Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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Low mood may affect developing relationships with a new baby, partner and family. Early identification of mood disturbance is crucial to improve outcomes for women perinatally. Instruments such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) are used routinely, with evidence that some women do not feel comfortable with how they are asked about their mental health. ⋯ The outcome checklist may be appropriate for use in clinical practice. It demonstrated effective psychometric properties and clear cross-validation with existing commonly used measures.
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This paper explores the economic value of rehabilitation to South Africa, using a costed example of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) (stroke) rehabilitation. ⋯ The value of rehabilitation should not be considered in terms of cost-effectiveness alone, but also as an investment for the country. A staged, prioritized approach should be considered in future South African national health budget.
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In the context of the gradual development of artificial intelligence in health care, the clinical decision support systems (CDSS) play an increasing crucial role in improving the quality of the therapeutic and diagnostic efficiency in health care. The fuzzy logic (FL) provides an effective means for dealing with uncertainties in the health decision-making process; therefore, FL-based CDSS becomes a very powerful tool for data and knowledge management, being able to think like an expert clinician. This work proposes an FL-based CDSS for the evaluation of renal function in posttransplant patients. ⋯ We propose that the CDSSs for the assessment and follow-up of kidney-transplanted patients built in this study are applicable to clinical practice.
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Primary health care often has overall responsibility for elderly patients and their medication treatment. This is a challenging task due to the issue of multiple caregivers, different systems for documentation and multimorbidity among the elderly. The multiprofessional project SÄKLÄK2 was developed to raise drug safety in Swedish primary health care, and this study aimed to assess whether the action agreements that emerged from the model were effective enough to potentially improve drug use in elderly patients. ⋯ The SÄKLÄK2 intervention model is considered effective in setting up a variety of relevant measures to improve drug safety in primary health care, which are possible to implement in the near future. Hence, the model is regarded as effective and should therefore be offered in a wider context.