Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Research'.
Found 955 results
-
News Article
Covid: Nurses condemn 'fundamentally flawed' PPE rules
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nurse leaders are lobbying government to update "fundamentally flawed" guidance on personal protective equipment. The Royal College of Nursing says the existing recommendations are based on out-of-date evidence. One nurse told the BBC she had not been allowed to wear a higher-grade mask, despite having to go into the homes of patients with Covid. The nurse, who wishes to remain anonymous, wanted to use what's known as an FFP3 mask that filters out infectious aerosols. But she says her employers insisted on following national guidance, that most health staff should wear thinner surgical masks, instead. This comes at a time of mounting concern among many healthcare organisations that personal protective equipment (PPE) is inadequate. A new report for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) criticises the official guidelines for PPE as "fundamentally flawed" because they're based on out-of-date evidence. It says that the risk of infection by aerosols is not given enough emphasis and that key research papers highlighting the possibility of airborne transmission have not been considered. The RCN's report concludes that key research papers on aerosols appear to have been ignored and that the terms used to search for new papers were likely to be "biased against" those on airborne transmission. The lead author of the study, Prof Dinah Gould, says she is "very disappointed" at the review for not taking into account the latest science. "A year into the pandemic, the review needs replacing. It needs updating and we should be able to offer healthcare workers and patients better than what we're offering them now." Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 March 2021 -
Content Article
CIEHF's Design for Everybody
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Data and insight
Help to build an understanding of the diversity of body sizes by taking 10 of your own measurements and recording them online. By providing this data it will enable the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) to build up a picture of the diversity of measurements within the population. -
News Article
Data on Long Covid in UK children is cause for concern, scientists say
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Scientists have warned that emerging data on Long Covid in children should not be ignored given the lack of a vaccine for this age group, but cautioned that the evidence describing these enduring symptoms in the young is so far uncertain. Recently published data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that 13% of under 11s and about 15% of 12 to 16 year olds reported at least one symptom five weeks after a confirmed COVID-19 infection. Although children are relatively less likely to become infected, transmit the virus and be hospitalised, the key question is whether even mild or asymptomatic infection can lead to Long Covid in children, said Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London. “The answer is that it certainly can, and the Long Covid support groups contain a not insignificant number of children and teens,” Altmann said. Frances Simpson, a lecturer in psychology at Coventry University and co-founder of the Long Covid Kids group, said she was very worried about the emerging data on Long Covid in children. “We just think that there should be a much more cautious and curious approach to long Covid rather than a kind of a sweeping generalisation that children are OK, and that we should just let them all go back to school without any measures being put in place.” One issue, she said, is the sizeable gap between acute infection and Long Covid kicking off. Some children are initially asymptomatic or have mild symptoms but then it might be six or seven weeks before they start experiencing long Covid symptoms, which can range from standard post-viral fatigue and headaches to neuropsychiatric symptoms such as seizures, or even skin lesions." At the moment there is no consensus on the scale and impact of long Covid in adults, but emerging data is concerning. For children, the data is even more scarce. Recent reports from hospitals in Sweden and Italy have generated concern, but this data is not from national trials – they are single-centre studies – and include relatively small patient numbers, said Sir Terence Stephenson, a Nuffield professor of child health at University College London. Stephenson was awarded £1.36m last month to lead a study investigating Long Covid in 11- to 17-year-olds. “I don’t have a scientific view on what long Covid is in young people is – because frankly, we don’t know,” he said. Preliminary results are expected in three months. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 March 2021 -
Content ArticleInterruptions and multitasking are implicated as a major cause of clinical inefficiency and error. The aim of this study by Westbrook et al. was to measure the association between emergency doctors' rates of interruption and task completion times and rates.
-
Content ArticleThe objective of this study from Carey et al. was to explore medical oncology outpatients' perceived experiences of errors in their cancer care. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. English-speaking medical oncology outpatients aged 18 years or older were recruited from 9 Australian cancer treatment centres. One hundred forty-eight participants perceived that an error had been made in their care, of which one third reported that the error was associated with severe harm. Of those who perceived an error had been made, less than half reported that they had received an explanation for the error and only one third reported receiving an apology or being told that steps had been taken to prevent the error from reoccurring. Patients with university or vocational level education and those who received radiotherapy or “other” treatments were significantly more likely to report an error in care. The authors concluded that here is significant scope to improve communication with patients and appropriate responses by the healthcare system after a perceived error in cancer care.
-
Event
WHO COVID-19 Vaccine research forum
Sam posted an event in Community Calendar
untilWHO will host a monthly WHO COVID-19 Vaccine research forum, starting on Tuesday 2 March 2021. This first webinar is scheduled between 14:00 – 16:00 Central European Time (CET). The agenda will be shared in advance. The goals of these ongoing meetings are: To encourage and facilitate the rapid dissemination of research protocols and emerging results. To provide regular updates against R&D Blueprint roadmap priorities with the ability to pivot given dynamic research needs. Register -
Content ArticleThis report by the Patient Experience Library explores the reasons why the healthcare system in the UK has failed to listen to and learn from patient experience. It highlights how the NHS – at an institutional and cultural level – fails to take patient experience evidence seriously enough. It also identifies steps that would strengthen evidence-based practice and ensure that the patient voice is better heard.
-
Content ArticleMedication reconciliation broadly defined includes both formal and informal processes that involve the comprehensive evaluation of a patient’s medications during each transition of care and change in therapy. The medication reconciliation process is complex, and studies have shown that up to 91% of medication reconciliation errors are clinically significant and 1–2% are serious or potentially life-threatening. The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS) was queried and identified 93 serious events related to the medication reconciliation process reported between January 2015 and August 2020.
-
News ArticleA new COVID vaccine efficacy study from Israel has concluded that Pfizer/BioNTech's jab is up to 85% effective after the first dose. The research, conducted by the Sheba Medical Centre, the country's largest hospital, has been published in the Lancet medical journal. The hospital assessed the effectiveness of the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine among 7,000 of its healthcare employees. The workers each received their first dose in January and the research team observed an 85% reduction of clinical (symptomatic) COVID-19 between 15 and 28 days after the jab. But critically, they also observed efficacy in asymptomatic patients. The study found that all infections, including asymptomatic, were reduced by 75% after the first dose. Professor Eyal Leshem, an infectious disease expert and director of Sheba's Institute for Travel and Tropical Medicine, told Sky News: "This is first real-world evidence of effectiveness that shows up after the first dose of the vaccine." Read full story Source: Sky News, 19 February 2021
-
News ArticleAt home early abortions pose no greater risk and allow women to have the procedure much earlier on in their pregnancy, research has found. The findings have sparked calls from leading healthcare providers for the option, which was rolled out in the wake of lockdown measures last spring, to be made permanent. Researchers, who conducted the UK’s largest study into abortions, discovered there were no cases of significant infection which necessitated the woman to go to hospital or have major surgery. The study, conducted by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and MSI Reproductive Choices, drew attention to the fact that despite misinformation to the contrary, not one individual died from having an at home early abortion. Eight in ten women said at home abortions were their preferred choice and they would opt for it in the future, while waiting times from when the woman has her consultation to treatment improved from 11 days to 7 days. Dr Jonathan Lord, medical director for MSI Reproductive Choices UK, said: “Being able to access abortion care earlier in pregnancy has also reduced the low complication rate even further.” Dr Lord added: “Telemedicine has provided a lifeline for vulnerable women and girls who cannot attend consultations in-person. We have seen a major increase in safeguarding disclosures, including from survivors of domestic and sexual violence, as they can talk more freely about distressing and intimate details from the privacy of their own home at the beginning of the Covid emergency." Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 February 2021
-
Content ArticleRisk of complications following hernia repair is the key parameter to assess risk/benefit ratio of a technique. As mesh devices are permanent, their risks are life-long. Too many reports in the past assessed mesh safety prematurely after short follow-ups. Peterson et al. aimed to explore what length of follow up would reveal the full extent of complications. The authors concluded that follow-up of more than 15 years is needed to fully assess complications after mesh hernia repair. Especially longer periods are needed to detect mesh erosion into organs and complications in younger males. Presently, short observations and lack of reporting standard in the literature prohibit accurate assessment of complication risks.
