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BackgroundThe utilization of modern communication technology in the healthcare field is known as telemedicine, and it represents an advancement in the healthcare industry. For effective implementation of these technologies, healthcare professionals must possess the appropriate knowledge and hold a positive perspective toward the implementation of telemedicine. The current study aims to evaluate the knowledge and perspective of healthcare professionals in King Fahad Medical City, Saudi Arabia toward telemedicine.MethodsThis study was carried out in a diverse hospital, King Fahad Medical City, Saudi Arabia and it was a cross-sectional study. The study took place from June 2019 until February 2020, during which 370 healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals participated. The data was gathered by using a structured self-administered questionnaire.ResultsThe analysis of the data revealed that the majority of the healthcare professionals who participated in the study, 237 (63.7%), had limited knowledge of telemedicine. About 41 (11%) participants had a good understanding of the technology, and 94 participants (25.3%) had extensive knowledge. The overall attitude of the participants toward telemedicine was positive, with a mean score of 3.26. The mean attitude scores varied significantly (P < 0.001) among the different professions, with physicians scoring 3.69, allied healthcare professionals scoring 3.31, and nurses scoring 3.07. The coefficient of determination (R2) was used to evaluate the variation in attitude toward telemedicine and it was found that education (12.4%) and nationality (4.7%) had the least impact on the attitude toward telemedicine.ConclusionHealthcare professionals are crucial to the successful implementation and continuity of telemedicine. However, despite their positive attitude toward telemedicine, most of the healthcare professionals who participated in the study had limited knowledge of it. There were differences in attitude among different groups of healthcare professionals. As a result, it is necessary to create specialized educational programs for healthcare professionals to guarantee the proper implementation and continuation of telemedicine.

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Objective To evaluate reproductive outcomes after hysteroscopic adhesiolysis for patients with Asherman syndrome (AS) who presented with infertility and/or subfertility. Methods A retrospective study was conducted in the Women’s Specialized Hospital, King Fahad Medical City, from December 2010 to December 2018. The medical records were reviewed for all infertile women who had hysteroscopic adhesiolysis. The specific study’s main reproductive outcomes included: [1] the overall rate of conception, [2] the overall rate of conception according to the severity degree of intrauterine adhesions (IUAs), [3] the reproductive methods for achieving conception, and [4] pregnancy outcomes. Reproductive methods for conception included spontaneous conception, ovulation induction (OI), intrauterine insemination (IUI), and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with/without intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Outcomes of pregnancy included ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, and live birth events. Results Forty-one patients (n=41) were analyzed. Their mean age was 32.2±4.6 years. The most common menstrual pattern amongst these patients was hypomenorrhea 46.4%. All patients resumed regular menstrual cycles after the adhesiolysis procedure. The overall conception rate during the 24 months follow up was 53.6%, and the overall live birth rate was 34.2%. Of the 22 patients who conceived, 12 patients (29.2%) conceived spontaneously, 2 (4.9%) with IUI, and 8 (19.5%) with IVF-ICSI. The patients with minimal IUAs had a significantly higher pregnancy rate (71.4%) when compared to those with moderate (47%) and severe (40%) IUA (two-tailed log-rank test, p =0.041). Conclusions The spontaneous cumulative conception rate following hysteroscopic adhesiolysis was higher in patients with minimal IUAs than those with moderate and severe IUAs.

Free-space optical (FSO) communications is an important technology that will be used for supporting high data-rates in the backhaul of next generation of wireless communication networks. In this paper, we have comparedthe probability of error performance of two types of receivers used in FSO today: a receiver based on a single detector, and a receiver based on an array of detectors. The performance of these two receivers is compared for a number of fusion algorithms for an array of detectors such as equal gain combiner (EGC), selection combiner(SC), switched combiner (SWC) and the maximal ratio combiner (MRC). From this study, we conclude that even though the array of detectors adds more noise in the sufficient statistic by virtue of large number of detectors,using more computationally expensive fusion algorithms (such as SC and MRC) can help us achieve a superior probability of error performance as opposed to a single-detector receiver for practical channel conditions.