Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Behavioral Health And Treatment Engagement With Former Users Of Prenatal Substances: A Strengths-Focused Mixed Methods Inquiry, Jennifer G. Benson, Peggy Maclean, Andrew Hsi, Sarah J. Erickson

Psychology ETDs

Accessible services for users of prenatal substances are lacking, and treatment engagement is poor with services that are available. Furthermore, legal consequences are often punitive, which ultimately damages the well-being of mother and child. Milagro and FOCUS are two New Mexico programs that provide comprehensive, coordinated care, including medication-assisted treatment, to former users of prenatal substances during pregnancy (in the Milagro Program) and for three years post-birth (in the FOCUS Program). This mixed methods study explored the lived experiences of women from this complex, high-risk population, using a high-engagement sample of women who utilized services at both Milagro and FOCUS. …

Proposed Method For Measuring The Let Of Radiotherapeutic Particle Beams, Stephen D. Bello

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The Bragg peak geometry of the depth dose distributions for hadrons allows for precise and effective dose delivery to tumors while sparing neighboring healthy tissue. Further, compared against other forms of radiotherapeutic treatments, such as electron beam therapy (EBT) or photons (x and \(\gamma\)-rays), hadrons create denser ionization events along the particle track, which induces irreparable damage to DNA, and thus are more effective at inactivating cancerous cells. The measurement of radiation's ability to inactivate cellular reproduction is the relative biological effectiveness (RBE). A quality related to the RBE that is a measurable physical property is the linear energy transfer …

Analyzing The Effectiviness Of A Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Targeting At-Risk Opioid Abuse Patients, Treadway Childs

Public Administration ETDs

The effectiveness of a prescription drug monitoring program in coordination with a prescription opioid recidivism program was examined at a semi-rural community hospital. Patients were identified by a multi-disciplinary committee to be at-risk for opioid misuse or abuse, and were denied prescription opioids. Patients were considered eligible for the program if they had over 12 emergency department visits in the previous 12 months, or 6 visits in the previous 6 months, depending on how long the hospital had records on a patient. Patients who were placed in the prescription opioid recidivism program could not receive opioids at this hospital. The …

A Comparison Of Video Conferencing And In-Person Health Coaching Approaches In Combination With Mhealth Devices On Weight Loss, Physical Activity, And Glycemic Control, Kelly E. Johnson

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Background: Compare health coaching efficacy on weight loss, physical activity, and glycemic control between individualized video conferencing (VC), in-person (IP) and control (CG) groups of adults with high BMI.

Methods: Thirty adults (BMI≥30 kg/m²) were randomly assigned to create three groups of 10 members each. Participants received a wireless accelerometer watch and weight scale to sync with their personal smartphones and downloaded apps. Participants assigned to VC and IP received weekly health coaching individualized based on data uploaded over the 12-wk intervention. Steps/day and weight loss were analyzed via analyses of covariance (ANCOVA). Between-group ANOVAs analyzed post-intervention changes …

Detection Of Healthcare-Associated Infectious Disease Outbreaks With A Special Look At Clostridium Difficile Infection In Long-Term Care Facilities, Almea Matanock

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality and a public health priority. However, standard procedures and comprehensive guidelines for HAI outbreak detection and response are still needed. This hybrid thesis describes what is known about HAI outbreaks in the introduction, reviews the HAI outbreaks reported to New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH), in the first paper, and then in the second paper examines how established methods for detecting infectious disease outbreaks perform in identifying Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) outbreaks in long-term care facilities (LTCF) in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, and finally, it closes with our overall …