Family practice
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According to some health programmes, implementing primary health care through community health workers (CHWs) facilitates the connection between community and health services in Latin America. However, these are isolated processes that face different obstacles and would benefit from an overview of the corresponding health policies and programmes. ⋯ CHWs contribute to the primary healthcare processes in the 6 Latin American countries studied in versatile and comprehensive ways. However, they constitute an underutilized human resource because they must provide various services that are not always relevant in different work contexts. Therefore, we propose a classification of the CHW profile, using the level of access to healthcare services of the population they serve as the main differentiator. This way, CHWs will not have to provide a wide range of services but only those most relevant to the specific needs of each community.
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Studies in the United States, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland showed that the majority of health problems are managed within primary health care; however, the ecology of French medical care has not yet been described. ⋯ Our study on reimbursement data confirmed that, like in other countries, in France the majority of health problems are managed within primary health care.
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Multicenter Study
Effects of family support system on the self-management behaviour of patients with T2DM: a multi-centre cross-sectional study in community settings.
The burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in China continues to escalate. ⋯ There is significant room for improvement in the self-management behaviour of T2DM patients in China. Family function can enhance the self-management behaviour of T2DM patients by promoting family support.
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With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine was rapidly implemented in care settings globally. To understand what factors affect the successful completion of telemedicine visits in our urban, academic family medicine clinic setting, we analysed telemedicine visits carried out during the pandemic. ⋯ In our urban clinical setting, only a small minority of telemedicine visits required an in-person follow-up visit. This information may be useful in guiding approaches to triaging patients to telemedicine or standard in-person care.
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This paper presents a rare case of subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE) following a herpes zoster (HZ) episode, with no prior records found in the existing literature. ⋯ HZ episodes have not conventionally been linked in the medical literature to the occurrence of SBE. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that HZ infections have been associated with the development of other consequential bacterial infections, such as pneumonia and necrotizing fasciitis.This case underscores the necessity for medical practitioners to recognize the possibility of HZ symptoms obscuring indications of critical underlying conditions and infections. The implications of this report highlight the significance of maintaining heightened vigilance for signs of other severe infections when managing patients presenting with HZ symptoms.