presented less than 3 points in the three regions. Daily time-use compositions were described in terms of SED in short (<30 min) and long (≥30 min) bouts, light PA (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), and time-in-bed. Isometric log-ratios (ilr) were calculated to express the ratio of time-in-bed to time spent awake, SED relative to LPA and MVPA, SED in short relative to long bouts, and LPA relative to MVPA. Differences between DWP and DWoP were examined using MANOVA, followed by univariate post-hoc tests of pairwise differences.
Results
During DWP, women with TMD spent more time in SED in short (239 min) and long bouts (419 min), less time in LPA (245 min), MVPA (68 min), and in bed (468 min) compared with DWoP (235, 378, 263, 70 and 493 min, respectively). The MANOVA showed that all sets of ilrs did not differ statistically (ηp2 = 0.19, p = 0.25). Still, the post-hoc tests showed a trend that time spent SED relative to LPA and MVPA was larger in DWP than in DWoP (Cohen’s d = 0.36, p = 0.05).
Conclusions
Women with TMD did not show different patterns of physical behaviours in DWP or DWoP. However, there is a trend of more sedentary behaviour and less physical activity in DWP compared to DWoP. Future studies should consider other pain intensity cut-offs, isolated pain locations, and larger sample sizes to confirm these results.
The aim of this European interprofessional Health Informatics (HI) Summer School was (i) to make advanced healthcare students familiar with what HI can offer in terms of knowledge development for patient care and (ii) to give them an idea about the underlying technical and legal mechanisms. According to the students’ evaluation, interprofessional education was very well received, problem-based learning focussing on cases was rated positively and the learning goals were met. However, it was criticised that the online material provided was rather detailed and comprehensive and could have been a bit overcharging for beginners. These drawbacks were obviously compensated by the positive experience of working in international and interprofessional groups and a generally welcoming environment.
Background and Aims
Early identification of nerve lesions and associated neuropathic pain in spine-related pain disorders is important for tailored treatment. Management may consist of surgical intervention for compressive neural lesions.
With a growing waitlist for public surgical outpatient clinics in Western Australia and wait times exceeding the recommended wait time for initial assessment (Category 1 – assessment within 1 months, Category 2 within 3 months, category 3 within 12 months), a call to support new models of care has been made1, including the evaluation and expansion of workforce models supporting advanced skills in allied health.1
An Advanced Scope Physiotherapy (ASP) led Neurosurgery Spinal Clinic operates at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Western Australia. The ASPs (2FTE) examine patients from the neurosurgery waitlist for their suitability for spinal surgery. Recommendation of either further investigation and possible assessment by a neurosurgeon or appropriate non-surgical management of the patients’ pain condition is suggested. Patient assessment is conducted either ‘in person’ at the hospital or via telehealth due to the remoteness of some rural patients. Patient cases are discussed with a neurosurgery consultant on a weekly basis. The aim of this project is to evaluate the ASP service in the year 2022.
Method
A retrospective descriptive analysis of patient data captured in 2022 was performed.
Results
In 2022, 1337 new patient referrals were managed plus 267 follow-ups from the previous year. Category 1 patients (n=81) waited on average 31 days for their first appointment, Category 2 patients (n=394) waited 76 days and Category 3 patients (n=854) waited 376 days.
287 (18%) referrals were discharged without physical assessment of the patient (DNA, cancellations, declined). Of the 1317 patients physically assessed by the ASPs (57%) were discharged directly after assessment, for 290 patients (22%) their outcome was still pending at time of analysis (March 2023) and 281 (22%) patients were referred for review with a neurosurgeon. Of the 229 patients assessed by a neurosurgeon (including patients from 2022), 103 patients (45%) were offered surgery, 52 (23%) were not offered surgery, 46 ( 20%) patients had to be reviewed, and for the remaining (n=18) their outcome was unknown.
Conclusion
Of the 1604 patients managed in the Neurosurgery Spinal Clinic, only 17% needed to see a neurosurgeon. The conversion rate to surgery of 45% is higher compared to an estimated 5%-10% in a non-triaged clinic.
The ASP model of care has proved invaluable to (i) provide access of patient care within the recommended wait times (ii) optimize neurosurgeons’ time, (iii) educate patients and, in case of non-suitability for surgery, advise and refer them for alternative appropriate management.
Relevance for Patient Care
The Advanced Scope Physiotherapy model of care at the Neurosurgery Spinal Clinic allows timely assessment of patients with spine-related disorders and supports targeted management of their condition.
Ethical Permissions
This project is registered as a Quality Improvement Project at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (QI35728) and as per the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research was exempt from review by the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Human Research and Ethics Committee
References
1Sustainable Health Review (2019). Sustainable Health Review: Final report to the Western Australian Government of Health, Western Australia
Workshop: “‘Sciatica’: neuropathic or not and does it matter? Outcomes from a NeuPSIG working group”
(2023)
The identification of neuropathic pain in persons with spine-related leg pain is important as this information guides treatment and management, including self-management. The NeuPSIG neuropathic pain grading system was developed to assist clinicians and researchers in determining whether patients have neuropathic pain and the level of confidence associated with that decision. Based on clinical and laboratory examination findings, patients are classified as having no neuropathic pain, possible, probable or definite neuropathic pain. Whereas this grading system works nicely in people with systemic neuropathies where sensory findings and diagnostic tests are mostly present, its application in patients with spine-related leg pain, particular in radicular pain, can be challenging. For example, in the absence of sensory changes and MRI findings, patients with radicular pain would at best reach a classification of possible neuropathic pain according to the current neuropathic pain grading system.
In this presentation I will explain the adaptations to the neuropathic pain grading system for spine-related leg pain recommended by the NeuPSIG working group. I will demonstrate its application in clinical practice using case studies and provide clarity for how the system can be incorporated in clinical trials. This will be an interactive session with audience participation.
Methods: Systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCT). Searches were conducted in five electronic databases. Studies were selected if they included patients with NP over 18 years old treated with aerobic exercise (AE) (e.g., cycling, running, hiking, and walking). The main outcome of interest was pain intensity. Qualitative and quantitative data were extracted. The risk of bias (RoB) was determined using the Cochrane RoB Tool-2 and the overall certainty of the evidence with the GRADE recommendations.
Results: Out of 21,585 initial records screened, a total of six individual studies published in ten manuscripts were included. There was a great heterogeneity between protocols, comparisons, and studies’ results (different magnitudes and directions). When looking at the effect of aerobic exercise versus control groups or other interventions on pain intensity measured with the VAS, not statistically (nor clinical) significant differences between aerobic exercise and control groups (MD [95%CI] 5.16 mm [-6.38, 16.70]) were identified. The combined effect of AE plus other interventions seems to be effective. Strength exercise obtained better effects than aerobic exercises (MD [95%CI]: -11.34 mm [-21.6, -1.09]).
Conclusions: Aerobic exercise presented positive results to reduce pain intensity, and improving disability, and physical and emotional functioning. However, the evidence is restricted, low quality, and heterogeneous.
Methods: The searches were conducted on five electronic databases. RCTs or CTs with patients over 18 years old of both sexes with OFP diagnoses were targeted. The intervention of interest was AE (i.e., walking, cycling, and running), compared to any other conservative and non-conservative therapy. The primary outcome was pain intensity. Risk of bias (RoB) was done with the Cochrane RoB tool (RoB 2). The overall certainty of the evidence was evaluated with GRADE.
Results: Out of 21,585 initial records found in the initial database search, only one study (reported on three manuscripts) was included. The diagnosis of interest was headache plus temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Three treatment groups (strengthening (Str) exercise + manual therapy (MT) (G1); AE + MT + Str exercises (G2); AE (G3)) were compared. The main outcome was pain; the secondary outcomes included disability, strength, anxiety, and quality of life. The combined treatment (AE+MT+Str exercises) had the strongest effect to decrease pain and headache intensity in patients with OFP (SMD: 9.99 [95%CI: 7.19, 12.80].
Conclusions: a multimodal treatment strategy achieved the greatest positive effects on pain and other outcomes in the short/medium term. AE seems to be an important component of this strategy. However, the scientific evidence supporting AE’s isolated effect is limited, indicating a research gap in this scientific field.
The excitement sparked by the emergence of AI open platforms has encountered significant scrutiny from educators and educational planners, who have raised valid concerns about issues such as plagiarism, testing protocols, and the authenticity of content submitted by students. While these concerns are timely and crucial, it's essential not to overlook other pressing issues that often go unnoticed in the lived educational experience of learners, particularly within the field of social sciences. This paper aims to advocate for a humanistic approach with a focus on education in the generative AI Era.
Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a chronic wound and a common diabetic complication as 2% – 6% of diabetic patients witness the onset thereof. The DFU can lead to severe health threats such as infection and lower leg amputations, Coordination of interdisciplinary wound care requires well-written but time-consuming wound documentation. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems lend themselves to be tested to extract information from wound images, e.g. maceration, to fill the wound documentation. A convolutional neural network was therefore trained on 326 augmented DFU images to distinguish macerated from unmacerated wounds. The system was validated on 108 unaugmented images. The classification system achieved a recall of 0.69 and a precision of 0.67. The overall accuracy was 0.69. The results show that AI systems can classify DFU images for macerations and that those systems could support clinicians with data entry. However, the validation statistics should be further improved for use in real clinical settings. In summary, this paper can contribute to the development of methods to automatic wound documentation.
The diabetic foot ulcer, which 2% – 6% of diabetes patients experience, is a severe health threat. It is closely linked to the risk of lower extremity amputation (LEA). When a DFU is present, the chief imperative is to initiate tertiary preventive actions to avoid amputation. In this light, clinical decision support systems (CDSS) can guide clinicians to identify DFU patients early. In this study, the PEDIS classification and a Bayesian logistic regression model are utilised to develop and evaluate a decision method for patient stratification. Therefore, we conducted a Bayesian cutpoint analysis. The CDSS revealed an optimal cutpoint for the amputation risk of 0.28. Sensitivity and specificity were 0.83 and 0.66. These results show that although the specificity is low, the decision method includes most actual patients at risk, which is a desirable feature in monitoring patients at risk for major amputation. This study shows that the PEDIS classification promises to provide a valid basis for a DFU risk stratification in CDSS.
Rationale:
Biomechanical analyses are capable of capturing and evaluating human motions. In addition to the major biomechanical fields of kinetics and kinematics, electromyography (EMG) provides a reliable way to analyse neuromuscular activities, e.g. inter- and intramuscular coordination or fatigue behavior. Based on these parameters it is possible to conclude to clinically relevant parameters such as motor control, muscular coordination or compensation strategies with different loads. In addition to this, EMG can be used in treatment itself, e.g. biofeedback-training with an EMG is an effective and evidenced based tool to improve neuromuscular control.
Purpose:
To show the advantages of implementing EMG in performing artists´ health and to demonstrate additional therapy and diagnostic options.
Educational Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to…
1.understand and describe the basic principles of EMG
2.understand and describe the importance of EMG in the context of performing artists´ health, physical therapy and clinical reasoning
3.use EMG on performing artists in the performance process
Content of Presentation:
This workshop briefly introduces the theoretical principles of EMG and the clinical applications in the context of performing artists´ health. It explains why EMG provides an additional value in the clinical reasoning process and supports the therapist, but decision making in the clinical reasoning process should never be based on EMG solely.
In the further course of the workshop the use of EMG in diagnostics and therapy (biofeedback) with performing artists is practically demonstrated and discussed with the participants.
Approach of Presentation:
1.Short presentation: introduction and understanding of EMG (educational objective 1)
2.Short case presentation of a performing artist to introduce EMG in the field of performing artists´ health and clinical reasoning (educational objective 2)
3.Interactive practical demonstration (diagnosis and biofeedback-training) as the central part of the workshop. Questions and comments will be discussed directly throughout the group (educational objective 3)
Clinical Significance:
EMG based functional neuromuscular diagnostics and biofeedback-training provides both the therapist as well as the performing artist with additional value in their clinical work.
Introduction: Hamstring injuries are among the most common injuries in soccer players. Especially the danger of hamstring injuries increases in the final third of each half, with the biceps femoris muscle being highly susceptible, but currently there is no supporting evidence in soccer players. It is important to investigate to provide a basis for further clinical investigations in order to reduce the risk of hamstring injuries.
Objective: To investigate a soccer-specific muscle fatigue protocol has an effect on the activation patterns of the biceps and semitendinosus muscles and correlates with the subjectively perceived exertion of the soccer players.
Methods: 19 healthy soccer players aged 19 - 35 years were included and underwent a standardized procedure that included: (1) performance of the nordic hamstring curls (NHC) and a 10m sprint (pre-test), (2) a soccer-specific muscle fatigue loading protocol for 30 minutes with subsequent rating of perceived exertion (RPE), (3) re-assessed like pre-assessment (post- test). Electromyography (EMG) data were recorded the biceps and
semitendinosus muscles of both legs. Two parameters were analyzed: the peak amplitude during the NHC and the mean amplitude during the 10m sprint.
Results: The RPE score (9.5, p<0.001) and 10m sprint shows significant differences between pre- and post- test for the biceps (standing leg: -82.45, kicking leg: -81.77; p<0.01) and semitendinosus muscle (standing leg: -60.08, p=0.001); kicking leg: -65.30, p=0.03). Significant correlation exists between RPE score and biceps muscles at posttest (standing leg: r=-0.54, kicking leg: r=-0.51; p<0.05).
Conclusion: Muscle fatigue leads to significant changes in the activation behavior of the hamstring muscles. In particular, the biceps muscle shows a correlation with perceived exertion, the higher the exertion, the lower the muscle activity. This may help explain the higher prevalence of the biceps muscle in hamstring injuries and offers a basis for further clinical investigations
Apps have been attested to empower patients regarding disease self-management through numerous studies. However, it is still unclear what factors determine the perception of patients whether an app is a useful tool for this purpose. A multiple regression model that was informed by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM 2) was tested based on the answers of 235 app users with Diabetes type 1 or 2. The model accounted for 59.2% of the variance of the perceived degree of self-management. Factors belonging to the relevance-usefulness-quality complex as well as factors reflecting the patient’s self-control were found to be significant in the model. Patient demographics, i.e. age, gender, app experience and type of Diabetes did not play any significant role. In conclusion, this study raises the question whether apps should be designed to strengthen self-management in the sense of self-control (e.g. own measurements, diary) as opposed to guiding and advice giving.
With the start of the 21st century, patient safety as a topic of special interest has attracted increasing attention in both academia and clinical practice. As technology has continued to develop since then, questions and focal points surrounding the topic have also shifted. In particular, questions regarding the impact of digitalization on patient safety and its measurement are now of high interest. This work aims to develop a maturity assessment instrument in the form of a criteria set for measuring structural requirements for digital patient safety in hospitals. Based on the results of a literature review and a derivation of maturity objects (MO) from known maturity models, 64 criteria across 11 categories were developed. Written comments of two digital patient safety experts as well as subsequent interviews were used to evaluate and refine the criteria catalog. The resulting catalog offers hospitals guidance for detecting possible areas of structural improvements in their information systems with regard to patient safety and represents a unique instrument for assessing digital maturity in this particular area.
Venous leg ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers are the most common chronic wounds. Their prevalence has been increasing significantly over the last years, consuming scarce care resources. This study aimed to explore the performance of detection and classification algorithms for these types of wounds in images. To this end, algorithms of the YoloV5 family of pre-trained models were applied to 885 images containing at least one of the two wound types. The YoloV5m6 model provided the highest precision (0.942) and a high recall value (0.837). Its mAP_0.5:0.95 was 0.642. While the latter value is comparable to the ones reported in the literature, precision and recall were considerably higher. In conclusion, our results on good wound detection and classification may reveal a path towards (semi-) automated entry of wound information in patient records. To strengthen the trust of clinicians, we are currently incorporating a dashboard where clinicians can check the validity of the predictions against their expertise.
Rationale:
Neck pain is a large health problem worldwide and often seen in musicians [1, 2]. Neck pain can radiate into the arm due to various underlying pain types and pain mechanisms making it heterogeneous in clinical signs and symptoms [3-5]. On the one hand, patients may present with dominant nociceptive neck-arm pain caused by activation of the nociceptors in muscles, joints, ligaments, fascia, tendons and the connective tissues of a nerve [6, 7]. Activation of nociceptors in nerve connective tissues may cause clinical signs of heightened nerve mechanosensitivity what is per definition categorized as nociceptive pain [6, 8, 9]. On the other hand, patients may present with dominant neuropathic pain, defined as pain as a direct consequence of a lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory system [10, 11]. The clinical profile of these different pain types is sometimes difficult to disentangle based on the localization and pain character [12]. Moreover, non-specific neck-arm pain patients shown a neuropathic pain component based on somatosensory changes detected via Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) [3, 13]. Classifications with a defined physical examination pathway can be helpful to define subgroups to guide the clinical decision making [14]. This workshop updates the background about the pathophysiology of neck-arm pain and mediates an evidence-based examination to classify patients.
Purpose:
The aim of this workshop is to give a current insight into the background and evidence of neck-arm pain and to plan and practice a physical examination.
Content of Presentation:
This workshop will summarize evidence of neck-arm pain. Thereupon, current evidencebased diagnostic options will be presented and practiced together. Finally, a short insight in the management of neck-arm pain will be given.
Approach of Presentation:
QST testing and current cost-effective evidence-based methods will be presented to identify neuropathic components in neck-arm pain. Selected methods will be performed practically together, e.g. bedside sensory testing and neurodynamic tests.
Clinical Significance:
After the workshop, participants will have improved skills to diagnose in the spectrum of neck-arm pain for musicians with neck-arm pain.
At the end of the presentation, the participants will be able to:
- understand the heterogeneity of neck-arm pain,
- plan an appropriate diagnostic physical examination,
- have an insight in possible management strategies.
Rationale:
Instrumentalists often suffer from playing-related (neuro-)musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs). Most common PRMDs in string players are related to upper-body regions. Motion analysis has proven to be helpful in the evaluation of functional disorders. It was already shown that it is a valid and clinically feasible tool for accurate, repeatable, and objective assessments of functional movement in string players. Thus, it may guide clinicians to improvements in injury prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Nevertheless, its application in clinical consultation is still very uncommon. For this reason, there is a lack of well-established motion analysis protocols for the examination of PRMDs in string players using advanced biomechanical instruments in clinical settings.
Purpose:
To demonstrate the development and application of a motion analysis protocol for the evaluation of functional upper-body movements in violinists, violists, and cellists in a clinical setting for the investigation of PRMDs.
Approach:
The protocol was to be integrated into a clinical reasoning process for testing clinical hypotheses and evaluating treatment outcomes in physiotherapy. As a starting point, a primary clinical question was defined, and then, specific upper-body symptom regions as well as measurement parameters (relative rotation angles and muscle activities over time) were identified. Subsequently, involved segments, joints, and muscles were assorted. For quantification of upper-body kinematics a novel, marker-based method was used which provides multi-segmented shoulder and spine models while providing simple application. Based on that, a comprehensive mechanical model of the upper body as well as the associated coordinate systems and rotation sequences were specified. This further guided both, the definition of a custom-made marker set as well as the selection and placement of surface electrodes. Furthermore, required static and functional calibration trials as well as movement tasks for functional assessment were specified. Finally, advanced approaches, such as a comprehensive kinematic model and functional determination of joint centers and axes were established for extraction. Then, outcome parameters and their form of representation were determined for further analysis and interpretation.
The application of the method first includes the selection of segments, joints, and muscles to examine – originating from one or more clinical (working) hypotheses or symptom regions. This drives the configuration and placement of required surface markers and electrodes. Then, the required calibration and functional movement trials are executed. After measurement, the outcome parameters get extracted and analyzed. Based on the results the hypothesis is discarded or verified.
Content:
The method was applied to a violinist (female; 18 years old; 13 years of experience; practicing 2 to 3 hours per day, 7 days per week) with playing-related demands in the left cervical-shoulder-arm region.
Subjective findings indicated that the pain regularly occurred after 30 minutes of playing fast or difficult musical pieces. Physical examination showed that strength testing of left serratus anterior muscle caused pain, lower trapezius muscles seemed weak, forearm muscles were sensitive to pressure, movement of the cervical spine to the left was reduced, and upper limb neural tension test was noticeable.
This led to the following working hypothesis: Neck-related arm pain with neurodynamic component and motor control problem in the scapulothoracic region. Thus, left-sided cervical-shoulder-arm region was selected for functional examination.
Optoelectronic motion capture system and surface electromyography were used for data collection. Static and function calibration trials as well as functional assessment trials (chromatic scale with different tempi) were conducted. Afterwards, data was further processed, and outcome parameters were extracted.
Results showed that greater tempo and pain had an impact on the rotation angles and muscle activities. They led to less overall joint movement and range of motion, to less muscle activity in the forearm muscles, and to greater activity inputs in the scapulothoracic muscles. Overall, greater tempo and pain led to a different motor program which verified the working hypothesis.
The procedure was repeated after treatment (four appointments over one week) with manual therapy, training, and education. The pre-/post-interventional comparison showed changes in the motor program. There was noticeable higher mean activity in upper trapezius and deltoid muscles and simultaneously less in the remaining ones. In addition, only marginal differences in ranges of motion and muscle activity inputs were found between tempi. The playing style appeared to be more stable now. Overall, it appeared that nearly the same motor program was used for each tempo.
Clinical Implications:
Potential applications are intraindividual evaluations of simultaneously joint and muscular function in string players during clinical consultation. It is intended to contribute to the diagnosis of PRMDs in terms of an objective, comprehensive and yet clinically feasible diagnostic assessment as well as pre-post-intervention outcome evaluation.
Nonetheless, motion analysis must be used with care in clinical decision making. Motion data is subject to both, intraindividual variations, and measurement errors. In addition, the smallest clinically relevant changes are not clear yet. Therefore, results should only be interpreted together with other clinical findings.
Hintergrund: Instrumentalisten leiden häufig unter spielbedingten (neuro-) muskuloskelettalen Erkrankungen. Diese zeigen sich bei Streichern, wie Violinisten, Bratschisten und Cellisten, am häufigsten in Form von Beschwerden im Oberkörper – insbesondere im Schulter-Nacken-Bereich. Die apparative Bewegungsanalyse hat sich bereits als hilfreich bei der Beurteilung von muskuloskelettalen Erkrankungen und schädlichen Bewegungsmustern erwiesen und wird für die Diagnostik bei funktionellen Störungen empfohlen. Es wurde bereits gezeigt, dass die apparative biomechanische Bewegungsanalyse ein valides und klinisch praktikables Werkzeug für die genaue und objektive Untersuchung von Bewegungen bei Streichern ist, jedoch ist ihr Einsatz in der klinischen Konsultation immer noch sehr unüblich. Aus diesem Grund existiert ein Mangel an gut etablierten Bewegungsanalyse-Protokollen zur Untersuchung funktioneller Störungen bei Streichern unter Einsatz biomechanischer Instrumente in einem klinischen Umfeld wie der Physiotherapie.
Ziel ist es daher, die Entwicklung und Anwendung eines solchen Protokolls vorzustellen für die Beurteilung der funktionellen Spielbewegungen des Oberkörpers bei sowohl hohen als auch tiefen Streichern in einem physiotherapeutischen Umfeld.
Methode: Zunächst wurden auf Basis einer klinischen Fragestellung relevante Symptombereiche und Messparameter bestimmt. Anschließend wurden beteiligte Segmente, Gelenke und Muskeln selektiert. Darauf basierend wurde ein umfassendes (mechanisches) Modell des Oberkörpers sowie die dazugehörigen Koordinatensysteme und Rotationssequenzen definiert. Dies lenkte sowohl die Spezifikation eines speziell angefertigten Marker-Sets sowie fortgeschrittener Ansätze wie zur funktionellen Bestimmung von Gelenkzentren und -achsen, als auch die Auswahl und Platzierung von Oberflächenelektroden. Schließlich wurden Aktivitäten zur Kalibrierung und Untersuchung der Bewegungsfunktion sowie relevante Analyseparameter und deren Darstellungsformen festgelegt.
Die Protokolldurchführung beinhaltet zunächst die Auswahl der zu untersuchenden Segmente, Gelenke und Muskeln ausgehend von einer oder mehreren klinischen (Arbeits-)Hypothesen bzw. von den spezifischen Symptombereichen. Darauf basierend werden die benötigten Marker und Oberflächenelektroden konfiguriert und platziert. Anschließend werden die festgelegten Kalibrierungsmessungen und Bewegungsaufgaben durchgeführt. Schließlich werden die relevanten Ergebnisparameter zur Überprüfung der Hypothesen extrahiert.
Der klinische Einsatz der Methode wird exemplarisch anhand einer Violinistin mit spielbedingten Schmerzen erläutert.
Klinische Implikationen: Die potenzielle Anwendung des vorgestellten Vorgehens ist die intra-individuelle Evaluation von gleichzeitig der Gelenk- als auch der Muskelfunktion bei hohen und tiefen Streichern während der physiotherapeutischen Konsultation. Dies soll sowohl zur Diagnose funktioneller Erkrankungen des Bewegungsapparates in Form einer objektiven, umfassenden und dennoch klinisch praktikablen diagnostischen Untersuchung als auch zum prä-post-interventionellen Vergleich beitragen.
Rationale
Playing the trombone can lead to playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMD). Previous research suggests that professional trombonists predominantly struggle with PRMD on the left body side. An increasing volume leads to an increasing contact pressure on the mouthpiece of the trombone, but it is still unclear how the muscle activity relates to this and whether it differs in musicians with PRMD from those without PRMD.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the activity of different muscles of the left body side, the contact pressure on the mouthpiece and the volume level in healthy trombonists.
Methods
Six male healthy tenor trombonists were included in this study and run through a standardized protocol which consisted of playing a b-flat major scale with three different volume levels (pianissimo, mezzoforte, fortissimo). Analyzed parameters were (1) the activity of several muscles of the left body side (measured with surface electromyography), (2) the contact pressure on the mouthpiece (measured with a force sensor) and (3) the different volume levels.
Results
Analysis of variance reveals significant differences of the muscle activity for the three volume levels. Depending on the volume level and the selected muscle, results show very weak to moderate correlations between contact pressure on the mouthpiece and muscle activity (Spearman´s rho between .11 and .58). The strongest correlation across all muscles occurs during fortissimo playing.
Conclusions
These results show a relationship in healthy trombonists between volume level, contact pressure on the mouthpiece and muscle activity when playing a b-flat major scale. Future research should include trombonists with PRMD to enable comparison between PRMD and non-PRMD musicians.
Educational Objectives:
At the end of the presentation, the participants will be able to…
1. understand the relationship between muscle activity, contact pressure on the mouthpiece and volume when playing the trombone
2. recognize that there are different muscle activity patterns on the left body side when playing the trombone
3. understand that a comprehensive functional diagnosis is important in the management of musicians
Pandemie, Nachfrageschocks und Krieg können Unternehmen an den Rand Ihrer Überlebensfähigkeit treiben. Eine Stärkung der Resilienz und der Nachhaltigkeit ist nachweislich durch Digitalisierung möglich. Aber welche Aspekte der Digitalisierung sind für die unternehmerische Resilienz besonders relevant und werden in der Praxis zielorientiert verfolgt? Diese Arbeit nutzt einen Multimethodenansatz, bestehend aus einem systematischen Literaturreview sowie aus semi-strukturierten Experteninterviews, um die obigen Fragen zu adressieren. Die Ergebnisse indizieren, dass aktuell die drei Themenfelder Dynamic Pricing, Process Mining und Self-Service Reporting/BI besonderen Fokus genießen. Andere Themenfelder hingegen, wie Neurale Netze, Blockchain Technologie, Gamification oder Text Mining werden in der Literatur zwar intensiv diskutiert, finden in der Praxis allerdings nach wie vor selten Einzug.
Studien indizieren, dass die Generation Z, die sogenannten „Digital Natives“, einen leichten Zugang zu Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) hat. Zugleich attribuieren sich die Individuen dieser Generation auch selbst eine hohe IKT-Affinität. Diese Kombination legt gewisse Lehrmethoden (wie Selbststudium oder Projektarbeit) im Rahmen der Hochschullehre auch für ERP-Systeme nahe. An diesem Punkt setzt dieser Beitrag an und zeigt in einem Experiment anhand von zwei SAP-Lernumgebungen mit vier Studierendengruppen, dass die unreflektierte und implizite Annahme der hohen IKT-Affinität recht trügerisch und kontraproduktiv für die Lehre ist. Von Studierenden selbst gewählte Lernmethoden haben dabei das Nachsehen. Damit einhergehend führen mehrdimensionale Lehrmethoden zu messbar höheren Lernerfolgen. Theoretisch begleitet wird diese Arbeit vom Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).
background: Musculoskeletal problems (MP) are widespread in performing artists and are due to the special demands of instrument playing, singing or dancing. Additionally, various other factors might contribute to performance-related MP. To provide a specific physiotherapeutic management for performing artists it is important to gain information about the performing art, the individual demands and contributing factors. The subjective examination (SE) is the basis of the clinical reasoning process and the hypothesis forming for further clinical examination and biomechanical analysis. In the present protocol, the SE consists of a questionnaire-based section and an interview-based section and is part of the evaluation process of the neuromusculoskeletal examination of a performing artist specific reference laboratory.
purpose: To develop a standardized SE protocol divided into a questionnaire-based section (Part 1) via web application and an interview-based SE (Part 2) to address MP of performing artists.
methods: The questionnaires for part 1 were selected based on the expertise of the research group and the psychometric properties of each possible questionnaire. A common physiotherapeutic recording of findings which addresses the relevant questions of the SE of MP was used. To adapt the anamnesis to performing-associated MP questions specific to instrument playing, singing and dancing were selected on the basis of a literature search and the expertise of the research group.
summary of content/results: Part 1 consists of three topics. (1) information about the performing art, professional level and sociodemographic data, (2) information about pain and pain processing, and (3) the anatomical location of the main MP including a body region-specific questionnaire. Part 2 is based on the five aspects of clinical practice described by Maitland and the Musculoskeletal Clinical Translation Framework by Mitchell et al. The performing arts specific part is particularly focused on performing art specific considerations, physical and psychosocial contributing factors and art-specific activities.
significance: This standardized SE protocol should help clinicians evaluating the musculoskeletal health of performing artists in a standardized and specific way.
Background: Musculoskeletal problems (MP) are widespread in performing artists and are due to the special demands of instrument playing, singing or dancing. In order to specifically evaluate these problems, a reference laboratory is under development. The evaluation covers 4 steps: a subjective examination (SE) including (1) a questionnaire-based online survey and (2) an interview-based anamnesis. On the basis of the results of the SE, hypotheses are formed for (3) an individual musculoskeletal clinical examination and a (4) biomechanical analysis. Here, the focus is on the clinical examination.
Purpose: to develop a standardized protocol for a clinical examination addressing especially musculoskeletal problems in performing artists.
Methods: A common physiotherapeutic clinical examination should be supplemented with techniques, which are specific to performance-related musculoskeletal problems and/or their risk factors. The development was based on a literature search and the clinical expertise of the physiotherapeutic research group.
