Determinants of snakebite mortality in Asia: A systematic review

This systemic review summarizes the evidence exploring the determinants of mortality due to snakebite envenomation in Asia. The database PubMed, Web of Science and Science Direct were searched to identify the relevant literatures concerning mortality due to snakebites mortality in Asia. All the articles chosen were critically appraised for its quality using a mixed-method assessment tool by two independent reviewers with discrepancies sorted by a third person. A total of 7 studies were included in the final analysis which was 3 cross-sectional studies, 2 case reports, 1 observation prospective study and 1 randomized control trial study. Two studies were conducted in India and two studies in Sri Lanka while one study was conducted in Taiwan, Vietnam and Nepal respectively. The cases of snakebite victims were retrieved from the year of 1987 until 2017. In total, there were 762 cases of snakebite victims recorded, with 61 of those victims succumbed to death. From the final total of 7 studies, 4 of the studies showed snakebites mortality were related to delayed treatment access and 3 studies due to suboptimal care. Mortality and morbidity can be reduced if there is a quick access for victims to emergency medical care, rapid transfer time to hospital and receiving immediate optimal medical treatment from trained medical staff once in the hospital or dispensar

The utilization of quality improvements in public health systems across asian countries: A systematic review

Public health leaders in the current scenario face the persistent task of providing efficient public health services, which is made even more challenging due to the limitations imposed by scarce resources. To overcome the issue, various quality improvements (QI) were implemented to improve the efficacy and effectiveness of public health programs, services, and organisations. Objective: The review aimed to identify and examine published studies implementing QI within Asian public healthcare systems and their benefits on healthcare performance. Methods: The systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines. A comprehensive search was conducted across three databases - PubMed, SCOPUS, and Cochrane - specifically targeting peer-reviewed articles with titles or abstracts related to QI in the public health system. Only papers published between January 2017 and January 2022 were considered for inclusion in the review. Results: Nine articles were identified as relevant to the topic of interest, and the extracted findings were analysed. These nine studies naturally fell into distinct categories of QI, namely the Quality Improvement Model, Key Performance Index, Clinical Audit, and Root Cause Analysis. These studies explicitly connected their implemented QI to enhancing healthcare delivery quality. Conclusion: The findings of the review demonstrated that the implementation of QI could lead to notable enhancements in both the quality of care and overall healthcare performance

The knowledge, attitude and practices of COVID-19: a survey among medical students in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia Public Medical Schools

COVID-19 has affected university medical students, resulting in the new norm of learning and practice. Understanding these students’ knowledge, attitude and their practice would be essential as they would serve as the future doctor in Malaysia. The study attempted to evaluate medical students’ knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) in the east coast states of Peninsular Malaysia. An online and multi centre cross-sectional study was undertaken among all the three public medical schools in the east coast region of Peninsular Malaysia, between 8th July to 21st July 2020. The questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic data and the three domains which included COVID-19 KAP. Students were invited to participate via social media platform such as WhatsApp and students’ email. A total of 1,008 medical students voluntarily participated in the study with female to male ratio of 2.6:1. A total of 356 (35.3%) of the medical students had satisfactory knowledge score, with 75% of them were female. The majority of the students had positive attitude towards COVID-19 and practiced meticulous social distancing during the pandemic. We noted that seniority influenced knowledge score, and this was evident as 264 (26.2%) of the students were in their clinical year. Overall, the knowledge scores regarding COVID-19 among the medical students in East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia was reasonable and there were opportunities to augment these standards. Meticulous plans are needed to enhance knowledge and preparedness of the current crops of medical students to be competent future frontliner for Malaysia