Diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa: from clinical care to health policy.

Rapid demographic, sociocultural, and economic transitions are driving increases in the risk and prevalence of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa. The impacts of these transitions and their health and economic consequences are evident. Whereas, in 1990, the leading causes of death in sub-Saharan Africa were HIV/AIDS, lower respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, and vaccine-preventable diseases in children, in more recent years, cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors are replacing infectious diseases as the leading causes of death in this region, and rates of increase of cardiovascular risk factors are predicted to be greater in sub-Saharan Africa than in other parts of the world. Thus, sub-Saharan Africa—which contains a high proportion of the world\u27s least developed countries—will face the multifaceted challenge of dealing with a high burden of infectious diseases and diseases of poverty, while also addressing the increasing burden of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. At present, many of the health systems in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to cope with infectious diseases. Meeting the goals of the UN high-level meeting on NCDs (to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by 25% by 2025) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by a third by 2030) requires a coordinated approach within countries, which starts with a firm consideration of disease burden, needs, and priorities

Diabetic foot ulcers - predictors of healing time and aspects of telemedicine

Background: A diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a feared complication of diabetes. Both duration and severity of ulcer before start of treatment in specialist health care are factors that can effect healing time for patient with DFUs. More research about duration and severity of DFUs before seeking care as predictors of healing time might contribute to knowledge of importance for clinical interventions. Treatment of DFUs puts pressure on the health care system in terms of utilization of available resources. Moreover, the prevalence of diabetes is increasing dramatically and, as a result, longterm diabetes-related complications are also likely to increase. Telemedicine can be one way to address these issues, because telemedicine follow up may enable more integrated care pathways across health care levels. Telemedicine has been used in different settings, but knowledge of telemedicine’s effect on clinical outcomes and patients’ experiences among patients with DFUs is limited. Aims: The overall aim of this study was to provide new knowledge about predictors of healing time in patients with a DFU and to assess the effect of and experience with a telemedicine intervention for patients with a DFU. To achieve the overall aim, three specific aims were established: 1) to investigate whether A) duration of ulcer before start of treatment in specialist health care, and B) severity of ulcer according to the University of Texas (UT) classification system at the start of treatment (baseline), are independent predictors of healing time; 2) to evaluate whether telemedicine follow up of patients with DFUs treated in primary health care, in collaboration with hospital outpatient specialist care, is noninferior to standard outpatient care in terms of ulcer healing time. Further, to assess for superior whether amputations, death, consultations and patient satisfaction are different from telemedicine follow up compared to standard outpatient care; and, 3) to explore the experiences of patients with DFUs receiving telemedicine compared to patients receiving standard outpatient care health care delivered in the context of a cluster randomised controlled trial. Methods: Three different study designs were used. Study I: A retrospective cohort study included data from electronic medical records system of 105 patients with new DFUs from two outpatient clinics in Western Norway during 2009-2011. Competing risk regression with adjustment for potential confounders was used to evaluate the associations of duration and severity of the ulcer with healing time. Study II: In this pragmatic cluster randomised controlled non-inferiority trial, 182 patients (94/88 in telemedicine/standard outpatient care; 42 clusters) with a new DFU were recruited from three hospital outpatient clinics in Western Norway (from September 2012 to June 2016). The primary endpoint was healing time and secondary endpoints included amputation, death, number of consultations per month, and patient satisfaction. Study III: In the qualitative study individual interviews were conducted with 24 adults recruited from the cluster randomised controlled non-inferiority trial (n=13/ n=11 from the telemedicine /standard outpatient care group) in the period March 2014-May 2015. Results: Study 1: Of the 105 adults, 48 (45.7%) achieved ulcer healing, 38 (36.2%) underwent amputations, 10 (9.5%) died before ulcer healing and 9 (8.5%) were lost to follow up. For those who healed, mean healing time was 3.8 months (113 days), measured from start of treatment in the specialist health care to end of follow up. Time from patient-reported ulcer onset to referral by general practitioner (GP) to specialist health care was found to be a strong predictor of healing time. Patients who were referred to specialist health care by a GP ≥ 52 days after ulcer onset had a 58% (Sub hazard ratio (SHR) 0.42, CI 0.18, 0.98) decreased healing rate compared with patients who were referred earlier. Ulcers with the highest severity i.e. ulcer penetrating to tendon or bone (grade 2/3) and peripheral arterial disease with and without infection (stage C/D) according to the UT classification system had an 86% (SHR 0.14, CI 0.05, 0.43) decreased healing rate compared with low severity i.e. superficial ulcer (grade 1) with infection (stage A/B) or ulcer penetration to tendon/capsula (grad 2) and clean ulcer (stage A). Study II: Of 182 patients, 142 (78.9%) achieved complete ulcer healing, and 75 (79.8%) healed in the telemedicine group and 67 (76.1%) in the standards outpatient care group. Mean healing including only those who healed was 3.4 months and 3.8 months in the telemedicine group and standard outpatient group, respectively. Telemedicine was non-inferior to standard outpatient care regarding healing time (mixed-effects regression analysis: (mean difference –0.43 months, 95% CI –1.50, 0.65). This finding persisted also after taking into account competing risk from death and amputation (SHR 1.16, 95% CI 0.85, 1.59). There were no significant differences between the telemedicine follow up and standard outpatient care related to the effect estimate of the secondary outcomes, except for significantly fewer amputations in the telemedicine group. Study III: Three themes emerged from the analysis: 1) competence of health care professionals, 2) continuity of care, and 3) easy access, i.e. to receive treatment and follow up near home or at their home. Group allocation seemed to have limited impact on the patients’ follow-up experiences. Competence of health care professionals and continuity of care were important, because they could either enhance or impair wound care. When telemedicine functioned as intended, it was an advantage in the treatment. Easy access was important for the participants, but the importance of accessibility appeared only when competence among health care professionals and continuity of care were present. Conclusions: Early referral to specialist health care if an ulcer occurs is crucial for optimal ulcer healing and has a clear implication for routine care. Grade and stage severity are also important predictors for healing time, and early screening to assess the severity and initiation of prompt treatment is important. Telemedicine can be an alternative but also a supplement to usual care for patients with DFUs, at least for patients with more superficial ulcers. As the number of outpatient clinic consultations in the telemedicine group did not differ from the standard care group, there is need to focus on organisational aspects to facilitate the use of telemedicine. Health care professionals’ competence, continuity of care and easy access to health care services were essential for patients with DFUs, and telemedicine may compensate for lack of these factors