Summary of content/Results: The performing arts specific clinical examination includes the common analysis of posture as well as passive/active movement capacities and specific differentiating tests in relation to the signs and symptoms of the individual artist. The examination is supplemented by a functional demonstration focusing on the special demands of playing the respective instrument, while singing or dancing. Common overuse risk factors like hypermobility, special anthropometric data or an examination of the motor control of different body regions are addressed. Optional, the various parts of the examination process could be skipped, if not relevant for the individual artist.
Significance: This clinical examination protocol should help clinicians evaluating the musculoskeletal health of performing artists in a standardized and specific way.
The Corona pandemic confronted societies with several unexpected constraints that had the effect of making certain goods much scarcer than before. Withdrawal from Russian oil and gas supplies has a similar effect. Carbon abatement can also be seen as a deliberate choice to make certain goods scarc-er than they actually are. These parallels suggests that it may be worthwhile to take a close look at societies’ responses to all three challenges. This paper makes an attempt to synthetize empirical and theoretical insights regarding these scarcity shocks from a well-being perspective, i.e. replacing the prevalent welfare economic focus on production and consumption with a focus on sustainable well-being.
Taking the case of Germany, it will be argued that the observed responses to all three challenges reflect a focus on maintaining incomes and production and that therefore these responses risk being detrimental to sustainable wellbeing and even to economic stability. This is particularly relevant if carbon abatement requires not only transient material sacrifices but lasting and significant reduc-tions of consumption.
It will be argued that the impact of these new scarcities will be much less problematic in a society that acknowledges the priority of sustainable wellbeing over production and consumption measures. Such a society would still need to incur material sacrifices, but these need not translate into a loss of wellbeing if economic conditions and social norms adapt. This will also be more sustainable not only in terms of ecological impact, but also in terms of debt, inflation and inequality.
rationale: Musculoskeletal problems are widespread in performing artists and are due to the special demands of instrument playing, singing or dancing. Additionally, various other factors might contribute to performance-related musculoskeletal problems. In order to provide a specific physiotherapeutic management for performing artists, it is important to gain information about the performing art, the individual (biomechanical) demands and contributing factors. The subjective examination is the basis of the clinical reasoning process and the hypothesis forming, which is important for goal setting in further clinical examination and biomechanical analysis. In the present protocol, the subjective examination consists of a questionnaire based section and an interview based section and is part of the evaluation process of the neuromusculoskeletal examination of a performing artist specific reference laboratory.
purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a standardized protocol for an interview based subjective examination of performing artists with musculoskeletal problems. The results of this section of the subjective examination will be combined with the results of the questionnaire based subjective examination , in order to gather as much relevant information as possible to specifically address the individual’s musculoskeletal health status.
methods: A common physiotherapeutic recording of findings which addresses the relevant questions of the subjective examination of musculoskeletal problems was used. In order to adapt the anamnesis to performing-related musculoskeletal problems, questions specific to instrument playing, singing and dancing were selected on the basis of a literature search and the expertise of the research group.
results: The protocol is based on the five aspects of clinical practice described by Maitland and the Musculoskeletal Clinical Translation Framework by Mitchell et al. (2017) .The performing art specific questions especially address (1) performing art specific considerations including style, genre, education and professional level, practice habits, repertoire, and external factors, e.g. concert conditions, (2) performing art specific physical and psychosocial contributing factors, and (3) performing art specific activities which trigger the musculoskeletal problems and help to form hypotheses for the following clinical examination. Individual tracks lead through the subjective examination so that irrelevant questions are skipped depending on the kind of musculoskeletal problem and the performing art practiced by the individual client.
conclusions: A pretest of this standardized anamnesis protocol is ongoing in a special physiotherapy clinic for performing artists since spring 2022. In an iterative approach, the protocol will be continuously improved based on patient feedback and clinical considerations.
This study describes the eHealth4all@eu course development pipeline that builds upon the TIGER educational recommendations and allows a systematic development grounded on scientific and field requirements of competencies, a case/problem-based pedagogical approach and finally results in the syllabus and the course content. The pipeline is exemplified by the course Learning Healthcare in Action: Clinical Data Analytics.
Communication deficits belong to the most frequent errors in patient handovers calling upon specialized training approaches to be implemented. This study aims to harness problem-based learning (PBL) methods in handover education and evaluated the learning process. A digitally enabled PBL course was developed and implemented at Klinikum Osnabrück from which eight nurses participated in the course. They agreed on the stimulating effect of the setting regarding self-directed learning and on the potential to translate the new knowledge and skills into the daily clinical practice. In conclusion, the findings are promising that a digitally enabled PBL course is a suitable learning format for handover education.
Background:
Neck pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal pains and among the fourth leading causes of years of life lost due to disability, following back pain, depression, and arthralgia. (1)
In the course of their lives, about 70% of all people will experience a clinically relevant episode of neck pain, (2) so finding a good therapy to treat it is of high interest. Aerobic exercise is associated with pain reduction in patients with different types of MSK pain. Recent studies have shown a positive impact of aerobic exercises on brain function, memory processing, cognition, and motor function. (3, 4)
Therefore, the influence of aerobic exercise on pain modulation seems to be of particular interest for individuals with chronic MSK pain, since brain imaging studies have shown that these patients have structural and functional changes, as well as abnormal brain features in various areas of the brain. The evidence regarding the effectiveness of aerobic exercise for neck pain seems limited and outdated.
Thus, a systematic review evaluating the effects of aerobic exercise in patients with neck pain is needed. Therefore, this review aims to investigate the effectiveness of aerobic exercise interventions when compared to other conservative and non-conservative interventions (e.g., localized exercises, medication, acupuncture, physical agents, manual therapy) to decrease pain intensity in people with neck pain.
Materials and methods:
Electronic literature searches were conducted in a total of six databases such as Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus. The review considered randomised controlled trials (RCTs) including patients over 18 years having musculoskeletal pain in the neck area. The Neck Pain Task Force's classification of pain severity describes four levels of neck pain, with the first three levels considered in this review. (5)These must be clinically diagnosed by a health care provider according to signs and symptoms or based on standardized criteria specific for each disease. Studies involving subjects with any pre-existing conditions, previous surgery, or pain not clearly related to the musculoskeletal system were excluded. No limits were applied in terms of sex, ethnicity, and living country. Data were extracted using a standardized data extraction form.
Methodological quality was determined using the Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool (CCRBT) and the strength of the evidence with Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE). Data were extracted and evaluated by two independent reviewers.
Results:
A total of 21585 records were identified and screened independently for eligibility by two reviewers. A total of six unique studies, reported on ten manuscripts met the specified inclusion criteria. Different types of aerobic exercise were used in the studies. Studies included isolated and combined aerobic exercise using interventions such as cycling on an ergometer or walking outdoors at a moderate intensity. Comparison groups were for example strength training or education. The most common outcome was pain assessed with the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) or the Nordic questionnaire.
The included studies had a high risk of bias and the overall quality of the evidence for this systematic review was considered low. There was high heterogeneity in the included studies regarding interventions applied and study results.
When looking at the effect of aerobic exercise versus control group or other intervention groups measured with VAS, it can be observed, that there was a great heterogeneity between studies results (different magnitudes and directions). Although none of the comparisons showed a statistically significant difference between aerobic exercise and control (MD 6.24 mm, 95% CI [-11.21; 23.96]) or active intervention groups (MD -9.52 mm, 95% CI [-18.48; -0.56]) on pain intensity; it seems that aerobic exercise is slightly better than a control group, and equally effective as other active treatments such as strength exercise or education.
In addition, when combined with other therapeutic modalities, aerobic exercise, could potentially help to reduce pain intensity (MD 7.71 mm, 95% CI [1.07; 14.35]). Especially in the long term, the combination of strength and aerobic exercise showed promising results. Statistically significant differences in favour of aerobic exercise for pre vs. three months follow up (MD 11.20 mm, 95% CI [2.85;19.55]) and pre vs. six moths follow up (MD 15.10 mm, 95% CI [6.99; 23.21]) were found.
Conclusions:
Although there is currently limited evidence on the effectiveness of aerobic exercise in individuals with chronic neck pain, aerobic exercise was found to not only reduce pain intensity, but also to improve disability as well as physical and emotional functioning. However, as the evidence is limited, low quality, and heterogeneous, further research is needed in this area to obtain more accurate results.
Rationale:
Biomechanical analyses are capable of capturing and evaluating human motions. In addition to the major biomechanical fields of kinetics and kinematics, electromyography (EMG) provides a reliable way to analyse neuromuscular activities, e.g. inter- and intramuscular coordination, fatigue behavior or timing. Based on these parameters it is possible to conclude to clinically relevant parameters such as motor control, muscular coordination or compensation strategies with different loads. In addition to this, EMG can be used in treatment itself, e.g. biofeedback-training with an EMG is an effective and evidenced based tool to improve neuromuscular control.
Purpose:
To show the importance of EMG in musicians´ health and to demonstrate additional therapy and diagnostic options.
Educational Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to…
1. understand and describe the basic principles of EMG
2. understand and describe the importance of EMG in the context of musicians´ health, physical therapy and the clinical reasoning process
3. use EMG on musicians in the performance process
Content of Presentation:
This workshop briefly introduces the theoretical principles of EMG and the clinical applications in the context of musicians´ health. It explains why EMG provides an additional value in the clinical reasoning process and supports the therapist, but decision making in the clinical reasoning process should never be based on EMG solely.
In the further course of the workshop the use of EMG in diagnostics and therapy (biofeedback) with musicians is practically demonstrated and discussed with the participants.
Approach of Presentation:
1. Short presentation: introduction and understanding of EMG (educational objective 1)
2. Short case presentation of a musician to introduce EMG in the field of musicians´ health and the clinical reasoning process (educational objective 2)
3. Interactive practical demonstration (diagnosis and biofeedback-training) as the central part of the workshop. Questions and comments will be discussed directly throughout the group (educational objective 3)
Clinical Significance:
EMG based functional neuromuscular diagnostics and biofeedback-training provides both the therapist as well as the musician with additional value in their clinical work.
Rationale:
Biomechanical analyses are capable of capturing and evaluating human motions. In addition to the major biomechanical fields of kinetics and kinematics, electromyography (EMG) provides a reliable way to analyse neuromuscular activities, e.g. inter- and intramuscular coordination, fatigue behavior or timing. Based on these parameters it is possible to conclude to clinically relevant parameters such as motor control, muscular coordination or compensation strategies with different loads. In addition to this, EMG can be used in treatment itself, e.g. biofeedback-training with an EMG is an effective and evidenced based tool to improve neuromuscular control.
