Introduction: COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges to the delivery of urological care. Following rapid implementation of remote video visits at our tertiary academic medical center serving a large rural population we describe and assess our experience with planned video visits and ongoing scheduling efforts.Methods: Patients scheduled for video visits between April 14 and April 27, 2020 were included. Prospective and retrospective data were collected on patient and clinical characteristics as well as telemedicine outcomes. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to evaluate factors influencing video visit success. Concurrently scheduling data were collected from a separate cohort regarding patient access to technology and willingness to participate in video visits.Results: A total of 209 patients were included with an overall video visit success rate of 67%. Of video visits that failed (69) reasons included no-show (35%), inability to connect to the telemedicine platform (23%) and lack of Internet access (10%). Nearly half of failed video visits (46.4%) were completed as phone visits. After adjustment for patient demographics commercial insurance was significantly associated with video visit success. In assessment of scheduling outcomes 179 patients were contacted to offer video visits. Of these patients 6.7% reported not having Internet access. Of those with Internet access 87% agreed to proceed with a video visit in lieu of visiting in person.Conclusions: Our experience indicates that rapid implementation of video telemedicine is feasible and highly accepted by patients. Efforts focused on standardized pre-visit patient education may further optimize successful telemedicine visits.
Ce 3+ doped KMgF 3 crystals have been investigated as a new material for dosimetry of ionizing radiation. Previous studies have focused on their thermoluminescence (TL) properties. This paper shows that the stored energy in this compound can also be read by visible light. Its sensitivity was found to be one order of magnitude greater than Al 2 O 3 : C, which can be considered as the standard dosimetric material based on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The greater sensitivity was due to a larger wavelength difference between stimulation and emission wavelengths, which results in a better separation of useful signal from scattered light. Time response characteristics were also significantly better than Al 2 O 3 : C, which allows in principle fast pulsed and multiple readouts. Unfortunately, the high self-dose ( 1.5 Gy/h) due to the natural abundance of 40 K isotope is a major drawback for the application of this material in environmental dosimetry. Some features of the mechanism have been studied with different spectroscopic techniques. The luminescent centers have been clearly identified with Ce 3+ ions. It has been shown that the main trapping centers involved in OSL mechanism are the same as those involved in TL mechanism.Index Terms-Al 2 O 3 , KMgF 3 : Ce, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).
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