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Biomedical subjects

Katsuhiko Ogasawara

Publications and source records attributed to Katsuhiko Ogasawara.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

An ontological approach to support the description of nursing practice in Japan with the ICNP.

BACKGROUND: With increasing computerization of nursing records in Japan, standardization of nursing terminology is becoming imperative. Although some efforts have been made to formalize description of nursing practice in Japan with the International Classification of Nursing Practice (ICNP), lack of effective description tools has impacted negatively on the initiatives. PURPOSE: To develop and evaluate an ontological approach that could be used to facilitate the description of nursing practice in Japan with the ICNP. METHODOLOGY: An ontology-based support system was developed using Protégé-2000, mainly by the following three steps: (1) representing a standard classification of nursing practice (the Nursing Master) in Japan; (2) representing a Japanese version of the ICNP; (3) designing an ontology-based framework. A heuristic matching algorithm was developed to automatically match the action labels in the Nursing Master with the terms of the eight axes of the ICNP Nursing Actions Classification. A preliminary evaluation was performed to examine the usefulness of the system. RESULTS: High hit rate was shown on the ICNP axes ActionType, Target, and Location. The evaluation indicated that 51.7+/-5.8% (mean+/-S.D.) of the action labels with only one action type were properly matched, and that in 80+/-4% (mean+/-S.D.) of action labels with more than one action type, at least one valid action type was matched correctly. CONCLUSION: The ontology-based approach using a frame-based knowledge representation system (e.g., Protégé-2000) is useful for supporting the formal description of nursing practice in Japan with the ICNP.

Japan↗

[Survey and analysis of radiation safety management systems at medical institutions--second report: radiation measurement, calibration of radiation survey meters, and periodic check of installations, equipment, and protection instruments].

We carried out a questionnaire survey to determine the actual situation of radiation safety management measures in all medical institutions in Japan that had nuclear medicine facilities. The questionnaire consisted of questions concerning the evaluation of shielding capacity; radiation measurement; periodic checks of installations, equipment, and protection instruments; and the calibration of radiation survey meters. The analysis was undertaken according to region, type of establishment, and number of beds. The overall response rate was 60 percent. For the evaluation of shielding capacity, the outsourcing rate was 53 percent of the total. For the radiation measurements of "leakage radiation dose and radioactive contamination" and "contamination of radioactive substances in the air," the outsourcing rates were 28 percent and 35 percent of the total, respectively (p<0.001, according to region and establishment). For the periodic check of radiation protection instruments, the implementation rate was 98 percent, and the outsourcing rate was 32 percent for radiation survey meters and 47 percent for lead aprons. The non-implemented rate for calibration of radiation survey meters was 25 percent of the total (p<0.001, according to region and establishment). The outsourcing rate for calibration of radiation survey meters accounted for 87 percent of the total, and of these medical institutions, 72 percent undertook annual calibration. The implementation rate for patient exposure measurement was 20 percent of the total (p<0.001, according to number of beds), and of these medical institutions 46 percent recorded measurement outcome.

Calibration↗

[Survey and analysis of radiation safety management systems at medical institutions--initial report: radiation protection supervisor, radiation safety organization, and education and training].

In this study, a questionnaire survey was carried out to determine the actual situation of radiation safety management systems in Japanese medical institutions with nuclear medicine facilities. The questionnaire consisted of questions concerning the Radiation Protection Supervisor license, safety management organizations, and problems related to education and training in safety management. Analysis was conducted according to region, type of establishment, and number of beds. The overall response rate was 60%, and no significant difference in response rate was found among regions. Medical institutions that performed nuclear medicine practices without a radiologist participating accounted for 10% of the total. Medical institutions where nurses gave patients intravenous injections of radiopharmaceuticals as part of the nuclear medicine practices accounted for 28% of the total. Of these medical institutions, 59% provided education and training in safety management for nurses. The rate of acquisition of Radiation Protection Supervisor licenses was approximately 70% for radiological technologists and approximately 20% for physicians (regional difference, p=0.02). The rate of medical institutions with safety management organizations was 71% of the total. Among the medical institutions (n=208) without safety management organizations, approximately 56% had 300 beds or fewer. In addition, it became clear that 35% of quasi-public organizations and 44% of private organizations did not provide education and training in safety management (p<0.001, according to establishment).

Education, Nursing↗

Extraction of specific nursing terms using corpora comparison.

The purpose of the study is to develop and evaluate a bottom-up approach to extract the specific nursing terms from textual nursing records using corpora comparison. A nursing records corpus was developed as the target corpus, and a newspaper corpus and a medical literature abstracts corpus were developed as the reference corpora. Two filters were established to extract the technical terms and the relative frequency ratio was used for corpora comparison. The issues related to the improvement of both the algorithms and the evaluation methods were discussed.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

[Development of a radioactive pharmaceuticals management system using a Web-based system].