Purpose:
To show the importance of EMG in musicians´ health and to demonstrate additional therapy and diagnostic options.
Educational Objectives:
At the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to…
1. understand and describe the basic principles of EMG
2. understand and describe the importance of EMG in the context of musicians´ health, physical therapy and the clinical reasoning process
3. use EMG on musicians in the performance process
Content of Presentation:
This workshop briefly introduces the theoretical principles of EMG and the clinical applications in the context of musicians´ health. It explains why EMG provides an additional value in the clinical reasoning process and supports the therapist, but decision making in the clinical reasoning process should never be based on EMG solely.
In the further course of the workshop the use of EMG in diagnostics and therapy (biofeedback) with musicians is practically demonstrated and discussed with the participants.
Approach of Presentation:
1. Short presentation: introduction and understanding of EMG (educational objective 1)
2. Short case presentation of a musician to introduce EMG in the field of musicians´ health and the clinical reasoning process (educational objective 2)
3. Interactive practical demonstration (diagnosis and biofeedback-training) as the central part of the workshop. Questions and comments will be discussed directly throughout the group (educational objective 3)
Clinical Significance:
EMG based functional neuromuscular diagnostics and biofeedback-training provides both the therapist as well as the musician with additional value in their clinical work.
This paper provides a discourse based upon the key development of nursing in response to the emerging 4Ds of health technology re-design. Building informatics capability among health professionals is a workforce issue necessitated through the increasing prevalence of information technology and digitization of healthcare affecting the entire health workforce, specifically front-line nurses. The key concepts will be explored of Digitization, Distribution, Disruption and Diversity, a framework recognising the tsunami of technology such as Big Data analytics, comprehensive decision support systems for nursing, nanobots, robotics, and pharmacogenomics and the impact these have upon the nursing workforce.
Building on Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory, Bass models describe the diffusion processes distinguishing between innovation (p) and imitation (q). This study aimed at modelling the uptake of RIS, PACS and EHR systems in Germany and Finland. The Bass models revealed a quick and almost identical uptake process across all three systems for Finland. In contrast, the Bass models mirrored a slower uptake in Germany. Consequently, the Finnish “imitation” coefficients were larger than the German ones. While in Germany almost free market forces were driving the adoption through imitation but without tail wind from policy, the adoption process in Finland was centrally governed. This suggests that the diffusion process in Finland reflected a well-managed roll-out of the systems rather than imitation behaviour. Thus, in order for Bass model coefficients to be understood properly, additional contextual information is required.
Access to digital technologies depends on the availability of technical infrastructure, but this access is unequally distributed among social groups and newly summarized under the term digital divide. The aim is to analyze the perception of a tracing app to contain Covid-19 in Germany. The results showed that participants with the highest level of formal education rate the app as beneficial and were the most likely to use the app.
Comparison of quantitative sensory testing profles between people living in Germany and Australia
(2021)
Rationale:
Performing artists are exposed to high strains during their performance. These strains are similar to the ones of professional athletes, but in contrast to athletes there is a comprehensive undersupply of care regarding preventive and rehabilitative therapy offers.
Purpose:
The purpose of RefLabPerform is to develop a reference laboratory for the assessment of neuromusculoskeletal disorders using physiotherapeutic assessment methods in combination with biomechanical motion analysis. This includes the automatized integration of the physiotherapeutic assessments with the technical biomechanical analysis for an individual treatment recommendation with decentralized health care recommendations for a home-based therapy based on evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation strategies.
Methods:
Several work packages are processed systematically, whereby according to the requirements in the course of the project an overlapping of work packages occurs. First, the component planning of the innovative reference laboratory structure is carried out, on which the clinical and technical development of the reference laboratory is based. The next steps are the development of individual clinical assessment protocols, prevention and rehabilitation strategies as well as the setup of the laboratory and the development of technical routines. Parallel to this, various analysis tools are being developed for biomechanical data as well as for physiotherapeutic diagnostics and merged at the end of this work package for individual results for different groups of performing artists. Overlapping with the previous work packages, the reference laboratory will be tested for application and manageability. Clinical and technical data are brought together and checked by means of individual case trials on various groups of artists. In terms of an agile software development process, the results flow back into the previous work packages in order to optimize them and then test them again.
Results:
At the end of the project a functional and proven reference laboratory for the comprehensive analysis of performing artists will be developed.
Conclusions:
This reference laboratory is specialized to the diagnosis and treatment of playing- and performance-related dysfunctions with a focus on clinical findings and biomechanical movement analysis.
Educational Objectives:
At the end of the presentation, the participants will be able to…
1. describe the innovative content of the project RefLabPerform
2. understand the advantages of merged analysis strategies by physiotherapeutic and biomechanical examinations
3. understand the complex interdisciplinary process to develop a reference laboratory for performing artists
Rationale:
Performing artists are exposed to high strains during their performance. These strains are similar to the ones of professional athletes, but in contrast to athletes there is a comprehensive undersupply of care regarding preventive and rehabilitative therapy offers.
Purpose:
The purpose of RefLabPerform is to develop a reference laboratory for the assessment of neuromusculoskeletal disorders using physiotherapeutic assessment methods in combination with biomechanical motion analysis. This includes the automatized integration of the physiotherapeutic assessments with the technical biomechanical analysis for an individual treatment recommendation with decentralized health care recommendations for a home-based therapy based on evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation strategies.
Methods:
Several work packages are processed systematically, whereby according to the requirements in the course of the project an overlapping of work packages occurs. First, the component planning of the innovative reference laboratory structure is carried out, on which the clinical and technical development of the reference laboratory is based. The next steps are the development of individual clinical assessment protocols, prevention and rehabilitation strategies as well as the setup of the laboratory and the development of technical routines. Parallel to this, various analysis tools are being developed for biomechanical data as well as for physiotherapeutic diagnostics and merged at the end of this work package for individual results for different groups of performing artists. Overlapping with the previous work packages, the reference laboratory will be tested for application and manageability. Clinical and technical data are brought together and checked by means of individual case trials on various groups of artists. In terms of an agile software development process, the results flow back into the previous work packages in order to optimize them and then test them again.
Results:
At the end of the project a functional and proven reference laboratory for the comprehensive analysis of performing artists will be developed.
Conclusions:
This reference laboratory is specialized to the diagnosis and treatment of playing- and performance-related dysfunctions with a focus on clinical findings and biomechanical movement analysis.
Educational Objectives:
At the end of the presentation, the participants will be able to…
1. describe the innovative content of the project RefLabPerform
2. understand the advantages of merged analysis strategies by physiotherapeutic and biomechanical examinations
3. understand the complex interdisciplinary process to develop a reference laboratory for performing artists
INTRODUCCIÓN: Entre los actores del sistema de salud alemán, sólo los médicos y dentistas se formaron en las universidades. Desde enero 2020 está en vigor una nueva ley de partería que obliga a la formación de matronas en las universidades. Hasta ahora, las matronas han sido entrenadas tres años en escuelas vocacionales afiliadas a hospitales; el bachillerato no era un requisito previo. El pensamiento y el trabajo científico, así como la reflexión crítica sobre la propia práctica no formaban parte sistemáticamente del curriculo. Paralelamente a este sistema de entrenamiento, unas pocas ciudades alemanas han estado ensayando y evaluando cursos universitarios para matronas durante una década. En la realización práctica, la aplicación generalizada de la nueva ley representa un desafío.
OBJETIVO: En esta comunicacíon se presentará el estado actual de la aplicación de la academización de las matronas en Alemania un año después de la promulgación de la nueva ley de partería.
MATERIAL Y MÉTODO: Análisis de la situación con la ayuda de textos jurídicos, programas de estudio, artículos científicos, páginas web y entrevistas personales.
RESULTADOS: El número de programas de estudio ya iniciados es menor que el número previsto originalmente. Los siguientes son factores que inhiben la rápida aplicación de la ley: el systema de federalismo en Alemania, la falta de matronas suficientemente cualificadas (doctorado) para el liderazgo de los cursos universitarios y para la docencia, las dudas extendidas en la profesión y entre otros actores de la atención de la salud y finalmente también las características del sistema de educación universitaria en Alemania.
CONCLUSIONES: Cambiar la formación de una profesión es una tarea importante que conlleva desafíos. Los factores que dificultan la aplicación de la ley para las matronas en Alemania aún no han sido analizados sistemáticamente. Esto sería necesario para poder adoptar medidas específicas para promover la aplicación. Todavía queda mucho camino por recorrer antes de que la formación de las matronas en Alemania cambie realmente para mejor.
Hintergrund und Zielsetzung:
Instrumentalistinnen und Instrumentalisten sind beim Spielen erheblichen psychischen und Instrument-spezifischen körperlichen Belastungen ausgesetzt. Häufig kommt es dabei zu Überlastungen des neuromuskuloskelettalen Systems, insbesondere der oberen Extremität. Welchen Beitrag kann eine musikerspezifische Physiotherapie zum Management von körperlichen spielbedingten Beschwerden leisten?
Methodik:
Es wurde eine Literaturrecherche zu Art und Prävalenz neuromuskuloskelettaler Beschwerden der oberen Extremität bei Instrumentalist/innen durchgeführt. Zusätzlich wurden retrospektiv Patient/innen-Akten aus einer physiotherapeutischen Musiker/innen-Sprechstunde gesichtet, um das Vorgehen bei der Untersuchung und Behandlung spielbedingter Beschwerden zu beschreiben.
Ergebnisse:
Studien berichten von einer Prävalenz spielbedingter neuromuskuloskelettaler Beschwerden der oberen Extremität bei Instrumentalist/innen von 47-52,8%. Häufige Ursachen sind Überlastungssyndrome durch wiederkehrende Belastung derselben anatomischen Strukturen, Hypo- oder Hypermobilität sowie (periphere) Neuropathien. Bei der physiotherapeutischen Anamnese bei Instrumentalist/innen spielen sowohl Beschwerde-bezogene Fragen als auch spezifische Fragen zum Instrument, zur Spielerfahrung und zum Übeverhalten eine wichtige Rolle. Insbesondere die funktionelle Demonstration der beschwerdeauslösenden Bewegung und die Haltungs-/Bewegungsanalyse am Instrument geben wichtige Hinweise für das weitere Vorgehen in der physiotherapeutischen Diagnostik und Behandlung. Die klinische Untersuchung kann durch eine apparative Untersuchung z.B. der Muskelaktivität und von Bewegungsabläufen ergänzt werden. Die physiotherapeutischen Behandlungsansätze beinhalten Manuelle Therapie, (Instrument-)spezifische therapeutische Übungen, Haltungs-/Bewegungsschulung am Instrument, neurodynamische Techniken und Patient/innen-Edukation sowie ergonomische Anpassungen des Instruments.
Schlussfolgerung:
Eine musikerspezifische physiotherapeutische Versorgung kann einen entscheidenden Beitrag zum multidisziplinären Management spielbedingter neuromuskuloskelettaler Beschwerden der oberen Extremität bei Instrumentalist/innen leisten.
The PosiThera project focuses on the management of chronic wounds, which is multi-professional and multi-disciplinary. For this context, a software prototype was developed in the project, which is intended to support medical and nursing staff with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In accordance with the user-centred design, national workshops were held at the beginning of the project with the involvement of domain experts in wound care in order to identify requirements and use cases of IT systems in wound care, with a focus on AI. In this study, the focus was on involving nursing and nursing science staff in testing the software prototype to gain insights into its functionality and usability. The overarching goal of the iterative testing and adaptation process is to further develop the prototype in a way that is close to care.
The central aim of the investigation at hand is to deal with the problem areas of Human Resource Management, which arise by demographic changes and migration. The paper focuses on mutual relationships. Managers and human resource managers are considered as multipliers. Older employees, migrants and women are important potential. Therefore, following research questions have been investigated: Which competences are necessary to promote to recognise the potential of migrants correctly and to promote them? Do the multipliers have to be more sensitized for the issue diversity? Do they have to develop specific competences to make the system more permeable and to make the entry and promotion of migrants possible? Which competences should be promoted to increase the sensitivity for diversity? The questions were examined by a qualitative investigation to develop hypotheses for a quantitative study. Overall, 30 interviews with managers, human resource managers and diversity representatives of the large DAX companies were conducted. Furthermore, 17 employees with immigration background and 15 employees without an immigration background were interviewed. The data was transcribed and analysed by the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring (2010). Comparative analyses were made with single items with Likert Scales. The investigation of managers and employees is a highly diversified issue. Therefore, the main focus of the project lays on the problem areas, conflicts and competences of human resources managers in demographic-sensitive personnel management. In comparison, employees with and without an immigration background were asked. The results show an interesting field of tension between self-perception and perception of others and the assessment of the relevance of diversity attitudes and measures, competences and their implementation. Furthermore, a contrary perception regarding strains and stresses of person with and without immigration background is determined, which is developed in the consequences of migrations stress and experiences of discrimination. The results indicate the need of promotion of competences, especially regarding intercultural competence. A critical analysis of the results will be presented.
Aims: This study examines the relationship between the time, students spent abroad, personality traits and circumstances during this time with the student’s intercultural competence and integration performance in the target culture. Design and sample: The study had a correlative cross-sectional design. 202 academic subjects were surveyed. The average age was 22 years. There was one measuring time, to which 58 % of the participants stated that they have had a stay abroad. Measurements: Metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural intercultural competence were measured with the Cultural Intelligence Scale. The personality traits involvement, discipline, social competence, cooperation, dominance and stability were captured with the "Bochum inventory for job-related personality description-6F". Work-related attitudes as patterns of behaviour and experience were measured using the "Work-related Behaviour and Experiencing Pattern 44" (Geman: Arbeitsbezogene Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster; AVEM). In addition, the demographic factors and characteristics of stays abroad as well as the integration into the target culture based on the Sociocultural Adaption Scale were examined. The data was tested for relationships and differences by tests for mean differences, variance and regression analyses. Results: There was a positive correlation between duration and cognitive, motivational and behavioural intercultural competence. The motivational competence is higher in subjects who have no risk pattern in the AVEM. The different types of competence influence each other at diverse times. Moreover, the suggested structural equation model could be confirmed. This showed the effect of the AVEM pattern on intercultural competence, moderated by the stay abroad and the social competence.
Kurzfassung: Die vorliegende Untersuchung setzt sich mit den Problemfeldern der Personalauswahl und -entwicklung auseinander, welche die demografischen Veränderungen in Bezug auf Migration mit sich bringen. Explorativ soll die Ausprägung von sozialen und interkulturellen Kompetenzen und der Aspekt Diversity in Unternehmen untersucht werden. Hierzu wurden 69 Interviews durchgeführt und die intervallskalierten Selbsteinschätzungsskalen quantitativ verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Mitarbeiter die Relevanz von Diversity-Einstellungen und Maßnahmen, Kompetenzen und Umsetzung dieser deutlich höher bewerten als die Führungskräfte. Die Ergebnisse weisen auf den Bedarf einer Kompetenzförderung hin, insbesondere in Bezug auf die interkulturelle Kompetenz.
Kurzfassung: Die vorliegende Untersuchung untersucht die Auswirkungen
der Dauer eines Auslandsaufenthaltes von Studierenden sowie von arbeitsbezogenen Persönlichkeitsfaktoren und Charakteristika auf die interkulturelle Kompetenz und die Integration der Teilnehmer. Die Untersuchung erfolgte in Form einer korrelativen Querschnittstudie. Insgesamt 202 Probanden mit akademischer Ausbildung wurden untersucht. Es wurden die interkulturelle Kompetenz, Persönlichkeitsmerkmale und arbeitsbezogene Einstellungen gemessen, sowie demographische Faktoren des Auslandsaufenthaltes und die Integration in die Zielkultur. Es gibt einen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen der Dauer von Auslandsaufenthalten und kognitiver, motivationaler und verhaltensbezogener interkultureller
Kompetenz.
Background: Crowding in emergency departments (ED) has a negative impact on quality of care and can be averted by allocating additional resources based on predictive crowding models. However, there is a lack in effective external overall predictors, particularly those representing public activity.
Objectives: This study, therefore, examines public activity measured by regional road traffic flow as an external predictor of ED crowding in an urban hospital.
Methods: Seasonal autoregressive cross-validated models (SARIMA) were compared with respect to their forecasting error on ED crowding data.
Results: It could be shown that inclusion of inflowing road traffic into a SARIMA model effectively improved prediction errors.
Conclusion: The results provide evidence that circadian patterns of medical emergencies are connected to human activity levels in the region and could be captured by public monitoring of traffic flow. In order to corroborate this model, data from further years and additional regions need to be considered. It would also be interesting to study public activity by additional variables.
Aims: Intercultural competence has become a key-competence, since the world has become more and more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Therefore, insights in the development of intercultural competence and its´ links to individual traits are crucial for companies and researchers to face the requirements in a VUCA world. This study examines the relationship between the time, students spent abroad, personality traits and circumstances during this time with the student’s intercultural competence and integration performance in the target culture. The study had a correlative cross-sectional design. Design and sample: A total of 202 academic subjects were surveyed. The average age was 22 years. There was one measuring time, to which 58 % of the participants stated that they have had a stay abroad. Measurements: Metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural intercultural competence were measured with the Cultural Intelligence Scale. The personality traits involvement, discipline, social competence, cooperation, dominance and stability were captured with the "Bochum inventory for job-related personality description-6F". Work-related attitudes as patterns of behaviour and experience were measured using the "Work-related Behaviour and Experiencing Pattern 44" (German: Arbeitsbezogene Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster, AVEM). This scale captures the way participants relate to work in general based on the measurement of personality traits and their fit to specific clusters, which describe, whether individuals have healthy or risky patterns. In addition, the demographic factors and characteristics of stays abroad as well as the integration into the target culture based on the Sociocultural Adaption Scale were examined. The data was tested for relationships and differences by tests for mean differences, variance and regression analyses. Results: There was a positive correlation between duration and cognitive, motivational and behavioural intercultural competence. The motivational competence is higher in subjects who have no risk pattern in the AVEM. The different types of competence influence each other at diverse times. Moreover, the suggested structural equation model could be confirmed. This showed the effect of the AVEM pattern on intercultural competence, moderated by the stay abroad and the social competence. Thus, the study contributes to the understanding of both the measurement of intercultural competence and the development process of intercultural competence in a globalized world.
Do multipliers have to be more sensitized for the issue diversity? Do they have to develop specific competences? Which do they already have? These questions were analysed by a qualitative investigation. Ca. 70 interviews with managers of the large DAX companies and employees were conducted. The results show a field of tension between self-perception and perception of others and the assessment of the relevance of diversity attitudes and measures, competences and their actual implementation. The results indicate the need of promotion of competences, especially regarding the intercultural competence. We position ourselves in a functionalist perspective, in line with the work on paradigms of Burell and Morgan (2017) and Deetz (1996) in social sciences and Cross-Cultural Management. We present these results from a functionalist perspective in order to ensure the greatest possible "objectivity".
Symposion: Working for the greater good in services: risks and innovation impacts on employees’ wellbeing
Oral presentation: Kumbruck: Digitalization in Health and Old People’s Care and the Impacts on the Interaction Work
Purpose: Digitalization like roboter to lift or feed care receiver or like electronic patient documentation, e.g. on smartphones, changes interaction and communication between care givers and care receivers. From our research projects (Projektgruppe verfassungsverträgliche Technikgestaltung: Mobile information and communication tools in the hospital; Das Ethos fürsorglicher Praxis in der Pflege) shows impacts.
Design/Methodology/Approach/Intervention: Qualitative studies (simulation studies; narrative Interviews, observations,) with more than 60 experimentees in different health care institutions.
Results: The interaction is mediated by electronic tools. The nurses are confident by the electronic assistance and workload reduction; but they are afraid of more distance in the relationship to the patients, more mixing of private and working time activities or more observation by their superiors. The most critical aspect is seen in the patient documentation.
Limitations: These studies are explorative ones. Especially the simulation study is an experimental design.
Research/Practical Implications: There is need for more and quantitative studies. The results give a lot of indications that the organizational and political frameworks of health care are important moderators of the impacts of the digitalization in health care.
