scholarly journals Success Rates Depend on the Appropriateness of the Outcome Measures

Author(s):  
Kenneth D. Royal

This "Cheap Lessons" article emphasizes the importance of selecting an appropriate outcome. A brief example from the sports medicine literature relating to baseball pitching performance and the “Tommy John surgery” (TJS) is discussed. The example illustrates how an inappropriate outcome measure often utilized in studies involving the TJS has resulted in deceptive, overestimates of the surgery’s success rate. The unintended consequence of this methodological miscalculation is that numerous athletes have elected to pursue this unnecessary medical procedure and put both their health and sporting careers at risk.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Kenneth Royal

This "Cheap Lessons" article emphasizes the importance of selecting an appropriate outcome. A brief example from the sports medicine literature relating to baseball pitching performance and the “Tommy John surgery” (TJS) is discussed. The example illustrates how an inappropriate outcome measure often utilized in studies involving the TJS has resulted in deceptive, overestimates of the surgery’s success rate. The unintended consequence of this methodological miscalculation is that numerous athletes have elected to pursue this unnecessary medical procedure and put both their health and sporting careers at risk.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 225-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelia Savell, PhD, RN ◽  
Alejandra G. Mora, BS ◽  
Crystal A. Perez, RN, BSN ◽  
Vikhyat S. Bebarta, MD ◽  
Joseph K. Maddry, MD

Objective: To describe and compare vascular access practices used by en route care providers during medical evacuation (MEDEVAC). Design: This was a retrospective cohort study. Medical records of US military personnel injured in combat and transported by MEDEVAC teams were queried.Patients: The subjects were transported by military en route care providers, in the combat theater during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) between January 2011 and March 2014. The authors reviewed 1,267 MEDEVAC records of US casualties and included 832 subjects that had vascular access attempts.Main outcome measures: The outcome measures for this study were vascular access success rates, including intravenous (IV) and intraosseous (IO) attempts. Subjects were grouped by type of vascular access: None, peripheral intravenous (PIV), IO, and PIV + IO (combination of PIV and IO) and by vascular access (PIV or IO) success (No versus Yes). Survival rate, in-flight events, ventilator, intensive care and in hospital days, and 30-day outcomes were compared among groups. Statistical analysis: The authors used chi-square or Fisher's exact tests to evaluate categorical variables. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for continuous variables. Results: Vascular access was attempted in 832 (66 percent) of the 1,267 subjects transported by MEDEVAC during this study period. The majority (n = 758) of the access attempts were PIV of which 93 percent (706/758) were successful. In 74 subjects, IO was the only access attempted with an 85 percent (n = 63) success rate. The overall success rate with IO placement was 88 percent. Conclusions: Intraosseous access has been used successfully in the combat setting and accounts for approximately 12 percent of vascular access in the MEDEVAC population the authors studied.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1420
Author(s):  
Luca Cagliero ◽  
Lorenzo Canale ◽  
Laura Farinetti ◽  
Elena Baralis ◽  
Enrico Venuto

The Learning Analytics community has recently paid particular attention to early predict learners’ performance. An established approach entails training classification models from past learner-related data in order to predict the exam success rate of a student well before the end of the course. Early predictions allow teachers to put in place targeted actions, e.g., supporting at-risk students to avoid exam failures or course dropouts. Although several machine learning and data mining solutions have been proposed to learn accurate predictors from past data, the interpretability and explainability of the best performing models is often limited. Therefore, in most cases, the reasons behind classifiers’ decisions remain unclear. This paper proposes an Explainable Learning Analytics solution to analyze learner-generated data acquired by our technical university, which relies on a blended learning model. It adopts classification techniques to early predict the success rate of about 5000 students who were enrolled in the first year courses of our university. It proposes to apply associative classifiers at different time points and to explore the characteristics of the models that led to assign pass or fail success rates. Thanks to their inherent interpretability, associative models can be manually explored by domain experts with the twofold aim at validating classifier outcomes through local rule-based explanations and identifying at-risk/successful student profiles by interpreting the global rule-based model. The results of an in-depth empirical evaluation demonstrate that associative models (i) perform as good as the best performing classification models, and (ii) give relevant insights into the per-student success rate assignments.


