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Biomedical subjects

C W Oliver

Publications and source records attributed to C W Oliver.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

The carpal bones: a basic test of medical students' and junior doctors' knowledge of anatomy.

With the changing emphasis of the modern medical school curriculum, many senior doctors and authors are commenting on a decline in anatomical knowledge of trainees. This study was conceived to provide a snapshot of medical students' and junior doctors' knowledge of anatomy. The carpal bones were chosen as a benchmark for anatomical knowledge as they are easily objectively examined and have clinical relevance to junior doctors in a number of disciplines. Twenty five fourth and final year medical students, fifteen pre-registration house officers (PRHOs) and ten senior house officers (SHOs) were recruited and the questionnaires were completed in the presence of one author. Of all participants recruited only fifteen could correctly name all eight carpal bones. Seven of these were SHOs in Surgery or Accident and Emergency (A&E). Seventeen medical students (68%) and nine PRHOs (60%) correctly identified less than five carpal bones. Most SHOs (90%) could name five or more bones; the proportion of PRHOs and medical students correctly naming more than five bones was similar (40% vs 32%). The scaphoid was the most frequently identified bone, with an accuracy of 92%. Only 15 candidates (30%) managed to name the triquetrum. The overall recognition scores obtained by medical students was poor, however the SHO's results were more reassuring. Anatomy teaching should be encouraged in undergraduate and postgraduate training.

Carpal Bones↗
PubMed2000

Source levels and estimated yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) detection ranges for dolphin jaw pops, breaches, and tail slaps.

Tuna fishers in the eastern Pacific Ocean often exploit an association between a few genus of dolphin (Stenella and Delphinus) and yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) to locate and capture the tuna. Identification of a mechanism which facilitates the tuna/dolphin bond may provide a means of exploiting the bond and capturing tuna without catching dolphin. To investigate if tuna may be attracted to low-frequency sounds produced by dolphins, source levels of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) jaw pops, breaches, and tail slaps were experimentally measured and used to estimate the maximum range at which yellowfin could detect similar sounds produced by pelagic species. The effective acoustic stimulus to the tuna was defined as the maximum one-third-octave level between 200 and 800 Hz, the frequency range where T. albacares is most sensitive. Spherical spreading was assumed to predict transmission loss with range. Breaches and jaw pops produced maximum one-third-octave source levels between 200 and 800 Hz of 153 (+/-4) and 163 (+/-2) dB re: 1 microPa-m, respectively, which resulted in estimated detection ranges of 340-840 and 660-1040 m, respectively. Tail slaps had lower source levels [max. 141 (+/-3) dB re: 1 microPa-m] and a maximum detection range of approximately 90-180 m.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

A review of the quality of trauma protocols on the Internet.

A review of trauma protocols found on the Internet was performed in September 1997 to evaluate the content, presentation and usefulness of these resources. A wide variation was found in the nature of these 'protocols', the educational content and the academic strengths of the web pages. We attempted to define a protocol and a scoring system to assess these documents and reviewed each accordingly.

Clinical Protocols↗
PubMed1999

The Mailbase hand surgery electronic mailing list.

Hand - an Internet based electronic mailing list - enables surgeons with a common interest in hand surgery to share experiences and engage in worldwide electronic scholarly discussion. This paper examines the thinking behind the setting up of this list and gives examples of how the list is being used.

General Surgery↗
PubMed1999

Assessment of an electronic mailing list for orthopaedic and trauma surgery.

Medical electronic mailing lists have grown rapidly with the evolution of the Internet. The purpose of this paper was to assess the content and academic quality and of an electronic mail discussion list "Orthopod" dedicated to research in orthopaedic and trauma surgery. A retrospective analysis was undertaken of four months of web-based archive of communication through the Orthopod mailing list http:(/)/www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/Orthopod. At the end of this study period there were 505 members of the Orthopod list. The main outcome measures of this paper were number of messages, type of messages, number of contributors, designation of contributor and number of topics referenced. On average 276 messages were posted each month. The mean number of messages per contributor per month only varied between 2.3 and 2.5. On average 54% of message threads contained at least one reference. At least 77% of the patient history and general threads had input from senior orthopaedic staff. The quantity of information on the Internet need not be a substitute for quality in orthopaedic and trauma surgery mailing lists. The Orthopod Electronic mail discussion list is another medium for the circulation of good quality surgical information. Orthopod provides a unique international electronic forum list for trauma and orthopaedic surgeons worldwide.

