Incidence and management of acute otitis media in adults: a primary care-based cohort study

BACKGROUND: Although primarily considered a childhood disease, acute otitis media (AOM) also occurs in adults. Data on the burden of this condition in adults are, however, scarce. OBJECTIVE: To explore the primary care incidence and current management of AOM in adults. METHODS: All patients aged 15 and older included in the routine health care database of the Julius General Practitioners' Network were followed from 2015 to 2018 (contributing to a total of 1 261 575 person-years). We extracted data on AOM episodes, AOM-related consultations, comorbidities, and antibiotic and analgesic prescriptions. RESULTS: Five thousand three hundred and fifty-eight patients experienced one or more AOM episodes (total number of AOM episodes: 6667; mean 1.2 per patient). The overall AOM incidence was 5.3/1000 person-years and was fairly stable over the study period. Incidence was particularly high in atopic patients (7.3/1000 person-years) and declined with age (from 7.1 in patients 15-39 years of age to 2.7/1000 person-years in those aged 64 years and older). Oral antibiotics, predominantly amoxicillin, were prescribed in 46%, and topical antibiotics in 21% of all episodes. CONCLUSION: Over the past years, the incidence of AOM in adults in primary care has been stable. Oral antibiotic prescription rates resemble those in children with AOM, whereas a remarkably high topical antibiotic prescription rate was observed. Future prognostic research should inform on the need and feasibility of prospective studies into the best management strategy in this condition

Evaluating a cardiovascular disease risk management care continuum within a learning healthcare system: a prospective cohort study

Background: Many patients now present with multimorbidity and chronicity of disease. This means that multidisciplinary management in a care continuum, integrating primary care and hospital care services, is needed to ensure high quality care. Aim: To evaluate cardiovascular risk management (CVRM) via linkage of health data sources, as an example of a multidisciplinary continuum within a learning healthcare system (LHS). Design & setting: In this prospective cohort study, data were linked from the Utrecht Cardiovascular Cohort (UCC) to the Julius General Practitioners' Network (JGPN) database. UCC offers structured CVRM at referral to the University Medical Centre (UMC) Utrecht. JGPN consists of electronic health record (EHR) data from referring GPs. Method: The cardiovascular risk factors were extracted for each patient 13 months before referral (JGPN), at UCC inclusion, and during 12 months follow-up (JGPN). The following areas were assessed: registration of risk factors; detection of risk factor(s) requiring treatment at UCC; communication of risk factors and actionable suggestions from the specialist to the GP; and change of management during follow-up. Results: In 52% of patients, >1 risk factors were registered (that is, extractable from structured fields within routine care health records) before UCC. In 12%—72% of patients, risk factor(s) existed that required (change or start of) treatment at UCC inclusion. Specialist communication included the complete risk profile in 67% of letters, but lacked actionable suggestions in 86%. In 29% of patients, at least one risk factor was registered after UCC. Change in management in GP records was seen in 21%-58% of them. Conclusion: Evaluation of a multidisciplinary LHS is possible via linkage of health data sources. Efforts have to be made to improve registration in primary care, as well as communication on findings and actionable suggestions for follow-up to bridge the gap in the CVRM continuum

Evidence-based practice educational intervention studies: A systematic review of what is taught and how it is measured

Abstract Background Despite the established interest in evidence-based practice (EBP) as a core competence for clinicians, evidence for how best to teach and evaluate EBP remains weak. We sought to systematically assess coverage of the five EBP steps, review the outcome domains measured, and assess the properties of the instruments used in studies evaluating EBP educational interventions. Methods We conducted a systematic review of controlled studies (i.e. studies with a separate control group) which had investigated the effect of EBP educational interventions. We used citation analysis technique and tracked the forward and backward citations of the index articles (i.e. the systematic reviews and primary studies included in an overview of the effect of EBP teaching) using Web of Science until May 2017. We extracted information on intervention content (grouped into the five EBP steps), and the outcome domains assessed. We also searched the literature for published reliability and validity data of the EBP instruments used. Results Of 1831 records identified, 302 full-text articles were screened, and 85 included. Of these, 46 (54%) studies were randomised trials, 51 (60%) included postgraduate level participants, and 63 (75%) taught medical professionals. EBP Step 3 (critical appraisal) was the most frequently taught step (63 studies; 74%). Only 10 (12%) of the studies taught content which addressed all five EBP steps. Of the 85 studies, 52 (61%) evaluated EBP skills, 39 (46%) knowledge, 35 (41%) attitudes, 19 (22%) behaviours, 15 (18%) self-efficacy, and 7 (8%) measured reactions to EBP teaching delivery. Of the 24 instruments used in the included studies, 6 were high-quality (achieved ≥3 types of established validity evidence) and these were used in 14 (29%) of the 52 studies that measured EBP skills; 14 (41%) of the 39 studies that measured EBP knowledge; and 8 (26%) of the 35 studies that measured EBP attitude. Conclusions Most EBP educational interventions which have been evaluated in controlled studies focus on teaching only some of the EBP steps (predominantly critically appraisal of evidence) and did not use high-quality instruments to measure outcomes. Educational packages and instruments which address all EBP steps are needed to improve EBP teaching

