The Quality and Outcomes Framework as a Biomedical Technology: Consequences for UK General Practice

In April 2014 the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), the largest pay-for-performance scheme in primary care in the world, completed 10 years of existence. During this period, medical anthropologists have given little attention to QOF as a biomedical technological innovation for improving quality in general practice. This thesis contributes to the study of biomedical technology in medical anthropology by exploring two questions. First, what QOF in itself entails, its main characteristics and boundaries? Second, what are its consequences for general practice and for professional staff? An ethnographic study was set up to explore the QOF 2013/14 contract year in two general practices in the UK, coupled with participant-observation in a GP training programme. The main findings can be summarised as follows: (1) based on Foucault’s concept of governmentality, QOF as a biomedical technology represents a biopower dispositif for controlling individual (anatomopolitics) and population (biopolitics) by instilling a self-monitoring professional working environment for securing compliance; (2) the QOF clinical fragmentary model based on monetary incentives has literally commodified health professional-patient relationships through an exchange of token-information predicated on patients’ bodily parts. In this quality scheme, commercial ethics tend to predominate over professionals’ ethics; (3) the QOF scheme has produced a series of behaviour ranging from organising the practice team in accordance to QOF’s rules (the ‘QOF game’) to ‘gamesmanship’ with regards to them. The latter is more common as the practice reaches the end of financial year. These behaviours have implications for quality data production, affecting research on QOF, since most of it depends on secondary data sources; (4) in following the QOF depression indicators as a ‘mediating category’ since their inception in 2006/07, the question of ‘quality’ indicator construction and data production is further highlighted. QOF as a biomanagerial technology exemplifies an important cultural change in the UK general practice since compliance with externally dictated policy and its associated technologies changes principles and behaviour, with little scope for a holistic practice

Repensando o acesso ao cuidado na Estratégia Saúde da Família

This article presents interpretative hypothesis about the absence of institutional rules for healthcare access to Primary Health Care (PHC) in Brazil, specifically in Family Health Strategy (FHS). Access now is characterized by deviation and/or undervaluation in its operational aspect of providing rapid access to longitudinal clinical care. The hypothesis for this problem has been contextualised along two main axes: SUS institutional norms and the internal debate within the Collective Health field. In the first axis we discuss the North-American influence on Brazilian public health and the understanding of PHC as a “basic package” of healthcare services; the priority given to health promotion in the institutional health policies, as well as the Embracement (the only policy to stimulate the easy access in PHC/FHS) and the sizing of users/FHS team ratio. All that gives support for expanding and resizing the users/FHS ratio. The second axis, discuss Brazil’s relative isolation from the experience of developed countries with strong PHC; the critique of the relationship between biomedicine and capitalism; the emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention as the priority working objectives in PHC/FHS; the distance kept by the academic environment of the reality of FHS services; Brazilian social stratification, which fosters the use of subsidized private health systems by elites and middle classes. Finally, we argue that easy access to longitudinal healthcare should be regarded as fundamental for achieving the four dimensions which must converge into the PHC/FHS action: the ethical-political, anthropological and epidemiological dimensions and the social determinants on health and disease.Este artigo apresenta hipóteses interpretativas sobre a ausência de regulamentação institucional do acesso – caracterizado por certo desvio e/ou subvalorização do mesmo – na atenção primária à saúde (APS) brasileira, especialmente na Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF), no seu aspecto de prover acesso rápido ao cuidado clínico longitudinal aos adoecidos e ou demandantes. As hipóteses para esse problema foram contextualizadas em dois eixos: nas normativas do SUS e nas discussões presentes na área da saúde coletiva. No primeiro eixo apresenta-se uma discussão envolvendo a influência histórico-cultural norte-americana na saúde pública brasileira, a visão focalizada de APS como “cesta básica” de serviços, a priorização da promoção/prevenção nas diretrizes institucionais, o acolhimento (única diretriz estimuladora do acesso fácil na ESF/APS) e o dimensionamento da proporção usuários/equipes da ESF, o que fundamenta a defesa da expansão dessas equipes e o seu redimensionamento. No segundo eixo faz-se uma discussão crítica envolvendo o relativo isolamento brasileiro da experiência dos países desenvolvidos com APS forte, a influência da crítica das relações entre a biomedicina e o capitalismo, a ênfase na promoção e prevenção como objetivos prioritários de trabalho nas equipes da ESF/APS, o distanciamento do meio acadêmico das realidades dos serviços da ESF e a estratificação social que fomenta o uso subsidiado do sistema privado pelas camadas médias e elites brasileiras. Por fim, se propõe a revalorização do acesso fácil ao cuidado com longitudinalidade como fundamental para concretizar as quatro lógicas que devem convergir nas práticas da APS/ESF: ético-política, antropológica, epidemiológica e de determinação social da saúde-doença

