Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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The Hawker appropriateness criteria for total knee arthroplasty (TKA) are: osteoarthritis symptoms impacting quality of life, evidence of osteoarthritis, trial of conservative treatments, patient's realistic expectations, patient/surgeon agree benefits outweigh risks, and readiness for surgery. Little is known about the barriers and facilitators of using the Hawker et al. appropriateness criteria for TKA in clinical practice. ⋯ Barriers to using the criteria relevant to clinical practice and the healthcare system were identified while only one facilitator was revealed. Interventions tailored to these barriers are needed to support the use of the Hawker appropriateness criteria in TKA decision-making.
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Healthcare systems are confronted with a rising number of patients with chronic conditions and complex care needs, requiring the development of new models of coordinated, patient-centred care. In this study, we aimed to describe and compare a range of new models of care recently implemented in primary care in Switzerland, as well as to gain insight into the type of coordination or integration implemented, the strengths and weaknesses of each model and the challenges they face. ⋯ The integrated care models implemented in Switzerland are promising; nevertheless, financial and legal reforms must be introduced to promote integrated care in practice.
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Increased attention to cancer care has instigated altered systems for screening, diagnosis, and management of various types of cancer, such as in the prostate. While such systems very likely have improved the quality of cancer care, they also result in the altered use of specific services, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). ⋯ There was a substantial increase in the number of prostate MRIs and thus an increase in costs. This appears to have contributed to the reduction of negative biopsies, improved staging and increased active surveillance. However, as these effects are partly independent of the increase in MRIs, we need to document the outcomes for patients from prostate MRIs as their opportunity costs are substantial.
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Respiratory infections in children are one of the most common causes of hospital attendances and a common cause of sepsis. Most of these infections turn out to be viral in nature. However, the overuse of antibiotics is common and with increasing problems with antimicrobial resistance, changes to antibiotic prescribing practices need to be implemented urgently. ⋯ Initial audit results supported our hypothesis that children were being overdiagnosed, over-investigated and over-treated. Despite multimodal interventions aimed at understanding the drivers underpinning these issues, the re-audit results mirrored the baseline audit despite a transient improvement following our campaign to raise awareness and further work to change physician behaviour is required.
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Pharmaceutical companies make payments to physicians such as compensations for lecturing or consulting. Of particular, financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and leaders of professional medical societies are concern in medical community. However, little was known about them in Japan. ⋯ This study demonstrated that nearly all EBMs of 15 medical associations representing internal medicine subspecialties had substantial financial relationships with the pharmaceutical companies in Japan over the past 5 years.