Open Online Courses (OOCs) are offered by Peoples-uni at
http://ooc.peoples-uni.org
to complement the courses run on a separate site for academic credit at
http://courses.peoples-uni.org
. They ...provide a wide range of online learning resources beyond those usually found in credit bearing Public Health courses. They are self-paced, and students can enrol themselves at any time and utilise Open Educational Resources free of copyright restrictions. In the two years that courses have been running, 1174 students from 100 countries have registered and among the 1597 enrolments in 14 courses, 15% gained a certificate of completion. Easily accessible and appealing to a wide geographical and professional audience, OOCs have the potential to play a part in establishing global Public Health capacity building programmes.
Orthopaedic surgery is a high-risk specialty in which errors will undoubtedly occur. Patient safety incidents can yield valuable information to generate solutions and prevent future cases of ...avoidable harm. The aim of this study was to understand the causative factors leading to all unnecessary deaths in orthopaedics and trauma surgery reported to the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) over a four-year period (2005-2009), using a qualitative approach.
Reports made to the NPSA are categorised and stored in the database as free-text data. A search was undertaken to identify the cases of all-cause mortality in orthopaedic and trauma surgery, and the free-text elements were used for thematic analysis. Descriptive statistics were calculated based on the incidents reported. This included presenting the number of times categories of incidents had the same or similar response. Superordinate and subordinate categories were created.
A total of 257 incident reports were analysed. Four main thematic categories emerged. These were: (1) stages of the surgical journey - 118/191 (62%) of deaths occurred in the post-operative phase; (2) causes of patient deaths - 32% were related to severe infections; (3) reported quality of medical interventions - 65% of patients experienced minimal or delayed treatment; (4) skills of healthcare professionals - 44% of deaths had a failure in non-technical skills.
Most complications in orthopaedic surgery can be dealt with adequately, provided they are anticipated and that risk-reduction strategies are instituted. Surgeons take pride in the precision of operative techniques; perhaps it is time to enshrine the multimodal tools available to ensure safer patient care.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis have relied upon NSAIDs as a cornerstone of their analgesic regime for decades. The choice of anti-inflammatory agents broadened for this group ...of patients when the selective inhibitors of cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme were developed. Much has been published in the past few years regarding the superior gastrointestinal safety of this class of drugs when compared with traditional NSAIDs. Their triumphant debut was swiftly followed by the emergence of data detailing their associated increased serious cardiovascular risks. This also led to a reevaluation of data concerning more traditional NSAIDs, and surprisingly, a similar trend was seen. The US Food and Drug Administration has recommended that both classes of drugs carry a black box warning with regard to gastrointestinal and cardiovascular risks.
Proximal humeral fractures, which occur mainly in older adults, account for approximately 4 to 5% of all fractures. Approximately 40% of these fractures are displaced fractures involving the surgical ...neck. Management of this group of fractures is often challenging and the outcome is frequently unsatisfactory. In particular it is not clear whether surgery gives better outcomes than non-surgical management. Currently there is much variation in the use of surgery and a lack of good quality evidence to inform this decision.
We aim to undertake a pragmatic UK-based multi-centre randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of surgical versus standard non-surgical treatment for adults with an acute closed displaced fracture of the proximal humerus with involvement of the surgical neck. The choice of surgical intervention is left to the surgeon, who must use techniques that they are fully experienced with. This will avoid 'learning curve' problems. We will promote good standards of non-surgical care, similarly insisting on care-provider competence, and emphasize the need for comparable provision of rehabilitation for both groups of patients.We aim to recruit 250 patients from a minimum of 18 NHS trauma centres throughout the UK. These patients will be followed-up for 2 years. The primary outcome is the Oxford Shoulder Score, which will be collected via questionnaires completed by the trial participants at 6, 12 and 24 months. This is a 12-item condition-specific questionnaire providing a total score based on the person's subjective assessment of pain and activities of daily living impairment. We will also collect data for other outcomes, including general health measures and complications, and for an economic evaluation. Additionally, we plan a systematic collection of reasons for non-inclusion of eligible patients who were not recruited into the trial, and their baseline characteristics, treatment preferences and intended treatment.