-
Content ArticleThe NIHR-supported RECOVERY trial has shown that tocilizumab – an anti-inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis treatment – reduces the risk of death for hospitalised patients with severe COVID-19. Researchers also found that the drug reduces the length of hospital admission, and the risk of patients requiring mechanical ventilation. Last year, the RECOVERY study was the world’s first to show that dexamethasone – a cheap and available steroid – reduces the risk of dying from COVID-19. The latest results from the study also suggests that for COVID-19 patients who have significant inflammation and require oxygen, a combination of a systemic corticosteroid – such a dexamethasone – alongside tocilizumab reduces mortality by about one third for patients requiring simple oxygen and nearly one-half for those requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. RECOVERY is now the second NIHR-supported study to demonstrate the effectiveness of tocilizumab as a treatment for COVID-19 patients, after results from the REMAP-CAP study last month showed that tocilizumab and a second similar drug called sarilumab have a significant impact on survival and can reduce the relative risk of death for critically ill patients in intensive care. The latest results from RECOVERY show that a much wider cohort of COVID-19 patients can potentially benefit from tocilizumab - beyond those critically ill on mechanical ventilation. For this preliminary report, information on the primary outcome was available for 92% of patients. Report has not been peer-reviewed yet.
-
Content ArticleA study from Chamberlain et al. examined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in 13 049 survivors of suspected or confirmed COVID-19, from the UK general population, as a function of severity and hospital admission status. Compared with mild COVID-19, significantly elevated rates of PTSD symptoms were identified in those requiring medical support at home, those requiring hospital admission without ventilation and those requiring hospital admission with ventilator support. Intrusive images were the most prominent elevated symptom. Adequate psychiatric provision for such individuals will be of paramount importance.
-
News ArticleA trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine detected the most sobering signal yet that people who have recovered from infections are not completely protected against a variant that originated in South Africa and is spreading rapidly, preliminary data presented this week suggests. The finding, though far from conclusive, has potential implications for how the pandemic will be brought under control, underscoring the critical role of vaccination, including for people who have already recovered from infections. Reaching herd immunity — the threshold when enough people achieve protection and the virus can’t seed new outbreaks — will depend on a mass vaccination campaign that has been constrained by limited supply. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that it appears a vaccine is better than natural infection in protecting people, calling it “a big, strong plug to get vaccinated” and a reality check for people who may have assumed that because they have already been infected, they are immune. Read full story Source: The Washington Post, 6 February 2021
-
Content ArticleUK Biobank, commissioned by the Department for Health and Social Care, has produced its final round of results after testing over 20,000 people for coronavirus antibodies. The study is tracking the spread of the virus across England, Scotland and Wales over 6 months. The UK Biobank COVID-19 antibody study will analyse samples from people participating in its study to assess antibody levels over time. The data and insights from this study will help the government understand how long COVID-19 antibodies stay in the blood, how strong they are and what this could mean for potential immunity.