Humans↗
PubMed1999

The audit of orthopaedic trainee teaching improves supervision rates.

Inefficiency in surgical training has been identified as a result of low rates of supervision, with direct teaching of operating by consultants occurring in less than 20% of cases in papers dealing with general surgery and cardiac surgery training. The introduction of an audit system in an orthopaedic training programme was associated with an improvement of teaching from an already high 30% to 40% of cases. A logbook programme was introduced which allows easy analysis of the distribution of experience on an anatomical basis.

Education, Medical, Graduate↗
PubMed1999

The quality of surgical information on the Internet.

The quality of surgical information on the Internet is variable. Content variation limits the use of the Internet as a reliable and safe information source both for both health professionals and patients. Medical information is a particularly sensitive area. Incorrect or misleading information may lead to potentially dangerous health behaviour, patients reading information intended for health professionals may misunderstand information or may get wrong expectations regarding treatment options.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed1998

Assessment of spinal musculature using surface electromyographic spectral color mapping.

STUDY DESIGN: A technique is described for analyzing electromyogram data from lumbar spinal muscles, with special reference to discrimination of people with back pain. The ability to discriminate was evaluated in 99 people (61 healthy and 38 with chronic or acute back pain), and the influence of load was assessed. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate methods of analysis of complex electromyogram data and to assess correlation of electromyogram information with clinical condition in people with and without back pain. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION: In previous analyses of electromyogram data, only a small part of the data have been used. Spinal muscular decompensation has been postulated in chronic low back pain, but there has been no direct demonstration of this phenomenon. Objective measures are still elusive. METHODS: Lumbar spinal surface electromyograms were recorded during an isometric lifting task. The data were represented graphically as color-coded plots of electromyogram frequency, time, and electromyogram amplitude. Spectral width at half-peak amplitude (spectral half width) was calculated from the digitized, summed data. Ninety-nine people were tested: 48 men (29 with no recent [in the past 2 years] history of back pain, 16 with chronic back pain, 3 with acute back pain) and 51 women (32 with no recent back pain and 19 with chronic back pain). RESULTS: Spectral color maps in people with chronic back pain were markedly different from those in healthy people. Spectral half width was greater in people with chronic back pain than in healthy people (P < 0.01). Blinded analysis of spectral color maps allowed discrimination of people with back pain from healthy people with a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 81%. People with a history of back pain had markedly variable half widths. CONCLUSIONS: A new method of analysis of electromyogram data from lumbar spinal muscles has allowed discrimination between people with back pain and healthy people. This provides direct evidence of a correlation between muscular electrical function, measured by electromyogram, and low back pain. This technique may have potential as an objective measurement tool.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Artificial intelligence analysis of paraspinal power spectra.

OBJECTIVE: As an aid to discrimination of sufferers with back pain an artificial intelligence neural network was constructed to differentiate paraspinal power spectra. DESIGN: Clinical investigation using surface electromyography. METHOD: The surface electromyogram power spectra from 60 subjects, 33 non-back-pain sufferers and 27 chronic back pain sufferers were used to construct a back propagation neural network that was then tested. Subjects were placed on a test frame in 30 degrees of lumbar forward flexion. An isometric load of two-thirds maximum voluntary contraction was held constant for 30 s whilst surface electromyograms were recorded at the level of the L(4-5). Paraspinal power spectra were calculated and loaded into the input layer of a three-layer back propagation network. The neural network classified the spectra into normal or back pain type. RESULTS: The back propagation neural was shown to have satisfactory convergence with a specificity of 79% and a sensitivity of 80%. CONCLUSIONS: Artificial intelligence neural networks appear to be a useful method of differentiating paraspinal power spectra in back-pain sufferers.

Journal Article↗