Technological literacy (TL) is a central theme in healthcare and laboratory professional education. The rapid speed of technological development in the healthcare sector, clinical and laboratory practice calls for new knowledge, skills and attitudes in future professionals and therefore for new approaches in teaching. Here we describe a teaching approach based on computational thinking (CT) and aimed at increasing the TL of biomedical laboratory science (BLS) students. We discuss the background for why we use CT as framework, the intended learning outcomes and how these link to the needs in the students’ future practice. Furthermore, in an international network of teachers and researchers in the BLS, Chemical and Biotechnical Science and radiography education programs, we carried out a systematic observation study of parts of the teaching and use the reflection notes from the observer group to discuss how the intended TL competencies play out in the teaching sessions and the students´ activities in these. We discuss how the teaching approaches support, or not, the development of the students´ TL. This study is part of an Erasmus+ network aimed at developing novel teaching approaches to support students´ technological literacy.
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Background: In general people after stroke do not meet the recommendations for physical activity to conduct a healthy lifestyle. Programs to stimulate walking activity to increase physical activity are based on the available insights into barriers and facilitators to physical activity after stroke. However, these programs are not entirely successful. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively explore perceived barriers and facilitators to outdoor walking using a model of integrated biomedical and behavioral theory, the Physical Activity for people with a Disability model (PAD). Methods: Included were community dwelling respondents after stroke, classified ≥ 3 at the Functional Ambulation Categories (FAC), purposively sampled regarding the use of healthcare. The data was collected triangulating in a multi-methods approach, i.e. semi-structured, structured and focus-group interviews. A primarily deductive thematic content analysis using the PAD-model in a framework-analysis’ approach was conducted after verbatim transcription. Results: 36 respondents (FAC 3–5) participated in 16 semi-structured interviews, eight structured interviews and two focus-group interviews. The data from the interviews covered all domains of the PAD model. Intention, ability and opportunity determined outdoor walking activity. Personal factors determined the intention to walk outdoors, e.g. negative social influence, resulting from restrictive caregivers in the social environment, low self-efficacy influenced by physical environment, and also negative attitude towards physical activity. Walking ability was influenced by loss of balance and reduced walking distance and by impairments of motor control, cognition and aerobic capacity as well as fatigue. Opportunities arising from household responsibilities and lively social constructs facilitated outdoor walking. Conclusion: To stimulate outdoor walking activity, it seems important to influence the intention by addressing social influence, self-efficacy and attitude towards physical activity in the development of efficient interventions. At the same time, improvement of walking ability and creation of opportunity should be considered
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Through a qualitative examination, the moral evaluations of Dutch care professionals regarding healthcare robots for eldercare in terms of biomedical ethical principles and non-utility are researched. Results showed that care professionals primarily focused on maleficence (potential harm done by the robot), deriving from diminishing human contact. Worries about potential maleficence were more pronounced from intermediate compared to higher educated professionals. However, both groups deemed companion robots more beneficiary than devices that monitor and assist, which were deemed potentially harmful physically and psychologically. The perceived utility was not related to the professionals' moral stances, countering prevailing views. Increasing patient's autonomy by applying robot care was not part of the discussion and justice as a moral evaluation was rarely mentioned. Awareness of the care professionals' point of view is important for policymakers, educational institutes, and for developers of healthcare robots to tailor designs to the wants of older adults along with the needs of the much-undervalued eldercare professionals.
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Background: Healthcare practitioner beliefs influence patients’ beliefs and health outcomes in musculoskeletal (MSK) pain. A validated questionnaire based on modern pain neuroscience assessing Knowledge and Attitudes ofPain (KNAP) was unavailable.Objectives: The aim of this study was to develop and test measurement properties of KNAP.Design: Phase 1; Development of KNAP reflecting modern pain neuroscience and expert opinion. Phase 2; a crosssectional and longitudinal study among Dutch physiotherapy students.Method: In the cross-sectional study (n = 424), internal consistency, structural validity, hypotheses testing, and Rasch analysis were examined. Longitudinal designs were applied to analyse test-retest reliability (n = 156), responsiveness, and interpretability (n = 76).Results: A 30-item KNAP was developed in 4 stages. Test-retest reliability: ICC (2,1) 0.80. Internal consistency: Cronbach’s α 0.80. Smallest Detectable Difference 90%: 4.99 (4.31; 5.75). Structural validity: exploratory factor analysis showed 2 factors. Hypotheses testing: associations with the Pain Attitudes and Beliefs Scale for Physiotherapists biopsychosocial subscale r = 0.60, with biomedical subscale r = 0.58, with the Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire r = 0.52. Responsiveness: 93% improved on KNAP after studying pain education. MinimalImportant Change: 4.84 (95%CI: 2.77; 6.91).Conclusions: The KNAP has adequate measurement properties. This new questionnaire could be useful to evaluate physiotherapy students’ knowledge and attitudes of modern pain neuroscience that could help to create awareness and evaluate physiotherapy education programs, and ultimately provide better pain management.
