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This paper aims to analyze the medical uniform wearers’ needs by surveying the current medical uniform sizing system and issues, and to evaluate fit satisfaction level of medical uniform wear by gender with scrub shirts, pants and coats.

Research was conducted using a quantitative questionnaire, and the respondents’ data results were analyzed using SPSS.

The distinguished difference from the medical uniform and daily wear was that the medical garments’ sizing system had only alphabet sizing options, and the wearing ease was larger than that of daily wear. Fabric preferences included the combination of “stretch fabrics + non-stretch fabrics”. All male respondents’ satisfaction levels were reported higher than those of female respondents. Respondents were the least satisfied with the pants, followed by the shirts, and the coat in that order. As the current medical uniform has been developed based on the male figure, there were significant needs overall for improving the fit of the female medical uniform.

The study quantified fit satisfaction levels to suggest specific improvements that should be made to the design and fit of the female pants along with the coat using new comfortable textiles to achieve better performance for all medical staff.

This research specifically evaluated fit satisfaction levels of the medical uniform provided by hospital institutions in Ohio, attempting to suggest improvements for future medical uniform and design development to increase overall fit satisfaction.

Assess the realistic impacts of implementing an Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)/Internet of Things (IoT) uniforms’ distribution system for managing medical personnel’s scrubs in operating rooms. The authors use a hybrid simulation framework to address the following objectives and challenges: a) reduce and control operating rooms’ level of inventory; b) stabilize scrubs’ demand and c) improve infection control and prevention of cross-contamination (through scrubs over manipulation and hoarding).

The authors adopt a Design Science approach. This methodological approach is used to design, develop, create and evaluate information technology “artifacts” (e.g. constructs, models, methods and instantiations) intended to solve organizational problems and make research contributions (Peffers et al., 2007). More specifically, the authors follow the Design Science Research Methodology process model which includes six steps: problem identification and motivation, definition of the objectives for a solution, design and development, demonstration, evaluation, and communication.

To assess the realistic impacts of implementing an RFID-IoT uniforms’ distribution system for managing medical personnel’s scrubs in operating rooms, the authors adopted a design science approach and initiated the research by documenting the business case and reviewed the existing literature to build a comparative analysis of existing uniforms’ distribution systems. The authors used a hybrid simulation model to assess the impact of three business cases: present mode of operation, implementing smart shelves or the smart distributors. The authors show that smart dispensers allow a greater control on scrubs’ utilization while eliminating the cross-contamination of the medical personnel.

Through this research study, the authors provide hospitals’ managers a scientific support for uniforms’ (scrubs) distribution process improvement. The authors use a hybrid simulation model to compare innovative solutions for uniforms’ distribution systems in the form of “smart cabinets” supported by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)/Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and choose the most appropriate design for the hospital to meet two main challenges: a) inefficiency of uniform replenishment-distribution system and b) noncompliancy with infection control regulations caused by the distribution system.

From a methodological perspective, this paper addresses concerns from researchers calling quantitative research methods and using case-based research strategy to address IoT issues and assess the system in practice. From a broader point of view, this work confirms the predominant interest of RFID-IoT research work in the arena of supply chain management and logistics as the technology is used for tracking purpose and for monitoring applications. It is also one response to the research community suggesting that “hospitals should evaluate the medical effectiveness of the new technologies as well as the cost before adoption”.

Short-form health science videos have become an important medium for disseminating health knowledge and improving public health literacy. However, the factors that determine viewer engagement are not well understood. This study aims to address this research gap by investigating the association between doctor image features and viewer engagement behavior, building on the personal branding theory and information signaling theory.

A sample of 1245 health science short-form videos was collected, and key video features related to doctor images were extracted through manual labeling. Multi-variable regression analysis and SPSS process model were employed to test the hypotheses.

The results show that doctor image features are significantly associated with viewer engagement behavior. Videos featuring doctors in medical uniforms receive more viewer likes, comments and shares. Highlighting the doctor's title can increase viewer collections. Videos shot in a home, white wall, or study room setting receive more like, comments and sharing. The doctor's appearance demonstrates a positive nonlinear relationship with viewer likes and comments. Young doctors with title information tend to attract more video collections than older doctors with title information. The positive effect of the doctor's appearance and showing title information, become more significant among male doctors.

This research provides novel insights into the factors that determine viewer engagement behavior in short-form health science videos. Specific doctor image features can enhance viewer engagement by signaling doctor professionalism. The results also suggest that there may be age and gender biases in viewers' perceptions.

This study aims to suggest opportunities for enhancing the police uniform design with consideration to the emotional and physical satisfaction of the wearers, by assessing the wearing experience.

University police officers at a University in the Midwestern region of the USA were surveyed to examine both psychological and emotional aspects including performance, comfort, professionalism and empowerment, as well as their satisfaction levels with fit, fabrics, aesthetics and functionality.

The study found that the wearing experience was poor, and not surprisingly, fabric satisfaction ranked the lowest of all factors. In regard to color, results showed that the uniforms should be in colors that are suitable to the university context, which in this case the wearers preferred the University athletic colors of black and red. It is easier to consider these colors, as they are a part of their organization and also enable the police to stand apart from municipal police, contrary to previous research demonstrating dark colors have negative connotations. Findings suggest that the university police uniform should have an athletic style with a regular fit, using specific performance fabrics that allow for stretch and breathability.

