Essential Medicines at the National Level : The Global Asthma Network's Essential Asthma Medicines Survey 2014

Patients with asthma need uninterrupted supplies of affordable, quality-assured essential medicines. However, access in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited. The World Health Organization (WHO) Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Global Action Plan 2013-2020 sets an 80% target for essential NCD medicines' availability. Poor access is partly due to medicines not being included on the national Essential Medicines Lists (EML) and/or National Reimbursement Lists (NRL) which guide the provision of free/subsidised medicines. We aimed to determine how many countries have essential asthma medicines on their EML and NRL, which essential asthma medicines, and whether surveys might monitor progress. A cross-sectional survey in 2013-2015 of Global Asthma Network principal investigators generated 111/120 (93%) responses41 high-income countries and territories (HICs); 70 LMICs. Patients in HICs with NRL are best served (91% HICs included ICS (inhaled corticosteroids) and salbutamol). Patients in the 24 (34%) LMICs with no NRL and the 14 (30%) LMICs with an NRL, however no ICS are likely to have very poor access to affordable, quality-assured ICS. Many LMICs do not have essential asthma medicines on their EML or NRL. Technical guidance and advocacy for policy change is required. Improving access to these medicines will improve the health system's capacity to address NCDs.Peer reviewe

ASA classification and surgical severity grading used to identify a high-risk population, a multicenter prospective cohort study in Swedish tertiary hospitals

Background Identification of surgical populations at high risk for negative outcomes is needed for clinical and research purposes. We hypothesized that combining two classification systems, ASA (American Society of Anesthesiology physical status) and surgical severity, we could identify a high-risk population before surgery. We aimed to describe postoperative outcomes in a population selected by these two classifications system. Methods Data were collected in a Swedish multicentre, time-interrupted prospective, consecutive cohort study. Eligibility criteria were age &amp;gt;= 18 years, ASA &amp;gt;= 3, elective or emergent, major to Xmajor/complex (Specialist Procedure Codes used in United Kingdom), gastrointestinal, urogenital or orthopaedic procedures. Postoperative morbidity was identified by the Postoperative Morbidity Survey on postoperative days 3 +/- 1, 7 +/- 1, 10 + 5 and graded for severity by the Clavien-Dindo system. Mortality was assessed at 30, 180 and 360 days. Results Postoperative morbidity was 78/48/47 per cent on postoperative days 3/7/10. Majority of morbidities (67.5 per cent) were graded as &amp;gt;1 by Clavien-Dindo. Any type of postoperative morbidity graded &amp;gt;1 was associated with increased risk for death up to one year. The mortality was 5.7 per cent (61/1063) at 30 days, 13.3 per cent (142/1063) at 6 months and 19.1 per cent (160/1063) at 12 months. Conclusion Severity classification as major to Xmajor/complex and ASA &amp;gt;= 3 could be used to identify a high-risk surgical population concerning postoperative morbidity and mortality before surgery. Combining the two systems future electronic data extraction is possible of a high-risk population in tertiary hospitals.Funding Agencies|Stockholm CountyStockholm County Council [SLL20160360, SLL20170140]</p