-
News ArticleThousands of women living in the UK suffering from an aggressive type of breast cancer could be helped by a newly identified drug, according to a study. The research, carried out by The Institute of Cancer Research, found medicine presently used to help other breast cancers that have spread to another area of the body, could actually be utilised to help around a fifth of women who have triple negative breast cancer. Around 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Britain each year, with approximately one in five of these being triple negative. Younger women and black women are more likely to develop this form of breast cancer which is generally more aggressive. Researchers’ realisation the drug palbociclib could be used far more widely than previously thought could “provide a much-needed targeted treatment” for those who are at higher risk of witnessing their cancer spread more quickly, becoming incurable and often unresponsive to conventional chemotherapy. Dr Simon Vincent, of Breast Cancer Now, a leading charity which funded the study, said: “It’s hugely exciting that this research has uncovered a new possible use for palbociclib as a targeted treatment for some women living with triple negative breast cancer." Read full story Source: The Independent, 28 January 2021
-
Content ArticleThe purpose of this study from Nanji et al. is to assess the rates of perioperative medication errors (MEs) and adverse drug events (ADEs) as percentages of medication administrations, to evaluate their root causes, and to formulate targeted solutions to prevent them.
-
News ArticleNew research has suggested there are specific molecular responses found in some COVID-19 patients which could be used to determine their likelihood of suffering from severe or long Covid symptoms, very early on following infection. Researchers, supported by NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, had set out to increase our understanding of the relationship between the immune response and COVID-19 symptoms by recruiting individuals who tested positive for the virus into a cohort of the NIHR BioResource. Studying 207 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 over a three-month period, taking blood samples and measuring their symptoms, then comparing to samples taken from 45 healthy people, the researchers were able to uncover a number of interesting new findings. Their research showed that people with either an asymptomatic or mild case of COVID-19 mounted a robust immune response to the virus soon after getting infected. These individuals produced a greater number of T cells, B cells and antibodies than patients with more severe COVID-19 infections and within the first week of infection - after which these numbers rapidly returned to normal. The study also showed there was no evidence in these patients of widespread inflammation which can lead to damage in multiple organs. In contrast, people with severe COVID-19 who required hospitalisation showed an impaired immune response, which led to a delayed and weakened attempt to fight the virus and widespread inflammation from the time of symptom onset. In patients requiring admission to hospital, the early immune response was delayed, and profound abnormalities were present in a number of immune cells. Read full story Source: NHE, 22 January 2021
-
News ArticleA new state of the art institute for antimicrobial research is to open at Oxford University thanks to a £100 million donation from Ineos. Ineos, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, and the University of Oxford are launching a new world-leading institute to combat the growing global issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which currently causes an estimated 1.5 million excess deaths each year- and could cause over 10m deaths per year by 2050. Predicted to also create a global economic toll of $100 trillion by mid-century, it is arguably the greatest economic and healthcare challenge facing the world post-Covid. It is bacterial resistance, caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics, which arguably poses the broadest threat to global populations. The world is fast running out of effective antibiotics as bacteria evolve to develop resistance to our taken-for-granted treatments. Without urgent collaborative action to prevent common microbes becoming multi-drug resistant (commonly known as ‘superbugs’), we could return to a world where taken-for-granted treatments such as chemotherapy and hip replacements could become too risky, childbirth becomes extremely dangerous, and even a basic scratch could kill. The rapid progression of antibacterial resistance is a natural process, exacerbated by significant overuse and misuse of antibiotics not only in human populations but especially in agriculture. Meanwhile, the field of new drug discovery has attracted insufficient scientific interest and funding in recent decades meaning no new antibiotics have been successfully developed since the 1980s. Alongside its drug discovery work, the IOI intends to partner with other global leaders in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) to raise awareness and promote responsible use of antimicrobial drugs. The academic team will contribute to research on the type and extent of drug resistant microbes across the world, and critically, will seek to attract and train the brightest minds in science to tackle this ‘silent pandemic’. Read full story Source: University of Oxford, 19 January 2021
-
Community Post
Which are the best Interdisciplinary Open Access Journals
Steve Turner posted a topic in Research, data and insight
- (and 7 more)