This study assesses the police uniform design and wearing experience and suggests design details to enhance how well officers physically perform in their role and also to inspire them to feel proud of their job and organization.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze two process standardization theoretical conceptual constructs: process variants unification; and distinction between standard, routine and non-routine processes.

The authors analyze two conceptual constructs based on a single case study representing a general hospital’s (GH) process standardization, approach and results. The authors research whether process standardization implemented in a GH conforms to the process variants unification concept approach and its assumed benefits and whether implemented process standardization enables process management improvement based on distinguishing standard, routine and non-routine processes.

In accordance with the process variants unification conceptual construct, the hospital task force determined a uniform basic patient comprehensive treatment process at the hospital level, which allows synergy among departments. Uniform process activities reflect the differences between standard, routine and non-routine processes.

Process standardization through unification improves performance by establishing a common framework enabling shared experience based on improved process understanding. Distinguishing standard, routine and non-routine processes is useful for analyzing process management. This distinction provides guidelines for process implementation and measurement improvement. The paper also shows that increased routinization and standardization represent levers for process improvement.

The authors analyze theoretical constructs based on a single case study and confirm that theoretical conceptual construct application can provide better process management, which is important for practitioners.

This paper reviews, rethinks, expands and applies the author's ‘laws’ of integration, which were first published six years ago. This approach both introduces the laws to readers who don't know them, and tests their utility for those who do. In retrospect, real‐world integration efforts mix and match the original components of linkage, co‐ordination and full integration. But the message remains to work at all levels, keep it simple, make finances supportive and empower social care.

Cybernetics is a branch of science which was originally based on the explanation of certain phenomena by reference to biology and medicine. Further development in cybernetics contributed greatly to the development of technical systems. It is proposed that now is the time for the methodological and technical approaches of cybernetics to be applied to biological and medical research, in conjunction with currently used technical and scientific methods. Some possible applications of the “ideology” of cybernetics to medicine are discussed. In particular, the development and treatment of cancer and psychofrenia are considered in terms of feedback. The role of feedback in social systems and states is also analysed.

Examines the “dramaturgical” view of the service encounter to understand the service consumption experience. Illustrates this by demonstrating how the drama metaphor is applicable and useful in understanding perceived quality in health care services. Presents a strategic model of the medical encounter. Suggests impression management guidelines and, from a practical standpoint, serves to stimulate the imaginations of physicians and health care administrators on managing evaluations by paying attention to certain characteristics of the medical encounter.

In clinical analysis, medical image segmentation is an important step to study the anatomical structure. This helps to diagnose and classify abnormality in the image. The wide variations in the image modality and limitations in the acquisition process of instruments make this segmentation challenging. This paper aims to propose a semi-automatic model to tackle these challenges and to segment medical images.

The authors propose Legendre polynomial-based active contour to segment region of interest (ROI) from the noisy, low-resolution and inhomogeneous medical images using the soft computing and multi-resolution framework. In the first phase, initial segmentation (i.e. prior clustering) is obtained from low-resolution medical images using fuzzy C-mean (FCM) clustering and noise is suppressed using wavelet energy-based multi-resolution approach. In the second phase, resultant segmentation is obtained using the Legendre polynomial-based level set approach.

The proposed model is tested on different medical images such as x-ray images for brain tumor identification, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), spine images, blood cells and blood vessels. The rigorous analysis of the model is carried out by calculating the improvement against noise, required processing time and accuracy of the segmentation. The comparative analysis concludes that the proposed model withstands the noise and succeeds to segment any type of medical modality achieving an average accuracy of 99.57%.

The proposed design is an improvement to the Legendre level set (L2S) model. The integration of FCM and wavelet transform in L2S makes model insensitive to noise and intensity inhomogeneity and hence it succeeds to segment ROI from a wide variety of medical images even for the images where L2S failed to segment them.

Compliance with international standards for the presentation of periodical publications was evaluated in 221 Spanish biomedical journals. The objectives of the study were to determine the degree to which standards are actually used, and to develop recommendations for improving standards and increasing familiarity with them among authors, editors and publishers. Journals were identified from five printed and four electronic bibliographic databases. Compliance was assessed with the evaluation checklists developed by Lípez‐Cízar and Ruiz, based on 136 elements derived from standards for the presentation of periodical publications developed by the International Standardization Organization (ISO), and from recommendations published by UNESCO, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the Council of Biology Editors and E.J. Huth. For most parameters three aspects were evaluated: presence, presentation and location. Compliance with publication standards by Spanish biomedical journals was generally low (34.3 per cent). This reflected the complete absence of specific elements relating to the volume (cover, contents list, index) and abstract sheet, rather than a general neglect of a large number of standards. In contrast, items related to characteristics that specifically distinguish periodical publications from other types of documents generally showed good compliance. The poor degree of compliance with standards by Spanish biomedical journals can be explained in part by the lack of familiarity with standards on the part of authors, editors and publishers, and in part by the fact that these three actors in the publication process are rarely involved in the creation and development of standards. To improve compliance, I propose changes in the policies on how standards are disseminated and how proposals for new standards or revisions of existing ones can be made, and suggest changes in some parts of ISO standards 8: 1977 and 215: 1986.