Acesso ao cuidado na Estratégia Saúde da Família: equilíbrio entre demanda espontânea e prevenção/promoção da saúde

Este artigo propõe algumas diretrizes para a organização do trabalho na Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS) e na Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF), relacionadas aos desafios de prover acesso e equilibrar no cotidiano dos serviços ações de prevenção de agravos e promoção da saúde com o cuidado ao adoecimento. Primeiramente, apresenta algumas ideias específicas sobre a importância do acesso para a qualidade dos serviços de saúde, seguidas de uma crítica sintética - fundamentada nos conceitos de Geoffrey Rose - à estratégia preventiva de alto risco, que tem tido alto impacto na organização das rotinas assistenciais. A seguir, contextualiza a promoção da saúde relacionada ao cuidado individual na APS/ESF, discutindo o potencial sinérgico do cuidado e da promoção da saúde, em suas dimensões individuais e coletivas, para transcender o modelo biomédico/mecanicista. Finalmente, apoiado nos tópicos anteriores, no que tange aos seus desdobramentos operacionais e utilizando um exemplo concreto, propõe algumas diretrizes para a organização do trabalho e das agendas de médicos e enfermeiros da ESF, de modo a viabilizar equilíbrio e sinergia entre acesso ao cuidado e prevenção/promoção, com vistas ao fortalecimento da ESF como coordenadora local do cuidado e principal porta de entrada do Sistema Único de Saúde.This article presents some guidelines for organizing the working process in Primary Health Care (PHC) and Family Health Strategy (FHS) concerning the challenges of providing access and balancing the everyday healthcare services activities which includes health promotion and prevention of diseases, as well as access for those suffering ill-health. Firstly, it addresses some specific ideas about the importance of access to the quality of the health care services, followed by a brief critique - based on Geoffrey Rose's concepts - to the high-risk preventive strategy that has had high impact on health care organizational routines. Secondly, it contextualizes health promotion and its relations to individual health care in PHC/FHS, discussing the synergic potential of care and health promotion in their individual and collective dimensions to transcend the biomedical-mechanistic model. Finally, based on the above topics and concerning their operational consequences, as well as using a concrete example, it outlines general guidelines for organizing the working process and the agenda of doctors and nurses in the FHS, in order to facilitate both balance and synergy between access to health care and prevention/promotion, aiming to strengthen the FHS as local coordinator of care and main entrance of the Brazilian National Health System

Empatia (parte II)

Introdução: Este artigo explora o tema da empatia na relação médico-paciente. Objetivo: Contribuir para a habilidade de comunicação clínica por meio da estratégia de empatia proposta pela comunicação não violenta (CNV). Métodos: Estudo do principal livro de Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A language of life. Subsequentemente, foi feita a análise de vários vídeos no YouTube, tanto de entrevistas como de oficinas com o próprio Rosenberg. O total de 15 horas e 8 minutos de material audiovisual foi analisado. Resultados: O conteúdo selecionado está organizado em três seções: (1) Princípios da CNV; (2) Empatia; e (3) Aplicação da empatia na prática clínica. A CNV contribui para o tema da empatia na comunicação clínica ao propor um modelo de conexão empática por meio do reconhecimento de sentimentos e necessidades de cada pessoa. Esse modelo está organizado em quatro etapas: (a) observação sem julgamento; (b) conexão com os próprios sentimentos; (c) necessidades não satisfeitas; e (d) solicitações e demandas da pessoa. Trata-se de uma síntese, não somente de comunicação, mas de uma intencionalidade e do uso consciente de uma linguagem a serviço da vida, naquilo que está vivo nas pessoas, a cada momento. Conclusões: A empatia continua sendo um tema relevante na comunicação clínica. Por se tratar de um assunto complexo, este estudo buscou ferramentas para facilitar sua aplicação prática. A CNV pode contribuir para o fortalecimento da pesquisa e o exercício da empatia na comunicação clínica ao preencher possíveis lacunas sobre o tema

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment