The global role of kidney transplantation

World Kidney Day on March 8 th 2012 provides a chance to reflect on the success of kidney transplantation as a therapy for end stage kidney disease that surpasses dialysis treatments both for the quality and quantity of life that it provides and for its cost effectiveness. Anything that is both cheaper and better, but is not actually the dominant therapy, must have other drawbacks that prevent replacement of all dialysis treatment by transplantation. The barriers to universal transplantation as the therapy for end stage kidney disease include the economic limitations which, in some countries place transplantation, appropriately, at a lower priority than public health fundamentals such as clean water, sanitation and vaccination. Even in high income countries the technical challenges of surgery and the consequences of immunosuppression restrict the number of suitable recipients, but the major finite restrictions on kidney transplantation rates are the shortage of donated organs and the limited medical, surgical and nursing workforces with the required expertise. These problems have solutions which involve the full range of societal, professional, governmental and political environments. World Kidney Day is a call to deliver transplantation therapy to the one million people a year who have a right to benefit

The influence of environmental factors on the generalisability of public health research evidence: physical activity as a worked example

BACKGROUND: It is rare that decisions about investing in public health interventions in a city, town or other location can be informed by research generated in that specific place. It is therefore necessary to base decisions on evidence generated elsewhere and to make inferences about the extent to which this evidence is generalisable to the place of interest. In this paper we discuss the issues involved in making such inferences, using physical activity as an example. We discuss the ways in which elements of the structural, physical, social and/or cultural environment (environmental factors [EFs]) can shape physical activity (PA) and also how EFs may influence the effectiveness of interventions that aim to promote PA. We then highlight the ways in which EFs may impact on the generalisability of different types of evidence. DISCUSSION: We present a framework for thinking about the influence of EFs when assessing the generalisability of evidence from the location in which the evidence was generated (place A) to the location to which the evidence is to be applied (place B). The framework relates to similarities and differences between place A and place B with respect to: a) the distributions of EFs; b) the causal pathways through which EFs or interventions are thought to exert their effect on PA and c) the ways in which EFs interact with each other. We suggest, using examples, how this scheme can be used by public health professionals who are designing, executing, reporting and synthesising research on PA; or designing/implementing interventions. SUMMARY: Our analysis and scheme, although developed for physical activity, may potentially be adapted and applied to other evidence and interventions which are likely to be sensitive to influence by elements of the structural, physical, social and/or cultural environment such as the epidemiology of obesity and healthy weight promotion

Post-treatment survival difference between lobectomy and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy in stage I non-small cell lung cancer in England.

BACKGROUND: Approximately 15%-20% of all non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases present with stage I disease. Surgical resection traditionally offers the best chance of a cure but some patients will not have this treatment due to older age, comorbidities or personal choice. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) has become an established curative intent treatment option for patients who are not selected for or do not choose surgery. The aim of this study is to compare survival at 90 days, 6 months, 1 year and 2 years for patients who received either lobectomy or SABR. METHODS: We used data from the 2015 National Lung Cancer Audit database and linked with Hospital Episode Statistics and the radiotherapy dataset to identify patients with NSCLC stage IA-IB and performance status (PS) 0-2 who underwent surgery or SABR treatment. We assessed the likelihood of death at 90 days, 6 months, 1 year and 2 year after diagnosis and procedure date to observe survival between two patient groups. RESULTS: We identified 2373 patients in our cohort, 476 of whom had SABR. The median difference between date of diagnosis and date of treatment for surgery patients was 17 days while for SABR patients it was 73 days. Increasing age and worsening PS were associated with having SABR rather than surgery. Survival between the two treatment modalities was similar early on but by 1-year people who had surgery did better than those who had SABR (adjusted ORs 2.12, 95% CI 1.35 to 2.31). This difference persisted at 2 years and when the analysis was restricted to patients aged <80 years and with PS 0 or 1 and stage IA only. CONCLUSION: Our analysis suggests that patients who have lobectomy have a better survival compared with SABR patients; however, we found considerable delays in patients receiving SABR which may contribute to poorer long-term outcomes with this treatment option. Reducing these delays should be a key focus in development and reorganisation of services

A preliminary fMRI study of analgesic treatment in chronic back pain and knee osteoarthritis

The effects of an analgesic treatment (lidocaine patches) on brain activity in chronic low back pain (CBP) and in knee osteoarthritis (OA) were investigated using serial fMRI (contrasting fMRI between before and after two weeks of treatment). Prior to treatment brain activity was distinct between the two groups: CBP spontaneous pain was associated mainly with activity in medial prefrontal cortex, while OA painful mechanical knee stimulation was associated with bilateral activity in the thalamus, secondary somatosensory, insular, and cingulate cortices, and unilateral activity in the putamen and amygdala. After 5% lidocaine patches were applied to the painful body part for two weeks, CBP patients exhibited a significant decrease in clinical pain measures, while in OA clinical questionnaire based outcomes showed no treatment effect but stimulus evoked pain showed a borderline decrease. The lidocaine treatment resulted in significantly decreased brain activity in both patient groups with distinct brain regions responding in each group, and sub-regions within these areas were correlated with pain ratings specifically for each group (medial prefrontal cortex in CBP and thalamus in OA). We conclude that the two chronic pain conditions involve distinct brain regions, with OA pain engaging many brain regions commonly observed in acute pain. Moreover, lidocaine patch treatment modulates distinct brain circuitry in each condition, yet in OA we observe divergent results with fMRI and with questionnaire based instruments

Disaggregating the Relative Influence of Genetic, Environmental and Individual Factors on LCL and HDL Cholesterols and BMI for a Sample of African American (AA) Mothers and Daughters

There are many reports about the associations between blood lipids, body mass index (BMI) and dietary cholesterol intakes both within the individual and between related individuals. The purpose of this descriptive research project was to investigate the relationships between LDL and HDL cholesterols, body mass index and dietary cholesterol intakes for a sample of African American (AA) mothers and their daughters and to attempt to separate the contribution of genetic versus environmental factors. Mother and daughter participants (n =42 and 66, respectively) were 12-14-hours fasted when blood samples were drawn, heights and weights measured, and 24 hour food recalls completed

Transition from pediatric to adult renal services: a consensus statement by the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Pediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA)

The transfer of young patients from pediatric to adult renal care takes place after a transition process which involves both sides. It is important that it is individualized for each young person, focusing on self-management skills as well as assessing support structures. The consensus statement has been developed by the panel of adult and pediatric nephrologists and endorsed by the councils of both ISN and IPNA. It is hoped that the statement will provide a basis for the development of locally appropriate recommendations for clinical practice

Apples and pears? A comparison of two sources of national lung cancer audit data in England

In 2014, the method of data collection from NHS trusts in England for the National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) was changed from a bespoke dataset called LUCADA (Lung Cancer Data). Under the new contract, data are submitted via the Cancer Outcome and Service Dataset (COSD) system and linked additional cancer registry datasets. In 2014, trusts were given opportunity to submit LUCADA data as well as registry data. 132 NHS trusts submitted LUCADA data, and all 151 trusts submitted COSD data. This transitional year therefore provided the opportunity to compare both datasets for data completeness and reliability. We linked the two datasets at the patient level to assess the completeness of key patient and treatment variables. We also assessed the interdata agreement of these variables using Cohen’s kappa statistic, κ. We identified 26 001 patients in both datasets. Overall, the recording of sex, age, performance status and stage had more than 90% agreement between datasets, but there were more patients with missing performance status in the registry dataset. Although levels of agreement for surgery, chemotherapy and external-beam radiotherapy were high between datasets, the new COSD system identified more instances of active treatment. There seems to be a high agreement of data between the datasets, and the findings suggest that the registry dataset coupled with COSD provides a richer dataset than LUCADA. However, it lagged behind LUCADA in performance status recording, which needs to improve over time

Ensuring an Essential Supply of Allied Health Professions (AHP) Placements: Using Crowdsourcing to Develop a National Call to Action

Sustainable growth in the Allied Health Professions (AHP) workforce is an ambition of the United Kingdom’s NHS Long Term Plan. However historically, access to good quality placements has been a barrier to increasing pre-registration training numbers. This article focuses on work carried out by Health Education England (HEE) to gain insights on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on capacity. Using a pragmatic, embedded mixed-methods approach, insights were gathered using an online workshop, crowdsourcing, open for two weeks in the summer of 2020. AHP placement stakeholders could vote, share ideas or comment. Descriptive data were extracted, and comments made were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Participants (N = 1,800) made over 8,500 comments. The themes identified included: diversity of placement opportunity, improved placement coordination, a more joined-up system, supervision models and educator capacity. Alongside considering the challenges to placement capacity, several areas of innovative practice owing to the pandemic were highlighted. Generated insights have shaped the aims and objectives of the Health Education (HEE) pre-registration AHP student practice learning programme for 2020/2021 and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the delivery of AHP placements. In the absence of face-to-face activities, crowdsourcing provided an online data collection tool offering stakeholders an opportunity to engage with the placement capacity agenda and share learning. Findings have shaped the HEE approach to short-term placement recovery and long-term growth