Diabetes Guidelines Implementation Toolkit

Diabetes Guidelines Implementation Toolkit is a capstone project aimed to help the Grady North Fulton Health Center to implement the American Diabetes Association (ADA) “Standards in Medical Care in Diabetes, 2011” guidelines. This toolkit can also be used to implement the diabetes guidelines in any other primary or community healthcare facility to improve diabetes care. Diabetes can affect many parts of the body and can lead to serious complications such as blindness, kidney damage, and lower-limb amputations. Working together, people with diabetes, their support network, and their health care providers can reduce the occurrence of these and other diabetes complications by controlling the levels of blood glucose, blood pressure, blood lipids, and by receiving other preventive care practices in a timely manner. Once the decision to put into practice the evidence-based diabetes guidelines has been made, this implementation toolkit will serve as a guide to help go through the process of implementation. The toolkit will suggest practical ways to implement the use of the guidelines using a stepwise approach, resources and template materials such as information handouts, flow sheets, referral forms, sample patient letters, etc. will be provided in the toolkit to facilitate the implementation. The final goal of the implementations is to improve the delivery of effective preventive health care services and promote diabetes preventive behaviors in order to prevent diabetes, its complications and disabilities, and the burden associated with the disease

Wound Care Education for Primary Care Providers at a Regional Medical Center

Problem. Due to the aging population and the high prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, in the US, millions of people suffer from chronic wounds secondary to these chronic conditions. Wound care treatment is very expensive, costing the US health care system approximately $10 billion annually. San Mateo Medical Center treats many patients with wounds. However, the treatment is suboptimal as most primary care providers (PCPs) are not trained to perform wound care according to best practice. This creates several problems such as a large number of referrals to the Vascular Clinic, visits to the emergency room for dressing changes, and admissions to the hospital due to preventable wound infections. Intervention. Wound care education targeted at PCPs was identified as an intervention to improve health outcomes through the delivery of evidence-based, cost-effective wound care. This project consisted of a class on assessment and management of vascular wounds, diabetic wounds, pressure injuries, and surgical wounds in the primary care setting. The class was implemented at San Mateo Medical Center on May 1st, 2019. Measures. A pre- and post-class assessment was used to measure change of practice and practice improvement in the delivery of wound care in the outpatient clinics. Results. Data analysis indicated that after the class, the PCPs felt knowledgeable regarding assessment and treatment of vascular wounds, diabetic wounds, surgical wounds and pressure injuries. The PCPs’ practice also improved as a result of the wound care class indicated by a mean value of 3.5 in the Likert Scale. Referrals to the Vascular Clinic decreased by 77.8%. Conclusion. The provision of real-time, evidence-based, cost-effective wound care ensures the safety of patients by improving their health outcomes and increasing their satisfaction. Improving wound care knowledge by PCPs has long term implication that will benefit all parties in our organization. Keywords: wound care treatment, chronic wounds, evidence-based, outpatient wound care, and best practice

