End of life care for frail older patients in family practice (ELFOP) – protocol of a longitudinal qualitative study on needs, appropriateness and utilisation of services

BACKGROUND: Frail elderly people represent a major patient group in family practice. Little is known about the patients’ needs, and how their needs evolve over time with increasing frailty towards the end of life. This study will address end-of-life care needs, service utilisation, and experiences of frail elderly patients and their informal caregivers, with regard to family practice. This paper aims to introduce the research protocol. METHODS/DESIGN: The study uses a multiple perspective approach qualitative design. The first study part consists of serial six-monthly in-depth interviews with 30 community-dwelling elderly patients (≥70 years) with moderate to severe frailty and their key informal caregivers, over a period of 18 months. Additionally, semi-structured interviews with the patients’ family physician will be conducted. The serial interviews will be analysed with grounded theory and narrative approaches. Special attention will be paid to the comparison of distinct views of the patients’, informal caregivers’, and family physicians’ as well as on chronological aspects. In the second study part, five focus groups with experts in family medicine, geriatrics, palliative medicine, and nursing will be conducted. Finally, the implications for family practice and health care policy will be discussed in an expert workshop. DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this is the first prospective, longitudinal qualitative study on the needs of elderly patients with advanced frailty towards the end of life in German family practice, which integrates the perspectives of patients, informal caregivers, family physicians and other health professionals. The study will contribute to the understanding of the clinical, psychosocial and information needs of patients and their caregivers, and of respective changes of experiences and needs along the illness/frailty trajectory including the last phase of life. It will provide an empirical basis for improving patient-centred care for this increasingly relevant target group

Interprofessional collaboration in nursing homes (interprof): A grounded theory study of general practitioner experiences and strategies to perform nursing home visits

Background: Interprofessionalism, considered as collaboration between medical professionals, has gained prominence over recent decades and evidence for its impact has grown. The steadily increasing number of residents in nursing homes will challenge medical care and the interaction across professions, especially nurses and general practitioners (GPS). The nursing home visit, a key element of medical care, has been underrepresented in research. This study explores GP perspectives on interprofessional collaboration with a focus on their visits to nursing homes in order to understand their experiences and expectations. This research represents an aspect of the interprof study, which explores medical care needs as well as the perceived collaboration and communication by nursing home residents, their families, GPS and nurses. This paper focusses on GPS' views, investigating in particular their visits to nursing homes in order to understand their experiences. Methods: Open guideline-interviews covering interprofessional collaboration and the visit process were conducted with 30 GPS in three study centers and analyzed with grounded theory methodology. GPS were recruited via postal request and existing networks of the research partners. Results: Four different types of nursing home visits were found: visits on demand, periodical visits, nursing home rounds and ad-hoc-decision based visits. We identified the core category "productive performance" of home visits in nursing homes which stands for the balance of GPŚ individual efforts and rewards. GPS used different strategies to perform a productive home visit: preparing strategies, on-site strategies and investing strategies. Conclusion: We compiled a theory of GPS home visits in nursing homes in Germany. The findings will be useful for research, and scientific and management purposes to generate a deeper understanding of GP perspectives and thereby improve interprofessional collaboration to ensure a high quality of care

Interprofessional collaboration in nursing homes (interprof): A grounded theory study of general practitioner experiences and strategies to perform nursing home visits

Background: Interprofessionalism, considered as collaboration between medical professionals, has gained prominence over recent decades and evidence for its impact has grown. The steadily increasing number of residents in nursing homes will challenge medical care and the interaction across professions, especially nurses and general practitioners (GPS). The nursing home visit, a key element of medical care, has been underrepresented in research. This study explores GP perspectives on interprofessional collaboration with a focus on their visits to nursing homes in order to understand their experiences and expectations. This research represents an aspect of the interprof study, which explores medical care needs as well as the perceived collaboration and communication by nursing home residents, their families, GPS and nurses. This paper focusses on GPS' views, investigating in particular their visits to nursing homes in order to understand their experiences. Methods: Open guideline-interviews covering interprofessional collaboration and the visit process were conducted with 30 GPS in three study centers and analyzed with grounded theory methodology. GPS were recruited via postal request and existing networks of the research partners. Results: Four different types of nursing home visits were found: visits on demand, periodical visits, nursing home rounds and ad-hoc-decision based visits. We identified the core category "productive performance" of home visits in nursing homes which stands for the balance of GPŚ individual efforts and rewards. GPS used different strategies to perform a productive home visit: preparing strategies, on-site strategies and investing strategies. Conclusion: We compiled a theory of GPS home visits in nursing homes in Germany. The findings will be useful for research, and scientific and management purposes to generate a deeper understanding of GP perspectives and thereby improve interprofessional collaboration to ensure a high quality of care

