We talk about the importance of psychoeducation for heart patients with Anna Mierzyńska and Karolina Jurczak of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Institute of Cardiology in Anin.

O b j e c t i v e s: Patient-centered care (PCC) is associated with better doctor-patient relationships, resulting in a decrease in symptoms, hospitalizations and health costs. However, studies analyzing factors infl uencing patient-centered attitudes show ambiguous results. The purpose was to assess the impact of the Clinical Communication Course (CCC) in Jagiellonian University, Cracow and other factors on Patient-Centered Attitudes (PCA) and Attitude toward Clinical Skills Learning (CSLA).

M e t h o d s: We retrospectively compared Polish-speakers (CCC+, n = 160), English-speakers (CCCen+, n = 55) aft er the CCC and upperclassmen Polish-speakers without it (CCC–, n = 122). Validated questionnaires to measure PCA (Leeds Attitude Toward Concordance II and Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS)) and for CSLA (Communication Skills Attitude Scale with negative subscale (CSAS-N)) were used. The higher the scores, the more PCA, and negative CSLA respectively. Students completed questionnaires and answered questions regarding age, sex, motivation to study (coded as humanitarian — MotHUM, financial — MotFIN, combination — MotMIX) and considered specialization — coded as with more human contact (family medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics — SpecHUM) and others (SpecNHUM). Statistics were prepared in R.

R e s u l t s: CCC+ scored higher in PPOS (2.91 vs. 2.74; p = 0.003) than CCC– and higher in CSAS-N than CCCen+ (31.22 vs. 28.32; p = 0.004). In CCC+ SpecHUM scored lower than SpecNHUM in PPOS (2.65 vs. 2.94, p = 0.012). MotFIN scored higher then MotMIX in PPOS (3.01 vs. 2.7, p = 0.036). Correlations were statistically significant.

C o n c l u s i o n: CCC improved PCA in CCC+. Th ey showed more negative CSLA than CCCen+. Among CCC+, surprisingly, SpecNHUM presented more PCA than SpecHUM as well as MotFIN compared to MotMIX.

Introduction: Patient Targeted Googling (PTG) is not a new phenomenon, but in Poland — according to the information available to the authors — there has been no research in this area among nurses and midwives. The above-mentioned activity is associated with many doubts and concerns of legal and ethical issues, and therefore there is a need to explore it.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of PTG among nurses and midwives in Poland.
Material and Methods: The study conducted among 300 working nurses and midwives used a diag-nostic survey based on the author’s survey questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using PQStat version: 1.8.4.142. Mann–Whitney U tests, chi^2 and Fisher’s correlations were used. The significance level was adopted at p <0.05 and highly significant at p <0.01.
Results: The respondents’ reasons for patient targeted googling were mainly lack of other sources of information, controlling adherence to recommendations, ascertaining the patient’s mental disorders, behavior, substance abuse status and physical appearance. PTG without informing the patient was con-sidered unethical and likely to violate the principle of informed consent and privacy. Respondents ex-pressed the need for PTG training.
Conclusions: The study presents the prevalence of PTG phenomenon among Polish nurses and mid-wives along with the different determinants of this activity.

Videoplethysmography is currently recognized as a promising noninvasive heart rate measurement method advantageous for ubiquitous monitoring of humans in natural living conditions. Although the method is considered for application in several areas including telemedicine, sports and assisted living, its dependence on lighting conditions and camera performance is still not investigated enough. In this paper we report on research of various image acquisition aspects including the lighting spectrum, frame rate and compression. In the experimental part, we recorded five video sequences in various lighting conditions (fluorescent artificial light, dim daylight, infrared light, incandescent light bulb) using a programmable frame rate camera and a pulse oximeter as the reference. For a video sequence-based heart rate measurement we implemented a pulse detection algorithm based on the power spectral density, estimated using Welch’s technique. The results showed that lighting conditions and selected video camera settings including compression and the sampling frequency influence the heart rate detection accuracy. The average heart rate error also varies from 0.35 beats per minute (bpm) for fluorescent light to 6.6 bpm for dim daylight.

Background. For many years virtual reality (VR) has been used to support therapy in many clinical contexts. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of VR as an intervention to reduce distress and increase patient comfort during chemotherapy. Participants and Procedure. Twenty-six adult patients of the Haematology Clinic participated in the between-group design study. The experimental group used a VR application during three chemotherapy sessions, while the control group underwent treatment as usual.
Participants' task in VR was to locate and destroy cancer cells using drug particles emitted from a virtual weapon. Several self-report measures were used, measuring attitudes towards the chemotherapy session, experiences during the session, items related to using visualization techniques, and questions related to evaluating the VR application.
Results. We found a significant difference between groups regarding the experience of the session. Participants in the experimental group reported more sense of control over the treatment process, higher levels of physical comfort, and relaxation. We discuss the implications of these results in various contexts, including gender differences, age, and time between chemotherapy sessions.
Conclusions. Virtual Reality applications can effectively influence the experience of the chemotherapy session positively. Its use can also affect the psychological aspects of a patient's treatment process.

