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Role of Barcodes in Healthcare Industry

williams — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:48:26 +0000

Healthcare is one of the core industries to utilize barcodes to enhance process efficiency. Barcodes are used to manage many critical aspects of healthcare such as to maintain patient’s records and case sheets, automate receptions, track and automate medical supplies, check equipment status, and to manage data quickly and accurately.

Barcode scanners reduce the human errors while data entry and provide secure access to track medical supplies and patient’s case sheets. From laboratory to hospital, medical administration to blood transfusion barcodes play very vital roles in healthcare industry.

Ensured Accuracy:
Barcodes are used throughout the healthcare industry for error free tracking, validating, documenting, and billing. Barcodes provide 99.9% accuracy by eliminating human errors while data entry. They are accurate in tracking patient’s order of requisition, tests’ results, case sheets, and medical reports. This is possible once these items are assigned with a barcode having required details. Error free documentation and reporting eliminate potential blunders ensuring patient’s safety.

Integrity of Data:
Integrity of data is very important in healthcare industry as even a small mistake can be fatal for the patient. One of the common mistakes in healthcare is incorrect infusion. Barcode scanners eliminate this problem by helping healthcare professionals to provide right drug to right patient in the right dose. Barcode scanners provide secure access to track medical supplies and patients case sheets. They help to eliminate counterfeit and expired drugs from being used.

Fast and Effective Execution:
Barcodes are widely applicable in healthcare industry, as they are fast, easy to use, and effective to execute. Relevant data can be extracted quickly and effectively using barcodes. They provide timely feedback from data captured in real time, enabling to take right decisions and increasing patient’s health by reducing risk.

Cost Effectiveness:
Barcode technology is simple and cost effective. Usage of barcodes reduces the number of employees who are prone to make mistakes reducing rectification costs to control damage further. Barcodes reduce the operational and inventory costs by improving the delivery of medication to the patients, eliminating treatment errors, and tracking the shelf life of drugs.

Barcodes play a vital role in healthcare and are useful in every department of healthcare industry, where the health of a patient is always on priority. Therefore, it is very much important for you to understand the uses of barcodes and to implement them in healthcare sector, which potentially can save a person’s life.

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Types of Benzodiazepines Drug Testing

williams — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:46:52 +0000

Benzodiazepines are used for the treatment of insomnia, anxiety, and prevention of seizures (convulsive attack) and muscle spasms. Benzodiazepines are sleep inducing in high doses, reduce anxiety in moderate doses, and are soothing medicine when taken in low doses. People who take high dose of benzodiazepines may appear drunk or relaxed. Benzodiazepines can be detected in specimen using Urine, Hair, and Saliva drug testing methods.

Urine Drug testing
Urine drug testing is one of the most convenient, easy, inexpensive, and reliable testing methods to find Benzodiazepines drug addiction. Urine drug test check for oxazepam specimen presence, a major metabolite of benzodiazepines. When concentration of the metabolite is present above the cut off levels, the test strip will display two red or pink bands, one each in Control region [C] and Test region [T], indicating a positive result. Positive screening results can be confirmed by sensitive methods like Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) test.

The Detection Period of benzodiazepines in urine is 3 days for prescribed use and 4 to 6 weeks for habitual use (for over one year). The screening tests cutoff concentration is 300 ng/mL and confirmation tests cutoff concentration is 200 ng/mL in urine.

Hair Drug Testing
A hair drug test for benzodiazepines uses a small sample of hair to recognize specified drug usage by the person being tested. Hair drug testing is most accurate form of testing over other measures of drug testing as it is performed in laboratory and very less affected by external factors. Hair drug test will not only identify drugs and its metabolites, but also can provide information on consumed quantity and even the drug abuse pattern. The hair drug testing can provide drug abuse history of up to 90 days. The detection period of benzodiazepines in hair is 90 days.

Saliva Drug Testing
Saliva or oral fluid-based drug tests are fast, reliable, convenient, and can detect whether the person has abused to drug in the last 5-10 minutes and unto last 72 hrs. Saliva or oral fluid based drug tests are widely accepted because of their convenience and the fact that they are less invasive, and very difficult to adulterate or contaminated. Donors have to give a sample by placing an absorbent collector in the mouth, or touching it on their tongue. Donors are not permitted to eat, drink, and brush teeth or floss (cleaning between teeth) before providing a sample. Simple on-site testing kits can detect the presence of benzodiazepines and show results in just five minutes. If results are positive, a GC/MS test should be done for confirmation.

