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Fulltext Efficacy and pitfalls of digital technologies in healthcare services: A systematic review of two decades

Akhtar N, Khan N, Qayyum S, Qureshi MI, Hishan SS

Front Public Health, 2022;10:869793.
PMID: 36187628 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.869793

The use of technology in the healthcare sector and its medical practices, from patient record maintenance to diagnostics, has significantly improved the health care emergency management system. At that backdrop, it is crucial to explore the role and challenges of these technologies in the healthcare sector. Therefore, this study provides a systematic review of the literature on technological developments in the healthcare sector and deduces its pros and cons. We curate the published studies from the Web of Science and Scopus databases by using PRISMA 2015 guidelines. After mining the data, we selected only 55 studies for the systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis. The study explores four significant classifications of technological development in healthcare: (a) digital technologies, (b) artificial intelligence, (c) blockchain, and (d) the Internet of Things. The novel contribution of current study indicate that digital technologies have significantly influenced the healthcare services such as the beginning of electronic health record, a new era of digital healthcare, while robotic surgeries and machine learning algorithms may replace practitioners as future technologies. However, a considerable number of studies have criticized these technologies in the health sector based on trust, security, privacy, and accuracy. The study suggests that future studies, on technological development in healthcare services, may take into account these issues for sustainable development of the healthcare sector.
Fulltext Impact of Multifaceted Workplace Bullying on the Relationships between Technology Usage, Organisational Climate and Employee Physical and Emotional Health

Iftikhar M, Qureshi MI, Qayyum S, Fatima I, Sriyanto S, Indrianti Y, et al.

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 03 19;18(6).
PMID: 33808837 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18063207

This research article investigates the effect of organisational climate and technology usage on employees' physiological and emotional health damage resulting from face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying at the workplace. Furthermore, we investigated emotional intelligence as a coping strategy to moderate employee physiological and emotional health damage. The research used a quantitative research design. A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire was used to collect data from a multistage sample of 500 officials from Pakistan's four service sectors. Results revealed that organisational climate and technology usage are negatively related to face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying at the workplace. At the same time, workplace bullying adversely affects an employee's emotional and physiological health. However, emotional intelligence can reduce an employee's emotional health damage due to workplace bullying. Thus, we suggest incorporating emotional intelligence training at the workplace to minimise the devastating effects of face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying on employees' physical and emotional health.
Pattern of first- and second-line drug resistance among pulmonary tuberculosis retreatment cases in Pakistan

Javaid A, Hasan R, Zafar A, Chaudry MA, Qayyum S, Qadeer E, et al.

Int J Tuberc Lung Dis, 2017 03 01;21(3):303-308.
PMID: 28225340 DOI: 10.5588/ijtld.16.0444

BACKGROUND: Drug resistance in general, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in particular, threatens global tuberculosis (TB) control efforts. Population-based estimates of drug resistance are needed to develop strategies for controlling drug-resistant TB in Pakistan.
OBJECTIVE: To obtain population-based data on Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance in Pakistan.
METHODS: To obtain drug resistance data, we conducted a population-based study of TB cases in all provinces of Pakistan. We performed culture and drug susceptibility testing on M. tuberculosis isolates from patients with a prior history of anti-tuberculosis treatment (retreatment cases) from all over the country.
RESULTS: Of 544 isolates from previously treated cases, 289 (53.1%) were susceptible to all first-line drugs, 255 (46.9%) were resistant to at least one anti-tuberculosis drug and 132 (24.3%) were MDR-TB. Among MDR-TB isolates, 47.0% were ofloxacin (OFX) resistant. Extensively drug-resistant TB was found in two (0.4%) isolates.
CONCLUSION: Prevalence of drug resistance in retreatment isolates was high. The alarmingly high prevalence of OFX resistance among MDR-TB isolates may threaten the success of efforts to control and treat MDR-TB.
Fulltext Synthesis and Characterization of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles at Different pH Values from Clinopodium vulgare L. and Their Assessment as an Antimicrobial Agent and Biomedical Application

Arif H, Qayyum S, Akhtar W, Fatima I, Kayani WK, Rahman KU, et al.

