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Showing results for tags 'Research'.
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Content ArticleThe paradox of representation in public involvement in research is well recognised, whereby public contributors are seen as either too naïve to meaningfully contribute or too knowledgeable to represent ‘the average patient’. Given the underlying assumption that expertise undermines contributions made, more expert contributors who have significant experience in research can be a primary target of criticism. Knowles SE et al. conducted a secondary analysis of a case of expert involvement and a case of lived experience, to examine how representation was discussed in each.
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Content ArticleHospital-acquired venous thromboembolism (VTE) continues to be a significant source of preventable patient harm. This study from Richie et al. retrospectively examined patients admitted with VTE and found that only 15% received correct risk stratification and appropriate management and treatment. The case review found that patients were commonly incorrectly stratified, received incorrect pharmaceutical treatment, or inadequate application of mechanical prophylaxis (e.g., intermittent compression).
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Content ArticlePatient safety in ambulatory care settings is receiving increased attention. Based on interviews and focus groups with patients, providers, and staff at ten patient-centered medical homes, this qualitative study explored perceived facilitators and barriers to improving safety in ambulatory care. Participants identified several safety issues, including communication failures and challenges with medication reconciliation, and noted the importance of health information systems and dedicated resources to advance patient safety. Patients also emphasised the importance of engagement in developing safety solutions.
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Content ArticleDigital healthcare knowledge and tools can enhance the efforts of patients, clinicians, and health systems working to improve healthcare quality and safety. AHRQ’s digital healthcare research (DHR) programme funds research to create actionable findings on what and how digital healthcare works best for these critical stakeholders in healthcare. Now more than ever, the DHR programme is focused on supporting crucial research that identifies how the various components of the ever evolving digital healthcare ecosystem can best come together to positively influence healthcare delivery and create value for its key stakeholders: patients, clinicians, and health systems. This ecosystem includes clinical, contextual, and patient-generated health data as well as the tools used to manage and apply these data, such as advanced analytics and data visualisations. The application of these data can result in new knowledge, which can take the form of computable clinical guidelines and decision support. The DHR program continues to fund research on how these ecosystem elements and the actors who create and use them can best support the quality and safety of healthcare.
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Content ArticleA broken hip or ‘hip fracture’ is a serious injury, which each year in the UK leads to around 75,000 people needing hospital admission, surgery and anaesthesia, followed by weeks of rehabilitation in hospital and the community. The National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) is an online platform that uses real-time data to drive Quality Improvement (QI) across all 163 hospitals that look after patients with hip fractures in England and Wales. This report highlights key research carried out using data from the NHFD in 2021, and makes a number of recommendations to improve treatment and outcomes for patients with hip fractures.
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Content Article
Risk of suicide after dementia diagnosis (3 October 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Dementia
Patients with dementia may be at an increased suicide risk. Identifying groups at greatest risk of suicide would support targeted risk reduction efforts by clinical dementia services. In this study, Alothman et al. examine the association between a dementia diagnosis and suicide risk in the general population and to identify high-risk subgroups. They found that dementia was associated with increased risk of suicide in specific patient subgroups: those diagnosed before age 65 years (particularly in the 3-month postdiagnostic period), those in the first 3 months after diagnosis, and those with known psychiatric comorbidities. Given the current efforts to improve rates of dementia diagnosis, these findings emphasise the importance of concurrent implementation of suicide risk assessment for the identified high-risk groups. -
Content ArticleHealthcare simulation is an established technique for improving patient safety, through training individual skills, teamwork behaviours, and by testing healthcare systems for latent safety threats. However, healthcare simulation may present risks to safety, especially when delivered ‘in situ’—in real clinical environments—when lines between simulated and real practice may be blurred. Brazil et al. developed a simulation safety policy (SSP) after reading reports of adverse events in the healthcare simulation literature, editorials highlighting these safety risks, and reflecting on our own experience as a busy translational simulation service in a large healthcare institution. The process for development of a comprehensive SSP for translational simulation programs is unclear. Personal correspondence with leaders of simulation programs like our own revealed a piecemeal approach in most institutions. In this article, the authors describe the process we used to develop the simulation safety policy at our health service, and crystalize principles that may provide guidance to simulation programs with similar challenges.
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EventOptimise your time with a centralised, secured data system that helps you remain compliant with organisational standards and supports your safety and quality initiatives Implement tailored access to provide enhanced security and make reviews easier for committees, reviewers and subjects. Maintain reviewers’ complete confidentiality from staff members and other reviewers. Seamlessly integrate Peer Review with other RL6 Modules including Risk, Feedback, Claims and Root Cause Analysis to optimise communication and monitor adherence to policies Quickly and easily review provider performance and care quality from custom reporting and dashboards . Register
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Content ArticleWhen the COVID-19 pandemic began, initial descriptions of the symptomology focused on the clinical presentations of patients in the acute, inpatient setting. In the months since, information on how patients with mild disease present has become available along with information on the fairly common occurrence of asymptomatic disease. More recently, data have emerged that some patients continue to experience symptoms related to COVID-19 after the acute phase of infection. There is currently no clearly delineated consensus definition for the condition: terminology has included “long COVID,” “post-COVID syndrome” and “post-acute COVID-19 syndrome". Among the lay public, the phrase “long haulers” is also being used. Here the COVID-19 Real-Time Learning Network review the current literature on post-acute symptoms in patients with COVID-19, using the term “post-acute COVID-19 syndrome".
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Content ArticleRisk assessments are a central component of mental health care. Few national studies have been done in the UK on risk assessment tools used in mental health services. In this study, Graney et al. aimed to examine which suicide risk assessment tools are in use in the UK; establish the views of clinicians, carers, and service users on the use of these tools; and identify how risk assessment tools have been used with mental health patients before suicide.
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Content ArticleCOVID-NMA is an international research initiative supported by the WHO and Cochrane. It provides a living mapping of COVID-19 trials available through interactive data visualisations. COVID-NMA also conductis living evidence synthesis on preventive interventions, treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 to assist decision makers.
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Content Article"When good science is suppressed by the medical-political complex, people die." Kamran Abbasi believes politicians and governments are suppressing science. They do so in the public interest, they say, to accelerate availability of diagnostics and treatments. They do so to support innovation, to bring products to market at unprecedented speed. Both of these reasons are partly plausible, as Abbasi explores in this BMJ Editorial.
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Content ArticlePatients from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Sze et al. performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the relationship between ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19. They found that individuals of Black and Asian ethnicity are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection compared to White individuals; Asians may be at higher risk of ITU admission and death. These findings are of critical public health importance in informing interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality amongst ethnic minority groups.
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Content ArticleIn this study, Avery et al. estimated the incidence of avoidable significant harm in primary care in England, and describe and classify the associated patient safety incidents and generate suggestions to mitigate risks of ameliorable factors contributing to the incidents. The study found there is likely to be a substantial burden of avoidable significant harm attributable to primary care in England with diagnostic error accounting for most harms. Based on the contributory factors we found, improvements could be made through more effective implementation of existing information technology, enhanced team coordination and communication, and greater personal and informational continuity of care.
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Content ArticleThere are large numbers of patients with olfactory disturbance in the UK and shortfalls in assessment and support amongst mainstream practice in both primary and secondary care leading to significant quality‐of‐life impairment and potential missed diagnoses. The aim of this study from Erskine and Philpott was to determine the key themes which can be identified from the accounts of anosmia sufferers and to identify important areas to target for future research or service development.
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Content ArticleJoin a new study to help us understand why black men are at higher risk of prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer UK are funding the PROFILE study to help find out why black men are at higher risk of prostate cancer than other ethnic groups. The researchers are looking at the genes of healthy men at higher risk of prostate cancer, including men of African or Caribbean descent. Over five years, they’ll monitor the men for signs of developing prostate cancer, using blood tests and scans and biopsies. At the end of the study, the researchers hope to understand why certain men are more likely to get prostate cancer, and whether one day they could create tests to help spot these men earlier, based on their genes. By working towards catching prostate cancer sooner in high risk men, we can increase the chances of curing their prostate cancer. And by understanding more about why and how they develop prostate cancer, we could work towards treatments that stop this from happening. If you are a man of African or Caribbean descent aged 40-69 and haven’t had prostate cancer, you may be suitable to take part in a study that can help us understand more about the genetics of prostate cancer. Follow the link below for further information.
