477 research outputs found
Effectiveness of a Chinese herbal medicine preparation in the treatment of cough in uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infection: a randomised double-blinded placebo-control trial
BACKGROUND: Rigorous scientific and well-designed clinical trials to evaluate the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is lacking. We, therefore, designed this study to evaluate the effectiveness of a commonly used TCM preparation in treating acute cough of uncomplicated URTI in adults and to search for a safe, effective and affordable alternative treatment for this common condition. METHODS: A randomised, double-blinded, placebo-control study comparing this TCM preparation with a placebo was conducted in 82 patients who attended the Family Medicine Training Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong between November and December, 2003. The TCM herbal preparation includes nine commonly used TCM herbs for cough such as chuanbei, fangfeng, jiegeng, gancao and baibu (see Table 1) The treatment lasted for 5 days and patients were followed-up for another 6 days. Patients were asked to fill in a cough score and validated Leicester cough questionnaire (LCQ). RESULTS: 62 patients (75.6%) had completed the trial and no adverse effects were reported. Both intervened and control groups had improved in cough score and LCQ in the follow-up period, despite no overall statistical significance was observed in the differences of scores between the two groups. Women taking TCM had significantly fewer problems with sputum production (p = 0.03) and older subjects (>35 years of age) reported a significant improvement in hoarseness (p = 0.05) when compared to those using placebo. CONCLUSION: TCM was well-tolerated and received among the Hong Kong Chinese population. This TCM preparation appeared to have some benefits in the treatment of cough. Future research on TCM should concentrate more on commonly encountered conditions such as UTRI and cough. Our experience on the sensitivity of assessment tools used in detecting subtle differences in an otherwise self-limiting illness and clinical trial methodology when applying the underlying theory of how TCM works in disease management was invaluable
Multimetallic Arrays: Bi-, Tri-, Tetra-, and Hexametallic Complexes Based on Gold(I) and Gold(III) and the Surface Functionalization of Gold Nanoparticles with Transition Metals
Barriers to effective discharge planning: a qualitative study investigating the perspectives of frontline healthcare professionals
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies have shown that effective discharge planning is one of the key factors related to the quality of inpatient care and unnecessary hospital readmission. The perception and understanding of hospital discharge by health professionals is important in developing effective discharge planning. The aims of this present study were to explore the perceived quality of current hospital discharge from the perspective of health service providers and to identify barriers to effective discharge planning in Hong Kong.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Focus groups interviews were conducted with different healthcare professionals who were currently responsible for coordinating the discharge planning process in the public hospitals. The discussion covered three main areas: current practice on hospital discharge, barriers to effective hospital discharge, and suggested structures and process for an effective discharge planning system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Participants highlighted that there was no standardized hospital-wide discharge planning and policy-driven approach in public health sector in Hong Kong. Potential barriers included lack of standardized policy-driven discharge planning program, and lack of communication and coordination among different health service providers and patients in both acute and sub-acute care provisions which were identified as mainly systemic issues. Improving the quality of hospital discharge was suggested, including a multidisciplinary approach with clearly identified roles among healthcare professionals. Enhancement of health professionals' communication skills and knowledge of patient psychosocial needs were also suggested.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A systematic approach to develop the structure and key processes of the discharge planning system is critical in ensuring the quality of care and maximizing organization effectiveness. In this study, important views on barriers experienced in hospital discharge were provided. Suggestions for building a comprehensive, system-wide, and policy-driven discharge planning process with clearly identified staff roles were raised. Communication and coordination across various healthcare parties and provisions were also suggested to be a key focus.</p
How residents and interns utilise and perceive the personal digital assistant and UpToDate
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In this era of evidence-based medicine, doctors are increasingly using information technology to acquire medical knowledge. This study evaluates how residents and interns utilise and perceive the personal digital assistant (PDA) and the online resource UpToDate.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a questionnaire survey of all residents and interns in a tertiary teaching hospital.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 168 doctors, 134 (79.8%) responded to the questionnaire. Only 54 doctors (40.3%) owned a PDA. Although these owners perceived that the PDA was most useful for providing drug information, followed by medical references, scheduling and medical calculators, the majority of them did not actually have medical software applications downloaded on their PDAs. The greatest concerns highlighted for the PDA were the fear of loss and breakage, and the preference for working with desktop computers and paper. Meanwhile, only 76 doctors (56.7%) used UpToDate, even though the hospital had an institutional subscription for it. Although 93.4% of these users would recommend UpToDate to a colleague, only 57.9% stated that the use of UpToDate had led to a change in their management of patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although UpToDate and various PDA software applications were deemed useful by some of the residents and interns in our study, both digital tools were under-utilised. More should be done to facilitate the use of medical software applications on PDAs, to promote awareness of tools for evidence-based medicine such as UpToDate, and to facilitate the application of evidence-based medicine in daily clinical practice.</p
A new measurement of antineutrino oscillation with the full detector configuration at Daya Bay
We report a new measurement of electron antineutrino disappearance using the
fully-constructed Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. The final two of eight
antineutrino detectors were installed in the summer of 2012. Including the 404
days of data collected from October 2012 to November 2013 resulted in a total
exposure of 6.910 GW-ton-days, a 3.6 times increase over
our previous results. Improvements in energy calibration limited variations
between detectors to 0.2%. Removal of six Am-C radioactive
calibration sources reduced the background by a factor of two for the detectors
in the experimental hall furthest from the reactors. Direct prediction of the
antineutrino signal in the far detectors based on the measurements in the near
detectors explicitly minimized the dependence of the measurement on models of
reactor antineutrino emission. The uncertainties in our estimates of
and were halved as a result of these
improvements. Analysis of the relative antineutrino rates and energy spectra
between detectors gave and eV in the three-neutrino
framework.Comment: Updated to match final published versio
A side-by-side comparison of Daya Bay antineutrino detectors
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment is designed to determine precisely
the neutrino mixing angle with a sensitivity better than 0.01 in
the parameter sin at the 90% confidence level. To achieve this
goal, the collaboration will build eight functionally identical antineutrino
detectors. The first two detectors have been constructed, installed and
commissioned in Experimental Hall 1, with steady data-taking beginning
September 23, 2011. A comparison of the data collected over the subsequent
three months indicates that the detectors are functionally identical, and that
detector-related systematic uncertainties exceed requirements.Comment: 24 pages, 36 figure
Observation of electron-antineutrino disappearance at Daya Bay
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has measured a non-zero value for
the neutrino mixing angle with a significance of 5.2 standard
deviations. Antineutrinos from six 2.9 GW reactors were detected in
six antineutrino detectors deployed in two near (flux-weighted baseline 470 m
and 576 m) and one far (1648 m) underground experimental halls. With a 43,000
ton-GW_{\rm th}-day livetime exposure in 55 days, 10416 (80376) electron
antineutrino candidates were detected at the far hall (near halls). The ratio
of the observed to expected number of antineutrinos at the far hall is
. A rate-only analysis
finds in a
three-neutrino framework.Comment: 5 figures. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
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