Exploration of preschool hearing screening at primary healthcare centers in Riyadh,Saudi Arabia:A cross-sectional study

The hearing status of children should be examined throughout early childhood,even if they have passed the newborn hearing loss because hearing loss can occur at any time and may affect their ability to learn.Preschool hearing screening(PHS)is vital to continue screening throughout early childhood.The current practice of PHS in the primary healthcare centers(PHCs)in Saudi Arabia is unknown.The purpose of this study was to investigate PHS in the PHCs.This cross-sectional descriptive study used an in-person-administered questionnaire to collect data.A total of 106 out of 120 participants(male=61;female=45)representing the PHCs in Riyadh were interviewed.Most of the participants were aged 31–40 years and held a bachelor’s degree as the highest academic qualification with limited years of experience.PHS was mostly performed through subjective measures by asking the parents(71.7%)and the child(65.1%).The audiometric evaluation was conducted for preschool children in only half of the PHCs.General practitioners and nurses usually perform PHS.Substantial gaps in the practice of PHS were identified.The lack of training and appropriate instruments and the need for audiological services were the main challenges.Incorporating robust and objective protocols for PHS into the educational system is a valuable strategy for identifying hearing loss early and reducing its impact through the establishment of effective intervention plans.

Veterans utilizing a federally qualified health center: a clinical snapshot

Dear Editor,Te Veterans Health Administration(VHA)provides healthcare for over 9 million enrolled veterans with approximately 2.7 million of those residing in rural areas[1].Te MISSION Act of 2018 emphasizes VHA collaboration with Federally Qualifed Healthcare Centers(FQHC)to serve rural residing veterans and nearly all existing collaborations involve arrangement of payment for community-based care by VHA to FQHCs.Unfortunately,there is a paucity of descriptive clinical data on existing cross-system collaborations which may help characterize these veterans and aid understanding of conditions for which they may receive treatment across systems.Such data has implications for workforce training,development,and resource allocation[2].Te objective of this report is to describe diferent clinical profles between two mutually exclusive samples:veterans engaged in FQHC only use,and VHA-enrolled veterans engaged in dual VHA and FQHC use.

Telepresence Robots and Controlling Techniques in Healthcare System

In this era of post-COVID-19,humans are psychologically restricted to interact less with other humans.According to the world health organization(WHO),there are many scenarios where human interactions cause severe multiplication of viruses from human to human and spread worldwide.Most healthcare systems shifted to isolation during the pandemic and a very restricted work environment.Investigations were done to overcome the remedy,and the researcher developed different techniques and recommended solutions.Telepresence robot was the solution achieved by all industries to continue their operations but with almost zero physical interaction with other humans.It played a vital role in this perspective to help humans to perform daily routine tasks.Healthcare workers can use telepresence robots to interact with patients who visit the healthcare center for initial diagnosis for better healthcare system performance without direct interaction.The presented paper aims to compare different telepresence robots and their different controlling techniques to perform the needful in the respective scenario of healthcare environments.This paper comprehensively analyzes and reviews the applications of presented techniques to control different telepresence robots.However,our feature-wise analysis also points to specific technical,appropriate,and ethical challenges that remain to be solved.The proposed investigation summarizes the need for further multifaceted research on the design and impact of a telepresence robot for healthcare centers,building on new perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.