Some years ago I stopped writing for journals, in favour of blogging & volgging. My reasons were: I specialise in patient involvement and inclusion, so I want the work of me and my colleagues to be easily found by everyone We didn't want our work to end up behind a paywall We work across disciplines and try to bypass hierarchies, especially in promoting action learning and patient led care I can see there are some really good Open Access Journals around. So my question for us all is: Which are the best Open Access Journals? Here a link to my digital profile: https://linktr.ee/stevemedgov This is our developing model of working, a away of working in healthcare that all use and participate in: -
News ArticleCOVID-19 patients in England's busiest intensive care units (ICUs) in 2020 were 20% more likely to die, University College London research has found. The increased risk was equivalent to gaining a decade in age. By the end of 2020, one in three hospital trusts in England was running at higher than 85% capacity. Eleven trusts were completely full on 30 December, and the total number of people in intensive care with Covid has continued to rise since then. The link between full ICUs and higher death rates was already known, but this study is the first to measure its effect during the pandemic. Tighter lockdown restrictions are needed to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, says study author Dr Bilal Mateen. Researchers looked at more than 4,000 patients who were admitted to intensive care units in 114 hospital trusts in England between April and June last year. They found the risk of dying was almost a fifth higher in ICUs where more than 85% of beds were occupied, than in those running at between 45% and 85% capacity. That meant a 60-year-old being treated in one of these units had the same risk of dying as a 70-year-old on a quieter ward. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine sets 85% as the maximum safe level of bed occupancy. However, the team found there was no tipping point after which deaths rose - instead, survival rates fell consistently as bed-occupancy increased. This suggests "a lot of harm is occurring before you get to 85%". Read full story Source: BBC News, 14 January 2021
-
Content ArticleWould you like to help our healthcare professionals understand how they can continue to use a new approach for prescribing safety in general practices? This research is looking at making prescribing safer in general practices in England and is jointly conducted by the Universities of Nottingham, Manchester, Edinburgh & Dundee. GP surgeries are working with pharmacists to use a computer programme to help find patients who may need their medicines reviewing. People from patient and public groups are invited to say what they think about continuing this service across the country in the longer term. If you choose to take part, this will involve being part of a group discussion on issues relating to continuing the service for medicines safety. You do not need to know about the service before taking part as this will be explained to you. If interested, please contact: azwa.shamsuddin@ed.ac.uk
-
News Article
Large trial of new covid treatment begins in UK
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A large-scale trial of a new treatment it is hoped will help stop COVID-19 patients from developing severe illness has begun in the UK. The first patient received the treatment at Hull Royal Infirmary on Tuesday afternoon. It involves inhaling a protein called interferon beta which the body produces when it gets a viral infection. The hope is it will stimulate the immune system, priming cells to be ready to fight off viruses. Early findings suggested the treatment cut the odds of a COVID-19 patient in hospital developing severe disease - such as requiring ventilation - by almost 80%. It was developed at Southampton University Hospital and is being produced by the Southampton-based biotech company, Synairgen. Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 January 2021 -
News Article
Covid: Gut bacteria may influence disease severity, study suggests
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A coronavirus patient's gut bacteria may influence the length and severity of their infection and their immune response to it, a new study suggests. A team of researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong examined whether the variety and quantity of microbiome played a role in COVID-19 infections. Researchers found that patients with COVID-19 were depleted in gut bacteria known to modify a person's immune response, and that this depletion appeared to persist 30 days after the virus had gone. Gut bacteria — or gut microbiome — help to digest food. But research increasingly shows that gut bacteria also affect our health. The study, published in the journal Gut, found that the composition of gut microbiome had changed in COVID-19 patients, compared to those who did not have the infection. It said that gut microbiome could be involved in the "magnitude of COVID-19 severity possibly via modulating host immune responses". Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 January 2021 -
News ArticleThe Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine can still target a key mutation that has emerged in two new variants of coronavirus, laboratory studies show. However, this is only one of many mutations that are found in the new forms of the virus. So while the study has been welcomed, it is not being seen as definitive scientific evidence about how the vaccine will perform. New variants have been detected in the UK and South Africa. Both forms of the virus are spreading more quickly and this has raised questions over what level of protection vaccines can offer against them. The widely held view is that vaccines will still work, but researchers are on the hunt for proof. Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 January 2021
