Explore the vast range of titles available.

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND A recent clinical trial suggests that printed (PDS) and computer decision support (CDS) interventions are safe and effective in reducing antibiotic use in acute bronchitis relative to usual care (UC). OBJECTIVE Our aim was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of decision support interventions in reducing antibiotic use in acute bronchitis. DESIGN We conducted a clinical trial-based cost-effectiveness analysis comparing UC, PDS and CDS for management of acute bronchitis. We assumed a societal perspective, 5-year program duration and 30-day time horizon. PATIENTS The U.S. population aged 13–64 years presenting with acute bronchitis in the ambulatory setting. INTERVENTIONS Printed and computer decision support interventions relative to usual care. MAIN MEASURES Cost per antibiotic prescription safely avoided. KEY RESULTS In the base case, PDS dominated UC and CDS, with lesser total costs (PDS: $2,574, UC: $2,768, CDS: $2,805) and fewer antibiotic prescriptions (PDS: 3.79, UC: 4.60, CDS: 3.95) per patient over 5 years. In one-way sensitivity analyses, PDS dominated UC across all parameter values, except when antibiotics reduced work loss by ≥ 1.9 days or the probability of hospitalization within 30 days was ≥ 0.9 % in PDS (base case: 0.2 %) or ≤ 0.4 % in UC (base case: 1.0 %). The dominance of PDS over CDS was sensitive both to probability of hospitalization and plausible variation in the adjusted odds of antibiotic use in both strategies. CONCLUSIONS A PDS strategy to reduce antibiotic use in acute bronchitis is less costly and more effective than both UC and CDS strategies, although results were sensitive to variation in probability of hospitalization and the adjusted odds of antibiotic use. This simple, low-cost, safe, and effective intervention would be an economically reasonable component of a multi-component approach to address antibiotic overuse in acute bronchitis.

Background:To investigate whether intensive treatment with methotrexate (MTX) according to a strict protocol and a computerised decision program is more beneficial compared to conventional treatment with MTX in early rheumatoid arthritis.Methods:In a two-year multicentre open label strategy trial, 299 patients with early rheumatoid arthritis were randomly assigned to the intensive strategy group or the conventional strategy group. Patients in both groups received MTX, the aim of treatment being remission. Patients in the intensive treatment group came to the outpatient clinic once every month; adjustment of the MTX dosage was tailored to the individual patient on the basis of predefined response criteria, using a computerised decision program. Patients of the conventional strategy group came to the outpatient clinic once every three months; they were treated according to common practice. Cyclosporine was added if patients had an inadequate response to maximal tolerated MTX doses.Results:Seventy six (50%) patients in the intensive strategy group achieved at least one period of remission during the two year trial, versus 55 patients (37%) in the conventional strategy group (p = 0.03). Areas under the curve for nearly all clinical variables were significantly lower—that is, there was a better clinical effect for the intensive treatment group compared with the conventional treatment group.Conclusion:The results of this study show that it is possible to substantially enhance the clinical efficacy early in the course of the disease by intensifying treatment with MTX, aiming for remission, tailored to the individual patient. Furthermore, participating rheumatologists indicated that the computerised decision program could be a helpful tool in their daily clinical practice.

