Stability and change in family psychosocial risk over 6 months in pediatric cancer and its association with medical and psychosocial healthcare utilization

Purpose: Family psychosocial risk in pediatric oncology can be assessed using the Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT), a brief parent report screener based on the Pediatric Psychosocial Preventative Health Model (PPPHM; universal, targeted, and clinical). However, little is known about risk over the course of treatment and its association with medical and psychosocial healthcare utilization. Methods: Primary caregivers of children with cancer participated in this prospective multisite investigation, completing the PAT at diagnosis (T1; n = 396) and 6 months later (T2; n = 304). Healthcare utilization data were extracted from electronic health records. Results: The distribution of PPPHM risk levels at T1 and T2 was highly consistent for the samples. Two‐thirds of families remained at the same level of risk, 18% decreased and 16% increased risk level. Risk was not related to sociodemographic or treatment variables. The PAT risk score correlated with psychosocial contacts over the 6‐month period. Conclusions: Although the majority of families reported universal (low) risk on the PAT and were stable in their risk level over 6 months, reassessing risk is helpful in identifying those families who report higher level of risk during treatment than at diagnosis. PAT scores were related to psychosocial services that are provided to most but not all families and could be tailored more specifically to match risk and delivery of evidence‐based care.     

Sacituzumab govitecan: breakthrough targeted therapy for triple-negative breast cancer

Introduction: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype associated with an increased risk of recurrence and cancer-related death. Unlike hormone receptor-positive or HER2-positive breast cancers, there are limited targeted therapies available to treat TNBC and cytotoxic chemotherapy remains the mainstay of treatment. Sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132) is an antibody-drug conjugate targeting Trop-2 expressing cells and selectively delivering SN-38, an active metabolite of irinotecan.

Areas covered: This review covers the mechanism of action, safety and efficacy of sacituzumab govitecan in patients with previously treated, metastatic TNBC. Additionally, efficacy data in other epithelial malignancies is included based on a PubMed search for ‘sacituzumab govitecan’ and ‘clinical trial’.

Expert opinion: Sacituzumab govitecan has promising anti-cancer activity in patients with metastatic TNBC previously treated with at least two prior lines of systemic therapy based on a single arm Phase I/II clinical trial. A confirmatory Phase III randomized clinical trial is ongoing. Sacituzumab govitecan has a manageable side effect profile, with the most common adverse events being nausea, neutropenia, and diarrhea. The activity of sacituzumab govitecan likely extends beyond TNBC with promising early efficacy data in many other epithelial cancers, including hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.     

Incidence of pressure ulcers in intensive care units and direct costs of treatment: Evidence from Iran

Background and objective

Pressure ulcer (PU) is one of the important and frequent complications of hospitalization, associated with high treatment costs. The present study was conducted to determine the incidence of PU and its direct treatment costs for patients in intensive care unit (ICU) in Iran.

不同非密闭雾化治疗方式在不合作患儿中的应用效果

目的 探讨不同非密闭雾化方式在不合作患儿接受布地奈德雾化治疗中的应用效果。方法 选取本院门诊270例3岁以下使用布地奈德雾化治疗的患儿,采用随机数字表法将患儿分为Pari雾化系统、Philips雾化系统及Salter雾化系统3个治疗组,毎组90例,各组又依据面罩距离面部0 cm、2 cm、4 cm分为3个小组,毎组30例,分别测量各组雾化气流流速及吸入雾化颗粒量占总雾化颗粒量的比例。采用方差分析及Bonferroni进行统计分析。结果 雾化气流流速及雾化吸入量在不同雾化系统组间差异有统计学意义(P<0.05)。在3种距离下,Pari系统均能使患儿吸入最多量的雾化颗粒,其次是Salter系统,再是Philips系统,与此相反,气流流速Pari系统最低。Pari系统离开面部4 cm及Salter系统离开面部2 cm的吸入量均高于Philips系统0 cm的吸入量。结论 选择合适的非密闭雾化系统方式,是提高不合作患儿布地奈德雾化治疗的有效方式。     

Reference set for performance testing of pediatric vaccine safety signal detection methods and systems