Originality/Value: The studies have an important perspective on the change in the relationship between health care givers and receivers by digitalization – a topic, which concerns everybody.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Radiology has a reputation for having a high affinity to innovation – particularly with regard to information technologies. Designed for supporting the peculiarities of radiological diagnostic workflows, Radiology Information Systems (RIS) and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) developed into widely used information systems in hospitals and form the basis for advancing the field towards automated image diagnostics. RIS and PACS can thus serve as meaningful indicators of how quickly IT innovations diffuse in secondary care settings – an issue that requires increased attention in research and health policy in the light of increasingly fast innovation cycles. We therefore conducted a retrospective longitudinal observational study to research the diffusion dynamics of RIS and PACS in German hospitals between 2005 and 2017. Based upon data points collected within the “IT Report Healthcare” and building on Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory, we applied a novel methodological technique by fitting Bayesian Bass Diffusion Models on past adoption rates. The Bass models showed acceptable goodness of fit to the data and the results indicated similar growth rates of RIS and PACS implementations and suggest that market saturation is almost reached. Adoption rates of PACS showed a slightly higher coefficient of imitation (q = 0.25) compared to RIS (q = 0.11). However, the diffusion process expands over approximately two decades for both systems which points at the need for further research into how innovation diffusion can be accelerated effectively. Furthermore, the Bayesian approach to Bass modelling showed to have several advantages over the classical frequentists approaches and should encourage adoption and diffusion research to adapt similar techniques.
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.
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.
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.
Personal health records (PHR) are instruments to compile, store and present health and wellness related data digitally with proven effects on self-management of diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there were differences in the intention to use (ITU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of two technologies allowing users to access the PHR, i.e. a kiosk system and a smart phone based app (access as usual). The study also aimed at modelling ITU and PU with multiple linear regressions. A total of 46 subject participated in the study who were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental groups (nkiosk = 22; napp = 24). The task for both groups was to digitise their “Medikationsplan” (medical record) and upload it to the PHR. There was no significant difference in ITU and PU between the two technologies. ITU could only be significantly explained by PU (R2 = .55, p < 0.001), while PU was determined by perceived ease of use and psychological factors (R2 = .64, p < 0.001). Severity of disease did not play any significant role. The German “Terminservice- und Versorgungsgesetz” underpins the importance and timeliness of this study. The assumption that both – the publicly accessible kiosk and the app – are equally acceptable for people of different gender, age and technology background demonstrates the opportunity to master a potential digital divide among the population and allows users to get access to their PHR in multiple ways.
In Germany, a lot of young children at risk of language difficulties still go undetected or are not assessed before preschool-age. For children where parents may suspect a disorder, this practice causes a lot of emotional distress alongside lost time for intervention. Thus, what contribution can parents and nursery staff make for the earlier detection of language difficulties? 34 children from four German kindergartens were tested with a standardized preschool screening for language problems by an SLT. Parents and nursery staff completed a questionnaire (FEE 3-4) that was designed to collect potential risk-factors and included the rating of children’s abilities across the main language domains. Outcomes from the FEE 3-4 were compared between parents and nursery staff as well as triangulated with results from the standardized screening. Agreement between parents and nursery staff re. individual children’s potential language difficulties was moderate (Kappa = 0.44, p = .050). Overall, nursery staff rated children’s language abilities more strictly and precisely than parents. Especially their rating of ‘word order’ (p = .022) and ‘verb endings’ contributed significantly to the identification of potential language difficulties similar to the standardized screening. The screening identified two children at risk without caregiver's concern, but not two others who were at risk of language disorder and for whom caregivers expressed concern. Caregiver’s awareness of early language difficulties appears to be rather intuitive. Young children at risk are most reliably detected if standardized instruments are used in combination with caregiver questionnaires. Ideally, this process includes data from parents and nursery staff to be interpreted by an experienced SLT, as the use of a standardized screening alone may lead to missed or mistaken identification where essential information about the child’s environment (e.g. risk factors) is not provided. If parents are concerned about children’s language, full assessment is clearly justified.
The increasing complexity of caseloads in SLT practice, e.g. due to higher comorbidity, lacking information or experience in the
treatment of complicated cases, calls for support from experienced as well as specialist practitioners from within the field - especially
for novice therapists. One way to tackle these challenges may be peer coaching and how it can be employed within the educational
and professional SLT setting.
Peer coaching was implemented across five semesters of a successive SLT study programme at a University of Applied Sciences in
Germany. The approach was embedded in a clinical reasoning seminar with 25 SLT students who each presented a challenging case
study from their current workload. All participants completed a short online survey to evaluate the feasibility of the team approach
within this setting as well as their personal benefit and development re. the discussed case studies.
Students felt encouraged by being able to share their experience and tackle actual challenges. They particularly valued receiving
answers from a broad range of other SLTs but also contributing to other students’ queries and providing practical solutions for
them. All participants felt that peer coaching was an appropriate approach for clinical reasoning to support their professional as well
as personal development. Other outcomes were a perceived increased ability to employ metacognitive reflection to be used with
their whole caseload but also a prospective need for further training. Some students suggested the employment of peer coaching
within their work setting.
In the educational as well as professional SLT setting, peer coaching can be successfully employed, triggering metacognitive
reflection re. practitioner’s thinking and acting, resulting in an increased awareness of needs and skills as part of the clinical
reasoning process.
Purpose
Attracting skilled students is an important aim of many cities in a knowledge-based society. This paper focuses on urban factors of attractiveness from a student's perspective and analyses their influence on locational choices of students. The criteria found were also used to evaluate how the City of Osnabrück, Germany, is rated in terms of these criteria and to reveal the greatest discrepancies.
Design / Methodology / Approach
The paper is based on a multi-level empirical research concept, including qualitative and quantitative approaches. A survey of 2,300 students was conducted in Osnabrück on the basis of focus group discussions with students and interviews with various experts such as a neighbourhood manager, an urban planner, a district mayor, a college president, a real estate manager.
Originality/value
To date, little research has been undertaken to empirically examine the specific requirements that German students look for in a place to live and study. According to the author’s present state of knowledge (January 2018), a comparable study has not been done.
The main contribution of this paper is the empirical analysis of what makes cities attractive to students. In contrast to the findings of Richard Florida about the Creative Class, the cleanliness of a city, beautiful city scenery, and attractive apartments are more important to students than cultural offers, interesting job opportunities, or a multicultural population.
Practical Implications
Insights from the empirical survey can both help to analyse important factors in students' decision-making process and provide possible measures that the city stakeholders can take.
Keywords
1. Knowledge-based urban development
2. Mobility decisions by students and skilled professionals
3. Location factors
4. Place branding
Proposed paper: Academic Research Paper
This paper introduces ideas to reduce talent scarcity by binding female talent in India. As a theoretical lens Neo-Institutionalism in the Indian context is combined with the family-relatedness of work decision model. The qualitative research design and first results as well as propositions for companies are included.
Going Mobile : An Empirical Model for Explaining Successful Information Logistics in Ward Rounds
(2018)
Background: Medical ward rounds are critical focal points of inpatient care that call for uniquely flexible solutions to provide clinical information at the bedside. While this fact is undoubted, adoption rates of mobile IT solutions remain rather low.
Objectives: Our goal was to investigate if and how mobile IT solutions influence successful information provision at the bedside, i.e. clinical information logistics, as well as to shed light at socio-organizational factors that facilitate adoption rates from a user-centered perspective.
Methods: Survey data were collected from 373 medical and nursing directors of German, Austrian and Swiss hospitals and analyzed using variance-based Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).
Results: The adoption of mobile IT solutions explains large portions of clinical information logistics and is in itself associated with an organizational culture of innovation and end user participation.
Conclusion: Results should encourage decision makers to understand mobility as a core constituent of information logistics and thus to promote close end-user participation as well as to work towards building a culture of innovation.
Current frameworks postulate the success of health IT innovations to be determined by the professionalism of the information management (PIM). Still, empirical knowledge about PIM is scarce up until today. This study seeks to answer three research questions: (1.) How can PIM be measured in a reliable and valid way, (2.) how pronounced is PIM in German hospitals and (3.) do hospital characteristics have an impact on the degree of PIM? Based on the results of an expert workshop and frameworks for information management (IM) items for a PIM inventory were developed and the inventory sent to 1349 chief information officers of German hospitals. A principle component analysis based on the responses of 196 hospitals confirmed the three components that had been proposed by the frameworks: the strategic, the tactical and the operational level. The full inventory implied satisfying reliability and allowed a PIM composite-score to be calculated. The PIM scores for strategic and tactical IM were found to be far lower than for operational IM which hints at strong deficits in these areas. A stepwise regression model indicated that the degree of PIM significantly increased with the size of the hospital, which had been expected and hints the validity of the PIM inventory. This tool offers potentials for hospitals to classify and improve their IM.
Frequent users of emergency departments (ED) pose a significant challenge to hospital emergency services. Despite a wealth of studies in this field, it is hardly understood, what medical conditions lead to frequent attendance. We examine (1) what ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) are linked to frequent use, (2) how frequent users can be clustered into subgroups with respect to their diagnoses, acuity and admittance, and (3) whether frequent use is related to higher acuity or admission rate. We identified several ACSC that highly increase the risk for heavy ED use, extracted four major diagnose subgroups and found no significant effect neither for acuity nor admission rate. Our study indicates that especially patients in need of (nursing) care form subgroups of frequent users, which implies that quality of care services might be crucial for tackling frequent use. Hospitals are advised to regularly analyze their ED data in the EHR to better align resources.
This prospective longitudinal study aims at better understanding eHealth success factors in different European nations, esp. the role of eHealth-legislation in Switzerland and Germany. Qualitative interviews with 39 matched experts from a large variety of institutions in both nations were conducted. The individual statements in the interviews and the overall satisfaction rating indicate a clear trend for a more optimistic attitude towards the law in Switzerland than in Germany. This result is not surprising given the history of a telematics infrastructure in Germany. Cross-country learning topics for German politicians are the inclusion of the inpatient sector and the focus on one major application. In a next step, interview results from Austria will be included and with that the scope of study findings enriched.
The establishment of successful clinical information logistics (CIL) within the care processes is one of the main objectives of strategic health IT management in hospitals. While technical realisations in terms of useful, usable and interoperable IT solutions are essential precursors of CIL, there is limited empirical research on what socio-organisational factors underlie an innovation-friendly culture and how they can affect successful information provision. We applied factor analysis on survey data from 403 clinical directors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland and used the dimensions identified to explain the level of CIL with ordered logistic regression analysis. The intensity of collaboration and exchange with the IT department as well as the degree of executive IT leadership showed to be strongly associated with better CIL while personal views and attitudes of clinical directors were not. Analysing country differences revealed the degree of the exchange with the IT department to be significantly lower in German hospitals. This points at a potential strategic lever for German hospital executives to focus on.