This study aims to test the effectiveness of online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in increasing the resilience of Covid-19 patients. It has applied a website-based cyberpsychology approach to providing Mindfulness- Based Cognitive Therapy interventions. The online program was delivered over six sessions. These were carried out across four meetings, each of which lasted 30-120 minutes. The study is pre-experimental, using a single group pre-test to post-test experimental design. There were 5 patient participants with Covid-19, 1 male and 4 female. They were aged 20-27 years. All were either asymptomatic or presented only mild symptoms. The Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was used to measure pre- to post-intervention change in resilience, and a negative emotion scale was used to derive emotion ratings after each session. Results were analysed using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. This showed a value of Z = -2.023 (p < 0.05), with a mean rank of 3.00, and a sum of ranks of 15.00. The analysis indicates that online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy can significantly increase resilience in Covid-19 patients.

This paper offers an analysis of specialised medical discourse about COVID-19 in scientific articles in English, published in Polish professional medical journals. Special attention is paid to the textual representation of phenomena such as coronavirus and other pandemic-related concepts/aspects, as well the agency of doctors and patients. Methodologically, the paper blends the principles of qualitative discourse analysis with insights obtained from a quantitative exploration of the texts with the help of SketchEngine®.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic, recurrent inflammatory dermatosis. The most characteristic symptoms of the disease include itch, eczematous eruptions and excessive dryness of the skin. Elderly patients with AD represent a poorly characterized population because the physiological ageing, possible comorbidity and polypharmacy modify the clinical presentation typically observed in the younger age groups. The aim of the study is to comprehensively assess the clinical characteristics of elderly patients (>60 years old) with AD. Data were collected from 26 AD patients treated in the Department of Derma-tology of the University Hospital in Krakow. Late-onset AD with generalized/prurigo lesions was the most predominant phenotype. Skin biopsy was required in 15 (58%) patients in the differential diagnosis process. Allergic rhinitis, a positive family history of atopy and xerosis were associated with a higher number of hospitalizations during the year prior to the last admission (p = 0.034, p = 0.046 and p = 0.036, respectively). Xerosis was more prevalent among subjects with polypharmacy (p = 0.046) and higher serum total IgE concentration (p = 0.048). AD in elderly patients is a new phenotype of the disease that requires careful differential diagnosis. Aged patients with an individual or family history of atopy, due to the increased incidence of severe exacerbations of AD, may benefit from the introduction of proactive therapy.

Introduction: Cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) such as pacemakers or car-dioverter defibrillators prevent dangerous heart arrhythmias and conduction abnormalities. Post-inter-vention education is crucial in the patient recovery process and aims to avoid both dangerous behavior and unnecessary restraints in daily living.
Objective: The evaluation of knowledge of daily activities’ safety among patients with CIEDs and an analysis of the relationship between the state of knowledge and perceived post-intervention quality of life.
Materials and Methods: The study group included 100 patients (57% men) with CIEDs, recruited in the University Hospital in Kraków. Data on the patients’ knowledge about permissible daily activities, medical procedures and perceived quality of life was collected using a dedicated questionnaire, which comprised 57 simple and multiple-choice questions.
Results: The analyzed group included patients aged 28 to 97 years (mean age 73). Among them, 26% either have not received or have not read the information booklet. Two-thirds of them either need more information about their device (51%) or do not possess essential knowledge (15%). Patients raised con-cerns about performing daily activities such as: car-driving (38%), using seat belts (14%), bathing (15%), returning to work (51%) or climbing stairs (16%). They reported anxiety when using computers (39%), mobile phones (51%), microwaves (73%) and even electric toothbrushes (51%). It has been observed that patients with a greater general understanding of the pacemaker and post-implantation restraints had a higher quality of life on average.
Conclusions: Patients with CIEDs restrain themselves excessively in daily living. There is a strong need to provide them with knowledge of their medical condition, concomitant capabilities, and limitations to undergo a fully successful rehabilitation. Comprehensive and easily comprehensible recommendations may play a key role in improving patients’ quality of life.

The complex course of the COVID-19 and the distant complications of the SARS-CoV-2 infection still remain an unfaded challenge for modern medicine. The care of patients with the sympto-matic course of COVID-19 exceeds the competence of a single specialty, often requiring a multispecialist approach. The CRACoV-HHS (CRAcow in CoVid pandemic — Home, Hospital and Staff) project has been developed by a team of scientists and clinicians with the aim of optimizing medical care at hospital and ambulatory settings and treatment of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. The CRACoV project integrates 26 basic and clinical research from multiple medical disciplines, involving different populations infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus and exposed to infection.
Between January 2021 and April 2022 we plan to recruit subjects among patients diagnosed and treated in the University Hospital in Cracow, the largest public hospital in Poland, i.e. 1) patients admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19 [main module: ‘Hospital’]; 2) patients with signs of infection who have been confirmed as having SARS-CoV-2 infection and have been referred to home isolation due to their mild course (module: ‘Home isolation’); 3) patients with symptoms of infection and high exposure to SARS- CoV-2 who have a negative RT-PCR test result. In addition, survey in various professional groups of hospital employees, both medical and non-medical, and final-fifth year medical students (module: ‘Staff’) is planned.
The project carries both scientific and practical dimension and is expected to develop a multidisciplinary model of care of COVID-19 patients as well as recommendations for the management of particular groups of patients including: asymptomatic patient or with mild symptoms of COVID-19; symptomatic patients requiring hospitalization due to more severe clinical course of disease and organ complications; patient requiring surgery; patient with diabetes; patient requiring psychological support; patient with undesirable consequences of pharmacological treatment.