Systems for recording data on radiopharmaceuticals have changed following the Medical Care Law on concentration limits of radioisotopes in drainage, exhaust gas, and the atmosphere. A Web-based system that includes a patient information subsystem, DICOM imaging subsystem, and laboratory order subsystem has been developed for the receipt, use, stock prescription, disposal, and accounting of radiopharmaceuticals was developed using a Web-based system in order to simplify radiation safety management operations such as changes and additions to record book forms. In verifying the usefulness of the system and its recording and search times, it was found that the new Web-based system provides superior performance.

Database Management Systems↗

[Survey and analysis of radiation safety education at radiological technology schools].

We carried out a questionnaire survey of all radiological technology schools, to investigate the status of radiation safety education. The questionnaire consisted of questions concerning full-time teachers, measures being taken for the Radiation Protection Supervisor Qualifying Examination, equipment available for radiation safety education, radiation safety education for other departments, curriculum of radiation safety education, and related problems. The returned questionnaires were analyzed according to different groups categorized by form of education and type of establishment. The overall response rate was 55%, and there were statistically significant differences in the response rates among the different forms of education. No statistically significant differences were found in the items relating to full-time teachers, measures for Radiation Protection Supervisor Qualifying Examination, and radiation safety education for other departments, either for the form of education or type of establishment. Queries on the equipment used for radiation safety education revealed a statistically significant difference in unsealed radioisotope institutes among the forms of education. In terms of curriculum, the percentage of radiological technology schools which dealt with neither the shielding calculation method for radiation facilities nor with the control of medical waste was found to be approximately 10%. Other educational problems that were indicated included shortages of full-time teachers and equipment for radiation safety education. In the future, in order to improve radiation safety education at radiological technology schools, we consider it necessary to develop unsealed radioisotope institutes, to appoint more full-time teachers, and to educate students about risk communication.

Data Collection↗

[A review of health economic assessment for liver transplantation--toward social acceptance of liver transplantation in Japan].

This paper reviews the literature on health economics assessment (HEA) for liver transplantation (LT) in Europe and USA, and considers prospects in Japan where HEA is currently rarely performed. LT is one of the most expensive health technologies but the health outcome is generally good. It provides the only well-established treatment for end-stage liver disease (ESLD) in the Western world, while in Japan it has yet to be fully implemented because public acceptance is still very low. MEDLINE and Japana Centra Revuo Medicina WEB version Ver. 2 (JCRM2) were systematically used for the literature search. As a result, 6 original papers in Europe and USA that employed accurate methods for HEA were identified through MEDLINE, indicating that LT is cost-effective on long term follow-up. In Japan, however, only one study could be good which tried to estimate it's cost-effectiveness, and the methodology was different from that used in Europe and USA. Through accurate HEA for LT in Japan, we hope that this procedure may become a well-accepted health technology in the future.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

Context-based ontology building support in clinical domains using formal concept analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Ontology in clinical domains is becoming a core research field in the realm of medical informatics. The objective of this study is to explore the potential role of formal concept analysis (FCA) in a context-based ontology building support in a clinical domain (e.g. cardiovascular medicine here). METHODOLOGY: We developed an ontology building support system that integrated an FCA module with a natural language processing (NLP) module. The user interface of the system was developed as a Protégé-2000 JAVA tab plug-in. A collection of 368 textual discharge summaries and a standard dictionary of Japanese diagnostic terms (MEDIS ver2.0) were used as the main knowledge sources. A preliminary evaluation was taken to show the usefulness of the system. RESULTS: Stability was shown on the MEDIS-based medical concept extraction with high precision. 73+/-14% (mean+/-S.D.) of the compound medical phrases extracted were sufficiently meaningful to form a medical concept from a clinical perspective. Also, 57.7% of attribute implication pairs (i.e. medical concept pairs) extracted were identified as positive from a clinical perspective. CONCLUSION: Under the framework of our ontology building support system using FCA, the clinical experts could reach a mass of both linguistic information and context-based knowledge that was demonstrated as useful to support their ontology building tasks.

Decision Support Systems, Clinical↗

Preliminary clinical evaluation of a video transmission system for home visits.

A portable video transmission system based on a hand-held computer and cellular telephone was developed for use with patients undergoing rehabilitation at home. It was designed to be simple to operate, for use by nurses on home care visits. The whole system can be held in one hand, and video pictures can be recorded and transmitted with the touch of a few buttons. The quality of the transmitted pictures and the feasibility of the system were clinically evaluated by physical therapists and nurses. Three image transmission scenes were used to evaluate the system: turning over in bed; walking; and raising and lowering a shoulder. Nurses reported that the system was easy to carry and simple to use. Physiotherapists found the system to be useful in making a judgement about the patient's condition. The patients were all enthusiastic about the system. The increased interaction had the effect of improving the patients' desire to continue their in-home rehabilitation.

House Calls↗

[Gastric phantom for training beginners in gastric segment (Stomap) recognition].

