Method’s corner: Allergist’s guide to network meta-analysis

Network meta-analyses (NMAs) simultaneously estimate the effects of multiple possible treatment options for a given clinical presentation. For allergists to benefit optimally from NMAs, they must understand the process and be able to interpret the results. Through a worked example published in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, we summarize how to identify credible NMAs and interpret them with a focus on recent innovations in the GRADE approach (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation). NMAs build on traditional systematic reviews and meta-analyses that consider only direct paired comparisons by including indirect evidence, thus allowing the simultaneous assessment of the relative effect of all pairs of competing alternatives. Our framework informs clinicians of how to identify credible NMAs and address the certainty of the evidence. Trustworthy NMAs fill a critical gap in providing key inferences using direct and indirect evidence to inform clinical decision making when faced with more than two competing courses of treatment options. This document will help allergists to identify trustworthy NMAs to enhance patient care.     

The role of payment and financing in achieving health equity

Objective

The aim was to identify healthcare payment and financing reforms to promote health equity and ways that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) may promote those reforms.

Data Sources and Study Setting

AHRQ convened a payment and financing workgroup–the authors of this paper–as part of its Health Equity Summit held in July 2022. This workgroup drew from its collective experience with healthcare payment and financing reform, as well as feedback from participants in a session at the Health Equity Summit, to identify the evidence base and promising paths for reforms to promote health equity.

Study Design

The payment and financing workgroup developed an outline of reforms to promote health equity, presented the outline to participants in the payment and financing session of the July 2022 AHRQ Health Equity Summit, and integrated feedback from the participants.

Data Collection/Extraction Methods

This paper did not require novel data collection; the authors collected the data from the existing evidence base.

Principal Findings

The paper outlines root causes of health inequity and corresponding potential reforms in five domains: (1) the differential distribution of resources between healthcare providers serving different communities, (2) scarcity of financing for populations most in need, (3) lack of integration/accountability, (4) patient cost barriers to care, and (5) bias in provider behavior and diagnostic tools.

Conclusions

Additional research is necessary to determine whether the proposed reforms are effective in promoting health equity.     

基于信息平台的医院POCT管理改进

以华中科技大学同济医学院附属同济医院为例，探讨医院通过健全POCT管理体系，并借助信息平台改进POCT管理的经验，为其他医院POCT规范化管理提供参考。该医院通过搭建POCT管理平台，实现了设备标准化准入、人员资质统一授权、设备自动化质控和诊疗全流程闭环管理；基于信息平台的POCT管理改进，提升了医护人员的POCT认知度和操作水平，提高了医疗工作效率；实行诊疗全程风险管控，保障了医疗安全。     

Patient Blood Management in der Geburtsvorbereitung,Geburtshilfe und postpartalen Phase

Die Anaesthesiologie - Die Implementierung eines Patient Blood Management (PBM) wird zunehmender Standard in der operativen Medizin. Seit einiger Zeit gilt das Interesse auch den vulnerablen...     

中医肿瘤领域症状评价现状、问题及对策

中医药在改善肿瘤复杂临床症状方面具有独特优势,但症状评价方法的不足严重制约了中医药发挥其优势.本研究在总结现有症状学评价方法的基础上,认为中医肿瘤领域症状评价主要存在以下问题:症状选择缺乏统一标准;症状评价缺乏具体实施规范;多症状量化方法缺乏科学依据;不同治疗阶段缺乏特异性量表;潜在症状指标难以走向临床应用等.针对上述问题,提出建立中医肿瘤症状评价标准与实施规范;深入探索症状群量化方法;重视中医PRO量表的后续考评及验证工作;开发阶段特异性症状量表;挖掘新的症状评价方法等,以期建立兼具科学性和中医诊疗特色的中医肿瘤症状学评价体系.     

Two-year results after combined phacoemulsification and iris-fixated phakic intraocular lens removal

Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology - To describe and present results after a technique for cataract surgery combined with explantation of an iris-fixated phakic...     

Schule aus dem Geist von Public Health?

Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz - Im Rahmen der Gesundheitsförderung im Sinne der Ottawa-Charta wird der Schule eine Reihe von Aufgaben und Funktionen...