Fachsprache ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 100-121
Author(s):  
Friederike Prassl

This article focuses on the decision-making processes involved in research and knowledge integration in translation processes. First, the relevance of decision taking intranslation is discussed. Second, the psychology of decision making as seen by Jungermann et al. (2005) is introduced, who propose a categorization of decision-making processes intofour types: “routinized”, “stereotype”, “reflected” and “constructed”. This classification is then applied to the translations by five professional translators and five novices of five segments occurring in a popular-science text. The analysis reveals that the decision-making types are distributed differently among students and professional translators, which also has to be seen against the background of whether the decisions made were successful or not. The preliminary results of this study show that students resort to reflected decisions in most cases, but with a low success rate. Professionals achieve a higher success rate when making reflected decisions. As expected, they also make more routinized decisions than students. The professionals’ success rates improve with increasing cognitive involvement, while their failure rates are relatively high when making routinized decisions, an aspect worthwhile considering in translation didactics.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105566562199610
Author(s):  
Buddhathida Wangsrimongkol ◽  
Roberto L. Flores ◽  
David A. Staffenberg ◽  
Eduardo D. Rodriguez ◽  
Pradip. R. Shetye

Objective: This study evaluates skeletal and dental outcomes of LeFort I advancement surgery in patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) with varying degrees of maxillary skeletal hypoplasia. Design: Retrospective study. Method: Lateral cephalograms were digitized at preoperative (T1), immediately postoperative (T2), and 1-year follow-up (T3) and compared to untreated unaffected controls. Based on the severity of cleft maxillary hypoplasia, the sample was divided into 3 groups using Wits analysis: mild: ≤0 to ≥−5 mm; moderate: <−5 to >−10 mm; and severe: ≤−10 mm. Participants: Fifty-one patients with nonsyndromic CLP with hypoplastic maxilla who met inclusion criteria. Intervention: LeFort I advancement. Main Outcome Measure: Skeletal and dental stability post-LeFort I surgery at a 1-year follow-up. Results: At T2, LeFort I surgery produced an average correction of maxillary hypoplasia by 6.4 ± 0.6, 8.1 ± 0.4, and 10.7 ± 0.8 mm in the mild, moderate, and severe groups, respectively. There was a mean relapse of 1 to 1.5 mm observed in all groups. At T3, no statistically significant differences were observed between the surgical groups and controls at angle Sella, Nasion, A point (SNA), A point, Nasion, B point (ANB), and overjet outcome measures. Conclusions: LeFort I advancement produces a stable correction in mild, moderate, and severe skeletal maxillary hypoplasia. Overcorrection is recommended in all patients with CLP to compensate for the expected postsurgical skeletal relapse.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jongbeom Shin ◽  
Boram Cha ◽  
Jin-Seok Park ◽  
Weonjin Ko ◽  
Kye Sook Kwon ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Gastrointestinal tumor bleeding remains a clinical challenge because it is difficult to treat with conventional endoscopic hemostatic options. Recently, an endoscopic hemostatic powder (UI-EWD) was developed and reported to provide effective control of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. The aim of current study was to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of this novel hemostatic powder in tumor bleeding. Methods A total of 41 consecutive patients with upper gastrointestinal tumor bleeding were included. UI-EWD was applied in all patients as an auxiliary hemostatic method as a salvage therapy or monotherapy during endoscopic treatment. Hemostasis success rates, adverse event related to UI-EWD, and rates of re-bleeding were evaluated. Results In all cases, UI-EWD application was successful at tumor bleeding sites. Immediate hemostasis occurred in 40/41 (97.5%) patients, and re-bleeding within 28 days occurred in 10 of 40 (22.5%) patients that achieved initial hemostasis. The success rate of immediate hemostasis for UI-EWD monotherapy was 100% (23/23). The re-bleeding rate at 28 days after UI-EWD monotherapy was 26.1% (6/23). No adverse events associated with UI-EWD application were encountered. Conclusions The success rate of UI-EWD for immediate hemostasis in cases of GI tumor bleeding was excellent and UI-EWD produced promising results with respect to the prevention of re-bleeding. Based on these results, we suggest that UI-EWD be considered an effective salvage therapy or even monotherapy for GI tumor bleeding.


Spinal Cord ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helge Kasch ◽  
Uffe Schou Løve ◽  
Anette Bach Jønsson ◽  
Kaare Eg Severinsen ◽  
Marc Possover ◽  
...  

Abstract Study design 1-year prospective RCT. Objective Examine the effect of implantable pulse generator and low-frequency stimulation of the pelvic nerves using laparoscopic implantation of neuroprosthesis (LION) compared with neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) in SCI. Methods Inclusion criteria: traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), age 18–55 years, neurological level-of-injury Th4–L1, time-since-injury >1 year, and AIS-grades A–B. Participants were randomized to (A) LION procedure or (B) control group receiving NMES. Primary outcome measure: Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury (WISCI-II), which is a SCI specific outcome measure assessing ability to ambulate. Secondary outcome measures: Spinal Cord Independence Measure III (SCIM III), Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC), Penn Spasm Frequency Scale (PSFS), severity of spasticity measured by Numeric Rating Scale (NRS-11); International Spinal Cord Injury data sets-Quality of Life Basic Data Set (QoLBDS), and Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). Results Seventeen SCI individuals, AIS grade A, neurological level ranging from Th4–L1, were randomized to the study. One individual was excluded prior to intervention. Eight participants (7 males) with a mean age (SD) of 35.5 (12.4) years were allocated to the LION procedure, 8 participants (7 males) with age of 38.8 (15.1) years were allocated to NMES. Significantly, 5 LION group participants gained 1 point on the WISCI II scale, (p < 0.013; Fisher´s exact test). WISCI II scale score did not change in controls. No significant changes were observed in the secondary outcome measures. Conclusion The LION procedure is a promising new treatment for individuals with SCI with significant one-year improvement in walking ability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Wilks ◽  
R Mcleod ◽  
V Unadkat

Abstract Aim This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to assess this relationship and determine the most appropriate age for recommendation of surgery. Method According to the “Preferred Reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis” (PRISMA) statement, a literature search was performed across Medline, EMBASE and the Cochrane library from 1946-2018. Articles examining a relationship between age and myringoplasty or type 1 tympanoplasty success rates were screened. Results 20 articles encompassing data from 2244 procedures were included. The overall results conveyed a clear correlation between increasing age and rising success rate. A t-test was conducted which demonstrated a significant (P = 0.05) transition at aged 10, whereby success rate below age 10 was 70.6% and above 10 was 86%. Conclusions This systematic review and meta-analysis has uncovered a clear correlation between increasing age and increasing success rate for myringoplasty in the paediatric population. Furthermore, a significant transitional point has been demonstrated at the age of 10 and We hope that knowledge of increased success rates particularly after the age of 10 helps clinicians make more informed decisions about when to operate


2021 ◽  
pp. emermed-2020-209504
Author(s):  
Qingyu Xiao ◽  
Dejiang Xu ◽  
Shaohui Zhuang

BackgroundIt is generally recommended to keep the wrist joint mildly dorsiflexed during radial artery catheterisation. However, wrist dorsiflexion might decrease the success rate of radial artery catheterisation with dynamic needle tip positioning technique. Therefore, we assessed the success rates of two groups with or without wrist dorsiflexion by 5 cm wrist elevation in adult patients.MethodsThis randomised controlled clinical trial was performed between March and December 2018 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, China. We recruited 120 adult patients undergoing major surgical procedures and randomly allocated them into two groups: dorsiflexion group (group D) and neutral group (group N). The primary outcome was first-attempt success rates of two groups. Secondary outcomes were overall success rates within 5 min; numbers of insertion and cannulation attempts; overall catheterisation time; duration of localisation, insertion and cannulation; and complication rates of catheterisation.ResultsFirst-attempt success rate was 88.3% in group D and 81.7% in group N (p=0.444). The overall success rate within 5 min was 93.3% in group D compared with 90.0% in group N (p=0.743). Numbers of insertion and cannulation attempts, overall catheterisation time, duration of localisation and insertion, and complication rates did not show a significant difference between the two groups. Cannulation time was longer in group N (35.68 s) than that in group D (26.19 s; p<0.05).ConclusionWrist dorsiflexion may not be a necessity for ultrasound-guided radial artery catheterisation using dynamic needle tip positioning technique in adult patients.Trial registration numberChiCTR1800015262.


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