Objective: Hospital-outreach pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) can improve health status and reduce health-care utilization by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, its ...long-term effects and costs versus benefits are still not clear. This study was conducted to develop, deliver, and evaluate the effects and monetary savings of a hospital-outreach PR program for patients with COPD. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted. Patients with COPD (n=208) were randomly assigned to the hospital-outreach PR program (treatment) or treatment as usual (control). The treatment group received a 3-month intensive intervention, including supervised physical exercise, smoking cessation, self-management education, and psychosocial support, followed by long-term access to a nurse through telephone follow-up and home visits up to 24 months. The control group received routine care, including discharge education and a self-management education brochure. Main outcomes were collected at 3, 6, 12, and 24 -months postrandomization. Primary outcomes included health-care utilization (ie, readmission rates, times, and days, and emergency department visits) and medical costs. Secondary outcomes included lung function (ie, FEV.sub.1, FEV.sub.1% predicted, FVC), dyspnea (mMCR), exercise capacity (6MWD), impact on quality of life (CAT), and self-management (CSMS). Results: At the end of 24 months, 85 (81.7%) in the treatment group and 89 (85.6%) in the control group had completed the whole program. Compared with the control group, patients in the treatment group had lower readmission rates, times, and days at 6 and 12 months and during 12-24 months. Regarding costs during the 2 years, the program achieved CNyen3,655.94 medical savings per patient per year, and every yen1 spent on the program led to yen3.29 insavings. Patients in the treatment group achieved improvements in FEV.sub.1, FEV.sub.1% predicted, exercise capacity, and self-management. It also achieved relief of dyspnea symptoms and improvement in COPD's impact on quality of life. Conclusion: The hospital-outreach PR program for patients with COPD achieved reductions in health-care utilization, monetary savings, and improvements in patient health outcomes. The effects of the program were sustained for at least 2 years. Trial Registration: This trial was registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-TRC-14005108). Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, savings, effects, hospital-outreach intervention, pulmonary rehabilitation
Around 100 000 people live in mental health supported accommodation in England, at considerable cost to the public purse, but there is little evidence to guide investment in the most effective ...models. We consider the various barriers to research in this field and offer suggestions on how to address them.
This study examined how a Creative Arts Initiative (CAI) outreach program could develop aspirations for higher education among students from low-SES backgrounds in Western Australia. Using the lens ...of bio-ecological systems and social capital frameworks, the Creative Arts program was examined as a facilitator of interactions between students and embedded social resources. The proposed model suggests a process where accessed resources can be mobilised into capital and activated as required to aid students' transitions into higher education. We hypothesised that mentors and role models as embedded resources would help students in low-ICSEA schools to build creative arts skills and competencies and acquire 'real-world' information about post-school university participation. Focus group data were collected from 28 participants in four schools. Students reported positive interactions with role models and mentors and personal development. Data analysis identified opportunities for acquisition of new skills and for mobilising resources into capital. Findings support the proposition that mobilisation and activation of newly acquired capital increase students' navigational capacity to achieve desired post-school goals. Resource-rich outreach programmes can be useful to engage students in learning, to acquire technical and interpersonal skills, for personal development, and as an activation tool for social and cultural capital to aid in post-school transitions. Author abstract
Active communication between researchers and society is necessary for the scientific community's involvement in developing science-based policies. This need is recognized by governmental and funding ...agencies that compel scientists to increase their public engagement and disseminate research findings in an accessible fashion. Storytelling techniques can help convey science by engaging people's imagination and emotions. Yet, many researchers are uncertain about how to approach scientific storytelling, or feel they lack the tools to undertake it. Here we explore some of the techniques intrinsic to crafting scientific narratives, as well as the reasons why scientific storytelling may be an optimal way of communicating research to nonspecialists. We also point out current communication gaps between science and society, particularly in the context of neurodiverse audiences and those that include neurological and psychiatric patients. Present shortcomings may turn into areas of synergy with the potential to link neuroscience education, research, and advocacy.
This brief report describes our experiences and the holiday service project that was safely conducted at the height of the COVID-19 resurgence in Michigan. As COVID-19 resurgence emerged in the ...United States and Europe, many establishments were forced to decrease their services and or cease functioning altogether. While other organizations faltered, our chapter found the means to continue to work during the pandemic.
Objective
To describe components of the mobile surgical outreach (MSO) program as a model of care delivery for women with genital fistula; present program results; and discuss operational strengths ...and challenges.
Methods
A retrospective observational study of routinely collected health data from women treated via the MSO program (2013–2018). The program was developed at Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo to meet the needs of women with fistula living in remote provinces, where travel is prohibited. It includes healthcare delivery, medico‐surgical training, and community sensitization components.
Results
The MSO team cared for 1517 women at 41 clinic sites across 18 provinces over the study period. Average age at presentation was 31 years (range, 1–81 years). Most women (n=1359, 89.6%) presented with vesicovaginal fistula. Most surgeries were successful, and few women reported residual incontinence postoperatively. Local teams were receptive and engaged in clinical skills training and public health education efforts.
Conclusion
The MSO program addresses the backlog of patients awaiting fistula surgery and provides a template for a national strategic plan to treat and ultimately end fistula in DRC. It offers a patient‐centered approach that brings medico‐surgical care and psychosocial support to women with fistula in their own communities.
Panzi Hospital's mobile surgical outreach program provides fistula care to women in their communities and represents a scalable model for treatment and prevention of fistula.
In an editorial, Museum Anthropology Review editor Jason Baird Jackson discusses the history of the journal as a context for explaining plans to reorient it to focus more closely on the work of the ...Mathers Museum of World Cultures and its museum and community partners; reducing the amount of unsolicited content published and increasing invited content arising from the research, exhibitions, and outreach work of the museum and its collaborators.
Analyze popular girls’ puberty books to understand what messages they portray about weight spurt and body image. A critical ethnography was conducted of 13 best-selling books about girls’ puberty. ...This analysis specifically focused on messages about weight gain/spurt and body image presented in the books and whether these were aligned with larger cultural understandings of weight gain and body image. A data-driven thematic analysis was conducted on the portions of each book relevant to weight gain and body image. The cultural fat-phobic scripts were prevalent in the books, contrasting the well-intended developmental messages. Discussions of weight tended to be negatively framed and weight gain expectations were distressingly vague. The books discussed the necessity of and biological rationale for those changes while normalizing variation in timing. The books also focused on developing a positive body image during this time. Understanding this allows us to see the pervasive, conflicting messages about weight-spurts that girls are receiving from these resources, which can be used to tailor book choice and outreach programs.
Outreach science labs aim to promote students’ interest. Previous research has often suggested that performing experiments in such labs has a positive effect on their interest. However, these studies ...often lack a comparison to the effects of performing them at school. This research gap was addressed in the present study. The sample consisted of 402 upper-secondary level students (age:
M
= 16.53 years,
SD
= 0.80 years) who performed three experiments on the topic of enzymology either in an outreach science lab (
n
= 203) or at school (
n
= 199). Contrary to the assumption, experimentation at the outreach science lab did not outperform experimentation at school in terms of students’ psychological state of interest in the comparison to the school setting. Surprisingly, differences in the value-related component of the psychological state of interest were even found in favor of the school treatment.
Digital action cameras (ACs) are increasingly being utilized for aquatic research purposes due to their cost effectiveness, versatility, high-resolution imagery, and durability. Here we review the ...advantages of AC technology in research, with particular emphases on (a) research videography (both in the field and the laboratory), (b) animal-borne studies, and (c) outreach and education purposes. We also review some of the limitations of this technology as represented by environmental factors (e.g., depth, turbidity) and deployment considerations (e.g., lens choices, imaging settings, battery life). As AC technologies evolve in response to growing public interest in their application versatility, researchers are indirectly reaping the rewards, with technological advances that are innovative, cost-effective, and can withstand frequent use in dynamic and rugged field conditions. With such a diversity of options available, future usefulness of ACs in research will only be limited by the creativity of the scientists using them.
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