About the Authors

Hon-Yi Shi

Affiliation Department of Healthcare Administration and Medical Informatics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Hao-Hsien Lee

Affiliation Department of Surgery, Chi Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Taiwan

Jinn-Tsong Tsai

Affiliation Department of Computer Science, National Pingtung University of Education, Pingtung, Taiwan

Wen-Hsien Ho

Affiliation Department of Healthcare Administration and Medical Informatics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Chieh-Fan Chen

Affiliations Emergency Department, Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Department of Health Business Administration, Meiho University, Pigntung, Taiwan

King-Teh Lee

Contributed equally to this work with: King-Teh Lee, Chong-Chi Chiu

Affiliations Department of Healthcare Administration and Medical Informatics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Division of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Chong-Chi Chiu

Contributed equally to this work with: King-Teh Lee, Chong-Chi Chiu

chiuchongchi@yahoo.com.tw

Affiliations Department of Surgery, Chi Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Taiwan, Department of General Surgery, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HYS CCC. Performed the experiments: HYS HHL JTT WHH CFC KTL CCC. Analyzed the data: HYS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HYS HHL JTT WHH CFC KTL CCC. Wrote the paper: HYS HHL JTT WHH CFC KTL CCC. Administrative, technical, and material support: HYS HHL JTT WHH CFC KTL CCC. Study supervision: HHL KTL CCC.