Proper medication and treatment should be given to person, if confirmatory testing in any testing method reports positive result. Withdrawal symptoms of benzodiazepines are mainly anxiety-related and include convulsions, trembling, loss of appetite, and stomach problems. Abrupt stoppage of prescribed benzodiazepines can lead to these symptoms along with seizures and hyperactivity (attention deficit disorder).

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Benefits of Buying Used Cars from Certified Dealers

williams — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:34:23 +0000

As people are turning more towards buying used cars for various reasons, they have mainly three options viz. certified used car dealers, private sellers, and used car auctions. The two options other than going for a certified used car dealers are not likely to give the buyers the value for their money and often involve many risks. Going for a used car dealer means hassle free and a wide range of cars to choose from. Used car dealers also give prolific offers like free roadside assistance services, extended warranty, and many more.

Benefits of buying Used Cars from Certified Dealer:
Certified used car dealers account for a major share in sales of used cars. Certified used car dealers offer a variety of choices to find a wide range of vehicles at one place. Buyers can get some of the best certified pre-owned (CPO) cars, which are efficient and low priced. Buying pre-owned cars from certified dealers is safer. Certified dealers used cars are inspected, certified by the manufacturer, are generally less than 5 years old, and have traveled less then 80,000 miles. Other benefits of buying used cars from certified dealers is that they offer various financing deals, roadside assistance, and provide maintenance services. Certified used car dealers are bound by federal rules and follow federal regulations so that buyers are not duped. In addition, for any parts replacement, the manufacturers insist certified dealers to use only genuine factory parts considering safety on top priority.

Comparing between Certified Used Car Dealers and Private Sellers:
One of the main reasons people tend to buy used cars from private sellers is that those are low cost and save a few dollars for the buyer. This is not very true as buying a used-car from private sellers is risky unless the seller is already well known. Besides in saving money, buyers can sometime land up in purchasing stolen cars. As certified dealers check for liens and stolen cars, buyers are legally safe. Besides, the vehicles are often cleaner, newer, and in much better condition than the average used car from a private seller. Also comparatively, repairs are often made and bring the vehicles up to the standards and generous extended warranties assure the buyer.

Certified used car dealers provide buyers with many facilities that give them their worth of money and peace of mind. Going with a certified dealer is a safer option than a private owner. However, buyers need to do their own study before buying a used car to have a pleasant buying experience.

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Robert Zemeckis- One of the Prominent Hollywood Directors

williams — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:32:30 +0000

Robert Zemeckis can be placed in the ranks of those prominent Hollywood directors who have made a mark in film history by making some of the excellent Hollywood films. The use of state-of-the-art technology, dark comedy, broad humor, and effective story telling techniques are notable characteristics of his films. His films never remain bound to particular film genre but spans across various genres. He has used special effects, CGI, and latest technology to create technological films which has won him several awards.

Early Life and Initial Days of Career
Zemeckis interest in films began at early age when he first handled an 8 mm camera in high school. Zemeckis was strongly influenced by movies of William Castle in his childhood. ‘The Blob’ was the first film Zemeckis saw and this influenced him immensely. Due to his interest in films, he went to study at USC film school. Here he met his writing partner Bob Gale and graduated in 1973. Zemeckis received the Student Academy Award in 1973 for his student film, ‘Field of Honor’. Steven Spielberg and John Milius, who are the alumni of USC Film School, appreciated this project by Zemeckis. Zemeckis made his directorial debut through ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ which he had written along with Gale. Later both Zemeckis and Gale wrote for many films and some of them went on to become highest grossing films ever made.

Career
Robert Zemeckis made his directorial debut with ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ which was released in 1978. The story is set around 1960’s when Beatles had larger than life image and revolves around six teenagers who set out to meet the Beatles. His next two movies ‘1941’ in 1979, ‘Used Cars’ in 1980 could not do well at the box-office but won him critical acclaim. Later in 1984, ‘Romancing the Stone’ a romantic adventure film directed by him got him significant amount of success. But, Zemeckis tasted real success through his film ‘Back to the Future’ (1985) which was an immense hit. Its sequels ‘Back to the Future II’ (1989) and ‘Back to the Future III’ (1990) were also released subsequently. Zemeckis later directed films like ‘Death Becomes Her’ (1992), ‘Forrest Gump’ (1994), ‘Contact’ (1997), ‘What Lies Beneath’ (2000), and ‘Cast Away’ (2001) which all did well at the box-office. He won six academy awards including Best Picture and Best Director for ‘Forrest Gump’. Robert Zemeckis and Joe Silver also own a production company ‘Dark Castle Entertainment’ founded in 1999. ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2009) was the latest film written and directed by Zemeckis.

