Library: Health Sciences

This thesis describes a telemedicine approach to a computer-aided healthcare system. NEMESIS is the Spanish acronym of New Electrocardiographic Medical Station with Information Systems. The application is a comprehensive tool set, structured around a main navigation bar, which leads to every sub-application. Those sub-applications are window based, user-friendly tools, comprising specific health tools for physicians, telemedicine/telematics tools and general-purpose tools. The whole application is built in a highly structured and modular way, which allows adding or excluding mod...

The complementary and alternative (CAM) health movement is a burgeoning phenomenon in contemporary American culture. Types of healing alternatives to conventional medicine became increasingly popular in the latter quarter of the 20th century and some physicians, hospitals, and government entities have began to acknowledge the fields with validity. While alternatives to conventional medicine have always existed, contemporary interest in CAM may trigger an interest in unconventional forms of energy healing such as Reiki. The purpose of this research study was to investigate if Reiki could red...

Human Papillomavirus has emerged as a distinct cause of cervical changes in young women. Its prevalence is continuously growing and is considered at epidemic proportions with 20 million Americans already infected and 5.5 million new cases reported annually. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Tracking the Hidden Epidemics., Trends in STDs in the U.S. 2000, Atlanta, Georgia, 2000) There are known risk factors associated with HPV cervical changes and cervical cancer. These known risk factors are the number of one’s sexual partners, age at first coitus, smoking and use of oral contrac...

Women experience sexual and domestic violence at alarmingly high rates. Recovery from this type of trauma can be a complex and extensive process, that in best cases, involves a broad network for support. This dissertation examined the experiences of women over the age of 21 who have received massage therapy during their healing process from sexual or domestic violence. For the purposes of this study, the women who participated were often referred to as “survivors of abuse.” Current research examined in the literature review indicates that the effects of this type of trauma are ...

The carotid body initiates reflexes aimed principally at the homeostatic maintenance of blood gas tensions. This thesis tested the hypothesis that the carotid body is also a physiological glucosensor, with a role in mediating exercise hyperpnoea. In anaesthetised rats, insulin-induced hypoglycaemia (from ca. 6.5 to 2.8 mmol L-1) caused an ca. two-fold increase of oxygen consumption that was associated with a significant, carotid body-dependent increase in ventilation (from ca. 420 to 640 ml min-1 kg-1) without change in blood gas tensions. This hypoglycaemic hyperpnoea was associated with hypo...

Infertility affects more than 3 million married couples in the United States. This study explored the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for treating female infertility. Surveys queried allopathic practitioners and TCM practitioners regarding their perceived knowledge and use of TCM. The vast majority of allopathic practitioners referred patients to acupuncturists and believed that acupuncture helped patients. The majority of respondents identified a trend for treating female infertility with TCM and Western medical procedures. The majority of respondents supported the concurrent use of...

A study of professional women was initiated to determine if herbal adaptogens have any effect on improving resiliency for coping with stress. An herbal adaptogen is an herb that helps the body adjust to difficult or extreme circumstances (Derrida, 2004). An iridology assessment was completed to define the subjects’ genetic profile for resiliency. It was hypothesized that if the person were genetically resilient, herbal adaptogens would not be effective, as their stress-handling capabilities were naturally strong. Through resiliency questionnaires, a positive improvement in the ability to manag...

Past studies have been done on the effects specific foods have on the adrenal glands and other hormones. This study is concerned with the combined effect that a well-rounded, healthy, nutrient-dense food program while eliminating the use of selected substances known to alter hormones, such as alcohol, caffeine, soy, hormone-laced meat, common allergy foods, would have on the adrenal glands and specific hormones. The investigator studied six individuals that had never been on hormone replacement therapy and were on a less than optimal diet. One post-menopausal woman, four menstruating women, a...

The style of leadership in an interdisciplinary collaboration is an existing gap in collaborative literature. Studying the leaders in an existing interdisciplinary collaboration provided a description of the leadership style of the collaborative leaders of three behavioral health teams in New York City. This qualitative phenomenological study used structured interviews of interdisciplinary disciplines to describe the leadership style of the collaborative leaders within a team environment. The data collection and analysis were conducted using codes to identify dominant themes. The themes presen...

Physicians and patients have received inaccurate medical laboratory test results that have put patients at risk. The purpose of this study is to determine the moral reasoning level of medical laboratory professionals. The theoretical framework that guided this study is grounded by the theories of cognitive development. The study used a population survey and Defining Issues Test, version 2 (DIT-2) questionnaires to collect data. Forty-seven participants from a medical laboratory were surveyed, and hypotheses were tested between moral reasoning scores (dependent variable) and age, gender, level ...