O processo de monitoramento, controle e avaliação do Programa Mais Médicos no estado da Bahia / The monitoring, control and evaluation process of the Mais Médicos Program in Bahia / El proceso de seguimiento, control y evaluación del Programa Más Médicos EN EL ESTADO DE Bahía

Este artigo tem o objetivo de avaliar o processo de aprimoramento e acompanhamento das variáveis envolvidas na consolidação do Progama Mais Médicos para o Brasil (PMMB) na Bahia, bem como a gestão da informação associada aos avanços tecnológicos. A pesquisa é de natureza qualitativa e do tipo estudo de caso. Os dados pertinentes ao monitoramento e planejamento estratégico do PMMB, no estado da Bahia, foram coletados mensalmente, a partir das bases de dados do Ministério da Saúde, Ministério da Educação e municípios, para serem agrupados em uma planilha eletrônica do Microsoft Excel, por meio do recurso Power Business Intelligence (Power BI), programa que está em constante modificação, permitindo visualizar a qualquer momento as variáveis desejadas. Assim, a distribuição de médicos atuantes no PMMB, no território baiano, corrobora os estudos que apontam o crescimento do provimento de médicos, sobretudo nas regiões mais isoladas, pobres e vulneráveis. A construção dos painéis, realizada pela captação e sistematização de diferentes fontes de dados relativos à gestão do PMMB na Bahia, permitiu avaliar: a distribuição dos médicos atuantes no PMMB na Bahia, as regiões de maior concentração de médicos, a porcentagem dos municípios contemplados pelo programa, a distribuição da rede de apoio no estado da Bahia, a distribuição dos cursos de medicina no estado e as regiões que realizam teleconsultorias. Por meio desta pesquisa, foi possível concluir que o número de médicos destinados à atenção de saúde nas populações mais carentes e isoladas vem aumentando gradativamente, embora ainda seja insufuciente. Além disso, pode-se concluir que a gestão da informação associada aos avanços tecnológicos podem servir como instrumento de monitoramento e avaliação na área da saúde.

Este estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar el proceso de mejora y seguimiento de las variables involucradas en la consolidación del Programa Más Médicos (PMM) en Bahía (Brasil), así como la gestión de la información asociada a los avances tecnológicos. La investigación es de carácter cualitativo, de tipo estudio de caso. Los datos relevantes para el seguimiento y la planificación estratégica del PMM en el estado de Bahía fueron recopilados mensualmente de las bases de datos del Ministerio de Salud, del Ministerio de Educación y municipios, para ser agrupados en una hoja de cálculo de Microsoft Excel, a través del recurso Power BI que se modifica constantemente, lo que permite ver las variables en cualquier momento. Así, la distribución de los médicos que actúan en el PMM en el amplio territorio de Bahía corrobora estudios que apuntan al crecimiento de la oferta de médicos, especialmente en las regiones más aisladas, pobres y vulnerables. La construcción de los paneles, realizada a partir de la captura y sistematización de diferentes fuentes de datos, relacionados con la gestión del PMM de Bahía, permitió evaluar: la distribución de los médicos que actúan en el PMM de Bahía, las regiones con mayor concentración de médicos, el porcentaje de municipios cubiertos por el programa, la distribución de la red de apoyo en el estado de Bahía, la distribución de los cursos de medicina en el estado, y las regiones que realizan teleconsultas. Esta investigación permite concluir que el número de médicos dedicados a la atención de la salud en las poblaciones más necesitadas y aisladas ha ido aumentando paulatinamente, aunque aún es insuficiente. Además, se concluye que el manejo de la información asociada a los avances tecnológicos puede servir como una herramienta de seguimiento y evaluación en salud.

This qualitative case study evaluates the improvement and monitoring processes concerning the variables involved in the consolidation of the More Doctors Program (PMM) in Bahia, Brazil, as well as the management of information associated with technological advances. Data relevant for monitoring and strategic planning the PMM in the state were collected monthly from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and municipalities databases, and then grouped in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet using power BI, an everchanging software that allow us to view the desired variables at any time. The results on the distribution of PMM doctors in the broad territory of Bahia corroborate studies that point to an increased supply of physicians, especially in more isolated, poorer and vulnerable regions. The panels developed by capturing and systematizing different data sources regarding PMM management in Bahia allowed to evaluate: the distribution of PMM doctors in the state, the regions with the highest concentration, the percentage of municipalities covered by the program, the distribution of the support network within the state, the distribution of medical undergraduate programs in the state; the regions that offer teleconsultations. In conclusion, the number of physicians offering health care to the poorest and most isolated populations has been increasing gradually, but remains insufficient. Moreover, the management of information associated with technological advances can serve as a monitoring and evaluation instrument in health care.

Usage of Mobile Applications or Mobile Health Technology to Improve Diet Quality in Adults.

The use of mobile applications for dietary purposes has dramatically increased along with the consistent development of mobile technology. Assessing diet quality as a dietary pattern or an indicator across key food groups in comparison to those recommended by dietary guidelines is useful for identifying optimal nutrient intake. This systematic review aims to explore mobile applications and their impact on the diet quality of the user. The electronic databases of The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (Cinahl), The American Psychological Association's (APA Psycinfo), and PubMed were systematically searched for randomised and non-randomised controlled trials to retrieve papers from inception to November 2021. Ten studies with 1638 participants were included. A total of 5342 studies were retrieved from the database searches, with 10 articles eligible for final inclusion in the review. The sample sizes ranged from 27 to 732 participants across the included studies, with 1638 total participants. The ratio of female to male participants in the studies was 4:1. The majority of the mobile applications or M-health interventions were used to highlight dietary health changes (six studies), with the remainder used to reduce weight or blood sugar levels (four studies). Each study used a different measure to quantify diet quality. Studies were either assessed by diet quality scoring or individual dietary assessment, of the ten studies, six studies reported an improvement in diet quality following diet-related mobile application use. Mobile applications may be an effective way to improve diet quality in adults; however, there is a need for more targeted and longer-term studies that are expressly designed to investigate the impact using mobile applications has on diet quality.

Associations Between Smartphone Use for Physical Activity by South Korean College Students and Behavioral Change Constructs of the Transtheoretical Model.

We examined associations between smartphone uses to assist physical activity (PA) and change constructs of the transtheoretical model (TTM) among Korean college students. Our participants were 242 college students who completed a cross-sectional survey of their smartphone use, PA, and TTM constructs. We applied Poisson regression models to test the associations between stages of change and smartphone PA use frequencies in four categories over the previous week: 1= watching PA instruction videos; 2 = tracking PA; 3 = searching and booking sites for PA; and 4 = finding and making appointments with PA partners. The associations between these smartphone uses and participants' self-efficacy, decisional balance, processes of change, and PA were tested via ordinary least squares regression models. Results were that participants in the precontemplation and maintenance stages were the least and most frequent users of the smartphones in all four categories, respectively. Category one usage was positively associated with participants' scores on pros (ß = .22, p = .004), cognitive processes of change (ß = .30, p < .001), and behavioral processes of change (ß = .28, p < .001). Category two usage was positively associated with PA (ß = .06, p = .048). While category three usage was not significantly associated with any TTM constructs except for stages of change, category four usage was positively associated with self-efficacy (ß = .28, p < .001), pros (ß = .30, p < .001), cognitive processes of change (ß = .31, p < .001), behavioral processes of change (ß = .06, p <. 001), and PA (ß = .45, p < .001). These findings suggest that (a) active college students are likely to take advantage of smartphone to assist their PA, and (b) smartphones can help motivate college students toward regular PA.

Pre-emption strategies to block taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages: A framing analysis of Facebook advertising in support of Washington state initiative-1634.

