Wearable inkjet-printed antenna performance for medical applications at 868/915 MHz

The use of biosensors attached to the body for health monitoring is now readily accepted, and the merits of such systems and their potential impact on healthcare receive much attention. Wearable medical systems used in clinical applications to monitor vital signs must be comfortable to wear, yet have robust performance to ensure reliable communications links. Additionally, and vital to the success of these innovations, is that these solutions are disposable to avoid risk of patient infection and this means that they must be ultra-low cost. Antennas optimized for printing using conductive inks offer new exciting advances in making a truly disposable solution.

Does vicarious traumatisation affect oncology nurses?:A literature review

It is widely documented that nurses experience work-related stress [Quine, L., 1998. Effects of stress in an NHS trust: a study. Nursing Standard 13 (3), 36-41; Charnley, E., 1999. Occupational stress in the newly qualified staff nurse. Nursing Standard 13 (29), 32-37; McGrath, A., Reid, N., Boore, J., 2003. Occupational stress in nursing. International Journal of Nursing Studies 40, 555-565; McVicar, A., 2003. Workplace stress in nursing: a literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing 44 (6), 633-642; Bruneau, B., Ellison, G., 2004. Palliative care stress in a UK community hospital: evaluation of a stress-reduction programme. International Journal of Palliative Nursing 10 (6), 296-304; Jenkins, R., Elliott, P., 2004. Stressors, burnout and social support: nurses in acute mental health settings. Journal of Advanced Nursing 48 (6), 622-631], with cancer nursing being identified as a particularly stressful occupation [Hinds, P.S., Sanders, C.B., Srivastava, D.K., Hickey, S., Jayawardene, D., Milligan, M., Olsen, M.S., Puckett, P., Quargnenti, A., Randall, E.A., Tyc, V., 1998. Testing the stress-response sequence model in paediatric oncology nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing 28 (5), 1146-1157; Barnard, D., Street, A., Love, A.W., 2006. Relationships between stressors, work supports and burnout among cancer nurses. Cancer Nursing 29 (4), 338-345]. Terminologies used to capture this stress are burnout [Pines, A.M., and Aronson, E., 1988. Career Burnout: Causes and Cures. Free Press, New York], compassion stress [Figley, C.R., 1995. Compassion Fatigue. Brunner/Mazel, New York], emotional contagion [Miller, K.I., Stiff, J.B., Ellis, B.H., 1988. Communication and empathy as precursors to burnout among human service workers. Communication Monographs 55 (9), 336-341] or simply the cost of caring (Figley, 1995). However, in the mental health field such as psychology and counselling, there is terminology used to captivate this impact, vicarious traumatisation. Vicarious traumatisation is a process through which the therapist's inner experience is negatively transformed through empathic engagement with client's traumatic material [Pearlman, L.A., Saakvitne, K.W., 1995a. Treating therapists with vicarious traumatization and secondary traumatic stress disorders. In: Figley, C.R. (Ed.), Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized. Brunner/Mazel, New York, pp. 150-177]. Trauma not only affects individuals who are primarily present, but also those with whom they discuss their experience. If an individual has been traumatised as a result of a cancer diagnosis and shares this impact with oncology nurses, there could be a risk of vicarious traumatisation in this population. However, although Thompson [2003. Vicarious traumatisation: do we adequately support traumatised staff? The Journal of Cognitive Rehabilitation 24-25] suggests that vicarious traumatisation is a broad term used for workers from any profession, it has not yet been empirically determined if oncology nurses experience vicarious traumatisation. This purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of vicarious traumatisation and argue that it should be explored in oncology nursing. The review will highlight that empirical research in vicarious traumatisation is largely limited to the mental health professions, with a strong recommendation for the need to empirically determine whether this concept exists in oncology nursing.

Multi-centre research in Australia:analysis of a recent National Health and Medical Research Council-funded project

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Human research ethics committees provide essential review of research projects to ensure the ethical conduct of human research. Several recent reports have highlighted a complex process for successful application for human research ethics committee approval, particularly for multi-centre studies. Limited resources are available for the execution of human clinical research in Australia and around the world.

METHODS: This report overviews the process of ethics approval for a National Health and Medical Research Council-funded multi-centre study in Australia, focussing on the time and resource implications of such applications in 2007 and 2008.

RESULTS: Applications were submitted to 16 hospital and two university human research ethics committees. The total time to gain final approval from each committee ranged between 13 and 77 days (median = 46 days); the entire process took 16 months to complete and the research officer's time was estimated to cost $A34 143.

CONCLUSIONS: Obstacles to timely human research ethics committee approval are reviewed, including recent, planned and potential initiatives that could improve the ethics approval of multi-centre research.

Report on the 2014 UKONS Annual Conference Belfast, 14–15 November 2014: focus on living with and beyond cancer, patient information and support, and innovations in treatment and care

The UK Oncology Nursing Society’s (UKONS) annual conference focused on three major themes. These were ‘Living With and Beyond Cancer’, ‘Patient Information and Support’, and ‘Innovations in Treatment and Care’. It featured a wide range of presentations, industry satellites, exhibitions, poster discussions. and workshops. Presenters ranged from those eminent in their particular field to those gracing the speaker’s podium for the first time. The rich variety of presentations covered policy, cancer trends, clinical developments, care initiatives, personal development, and advances in practice. There was a strong emphasis on skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes, with the most junior and novice nurses mixing with experienced and highly esteemed practitioners.

The Application of Computational Chemistry and Chemometrics to Developing a Method for Online Monitoring of Polymer Degradation in the Manufacture of Bioresorbable Medical Implants

Bioresorbable polymers such as PLA have an important role to play in the development of temporary implantable medical devices with significant benefits over traditional therapies. However, development of new devices is hindered by high manufacturing costs associated with difficulties in processing the material. A major problem is the lack of insight on material degradation during processing. In this work, a method of quantifying degradation of PLA using IR spectroscopy coupled with computational chemistry and chemometric modeling is examined. It is shown that the method can predict the quantity of degradation products in solid-state samples with reasonably good accuracy, indicating the potential to adapt the method to developing an on-line sensor for monitoring PLA degradation in real-time during processing.

Punctal plug: a medical device to treat dry eye syndrome and for sustained drug delivery to the eye

Punctal plugs (PPs) are miniature medical implants that were initially developed for the treatment of dry eyes. Since their introduction in 1975, many PPs made from different materials and designs have been developed. PPs, albeit generally successful, suffer from drawbacks such as epiphora and suppurative canaliculitis. To overcome these issues intelligent designs of PPs were proposed (e.g. SmartPLUG™ and Form Fit™). PPs are also gaining interest among pharmaceutical scientists for sustaining drug delivery to the eye. This review aims to provide an overview of PPs for dry eye treatment and drug delivery to treat a range of ocular diseases. It also discusses current challenges in using PPs for ocular diseases.