Equipment and Supplies
Durable Medical Equipment
Sports Equipment
Research Design
Drug Design
The molecular designing of drugs for specific purposes (such as DNA-binding, enzyme inhibition, anti-cancer efficacy, etc.) based on knowledge of molecular properties such as activity of functional groups, molecular geometry, and electronic structure, and also on information cataloged on analogous molecules. Drug design is generally computer-assisted molecular modeling and does not include pharmacokinetics, dosage analysis, or drug administration analysis.
Equipment Contamination
Protective Devices
Devices designed to provide personal protection against injury to individuals exposed to hazards in industry, sports, aviation, or daily activities.
Surgical Equipment
Nonexpendable apparatus used during surgical procedures. They are differentiated from SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS, usually hand-held and used in the immediate operative field.
Equipment Failure
Protective Clothing
Equipment Reuse
Computer-Aided Design
The use of computers for designing and/or manufacturing of anything, including drugs, surgical procedures, orthotics, and prosthetics.
Dental Equipment
Play and Playthings
Respiratory Protective Devices
Facility Design and Construction
Architecture, exterior and interior design, and construction of facilities other than hospitals, e.g., dental schools, medical schools, ambulatory care clinics, and specified units of health care facilities. The concept also includes architecture, design, and construction of specialized contained, controlled, or closed research environments including those of space labs and stations.
Mouth Protectors
Occupational Exposure
Eye Protective Devices
Equipment Failure Analysis
Reproducibility of Results
The statistical reproducibility of measurements (often in a clinical context), including the testing of instrumentation or techniques to obtain reproducible results. The concept includes reproducibility of physiological measurements, which may be used to develop rules to assess probability or prognosis, or response to a stimulus; reproducibility of occurrence of a condition; and reproducibility of experimental results.
Questionnaires
Safety
Prospective Studies
Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group.
Sterilization
Disinfection
Accident Prevention
Efforts and designs to reduce the incidence of unexpected undesirable events in various environments and situations.
Decontamination
Accidents, Occupational
Cross-Sectional Studies
Studies in which the presence or absence of disease or other health-related variables are determined in each member of the study population or in a representative sample at one particular time. This contrasts with LONGITUDINAL STUDIES which are followed over a period of time.
Head Protective Devices
Sensitivity and Specificity
Risk Factors
Treatment Outcome
Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, and practicability of these interventions in individual cases or series.
Wounds and Injuries
Needle Sharing
Usage of a single needle among two or more people for injecting drugs. Needle sharing is a high-risk behavior for contracting infectious disease.
Costs and Cost Analysis
Skating
Orthopedic Equipment
Nonexpendable items used in the performance of orthopedic surgery and related therapy. They are differentiated from ORTHOTIC DEVICES, apparatus used to prevent or correct deformities in patients.
Anesthesia Department, Hospital
Occupational Health
The promotion and maintenance of physical and mental health in the work environment.
Safety Management
The development of systems to prevent accidents, injuries, and other adverse occurrences in an institutional setting. The concept includes prevention or reduction of adverse events or incidents involving employees, patients, or facilities. Examples include plans to reduce injuries from falls or plans for fire safety to promote a safe institutional environment.
Containment of Biohazards
Provision of physical and biological barriers to the dissemination of potentially hazardous biologically active agents (bacteria, viruses, recombinant DNA, etc.). Physical containment involves the use of special equipment, facilities, and procedures to prevent the escape of the agent. Biological containment includes use of immune personnel and the selection of agents and hosts that will minimize the risk should the agent escape the containment facility.
Quality Control
Software Design
Specifications and instructions applied to the software.
Air Pollutants, Occupational
Human Engineering
Data Collection
Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.
Technology, High-Cost
Infection Control
Algorithms
Retrospective Studies
Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.
Gloves, Protective
Coverings for the hands, usually with separations for the fingers, made of various materials, for protection against infections, toxic substances, extremes of hot and cold, radiations, water immersion, etc. The gloves may be worn by patients, care givers, housewives, laboratory and industrial workers, police, etc.
Competitive Bidding
Technology, Radiologic
The application of scientific knowledge or technology to the field of radiology. The applications center mostly around x-ray or radioisotopes for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes but the technological applications of any radiation or radiologic procedure is within the scope of radiologic technology.
Cohort Studies
Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics.
Electronics, Medical
The research and development of ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES for such medical applications as diagnosis, therapy, research, anesthesia control, cardiac control, and surgery. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)
Capital Financing
Pilot Projects
Epidemiologic Research Design
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Activities and programs intended to assure or improve the quality of care in either a defined medical setting or a program. The concept includes the assessment or evaluation of the quality of care; identification of problems or shortcomings in the delivery of care; designing activities to overcome these deficiencies; and follow-up monitoring to ensure effectiveness of corrective steps.
Endoscopes
Instruments for the visual examination of interior structures of the body. There are rigid endoscopes and flexible fiberoptic endoscopes for various types of viewing in ENDOSCOPY.
