JOURNAL OF HEALTH MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATICS
Year:2014 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:5

Introduction: Kidney disease is a major public health challenge worldwide. Epidemiologic data suggest a significant relationship between underlying diseases and decrease in Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR). Clinical studies and laboratory research have shown that the mentioned parameter is effective in development and progression of the renal disease per se. In this study, we used learning-based system based on the neural network concepts.Method: To predict GFR and propose an intelligent method with few errors (about 3%), we need to prognosticate the course and severity of the kidney disease in patients with chronic kidney disease using limited data and information. Adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) used in the present study is based on the model proposed by Jang, and all laboratory (creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, albumin) and underlying disease caused by chronic kidney disease (CKD) were reviewed.Results: It has been shown that the rate of GFR decreases in patients with diabetes and glomerulopathy was faster than other causes. Furthermore, serum albumin level less than 4.5gr/dl with diabetes was also associated with higher risk of rapid GFR loss.Conclusion: Therefore, it seems that this modeling of fuzzy variables with error less than 3.5% in some cases and create a fuzzy inference system model that presents the complex relationships between the laboratory input variables and GFR as simple linear models.

Introduction: APACHE (Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation) score is a medical tool designed to measure the severity of disease for adult patients admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU). However, it is designed based on the American patients’ data and is not well suited to be used for Iranian people. In addition, Iranian hospitals are not equipped with High Dependency Units which is required for original APACHE.Method: We aimed to design an intelligent version of APACHE system for recognition of patients’ hospitalization period in ICUs. The new system can be designed based on Iranian local data and updated locally. Intelligence means that the system has the ability to learn from its previous results and doesn’t need manual update.Results: In this study, this new system is introduced and the technical specifications are presented. It is based on neural networks. It can be trained and is capable of auto-learning. The results obtained from final implemented software show better performance than those obtained from non-local version.Conclusion: Using this method, the efficiency of the prediction has increased from 80% to 90%. Such results were compared with the APACHE outputs to show the superiority of the proposed method.

Introduction: Health care systems depend critically on the size, skill, and commitment of the health workforce. Therefore, researchers have a close observation on the subjects which leads to an increase in the productivity of human resources. This study aims at determining the relationship between the quality of work life and the productivity of knowledge workers of the central field of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, in order to determine the factors effective in the quality of their working life.Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 individuals selected by stratified random sampling method. On 761 knowledge workers of the central field of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences by using Timossi questionnaire of Quality of Work Life and Knowledge Worker Productivity Assessment questionnaire of Antikainen, during May and June 2011.The collected data were recorded by SPSS version 15 software and then it underwent statistical analysis using Pearson correlation. The P value level for statistical significance was set at 0.05.Results: In general, 50% of the knowledge workers were dissatisfied about their quality of work life, and the other 50% had little satisfaction.18% of the staff were in an unfavorable condition and 82% had a poor productivity. Also, the quality of work life had a positively significant relationship with the productivity of human resources (r=0.568; P>0.001).Conclusion: Most of the knowledge workers in the central field of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences had low productivity and quality of work life. Considering the relationship between the two variables, taking measures to improve the quality of work life can lead to more creative and profound planning in presenting services and, as a result, improving the productivity of the knowledge workers.

Introduction: Managers, as the members of decision making team in hospitals, are required to understand economic issues In order to increase their knowledge, make better decisions making, and bring about economic growth in hospitals. Thus by measuring the managers’ level of economic knowledge and understanding their weaknesses at this field, we can take an important step in line with this transcendental target.Method: This was an analytical- descriptive study conducted in 2013. In this study, the views of 30 hospital executives and financial managers about various aspects of hospital economy including payment methods, techniques of economic evaluation, hospital income, and cost and subtractions were studied using questionnaires and interviews. SPSS 18 was used to analyze the collected data. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: None of the studied managers had a good level of knowledge and most managers (80.7%) had an undesirable level of knowledge, and few of them had a moderate level of knowledge.The administrators’ average knowledge of the ways to reduce the cost and increase the income of private hospitals was more than that of hospital administrators; as to the economic evaluation techniques and methods of payment, hospital administrators had more knowledge than managers of private hospitals.Conclusion: The managers’ low level of economic knowledge can be enhanced by more selective appointment of individuals for these sensitive positions and also increased by their participation in workshops and training courses.

Introduction: Science production is one of the main dimensions of sustainable development in any country. Thus, universities as the major centers for science production play a key role in development. The present study aimed to assess the trend of science production in Iran’s type I universities of medical sciences from 2007 to 2012.Method: In this study, the universities’ scores of empowering, governance and leadership, science production, student researches, and number of published articles were computed based on the evaluations of universities of medical sciences by the Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education from 2007 to 2012. Then, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the figures were drawn by Excel software.Results: This study assessed science production in Iran’s type I universities of medical sciences and analyzed each university’s proportion in publication of articles. According to the results, most of the published articles were affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. However, considering the role of number of faculty members, different results were obtained. With respect to the evaluation raw scores, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences showed a considerable reduction of scores in 2012, while other universities had a constant or ascending trend. Besides, indexed articles followed an ascending trend in all the universities and most of the articles had been published in index 1.Conclusion: Similar to other studies, the findings of this study revealed an increase in science productions in Iran through the recent years. Yet, the highest scores of the studied indexes, except for student researches, were related to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. This great difference between this university and other universities might be due to accumulation of specific potentials and forces in this region. Overall, science productions followed an ascending trend in all type I universities of medical sciences. Yet, more attempts should be made to publish high-quality articles in reliable international journals. Thus, managers and policymakers are recommended to provide the ground for improvement and empowerment of knowledge and science production, development of leadership and governance capacity, empowerment of researchers, and provision of financial and infrastructure supports for development of fundamental, basic, clinical, and applied researches which can be presented at the international level.