Reducing clinical variations with clinical pathways: do pathways work?

OBJECTIVE: To test clinical pathways in a variety of Italian health care organizations in 2000-2002 to measure performance in decreasing process and outcome variations. DESIGN: Creation of indicators, specific for each clinical pathway, to measure variations in the care processes and outcomes. Pre- and post-analysis model to evaluate the possible effect of the clinical pathways on each indicator. SETTING: We tested the clinical pathways in six sites, each with different clinical pathways. RESULTS: Reductions in health care macro-variation phenomena (length of stay, patient pathways, etc.) and in performance micro-variation (variations in diagnostic and therapeutic prescriptions, protocol implementation, etc.) were shown in sites where pathways were implemented successfully. A significant improvement in outcome for patients who were treated according to the clinical pathway for heart failure was also demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS: The overall purpose of clinical pathways is to improve outcome by providing a mechanism to coordinate care and to reduce fragmentation, and ultimately cost. Our results demonstrated that it is possible to achieve this goal. Although controversial elements still exist, we think that clinical pathways can have a positive impact on quality in health care

Assetto geomorfologico dell’area marina di Sinuessa ed ipotesi di fruizione sostenibile

Studio geomorfologico dell’area costiera di Sinuessa (Golfo di Gaeta) che ha consentito di individuare l’approdo di epoca romana di Sinuessa; la ricostruzione dell’evoluzione geomorfologica e tettonica recente dell’area ha reso possibile l’individuazione delle cause della sommersione dell’approdo. L’intenso sviluppo insediativo che oggi caratterizza il tratto di litorale prospiciente l’area spinge a sviluppare un sistema di gestione integrato volto alla valorizzazione dell’area

Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis

Retinal prosthesis technologies require that the visual system downstream of the retinal circuitry be capable of transmitting and elaborating visual signals. We studied the capability of plastic remodeling in late blind subjects implanted with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis with psychophysics and functional MRI (fMRI). After surgery, six out of seven retinitis pigmentosa (RP) blind subjects were able to detect high-contrast stimuli using the prosthetic implant. However, direction discrimination to contrast modulated stimuli remained at chance level in all of them. No subject showed any improvement of contrast sensitivity in either eye when not using the Argus II. Before the implant, the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) activity in V1 and the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) was very weak or absent. Surprisingly, after prolonged use of Argus II, BOLD responses to visual input were enhanced. This is, to our knowledge, the first study tracking the neural changes of visual areas in patients after retinal implant, revealing a capacity to respond to restored visual input even after years of deprivation

5.11 'Raffaello Project': Application of the 'Disease and Care Management' Approach in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

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Case report of an atypical early onset X-linked retinoschisis in monozygotic twins

Background: X-linked Retinoschisis (XLRS) is one of the most common macular degenerations in young males, with a worldwide prevalence ranging from 1:5000 to 1:20000. Clinical diagnosis of XLRS can be challenging due to the highly variable phenotypic presentation and limited correlation has been identified between mutation type and disease severity or progression. Case presentation: We report the atypical early onset of XLRS in 3-month-old monozygotic twins. Fundus examination was characterized by severe bullous retinal schisis with pre-retinal and intraretinal haemorrhages. Molecular genetic analysis of the RS1 was performed and the c.288G > A (p. Trp96Ter) mutation was detected in both patients. Conclusions: Early onset XLRS is associated with a more progressive form of the disease, characterized by large bullous peripheral schisis involving the posterior pole, vascular abnormalities and haemorrhages. The availability of specific technology permitted detailed imaging of the clinical picture of unusual cases of XLRS. The possible relevance of modifying genes should be taken into consideration for the future development of XLRS gene therapy

Can miRNAs be useful biomarkers in improving prognostic stratification in endometrial cancer patients? An update review

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecological cancer, with annual incidence rates in Western countries ranging between 15 and 25 per 100 000 women. About 15% to 20% of patients with EC have high-risk disease and follow an aggressive clinical course. Unfortunately, the assessment of histologic parameters is poorly reproducible and conventional clinicopathological and molecular features do not reliably predict either the patient's response to the available treatments or the definition of personalized therapeutic approaches. In this context, the identification of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, which can be integrated in the current classification schemes, represents an unmet clinical need and an important challenge. miRNAs are key players in cancer by regulating the expression of specific target genes. Their role in EC, in association with clinical and prognostic tumor biomarkers, has been investigated but, so far, with little consensus among the studies. The present review aims to describe the recent advances in miRNAs research in EC taking into consideration the current classification schemes and to highlight the most promising miRNAs. Finally, a perspective point of view sheds light on the challenges ahead in the landscape of EC

Do (and say) as I say: Linguistic adaptation in human-computer dialogs

© Theodora Koulouri, Stanislao Lauria, and Robert D. Macredie. This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.There is strong research evidence showing that people naturally align to each other’s vocabulary, sentence structure, and acoustic features in dialog, yet little is known about how the alignment mechanism operates in the interaction between users and computer systems let alone how it may be exploited to improve the efficiency of the interaction. This article provides an account of lexical alignment in human–computer dialogs, based on empirical data collected in a simulated human–computer interaction scenario. The results indicate that alignment is present, resulting in the gradual reduction and stabilization of the vocabulary-in-use, and that it is also reciprocal. Further, the results suggest that when system and user errors occur, the development of alignment is temporarily disrupted and users tend to introduce novel words to the dialog. The results also indicate that alignment in human–computer interaction may have a strong strategic component and is used as a resource to compensate for less optimal (visually impoverished) interaction conditions. Moreover, lower alignment is associated with less successful interaction, as measured by user perceptions. The article distills the results of the study into design recommendations for human–computer dialog systems and uses them to outline a model of dialog management that supports and exploits alignment through mechanisms for in-use adaptation of the system’s grammar and lexicon

Early cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) improves the outcome in heart failure (HF) patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB).

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Malignant Bowel Obstruction in Ovarian Cancer Recurrence: The Role of Palliative Surgery in a Decision-Making Process

Background: Malignant bowel obstruction (MBO) is often the latest stage in ovarian cancer (OC). The therapy of this condition ranges from medical waiting to surgery. The objective of this pilot study is to compare the two strategies so that we can provide a path forward for future studies. Methods: From 700 women diagnosed with OC in the database of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology we crossed the names of those admitted by the emergency services of the IRCSS Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria of Bologna, Italy. We selected MBO patients with a history of OC as the only neoplastic condition and compared the results between medical conduct and surgery to restore intestinal transit. Results: Of the 700 women in our database, 36 were eligible for study according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria: 9 in surgery group and 27 in medical group. Surgical conduct (tumor biopsy and stoma) appears to be resolutory for the obstruction and have a better result than medical therapy regarding recurrence of MBO, despite the development of greater complications. Relapses of MBOs occurred in 11% of surgical patients and 44% of medical patients (p = 0.0714). Furthermore, after surgical treatment, five patients (55%) experienced postoperative complications; in four cases, severe anemia requiring blood transfusion, while one patient developed post-surgical sepsis, which evolved into multiple organ failure and death. Of the 9 patients treated surgically, 2 (22%) were given surgery as a first choice. In most cases (78%), surgery was decided upon when medical treatment failed. The only discriminative factor appears to be age. The length of hospitalization increased with the patient’s age (p = 0.0181) as statistically significant factors for a worse outcome in surgery. Conclusions: MBO requires complex and multidisciplinary management where different factors need to be considered before initiating surgical therapy. Future studies are needed to deal with this complex problem