Follow-Up Studies
Environmental Monitoring
The monitoring of the level of toxins, chemical pollutants, microbial contaminants, or other harmful substances in the environment (soil, air, and water), workplace, or in the bodies of people and animals present in that environment.
First Aid
Software
Computer Simulation
Cross-Over Studies
Studies comparing two or more treatments or interventions in which the subjects or patients, upon completion of the course of one treatment, are switched to another. In the case of two treatments, A and B, half the subjects are randomly allocated to receive these in the order A, B and half to receive them in the order B, A. A criticism of this design is that effects of the first treatment may carry over into the period when the second is given. (Last, A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)
Motor Vehicles
Medical Laboratory Science
Case-Control Studies
Studies which start with the identification of persons with a disease of interest and a control (comparison, referent) group without the disease. The relationship of an attribute to the disease is examined by comparing diseased and non-diseased persons with regard to the frequency or levels of the attribute in each group.
Pregnancy
Cost-Benefit Analysis
A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. Cost effectiveness compares alternative ways to achieve a specific set of results.
Self-Help Devices
Industry
Disinfectants
Substances used on inanimate objects that destroy harmful microorganisms or inhibit their activity. Disinfectants are classed as complete, destroying SPORES as well as vegetative forms of microorganisms, or incomplete, destroying only vegetative forms of the organisms. They are distinguished from ANTISEPTICS, which are local anti-infective agents used on humans and other animals. (From Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, 11th ed)
Risk Assessment
Football
A competitive team sport played on a rectangular field. This is the American or Canadian version of the game and also includes the form known as rugby. It does not include non-North American football (= SOCCER).
Medical Waste Disposal
Management, removal, and elimination of biologic, infectious, pathologic, and dental waste. The concept includes blood, mucus, tissue removed at surgery or autopsy, soiled surgical dressings, and other materials requiring special control and handling. Disposal may take place where the waste is generated or elsewhere.
Evaluation Studies as Topic
Aircraft
Hazardous Substances
Health Care Surveys
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Analysis of Variance
Computer Systems
Systems composed of a computer or computers, peripheral equipment, such as disks, printers, and terminals, and telecommunications capabilities.
Microcomputers
Small computers using LSI (large-scale integration) microprocessor chips as the CPU (central processing unit) and semiconductor memories for compact, inexpensive storage of program instructions and data. They are smaller and less expensive than minicomputers and are usually built into a dedicated system where they are optimized for a particular application. "Microprocessor" may refer to just the CPU or the entire microcomputer.
Nuclear Medicine
Mass Casualty Incidents
Clinical Protocols
Electric Power Supplies
Airway Management
Evaluation, planning, and use of a range of procedures and airway devices for the maintenance or restoration of a patient's ventilation.
Prevalence
The total number of cases of a given disease in a specified population at a designated time. It is differentiated from INCIDENCE, which refers to the number of new cases in the population at a given time.
Attitude of Health Personnel
Respiratory Therapy Department, Hospital
Hospital department which is responsible for the administration of diagnostic pulmonary function tests and of procedures to restore optimum pulmonary ventilation.
Automation
Feasibility Studies
Program Evaluation
Incubators, Infant
Electrically powered devices that are intended to assist in the maintenance of the thermal balance of infants, principally by controlling the air temperature and humidity in an enclosure. (from UMDNS, 1999)
User-Computer Interface
Ventilators, Mechanical
Mechanical devices used to produce or assist pulmonary ventilation.
Risk Management
The process of minimizing risk to an organization by developing systems to identify and analyze potential hazards to prevent accidents, injuries, and other adverse occurrences, and by attempting to handle events and incidents which do occur in such a manner that their effect and cost are minimized. Effective risk management has its greatest benefits in application to insurance in order to avert or minimize financial liability. (From Slee & Slee: Health care terms, 2d ed)
Ventilation
Technology Assessment, Biomedical
Models, Molecular
Biomedical Engineering
Application of principles and practices of engineering science to biomedical research and health care.
Surgical Instruments
Interviews as Topic
Nuclear Medicine Department, Hospital
Hospital department responsible for the administration and management of nuclear medicine services.
Capital Expenditures
Guideline Adherence
Laboratory Animal Science
Automobiles
Guidelines as Topic
A systematic statement of policy rules or principles. Guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by convening expert panels. The text may be cursive or in outline form but is generally a comprehensive guide to problems and approaches in any field of activity. For guidelines in the field of health care and clinical medicine, PRACTICE GUIDELINES AS TOPIC is available.
Transducers
Any device or element which converts an input signal into an output signal of a different form. Examples include the microphone, phonographic pickup, loudspeaker, barometer, photoelectric cell, automobile horn, doorbell, and underwater sound transducer. (McGraw Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 4th ed)
Emergency Service, Hospital
Blood-Borne Pathogens
Infectious organisms in the BLOOD, of which the predominant medical interest is their contamination of blood-soiled linens, towels, gowns, BANDAGES, other items from individuals in risk categories, NEEDLES and other sharp objects, MEDICAL WASTE and DENTAL WASTE, all of which health workers are exposed to. This concept is differentiated from the clinical conditions of BACTEREMIA; VIREMIA; and FUNGEMIA where the organism is present in the blood of a patient as the result of a natural infectious process.
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors which pertain to health-related topics such as PATHOLOGIC PROCESSES or diseases, their prevention, and treatment. This term refers to non-health workers and health workers (HEALTH PERSONNEL).
Age Factors
Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.
Health Facility Environment
Point-of-Care Systems
Emergency Medical Technicians
Radiation Equipment and Supplies
Sample Size
The number of units (persons, animals, patients, specified circumstances, etc.) in a population to be studied. The sample size should be big enough to have a high likelihood of detecting a true difference between two groups. (From Wassertheil-Smoller, Biostatistics and Epidemiology, 1990, p95)
Agriculture
Universal Precautions
Prudent standard preventive measures to be taken by professional and other health personnel in contact with persons afflicted with a communicable disease, to avoid contracting the disease by contagion or infection. Precautions are especially applicable in the diagnosis and care of AIDS patients.
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Canada
Ultrasonography
Needle-Exchange Programs
Pesticides
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Inhalation Exposure
Allied Health Personnel
Health care workers specially trained and licensed to assist and support the work of health professionals. Often used synonymously with paramedical personnel, the term generally refers to all health care workers who perform tasks which must otherwise be performed by a physician or other health professional.
Developing Countries
Radiology Information Systems
Patient Satisfaction
Electronics
The study, control, and application of the conduction of ELECTRICITY through gases or vacuum, or through semiconducting or conducting materials. (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)
Engineering
Health Personnel
Orthotic Devices
Regression Analysis
Procedures for finding the mathematical function which best describes the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. In linear regression (see LINEAR MODELS) the relationship is constrained to be a straight line and LEAST-SQUARES ANALYSIS is used to determine the best fit. In logistic regression (see LOGISTIC MODELS) the dependent variable is qualitative rather than continuously variable and LIKELIHOOD FUNCTIONS are used to find the best relationship. In multiple regression, the dependent variable is considered to depend on more than a single independent variable.
Calibration
Medical Errors
Errors or mistakes committed by health professionals which result in harm to the patient. They include errors in diagnosis (DIAGNOSTIC ERRORS), errors in the administration of drugs and other medications (MEDICATION ERRORS), errors in the performance of surgical procedures, in the use of other types of therapy, in the use of equipment, and in the interpretation of laboratory findings. Medical errors are differentiated from MALPRACTICE in that the former are regarded as honest mistakes or accidents while the latter is the result of negligence, reprehensible ignorance, or criminal intent.
Health Services Research
The integration of epidemiologic, sociological, economic, and other analytic sciences in the study of health services. Health services research is usually concerned with relationships between need, demand, supply, use, and outcome of health services. The aim of the research is evaluation, particularly in terms of structure, process, output, and outcome. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)
Models, Theoretical
Theoretical representations that simulate the behavior or activity of systems, processes, or phenomena. They include the use of mathematical equations, computers, and other electronic equipment.
Computer Communication Networks
A system containing any combination of computers, computer terminals, printers, audio or visual display devices, or telephones interconnected by telecommunications equipment or cables: used to transmit or receive information. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)
Emergency Medical Services
Double-Blind Method
Military Medicine
Incidence
The number of new cases of a given disease during a given period in a specified population. It also is used for the rate at which new events occur in a defined population. It is differentiated from PREVALENCE, which refers to all cases, new or old, in the population at a given time.
Pediatrics
Home Care Services
Community health and NURSING SERVICES providing coordinated multiple services to the patient at the patient's homes. These home-care services are provided by a visiting nurse, home health agencies, HOSPITALS, or organized community groups using professional staff for care delivery. It differs from HOME NURSING which is provided by non-professionals.
Protein Engineering
Procedures by which protein structure and function are changed or created in vitro by altering existing or synthesizing new structural genes that direct the synthesis of proteins with sought-after properties. Such procedures may include the design of MOLECULAR MODELS of proteins using COMPUTER GRAPHICS or other molecular modeling techniques; site-specific mutagenesis (MUTAGENESIS, SITE-SPECIFIC) of existing genes; and DIRECTED MOLECULAR EVOLUTION techniques to create new genes.
Neoplasms
Agricultural Workers' Diseases
Diseases in persons engaged in cultivating and tilling soil, growing plants, harvesting crops, raising livestock, or otherwise engaged in husbandry and farming. The diseases are not restricted to farmers in the sense of those who perform conventional farm chores: the heading applies also to those engaged in the individual activities named above, as in those only gathering harvest or in those only dusting crops.
Hygiene
The science dealing with the establishment and maintenance of health in the individual and the group. It includes the conditions and practices conducive to health. (Webster, 3d ed)
Filtration
Ontario
A province of Canada lying between the provinces of Manitoba and Quebec. Its capital is Toronto. It takes its name from Lake Ontario which is said to represent the Iroquois oniatariio, beautiful lake. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p892 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p391)