It is usually difficult for a beginner to understand precisely and quickly the three-dimensional (3D) construction of gastric lesions in a gastric X-ray examination with barium meal. In this study, a training-use stomach phantom was developed using the stomach segment to provide beginners with an understanding of 3D stomach construction. The hook-shaped phantom (the shape of the stomach when a patient is in the supine position) was formed by using styrene, wire, and clay. It was then coated with dental stiffening agent, and wires were attached along the stomach segment. After drying, the stomach phantom was cut off and the oil clay was removed. The phantom then was immersed in water and the oil clay was dried. After that, the phantom again was glued together with a dental stiffening agent. The usefulness of the phantom was determined by an evaluation experiment. Ten students, as observers, were selected randomly for evaluation from 40 students of the Department of Radiological Technology, College of Medical Technology, Hokkaido University. Eight films were shown to the observers, 4 films with segment and 4 films without segment. The observers checked 5 markers in different positions of the phantom and recorded the results on an answer sheet with segment picture. The significance of position recognition was identified by Wilcoxon's sign rank sum test (p=0.021) between the segment film and non-segment film.

Humans↗

[Educational effects on radiological technology students of programs using a simulated aged person and hemiplegia patient].

A practical training program that enabled students to experience an aged person and hemiplegia patient was developed as part of the "Practice Program in Medical Imaging Technology," to help the students understand how to support patients in the X-ray examination setting. Eighty-three third-year radiological technology students participated in the program. During the hour-long course, they experienced a simulated program that contained various checkpoints. The students pointed out the difficulty patients had in going up and down stairs (51.8%) and their feelings of uneasiness and fear of blindness (36.1%). As a result of this practical training program, the students increased their understanding of how to support patients slated for X-ray examinations. However, certain problems became clear, such as students' insufficient experience and lack of practical guidance in supporting aged patients and those with hemiplegia at the time of X-ray examinations. This information will helpful for improving similar training programs to be held in the future.

Aged↗

[Questionnaire survey on teleradiology for radiological technologists: analyses by age group and facility type in Hokkaido].

A questionnaire survey was given to 1,951 radiological technologists in Hokkaido to examine their views on teleradiology. The questionnaire consisted of questions about their understanding of teleradiology and interest in it as well as examining the need for teleradiology and problems with it. A total of 1,275 radiological technologists responded to the survey, a response rate of 65.4%. The returned questionnaires were analyzed according to different groups categorized by age of the radiological technologists and type of medical facility. Almost all radiological technologists knew about teleradiology. Among the different age groups, the higher age groups showed greater recognition and understanding of teleradiology. About 60% of radiological technologists were interested in teleradiology (no significant differences among age groups). When it was assumed that a teleradiology system would be introduced, (1) the working load for radiological technologists was estimated to be about 17,820 (+/-24,233) yen per month. (2) Sixty percent of the respondents considered that the system should be used for the reading and diagnosis of difficult cases. (3) Fifty percent of them thought that the system should be managed and operated by radiological technologists. (4) Many radiological technologists pointed out problems concerning initial costs and the facility's management system.

Adult↗

A Numerical Model for Compressed Breast of Japanese Women in Mammography.

The purpose of this study is to develop a numerical model for compressed breast of Japanese women which can evaluate the radiation dose in mammography. The model should take account of the average data for thickness of the compressed breast, and area, height and width of the mammograms. The compressed breast thickness is typically 4.4 to 6.4cm for European and American women, whereas it is under 3.8cm for Japanese women. Therefore, applying the European and American models without any modification for Japanese women would result in an overestimation of the absorbed dose. The data of 560 mammograms were analyzed focusing on the size and geometry of the projected images (cranio-caudal) to formulate a compressed breast phantom. An extremely good linear coefficient of correlation (0.98) between the area and the product of the width and height of the projected images was found. A numerical model describing a part of a simple elliptic column was constructed from this relationship and the averaged thickness (3.15cm) of the compressed breast. This model will lead to a realistic estimation of the total volumetric absorbed dose in mammography.

Journal Article↗

Cost-utility of living donor liver transplantation in a single Japanese center.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Living donor liver transplantation is becoming increasingly important in the Western world, but the economic issues remain controversial. We conducted a cost-utility analysis to evaluate whether living donor liver transplantation is cost-effective. METHODOLOGY: Cost and utility analyses were performed in a longitudinal survey of a single center in Sapporo, Japan. Medical costs were derived from 11 patients who underwent living donor liver transplantation. Health utility was measured in quality-adjusted life year. Data for health utility scores were derived from 19 patients who underwent living donor liver transplantation. RESULTS: Median medical cost was U.S. dollars 154,626 from the first day of preoperative evaluation to 24 months post-transplantation. Cumulative quality-adjusted life years were 1.60 at 24 months after transplantation. Medical cost per quality-adjusted life year decreased progressively, leading to medical cost of U.S. dollars 605,131 per quality-adjusted life year at 3 months to U.S. dollars 94,169 at 24 months after transplantation. The results were sensitive to medical cost. CONCLUSIONS: Follow-up survey identified progressive increases in the cost-effectiveness of living donor liver transplantation for patients with end-stage liver disease. Living donor liver transplantation appears to represent a cost-effective medical technology.

Adolescent↗