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Content ArticleThe call for meaningful patient and family engagement in healthcare and research is gaining impetus. Healthcare institutions and research funding agencies increasingly encourage clinicians and researchers to work actively with patients and their families to advance clinical care and research. Engagement is increasingly mandated by healthcare organizations and is becoming a prerequisite for research funding. In this article, Burns et al. review the rationale and the current state of patient and family engagement in patient care and research in the ICU. The authors identify opportunities to strengthen engagement in patient care by promoting greater patient and family involvement in care delivery and supporting their participation in shared decision-making. They also identify challenges related to patient willingness to engage, barriers to participation, participant risks, and participant expectations. To advance engagement, clinicians and researchers can develop the science behind engagement in the ICU context and demonstrate its impact on patient- and process-related outcomes. In addition, the authors provide practical guidance on how to engage, highlight features of successful engagement strategies, and identify areas for future research. At present, enormous opportunities remain to enhance engagement across the continuum of ICU care and research.
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Content ArticleMaintaining safe elective surgical activity during the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic is challenging and it is not clear how COVID‐19 may impact peri‐operative morbidity and mortality in this population. Therefore, adaptations to normal care pathways are required. Here, Kane et al. establish if implementation of a bespoke peri‐operative care bundle for urgent elective surgery during a pandemic surge period can deliver a low COVID‐19‐associated complication profile. Kane et al. present a single‐centre retrospective cohort study from a tertiary care hospital of patients planned for urgent elective surgery during the initial COVID‐19 surge in the UK between 29 March and 12 June 2020.
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Content ArticleIn this Anaesthesia editorial, Simoes and Bhangu, on behalf of the CovidSurg Collaborative, outline why and how elective surgery must restart. "COVID‐19‐free pathways will be crucial for patient safety during the COVID‐19 pandemic, as they seem to lead to low rates of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection rates and complications. Further preventive measures and patient level risk assessment will allow surgery to safely restart and continue during this, and future, crises." This editorial accompanies an article by Kane et al. Anaesthesia 2020; 75: 1596–1604.
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Content ArticlePatient safety has been considered the heart of healthcare quality. This study from Najjar et al. in Safety in Health aimed to explore relationships between patient safety culture and adverse event rates at unit levels in Palestinian hospitals, and provide insight on initiatives to improve patient safety. The study confirms the idea that a more positive patient safety culture is associated with lower adverse events in hospitals at the departmental levels in Palestine. Further analysis should include a more representative sample to examine the causal relationship between patient safety culture and adverse events incidents.
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Content ArticleThe aim of this study from Choi et al. was to investigate the scope and severity of the second victim problem among nurses in South Korea by examining the experiences and effects of patient safety incidents (PSIs) on them. The study found a considerable number of nurses experienced psychological difficulties due to PSIs at levels that could interfere with their work. The effect of PSIs on nurses with direct experience of PSIs was greater compared with those with indirect experience. There need to be psychological support programmes for nurses to alleviate the negative effects of PSIs.
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Content ArticleAccessing social care and social support services is key to support the well-being of people living with dementia (PLWD) and unpaid carers. COVID-19 has caused sudden closures or radical modifications of these services, and is resulting in prolonged self-isolation. The aim of this study from Giebel et al., published in Aging and Mental Health, was to explore the effects of COVID-19 related social care and support service changes and closures on the lives of PLWD and unpaid carers. Fifty semi-structured interviews were conducted with unpaid carers. The study found that PLWD and carers need to receive specific practical and psychological support during the pandemic to support their well-being, which is severely affected by public health restrictions.
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Content ArticleThe objective of this review from Alani et al. is to draw attention to the risk factors, causes and prevention of surgical fires in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery performed under local anaesthesia and sedation using a review of the literature.
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Content ArticleDr John Campbell, a retired A&E nurse, discusses the research and evidence on the long-term health consequences of COVID-19 in this video.
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Content ArticleImplementation science has a core aim – to get evidence into practice. Early in the evidence-based medicine movement, this task was construed in linear terms, wherein the knowledge pipeline moved from evidence created in the laboratory through to clinical trials and, finally, via new tests, drugs, equipment, or procedures, into clinical practice. We now know that this straight-line thinking was naïve at best, and little more than an idealisation, with multiple fractures appearing in the pipeline.
