Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Most current guidelines recommend using multigene profiling assays to aid the decision on the addition of chemotherapy to adjuvant hormone therapy for women who present with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative disease. One of these assays is the Oncotype DX, which predicts the disease recurrence risk and adjuvant chemotherapy benefits. ⋯ A series of sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the robustness of the study findings. The Magee equations were associated with a total cost savings of C$100 per patient (95% CI, -C$3068 to C$5022) compared with standard of care. The difference in costs was highly sensitive to the extent that the Magee scores could reduce the frequency of adjuvant chemotherapy and Oncotype DX requests.
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Review Meta Analysis
Torasemide versus furosemide in treatment of heart failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Diuretics are a cornerstone in treatment of heart failure (HF). Torasemide is a loop diuretic with a potential advantage over other diuretics. We aim to meta-analyse and compare the effect of torasemide with furosemide in HF patients. ⋯ Although not all results are statistically significant, torasemide has potential advantages on multiple aspects of HF management when compared with furosemide. More studies are needed to clarify these effects.
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Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) should provide busy health care professionals with easy-to-use tools that support efficient uptake of current best evidence in daily clinical practice. However, CPG uptake rarely occurs at the speed of evidence production. The aim of this study was to explore the factors influencing CPG uptake among South African (SA) physiotherapists (PTs). ⋯ The findings of this study generally concur with previous studies about PT barriers to CPG uptake; however, it provides novel information on barrier contexts in one LMIC with complex PT service delivery.
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Bereavement care practice guidelines assist in delivering high-quality bereavement care. However, the quality of published guidelines is unknown. A systematic review was conducted to identify and evaluate the quality of the process used to develop bereavement care practice guidelines using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument. ⋯ The domains "clarity of presentation" and "scope and purpose" achieved the highest scores (mean ± SD 71.0 ± 27.6% and 64.4 ± 37.5%, respectively), while "editorial independence" showed the lowest mean score (9.2 ± 13.3%). While few of the bereavement care practice guidelines met the AGREE II quality standards related to their development process, neither the quality of the content of each guideline nor the in-context application was assessed by the AGREE II instrument. Ongoing development of practice guidelines may benefit from consideration and application of the framework outlined in the AGREE II or similar appraisal instrument.