Medical system choice: Information that affects the selection of healthcare provider in Australia?
- Authors: Sahama, Tony , Stranieri, Andrew , Butler-Henderson, Kerryn , Golden, Isaac
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 40th Medical Informatics in Europe Conference MIE 2018 Vol. 247, p. 596
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Many complementary and alternative medical practices (CAM) are readily assessable in Australia alongside Allopathic practitioners. Although CAM practices are prevalent, little is known about how patients seek and use information when deciding which system to consult. We report some preliminary findings of a longitudinal study, designed to solicit factors that influence the Australian public when selecting from diverse medical systems. Fifty-four general public participants, willing to provide their confidential and anonymous opinion were included. The magnitudes of importance, critical in influencing factors, were screened. Results indicated a medical system was selected for its effectiveness, safety, credentials and care (p<0.001). Consultation time, convenience, cost, empowerment and rapport were less important factors (p<0.001) influencing selection of a medical system. The level of choices by participants [χ2 (1, N=54) = 53.445, p<0.001] follow similar trends found for those in conventional medical systems. This contrasts with findings in other locations, where cost and time were major contributing factors when selecting medical systems.
Informatics to support patient choice between diverse medical systems C3 - 2014 IEEE 16th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services, Healthcom 2014
- Authors: Golden, Isaac , Stranieri, Andrew , Sahama, Tony , Pilapitiya, Senaka , Siribaddana, Sisira , Vaughan, Stephen
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Full Text: false
- Description: Culturally, philosophically and religiously diverse medical systems including Western medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine and Homeopathic Medicine, once situated in places and times relatively unconnected from each other, currently co-exist to a point where patients must choose which system to consult. These decisions require comparative analyses, yet the divergence in key underpinning assumptions is so great that comparisons cannot easily be made. However, diverse medical systems can be meaningfully juxtaposed for the purpose of making practical decisions if relevant information is presented appropriately. Information regarding privacy provisions inherent in the typical practice of each medical system is an important element in this juxtaposition. In this paper the information needs of patients making decisions regarding the selection of a medical system, are examined.
The philosophical and evidentiary basis of homoeopathic immunisation: A response to Teixeira
- Authors: Golden, Isaac
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of High Dilution Research Vol. 13, no. 46 (2014), p. 45-53
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Homoeopathic immunisation was first used in 1798, but remains controversial with some homoeopathic practitioners. Teixeira supports the use of genus epidemicus (GE) remedies, but strongly condemns the use of nosodes for disease prevention. However, Teixeira failed to fully understand the principle of similars, he used a double standard when comparing evidences using GE remedies and nosodes, he misread information demonstrating the safety of long-term homoeoprophylaxis (HP), and he appeared to be unaware of scientific evidence which is available supporting the prophylactic use of nosodes. These four areas are addressed in turn, and evidence from 1798 to 2012 is presented showing that appropriate homoeopathic immunisation using GE remedies and/or nosodes has the potential to prevent much suffering without any risk of possible short-term toxic damage or long-term energetic adverse effects.
Capped K-NN Editing in definition lacking environments
- Authors: Stranieri, Andrew , Yatsko, Andrew , Golden, Isaac , Mammadov, Musa , Bagirov, Adil
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Pattern Recognition Research Vol. 8, no. 1 (2013), p. 39-58
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: While any input may be contributing, imprecise specification of class of data subdivided into classes identifies as rather common a source of noise. The misrepresentation may be characteristic of the data or be caused by forcing of a regression problem into the classification type. Consideration is given to examples of this nature, and an alternative is proposed. In the main part, the approach is based on a well-known technique of data treatment for noise using k-NN. The paper advances an editing technique designed around idea of variable number of authenticating instances. Test runs performed on publicly available and proprietary data demonstrate high retention ability of the new procedure without loss of classification accuracy. Noise reduction methods in a broader classification context are extensively surveyed.