BACKGROUND/AIMS The financial burden of caring for iron-related complications (IRCs) is an emerging medical problem in Korea, as in Western countries. We produced a preliminary estimate of the costs of treating patients for IRCs. METHODS The medical records of patients who had received multiple transfusions were reviewed. Newly developed cardiomyopathy, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, liver...

The Continuing Care Linkage Study has been established to examine patterns of health service utilisation, including hospitalisation, domiciliary care, geriatric services and residential care, in persons with continuing disability. As part of this study the Data Linkage Unit of the Department of Health (WA) performed a linkage between clients from Silver Chain Nursing Association (SCNA, Western ...

We have investigated side effects and aftereffects evoked by moving the head to interact with a virtual environment (VE) shown in a helmet mounted visual display (HMD). The graphics computer of such a VE must monitor the HMD’s spatial orientation and position in order to present images from the proper perspective. Delays between head movements and image updating cause aberrant visual motion of ...

e are conducting studies to evaluate the suitability of nails as a biomarker for fluoride (F) exposure in rats. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the F content of rat nails remains unchanged as a function of time after they have been clipped. Weanlings male Wistar rats received deionized water and food containing 25.9 ppm F for 56 days. Blood and nails were then collected fo...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to investigate groups of patients with a relatively homogenous health status to evaluate the degree to which use of the Australian hospital system is affected by socio-economic status, locational accessibility to services and patient payment classification. METHOD Records of all deaths occurring in Western Australia from 1997 to 2000 inclusive were extracted from t...

This study evaluated the use of nails and bone surfaces as indicators of acute exposure to fluoride in rats. Six groups (n=10/grp), aged 70 days, received, by gastrogavage, single doses of sodium fluoride containing 10, 35, 45, 60, 75 and 90 mg fluoride/kg body weight. The control group received deionized water. Two hours after fluoride administration, the rats were killed and their plasma, nai...

In high reliable industries, where critical information is often given in real time, Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) may support workers. Especially if mobility is needed, like in maintenance or some fields of medicine, HMDs can display this critical information directly within the field of view. However, in a study presented on last year ́s conference of HFES-Europe we showed that participants rea...

There are a various approaches to implementing virtual reality (VR) systems. The head mounted display (HMD) and Cave approaches are two of the best known. In this paper, we discuss such approaches from the perspective of the types of interaction that they afford. Our analysis looks at interaction from three perspectives: solo interaction, collaborative interaction in the same physical space and...

Spatially-immersive systems such as CAVEs provide users with surrounding worlds by projecting 3D models on multiple screens around the viewer. Compared to alternative immersive systems such as HMDs, CAVE systems are a powerful tool for collaborative inspection of virtual environments due to better use of peripheral vision, less sensitivity to tracking errors, and higher communication possibilit...

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to undertake a six-year analysis from 1999/00 to 2004/05, of the demographic characteristics of hospitalisations for the surgical removal of impacted teeth in Western Australia under general anaesthesia. METHOD Data for the current analysis was obtained from the Western Australian Hospital Morbidity Data System (HMDS). Gender, age, indigenous status, place ...