Application of infrared thermography in computer aided diagnosis

The invention of thermography, in the 1950s, posed a formidable problem to the research community: What is the relationship between disease and heat radiation captured with Infrared (IR) cameras? The research community responded with a continuous effort to find this crucial relationship. This effort was aided by advances in processing techniques, improved sensitivity and spatial resolution of thermal sensors. However, despite this progress fundamental issues with this imaging modality still remain. The main problem is that the link between disease and heat radiation is complex and in many cases even non-linear. Furthermore, the change in heat radiation as well as the change in radiation pattern, which indicate disease, is minute. On a technical level, this poses high requirements on image capturing and processing. On a more abstract level, these problems lead to inter-observer variability and on an even more abstract level they lead to a lack of trust in this imaging modality. In this review, we adopt the position that these problems can only be solved through a strict application of scientific principles and objective performance assessment. Computing machinery is inherently objective; this helps us to apply scientific principles in a transparent way and to assess the performance results. As a consequence, we aim to promote thermography based Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems. Another benefit of CAD systems comes from the fact that the diagnostic accuracy is linked to the capability of the computing machinery and, in general, computers become ever more potent. We predict that a pervasive application of computers and networking technology in medicine will help us to overcome the shortcomings of any single imaging modality and this will pave the way for integrated health care systems which maximize the quality of patient care

Empowering Diabetes Patient with Mobile Health Technologies

Chronic diseases, especially diabetes mellitus, are huge public health burden. Therefore, new health care models for sharing the responsibility for care among health care providers and patients themselves are needed. The concept of empowerment promotes patient’s active involvement and control over their own health. It can be achieved through education, self-management, and shared decision making. All these aspects can be covered by mobile health technologies, the so-called mHealth. This term comprises mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, tablets, personal digital assistants, other wireless devices, and numerous apps. Many challenges of diabetics can be addressed by mHealth, including glycemic control, nutrition control, physical activity, high blood pressure, medication adherence, obesity, education, diabetic retinopathy screening, diabetic foot screening, and psychosocial care. However, mHealth plays only minor role in diabetes management, despite numerous apps on the market. Namely, these apps have many shortcomings and the majority of them does not include important functions. Moreover, these apps lack the perceived additional benefit by the user and the ease of use, important factors for acceptance of mHealth. Studies of diabetes apps regarding usability and accessibility have shown moderate results. Beside improvements of apps usability, the future of diabetes mHealth lies probably in personalized education and self-management with the help of decision support systems. At the same time, work on artificial pancreas is in progress and smartphone could be used as user interface

Wound infection in clinical practice : principles of best practice

The International Wound Infection Institute (IWII) is an organisation of volunteer interdisciplinary health professionals dedicated to advancing and improving practice relating to prevention and control of wound infection. This includes acute wounds (surgical, traumatic and burns) and chronic wounds of all types, although principally chronic wounds of venous, arterial, diabetic and pressure aetiologies. Wound infection is a common complication of wounds. It leads to delays in wound healing and increases the risk of loss of limb and life. Implementation of effective strategies to prevent, diagnose and manage, is important in reducing mortality and morbidity rates associated with wound infection. This second edition of Wound Infection in Clinical Practice is an update of the first edition published in 2008 by the World Union of Wound Healing Societies (WUWHS). The original document was authored by leading experts in wound management and endorsed by the WUWHS. The intent of this edition is to provide a practical, updated resource that is easy-to-use and understand. For this edition, the IWII collaborative team has undertaken a comprehensive review of contemporary literature, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses when available. In addition, the team conducted a formal Delphi process to reach consensus on wound infection issues for which scientific research is minimal or lacking. This rigorous process provides an update on the science and expert opinion regarding prevention, diagnosis and control of wound infection. This edition outlines new definitions relevant to wound infection, presents new paradigms and advancements in the management and diagnosis of a wound infection, and highlights controversial areas of discussion

Radionuclide diagnostics in the evaluation of the kidneys in patients with diabetes mellitus

Целью данной работы является оценка диагностических возможностей метода динамической сцинтиграфии при определении характера нарушений функции почек у больных сахарным диабетом. В ходе исследования нами были проведены: сцинтиграфия почек в динамическом режиме, изучение возможностей метода динамической сцинтиграфии почек в оценке состояния почек у больных сахарным диабетомThe purpose of this work is to evaluate the diagnostic capabilities of the dynamic scintigraphy method in determining the nature of kidney function disorders in patients with diabetes mellitus. In the course of the study, we conducted: kidney scintigraphy in dynamic mode, the study of the possibilities of the method of dynamic kidney scintigraphy in assessing the state of the kidneys in patients with diabetes mellitu