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Biomedical subjects

M Cartier

Publications and source records attributed to M Cartier.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The challenge of PACS in a small hospital.

Memorial Hospital is located in-North Conway, New Hampshire. Year round, the 35-bed hospital serves mainly tourists and retirees to the area. The imaging department wanted to integrate its services within an existing community network, meet the needs of a transient population and resolve staff utilization and storage problems. Conversion from film to digital in the radiology department took advantage of digital x-ray and PACS. Since the hospital was already using digital technology for CT, MR, ultrasound and fluoroscopy, it made sense to include plain film imaging in the digitization process Memorial Hospital faced a number of challenges. Those in decision-making positions lacked a general knowledge about PACS, and, in particular, about PACS in similarly sized facilities. The hospital also lacked experience working with vendors. A timeline was critical as Memorial Hospital prepared for winter, its busiest season. The facility decided on a phased-in project with no immediate HIS/RIS interface, and computerized radiography with hard-copy films was implemented immediately. The facility has made the transition from a conventional imaging department to a PACS environment. It attributes its success to the way it involved those who would be affected by any future changes in the planning and decision-making processes. Memorial Hospital expects to expand its services and streamline its archival capabilities in the near future.

Efficiency, Organizational↗

[French validation of a Minor Morphologic Anomalies Scale in schizophrenic patients and their parents].

UNLABELLED: Minor Physical Anomalies represent valuable indices of disturbance in early neurodevelopment. They are frequently observed in individuals with various brain disorders, including mental retardation, autism, epilepsy, hyperactivity, foetal alcohol syndrome and schizophrenia. The high prevalence of Minor Physical Anomalies in schizophrenia provides considerable support for a neurodevelopmental model in this disorder. However, studies in large sample using standardised scale are lacking. Such studies are needed in order to confirm their actual frequency and study the clinical correlates or morphological anomalies. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to revise and validate a French version of a scale designed for the evaluation of Minor Physical Anomalies in adult psychiatric patients and notably in patients with schizophrenia. METHODOLOGY: The scale was revised from the Waldrop scale. The choice of items was done on the basis of frequency, reliability in the adult, reliability of rating. Some new items, related to know syndroms with comportmental symptoms were added. Both raters had previously had a short initiation to the rating of the scale. Interrater reliability between two examiners, blind with regards to the diagnosis was evaluated. RESULTS: The interrater reliability was good, with an intraclass correlation coefficient at 0.97. Patients had significantly more minor physical anomalies than comparison subjects, and also more Minor Physical Anomalies than their parents. Fathers and mothers of these schizophrenic patients had significantly more Minor Physical Anomalies than normal comparison subjects. CONCLUSION: Although the evaluation of physical anomalies relies on subjective appreciation of normal vs abnormal, the revised version of minor physical anomalies scale (French version) was found to be a reliable tool, provided that a short initiation to the rating is performed. The scale differentiated schizophrenic patients from their parents, and the latter from the normal controls. A lot of questions remains unanswered concerning the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia. This scale appeared as a useful complementary tool to help in the determination of the developmental phenotypic status of the patients enrolled in pathophysiological studies aiming the identification of developmental factors in schizophrenia.

Adult↗