BackgroundSafety signal detection in spontaneous reporting system databases and electronic healthcare records is key to detection of previously unknown adverse events following immunization. Various statistical methods for signal detection in these different datasources have been developed, however none are geared to the pediatric population and none specifically to vaccines. A reference set comprising pediatric vaccine-adverse event pairs is required for reliable performance testing of statistical methods within and across data sources.MethodsThe study was conducted within the context of the Global Research in Paediatrics (GRiP) project, as part of the seventh framework programme (FP7) of the European Commission. Criteria for the selection of vaccines considered in the reference set were routine and global use in the pediatric population. Adverse events were primarily selected based on importance. Outcome based systematic literature searches were performed for all identified vaccine-adverse event pairs and complemented by expert committee reports, evidence based decision support systems (e.g. Micromedex), and summaries of product characteristics. Classification into positive (PC) and negative control (NC) pairs was performed by two independent reviewers according to a pre-defined algorithm and discussed for consensus in case of disagreement.ResultsWe selected 13 vaccines and 14 adverse events to be included in the reference set. From a total of 182 vaccine-adverse event pairs, we classified 18 as PC, 113 as NC and 51 as unclassifiable. Most classifications (91) were based on literature review, 45 were based on expert committee reports, and for 46 vaccine-adverse event pairs, an underlying pathomechanism was not plausible classifying the association as NC.ConclusionA reference set of vaccine-adverse event pairs was developed. We propose its use for comparing signal detection methods and systems in the pediatric population.     

医养结合型养老机构卫生服务质量指标体系构建研究

目的:构建基于SERVQUAL模型的医养结合型养老机构卫生服务质量评价指标体系。方法:围绕医养结合型养老机构卫生服务的概念、特性、内涵、内容等,采用文献研究法、半结构式访谈法、Delphi—AHP法等定性与定量相结合的研究方法,构建指标体系并确定指标权重。结果:构建了具有7个一级指标,27个二级指标和77个三级指标的养老机构卫生服务质量评价指标体系。指标体系三轮咨询专家权威系数Cr均高于0.84,专家综合权威性系数均高于0.83;总体专家协调系数Kendall W第一、二轮为0.309,第三轮为0.706,且均通过显著性检验;内容效度指数I-CVI介于0.90~1.00之间,S-CVI为0.94,kappa值均高于0.74;信度系数Cronbachα总体为0.972,各维度Cronbachα系数在0.792~0.921之间。评价指标体系具有较好的稳定性、可靠性和一致性。结论:本研究建立的评价指标体系有利于医养结合型养老机构全面建立贴近老年人卫生服务需求的内设医疗机构,改善机构内卫生服务质量。在对指标体系进行应用时,可转化为机构中老年人对各指标项目的感受(P)与期望(E),以两者的差值(P-E)代表机构的卫生服务质量。根据专家赋权结果,应重点加强医养结合养老机构对可靠性、有效性、经济性等指标项目的建设。     

Assessing perceived quality of primary care under hospital-township health centre integration: A cross-sectional study in China

Since the new round of health care reform in 2009, the vertical integration of hospitals and primary health institutions has become widely implemented in China as an efficient method for improving quality of primary care. This study aimed to answer the following questions: (a) What is the perceived quality of township health centres (THCs) under integration? (B) What differences could be observed among the three typical integration models, namely, private hospital-THC integration, public hospital-THC integration, and loose collaboration? Two rounds of cross-sectional surveys were conducted from November 2016 to June 2018. The Chinese version of the Primary Care Assessment Tool was used to evaluate perceived quality of sample THCs, and 1118 adult patients were interviewed in total. Multiple linear regressions were employed to compare the quality scores between two survey rounds and among different integration models after controlling for potential confounders. The results revealed that the quality of care significantly improved under private hospital-THC integration as observed by comparing two survey rounds, while no change or slight changes were observed in the other two models. The difference observed among the three models was that the perceived quality of THCs integrated with private hospitals was worse than that of THCs integrated with public hospitals and THCs under loose collaboration, while no significant difference was observed between public hospital-THC integration and loose collaboration. Increased attention should be given to highlighting the tight integration between hospitals and THCs and the different roles played by private and public hospitals in the current reform.