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BACKGROUND: The design and manufacturing of effective foot orthoses is a complex multidisciplinary problem involving biomedical and gait pattern aspects, technical material and geometric design elements as well as psychological and social contexts. This complexity contributes to the current trial-and-error and experience-based orthopedic footwear practice in which a major part of the expertise is implicit. This hampers knowledge transfer, reproducibility and innovation. OBJECTIVE/METHODS: A systematic review of literature has been performed to find evidence of explicit knowledge, quantitative guidelines and design motivations of pedorthists. RESULTS: 17 studies have been included. No consensus is found on which measurable parameters ensure proper foot and ankle functioning. Parameters suggested are: neutral foot positioning and control of rearfoot motion, maximum arch, but also tibial internal/external rotation as well as a three point force system. Also studies evaluating foot orthoses centering on the diagnosis or orthosis type find no clear guidelines for treatment or for measuring the effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: A gap in the translation from diagnosis to a specific, customized and quantified effective orthosis design is identified. Suggested solutions are both top-down, fitting of patient data in simulations, as well as bottom-up, quantifying current practices of pedorthists in order to develop new practical guidelines and evidence-based procedures.
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Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) are conceptual frameworks that tie an initial perturbation (molecular initiat- ing event) to a phenotypic toxicological manifestation (adverse outcome), through a series of steps (key events). They provide therefore a standardized way to map and organize toxicological mechanistic information. As such, AOPs inform on key events underlying toxicity, thus supporting the development of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), which aim to reduce the use of animal testing for toxicology purposes. However, the establishment of a novel AOP relies on the gathering of multiple streams of evidence and infor- mation, from available literature to knowledge databases. Often, this information is in the form of free text, also called unstructured text, which is not immediately digestible by a computer. This information is thus both tedious and increasingly time-consuming to process manually with the growing volume of data available. The advance- ment of machine learning provides alternative solutions to this challenge. To extract and organize information from relevant sources, it seems valuable to employ deep learning Natural Language Processing techniques. We review here some of the recent progress in the NLP field, and show how these techniques have already demonstrated value in the biomedical and toxicology areas. We also propose an approach to efficiently and reliably extract and combine relevant toxicological information from text. This data can be used to map underlying mechanisms that lead to toxicological effects and start building quantitative models, in particular AOPs, ultimately allowing animal-free human-based hazard and risk assessment.
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Boven titel staat vermeld: De symbiose van biologie en technologie. Zowel vanuit het Applied Science onderwijs als vanuit het werkveld kwam er meer vraag om biologische expertise toe te voegen aan het bestaande lectoraat Thin Films & Functional Materials.
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Objective To develop and internally validate a prognostic model to predict chronic pain after a new episode of acute or subacute non-specific idiopathic, non-traumatic neck pain in patients presenting to physiotherapy primary care, emphasising modifiable biomedical, psychological and social factors. Design A prospective cohort study with a 6-month follow-up between January 2020 and March 2023. Setting 30 physiotherapy primary care practices. Participants Patients with a new presentation of non-specific idiopathic, non-traumatic neck pain, with a duration lasting no longer than 12 weeks from onset. Baseline measures Candidate prognostic variables collected from participants included age and sex, neck pain symptoms, work-related factors, general factors, psychological and behavioural factors and the remaining factors: therapeutic relation and healthcare provider attitude. Outcome measures Pain intensity at 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months on a Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) after inclusion. An NPRS score of ≥3 at each time point was used to define chronic neck pain. Results 62 (10%) of the 603 participants developed chronic neck pain. The prognostic factors in the final model were sex, pain intensity, reported pain in different body regions, headache since and before the neck pain, posture during work, employment status, illness beliefs about pain identity and recovery, treatment beliefs, distress and self-efficacy. The model demonstrated an optimism-corrected area under the curve of 0.83 and a corrected R2 of 0.24. Calibration was deemed acceptable to good, as indicated by the calibration curve. The Hosmer–Lemeshow test yielded a p-value of 0.7167, indicating a good model fit. Conclusion This model has the potential to obtain a valid prognosis for developing chronic pain after a new episode of acute and subacute non-specific idiopathic, non-traumatic neck pain. It includes mostly potentially modifiable factors for physiotherapy practice. External validation of this model is recommended.
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Background: Due to the globally increasing demand for care, innovation is important to maintain quality, safety, effectiveness, patient sensitivity, and outcome orientation. Health care technologies could be a solution to innovate, maintain, or improve the quality of care and simultaneously decrease nurses’ workload. Currently, nurses are rarely involved in the design of health care technologies, mostly due to time constraints with clinical nursing responsibilities and limited exposure to technology and design disciplines. To ensure that health care technologies fit into nurses’ core and routine practice, nurses should be actively involved in the design process. Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the main requirements for nurses’ active participation in the design of health care technologies. Design: An exploratory descriptive qualitative design was used which helps to both understand and describe a phenomenon. Participants: Twelve nurses from three academic hospitals in the Netherlands participated in this study. Method: Data were collected from semistructured interviews with hospital nurses experienced in design programs and thematically analysed. Results: Four themes were identified concerning the main requirements for nurses to participate in the design of health care technologies: (1) nurses’ motivations to participate, (2) the process of technology development, (3) required competence to participate (such as assertiveness, creative thinking, problem solving skills), and (4) facilitating and organizing nurses’ participation. Conclusion: Nurses experience their involvement in the design process as essential, distinctive, and meaningful but experience few possibilities to combine this work with their current workload, flows, routines, and requirements. To participate in the design of health care technologies nurses need motivation and specific competencies. Organizations should facilitate time for nurses to acquire the required competencies and to be intentionally involved in technology design and development activities.
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