What they fill in today, may not be useful tomorrow: Lessons learned from studying Medical Records at the Women hospital in Tabriz, Iran

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The medical record is used to document patient's medical history, illnesses and treatment procedures. The information inside is useful when all needed information is documented properly. Medical care providers in Iran have complained of low quality of Medical Records. This study was designed to evaluate the quality of the Medical Records at the university hospital in Tabriz, Iran.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In order to get a background of the quality of documentation, 300 Medical Records were randomly selected among all hospitalized patient during September 23, 2003 and September 22, 2004. Documentation of all records was evaluated using checklists. Then, in order to combine objective data with subjective, 10 physicians and 10 nurses who were involved in documentation of Medical Records were randomly selected and interviewed using two semi structured guidelines.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Almost all 300 Medical Records had problems in terms of quality of documentation. There was no record in which all information was documented correctly and compatible with the official format in Medical Records provided by Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Interviewees believed that poor handwriting, missing of sheets and imperfect documentation are major problems of the Paper-based Medical Records, and the main reason was believed to be high workload of both physicians and nurses.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Medical Records are expected to be complete and accurate. Our study has unveiled that the Medical Records are not documented properly in the university hospital where the Medical Records are also used for educational purposes. Such incomplete Medical Records are not reliable resources for medical care too. Some influencing factors external to the structure of the Medical Records (i.e. human factors and work conditions) are involved.</p

Neglected diseases of neglected populations: Thinking to reshape the determinants of health in Latin America and the Caribbean

BACKGROUND: People living in poverty throughout the developing world are heavily burdened with neglected communicable diseases and often marginalized by the health sector. These diseases are currently referred to as Neglected Diseases of Neglected Populations. The neglected diseases create social and financial burdens to the individual, the family, the community, and the nation. DISCUSSION: Numerous studies of successful individual interventions to manage communicable disease determinants in various types of communities have been published, but few have applied multiple interventions in an integrated, coordinated manner. We have identified a series of successful interventions and developed three hypothetical scenarios where such interventions could be applied in an integrated, multi-disease, inter-programmatic, and/or inter-sectoral approach for prevention and control of neglected diseases in three different populations: a slum, an indigenous community, and a city with a mix of populations. SUMMARY: The objective of this paper is to identify new opportunities to address neglected diseases, improve community health and promote sustainable development in neglected populations by highlighting examples of key risk and protective factors for neglected diseases which can be managed and implemented through multi-disease-based, integrated, inter-programmatic, and/or inter-sectoral approaches. Based on a literature review, analysis and development of scenarios we visualize how multiple interventions could manage multiple disease problems and propose these as possible strategies to be tested. We seek to stimulate intra- and inter-sectoral dialogue which will help in the construction of new strategies for neglected diseases (particularly for the parasitic diseases) which could benefit the poor and marginalized based on the principle of sustainability and understanding of key determinants of health, and lead to the establishment of pilot projects and activities which can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Research Assessment of Iranian Medical Universities, an Experience from a Developing Country

&quot;nInternational ranking of universities by bibliometric assays has received a great attention in recent years. The developing countries have commenced to build their own infrastructure of research and post graduate training during the past couple of years. In 2000, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran began an annual national survey for assessing research activities in medical universities and their affiliated institutions by applying a customized ranking method. Research indi&amp;shy;cators were scored in three topics; Stewardship, Capacity Building, and Knowledge Production. In 2000, there were about 300 published medical articles in ISI/Thomson and PUBMED from the whole country. This number increased up to 3376 in 2007. The score of indexed papers in international databases per academic member rose from 0.1 in 2000 to 0.63 in 2007. The share of global articles (in the field of Medicine) grew from 0.06% in 2000 to 0.55% in 2007. This rising in article output led to a change from grade 57th in 2000 to 27th in 2007 in the ranking system of Scopus database. The number of local medi&amp;shy;cal journals, which were 53 in 2000, increased to 141 at the end of 2008.&amp;nbsp; This rising scores was ongoing while the growth of the total staff of the academic members was about 25% (from 9086 in 2000 to 11324 in 2007). The number of the short training courses rose from 458 in 2000 to 1097 in 2007. The registered research projects in health topic rose from less than 3878 in 2000 to 6816 in 2007

Prévention et traitement de l'insuffisance pondérale chez le jeune enfant du Mono (Bénin)

Background: This study aimed to assess the prevention and treatment effectiveness of underweight in less than two years old children admitted in 2001 to community nutrition programme of Mono area in Benin. Methods: A longitudinal retrospective survey took place in 30 villages chosen at random. It concerned a sample of 1799 children. Inside of those children, during the 2001 year, when they were admitted to the programme, 1545 were without underweight, have had more than one month following visit and about them the underweight effectiveness prevention had been analyzed; the others 111 were underweighted, have had more than one month following visit and about them the underweight treatment had been assessed. The 143 other children have been followed for only one month. The prevention effectiveness had been explored by the evolution of the cumulative incidence of underweight according to the number of following visit and the underweight incidence density. The treatment effectiveness has been analysed by calculating the recovery rate and incidence density. Results: During 2001, there have been observed 10% for the underweight cumulative incidence and 51.4% for the cumulative incidence of underweight recovery. The underweight and recovery incidence density were respectively 14 cases for 1000 persons-months of following and 118 cases for 1000 persons-months of following. The children with serious underweight at their last following visit have had the number of following visits lower than those who were with moderate underweight. The recovery was arrived after two to twelve months. There was a significant increase of underweight prevalence with the increase of following visit number inside the children with a normal weight at their admission into the programme. Conclusion: During the 2001 following, the underweight prevention and treatment activities of community nutrition workers have been little effectiveness. The low level of instruction of community nutrition workers, their low level of knowledge of essential community nutrition activities, their multiple tasks and the not used appropriate foods for the treatment of underweight are the possible causes of the poor performance observed. © 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe