Social values for health technology assessment in Canada: A scoping review of hepatitis C screening, diagnosis and treatment

Background: Health care system decision makers face challenges in allocating resources for screening, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C. Approximately 240,000 individuals are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Canada. Populations most affected by HCV include Indigenous people, people who inject drugs, immigrants and homeless or incarcerated populations as well as those born between 1946 and 1965. Curative but expensive drug regimens of novel direct acting antivirals (DAAs) are available. We aim to identify social values from academic literature for inclusion in health technology assessments.Methods: We conducted a scoping review of academic literature to identify and analyze the social values and evidence-based recommendations for screening, diagnosis and treatment of HCV in Canada. After applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, we abstracted: type of intervention(s), population(s) affected, study location, screening methods, diagnostics and treatments. We then abstracted and applied qualitative codes for social values. We extracted social value statements and clustered them into one of 4 categories: (1) equity and justice, (2) duty to provide care, (3) maximization of population benefit, and (4) individual versus community interests.Results: One hundred and eighteen articles met our inclusion criteria on screening, diagnosis and treatment of HCV in Canada. Of these, 54 (45.8%) discussed screening, 4 (3.4%) discussed diagnosis and 60 (50.8%) discussed treatment options. Most articles discussed the general population and other non-vulnerable populations. Articles that discussed vulnerable populations focused on people who inject drugs. We coded 1243 statements, most of which fell into the social value categories of equity and justice, duty to provide care and maximization of population benefit.Conclusion: The academic literature identified an expanded set of social values to be taken into account by resource allocation decision makers in financially constrained environments. In the context of hepatitis C, authors called for greater consideration of equity and justice and the duty to provide care in making evidence-based recommendations for screening, diagnosis and treatment for different populations and in different settings that also account for individual and community interests

I have such a hard time hitting myself, I thought it\u27d be easier : Perspectives of hospitalized patients on injecting drugs into vascular access devices

Background: Hospital patients who use drugs may require prolonged parenteral antimicrobial therapy administered through a vascular access device (VAD). Clinicians\u27 concerns that patients may inject drugs into these devices are well documented. However, the perspectives of patients on VAD injecting are not well described, hindering the development of informed clinical guidance. This study was conducted to elicit inpatient perspectives on the practice of injecting drugs into VADs and to propose strategies to reduce associated harms.Methods: Researchers conducted a focused ethnography and completed semi-structured interviews with 25 inpatients at a large tertiary hospital in Western Canada that experiences a high rate of drug-related presentations annually.Results: A few participants reported injecting into their VAD at least once, and nearly all had heard of the practice. The primary reason for injecting into a VAD was easier venous access since many participants had experienced significant vein damage from injection drug use. Several participants recognized the risks associated with injecting into VADs, and either refrained from the practice or took steps to maintain their devices while using them to inject drugs. Others were uncertain how the devices functioned and were unaware of potential harms.Conclusions: VADs are important for facilitating completion of parenteral antimicrobial therapy and for other medically necessary care. Prematurely discharging patients who inject into their VAD from hospital, or discontinuing or modifying therapy, results in inequitable access to health care for a structurally vulnerable patient population. Our findings demonstrate a need for healthcare provider education and non-stigmatizing clinical interventions to reduce potential harms associated with VAD injecting. Those interventions could include providing access to specialized pain and withdrawal management, opioid agonist treatment, and harm reduction services, including safer drug use education to reduce or prevent complications from injecting drugs into VADs

Pengaruh Sistem Kredit Dan Pelayanan Bank Terhadap Kepuasan Nasabah (Studi Kasus Bkk Pasar Kliwon Surakarta)

This research is intended to find out the effect credit system and the service from a bank to customer\u27s satisfaction in BKK Pasar Kliwon Surakarta. The data collection technique used in this research is sampling technique. The sample used is BKK Pasar Kliwon Surakarta. The data collection method used in this research is interviewing and observing method to the objct of the research, which are the employees of the observed bank. The result of interview and observation with the qualitative method are used to examine the quality and effect of the credit system and the service from a bank to the customers\u27 satisfaction. The credit system observed in the research includes working capital credit and investment credit and its conditions. Based on the research, it is found that a factor that plays the most important part in create the costumer\u27s satisfaction is the service of the bank\u27s employees. The aspects of the bank service, in this case, are politeness, respectful, attentive, cooperative, tolerance, informality, and self control. Keyword : Credit System, service quality of bank\u27s employees, customer satisfactio

Canadian newspaper coverage on harm reduction featuring bereaved mothers: A mixed methods analysis

A growing body of evidence suggests that news media which includes a sympathetic portrayal of a mother bereaved by substance use can increase public support for harm reduction initiatives. However, the extent to which such news media coverage occurs in Canada is unknown, and research has not documented how the news media in Canada covers such stories. We undertook a mixed-method secondary analyses of 5681 Canadian newspaper articles on harm reduction (2000–2016). Quantitative analyses described the volume and content of harm reduction reporting featuring a mother whose child’s death was related to substance use while qualitative thematic analysis provided in-depth descriptions of the discourses underlying such news reporting. Newspaper articles featuring a mother whose child’s death was related to substance use were rarely published (n = 63; 1.1% of total harm reduction media coverage during the study period). Deductive content analysis of these 63 texts revealed that coverage of naloxone distribution (42.9%) and supervised drug consumption services (28.6%) were prioritized over other harm reduction services. Although harm reduction (services or policies) were advocated by the mother in most (77.8%) of these 63 texts, inductive thematic analysis of a subset (n = 52) of those articles revealed that mothers’ advocacy was diminished by newspaper reporting that emphasized their experiences of grief, prioritized individual biographies over structural factors contributing to substance use harms, and created rhetorical divisions between different groups of people who use drugs (PWUD). Bereaved mothers’ advocacy in support of harm reduction programs and services may be minimized in the process of reporting their stories for newspaper readers. Finding ways to report bereaved mothers’ stories in ways that are inclusive of all PWUD while highlighting the role of broad, structural determinants of substance use has the potential to shift public opinion and government support in favour of these life-saving services

Canadian newspaper coverage on harm reduction featuring bereaved mothers: A mixed methods analysis.

A growing body of evidence suggests that news media which includes a sympathetic portrayal of a mother bereaved by substance use can increase public support for harm reduction initiatives. However, the extent to which such news media coverage occurs in Canada is unknown, and research has not documented how the news media in Canada covers such stories. We undertook a mixed-method secondary analyses of 5681 Canadian newspaper articles on harm reduction (2000-2016). Quantitative analyses described the volume and content of harm reduction reporting featuring a mother whose child's death was related to substance use while qualitative thematic analysis provided in-depth descriptions of the discourses underlying such news reporting. Newspaper articles featuring a mother whose child's death was related to substance use were rarely published (n = 63; 1.1% of total harm reduction media coverage during the study period). Deductive content analysis of these 63 texts revealed that coverage of naloxone distribution (42.9%) and supervised drug consumption services (28.6%) were prioritized over other harm reduction services. Although harm reduction (services or policies) were advocated by the mother in most (77.8%) of these 63 texts, inductive thematic analysis of a subset (n = 52) of those articles revealed that mothers' advocacy was diminished by newspaper reporting that emphasized their experiences of grief, prioritized individual biographies over structural factors contributing to substance use harms, and created rhetorical divisions between different groups of people who use drugs (PWUD). Bereaved mothers' advocacy in support of harm reduction programs and services may be minimized in the process of reporting their stories for newspaper readers. Finding ways to report bereaved mothers' stories in ways that are inclusive of all PWUD while highlighting the role of broad, structural determinants of substance use has the potential to shift public opinion and government support in favour of these life-saving services

Four decades of cannabis criminals in Canada: 1970-2010

<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Canada was one of the first countries in the world to criminalise cannabis in 1923. It was not until the late 1960s and an associated upsurge of youthful cannabis use that the government and various stakeholders seriously interrogated the appropriateness of this punitive prohibition. Nevertheless, despite numerous opportunities for law reform for over four decades, cannabis possession continues to be illegal and as a result, hundreds of thousands of Canadians have received criminal records under these laws. This article reviews federal attempts at cannabis law reform and uses data spanning several decades to examine the characteristics of individuals convicted of cannabis possession and the implications of criminalisation on their lives.</span></p> <!--EndFragment--&gt

Needle Exchange and the HIV Epidemic in Vancouver : Lessons Learned from 15 years of research

During the mid-1990s, Vancouver experienced a well characterized HIV outbreak among injection drug users (IDU) and many questioned how this could occur in the presence of a high volume needle exchange program (NEP). Specific concerns were fuelled by early research demonstrating that frequent needle exchange program attendees were more likely to be HIV positive than those who attended the NEP less frequently. Since then, some have misinterpreted this finding as evidence that NEPs are ineffective or potentially harmful. In light of continuing questions about the Vancouver HIV epidemic, we review 15 years of peer-reviewed research on Vancouver’s NEP to describe what has been learned through this work. Our review demonstrates that: 1) NEP attendance is not causally associated with HIV infection, 2) frequent attendees of Vancouver’s NEP have higher risk profiles which explain their increased risk of HIV seroconversion, and 3) a number of policy concerns, as well as the high prevalence of cocaine injecting contributed to the failure of the NEP to prevent the outbreak. Additionally, we highlight several improvements to Vancouver’s NEP that contributed to declines in syringe sharing and HIV incidence. Vancouver’s experience provides a number of important lessons regarding NEP. Keys to success include refocusing the NEP away from an emphasis on public order objectives by separating distribution and collection functions, removing syringe distribution limits and decentralizing and diversifying NEP services. Additionally, our review highlights the importance of context when implementing NEPs, as well as ongoing evaluation to identify factors that constrain or improve access to sterile syringes.Medicine, Faculty ofOther UBCNon UBCMedicine, Department ofReviewedFacult

‘It's more about the heroin’: injection drug users' response to an overdose warning campaign in a Canadian setting

AIMS: To assess heroin injectors’ perceptions of and responses to a warning issued by public health officials regarding high-potency heroin and increases in fatal overdoses. DESIGN: Semi-structured qualitative interviews SETTING: Vancouver, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Eighteen active heroin injectors MEASUREMENTS: Semi-structured interview guide focussing on heroin injectors’ perceptions of and responses to the overdose warning, including reasons for failing to adhere to risk reduction recommendations. FINDINGS: Although nearly all participants were aware of the warning, their recollections of the message and the timing of its release were obscured by on-going social interactions within the drug scene focussed on heroin quality. Many injection drug users reported seeking the high potency heroin and nearly all reported no change in overdose risk behaviours. Responses to the warning were shaped by various social, economic and structural forces that interacted with individual behaviour and undermined efforts to promote behavioural change, including sales tactics employed by dealers, poverty, the high cost and shifting quality of available heroin, and risks associated with income-generating activities. Individual-level factors, including emotional suffering, withdrawal, entrenched injecting routines, perceived invincibility and the desire for intense intoxication also undermined risk reduction messages. CONCLUSIONS: Among heroin injectors in British Columbia, a 2011 overdose warning campaign appeared to be of limited effectiveness and also produced unintended negative consequences that exacerbated overdose risk

'It's more about the heroin': injection drug users' response to an overdose warning campaign in a Canadian setting.

AIMS: To assess heroin injectors' perceptions of and responses to a warning issued by public health officials regarding high-potency heroin and increases in fatal overdoses. DESIGN: Semi-structured qualitative interviews in Vancouver, Canada. Participants were eighteen active heroin injectors. MEASUREMENTS: Semi-structured interview guide focussing on heroin injectors' perceptions of and responses to the overdose warning, including reasons for failing to adhere to risk reduction recommendations. FINDINGS: Although nearly all participants were aware of the warning, their recollections of the message and the timing of its release were obscured by on-going social interactions within the drug scene focussed on heroin quality. Many injection drug users reported seeking the high potency heroin and nearly all reported no change in overdose risk behaviours. Responses to the warning were shaped by various social, economic and structural forces that interacted with individual behaviour and undermined efforts to promote behavioural change, including sales tactics employed by dealers, poverty, the high cost and shifting quality of available heroin, and risks associated with income-generating activities. Individual-level factors, including emotional suffering, withdrawal, entrenched injecting routines, perceived invincibility and the desire for intense intoxication also undermined risk reduction messages. CONCLUSIONS: Among heroin injectors in British Columbia, a 2011 overdose warning campaign appeared to be of limited effectiveness and also produced unintended negative consequences that exacerbated overdose risk

‘It’s more about the heroin’ : Injection drug users’ response to an overdose warning campaign in a Canadian setting

Aims To assess heroin injectors’ perceptions of and responses to a warning issued by public health officials regarding high-potency heroin and increases in fatal overdoses. Design Semi-structured qualitative interviews Setting Vancouver, Canada. Participants Eighteen active heroin injectors Measurements Semi-structured interview guide focussing on heroin injectors’ perceptions of and responses to the overdose warning, including reasons for failing to adhere to risk reduction recommendations. Findings Although nearly all participants were aware of the warning, their recollections of the message and the timing of its release were obscured by on-going social interactions within the drug scene focussed on heroin quality. Many injection drug users reported seeking the high potency heroin and nearly all reported no change in overdose risk behaviours. Responses to the warning were shaped by various social, economic and structural forces that interacted with individual behaviour and undermined efforts to promote behavioural change, including sales tactics employed by dealers, poverty, the high cost and shifting quality of available heroin, and risks associated with income-generating activities. Individual-level factors, including emotional suffering, withdrawal, entrenched injecting routines, perceived invincibility and the desire for intense intoxication also undermined risk reduction messages. Conclusions Among heroin injectors in British Columbia, a 2011 overdose warning campaign appeared to be of limited effectiveness and also produced unintended negative consequences that exacerbated overdose risk.Medicine, Faculty ofOther UBCNon UBCMedicine, Department ofReviewedFacult