ABSTRACTIn 2018, the sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) industry introduced a ballot measure (I-1634) in Washington State of the United States to prevent further local taxes on groceries. The measure, which passed, is emblematic of new pre-emptive legislative strategies by the SSB industry to block soda taxes and conceal those strategies under the guise of preventing burdensome 'grocery taxes'. This paper uses qualitative framing analysis to examine a public archive of 1218 Facebook advertisements to understand how I-1634 proponents shaped public discourse and engaged in misinformation efforts online during the lead up to the passage of I-1634. Coding strategies identified 7 compelling and inter-related framing strategies used by the campaign. These included strategies that misinformed the public about the threat of grocery taxation and the economic impacts it would have on the region. Strategies to conceal the true intent of the ballot measure and the sponsors of the campaign were aided by Facebook's advertising platform, which does not moderate misinformation in advertising and allows advertisers to conceal their sponsors. We urge public health researchers and advocates to pay more attention to how Facebook and other social media platforms can be used by industries to target voters, misinform publics, and misconstrue industry support.

Structured Reporting in Multiple Sclerosis Reduces Interpretation Time.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have reported mixed results regarding whether the use of structured reporting (SR) leads to a change in interpretation times. The objective of this study was to quantify any change in interpretation times after the implementation of SR for multiple sclerosis (MS) follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Interpretation times before and after the transition to MS MRI SR were compared over a 5-year period. To control for changing practice patterns, a control group of non-MS (intracranial masses) reports not using SR was also assessed. In a secondary analysis, interpretation times for 2D and 3D MRI MS protocols after the initiation of SR were compared to determine whether increased image number with the 3D protocol affected interpretation times. RESULTS: Mean and median interpretation times before the initiation of SR for MS MRI were 11.0 and 8.0 minutes versus 8.5 and 6.0 minutes after the implementation of SR (p < 0.001). Although non-MS MRI interpretation times also decreased, an interaction analysis demonstrated that the decrease in MS interpretation times was significantly higher (p < 0.001). Mean and median interpretation times using 3D protocols were slighter increased compared to interpretation times with 2D protocols (p = 0.036). CONCLUSION: After the implementation of SR for MS follow-up MRI at our institution, interpretation times significantly decreased despite the increased number of images with some of the examinations due to the adoption of 3D protocols. The adoption of SR for MS MRI follow-up scans may improve radiologist efficiency.

Health Technology Assessment: informed by science or in the service of politics? / Avaliação de Tecnologias em Saúde: informada pela ciência ou a serviço da política?

ABSTRACT The youth of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), as an institutional policy at the national level, signals the need to reflect on how its implementation took place under the perspective of its insertion in health policy and the scientific field. At the end of its first decade, these questions arise: has HTA translated into a health policy informed by science? Has its scientific foundation been used in the service of politics? To understand this political process, we apply the multiple-streams framework formulated by John Kingdon. The use of science to inform policy and the political use of science present themselves in an unstable balance. The survival of this policy will depend not only on science but on the art of orchestrating the interests of various agents so that HTA becomes a health policy for strengthening and sustainability of SUS.

RESUMO A juventude da Avaliação de Tecnologias em Saúde (ATS), enquanto política institucional no âmbito nacional, sinaliza a necessidade de uma reflexão sobre como se deu sua implementação, sob as perspectivas de sua inserção na política de saúde e do campo científico. Ao final de sua primeira década, levantam-se as perguntas: a ATS se traduziu em uma política de saúde (policy) informada pela ciência? Sua fundamentação científica foi usada a serviço da política (politics)? Para compreender esse processo político, aplicamos a teoria de múltiplos fluxos formulada por John Kingdon. Estabeleceu-se um equilíbrio instável entre o uso da ciência para informar a política e o uso político da ciência. A sobrevivência dessa política dependerá não só da ciência, mas da arte de orquestrar os interesses dos vários agentes, de forma que a ATS se torne uma política de saúde de fortalecimento e sustentabilidade do SUS.

Leveraging Interdisciplinary Education Toward Securing the Future of Connected Health Research in Europe: Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Connected health (CH) technologies have resulted in a paradigm shift, moving health care steadily toward a more patient-centered delivery approach. CH requires a broad range of disciplinary expertise from across the spectrum to work in a cohesive and productive way. Building this interdisciplinary relationship at an earlier stage of career development may nurture and accelerate the CH developments and innovations required for future health care. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the perceptions of interdisciplinary CH researchers regarding the design and delivery of an interdisciplinary education (IDE) module for disciplines currently engaged in CH research (engineers, computer scientists, health care practitioners, and policy makers). This study also investigated whether this module should be delivered as a taught component of an undergraduate, master's, or doctoral program to facilitate the development of interdisciplinary learning. METHODS: A qualitative, cross-institutional, multistage research approach was adopted, which involved a background study of fundamental concepts, individual interviews with CH researchers in Greece (n=9), and two structured group feedback sessions with CH researchers in Ireland (n=10/16). Thematic analysis was used to identify the themes emerging from the interviews and structured group feedback sessions. RESULTS: A total of two sets of findings emerged from the data. In the first instance, challenges to interdisciplinary work were identified, including communication challenges, divergent awareness of state-of-the-art CH technologies across disciplines, and cultural resistance to interdisciplinarity. The second set of findings were related to the design for interdisciplinarity. In this regard, the need to link research and education with real-world practice emerged as a key design concern. Positioning within the program context was also considered to be important with a need to balance early intervention to embed integration with later repeat interventions that maximize opportunities to share skills and experiences. CONCLUSIONS: The authors raise and address challenges to interdisciplinary program design for CH based on an abductive approach combining interdisciplinary and interprofessional education literature and the collection of qualitative data. This recipe approach for interdisciplinary design offers guidelines for policy makers, educators, and innovators in the CH space. Gaining insight from CH researchers regarding the development of an IDE module has offered the designers a novel insight regarding the curriculum, timing, delivery, and potential challenges that may be encountered.

Crowdfunding and global health disparities: an exploratory conceptual and empirical analysis.

BACKGROUND: The use of crowdfunding platforms to cover the costs of healthcare is growing rapidly within low-, middle-, and high-income countries as a new funding modality in global health. The popularity of such "medical crowdfunding" is fueled by health disparities and gaps in health coverage and social safety-net systems. Crowdfunding in its current manifestations can be seen as an antithesis to universal health coverage. But research on medical crowdfunding, particularly in global health contexts, has been sparse, and accessing robust data is difficult. To map and document how medical crowdfunding is shaped by, and shapes, health disparities, this article offers an exploratory conceptual and empirical analysis of medical crowdfunding platforms and practices around the world. Data are drawn from a mixed-methods analysis of medical crowdfunding campaigns, as well as an ongoing ethnographic study of crowdfunding platforms and the people who use them. RESULTS: Drawing on empirical data and case examples, this article describes three main ways that crowdfunding is impacting health equity and health politics around the world: 1) as a technological determinant of health, wherein data ownership, algorithms and platform politics influence health inequities; 2) as a commercial determinant of health, wherein corporate influence reshapes healthcare markets and health data; 3) and as a determinant of health politics, affecting how citizens view health rights and the future of health coverage. CONCLUSIONS: Rather than viewing crowdfunding as a social media fad or a purely beneficial technology, researchers and publics must recognize it as a complex innovation that is reshaping health systems, influencing health disparities, and shifting political norms, even as it introduces new ways of connecting and caring for those in the midst of health crises. More analysis, and better access to data, is needed to inform policy and address crowdfunding as a source of health disparities.

Ways of knowing on the Internet: A qualitative review of cancer websites from a critical nursing perspective.

