Technology Week 7: Safety and Use of Technology

Technology Week 7: Safety and Use of Technology

• Health technology regulation, assessment, and management are interconnected functions, essential for effective and safe medical device use
• Health Technology Regulation focuses on ensuring medical devices and drugs meet safety, quality, and efficacy standards.
• Regulatory processes apply generally but are highlighted for complex medical technologies.
• Health Technology Assessment (HTA) evaluates clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and societal impact of medical technologies.
• HTA guides decision-making in healthcare
• Health Technology Management (HTM) involves planning, procurement, maintenance, and proper use of medical devices to ensure operational efficiency and safety.
• These functions (Regulation, HTA, and HTM) complement each other.
• Regulation ensures compliance with safety and performance standards.
• HTA supports informed adoption decisions and funding.
• HTM ensures optimal implementation and ongoing use.
• Specialized regulatory processes (STD) are often reserved for complex medical technologies needing detailed oversight.
• Collaborative approach ensures safe and efficient technology use in healthcare systems.
• Decision-making in healthcare systems is often driven by management, particularly in those with hospital or regional autonomy.

Parenteral Injection

• Parenteral injection is the administration of medications directly into the body bypassing the digestive system.
• It's used when enteral administration (oral/rectal) isn't feasible or when rapid therapeutic effect is needed.
• Key Points:
  • Bioavailability
  • Sterility and safety
• Rationals for Parenteral Administration:
  • Medications not absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract
  • Medications decomposing within the gastrointestinal tract
  • Circumstances requiring prompt medication action
  • Unresponsive or unable to ingest medication patients
  • Instances of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea

Types of Parenteral Ingestion

• Intradermal Injection (ID): Medication is injected into the dermis. Has the lowest absorption rate of the parenteral methods (used for diagnostic purposes like allergy/sensitivity tests)
• Subcutaneous Injection (SC): Medication is injected into the fatty tissue beneath the skin (eg. upper arm, abdomen, or thigh) used for slower, sustained absorption (e.g., insulin, heparin)
• Intramuscular Injection (IM): Medication is injected into a muscle (e.g., deltoid, gluteus, or vastus lateralis). Faster absorption than SC, but slower than IV.
• Intravenous Injection (IV): Medication is injected directly into a vein. Used for rapid drug delivery and is suitable for large volumes of fluids or irritant drugs that could harm tissues.

Barcode Technology

• Uses machine-readable codes (lines, spaces, or patterns) to represent data (Used in healthcare to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and patient safety)
• Barcode technology converts information into digital formats
• Used in healthcare for patient identification, tracking and inventory management, error prevention, data collection, and documentation, improved workflow efficacy and patient safety, and laboratory testing.

Medical Device Tracking

• Important for surgical instruments tracking
• Disadvantages of barcode technology: high implementation cost, technical failures, human error in usage, and limited interoperability. -Covers for intravascular catheter use: Use sterilized gauze or semi permeable transparent dressings, Chlorhexidine, and sterile gauzes.
• Smart intravenous infusion pumps use computerized drug delivery technology that enhances safety by detecting and correcting dosage and programming errors.

Week 10: Use and Evaluation of Health Technologies

• Innovations drive cost-effective and patient-centered healthcare practices.
• Nurses play a pivotal role in adopting and implementing innovations by being open to changes, understanding the impact on their work areas, and developing innovative applications in practice.

Week 11: Development and Design of Health Technologies

• Genomics studies genetic material in an organism to understand disease trends to enable personalized healthcare.
• Genomics Functions:
  • Analyzing personal genomes to predict disease risks
  • Facilitating personalized diagnosis and treatment.
  • Transforming conventional medical models
  • Widely applied in cancer diagnosis and treatment for personalized therapy
• Barriers Addressed: Health Data Access, Economic Feasibility, and Regulatory Compliance

Week 13: Health Technology in Clinics and Applications

• Decision Support Systems (DSS): Essential tools that aid healthcare professionals in decision-making, especially in complex scenarios. Do not replace human decision-makers.
• DSS Key Methods:
  • Decision Trees (flow diagrams)
  • Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) (analyzes large datasets for outcome predictions)
  • Statistical Methods (using data correlations to suggest solutions)
  • Rule-Based Methods ("if-then" logic)

Week 15: Telemedicine and Tele Nursing

• Telemedicine: Uses ICT to deliver remote healthcare services (diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and health education) in areas with limited access.
• Telemedicine Specializations: Telepathology, Teledermatology, Teleradiology
• Types of Telemedicine:
  • Synchronous (real-time interaction)
  • Asynchronous (delayed interaction)
• Tele-nursing uses communication technologies to provide remote nursing care and support (via telephones, video calls, and digital platforms), and help assess patient health and offer guidance.
• Tele-nursing Applications:
  • High-risk group consultations
  • Chronic disease management
  • Teletriage
  • Telecare

Week 12: Nursing Care Technologies for Wound Care

• Wound Dressings:
  • Alginate dressings: Absorb exudates, provide pain relief, and are suitable for wounds with high exudate.
  • Polyurethane transparent films: Create a moist environment, allow direct observation, and are suitable for dry wounds.
  • Hydrogel dressings: Hydrophilic polymers with high water content, ideal for dry wounds.
• Other Wound Healing Techniques: Growth factors, prophylactic negative drainage, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Week 14: Respiratory System (Non-Invasive Ventilation)

• Negative Pressure Ventilation (NNBV): Uses subatmospheric pressure around thorax/abdomen to facilitate air entry.
• Positive Pressure Ventilation: Device delivers air into lungs by creating positive airway pressure.
• Types:
• Pressure-Targeted: Maintains effective ventilation
• Volume-Targeted: Ensures specified air volume delivery
• BiPAP : Alternates between inspiratory and expiratory pressures.
• Nursing Interventions: Recognizing symptoms, monitoring oxygen levels, using pulse oximetry, teaching techniques like pursed lip breathing.

Week 19-20: (Digital Chest Drainage Systems and Oximiter)

• Digital chest drainage systems: Offer advanced functionality for monitoring air leakages, fluid drainage, and for overall respiratory health. -Oximiter: used for recognizing symptoms like hypercapnia, hypoxemia, dyspnea, orthopnea, confusion, lethargy, headache, irritability, altered mental status, increased respiratory rate, and facial flushing or sweating.

Additional Resources

• Additional resources are available on slides