Synovitis in osteoarthritis: current understanding with therapeutic implications

Modern concepts of osteoarthritis (OA) have been forever changed by modern imaging phenotypes demonstrating complex and multi-tissue pathologies involving cartilage, subchondral bone and (increasingly recognized) inflammation of the synovium. The synovium may show significant changes, even before visible cartilage degeneration has occurred, with infiltration of mononuclear cells, thickening of the synovial lining layer and production of inflammatory cytokines. The combination of sensitive imaging modalities and tissue examination has confirmed a high prevalence of synovial inflammation in all stages of OA, with a number of studies demonstrating that synovitis is related to pain, poor function and may even be an independent driver of radiographic OA onset and structural progression. Treating key aspects of synovial inflammation therefore holds great promise for analgesia and also for structure modification. This article will review current knowledge on the prevalence of synovitis in OA and its role in symptoms and structural progression, and explore lessons learnt from targeting synovitis therapeutically

Improving evidence-based general practice

This thesis provides knowledge on how to improve the practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) by general practitioners (GPs) and GP trainees. EBM is defined as the integration of clinical expertise, patient values and the best available clinical evidence in daily clinical practice. We describe the current clinical evidence base in general practice (GP), both nationally and internationally. The number of RCTs in the general practice domain published worldwide has tripled in the past 20 years. The number of RCTs from the Netherlands has even increased fivefold. However, the themes of this research correspond insufficiently with the clinical problems presented in daily practice.The nationwide database of on-going general practice research projects in The Netherlands we constructed shows that there is a substantial body of on-going research in general practice in the Netherlands, covering a wide range of topics. The majority of this research has a clinical perspective, a high quality research design (RCT), and is non-commercially funded. The topics of these projects do not adequately match with the major reasons for encounter in the Dutch general practice as well; especially clinical questions in dermatology, ophthalmology, reproductive medicine, and gastro-enterology are insufficiently addressed. Moreover, we describe the information needs and seeking behaviour of trainees. GP trainees frequently encounter clinical queries in daily clinical practice, perform searches in the vast majority, and retrieve answers in most cases. They use colleagues as their primary source of information. In the Netherlands, their second most frequently used source of information is the national professional GP guideline database. Other evidence-based Internet resources such as primary or pre-appraised research are used very infrequently. Trainees mostly perform searches during patient consultations. Most queries regard therapeutic questions. The trainees consider most of the answers they find as relevant, i.e. they do change patient’s management. Finally, we compared the effects of two EBM training programmes for GP trainees on outcomes relevant to daily clinical practice; stand-alone versus integrated EBM training. In the stand-alone EBM training programme EBM is trained in theoretical, stand-alone educational sessions. This differs from integrated EBM training, in which EBM is trained in a clinical context (as well), and teaching sessions are based on recent patient consultations in the trainees practice. We measured the effects with feasible, reliable and valid instruments, of which two were developed and validated by us, the Utrecht questionnaire on knowledge on Clinical epidemiology for Evidence-based Practice (U-CEP) and an instrument that assesses adherence to professional guidelines. The latter facilitates assessment of three relevant aspects of clinical management decisions (diagnosis, therapy, and referral) for a wide variety of disorders. The integrated EBM training programme did not improve EBM performance as compared to stand-alone EBM training. Overall, adherence to guidelines among GP trainees is high in all phases of their training, ranging from 69 to 95%, depending on the type of management decision. In more than 50% of the consultations trainees adhere to the guideline for all major management decisions

EBM in de optometrie: hoe pas je het toe?

Om de verschillen tussen kennis uit het laatste wetenschappelijke bewijs en de klinische praktijk kleiner te maken is de afgelopen twintig jaar Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) steeds belangrijker geworden in het (para)medisch veld. Ook in de optometriepraktijk. Maar hoe pas je het toe