Use of Technology and Special Effects in Films
The use of special effects is prominent feature in most of the Zemeckis movies. ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ (1988) had animation and live action in it which was a technological triumph and won him four academy awards. The use of latest technology, CGI, and special effects can be seen extensively in many of his films like ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy, ‘The Polar Express’, ‘Beowulf’, ‘The Christmas Carol’ etc. Due to his efforts, in 2001, the ‘Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts’ was opened which is state-of-the-art digital training facility at the USC Film School which is also first of its kind in US.

What makes the Zemeckis movies interesting and entertaining is the combination of effective story telling technique, special effects, and use of computer generated imagery. He is one of the prominent directors who incorporated latest technology in films and created a mark in technological film history.

The thedailycontributor.com is a website where you can find reviews on movies, movie personalities, music and good places to visit. Also, we identify popular blogs on various topics for your convenience.

Analysis on US Online Video Statistics for Oct ‘09

williams — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:27:25 +0000

Online video streams are gaining popularity and have increased by 26 percent in October’09 when compared to October’08 according to Nielsen’s research report. Unique viewers increased by 14.8% when compared to the corresponding period in 2008. However, the percentage decreased by 0.5% when compared to the previous month i.e. September’09.

When it comes to absolute numbers, 0.13 billion unique viewers viewed 11.22 billion streams in October’09 according to the Nielsen. These numbers convey that each unique viewer viewed 81 video streams online spending 212.5 minutes in the month of October.

YouTube Dominates Online Video Sources in October ’09
YouTube ranked top one in terms of both the categories of total video streams viewed and unique video visitors. In October’09, YouTube had 6.63 billion video streams viewed by 0.1 billion unique visitors. YouTube holds 76.4 percent of unique visitors and 59.08 percent of total video streams viewed online.

Hulu holds the second position with 0.6 billion video streams, a distant margin. The total numbers of unique visitors were 0.013 billion. Hulu is followed by Facebook at third position with total number of video streams at 2.17 billion with 0.03 billion unique visitors. MSN related sites hold fourth position with 0.18 billion streams. Numbers of unique visitors were 0.017 billion. Yahoo and Fox Interactive Media were at fifth and sixth positions.

Hulu Performed Consistently When Compared To the Last Month
Hulu firms its position at second slot showing healthy growth from 437 million video streams in September’09 to nearly 633 million video streams in October. Even YouTube posted a drop of 60 million video streams compared to the last month.

Drop in Yahoo Position Compare To the Last Month
Significant changes took place in terms of total number of video streams when compared to last month. Yahoo dropped from third position to fifth position. However, it remained at third position in total number of unique visitors. Facebook moved from tenth position to third position in terms of total video streams viewed.

Video Viewing on Social Networking Sites Registered 98 Percent Year over Year Growth
The online video stats revealed that, social network group sites showed strong growth in ‘time spent in viewing videos’ by visitors. Year over year time spent on viewing videos on social networks almost doubled increasing from 503.8 million minutes in October ’08 to 999.4 million in October’09. The number of online video streams is also increased by 45 percent from October’08 to October’09.

Facebook Clocked Huge Growth in Video Streaming
Facebook was ranked as number one online social networking and blog destination with 217.8 million video streams viewed in Ocotober’09. Time spent on viewing video on Facebook increased a significant 1,840 percent from 64.9 million minutes in Oct’08 to 677.0 million in Oct’09. The number of unique visitors grew 548 percent and total number of streams increased 987 percent during October’09 when compared to October’08. Myspace and Stickman hold second and third positions in the social network sites category respectively.

Overall October’09 online video statistics show that online video watching increased significantly among all the major players and social network sites contributed their share year over year. However, it can be noticed that there is no considerable growth when compared the previous month i.e. September’09.

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