Background: Some above ground nuclear tests conducted from 1949 to 1962 at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site led to radiation exposure of the public. We conducted medical examinations for hypothyroidism, thyroid cancer, and thyroid nodules with the purpose of providing documentation that might be used in determining whether these exposures had an impact on public health.

Methods: A series of medical field studies were carried out from 1999 – 2009 among volunteers living either in settlements which were potentially affected or which were not affected by the nuclear testing. Risk ratios were estimated between exposed and unexposed individuals.

Results: 1,287 examinations were carried out among 1,067 study participants. 456 were believed to have been exposed and 577 were not. For 34 participants, the exposure situation could not be determined. Risks for hypothyroidism and for thyroid cancer were lower in the exposed compared to the unexposed, i.e., the risk ratios were 0.22 (95%CI, 0.11-0.47) and 0.75 (95%CI, 0.37-1.54), respectively. Looking at affected settlements only did not change the result. For thyroid nodules the risk ratio was 0.99 (95%CI, 0.73-1.35), in affected settlements it was 1.26 (95%CI, 0.81-1.95).

Conclusion: There was no indication for an elevated risk of hypothyroidism or thyroid cancer among those who were believed to have been exposed compared to those who were likely unexposed. However, an elevated risk for thyroid nodules could not be ruled out among those living in affected settlements. The strength of these f indings is limited by the absence of individual radiation dose estimates.

Introduction: Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) services are expected to foster economic, environmental, and social growth. Many different strategies are used today to create infrastructures that support effective implementation of e-services and facilitate the transition to an individual-centred system. However generic implementation of e-services that contribute to develop new alternatives to deliver social care and wellbeing services in AAL-environments has not yet taken place.

Aim: The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the issues that influence the effectiveness of implementation of e-services in ambient assisted living contexts.

Method: The paper uses knowledge sampled in a report produced by one of the authors of this article for the Swedish Innovation Agency (VINNOVA) in Sweden, where issues related to implementation of IT-based applications and e-services were discusses as well as in data collected in two European projects connected to the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Programme in which strategies to implement e-services were studied and analyzed.

Results: The paper identifies ex-ante and ex-post enablers and concerns that are of importance at the moment to implement e-services in ambient assisted living contexts. The knowledge presented in this paper can be of importance for decision-makers, managers, and individuals who need to develop strategies that facilitate the implementation of e-services across a whole organization.