The increasing relevance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in medical care is indisputable. This evidence makes it necessary to start studies that analyse the scope these new forms of access to information and understanding of medicine have on the professional activity of the physician, on the attitude and on the knowledge of patients or, on the doctor-patient relationship. The purpose of this study is to explore some of these aspects in a group of physicians whose clinical activity is related to one of the greatest social impact health problems which is the treatment of chronic pain. Starting with the completion of a questionnaire, in the study group it is observed that the interaction between social structure, increase of information flows and ICTs generate transformations in social practices and behaviour of the actors of the health system. Internet is confirmed as an information space on the subject, but is shown as an underutilized space of interaction between the doctor and his patient.
Abstract-This study analyzes forelimb akinesia with stepping test in adult male rats with nigrostriatal cell loss and striatal dopamine depletions, similar to levels reported in the clinical setting of Parkinson Disease (PD), and determines if subjects who received a pharmacological induction with apomorphine exhibit more robust parkinsonian effects. With manual testing only one parameter (adjusting steps) is evaluated; the software presented increases the number of parameters as it estimates adjusting steps, stepping time, step length and initiation time. Manual and automated adjusting steps scores are correlated to show software validity. Adult male rats received infusions of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) in left corpus striatum. Two months after lesion they were tested for forelimb akinesia using stepping test, before and after an apomorphine induction. Video tracking analysis system developed consists in two stages: 1) where animals performance is recorded and their trajectories are acquired and processed using open source software; and 2) wherein post processing methods are conducted to measure stepping test parameters. Based on these measurements, the program has the ability to make statistical analysis and present data in different formats, including matrixes and graphs. Results show high correlations between manual and automated adjusting steps scores. What is more, this computerized system decreases inter/intra operator errors due to direct observation and handling, expands the amount of parameters assessed, early and acutely detects those parameters and increases data acquisition speed and quality.
Adequate use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in health has been shown to save the patient and caregiver time, improve access to the health system, improve diagnosis and control of disease or treatment. All this results in cost savings, and more importantly, they help improve the quality of service and the lives of patients. The purpose of this study is to analyse the differences in the uses of this ICTs between those physicians that belong to Pain Treatment Units (PU) and other physicians that work in pain not linked to these PUs. An online survey, generated by Netquest online survey tool, was sent to both groups of professionals and the data collected was statistical analysed through a logistic regression methodology which is the Logit binomial model. Our results show that those physicians that belong to PUs use ICTs more frequently and consider it more relevant to their clinical practice.
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