"If only had I known":a qualitative study investigating a treatment of patients with a hip fracture with short time stay in hospital

Hip fractures are amongst the leading causes of admission to an orthopaedic ward. Systematized pathways with reduced admission time have become increasingly common as an essential tool for quality development and to improve efficiency in the hospital setting.  The aim of this study was to clarify if the patients feel empowered and able to perform self-care after short time stay in hospital (STSH) due to a hip fracture. The study used descriptive phenomenology to describe experiences of the pathway. Field studies were conducted in hospitals and in the patients' homes.  Interviews were performed with 10 patients recruited from two wards at a Danish University hospital, 4 family members and 15 health professionals from three hospitals.  The open attitude of reflective lifeworld research guided the analysis. The findings revealed that patients felt unprepared and insecure about their future, but also had a strong desire to be in charge of their own lives.  Of all the patients interviewed, none had any recollection of the information given to them by health professionals during their hospital admission. This study demonstrates that empowerment of patients with hip fractures is not adequately achieved in the pathway with STSH

The Model for Assessment of Telemedicine (MAST): a scoping review of empirical studies

The evaluation of telemedicine can be achieved using different evaluation models or theoretical frameworks. This paper presents a scoping review of published studies which have applied the Model for Assessment of Telemedicine (MAST). MAST includes pre-implementation assessment (e.g. by use of participatory design), followed by multidisciplinary assessment, including description of the patients and the application and assessment of safety, clinical effectiveness, patient perspectives, economic aspects organisational aspects and socio-cultural, legal and ethical aspects. Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. In this article, research design and methods used in the multidisciplinary assessment are described, strengths and weaknesses are analysed, and recommendations for future research are presented

Integrating systems Approaches into Pharmaceutical Sciences

During the first week of December 2007, the European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS) and BioSim, the major European Network of Excellence on Systems Biology, held a challenging conference on the use of mathematical models in the drug development process. More precisely, the purpose of the conference was to promote the 'Integration of Systems Approaches into Pharmaceutical Sciences' in view of optimising the development of new effective drugs. And a challenge this is, considering both the high attrition rates in the pharmaceutical industry and the failure of finding definitive drug solutions for many of the diseases that plague mankind today. The conference was co-sponsored by the American College of Clinical Pharmacology, the European Center for Pharmaceutical Medicine, and the Swiss Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and, besides representatives from the European Regulatory Agencies and FDA, the meeting was attended by 75 industrial and some 45 academic participants. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved