Western Australia: patient outcomes in palliative care: July - December 2013: report 16

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assists services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the sixteenth PCOC report, data submitted for the July to December 2013 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve

National report on patient outcomes in palliative care in Australia: January - June 2014: report 17

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assists services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the seventeenth PCOC report, data submitted for the January to June 2014 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve

Victoria: patient outcomes in palliative care: July - December 2014

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assists services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this PCOC report, data submitted for the July to December 2014 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve

Association of the PHACTR1/EDN1 genetic locus with spontaneous coronary artery dissection

Background: Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an increasingly recognized cause of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) afflicting predominantly younger to middle-aged women. Observational studies have reported a high prevalence of extracoronary vascular anomalies, especially fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and a low prevalence of coincidental cases of atherosclerosis. PHACTR1/EDN1 is a genetic risk locus for several vascular diseases, including FMD and coronary artery disease, with the putative causal noncoding variant at the rs9349379 locus acting as a potential enhancer for the endothelin-1 (EDN1) gene. Objectives: This study sought to test the association between the rs9349379 genotype and SCAD. Methods: Results from case control studies from France, United Kingdom, United States, and Australia were analyzed to test the association with SCAD risk, including age at first event, pregnancy-associated SCAD (P-SCAD), and recurrent SCAD. Results: The previously reported risk allele for FMD (rs9349379-A) was associated with a higher risk of SCAD in all studies. In a meta-analysis of 1,055 SCAD patients and 7,190 controls, the odds ratio (OR) was 1.67 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.50 to 1.86) per copy of rs9349379-A. In a subset of 491 SCAD patients, the OR estimate was found to be higher for the association with SCAD in patients without FMD (OR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.53 to 2.33) than in SCAD cases with FMD (OR: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.28 to 1.99). There was no effect of genotype on age at first event, P-SCAD, or recurrence. Conclusions: The first genetic risk factor for SCAD was identified in the largest study conducted to date for this condition. This genetic link may contribute to the clinical overlap between SCAD and FMD

Using PCOC to improve palliative care - a Victorian success story

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) aims to improve patient outcomes through routine clinical outcome measurement, periodic surveys and benchmarking. Currently 115 services across Australia, including 22 Victorian services, participate in patient outcome reporting. This presentation will report the key PCOC outcome results over time and the results of a recent survey exploring how PCOC outcome measures are used by services to improve quality. Patient outcome results demonstrate improvements over time. For example, the percentage of unstable patients in the unstable phase for three days or less has increased from 49% in 2009 to 73% in 2013. Furthermore, the percentage of patients whose change in pain and symptoms is the same as or better than the national average patient at baseline (2008) increased across all symptom areas between 2009 and 2013, indicating improvement in symptom management across the board. The survey results reveal that services most frequently use PCOC outcome measures for quality improvement projects (78.7%). A total of 43 quality improvement activities were identified in the survey, including education activities and using PCOC assessment scores in prioritising clinical discussions. Future implications for Victorian palliative care services will be discussed in light of these survey results

Queensland: patient outcomes in palliative care: July - December 2013: report 16

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assists services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the sixteenth PCOC report, data submitted for the July to December 2013 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve

Victoria: patient outcomes in palliative care: July - December 2013: report 16

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assists services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the sixteenth PCOC report, data submitted for the July to December 2013 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve

New South Wales: patient outcomes in palliative care: July - December 2013: report 16

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assists services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the sixteenth PCOC report, data submitted for the July to December 2013 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve

South Australia: patient outcomes in palliative care: July - December 2013: report 16

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assists services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the sixteenth PCOC report, data submitted for the July to December 2013 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve

National report on patient outcomes in palliative care in Australia: July - December 2013

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assists services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the sixteenth PCOC report, data submitted for the July to December 2013 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve