Biomedical subjects

Shuenn-Tsong Young

Publications and source records attributed to Shuenn-Tsong Young.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

A remote data access architecture for home-monitoring health-care applications.

With the aging of the population and the increasing patient preference for receiving care in their own homes, remote home care is one of the fastest growing areas of health care in Taiwan and many other countries. Many remote home-monitoring applications have been developed and implemented to enable both formal and informal caregivers to have remote access to patient data so that they can respond instantly to any abnormalities of in-home patients. The aim of this technology is to give both patients and relatives better control of the health care, reduce the burden on informal caregivers and reduce visits to hospitals and thus result in a better quality of life for both the patient and his/her family. To facilitate their widespread adoption, remote home-monitoring systems take advantage of the low-cost features and popularity of the Internet and PCs, but are inherently exposed to several security risks, such as virus and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. These security threats exist as long as the in-home PC is directly accessible by remote-monitoring users over the Internet. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to improve the security of such systems, with the proposed architecture aimed at increasing the system availability and confidentiality of patient information. A broker server is introduced between the remote-monitoring devices and the in-home PCs. This topology removes direct access to the in-home PC, and a firewall can be configured to deny all inbound connections while the remote home-monitoring application is operating. This architecture helps to transfer the security risks from the in-home PC to the managed broker server, on which more advanced security measures can be implemented. The pros and cons of this novel architecture design are also discussed and summarized.

Ambulatory Care↗

PubMed2006

Developing a medical image content repository for e-learning.

The integration of medical informatics and e-learning systems could provide many advanced applications including training, knowledge management, telemedicine, etc. Currently, both the domains of e-learning and medical image have sophisticated specifications and standards. It is a great challenge to bring about integration. In this paper, we describe the development of a Web interface for searching and viewing medical images that are stored in standard medical image servers. With the creation of a Web solution, we have reduced the overheads of integration. We have packaged Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) network services as a component that can be used via a Web server. The Web server constitutes a content repository for searching, editing, and storing Web-based medical image content. This is a simple method by which the use of Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) can be extended. We show that the content repository can easily interact and integrate with a learning system. With the integration, the user can easily generate and assign medical image content for e-learning. A Web solution might be the simplest way for system integration. The demonstration in this paper should be useful as a method of expanding the usage of medical information. The construction of a Web-based repository and integrated with a learning system may be also applicable to other domains.

Computer Security↗

PubMed2006

Hardness evaluation of penile prostheses.

AIM: This work investigates the hardness and buckling force of penile prostheses to further understand the rigidity of penile prostheses before and after implantation. METHODS: Evaluated herein are four prosthetic samples (three inflatable, one semi-rigid), five real prostheses (one inflatable, four semi-rigid), and one prosthesis after implantation. The hardness is measured with a Shore Durimeter by pressing the tester's indentor to the surface of the specimen. A volunteer with inflatable prosthesis implantation is evaluated with respect to penile hardness versus various numbers of pumping. The buckling force of the prosthesis is also determined by a push-pull gauge and a specially designed sampling table. RESULTS: Results in this study demonstrate that although the inflatable prosthesis could only be pumped to a certain amount of hardness, hardness and buckling force correlate well with each other. After reaching the hardness limit, prostheses can even be pumped a further few times. However, continuous pumping only puts more tension on the prosthetic material without increasing hardness and could induce mechanical failure of the prosthesis. Results also indicate that the buckling force decreases with increasing length of the semirigid prostheses, and increases when the prosthesis has a larger diameter. CONCLUSION: This mechanical measurement of rigidity in penile prostheses could provide more information to clinicians about the penile prosthesis before surgical implantation, and to patients about prosthesis usage after implantation.

Hardness Tests↗

PubMed2005

Age-related changes in aortic valve with emphasis on the relation between pressure loading and thickened leaflets of the aortic valves.

BACKGROUND: The information of the prevalence of TAV and its relation to aortic stenosis in a large-scale human population is limited. METHODS: An echocardiographic study was performed prospectively in 2850 subjects to determine the relationship between age and the thickened aortic valves (TAV). Another simulated study was designed to test the hypothesis that the noncoronary leaflet may have a greater diastolic loading than the right or left coronary leaflet. RESULTS: The prevalence of TAV in this population was 14.4% (410/2850). It was 0% in the <39 years old; however, the prevalence of TAV increased progressively with age: it was 10.0% in the middle age group, 17.0% in the elderly group, and 53.7% in the octogenarian group (Chi-square test for linear trend, chi2=67.10, p<0.001). A greater frequency of TAV was noted at noncoronary leaflet (57.0%) than at either right (22.3%) or left (20.6%) coronary leaflet (chi2=5.99, df=2, p<0.001). The prevalence of aortic stenosis (AS) tended to increase with age (Chi-square test for linear trend, chi2=37.85, p<0.001). The simulated study demonstrated that the sinus of Valsalva without a coronary leaflet had a higher pressure loading than that with a coronary leaflet. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that the prevalences of TAV and AS increase progressively with age. A greater frequency of TAV is found at the noncoronary leaflet than at either the right or left coronary leaflet. The simulated study supports our hypothesis that the noncoronary leaflet may bear a greater pressure loading than either the left or right coronary leaflet.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Combination of derived non-linear and linear methods to increase the reproducibility of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions.

This paper proposes a segmented average method that combines the derived non-linear response (DNLR) and linear-averaging methods to increase the reproducibility of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs). In this method, the DNLR method is used at the 2.5-P-ms segment of each TEOAE signal, and the linear-averaging method is used from P to 20 ms. This exploits the reduced-artefact advantage of the DNLR method and the high-reproducibility advantage of the linear-averaging method. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, 26 normal ears were tested, with P selected as 8 ms. Each TEOAE signal obtained was decomposed into three scales using the discrete wavelet transform. Then the similarities and differences between the signals obtained with this method and with the DNLR method were assessed. The results show that the average reproducibility of the TEOAE signals increases from 78.1%, to 88.7% when applying the proposed method.

Humans↗