Systematic review on quality control for drug management programs: Is quality reported in the literature?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Maintaining quality of care while managing limited healthcare resources is an ongoing challenge in healthcare. The objective of this study was to evaluate how the impact of drug management programs is reported in the literature and to identify potentially existing quality standards.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This analysis relates to the published research on the impact of drug management on economic, clinical, or humanistic outcomes in managed care, indemnity insurance, VA, or Medicaid in the USA published between 1996 and 2007. Included articles were systematically analyzed for study objective, study endpoints, and drug management type. They were further categorized by drug management tool, primary objective, and study endpoints.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>None of the 76 included publications assessed the overall quality of drug management tools. The impact of 9 different drug management tools used alone or in combination was studied in pharmacy claims, medical claims, electronic medical records or survey data from either patient, plan or provider perspective using an average of 2.1 of 11 possible endpoints. A total of 68% of the studies reported the impact on plan focused endpoints, while the clinical, the patient or the provider perspective were studied to a much lower degree (45%, 42% and 12% of the studies). Health outcomes were only accounted for in 9.2% of the studies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Comprehensive assessment of quality considering plan, patient and clinical outcomes is not yet applied. There is no defined quality standard. Benchmarks including health outcomes should be determined and used to improve the overall clinical and economic effectiveness of drug management programs.</p

Cell-based approaches for tendon regeneration

Cell based therapies have been proposed as potential alternative solutions towards efficient regenerative strategies for damaged tendon tissues. These approaches traditionally envision the delivery of cells, mostly stem cells or tendon cells, often combined with carriers and growth factors to provide the behavioral instructions similar to the ones found in native tissues. The purpose of cell based therapies is to apply living cells to guide and promote enhanced tissue repair and functional regeneration of an injured or diseased tissue. This chapter will focus on the potential of several cell sources, including stem cells from different origins, in tendon regeneration, illustrated by their therapeutic role in animal models of tendinopathies. Furthermore, it will be also addressed experimental cellular therapies currently ongoing in clinical trials that hold the promise for innovative clinical outcomes in tendon regeneration.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio