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Biomedical subjects

Pierre Durieux

Publications and source records attributed to Pierre Durieux.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

French academic physicians had a poor knowledge of terms used in clinical epidemiology.

OBJECTIVES: To assess academic physicians' understanding and usage of basic epidemiological terms commonly used in medical journals. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational study. A total of 274 physicians, working in a teaching hospital in Paris, France were asked to answer a questionnaire including four vignettes presenting the results of a therapeutic, a diagnostic, a prognostic study and a meta-analysis of clinical trials. RESULTS: A total of 130 (47%) questionnaires were returned. We observed the highest proportion of good answers for questions about absolute risk reduction (87.7%), sensitivity (84.6%), and specificity (80%); and the lowest for the calculation and use of the likelihood ratio (16.9% and 9.2%, respectively). The global mean score was 5.0/10 (95% confidence interval=4.6-5.4, range 0-9.4). Physicians got higher scores for questions related to treatment than for questions related to diagnosis: mean scores 7.1 (6.6-7.6) vs. 4.2 (3.8-4.6). Regression analysis did not reveal any significant relationship between global performance and physicians' age (r2=0.002, not significant [NS]) CONCLUSION: Physicians demonstrated only moderate knowledge and usage of clinical epidemiology terms used in major medical journals. Their capacity to interpret quantitative data from medical scientific literature may be limited.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed2005

Systematic review and meta-analysis of strategies for the diagnosis of suspected pulmonary embolism.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the likelihood ratios of diagnostic strategies for pulmonary embolism and to determine their clinical application according to pretest probability. DATA SOURCES: Medline, Embase, and Pascal Biomed and manual search for articles published from January 1990 to September 2003. STUDY SELECTION: Studies that evaluated diagnostic tests for confirmation or exclusion of pulmonary embolism. DATA EXTRACTED: Positive likelihood ratios for strategies that confirmed a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and negative likelihood ratios for diagnostic strategies that excluded a diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. DATA SYNTHESIS: 48 of 1012 articles were included. Positive likelihood ratios for diagnostic tests were: high probability ventilation perfusion lung scan 18.3 (95% confidence interval 10.3 to 32.5), spiral computed tomography 24.1 (12.4 to 46.7), and ultrasonography of leg veins 16.2 (5.6 to 46.7). In patients with a moderate or high pretest probability, these findings are associated with a greater than 85% post-test probability of pulmonary embolism. Negative likelihood ratios were: normal or near normal appearance on lung scan 0.05 (0.03 to 0.10), a negative result on spiral computed tomography along with a negative result on ultrasonography 0.04 (0.03 to 0.06), and a d-dimer concentration < 500 mug/l measured by quantitative enzyme linked immunosorbent assay 0.08 (0.04 to 0.18). In patients with a low or moderate pretest probability, these findings were associated with a post-test probability of pulmonary embolism below 5%. Spiral computed tomography alone, a low probability ventilation perfusion lung scan, magnetic resonance angiography, a quantitative latex d-dimer test, and haemagglutination d-dimers had higher negative likelihood ratios and can therefore only exclude pulmonary embolism in patients with a low pretest probability. CONCLUSIONS: The accuracy of tests for suspected pulmonary embolism varies greatly, but it is possible to estimate the range of pretest probabilities over which each test or strategy can confirm or rule out pulmonary embolism.

Echocardiography↗
PubMed2004

Personalized versus non-personalized computerized decision support system to increase therapeutic quality control of oral anticoagulant therapy: an alternating time series analysis.

BACKGROUND: The quality control of oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT) during the initiation and maintenance treatment is generally poor. Physicians' ordering of OAT (especially fluindione and warfarin) can be improved by dose adjustment algorithms, taking into account the results of International Normalized Ratio (INR). Reminders at the point of care, computerized or not, have been demonstrated to be effective in changing physicians prescription behavior.However, few studies have addressed the benefit of personalized reminders versus non personalized reminders, whereas the personalized reminders require more development to access patient record data and integrate with the computerized physician order entry system. The Hospital Information System of George Pompidou European Hospital integrates an electronic medical record, lab test and drugs order entry system. This system allows to evaluate such reminders and to consider their implementation for routine use as well as the continuous evaluation of their impact on medical practice quality indicators. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of two types of reminders on overtreatment by oral anticoagulant: a simple reminder of text formatted dose adjustment table and a personalized recommendation for oral anticoagulant dose and next date of INR control, adapted to patient data. Both types of reminders appear to the physician at the moment of drug ordering.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed2004

Construction of a questionnaire measuring outpatients' opinion of quality of hospital consultation departments.

BACKGROUND: Few questionnaires on outpatients' satisfaction with hospital exist. All have been constructed without giving enough room for the patient's point of view in the validation procedure. The main objective was to develop, according to psychometric standards, a self-administered generic outpatient questionnaire exploring opinion on quality of hospital care. METHOD: First, a qualitative phase was conducted to generate items and identify domains using critical analysis incident technique and literature review. A list of easily comprehensible non-redundant items was defined using Delphi technique and a pilot study on outpatients. This phase involved outpatients, patient association representatives and experts. The second step was a quantitative validation phase comprised a multicenter study in 3 hospitals, 10 departments and 1007 outpatients. It was designed to select items, identify dimensions, measure reliability, internal and concurrent validity. Patients were randomized according to the place of questionnaire completion (hospital v. home) (participation rate = 65%). Third, a mail-back study on 2 departments and 248 outpatients was conducted to replicate the validation (participation rate = 57%). RESULTS: A 27-item questionnaire comprising 4 subscales (appointment making, reception facilities, waiting time and consultation with the doctor). The factorial structure was satisfactory (loading >0.50 on each subscale for all items, except one item). Interscale correlations ranged from 0.42 to 0.59, Cronbach alpha coefficients ranged from 0.79 to 0.94. All Item-scale correlations were higher than 0.40. Test-retest intraclass coefficients ranged from 0.69 to 0.85. A unidimensional 9-item version was produced by selection of one third of the items within each subscale with the strongest loading on the principal component and the best item-scale correlation corrected for overlap. Factors related to satisfaction level independent from departments were age, previous consultations in the department and satisfaction with life. Completion at hospital immediately after consultation led to an overestimation of satisfaction. No satisfaction score differences existed between spontaneous respondents and patients responding after reminder(s). CONCLUSION: Good estimation of patient opinion on hospital consultation performance was obtained with these questionnaires. When comparing performances between departments or the same department over time scores need to be adjusted on 3 variables that influence satisfaction independently from department. Completion of the questionnaire at home is preferable to completion in the consultation facility and reminders are not necessary to produce non-biased data.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Health, economic, and quality-of-life effects of erythropoietin and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes: a randomized, controlled trial.

In myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), anemia responds to recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) alone and in combination with recombinant human granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (rHuGCSF) in 10% to 20% and in 35% to 40% of patients, respectively. We randomly divided 60 patients with low-grade anemic MDS and serum EPO levels lower than 500 IU/L (500 mU/mL) into 2 groups: rHuEPO + rHuG-CSF (arm A) and supportive care (arm B). After 12 weeks, those who had erythroid responses were given rHuEPO alone for 40 additional weeks. They were also given rHuG-CSF if they had relapses. A response was considered major if the hemoglobin (Hb) level was 115 g/L (11.5 g/dL) or higher and minor Hb increase was 15 g/L (1.5 g/dL) or more or if it remained stable without transfusion. Ten of 24 patients responded in arm A, and 0 of 26 responded in arm B (P =.01). Eight patients in arm A continued rHuEPO therapy alone, and 6 had relapses. Responses were always restored when rHuG-CSF was reintroduced. Mean direct costs per patient were 26,723 euros (arm A) and 8,746 euros (arm B). Quality of life was assessed with a Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anemia (FACT-An) scale. Similar percentages of patients from both arms showed significant clinical improvement. rHuEPO plus rHuG-CSF led to responses in 41.7% of MDS patients. This treatment was expensive. No effect on quality of life was demonstrated.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Long-term impact of a restrictive laboratory test ordering form on tumor marker prescriptions.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term impact of an intervention designed to reduce the ordering of three tumor markers frequently prescribed for gastroenterologic diseases (carcinoembryonic antigen, alpha-fetoprotein, carbohydrate antigen 19-9). METHODS: A prospective study with time series analysis in a teaching hospital. Local clinical guidelines were developed and implemented through a new order form, designed as a reminder to the physician, restricting the ordering of laboratory tests. Ratios between the number of markers ordered and number of admissions were recorded during a 3-month period before and after intervention in the whole hospital and monthly on a 4-year period in two wards of the hospital (Department of Gastroenterology and Department of Internal Medicine). To evaluate the appropriateness of tumor marker orders, audits were performed on a sample of order forms, before and after (1 month and 2 years after) the implementation of the new order form. RESULTS: The analysis of covariance showed a significant effect of the intervention in the hospital (p < .01), and in the Departments of Gastroenterology (p < .01) and Internal Medicine (p < .007). The decrease of tumor marker orders ranged from 25% (Internal Medicine Department) to 55% (whole hospital). A similar decrease was observed for the three studied markers. The appropriateness of prescriptions increased from 54.6% before to 73.6% after the implementation of the new order form, but decreased to 52.9% 2 years after intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Providing a reminder to clinicians through a specific order form represents an inexpensive and easy way to implement guidelines on use of laboratory tests.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗
PubMed2003

Effect of a nationwide program of educational outreach visits to improve the processes of care for patients with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVES: To improve processes of ambulatory care for patients with type 2 diabetes in a nationwide program. METHODS: Interrupted time-series analysis with audits of practice. To implement selected recommendations of national guidelines, educational outreach visits (office visits or phone discussions) were offered to all French physicians who diagnosed one case of type 2 diabetes during a six-month intervention period. Outcome measures were the number of HBA1c measurements recorded monthly in the medical insurance computer database and the proportion of diabetic patients for whom one test had been reimbursed during the previous six months (HBA1c, fasting blood glucose) or previous twelve months (serum cholesterol, serum creatinine, urine microalbumin, electrocardiogram, ophthalmologic examination). RESULTS: A total of 15,522 office visits and 9,062 telephone discussions were performed among 22,940 physicians. The increase in the monthly proportion of the number of HBA1c tests to the total number of laboratory tests was higher during the intervention period than during the preintervention (p value < .0001) and postintervention periods (p value < .001). Between the first audit (n = 651,574) and the third audit (n = 911,871), HBA1c measurements increased from 41.2% to 60.5% and blood glucose measurements performed alone decreased from 38.8% to 18.7%. Urine microalbumin measurements increased from 10.6% before to 15.3% after intervention. Only a slight increase was observed for other tests. CONCLUSIONS: Physician to physician outreach visits can be an effective way to improve the processes of care for diabetes and to routinize nationwide use of practice guidelines.

Ambulatory Care↗