Prosthodontic Rehabilitation of Hypodontia – A Team Approach

Hypodontia can have an impact on speech, aesthetics, function and psycho-social behavior of individuals afflicted by the problem. Rehabilitation of patients with hypodontia usually requires complex treatment planning, depending upon the pattern of tooth absence, amount of residual spacing, presence of malocclusion and patient compliance. It is an interdisciplinary intervention, involving prosthodontists, orthodontists, oral surgeons, speech pathologists and psychologists to achieve an optimal outcome for the patient. This case report describes the close work of a committed team from orthodontic, oral surgery and prosthodontic department of de'Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore, to reach final aesthetic and functional outcomes for an 18 year old girl with oligodontia. Her chief complaint was poor esthetics and absence of multiple anterior teeth with unsightly spacing between remaining teeth. Orthodontic redistribution of spaces followed by fixed full arch prosthetic rehabilitation were the goals achieved at the end of her treatment. KEYWORDS: Oligodontia, interdisciplinary team work, prosthodontic rehabilitation, fixed restorations.

ACERTO Project - 15 years changing perioperative care in Brazil

ABSTRACT The ACERTO project is a multimodal perioperative care protocol. Implemented in 2005, the project in the last 15 years has disseminated the idea of a modern perioperative care protocol, based on evidence and with interdisciplinary team work. Dozens of published studies, using the protocol, have shown benefits such as reduced hospital stay, postoperative complications and hospital costs. Disseminated in Brazil, the project is supported by the Brazilian College of Surgeons and the Brazilian Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, among others. This article compiles publications by the authors who belong to the CNPq research group “Acerto em Nutrição e Cirurgia”, refers to the experience of other national authors in various surgical specialties, and finally outlines the evolution of the ACERTO project in the timeline.

How do we need to adapt Biomedical Engineering Education for the Health 4.0 challenges?

Novel challenges and developments require adaptations on skill set, content, and associated education. A biomedical engineer will require a broad range of skills - which to a large extent are currently not taught - in the coming years to meet the development needs of future healthcare: intensive interdisciplinary team work, advanced communication skills, team management and coaching capabilities, advanced project management, learn how to learn, visionary and forward looking thinking, understanding of health economics, entrepreneurship and leadership. But above all empathy towards the clinical user and patients is needed as well as a basic understanding of the current and future clinical workflows that can globally vary. An innovation process for a healthcare related product or service will likely only create value through the consideration and implementation of several of these points. Even though techniques for the development of innovation and enhancing creativity in individuals are widely discussed, there are relatively few reports on the practice of mainstreaming creativity in an organizational setting. We report on the setup of our Graduate School “Technology Innovation in Therapy and Imaging (T²I²)” that has implemented a structured post graduate program and focuses on interdisciplinary and application-oriented innovation generation education. The educational process starts with the observation and identification of clinical needs and an in-depth understanding of the problem and subsequently covers all steps necessary to transfer prototypes into viable solutions and further into implementing valuable products.

Slope Stability of Soils

Slope stability problems in soils underlie most of the landslides that cause losses of human and property in the world. The stability of natural or man-made slopes in soils is an important topic that requires great attention while site exploring, testing, modelling and analyzing. Engineering geology and geotechnical engineering interdisciplinary team work is essential to achieve a sufficient understanding of site geology and the behavior of soil. The developments of urban areas require new sites for settlement. Soil structure interaction in slopes requires more sophisticated numerical analysis methods to develop. This section particularly summarizes the factors cause a slope to fail. In addition, site exploration steps, in-situ and laboratory test methods were mentioned. Slope stability analysis methods such as LEM, FEM, DEM, BEM were discussed in details. The developments of empirical or statistical regional approaches were stated. Remediation techniques were discussed regarding the construction costs. Finally, the necessity of further studies in numerical modelling was emphasized.

Characterization of school-related problems and diagnoses in a Neuro-Learning Disorder Clinic

The objective of this study was to characterize the children referred to the Neuro-Learning Disorder Clinic at the Public Hospital of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (State University of Campinas) in 2010 focusing on the demographics, parents' concerns, and the diagnoses given by the health care professionals. A total of 203 male and female children and young people, aged 4-17 years old, attending kindergarten to high school were analyzed. The children that were referred due to school-related problems underwent interdisciplinary evaluations aiming to establish a diagnosis. After thorough evaluation, the children were treated according to their specific needs. The study sample was predominately comprised of males (67.0%), fifth graders with average age of 10 years and 11 months. The main problems identified were global learning difficulties and inattention. The evaluation results indicated 43.8% of pedagogy-related learning difficulties and 32.2% of intellectual disability issues. The findings corroborate those of other studies on the characterization of behavior and school-related problems of children and adolescents in specialized centers. The results obtained emphasize the importance of an interdisciplinary team work to evaluate school-related problems.

Asmeninių kompetencijų reikšmė tarpdisciplininės komandos veikloje

Vilniaus universitetasSocialinio darbo katedraUniversiteto g. 9/1 – 309 kab.LT-01513 VilniusTel. 8 615 17 924El. paštas: [email protected] Šio straipsnio tikslas – remiantis skirtingoms disciplinoms atstovaujančių specialistų nuomonių tyrimu aptarti asmeninių kompetencijų reikšmę tarpdisciplininių ankstyvosios intervencijos vaikystėje komandų veiklai. Įvairioms profesinėms sritims atstovaujančių specialistų kompleksinė pagalba rizikos situacijoje esančiam žmogui reikalauja darnių veiksmų. Tokių veiksmų sėkmė priklauso ne tik nuo sprendžiamos problemos sudėtingumo, bet ir nuo kompetencijų, kurias demonstruoja atskiri komandos nariai ir visa komanda. Ankstyvosios intervencijos tarnybų specialistų sudaryti kompetencijų sąrašai parodė, kad dabartiniame tarpdisciplininio bendradarbiavimo etape (nesant senų tokio bendradarbiavimo tradicijų) didžiausia reikšmė yra skiriama komandos nario geranoriškumui ir atvirumui patirčiai.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: tarpdisciplininė komanda, asmeninė kompetencija, refleksija. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PERSONAL COMPETENCIES IN THE WORK OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAMVioleta Gevorgianienė SummaryA complex support of a person in a difficult life situation requires coordinated efforts of specialists representing various professional fields. The quality of support and successful interdisciplinary team work in general depends not only on the complexity of the task, but also on competencies demonstrated by individual members of a team and the whole team in general. In the article the significance of personal competencies in interdisciplinary teams is analysed, based on the opinions survey of professionals working in early childhood intervention services. The method of expert evaluation (questionnaire) was used. Respondents were asked to compose two lists of competencies: firstly, to cognitively reflect on competencies which they considered important for the team work and, secondly, to recall most important competencies which they observed in practice and which most contributed to the successful team work. The lists of competencies composed by professionals revealed that in the current stage of interdisciplinary cooperation (when traditions of common work of different professionals are not yet strong) experts allocate the highest importance to competencies closely related to personal qualities of a colleague, such as agreeableness (revealed in the cognitive reflection) and openness to new experience (revealed in practice reflection).Key words: interdisciplinary team, personal competence, reflection.

Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation

Movement disorders are neurological conditions affecting speed, fluency, quality, and ease of movement. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is used to treat advanced Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia. Possible target sites for DBS include the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus, the globus pallidus internus, and the subthalamic nucleus. High-frequency DBS leads to a kind of functional deafferentation of the stimulated structure and to the modulation of cortical activity. This has a profound effect on the efficiency of movement. Indications for the use of DBS include the need to improve function, reduce medication dependency, and avoid ablative neurosurgery. Appropriate patient selection is critical for success. The implantation technique is briefly described. Programming stimulation parameters are performed via telemetry. The adverse effects of DBS are discussed. The future should see the development of “closed-loop” systems. Its use has promoted interdisciplinary team work and provided an improved understanding of the complex neurocircuitry associated with these disorders. DBS is a highly effective, safe, and reversible surgical treatment for advanced Parkinson’s disease, tremor, and dystonia. It is a useful therapeutic option in carefully selected patients that significantly improves motor symptoms, functional status, and quality of life.