Micromachines (Basel), 2023 Jun 23;14(7).
PMID: 37512596 DOI: 10.3390/mi14071285

The current study attempts to evaluate the formation, morphology, and physico-chemical properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) synthesized from Clinopodium vulgare extract at different pH values and to investigate their antimicrobial and biomedical application potential. The reduction of zinc ions to ZnO NPs was determined by UV spectra, which revealed absorption peaks at 390 nm at pH 5 and 348 nm at pH 9, respectively. The spherical morphology of the nanoparticles was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the size was 47 nm for pH 5 and 45 nm for pH 9. Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to reveal the presence of functional groups on the surface of nanoparticles. The antibacterial activity was examined against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Klebsiella pneumonia via the agar-well diffusion method. Comparatively, the highest activities were recorded at pH 9 against all bacterial strains, and among these, biogenic ZnO NPs displayed the maximum inhibition zone (i.e., 20.88 ± 0.79 mm) against S. aureus. ZnO NPs prepared at pH 9 exhibited the highest antifungal activity of 80% at 25 mg/mL and antileishmanial activity of 82% at 400 mg/mL. Altogether, ZnO NPs synthesized at pH 9 show promising antimicrobial potential and could be used for biomedical applications.
Fulltext Global Retinoblastoma Presentation and Analysis by National Income Level

Global Retinoblastoma Study Group, Fabian ID, Abdallah E, Abdullahi SU, Abdulqader RA, Adamou Boubacar S, et al.

JAMA Oncol, 2020 May 01;6(5):685-695.
PMID: 32105305 DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.6716

IMPORTANCE: Early diagnosis of retinoblastoma, the most common intraocular cancer, can save both a child's life and vision. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many children across the world are diagnosed late. To our knowledge, the clinical presentation of retinoblastoma has never been assessed on a global scale.
OBJECTIVES: To report the retinoblastoma stage at diagnosis in patients across the world during a single year, to investigate associations between clinical variables and national income level, and to investigate risk factors for advanced disease at diagnosis.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 278 retinoblastoma treatment centers were recruited from June 2017 through December 2018 to participate in a cross-sectional analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed in 2017.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Age at presentation, proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, and tumor stage and metastasis.
RESULTS: The cohort included 4351 new patients from 153 countries; the median age at diagnosis was 30.5 (interquartile range, 18.3-45.9) months, and 1976 patients (45.4%) were female. Most patients (n = 3685 [84.7%]) were from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, the most common indication for referral was leukocoria (n = 2638 [62.8%]), followed by strabismus (n = 429 [10.2%]) and proptosis (n = 309 [7.4%]). Patients from high-income countries (HICs) were diagnosed at a median age of 14.1 months, with 656 of 666 (98.5%) patients having intraocular retinoblastoma and 2 (0.3%) having metastasis. Patients from low-income countries were diagnosed at a median age of 30.5 months, with 256 of 521 (49.1%) having extraocular retinoblastoma and 94 of 498 (18.9%) having metastasis. Lower national income level was associated with older presentation age, higher proportion of locally advanced disease and distant metastasis, and smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma. Advanced disease at diagnosis was more common in LMICs even after adjusting for age (odds ratio for low-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 17.92 [95% CI, 12.94-24.80], and for lower-middle-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 5.74 [95% CI, 4.30-7.68]).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This study is estimated to have included more than half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017. Children from LMICs, where the main global retinoblastoma burden lies, presented at an older age with more advanced disease and demonstrated a smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, likely because many do not reach a childbearing age. Given that retinoblastoma is curable, these data are concerning and mandate intervention at national and international levels. Further studies are needed to investigate factors, other than age at presentation, that may be associated with advanced disease in LMICs.