scholarly journals Creating Minimum Harm Practice (MiHaP): a concept for continuous improvement

F1000Research ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 276
Author(s):  
Ranjit Singh

The author asks for the attention of leaders and all other stakeholders to calls of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the UK National Health Service (NHS) to promote continuous learning to reduce harm to patients. This paper presents a concept for structured bottom-up methodology that enables and empowers all stakeholders to identify, prioritize, and address safety challenges. This methodology takes advantage of the memory of the experiences of all persons involved in providing care. It respects and responds to the uniqueness of each setting by empowering and motivating all team members to commit to harm reduction. It is based on previously published work on “Best Practices Research (BPR)” and on “Systematic Appraisal of Risk and Its Management for Error Reduction (SARAIMER)”. The latter approach, has been shown by the author (with Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) support), to reduce adverse events and their severity through empowerment, ownership and work satisfaction. The author puts forward a strategy for leaders to implement, in response to national and international calls for Better health, Better care, and Better value (the 3B’s of healthcare) in the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  This is designed to enable and implement “A promise to learn- a commitment to act”.  AHRQ has recently published “A Toolkit for Rapid-Cycle Patient Safety and Quality Improvement” that includes an adapted version of SARAIMER.

2012 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Rocos ◽  
LJ Donaldson

INTRODUCTION Surgical fires are a rare but serious preventable safety risk in modern hospitals. Data from the US show that up to 650 surgical fires occur each year, with up to 5% causing death or serious harm. This study used the National Reporting and Learning Service (NRLS) database at the National Patient Safety Agency to explore whether spirit-based surgical skin preparation fluid contributes to the cause of surgical fires. METHODS The NRLS database was interrogated for all incidents of surgical fires reported between 1 March 2004 and 1 March 2011. Each report was scrutinised manually to discover the cause of the fire. RESULTS Thirteen surgical fires were reported during the study period. Of these, 11 were found to be directly related to spirit-based surgical skin preparation or preparation soaked swabs and drapes. CONCLUSIONS Despite manufacturer's instructions and warnings, surgical fires continue to occur. Guidance published in the UK and US states that spirit-based skin preparation solutions should continue to be used but sets out some precautions. It may be that fire risk should be included in pre-surgical World Health Organization checklists or in the surgical training curriculum. Surgical staff should be aware of the risk that spirit-based skin preparation fluids pose and should take action to minimise the chance of fire occurring.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind S. Gibson ◽  
Janet C. King ◽  
Nicola Lowe

Background: Large discrepancies exist among the dietary zinc recommendations set by expert groups. Objective: To describe the basis for the differences in the dietary zinc recommendations set by the World Health Organization, the US Institute of Medicine, the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group, and the European Food Safety Agency. Methods: We compared the sources of the data, the concepts, and methods used by the 4 expert groups to set the physiological requirements for absorbed zinc, the dietary zinc requirements (termed estimated and/or average requirements), recommended dietary allowances (or recommended nutrient intakes or population reference intakes), and tolerable upper intake levels for selected age, sex, and life-stage groups. Results: All 4 expert groups used the factorial approach to estimate the physiological requirements for zinc. These are based on the estimates of absorbed zinc required to offset all obligatory zinc losses plus any additional requirements for absorbed zinc for growth, pregnancy, or lactation. However, discrepancies exist in the reference body weights used, studies selected, approaches to estimate endogenous fecal zinc (EFZ) losses, the adjustments applied to derive dietary zinc requirements that take into account zinc bioavailability in the habitual diets, number of dietary zinc recommendations set, and the nomenclature used to describe them. Conclusions: Estimates for the physiological and dietary requirements varied across the 4 expert groups. The European Food Safety Agency was the only expert group that set dietary zinc recommendations at 4 different levels of dietary phytate for adults (but not for children) and as of yet no tolerable upper intake level for any life-stage group.


Trials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarai Mirjam Keestra ◽  
Florence Rodgers ◽  
Daphne Lenz ◽  
Rhiannon Osborne ◽  
Till Bruckner ◽  
...  

AbstractClinical trial transparency forms the foundation of evidence-based medicine, and trial sponsors, especially publicly funded institutions such as universities, have an ethical and scientific responsibility to make the results of clinical trials publicly available in a timely fashion. We assessed whether the thirty UK universities receiving the most Medical Research Council funding in 2017–2018 complied with World Health Organization best practices for clinical trial reporting on the US Clinical Trial Registry (ClinicalTrials.gov). Firstly, we developed and evaluated a novel automated tracking tool (clinical-trials-tracker.com) for clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. This tracker identifies the number of due trials (whose completion lies more than 395 days in the past) that have not reported results on the registry and can now be used for all sponsors. Secondly, we used the tracker to determine the number of due clinical trials sponsored by the selected UK universities in October 2020. Thirdly, using the FDAAA Trials Tracker, we identified trials sponsored by these universities that are not complying with reporting requirements under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act 2007. Finally, we quantified the average and median number of days between primary completion date and results posting. In October 2020, the universities included in our study were sponsoring 1634 due trials, only 1.6% (n = 26) of which had reported results within a year of completion. 89.8% (n = 1468) of trials remained unreported, and 8.6% (n = 140) of trials reported results late. We also identified 687 trials that contained inconsistent data, suggesting that UK universities often fail to update their data adequately on ClinicalTrials.gov. The mean reporting delay after primary completion for trials that posted results was 981 days, the median 728 days. Only four trials by UK universities violated the FDAAA 2007. We suggest a number of reasons for the poor reporting performance of UK universities on ClinicalTrials.gov: (i) efforts to improve clinical trial reporting in the UK have to date focused on the European clinical trial registry (EU CTR), (ii) the absence of a tracking tool for timely reporting on ClinicalTrials.gov has limited the visibility of institutions’ reporting performance on the US registry and (iii) there is currently a lack of repercussions for UK sponsors who fail to report results on ClinicalTrials.gov which should be addressed in the future.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Yucuma ◽  
Angie K. Puerto ◽  
Manuela Tellez ◽  
Alejandro Jadad

UNSTRUCTURED What is ‘medicine’? To answer this question, published definitions or conceptualizations were sought through adapted search strategies of Google Scholar, Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews; Top-11 English dictionaries; and the websites of top-ranked medical schools, all 113 members of the World Medical Association, the US Institute of Medicine, the World Federation for Medical Education and the World Health Organization up to March 2020. Three articles in scholarly journals, all of the dictionaries and none of the medical schools, associations, or institutions provided a definition or conceptualization. No source described a systematic, replicable process to capture the meaning of ‘medicine’. Bold, systematic, and replicable initiatives are needed to fill this gap, as a means to guide the contributions of the medical profession, governments, academia, and corporations; to separate medicine from other professions, and to clarify its role in the creation and preservation of health beyond the chemical-mechanical view of patients and their diseases as humanity goes through the COVID-19 pandemic and enters ‘the next normal’.


2021 ◽  
pp. 259-264
Author(s):  
Michael Obladen

Industrialized food production appeared in 1856, pioneered by Borden in the US, Liebig in Germany, Nestlé in Switzerland, and Mellin in the UK. Their products differed remarkably and deviated from human and cow’s milk while physicians discussed the importance of minute variations in protein, fat, or carbohydrates. Proprietary formulas were free of bacteria, and the companies prospered from mass production, international marketing, and aggressive advertising. From 1932 onwards, medical societies restricted advertising to the laity. In 1939, Williams in Singapore and in 1970, Jelliffe in Jamaica suspected that commercial formula may increase infant mortality in the Third World. Breastfeeding continued to decline during the early 20th century, falling below 10% in 1970 in the US. The Swiss ‘Third World Group’ and the US ‘Infant Formula Action Coalition’ linked infant mortality and industry marketing in the Third World. The controversy of 1970–1984 led to the World Health Organization Code, which regulated the advertising and marketing of baby food. This was one of several public health statements contributing to the resurgence of breastfeeding.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-779
Author(s):  
E.V. Molchanova

Subject. This study focuses on the Finno-Ugric peoples carrying unique cultural customs and traditions. Objectives. I evaluate how various factors influence the demographic development of the Finno-Ugric peoples. Methods. Analyzing the current situation, I refer to official statistics and the Health for All database of the World Health Organization, statistical yearbooks of the Russian State Statistics Service. All data were organized as a special information system including several related blocks, such as economic development of locations, demographic situation, health and healthcare. Research was based on the comparative analysis of key medical-demographic and socio-economic indicators, and economic-mathematical apparatus. Results. I comprehensively evaluated the current situation macro- and mesoeconomically by gradually shifting from the comparison of countries to regional trends. I traced patterns of medical and demographic processes in the Finno-Ugric countries, such as Hungary, Finland and Estonia, and national autonomies across Russia. Conclusions and Relevance. I discovered that there is a certain relationship between a man and environment that translate into physical and physical health of people. They should be taken into consideration when outlining demographic development programs. The findings can be used to prepare regional medical and demographic documents, including the prevention of suicidal behavior and alcoholism and general medical services.


Sexes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-59
Author(s):  
Andrea Sansone ◽  
Angelo Cignarelli ◽  
Daniele Mollaioli ◽  
Giacomo Ciocca ◽  
Erika Limoncin ◽  
...  

Sentiment analysis (SA) is a technique aimed at extracting opinions and sentiments through the analysis of text, often used in healthcare research to understand patients’ needs and interests. Data from social networks, such as Twitter, can provide useful insights on sexual behavior. We aimed to assess the perception of Valentine’s Day by performing SA on tweets we collected between 28 January and 13 February 2019. Analysis was done using ad hoc software. A total of 883,615 unique tweets containing the word “valentine” in their text were collected. Geo-localization was available for 48,918 tweets; most the tweets came from the US (36,889, 75.41%), the UK (2605, 5.33%) and Canada (1661, 3.4%). The number of tweets increased approaching February 14. “Love” was the most recurring word, appearing in 111,981 tweets, followed by “gift” (55,136), “special” (34,518) and “happy” (33,913). Overall, 7318 tweets mentioned “sex”: among these tweets, the most recurring words were “sexy” (2317 tweets), “love” (1394) and “gift” (679); words pertaining to intimacy and sexual activity, such as “lingerie”, “porn”, and “date” were less common. In conclusion, tweets about Valentine’s Day mostly focus on the emotions, or on the material aspect of the celebration, and the sexual aspect of Valentine’s Day is rarely mentioned.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 38030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deivendran Kalirathinam ◽  
Raj Guruchandran ◽  
Prabhakar Subramani

The 2019 novel coronavirus officially named as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by the World Health Organization, has spread to more than 180 countries. The ongoing global pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, spread to the United Kingdom (UK) in January 2020. Transmission within the UK was confirmed in February, leading to an epidemic with a rapid increase in cases in March. As on April 25- 2020, there have been 148,377 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK and 20,319 people with confirmed infection have died. Survival of critically ill patients is frequently associated with significant functional impairment and reduced health-related quality of life. Early physiotherapy and community rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients has recently been identified as an essential therapeutic tool and has become a crucial evidence-based component in the management of these patients. This comprehensive narrative review aims to describe recent progress in the application of physiotherapy management in COVID 19 patients. Assessment and evidence- based treatment of these patients should include prevention, reduction of adverse consequences in immobilization, and long-term impairment sequelae. A variety of techniques and modalities of early physiotherapy in intensive care unit are suggested by clinical research. They should be applied according to the stage of the disease, comorbidities, and patient’s level of cooperation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 171-182
Author(s):  
Sia Chong Hock ◽  
Vernon Tay ◽  
Vimal Sachdeva ◽  
Chan Lai Wah

Data Integrity, which is data deemed Attributable, Legible, Contemporaneous, Original, Accurate, Complete, Consistent, Enduring, and Available (ALCOA-plus), has been the focus of the pharmaceutical industry in recent years. With the growing use of computerized systems and rising prevalence of outsourcing manufacturing processes, ensuring data integrity is becoming more challenging in an increasingly complex pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. To address this issue, multiple legislation and guidance documents such as ‘Data Integrity and Compliance with CGMP Guidance for Industry’ from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ‘GxP’ Data Integrity Guidance and Definitions from the UK Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and ‘Guidance on Good Data and Record Management Practices’ from the World Health Organization (WHO), have been published in recent years. However, with rising data integrity issues observed by FDA, WHO, MHRA and other pharmaceutical inspectors even after these guidance documents have been published, their overall effectiveness is yet to be determined. This paper compares and evaluates the legislation and guidance currently in existence; and discusses some of the potential challenges pharmaceutical manufacturers face in maintaining data integrity with such legislation and guidance in place. It appears that these legislation and guidance are insufficient in maintaining data integrity in the industry when used alone. Last, but not least, this paper also reviews other solutions, such as the need for a company culture of integrity, a good database management system, education and training, robust quality agreements between contract givers and acceptors, and performance of effective audits and inspections, to aid in maintaining data integrity in the manufacturing industry. These proposed solutions, if successfully implemented, can address the issues associated with data integrity, and raise the standard of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing worldwide.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Kurimay

The Republic of Hungary is a landlocked country of 93000 km2 in central Europe; it is bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Its official language is Hungarian. Hungary joined the European Union (EU) in 2004. About 90% of the population of c. 10 million is ethnically Hungarian, with Roma comprising the largest minority population (6–8%). Currently classified as a middle-income country with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $191.7 billion (2007 figure), Hungary's total health spending accounted for 7.4% of GDP in 2007, less than the average of 8.9% among member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2009). The proportion of the total health budget for mental health is 5.1%, which is low when compared with, for instance, the UK (England and Wales 13.8%, Scotland 9.5%) (World Health Organization, 2008, p. 118, Fig. 8.1).


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