Assessing Readiness to Work in Primary Health Care: The Content Validity of a Self-Check Tool for Physiotherapists and Other Health Professionals.

Assessing readiness to work in primary health care: the content validity of a self-check tool for physiotherapists and other health professionals.

J Prim Health Care. 2013; 5(1): 70-3
Stewart J, Haswell K

The New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy has emphasised the importance of well-coordinated service teams in managing complex chronic conditions. There is international evidence that physiotherapists can contribute effectively to the prevention and management of these conditions. However, there are few examples of physiotherapists in New Zealand (NZ) engaging in primary health care (PHC). It has been recognised that professional development is necessary to optimise physiotherapists’ participation in PHC.The aim of this study was to both design a self-check tool that physiotherapists could use as an initial step in preparing to work in PHC and to assess the content validity of the tool.A literature review informed the development of the self-check tool. The tool was reviewed by members of the Physiotherapy New Zealand PHC working party to establish content validity.The tool was found to have excellent content validity with an overall score of 0.937, exceeding the acceptable index of 0.8. Item validity was excellent or acceptable for all except two items, which were subsequently modified in the final tool.This investigation provides initial support for the tool’s potential use by physiotherapists as a means of determining their readiness to work in PHC. It could have application beyond individual professional development to the wider context of team and organisational development. Additionally, with minor modifications the tool could have broader application to other professional groups. HubMed – rehab

Prediction of auditory and visual p300 brain-computer interface aptitude.

PLoS One. 2013; 8(2): e53513
Halder S, Hammer EM, Kleih SC, Bogdan M, Rosenstiel W, Birbaumer N, Kübler A

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide a non-muscular communication channel for patients with late-stage motoneuron disease (e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)) or otherwise motor impaired people and are also used for motor rehabilitation in chronic stroke. Differences in the ability to use a BCI vary from person to person and from session to session. A reliable predictor of aptitude would allow for the selection of suitable BCI paradigms. For this reason, we investigated whether P300 BCI aptitude could be predicted from a short experiment with a standard auditory oddball.Forty healthy participants performed an electroencephalography (EEG) based visual and auditory P300-BCI spelling task in a single session. In addition, prior to each session an auditory oddball was presented. Features extracted from the auditory oddball were analyzed with respect to predictive power for BCI aptitude.Correlation between auditory oddball response and P300 BCI accuracy revealed a strong relationship between accuracy and N2 amplitude and the amplitude of a late ERP component between 400 and 600 ms. Interestingly, the P3 amplitude of the auditory oddball response was not correlated with accuracy.Event-related potentials recorded during a standard auditory oddball session moderately predict aptitude in an audiory and highly in a visual P300 BCI. The predictor will allow for faster paradigm selection.Our method will reduce strain on patients because unsuccessful training may be avoided, provided the results can be generalized to the patient population. HubMed – rehab

The correlation of neurophysiological findings with clinical and functional status in patients following traumatic nerve injury.

J Hand Surg Eur Vol. 2013 Mar 1;
Sahin F, Atalay NS, Akkaya N, Ercidogan O, Basakçi B, Kuran B

In this study, we aimed to determine whether there is a correlation between the electrodiagnostic findings and the functional status, muscle strength and sensibility in patients with traumatic nerve injury to the wrists. We assessed 50 patients at a mean of 11.6 months (SD 5.85) (range 6-25) after nerve injury. Sensibility was assessed by monofilament testing. Motor function was evaluated by assessing the manual muscle grade of the abductor pollicis brevis and abductor digiti minimi muscles. Function was evaluated by the Sollerman Hand Function Test. The amplitudes of the compound muscle action potential and the sensory nerve action potential were determined by electroneuromyography. While the compound muscle action potential and sensory nerve action potential amplitudes had significant correlation with muscle grade and Semmes Weinstein Monofilament tests, there was no correlation with the functional scores. HubMed – rehab