Implementation of disease-based standard order sets in emergency department of tertiary care hospital, Pakistan - a novel approach for enhancing patient care.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of disease-based standard order sets in reducing time of order entry, order processing and medication dispensation in emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. METHOD: The pilot study was conducted as part of a retrospective clinical audit using pre- and post-intervention design comprising data from July to September 2013 of the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital in Karachi. Data collected related to the reduction in medicine order entry, processing and dispensing time of eight common emergency conditions with standard order set. Subsequently, standard medication orders for the selected medical conditions were developed together with physicians of emergency and other specialties. Post-intervention data was collected and the two data sets were compared using SPSS version 23.0. RESULTS: Mean medication order entry and processing time from the physician end reduced from 67.7±22.7 seconds to 20.5±7.1 seconds. Mean medication order processing and dispensing time at pharmacist end reduced from 70.0±22.4 to 20.6±8.8 seconds. The difference between pre- and post intervention values was significant (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of disease-based standard order set significantly improved efficiency.

Impact of Social Media on Aesthetic Dentistry: General Practitioners' Perspectives.

The objective of this study was to investigate general dentists' observations of various aesthetic dental procedures among social media users. A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Prosthodontics, Altamash Institute of Dental Medicine, over a duration of six months. Data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire comprising 21 predefined responses. The questionnaire was uploaded and disseminated through Google Surveys by forwarding web page links through emails and WhatsApp. The data collected were analysed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-Version 25). The majority (90.7%) of the dental practitioners surveyed believed that there is an increase in the demand for aesthetic dental procedures and social media is a major contributor to it. Moreover, most of the 377 (81.8%) participants agreed that social media is a beneficial platform enabling them to educate, advertise, and communicate with patients. Concerning popular aesthetic procedures, teeth whitening (54.7%), Hollywood smile (17.1%), dental veneers (11.9%), and Invisalign (10.4%) were the most commonly demanded aesthetic procedures. The patients showed desire for these procedures because they were trending on social media platforms. Almost half of the general dental practitioners used social media to post their content related to aesthetic dentistry and to promote their work. They preferred using before and after pictures (48.6%) for advertising their content related to aesthetic dentistry. Within the limitations of the study, it is concluded that the demand for aesthetic dentistry is rapidly growing, and social media is the main driving force behind this revolution as the general population has direct access to the profiles of celebrities and influencers, who all appear to have 'the perfect smile'. This shift in people's self-image has created a surge in patients seeking cosmetic treatments.