Handrub Consumption Mirrors Hand Hygiene Compliance

We assessed handrub consumption as a surrogate marker for hand hygiene compliance from 2007 to 2014. Handrub consumption varied substantially between departments but correlated in a mixed effects regression model with the number of patient-days and the observed hand hygiene compliance. Handrub consumption may supplement traditional hand hygiene observations. Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 2016;1-4

Optimizing Therapy to Prevent Avoidable Hospital Admissions in Multimorbid Older Adults (OPERAM): cluster randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of optimising drug treatment on drug related hospital admissions in older adults with multimorbidity and polypharmacy admitted to hospital. DESIGN Cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING 110 clusters of inpatient wards within university based hospitals in four European countries (Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, and Republic of Ireland) defined by attending hospital doctors. PARTICIPANTS 2008 older adults (≥70 years) with multimorbidity (≥3 chronic conditions) and polypharmacy (≥5 drugs used long term). INTERVENTION Clinical staff clusters were randomised to usual care or a structured pharmacotherapy optimisation intervention performed at the individual level jointly by a doctor and a pharmacist, with the support of a clinical decision software system deploying the screening tool of older person's prescriptions and screening tool to alert to the right treatment (STOPP/START) criteria to identify potentially inappropriate prescribing. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Primary outcome was first drug related hospital admission within 12 months. RESULTS 2008 older adults (median nine drugs) were randomised and enrolled in 54 intervention clusters (963 participants) and 56 control clusters (1045 participants) receiving usual care. In the intervention arm, 86.1% of participants (n=789) had inappropriate prescribing, with a mean of 2.75 (SD 2.24) STOPP/START recommendations for each participant. 62.2% (n=491) had ≥1 recommendation successfully implemented at two months, predominantly discontinuation of potentially inappropriate drugs. In the intervention group, 211 participants (21.9%) experienced a first drug related hospital admission compared with 234 (22.4%) in the control group. In the intention-to-treat analysis censored for death as competing event (n=375, 18.7%), the hazard ratio for first drug related hospital admission was 0.95 (95% confidence interval 0.77 to 1.17). In the per protocol analysis, the hazard ratio for a drug related hospital admission was 0.91 (0.69 to 1.19). The hazard ratio for first fall was 0.96 (0.79 to 1.15; 237 v 263 first falls) and for death was 0.90 (0.71 to 1.13; 172 v 203 deaths). CONCLUSIONS Inappropriate prescribing was common in older adults with multimorbidity and polypharmacy admitted to hospital and was reduced through an intervention to optimise pharmacotherapy, but without effect on drug related hospital admissions. Additional efforts are needed to identify pharmacotherapy optimisation interventions that reduce inappropriate prescribing and improve patient outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02986425

Special considerations for studies of extracellular vesicles from parasitic helminths: A community‐led roadmap to increase rigour and reproducibility

Over the last decade, research interest in defining how extracellular vesicles (EVs) shape cross-species communication has grown rapidly. Parasitic helminths, worm species found in the phyla Nematoda and Platyhelminthes, are well-recognised manipulators of host immune function and physiology. Emerging evidence supports a role for helminth-derived EVs in these processes and highlights EVs as an important participant in cross-phylum communication. While the mammalian EV field is guided by a community-agreed framework for studying EVs derived from model organisms or cell systems [e.g., Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles (MISEV)], the helminth community requires a supplementary set of principles due to the additional challenges that accompany working with such divergent organisms. These challenges include, but are not limited to, generating sufficient quantities of EVs for descriptive or functional studies, defining pan-helminth EV markers, genetically modifying these organisms, and identifying rigorous methodologies for in vitro and in vivo studies. Here, we outline best practices for those investigating the biology of helminth-derived EVs to complement the MISEV guidelines. We summarise community-agreed standards for studying EVs derived from this broad set of non-model organisms, raise awareness of issues associated with helminth EVs and provide future perspectives for how progress in the field will be achieved

Transformations of Swiss Neo-Corporatism : From Pre-parliamentary Negotiations towards Privileged Pluralism in the Parliamentary Venue

Major economic peak-level associations, because of their various resources (in terms of membership, finance and institutional reconnaissance by public authorities) have be-come central political actors of the Swiss neo-corporatist regime. They were considered the dominant actors of the pre-parliamentary phase of the decision-making process (extra-parlia-mentary committees, consultation procedures), identified as the most important phase, whereas the Parliament only marginally modified the proposals of the Federal Council. However, since the beginning of the 1990s, the strategies of interest groups have profoundly changed, leading to a reconfiguration of the traditional neo-corporatist political regime toward a more pluralist system, in which interest groups more actively target the Parliament. Different factors explain these changes: the declining role of the pre-parliamentary phase, the revalorization of the Par-liament, and the increasing role of the media. These changes have weakened the positions of traditional corporatist associations and favored the political rise of new citizen groups. They have also induced interest groups to develop new political strategies, privileging the parliamen-tary venue, especially the new permanent specialized committees. Despite the growing access of new citizen groups to the political system (pre-parliamentary and parliamentary venues), economic groups remain dominant in the domains of economic and social policies

Konjunkturanalyse: Prognose 2018/2019. Aufschwung setzt sich fort

Der vorliegende Beitrag dokumentiert die Ergebnisse der Sommerprognose 2018 der KOF Konjunkturforschungsstelle der ETH Zürich vom 15. Juni 2018. Im ersten Kapitel werden die jüngsten Wirtschaftsentwicklungen im Ausland und in der Schweiz diskutiert. Im zweiten Kapitel folgen die wichtigsten Prognoseergebnisse für die verschiedenen Wirtschaftsbereiche der Schweiz, aufgeteilt nach den wichtigsten verwendungsseitigen Komponenten des Bruttoinlandprodukts. Das dritte Kapitel erörtert die wichtigsten Prognoseergebnisse für die Weltwirtschaft, unterteilt nach Wirtschaftsräumen

Konjunkturanalyse: Prognose 2017/2018. Konjunkturbild verbessert sich weiter

Der vorliegende Beitrag dokumentiert die Ergebnisse der Sommerprognose 2017 der KOF Konjunkturforschungsstelle der ETH Zürich vom 23. Juni 2017. Im ersten Kapitel wer-den die jüngsten Wirtschaftsentwicklungen im Ausland und in der Schweiz diskutiert. Im zweiten Kapitel folgen die wichtigsten Prognoseergebnisse für die verschiedenen Wirtschaftsbereiche der Schweiz, aufgeteilt nach den wichtigsten verwendungsseitigen Komponenten des Bruttoinland-produkts. Das dritte Kapitel diskutiert die detaillierten Wirtschaftsentwicklungen im Ausland

Konjunkturanalyse: Prognose 2017/2018. Weitere Erholung der Schweizer Wirtschaft

Der vorliegende Beitrag dokumentiert die Ergebnisse der Frühjahrsprognose 2017 der KOF Konjunkturforschungsstelle der ETH Zürich vom 29.März 2017. Im ersten Teil werden die jüngsten Wirtschaftsentwicklungen im Ausland und in der Schweiz diskutiert und die wichtigsten Prognoseergebnisse in den verschiedenen Wirtschaftsbereichen dargestellt. Im zweiten Teil folgen die detaillierten Prognosen für die Schweiz, aufgeteilt nach den wichtigsten verwendungsseitigen Komponenten des Bruttoinlandprodukts

Special considerations for studies of extracellular vesicles from parasitic helminths:A community-led roadmap to increase rigour and reproducibility

Over the last decade, research interest in defining how extracellular vesicles (EVs) shape cross‐species communication has grown rapidly. Parasitic helminths, worm species found in the phyla Nematoda and Platyhelminthes, are well‐recognised manipulators of host immune function and physiology. Emerging evidence supports a role for helminth‐derived EVs in these processes and highlights EVs as an important participant in cross‐phylum communication. While the mammalian EV field is guided by a community‐agreed framework for studying EVs derived from model organisms or cell systems [e.g., Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles (MISEV)], the helminth community requires a supplementary set of principles due to the additional challenges that accompany working with such divergent organisms. These challenges include, but are not limited to, generating sufficient quantities of EVs for descriptive or functional studies, defining pan‐helminth EV markers, genetically modifying these organisms, and identifying rigorous methodologies for in vitro and in vivo studies. Here, we outline best practices for those investigating the biology of helminth‐derived EVs to complement the MISEV guidelines. We summarise community‐agreed standards for studying EVs derived from this broad set of non‐model organisms, raise awareness of issues associated with helminth EVs and provide future perspectives for how progress in the field will be achieved