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Clinical practice guidelines: necessary but not sufficient for evidence-based patient education and counseling.

While clinical practice guidelines provide direction for the management of specific diseases or particular clinical problems, there are major gaps between guidelines and their implementation. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how an existing guideline can be used to develop an evidence-based patient education program. Congestive heart failure (CHF) represents a range of complex, chronic illnesses which offer little hope of cure yet require symptom management by health care providers, patients, and their families. Successful self-monitoring, self-care, and decision making are based on acquisition of appropriate knowledge and management skills. We describe a comprehensive teaching program in which the content was built on the clinical evidence from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research recommendations for CHF, and the implementation process was built on adult education evidence, adapted to health issues and patient learning challenges.

Evidence-Based Medicine↗

Management and attitudes of epilepsy by a group of Sydney general practitioners.

Previous surveys of general practitioners (GPs) have shown stereotypic attitudes and management of persons with epilepsy (PWE). We mailed a questionnaire to 107 GPs in the Sydney and Illawarra regions of Australia to evaluate changes in knowledge and management of epilepsy and attitudes of GPs toward PWE as compared with results of a similar study made 10 years previously. Most GPs referred patients with epilepsy to a neurologist for initial management in preference to initiating investigation and treatment themselves. GPs were very satisfied with their sharing of care with neurologists, but indicated their high level of dissatisfaction with other health care therapists because of impractical advice and lack of empathy. The GPs' objectives of continuing management were mainly to prevent seizures, monitor of medication and its effects, and reduce the impact of patients' epilepsy on their daily life. Although many GPs believed that PWE were more likely to have emotional and relationship problems, most also believed that such persons contribute equally to society and can have normal quality of life (QOL). Although the GPs prefer to use a neurologist for initial management of PWE, they see themselves as having a role in continuing care and providing psychosocial support. The stereotyped perceptions of GPs indicated in the previous study have improved, although in some respects they remain negative. This study offers an audit of the outcome of a decade of educational promotion regarding epilepsy.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Healthcare ethics committees and managed care.

OBJECTIVES: Healthcare ethics committees (HECs) play an important role in medical decision making in US hospitals, but no study has determined whether HECs deal with managed care, in any form. This pilot study was performed to evaluate the activities and perceptions of HECs about managed care. STUDY DESIGN: Forty-five hospitals in the Philadelphia area were selected at random, and comprised 36.6% of area institutions and 47% of area inpatient beds. Surveys were administered to ethics committee representatives by the authors in 1998. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Survey responses were coded, and both tabulated responses and analyzed data are presented. Correlations were analyzed with the unpaired 2-tailed t test. RESULTS: HECs devoted 7.6% of committee time to managed care issues, and the remainder to education, policy development, and case consultation. Time spent on managed care issues depended on the size of the institution (small hospitals spent twice the time on managed care as did large institutions); composition of the committee (presence of clergy and retirees on HECs correlated with the likelihood that HECs would address managed care issues); and whether the HEC was requested to help with managed care issues. Of the HECs surveyed, 18% had formal but disparging discussions of ethical concerns in managed care. The impact of changing insurance programs on the hospital and HECs was a concern. CONCLUSIONS: HECs arbitrate ethical conflicts in managed care when asked. As the presence of managed care increases, ethics committees will increasingly be called on to resolve the resulting ethical dilemmas. To be effective in this role, HECs must become knowledgeable about managed care principles and policies.

Data Collection↗

Education in rheumatology for the primary care physician.

An international workshop considered rheumatological education of the primary care physician. All medical students need exposure to rheumatology. Emphasis should be on the musculoskeletal component and on the better defined diseases. During the postdoctoral years, principles of total health care need to be taught by well trained rheumatologists in tertiary care rheumatic disease units with comprehensive ambulatory care facilities. Continuing education of the generalist needs to be relevant to his professional competence. He needs to acquire and update the knowledge to manage common rheumatic diseases and to learn when to ask for help. General educational objectives are applicable to the field of rheumatology: cognitive skills bring knowledge of the scientific basis and clinical facts; motor skills--the ability to examine competently patients with rheumatic diseases; affective skills--the understanding of and capacity to deal with chronic illness.

Curriculum↗

Building the national drug policy on evidence--a cross sectional study on assessing implementation in Lao PDR.

The National Drug Policy (NDP) of Lao PDR, endorsed in 1993, has since 1995 been implemented through an intervention program in five pilot areas out of 18 provinces, including training of health personnel. The aim was to assess the impact of the NDP program to get evidence for revising the policy. In a cross sectional design, comparisons were made between the pilot province of Luangphrabang (LPB) and the non-pilot province of Sayabury (SBR). In each province, three districts were purposively chosen. Four pharmacies at the public hospitals were included, while 20 private pharmacies were randomly selected. A set of 29 combined indicators was utilized. One hundred and ten prescriptions for under-five children with simple diarrhea and 240 adult outpatient prescriptions were sampled. Furthermore, twelve health care managers were interviewed on knowledge and attitudes. LPB health managers had better knowledge of NDP concepts. Significantly more essential drugs (ED) were available in the private pharmacies in the pilot province. The proportion of prescriptions of ED in hospitals was higher in the pilot province (95% in LPB vs 86% in SBR; p<0.001). Fewer drugs per patient were prescribed in the pilot province (2.7 vs 3.3, p<0.001), and the management of simple diarrhea in children was significantly more in accordance with Standard Treatment Guidelines. The pilot province performed significantly better regarding several aspects of quality and rational use of drugs, probably related to the implementation program. National as well as regional and global diffusion of research findings is recommended towards evidence-based national drug policies.

Case-Control Studies↗

Designing a first-line manager development program using organization-appropriate strategies.

First-line managers (head nurses) are increasingly accountable for all aspects of nursing care delivery and resource management on a unit. However, traditional methods of training head nurses may not adequately prepare them to meet their increasing responsibilities. A structured first-line manager development program can help correct this deficiency. However, the successful implementation of such a program requires an understanding of organizational culture as well as substantive knowledge about management. This article describes how a hospital-based first-line manager development program was designed and implemented by using strategies appropriate to the values, norms, and resources within the organization.

Education, Nursing, Continuing↗

Terminology support for development of sharable knowledge modules.

Lack of an agreed infrastructure for terminology is identified as one of the major barriers to interchange of knowledge modules and integration of knowledge bases with other clinical information systems. The goal of the GALEN project is to bridge this gap between different terminology systems through the construction of a terminology server, which is based on a rich conceptual model with mapping facilities to natural language expressions and coding schemas. The long term goal is to support communication between medical information systems. Arden Syntax is a standard format for the creation of knowledge modules, with sharability as one of the main objectives. Since Arden Syntax is based on a data-driven approach, the data items used need to be adapted to locally available terminology. The GALEN approach appears to be complementary to Arden Syntax and to the development of sharable knowledge modules. The major theme of this paper is utilization of the GALEN terminology server for knowledge module authoring. Two systems are presented, a knowledge base manager and a client to the terminology server, allowing the user to navigate in the semantic network and to import concept definitions and terms into the knowledge modules. The benefit of the terminology server, allowing the user to navigate in the semantic network and to import concept definitions and terms into the knowledge modules. The benefit of the terminology services is discussed.

Artificial Intelligence↗

What factors are involved in the knowledge necessary for the self-management of diabetic patients?

The aim of this study is to obtain data for improving a training program for patients with diabetes mellitus. One hundred eighty-seven patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus were tested with 20 questions about their knowledge for self-management of diabetes mellitus. Then to draw out factors in their personal backgrounds relating to their correct answers, multiple regression analyses were conducted. As a result, four factors showed significant differences in the following order: Educational careers > ages > duration of disease > socioeconomic strata. The results of the present study have shown for the first time, that these four factors closely concern patients to acquire the necessary knowledge for their self-management of the disease. In addition, this study has raised some fundamental problems regarding the training program for patients: how education should be given to patients.

Adolescent↗

Attitudes, knowledge, and skills of internal medicine residents regarding pre-conception care.

BACKGROUND: A questionnaire was designed based on current recommendations for pre-conception care and care of women at the time of diagnosis of pregnancy to evaluate internal medicine residents' attitudes, knowledge, and clinical management skills in the pre-conception care of healthy women and women who have chronic diseases during their reproductive years. METHOD: In early 1991, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 104 internal medicine residents at Cook County Hospital, a large, inner-city public hospital. Statistical analysis included the use of chi-square comparison, Pearson correlation, and Student's t-test. RESULTS: Seventy-nine of the residents completed questionnaires. Their levels of knowledge and management skills regarding pre-conception care were relatively low compared with standard recommendations. The residents' attitudes, however, were favorable toward the importance of the topic. Residency training did not appear to improve the residents' management skills, as there was no significant difference in skills among the first-, second-, and third-year residents. CONCLUSION: That the residents' levels of knowledge and management skills were low (despite their favorable attitudes) suggests that the current curriculum for primary care training in internal medicine needs to be revised to improve the readiness of residents to take care of women of reproductive age.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

