Correction: Product diversity and spectrum of choice in hospital eprescribing systems in England.

There are two errors in the author byline in the XML version of the article. The sixth author’s name is spelled incorrectly. The correct name is: Aziz Sheikh. Jamie Coleman should not be listed as an author. The correct author byline is: Hajar Mozaffar, Robin Williams, Kathrin Cresswell, Zoe Morison, Ann Slee, Aziz Sheikh on behalf of the ePrescribing Programme Team

The challenges of implementing packaged hospital electronic prescribing and medicine administration systems in UK hospitals: premature purchase of immature solutions?

The UK National Health Service is making major efforts to implement Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicine Administration (HEPMA) to improve patient safety and quality of care. Substantial public investments have attracted a wide range of UK and overseas suppliers offering Commercial-Off –The-Shelf (COTS) solutions. A lack of (UK) implementation experience and weak supplier-user relationships are reflected in systems with limited configurability, poorly matched to the needs and practices of English hospitals. This situation echoes the history of comparable corporate information infrastructures - Enterprise Resource Planning systems - in the 1980s/1990s. UK government intervention prompted a similar swarming of immature, often unfinished, products into the market. This resulted, in both cases, in protracted and difficult implementation processes as vendors and adopters struggled to get the systems to work and match the circumstances of the adopting organisations. An analysis of the influence of the Installed Base on Information Infrastructures should explore how the evolution of COTS solutions is conditioned by the structure of adopter and vendor ‘communities’

Prospective exploratory muscle biopsy, imaging, and functional assessment in patients with late-onset Pompe disease treated with alglucosidase alfa: The EMBASSY Study

Background Late-onset Pompe disease is characterized by progressive skeletal myopathy followed by respiratory muscle weakness, typically leading to loss of ambulation and respiratory failure. In this population, enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with alglucosidase alfa has been shown to stabilize respiratory function and improve mobility and muscle strength. Muscle pathology and glycogen clearance from skeletal muscle in treatment-naïve adults after ERT have not been extensively examined. Methods This exploratory, open-label, multicenter study evaluated glycogen clearance in muscle tissue samples collected pre- and post- alglucosidase alfa treatment in treatment-naïve adults with late-onset Pompe disease. The primary endpoint was the quantitative reduction in percent tissue area occupied by glycogen in muscle biopsies from baseline to 6 months. Secondary endpoints included qualitative histologic assessment of tissue glycogen distribution, secondary pathology changes, assessment of magnetic resonance images (MRIs) for intact muscle and fatty replacement, and functional assessments. Results Sixteen patients completed the study. After 6 months of ERT, the percent tissue area occupied by glycogen in quadriceps and deltoid muscles decreased in 10 and 8 patients, respectively. No changes were detected on MRI from baseline to 6 months. A majority of patients showed improvements on functional assessments after 6 months of treatment. All treatment-related adverse events were mild or moderate. Conclusions This exploratory study provides novel insights into the histopathologic effects of ERT in late-onset Pompe disease patients. Ultrastructural examination of muscle biopsies demonstrated reduced lysosomal glycogen after ERT. Findings are consistent with stabilization of disease by ERT in treatment-naïve patients with late-onset Pompe disease

Lipase-catalyzed Reactions at Interfaces of Two-phase Systems and Microemulsions

This work describes the influence of two polar lipids, Sn-1/3 and Sn-2 monopalmitin, on the activity of lipase in biphasic systems and in microemulsions. In previous communications, we have shown that Sn-2 monoglycerides can replace Sn-1,3 regiospecific lipases at the oil–water interface, causing a drastically reduced rate of lipolysis. We here demonstrate that even if the lipase is expelled from the interface, it can catalyze esterification of the Sn-2 monoglyceride with fatty acids in both macroscopic oil–water systems and in microemulsions, leading to formation of di- and triglycerides