Setting and Implementing Standards for Management of Wild Tigers

Tiger numbers have collapsed so dramatically that conservationists are adopting a strategy of securing populations in priority conservation landscapes. This includes improving management effectiveness in these sites. The Conservation Assured|Tiger Standards (CA|TS) are designed to help ensure effectiveness and provide a benchmark against which to measure progress. CA|TS is a distillation of best practice and a roadmap to management effectiveness, linking management to expert-driven standards covering all aspects of management, including those which are tiger-specific (monitoring, maintenance of prey, control of poaching). Sites are audited against a set of standards and if met, are accredited as CA|TS Approved. We describe CA|TS in the context of tiger conservation, describe the evolution and philosophy of the system and consider its application across the tiger range, before drawing on lessons learned from 5 years of development. Important benefits include the independence of CA|TS from existing governmental or NGO institutions, the emphasis on regional governance and the existence of active support groups. Conversely, the participatory approach has slowed implementation. CA|TS remains more attractive to well managed sites than to sites that are struggling, although building capacity in the latter is its key aim. The close connections between people working on tiger conservation make some aspects of independent assessment challenging. Finally, if CA|TS is to succeed in its long term aims, it needs to go hand in hand with secure and adequate funding to increase management capacity in many tiger conservation areas.

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Developing an Open Social Scholarship Collaboration: Lessons from INKE

KULA knowledge creation dissemination and preservation studies ◽

10.5334/kula.9 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 7

Author(s):

Lynne Siemens ◽

The INKE Research Group

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Best Practice ◽

Research Work ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Administrative Team ◽

Best Practice Guidelines ◽

Graduate Research ◽

Knowledge Environment

Many academic teams and granting agencies undergo a process of reflection at the completion of research projects to understand lessons learned and develop best practice guidelines. Generally completed at the project’s end, these reviews focus on the actual research work accomplished with little discussion of the work relationships and process involved. As a result, some hard-earned lessons are forgotten or minimized through the passage of time. Additional learning about the nature of collaboration may be gained if this type of reflection occurs during the project’s life. Building on earlier examinations of INKE, this paper contributes to that discussion with an exploration of seventh and final year of a large-scale research project.Implementing New Knowledge Environment (INKE) serves as a case study for this research. Members of the administrative team, researchers, postdoctoral fellows, graduate research assistants, and others are asked about their experiences collaborating within INKE on an annual basis in order to understand the nature of collaboration and ways that it may change over the life of a long-term grant. Interviewees continue to outline benefits for collaboration within INKE while admitting that there continue to be challenges. They also outline several lessons learned which will be applied to the next project.

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Post-implant Care Pathway: lessons learned and recommendations after 5 years of clinical implementation of hypoglossal nerve stimulation

SLEEP ◽

10.1093/sleep/zsaa279 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ryan J Soose

Keyword(s):

Nerve Stimulation ◽

Best Practice ◽

Hypoglossal Nerve ◽

Care Pathway ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Term Therapy ◽

Clinical Implementation ◽

Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation ◽

Adherence Monitoring

Abstract Hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HNS) therapy is now an established and widely-available OSA treatment alternative for CPAP-intolerant patients. Additionally, the HNS body of literature is robust with strong data on safety, efficacy, and durability – from the 5-year STAR Trial outcomes, to post-approval studies of independent institutions, to the multicenter ADHERE registry which recently reported outcomes on over 1000 patients and is poised to enroll 5000 HNS patients total. Nevertheless, now with thousands of implanted patients across hundreds of certified centers, and that number growing rapidly, the post-implant management of the HNS patient represents the next critical frontier. Post-implant patient management (therapy titration, troubleshooting, adjustments, and adherence monitoring) across a longitudinal care model is key to ensuring long-term therapy success and optimizing patient outcomes and health benefits. As with CPAP, patient education and close clinical monitoring are often essential to successful long-term management. Although many HNS patients are clear responders with excellent comfort and adherence as well as effective improvement in symptomatic and objective outcome measures, and even a smaller subset are clear non-responders, there’s a growing body of patients somewhere in the middle: good outcomes but not great; partial but incomplete response. These are the patients in whom a standardized best-practice approach to treatment monitoring and targeted therapy modifications is likely critical to optimizing long-term outcomes.

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Heroin prescription for heroin addiction – an English view

Acta Neuropsychiatrica ◽

10.1111/j.0924-2708.2004.00097.x ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 16 (5) ◽

pp. 275-280 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tom Carnwath

Keyword(s):

Best Practice ◽

Good Practice ◽

Heroin Addiction ◽

Home Office ◽

Adequate Funding ◽

New Information ◽

Heroin Prescription ◽

Opiate Addicts ◽

Set Up

Heroin has been prescribed in England for the treatment of heroin addiction for almost 100 years. For many years, England was almost the only country where this occurred, and the British system was consequently the subject of international curiosity. In spite of this long history, very little research has been carried out locally, and until recently, there were no guidelines as to best practice. In 1965, it was decided that only doctors with a Home Office license could prescribe heroin. Since that time, the proportion of opiate addicts treated with heroin has greatly diminished, as has the number of doctors willing to prescribe. One doctor in particular remained an enthusiastic proponent of heroin prescription. His claims impressed some Swiss clinicians, who proceeded to establish a multicentre trial in Switzerland. This was followed by a similar trial in the Netherlands. These trials apparently indicated that a proportion of treatment-resistant opiate addicts could respond well to heroin, although the researchers' conclusions have been disputed. The National Treatment Agency in England is now developing guidelines for good practice based on this new information and is planning to set up some pilot sites. It is likely that practise in England will remain somewhat different from continental practice, particularly with respect to long-term supervised injecting. It is unclear how much funding will be released to support heroin prescription. Without adequate funding, it is likely to disappear.

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Working on the land

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj18002 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 582

Author(s):

Matthew Paull ◽

Natasha Patterson ◽

Anthea Patch ◽

Kelli How

Keyword(s):

Best Practice ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Gas Wells ◽

Gas Industry ◽

Agricultural Industry ◽

Land Access ◽

Natural Gas Industry ◽

History Of ◽

Over Time

A defining characteristic of Queensland’s natural gas industry is that upstream operations are located in a region with a strong and diverse agricultural industry. The gas resource lies beneath this farming land and the industry has had to overcome the challenge of covering huge distances to maintain thousands of gas wells and associated infrastructure – all while trying to reduce disruption on thousands of predominantly family-owned properties. Earning the trust and respect of landholders has, therefore, been essential to the success of the industry. Mistakes were made by the industry in the early days, but attitudes on both sides have since changed and evolved. There has been a move towards coexistence, respect and consent as the foundation for a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship. Along the way, the industry approach to land access has changed significantly over time. There are now many shining examples of best practice and innovation in the industry and a willingness to share solutions. This paper details the legal underpinning of Queensland’s land access process, the history of the industry in Queensland’s Darling Downs region, key lessons learned by the industry, and some of the innovations and new approaches developed by the land access professionals in the industry.

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Research Collaboration as “Layers of Engagement”: INKE in Year Four

Scholarly and Research Communication ◽

10.22230/src.2014v5n4a181 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Lynne Siemens

Keyword(s):

Best Practice ◽

Research Collaboration ◽

External Validation ◽

Research Work ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Team Members ◽

Best Practice Guidelines ◽

Research Areas ◽

New Knowledge

Many academic teams and granting agencies undergo a process of reflection at a project’s completion to understand lessons learned and develop best practice guidelines. These reviews focus on the actual research work accomplished with little discussion of the relationships and processes involved. As a result, some hard-earned lessons are forgotten or minimized. To address, the Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) project provides an opportunity to explore the changing nature of collaboration over a long-term project’s life. Now at the fourth year, team members reflect on the deepening and strengthening collaboration, with layers of engagement between the various individuals and sub-research areas, which has translated into productivity and external validation of the collaboration and its work. The article concludes with recommendations for other teams.

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Maximizing Outcomes in Group Treatment of Aphasia: Lessons Learned From a Community-Based Center

Perspectives on Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders ◽

10.1044/nnsld24.3.100 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 100-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Darlene Williamson

Keyword(s):

Group Treatment ◽

Treatment Protocol ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Group Program ◽

Community Based ◽

Multiple Treatment ◽

Use Of Technology ◽

Communication Impairments ◽

Treatment Settings

Given the potential of long term intervention to positively influence speech/language and psychosocial domains, a treatment protocol was developed at the Stroke Comeback Center which addresses communication impairments arising from chronic aphasia. This article presents the details of this program including the group purposes and principles, the use of technology in groups, and the applicability of a group program across multiple treatment settings.

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Periodic monitoring of vampire bats and rabies: a new framework for animal restoration projects in the Neotropics

10.32942/osf.io/53hda ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Fernando Gonçalves ◽

Daniel G. Streicker ◽

Mauro Galetti

Keyword(s):

Disease Transmission ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Multidisciplinary Teams ◽

Risk Area ◽

Food Web Structure ◽

Land Bridge ◽

High Risk Area ◽

Restoration Project ◽

Vampire Bats

Nowadays, restoration project might lead to increased public engagement and enthusiasm for biodiversity and is receiving increased media attention in major newspapers, TED talks and the scientific literature. However, empirical research on restoration project is rare, fragmented, and geographically biased and long-term studies that monitor indirect and unexpected effects are needed to support future management decisions especially in the Neotropical area. Changes in animal population dynamics and community composition following species (re)introduction may have unanticipated consequences for a variety of downstream ecosystem processes, including food web structure, predator-prey systems and infectious disease transmission. Recently, an unprecedented study in Brazil showed changes in vampire bat feeding following a rewilding project and further transformed the land-bridge island into a high-risk area for rabies transmission. Due the lessons learned from ongoing project, we present a novel approach on how to anticipate, monitor, and mitigate the vampire bats and rabies in rewilding projects. We pinpoint a series of precautions and the need for long-term monitoring of vampire bats and rabies responses to rewilding projects and highlighted the importance of multidisciplinary teams of scientist and managers focusing on prevention educational program of rabies risk transmitted by bats. In addition, monitoring the relative abundance of vampire bats, considering reproductive control by sterilization and oral vaccines that autonomously transfer among bats would reduce the probability, size and duration of rabies outbreaks. The rewilding assessment framework presented here responds to calls to better integrate the science and practice of rewilding and also could be used for long-term studying of bat-transmitted pathogen in the Neotropical area as the region is considered a geographic hotspots of “missing bat zoonoses”.

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Opioid crisis in primary care? An audit of high-dose opioid prescribing at Bangholm GP Practice

British Journal of General Practice ◽

10.3399/bjgp20x711581 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 70 (suppl 1) ◽

pp. bjgp20X711581

Author(s):

Charlotte Greene ◽

Alice Pearson

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Back Pain ◽

Practice Guidelines ◽

Best Practice ◽

Evidence Base ◽

High Dose ◽

Opioid Prescription ◽

Opioid Prescribing ◽

Best Practice Guidelines

BackgroundOpioids are effective analgesics for acute and palliative pain, but there is no evidence base for long-term pain relief. They also carry considerable risks such as overdose and dependence. Despite this, they are increasingly prescribed for chronic pain. In the UK, opioid prescribing more than doubled between 1998 and 2018.AimAn audit at Bangholm GP Practice to understand the scale of high-strength opioid prescribing. The aim of the audit was to find out if indications, length of prescription, discussion, and documentation at initial consultation and review process were consistent with best-practice guidelines.MethodA search on Scottish Therapeutics Utility for patients prescribed an average daily dose of opioid equivalent ≥50 mg morphine between 1 July 2019 and 1 October 2019, excluding methadone, cancer pain, or palliative prescriptions. The Faculty of Pain Medicine’s best-practice guidelines were used.ResultsDemographics: 60 patients (37 females), average age 62, 28% registered with repeat opioid prescription, 38% comorbid depression. Length of prescription: average 6 years, 57% >5 years, 22% >10 years. Opioid: 52% tramadol, 23% on two opioids. Indications: back pain (42%), osteoarthritis (12%), fibromyalgia (10%). Initial consultation: 7% agreed outcomes, 35% follow-up documented. Review: 56% 4-week, 70% past year.ConclusionOpioid prescribing guidelines are not followed. The significant issues are: long-term prescriptions for chronic pain, especially back pain; new patients registering with repeat prescriptions; and no outcomes of treatment agreed, a crucial message is the goal is pain management rather than relief. Changes have been introduced at the practice: a patient information sheet, compulsory 1-month review for new patients on opioids, and in-surgery pain referrals.

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