People diagnosed with cancer typically want information from their doctor or nurse. However, many individuals now turn to the Internet to tackle unmet information needs and to complement healthcare professional information. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore the content of commonly searched cancer websites from a critical nursing perspective, as this information is accessible, and allows patients to address their information needs in ways that healthcare professionals cannot. This qualitative examination of websites is informed by Carper's fundamental patterns of knowing and complemented with the critical view to technology espoused by the philosophy of technology. We conducted a review of 20 websites using a two-step interpretive descriptive approach and thematic analysis. We identified the dominant discourse to be focused on empirical information on treatment, prognosis, and cure, and a paucity of sociopolitical, ethical, personal, and esthetic information. In place of holistic, nuanced, and accurate knowledge nurses may provide, patients find predominantly empirical and biomedical information online. Discussion explores and critiques online cancer content, gaps in information, and the importance of information diversity. Implications focus on needed discourse around pervasive technologies and the nursing role in assessing and directing patients to holistic information.

Ética y calidad en salud: filotecnia versus filantropía / Ética e qualidade em saúde: filotecnia versus filantropia / Ethics and health care quality: philotecnia versus philanthropy

La profesión médica tiene el carácter ético de la práctica de la virtud de la excelencia. Desde Hipócrates hay dos tipos de éticas: la filotecnia y la filantropía. La primera se refiere a la ética de la técnica y la última a la humanista. Hoy, la excelencia resulta del entrenamiento y la formación intelectual realizados en el proceso educativo formal. La excelencia, otro nombre para calidad en salud, tiene la finalidad de atender a una demanda social trayendo satisfacción para quienes se sirven de ella. Las tecnologías modernas sólo se justifican cuando proporcionan una efectiva mejoría de la calidad de vida y salud para el ser humano; de lo contrario, son una forma de dominación y usurpación de la cultura médica por la máquina o, incluso, la sumisión del paciente a la ideología del cientificismo o la lógica de mercado, contribuyendo a la obtención de lucros injustificables por la industria de la salud, al no evaluar la prudente relación entre el coste, los riesgos y los posibles beneficios obtenidos por el paciente.

The medical profession has the ethical practice of the virtue of excellence. There have been since Hippocrates two ethics: the "philotechny" and the philanthropy. The first refers to the ethics of the technique and the latter, to the humanistic ethics. Nowadays, excellence results from training ande intellectual fromation acquired along formal education whose purpose is to assist a social demand, bringin satisfaction to anyone im need of it. Modern technologies are justified only if they are conditioned to an effective improvement of life quality and health of human beings and don’t represent a form of domination and usurpation of medical culture through machines, or even patient’s submission to the ideology of scientic logic of the market, which contributes to the unjustified profits for the health industry and its disregard concerning prudent assessment of the relationship between costs, risks and potential benefits to be received by the patient.

A profissão médica tem como caráter ético a prática da virtude da excelência. Desde Hipócrates existem duas éticas: a filotecnia e a filantropia. A primeira se refere à ética da técnica e a segunda, à ética humanista. Hodiernamente, a excelência resulta do treinamento e da formação intelectual adquiridos durante o processo educacional formal e cuja finalidade é atender a uma demanda social, sendo úteis e trazendo satisfação para quem dela se serve. As tecnologias modernas só se justificam se estiverem condicionadas a uma efetiva melhoria da qualidade de vida e de saúde do ser humano; senão, representam uma forma de dominação e usurpação da cultura médica pela máquina ou, ainda, a submissão do paciente à ideologia do cientificismo ou à lógica de mercado, que contribuem para a obtenção de lucros injustificáveis pela indústria da saúde e negligenciam a avaliação prudente da relação entre o custo, os riscos e os possíveis benefícios a serem auferidos pelo paciente.

Overview of telehealth and its application to cardiopulmonary physical therapy.

Advances in telecommunication technology provide unique opportunities for the provision of medical services to underserved and geographically displaced patients. Health care professionals currently use voice and video systems to communicate with patients and colleagues in a variety of clinical venues. Unfortunately, such systems have limited presence in physical therapy settings. A variety of factors, including lack of familiarity with existing devices and perceived system purchase and operation costs, appear to be limiting its use. Even the terminology is confusing with such terms as telehealth, telemedicine, and telerehabilitation often used interchangeably. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of this technology and to provide a clinical perspective regarding the use of telehealth in cardiopulmonary physical therapy practice.