Paclitaxel Modulates TGFβ Signaling in Scleroderma Skin Grafts in Immunodeficient Mice

BACKGROUND: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by excessive fibrosis and obliterative vascular lesions. Abnormal TGFβ activation is implicated in the pathogenesis of SSc. Aberrant TGFβ/Smad signaling can be controlled by stabilization of microtubules with paclitaxel. METHODS AND FINDINGS: SSc and healthy human skin biopsies were incubated in the presence or absence of paclitaxel followed by transplantation into severe combined immunodeficient mice. TGFβ signaling, fibrosis, and neovessel formation were evaluated by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemical staining. Paclitaxel markedly suppressed Smad2 and Smad3 phosphorylation and collagen deposition in SSc grafts. As a result, the autonomous maintenance/reconstitution of the SSc phenotype was prevented. Remarkably, SSc grafts showed a 2-fold increase in neovessel formation relative to normal grafts, regardless of paclitaxel treatment. Angiogenesis in SSc grafts was associated with a substantial increase in mouse PECAM-1 expression, indicating the mouse origin of the neovascular cells. CONCLUSION: Low-dose paclitaxel can significantly suppress TGFβ/Smad activity and lessen fibrosis in SCID mice. Transplantation of SSc skin into SCID mice elicits a strong angiogenesis—an effect not affected by paclitaxel. Although prolonged chemotherapy with paclitaxel at higher doses is associated with pro-fibrotic and anti-angiogenic changes, the findings described here indicate that low-dose paclitaxel may have therapeutic benefits for SSc via modulating TGFβ signaling

Single stage electrochemical exfoliation method for the production of few-layer graphene via intercalation of tetraalkylammonium cations

We present a non-oxidative production route to few layer graphene via the electrochemical intercalation of tetraalkylammonium cations into pristine graphite. Two forms of graphite have been studied as the source material with each yielding a slightly different result. Highly orientated pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) offers greater advantages in terms of the exfoliate size but the source electrode set up introduces difficulties to the procedure and requires the use of sonication. Using a graphite rod electrode, few layer graphene flakes (2 nm thickness) are formed directly although the flake diameters from this source are typically small (ca. 100–200 nm). Significantly, for a solvent based route, the graphite rod does not require ultrasonication or any secondary physical processing of the resulting dispersion. Flakes have been characterized using Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)

Comparing the quantity and quality of randomized placebo-controlled trials of antibiotics for acute respiratory, urinary, and skin and soft tissue infections:a scoping review

BACKGROUND: The management of acute respiratory infections (ARIs), urinary tract infections (UTIs), and skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) should be guided by high quality evidence.AIM: To compare the quantity and quality of randomised placebo-controlled trials of antibiotics for ARIs, UTIs, and SSTIs.DESIGN &amp; SETTING: A scoping review of the literature was performed using comprehensive search strategies.METHOD: PubMed and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were searched for published studies from inception until 17 April 2019. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared participants in primary care or in the community who had uncomplicated acute ARI, UTI, or studies, and were randomised to antibiotic or placebo (or no active treatment), were eligible for inclusion. Two groups of researchers independently screened articles for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed the quality of included studies.RESULTS: A total of 108 eligible studies were identified: 80 on ARI, eight on UTI, and 20 on SSTI. The quality of studies varied with unclear risk of bias (RoB) prevalent in many domains. There was a gradual improvement in the quality of trials investigating ARIs over time, which could not be assessed in SSTI and UTI studies.CONCLUSION: This review highlights a sparsity of trials assessing the effectiveness of antibiotics in people with UTIs and SSTIs, compared to trials targeting ARIs. This gap in the evidence needs to be addressed by conducting further high quality trials on the effects of antibiotics in patients with UTI and SSTI.</p