Background Medications are an effective intervention for managing and preventing health problems but their benefit can be undermined by non-adherence or adverse drug events (ADEs). Since these issues may be interconnected, efforts to improve non-adherence should also include reduction of ADEs. We have developed the ISTOP-ADE system (Information Systems-enabled Outreach for Preventing Adverse Drug Events), which enables timely monitoring and managing of ADEs. The objectives of this study are to determine whether the ISTOP-ADE system, compared to routine care, will reduce: a) the probability of discontinuing the use of prognosis-altering medications; b) the probability of a patient experiencing a severe ADE; c) the proportion of patients experiencing ADEs, preventable ADEs and ameliorable ADEs; and d) health services utilization. Methods/design We will randomly assign 2,200 adult ambulatory patients in the province of Québec who have been prescribed an incident medication for the management or prevention of a chronic health condition, to routine care or the ISTOP-ADE system. The ISTOP-ADE system consists of an interactive voice response system (IVRS) paired with pharmacist support. The IVRS will call patients at 3 and 17 days post-prescription to determine if they are experiencing any problems and connect them with a pharmacist when required or desired by the patient. We will evaluate medication persistence at 180 days and health-care utilization using provincial administrative data. Two blinded physicians will ascertain ADE status through a case review. Discussion We expect the ISTOP-ADE intervention to be feasible and to improve the quality of patient care through improved medication adherence, reduced ADE duration and reduced number of ADEs resulting in an emergency department or inpatient encounter. This in turn could lower health-care utilization, saving costs and lowering the burden on emergency departments and family practices. The success of ISTOP-ADE would present opportunities to implement this intervention through health systems, health insurance agents and commercial pharmacies. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02059044 . Date registered: 10 January 2014.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether an electronic order template for basal-bolus insulin ordering improves mean blood glucose in hospitalized general medical patients with hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We randomly assigned internal medicine resident teams on acute general medical floors to the use of an electronic insulin order template or usual insulin ordering. We measured diabetes care parameters for 1 month on all patients with type 2 diabetes and blood glucose <60 mg/dl or >180 mg/dl treated by these physicians. RESULTS: Intervention group patients (n = 65) had mean glucose of 195 ± 66 mg/dl. Control group patients (n = 63) had mean glucose of 224 ± 57 mg/dl (P = 0.004). In the intervention group, there was no increase in hypoglycemia. CONCLUSIONS: Access to a computer insulin order template was associated with improved mean glucose levels without increasing hypoglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes.

To determine whether glycemic derangements are more effectively controlled using software-guided insulin dosing compared with paper-based protocols. We prospectively evaluated consecutive critically ill patients treated in a tertiary hospital surgical intensive care unit (ICU) between January 1 and June 30, 2008, and between January 1 and September 30, 2009. Paper-based protocol insulin dosing was evaluated as a baseline during the first period, followed by software-guided insulin dosing in the second period. We compared glycemic metrics related to hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, and glycemic variability during the 2 periods. We treated 110 patients by the paper-based protocol and 87 by the software-guided protocol during the before and after periods, respectively. The mean ICU admission blood glucose (BG) level was higher in patients receiving software-guided intensive insulin than for those receiving paper-based intensive insulin (181 vs 156 mg/dL; P=.003, mean of the per-patient mean). Patients treated with software-guided intensive insulin had lower mean BG levels (117 vs 135 mg/dL; P=.0008), sustained greater time in the desired BG target range (95-135 mg/dL; 68% vs 52%; P=.0001), had less frequent hypoglycemia (percentage of time BG level was <70 mg/dL: 0.51% vs 1.44%; P=.04), and showed decreased glycemic variability (BG level per-patient standard deviation from the mean: ±29 vs ±42 mg/dL; P=.01). Surgical ICU patients whose intensive insulin infusions were managed using the software-guided program achieved tighter glycemic control and fewer glycemic derangements than those managed with the paper-based insulin dosing regimen.

Objective To evaluate toxicity profiles in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated either according to an intensive or a conventional treatment strategy approach with methotrexate (MTX) and to study factors associated with MTX-related toxicity. Methods Data were used from the Computer-Assisted Management in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis (CAMERA) study, in which clinical efficacy of an intensive treatment strategy with MTX was more beneficial than a conventional treatment strategy approach. In this study, data on adverse events (AEs) were compared between the two strategy groups. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify possible associations between factors assessed at baseline and withdrawal due to MTX-related AEs or liver toxicity at follow-up. Results Although significantly more patients in the intensive strategy group experienced MTX-related AEs than in the conventional strategy group, all recorded AEs were relatively mild. A higher body mass index (BMI) was significantly associated with withdrawal due to MTX-related AEs in the multiple regression analyses (odds ratio=1.207, 95% confidence interval 1.02 to 1.44, p=0.033). There was a trend towards an association between diminished creatinine clearance and MTX withdrawal. For liver toxicity, increased serum liver enzymes at baseline were associated with liver toxicity during follow-up. Conclusion Although the occurrence of AEs in the intensive strategy group was higher than in the conventional strategy group, the previously observed clinical efficacy of an intensive treatment strategy seems to outweigh the observed toxicity profiles. When starting MTX, attention should be given to patients with a high BMI and those with increased levels of liver enzymes and decreased renal function.

In May 2013, the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) approved SEDASYS ® , a device that enables non-anesthesia physicians to provide mild-to-moderate sedation to patients undergoing colonoscopy and esophagogastroduodenoscopy. SEDASYS ® is the first among the devices being built to provide computer-assisted personalized sedation. Although the intention of this approval is to cut the anesthesia related expenses, it is likely to create new challenges to the users—both clinical and administrative—that might even increase the cost. Deep sedation is required frequently for a successful completion of the procedure, which poses unforeseen challenges. The present review aims to provide clear information to the users regarding pre-procedure assessment, possible sedation related complications and management options.

Objective Tight glycaemic control (TGC) in critically ill patients improves clinical outcome, but is difficult to establish The primary objective of the present study was to compare glucose control in medical ICU patients applying a computer-based enhanced model predictive control algorithm (eMPC) extended to include time-variant sampling against an implemented glucose management protocol. Design Open randomised controlled trial. Setting Nine-bed medical intensive care unit (ICU) in a tertiary teaching hospital. Patients and participants Fifty mechanically ventilated medical ICU patients. Interventions Patients were included for a study period of up to 72 h. Patients were randomised to the control group ( n  = 25), treated by an implemented insulin algorithm, or to the eMPC group ( n  = 25), using the laptop-based algorithm. Target range for blood glucose (BG) was 4.4–6.1 mM. Efficacy was assessed by mean BG, hyperglycaemic index (HGI) and BG sampling interval. Safety was assessed by the number of hypoglycaemic-episodes < 2.2 mM. Each participating nurse filled-in a questionnaire regarding the usability of the algorithm. Measurements and main results BG and HGI were significantly lower in the eMPC group [BG 5.9 mM (5.5–6.3), median (IQR); HGI 0.4 mM (0.2–0.9)] than in control patients [BG 7.4 mM (6.9–8.6), p  < 0.001; HGI 1.6 mM (1.1–2.4), p  < 0.001]. One hypoglycaemic episode was detected in the eMPC group; no such episodes in the control group. Sampling interval was significantly shorter in the eMPC group [eMPC 117 min (± 34), mean (± SD), vs 174 min (± 27); p  < 0.001]. Thirty-four nurses filled-in the questionnaire. Thirty answered the question of whether the algorithm could be applied in daily routine in the affirmative. Conclusions The eMPC algorithm was effective in maintaining tight glycaemic control in severely ill medical ICU patients.

Background Long-term use of antiretroviral therapy, normal aging, and presence of certain risk factors are associated with metabolic disorders that predispose persons living with HIV to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The emergence and progression of these disorders can be prevented by adopting healthy behaviours. Based on the theory of planned behaviour, the Web-based tailored intervention TAVIE en santé was developed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of TAVIE en santé in order to support people living with HIV in the adoption of health promoting behaviours. Methods/Design An online randomized controlled trial with parallel-groups will be conducted across Canada. To participate in this study, people living with HIV must be: ≥ 18 years, able to read/understand French or English, have access to the Internet. A convenience sample of 750 participants will be randomly assigned either to an experimental group ( TAVIE en santé , n  = 375) or to a control group (websites, n  = 375) (1:1 allocation ratio). The TAVIE en santé intervention is composed of seven interactive computer sessions, lasting between 5 and 10 min. The sessions, hosted by a virtual nurse, aim to develop and strengthen skills required for behaviour change. The control group will receive a validated list of five predetermined conventional health-related Websites. The adoption of health behaviour (smoking cessation or physical activity or healthy eating) is the principal outcome. Cognitions (intention, attitude, perceived behavioral control) are the secondary outcomes. Health indicators will also be assessed. All outcomes will be measured with a self-administered online questionnaire and collected three times: at baseline, 3 and 6 months after. The principal analyses will focus on differences between the two trial groups using Intention-to-Treat analysis. Discussion This study will yield new results about the efficacy of Web-based tailored health behaviours change interventions in the context of chronic disease. The TAVIE en santé intervention could constitute an accessible complementary service in support of existing specialized services to support people living with HIV adopt health behaviors. Trial registration NCT02378766 , assigned on March 3th 2015.