Health IT systems are employed to support continuity of care via information continuity, while management continuity is often neglected. This study aims at investigating issues of management continuity when developing a collaborative decision support system for chronic wounds. Thirty-three experts from a variety of professions and disciplines discussed problems and possible solutions in four workshops. The following topics emerged from the discussion: existing networks involving payers, responsibilities as well as good discharge management. These topics clearly address management continuity and are also relevant for the scenario of inter-professional wound care across different settings.
The workflow-oriented dissemination of electronic patient data is a central goal of IT deployment in hospitals. Against this background, the present study examines two research questions: (1.) Are there differences in the availability of electronic patient data (AEPD) between different clinical workflows and data types and (2.) which structural and organizational factors determine AEPD? Based on a Germany wide hospital survey, AEPD was assessed along six clinical workflows. While AEPD was lowest for ward rounds, discharge showed the highest AEPD with pre- and post-surgery processes ranging in between. With regard to the data types analyzed, patient demographics and observation findings obtained the highest AEPD scores. Electrophysiological results, checklists and warnings were less common electronically and received lower AEPD scores. Multiple linear regression analysis resulted in a significant model that explained 34.4% of the variance of AEPD. Large hospitals and those with a professional information management, a high health IT related innovation culture and a nursing informatics officer possess higher AEPD scores and thus have better clinical information logistics mechanisms at their command.
Background: IT is getting an increasing importance in hospitals. In this
context, major IT decisions are often made by CEOs who are not necessarily IT
experts. Objectives: Therefore, this study aimed at a) exploring different types of IT
decision makers at CEO level, b) identifying hypotheses if trust exists between these
different types of CEOs and their CIOs and c) building hypotheses on potential
consequences regarding risk taking and innovation. Methods: To this end, 14
qualitative interviews with German hospital CEOs were conducted to explore the
research questions. Results: The study revealed three major types: IT savvy CEOs,
IT enthusiastic CEOs and IT indifferent CEOs. Depending on these types, their
relationship with the CIO varied in terms of trust and common language. In case of
IT indifferent CEOs, a potential vicious circle of lack of IT knowledge, missing trust,
low willingness to take risks and low innovation power could be identified.
Conclusion: In order to break of this circle, CEOs seem to need more IT knowledge
and / or greater trust in their CIO.
The demographic shift in the age structure has the effects that many ageing employees work in organisations. Migration can slow down the ageing of population but could not stop it. More and more people with immigration background work in organisations. Therefore, the question is, whether diversity sensitive attitudes count for all diversity aspects. The central aim of the study is to deal with the problem fields of multicultural teamwork. Thereby, the focus is on the collaboration of employees with and without immigration background. The interviews with employees with and without an immigra-tion background of various company branches were conducted. The results show that employees with an immigration background have more contact and feel comfortable with persons from different cultures than employees without an immigration back-ground. The qualitative analysis indicates that there is a high need of competence devel-opment, especially intercultural and social competences in organisations. The results of the study reveal that personality traits and characteristics of employees play a role to what extent they accept diversity and are willing to work with persons from another culture. Age is not important regarding intercultural competence development.
Talent scarcity in many parts of the world leads to the necessity to enlarge talent pools in order to provide enough future holders of key positions. Taking the scholarly discussion at the overlap of talent management and current careers literature as a starting point our qualitative empirical research provides insights in talent’s career decisions in an eastern emerging market, India, and a western developed country, Germany. 49 interviews with internationally experienced knowledge-workers were held to find out how to they come to career decisions throughout their career. Special focus was the balancing act of professional and private life sphere. An inductive-deductive approach was used to develop categories in MaxQda. Results show the impact of institutional frame, cultural context, and gender differences. Consequently, a stronger focus on talent’s different life phases with context specific deviations when configuring Talent Management in Multinational Enterprises can be advised.
Background: Muscle fatigue has been reported as a risk factor for the
development of performance-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMD) in
musicians. However, little research exists to support this claim. The aim of
this study was to investigate whether changes occur in muscle activity
patterns during high string performance over a prolonged playing period, and
whether this is influenced by PRMD.
Methods: High string musicians were divided into a PRMD and a non-PRMD
group. They played a chromatic scale pre and post and a self-chosen “hard”
(Borg scale 16-17) piece of music for one hour. Electromyography data
recorded from arm, shoulder and trunk muscles was analyzed: the amplitude
to measure muscle activity characteristics and the lower frequency to
measure muscle fatigue. Differences between and within groups and the
frequency spectrum were analyzed using linear mixed models.
Results: Fifteen musicians participated (7 PRMD: 22.8 years, 2 male/5 female
and 8 non-PRMD: 34.3 years, 2 male/6 female). Changes in muscle activation
patterns were observed between and within both groups, however changes
varied significantly depending on group affiliation. Significant low frequency
spectrum changes between groups were observed in overall muscles of the
right arm (p=0.04) and left forearm flexors (p=0.05) following one hour of
playing.
Conclusions: Muscle activity and frequency spectrum shifts differ in high
string musicians with and without PRMD, suggesting possible differential
muscle fatigue effects between the groups.
Das Informationsmanagement steht im Zentrum erfolgreicher eHealth-Innovationsprozesse von Krankenhäusern. Im Kontext komplexer, zum Teil tradierter Krankenhausstrukturen kann die Gestaltungsfähigkeit des Informationsmanagements durch eine ausgeprägte Intrapreneurship-Kultur erhöht werden, wovon vermutlich auch der Digitalisierungsgrad der Einrichtungen profitiert. Vor diesem Hintergrund verfolgte die vorliegende Studie zwei Forschungsfragen: (1.) Welche Effekte hat Intrapreneurship auf den Digitalisierungsgrad der Krankenhäuser und (2.) inwiefern werden diese Effekte durch das Informationsmanagement beeinflusst? Zur Beantwortung der Forschungsfragen wurde ein konzeptionelles Untersuchungsmodell entwickelt, welches mit Daten von 224 IT-Leitern evaluiert wurde. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen, dass Intrapreneurship die Umsetzung von eHealth-Anwendungen positiv beeinflussen kann. Die identifizierten Effekte waren jedoch vorwiegend indirekter Art, vermittelt durch den Professionalisierungsgrad des Informationsmanagements. So kann Intrapreneurship auf IT-Leiter-Ebene und auf Ebene der Gesamtorganisation zu einer Professionalisierung des strategischen Informationsmanagements führen. Auf Ebene der IT-Abteilung profitiert vor allem das operative Informationsmanagement von einer ausgeprägten Intrapreneurship-Kultur.
As health IT supports processes along the entire patient trajectory and involves different types of professional groups, eHealth is inter-professional by nature. The aim of this study, therefore, is to investigate which competencies are at the intersection of the individual groups of health professionals. 718 international experts provided relevance ratings of eHealth competencies for different professional roles in an online survey. Communication and leadership proved to be important competencies across all professions, not only for executives. None or very little differences between professions were found between physicians and nurses, between IT experts at different levels and between IT experts and executives. However, there were a number of competencies rated differently when contrasting direct patient care specialists with executives. These findings should encourage organisations issuing educational recommendations to specify areas of shared competencies more extensively.
Neurotension – Gestern und Heute. Wie ist der momentane Kenntnisstand, und wie setze ich ihn um?
(2018)
Teachers in health informatics have a broad variety of international and national educational recommendations to rely on when designing programmes, curricula, courses and educational material. However, in addition they often need very specific information for their setting, blue-prints, hands-on experience and encouragement to try something new. This workshop presents three case studies from European universities who have implemented inter-professional, technology enabled health informatics courses in undergraduate, postgraduate and open university settings. These approaches will be put into the context of the TIGER recommendation framework that includes priority ratings of health informatics competencies and case studies to illustrate them. The workshop attendees will have ample opportunity to exchange ideas with the presenters and start a mutual learning process for health informatics teachers.
This study investigates how microenterprises in Ethical Fashion (EF) retail adopt and make use of social media. Drawing on an explorative case study, supplemented by an action research approach, we first examine the antecedents of a successful Adoption based on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework. Subsequently, we shed light on the benefits and drawbacks of social media adoption for the three microenterprises of our case study on the operational and the strategical level. More particularly, we present how they improve value creation through the employment of social media in their value networks and how they overcome the lack of a sophisticated IT infrastructure. Finally, we investigate the reluctance of the three microenterprises to adopt inter-organizational information systems. The findings of our study also reveal a halo effect in the adoption process that may mislead the adopting organization.
Die Verbreitung von Informationstechnologien (IT) im Gesundheitswesen sowie deren Einflussgrößen sind Betrachtungsobjekt der Adoptions- und Diffusionsforschung. Neues Wissen aus diesen Studien wird dabei häufig als summative Umfrageergebnisse disseminiert. Mit dem in diesem Beitrag vorgestellten Web-Portal werden die individuellen Umfrageergebnisse im Vergleich zu einer Referenzgruppe präsentiert. Das erfolgt in flexibler Form unter Verwendung von reliablen und validen Kennzahlen der IT-Prozessunterstützung, die in einer hierarchischen Struktur angeordnet sind. Es werden die Entwicklung des Web-Portals als Benchmarking Instrument, seine Anwendung und eine initiale Evaluation vorgestellt. Es zeigte sich, dass das Web-Portal anhand aktueller Benchmarking-Ergebnisse von 197 Krankenhäusern einsetzbar ist, seine Anwendung als nützlich und die Indikatoren als verständlich eingeschätzt werden.
CIOs' innovation capability is regarded as a precondition of successful HIT adoption in hospitals. Based on the data of 142 CIOs, this study aimed at identifying antecedents of perceived innovation capability. Eight features describing the status quo of the hospital IT management (e.g. use of IT governance frameworks), four features of the hospital structure (e.g. functional diversification) and four CIO characteristics (e.g. duration of employment) were tested as potential antecedents in an exploratory stepwise regression approach. Perceived innovation capability in its entirety and its three sub-dimensions served as criterion. The results show that CIOs' perceived innovation capability could be explained significantly (R2=0.34) and exclusively by facts that described the degree of formalism and structure of IT management in a hospital, e.g. intensive and formalised strategic communication, the existence of an IT strategy and the use of IT governance frameworks. Breaking down innovation capability into its constituents revealed that “innovative organisational culture” contributed to a large extent (R2=0.26) to the overall result sharing several predictors. In contrast, “intrapreneurial personality” (R2=0.11) and “openness towards users” (R2=0.18) could be predicted less well. These results hint at the relationship between working in a well-structured, formalised and strategy oriented environment and the overall feeling of being capable to promote IT innovation.