The strategic role of MOOCs in education and its effects on the competitive recovery of Portugal

Competitiveness and competition are drivers that guide our society during this Era: competition between countries, competition between firms, competition at work to achieve promotions, competition for vacancies in the best universities, competition for the best partners and even the beginning of life starts with a competition. The main objective of this project is to study if MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses, an innovation in the education field brought us by technology) can help Portugal in its Competitive recovery. To achieve this goal it was important to study in depth the correlation between competitiveness and Education and if the Portuguese Language could have a leverage role. Primary research in form of a survey and in-depth interviews were made, adding to desk-based research of updating Porter’s study of Portuguese competitiveness to the days we live and other assessments such as how can MOOCs work and which business models can be effective. The intended results were to prove that MOOCs could have a strategic role on the economic recovery of the country. The main findings also concluded that the Portuguese language could leverage MOOCs into an exportation strategy of Portuguese educational contents.A Competitividade e a competição são fatores que marcam e guiam a sociedade da nossa Era: competição entre países, competição entre empresas, competição no trabalho para ser promovido, competição para as vagas nas melhores universidades, competição pelos melhores parceiros e até o início da vida tem origem numa competição. O principal objetivo deste projeto é estudar se os MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course, uma inovação no campo da educação proporcionada pela tecnologia) podem ajudar Portugal na sua recuperação ao nível da competitividade. Para atingir este objetivo é importante estudar em profundidade a correlação entre Competitividade e Educação e ainda e se a Língua Portuguesa poderá ter um papel de alavancagem. Um questionário e entrevistas em profundidade foram realizadas de forma a obter insights que pudessem permitir validar estas hipóteses, aos quais se soma a atualização do estudo de Michael Porter sobre a Competitividade Portuguesa para os dias de hoje entre outros estudos como por exemplo o modus operandi correto dos MOOCs em Portugal e que modelos negócios permitiriam a viabilidade destes. Os resultados pretendidos baseiam-se na prova de que os MOOCs podem ter um papel estratégico na recuperação económica do país. Outra conclusão a destacar é a importância que a Língua Portuguesa pode ter a alavancar os MOOCs para os países que falam Português e a abertura que isso pode dar para a exportação de conteúdos educativos em Língua Portuguesa

The surgical safety checklist and patient outcomes after surgery: a prospective observational cohort study, systematic review and meta-analysis

© 2017 British Journal of Anaesthesia Background: The surgical safety checklist is widely used to improve the quality of perioperative care. However, clinicians continue to debate the clinical effectiveness of this tool. Methods: Prospective analysis of data from the International Surgical Outcomes Study (ISOS), an international observational study of elective in-patient surgery, accompanied by a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature. The exposure was surgical safety checklist use. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality and the secondary outcome was postoperative complications. In the ISOS cohort, a multivariable multi-level generalized linear model was used to test associations. To further contextualise these findings, we included the results from the ISOS cohort in a meta-analysis. Results are reported as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals. Results: We included 44 814 patients from 497 hospitals in 27 countries in the ISOS analysis. There were 40 245 (89.8%) patients exposed to the checklist, whilst 7508 (16.8%) sustained ≥1 postoperative complications and 207 (0.5%) died before hospital discharge. Checklist exposure was associated with reduced mortality [odds ratio (OR) 0.49 (0.32–0.77); P\u3c0.01], but no difference in complication rates [OR 1.02 (0.88–1.19); P=0.75]. In a systematic review, we screened 3732 records and identified 11 eligible studies of 453 292 patients including the ISOS cohort. Checklist exposure was associated with both reduced postoperative mortality [OR 0.75 (0.62–0.92); P\u3c0.01; I2=87%] and reduced complication rates [OR 0.73 (0.61–0.88); P\u3c0.01; I2=89%). Conclusions: Patients exposed to a surgical safety checklist experience better postoperative outcomes, but this could simply reflect wider quality of care in hospitals where checklist use is routine

Critical care admission following elective surgery was not associated with survival benefit: prospective analysis of data from 27 countries

This was an investigator initiated study funded by Nestle Health Sciences through an unrestricted research grant, and by a National Institute for Health Research (UK) Professorship held by RP. The study was sponsored by Queen Mary University of London

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AimThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery.MethodsThis was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin.ResultsOverall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P ConclusionOne in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

Delaying surgery for patients with a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection

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