The effects of informational audiotapes on knowledge and self-care behaviors of patients undergoing radiation therapy.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To develop and test the effects of informational audiotapes on knowledge and management of side effects in subjects undergoing radiation therapy. DESIGN: Post-test-only control group design. SETTING: A large urban radiation oncology department. SAMPLE: Seventy-five adult patients (with a mean age of 53 years) who were receiving radiation therapy. METHODS: Subjects were randomized into control and experimental groups. The control group received the facility's standard care, while the experimental group received the standard care and also listened to informational audiotapes. Patients completed a demographic data form, a knowledge test, and the Radiation Side Effects Profile (RSEP). MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Number and severity of side effects, self-care measures used to manage the side effects, and helpfulness of these measures. FINDINGS: Patients in the experimental group were more knowledgeable about radiation therapy and its side effects, used more self-care measures, and practiced more helpful self-care behaviors than control group subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Audiotapes are an effective strategy for teaching self-care practices to patients undergoing radiation therapy. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: An important role of the nurse is to assess clients for side effects of treatment and provide the knowledge necessary for patients to become active participants in their care. Use of audiotapes ensured that patients received the information they needed at times and places that were convenient to them.

Adult↗

Nursing and medical staff knowledge regarding the monitoring and management of accidental or exposure hypothermia in adult major trauma patients.

Recording a patient's vital signs is a basic requirement that in part informs clinical decision-making. Practice suggests that recording a trauma patient's temperature is occasionally overlooked in the emergency department. A staff survey was undertaken to gain an appreciation of knowledge and understanding of the issues that surround accidental or exposure hypothermia in trauma patients. Results demonstrate that nurses and doctors are unsure of how to define hypothermia and are not conversant with simple ways to prevent heat loss or rewarm patients. Complications from hypothermia such as coagulopathy and metabolic acidosis were seldom identified. Issues that limit staff recording temperature include patient access and acuity, lack of knowledge and confidence and access to temperature-measuring devices. These results emphasize the need for regular education. Implications for clinical practice were considered; an algorithm to guide staff on ways to improve the monitoring and management of temperature in trauma patients was developed. Opportunities for ongoing and further research were identified.

Education, Continuing↗

The role of NGOs in global health research for development.

BACKGROUND: Global health research is essential for development. A major issue is the inequitable distribution of research efforts and funds directed towards populations suffering the world's greatest health problems. This imbalance is fostering major attempts at redirecting research to the health problems of low and middle income countries. Following the creation of the Coalition for Global Health Research - Canada (CGHRC) in 2001, the Canadian Society for International Health (CSIH) decided to review the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in global health research. This paper highlights some of the prevalent thinking and is intended to encourage new thinking on how NGOs can further this role. APPROACH: This paper was prepared by members of the Research Committee of the CSIH, with input from other members of the Society. Persons working in various international NGOs participated in individual interviews or group discussions on their involvement in different types of research activities. Case studies illustrate the roles of NGOs in global health research, their perceived strengths and weaknesses, and the constraints and opportunities to build capacity and develop partnerships for research. HIGHLIGHTS: NGOs are contributing at all stages of the research cycle, fostering the relevance and effectiveness of the research, priority setting, and knowledge translation to action. They have a key role in stewardship (promoting and advocating for relevant global health research), resource mobilization for research, the generation, utilization and management of knowledge, and capacity development. Yet, typically, the involvement of NGOs in research is downstream from knowledge production and it usually takes the form of a partnership with universities or dedicated research agencies. CONCLUSION: There is a need to more effectively include NGOs in all aspects of health research in order to maximize the potential benefits of research. NGOs, moreover, can and should play an instrumental role in coalitions for global health research, such as the CGHRC. With a renewed sense of purpose and a common goal, NGOs and their partners intend to make strong and lasting inroads into reducing the disease burden of the world's most affected populations through effective research action.

Journal Article↗

A tool for measuring the asthma self-management competency of families.

A tool for measuring a family's asthma self-management behaviour has been developed for a study examining the relationships of asthma self-management behaviour, knowledge, and psychosocial factors with various indices of morbidity in children with asthma. The tool involves a structured interview which includes three typical situations of asthma self-management (scenarios). Each of the scenarios is divided into graded challenges. A scoring schedule was developed according to the critical incidents of self-management inherent in each situation. This schedule was then applied to the verbatim transcripts of the subjects' responses. These were presented to 380 asthmatic children aged 5-11 yr and their primary caregivers. Inter-rater reliability, inter-rater agreement and test-retest reliability coefficients indicate that the scores obtained are stable across raters and time. Correlations between scores on different scenarios suggest there is a common factor of self-management competency across all scenarios, but families are better at some aspects of self-management than others. The distribution of scores for each scenario is presented. The place of this tool as a means of assessing self-management behaviour is discussed.

Asthma↗

A knowledge-based support system for mechanical ventilation of the lungs. The KUSIVAR concept and prototype.

The KUSIVAR is an expert system for mechanical ventilation of adult patients suffering from respiratory insufficiency. Its main objective is to provide guidance in respirator management. The knowledge base includes both qualitative, rule-based knowledge and quantitative knowledge expressed in the form of mathematical models (expert control) which is used for prediction of arterial gas tensions and optimization purposes. The system is data driven and uses a forward chaining mechanism for rule invocation. The interaction with the user will be performed in advisory, critiquing, semi-automatic and automatic modes. The system is at present in an advanced prototype stage. Prototyping is performed using KEE (Knowledge Engineering Environment) on a Sperry Explorer workstation. For further development and clinical use the expert system will be downloaded to an advanced PC. The system is intended to support therapy with a Siemens-Elema Servoventilator 900 C.

Adult↗

Patterns of serial CEA assays and their clinical use in management of colorectal cancer.

Through persistent clinical research efforts, the CEA test has developed into a useful although complex disease monitor for colorectal cancer. Although improved or prolonged survival from its use has not been demonstrated, CEA monitoring may allow more knowledgeable patient management. Several reports indicate that postoperative serial CEA assays may identify patients with early recurrence, especially when assays are done frequently. Patients with elevated pretreatment CEA levels usually showed progressively rising titers before other objective evidence of recurrence was apparent. A progressively rising CEA titer correlated well with recurrent cancer, but a normal CEA could not be used as proof of its absence. Persistently elevated CEA titers post-treatment was caused either by persistent disease or by nontumor-related factors. The CEA assay was not a substitute for clinical follow-up but was an adjunct in the diagnosis of eary recurrence. Patients with elevated CEA levels caused by localized disease treated by radiation therapy demonstrated a marked fall in serial CEA levels if all CEA-producing tumor was localized within the radiation portal. The use of pretreatment CEA values plus the pattern of CEA reponse to irradiation may help in the selection of fulguration versus abdominoperineal resection as primary treatment for rectal cancer. Persistently low serial CEA titers after irradiation therapy correlated with disease control. The use of frequent serial CEA assays in patients treated with chemotherapy compared well with other parameters as a monitor of disease progression or regression. When used with other clinical parameters, serial CEA trends appeared to be a useful adjunct in assessing the effectiveness of chemotherapy. A fall in circulating CEA or the stabilization of a rising titer after starting chemotherapy usually indicated an effective regimen, whereas a rising CEA titer may signal may signal the need to initiate or to change chemotherapy.

Aged↗

ColiGene: object-centered representation for the study of E coli gene expressivity by sequence analysis.

ColiGene is an object-centered knowledge base for the study of gene expressivity in Escherichia coli by DNA sequence analysis. This system was developed with the knowledge base management system SHIRKA. Objects represented in ColiGene are biological structures such as genes or regulatory signals. They are organized in a hierarchical structure of classes, subclasses and instances. Navigation through the knowledge base and the building of queries are made using a graphical interface. The base is coupled with the data base ACNUC which structures a specialized collection of sequences: EcoSeq. Several tools are also associated to ColiGene, either for sequence analysis or for a more general purpose. Some biological results have been obtained using ColiGene which are summarized here.

Artificial Intelligence↗

Controlled evaluation of the effects of patient education on asthma morbidity in general practice.

Two different patient education programmes for asthma in general practice were evaluated in a controlled trial. Knowledge, self management, and morbidity due to asthma were assessed in 339 patients by means of a questionnaire. One group then received a maximum education programme, a second group received a limited education programme, and a third acted as a control group. 274 patients were reassessed after one 1 year. In both the intervention groups, understanding of asthma was greater after the trial. Only in the maximum intervention group was a significant improvement in knowledge of asthma shown. Neither group showed any change in self-management ability or asthma morbidity that differed significantly from changes in the control group. These simple informational education programmes were ineffective when applied to a general practice population. Further studies of factors affecting attitudes, beliefs, and actions are needed to improve the advice and support given to asthma patients.

Activities of Daily Living↗