This article presents the protocol for a multi-centre randomised controlled trial. It gives extensive details of, and the basis for, the chosen methods, and describes the key measures taken to avoid bias and to ensure validity.
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN50850043.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Evidence is accumulating for the early sustained usage of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in rheumatoid arthritis. Leflunomide was licensed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis ...in 1998. Postmarketing surveillance, case reports and observational studies have highlighted less common or unexpected adverse events. Therefore, it is appropriate that we review the benefit-risk profile of leflunomide after 10 years of widespread usage. A wide-based search of relevant literature was performed to formulate this assessment. The improvements in rheumatoid arthritis shown by double-blind, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of leflunomide have now been shown to be maintained beyond 4 years in open-label extension studies. Leflunomide is comparable to methotrexate, but better than sulfasalazine at 24 months in only one study. However, tolerance in clinical practice research shows higher than expected withdrawal rates due to both toxicity and lack of efficacy when compared with methotrexate and placebo. Adverse events reported include gastrointestinal upset, hypertension, headache, hepatotoxicity and hair loss, as well as predisposition to infection and peripheral neuropathy. The incidence of gastrointestinal adverse effects for leflunomide is similar to sulfasalazine but higher than those seen with methotrexate. Serious drug-induced hepatotoxicity leading to hospitalization is rare (0.02%), but isolated fatalities from liver failure have been documented. It is considered likely, but not yet proven, that there may be an increased incidence of weight loss and interstitial lung disease with leflunomide. Leflunomide in combination with methotrexate or sulfasalazine is an effective regimen in RCTs utilizing placebo controls, but more research is needed to confirm its effectiveness in combination with other DMARDs, particularly biologicals. The active metabolite of leflunomide is teratogenic in animal studies and is also found in breast milk. Therefore, contraception is advised in both males and females of child-bearing potential. There are genetic, pharmacokinetic and biochemical reasons to explain variation in both patient response and adverse event profile. Hence, blood and blood pressure monitoring are recommended and therapeutic drug monitoring should be considered in clinical nonresponders. Leflunomide is an effective DMARD that sustains a clinical and radiological response comparable to sulfasalazine and methotrexate. However, adverse effects necessitate frequent monitoring. It should be used with caution in those of child-bearing potential and with pre-existing lung and liver disease.
How to ensure that guidelines are effective THOMSON, R; LAVENDER, M; RAJAN MADHOK
BMJ. British medical journal (International ed.),
07/1995, Letnik:
311, Številka:
6999
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The Department of Health has introduced an initiative to encourage the adoption of evidence-based guidelines within purchaser-provider contracts, and a review of the effectiveness of clinical ...guidelines has recently been published. Guidelines and ways to ensure their effectiveness are discussed.
The role of the private sector is an important consideration, but so are other fundamental matters, such as the primary-secondary care divide, which the emphasis on purchasing and commissioning has ...reinforced. ...the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, National Patient Safety Agency, NHS National Institute for Innovation and Improvement, and national service frameworks have generated unprecedented, and unparalleled, intellectual capital, but we have not always managed to spread innovation and adopt best practice systematically or rapidly.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) occurs predominantly in young women, but also in children. The prevalence of SLE varies worldwide, ranging from about 1 in 3500 women (regardless of race) in the ...UK, to 1 in 1000 women in China, to 1 in 250 African-American women in the US.
We conducted a systematic overview, aiming to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of immunosuppressants in people with proliferative lupus nephritis? What are the effects of different immunosuppressants compared with each other in people with proliferative lupus nephritis? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to April 2014 (Clinical Evidence overviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this overview).
At this update, searching of electronic databases retrieved 448 studies. After deduplication and removal of conference abstracts, 120 records were screened for inclusion in the review. Appraisal of titles and abstracts led to the exclusion of 53 studies and the further review of 67 full publications. Of the 67 full articles evaluated, four systematic reviews and one RCT were added at this update. We performed a GRADE evaluation for 13 PICO combinations.
In this systematic overview, we categorised the efficacy for 10 interventions based on the effectiveness and safety of immunosuppressants plus corticosteroids compared with corticosteroids alone, and immunosuppressants plus corticosteroids compared with each other in people with proliferative lupus nephritis (WHO grades III-V).
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