Opioid prescribing among new users for non-cancer pain in the USA, Canada, UK, and Taiwan: A population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The opioid epidemic in North America has been driven by an increase in the use and potency of prescription opioids, with ensuing excessive opioid-related deaths. Internationally, there are lower rates of opioid-related mortality, possibly because of differences in prescribing and health system policies. Our aim was to compare opioid prescribing rates in patients without cancer, across 5 centers in 4 countries. In addition, we evaluated differences in the type, strength, and starting dose of medication and whether these characteristics changed over time. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort study of adults who are new users of opioids without prior cancer. Electronic health records and administrative health records from Boston (United States), Quebec and Alberta (Canada), United Kingdom, and Taiwan were used to identify patients between 2006 and 2015. Standard dosages in morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) were calculated according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Age- and sex-standardized opioid prescribing rates were calculated for each jurisdiction. Of the 2,542,890 patients included, 44,690 were from Boston (US), 1,420,136 Alberta, 26,871 Quebec (Canada), 1,012,939 UK, and 38,254 Taiwan. The highest standardized opioid prescribing rates in 2014 were observed in Alberta at 66/1,000 persons compared to 52, 51, and 18/1,000 in the UK, US, and Quebec, respectively. The median MME/day (IQR) at initiation was highest in Boston at 38 (20 to 45); followed by Quebec, 27 (18 to 43); Alberta, 23 (9 to 38); UK, 12 (7 to 20); and Taiwan, 8 (4 to 11). Oxycodone was the first prescribed opioid in 65% of patients in the US cohort compared to 14% in Quebec, 4% in Alberta, 0.1% in the UK, and none in Taiwan. One of the limitations was that data were not available from all centers for the entirety of the 10-year period. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we observed substantial differences in opioid prescribing practices for non-cancer pain between jurisdictions. The preference to start patients on higher MME/day and more potent opioids in North America may be a contributing cause to the opioid epidemic.

Risk of cancer in long-term levothyroxine users: Retrospective population-based study.

Levothyroxine is a widely prescribed medication for the treatment of an underactive thyroid. The relationship between levothyroxine use and cancer risk is largely underdetermined. To investigate the magnitude of the possible association between levothyroxine use and cancer risk, this retrospective case-control study was conducted using Taiwan's Health and Welfare Data Science Center database. Cases were defined as all patients who were aged ≥20 years and had a first-time diagnosis for cancer at any site for the period between 2001 and 2011. Multivariable conditional logistic regression models were used to calculate an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) to reduce potential confounding factors. A total of 601 733 cases and 2 406 932 controls were included in the current study. Levothyroxine users showed a 50% higher risk of cancer at any site (AOR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.46-1.54; P < .0001) compared with non-users. Significant increased risks were also observed for brain cancer (AOR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.48-2.44; P < .0001), skin cancer (AOR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.17-1.72; P < .0001), pancreatic cancer (AOR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.01-1.60; P = .03), and female breast cancer (AOR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.15-1.33; P < .0001). Our study results showed that levothyroxine use was significantly associated with an increased risk of cancer, particularly brain, skin, pancreatic, and female breast cancers. Levothyroxine remains a highly effective therapy for hypothyroidism; therefore, physicians should carefully consider levothyroxine therapy and monitor patients' condition to avoid negative outcomes. Additional studies are needed to confirm these findings and to evaluate the potential biological mechanisms.

Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards Zika virus among healthcare workers in St. Kitts.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers are usually the first responders during outbreaks and are instrumental in educating the populace about the prevention of different diseases and illnesses. The aim of this study was to assess the association between healthcare workers' characteristics and knowledge, attitudes and practices toward Zika virus. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study that collected data from healthcare workers at 3 medical facilities using a validated self-administered questionnaire between July 2017 - September 2017. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association between sociodemographic and knowledge, attitudes, and practices. RESULTS: A total of 190 healthcare workers were analyzed. Of these, 60, 72.6 and 64.7% had good knowledge, positive attitudes, and good practices toward Zika virus, respectively. Healthcare workers without a formal degree were less likely to have good knowledge of Zika virus (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0:49; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.24-0.99) compared to those with a formal degree. Reduced odds for positive attitude towards Zika virus were observed in healthcare workers with low income as compared to those with high income (AOR = 0.31; 95% CI =0.13-0.75). Being younger than 40 years old was associated with poor Zika virus practices (AOR = 0:34; 95% CI = 0.15-0.79). CONCLUSIONS: Significant association between healthcare workers' sociodemographic characteristics and Zika virus knowledge, attitudes and practices were observed. Public health interventions that seek to increase Zika virus awareness should aim to train healthcare workers who are younger, without formal degree and those earning low income.

An appraisal of healthcare accreditation agencies and programs: similarities, differences, challenges and opportunities.

BACKGROUND: The study, following similar reviews in 2000 and 2010, presents an update of knowledge about external evaluation agencies and accreditation programs. OBJECTIVE: The study aim was to investigate the current profile of external evaluation agencies identifying their program features, and significant changes and challenges.

Meta-analysis of proton pump inhibitors induced risk of community-acquired pneumonia.

PURPOSE: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), one of the most widely used medications, are commonly used to suppress several acid-related upper gastrointestinal disorders. Acid-suppressing medication use could be associated with increased risk of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), although the results of clinical studies have been conflicting. DATA SOURCES: A comprehensive search of MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane library and Database of Systematic Reviews from the earliest available online year of indexing up to October 2018. STUDY SELECTION: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies to evaluate the risk of PPI use on CAP outcomes. DATA EXTRACTION: Included study location, design, population, the prevalence of CAP, comparison group and other confounders. We calculated pooled odds ratio (OR) using a random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS OF DATA SYNTHESIS: Of the 2577 studies screening, 11 papers were included in the systematic review and 7 studies with 65 590 CAP cases were included in the random-effects meta-analysis. In current PPI users, pooled OR for CAP was 1.86 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.30-2.66), and in the case of recent users, OR for CAP was 1.66 (95% CI, 1.22-2.25). In the subgroup analysis of CAP, significance association is also observed in both high-dose and low-dose PPI therapy. When stratified by duration of exposure, 3-6 months PPIs users group was associated with increased risk of developing CAP (OR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.22-3.45). There was a statistically significant association between the PPI users and the rate of hospitalization (OR, 2.59; 95% CI, 1.83-3.66). CONCLUSION: We found possible evidence linking PPI use to an increased risk of CAP. More randomized controlled studies are warranted to clarify an understanding of the association between PPI use and risk of CAP because observational studies cannot clarify whether the observed epidemiologic association is a causal effect or a result of unmeasured/residual confounding.

Correction: How Can Artificial Intelligence Make Medicine More Preemptive?

[This corrects the article DOI: .].

How Can Artificial Intelligence Make Medicine More Preemptive?

In this paper we propose the idea that Artificial intelligence (AI) is ushering in a new era of "Earlier Medicine," which is a predictive approach for disease prevention based on AI modeling and big data. The flourishing health care technological landscape is showing great potential-from diagnosis and prescription automation to the early detection of disease through efficient and cost-effective patient data screening tools that benefit from the predictive capabilities of AI. Monitoring the trajectories of both in- and outpatients has proven to be a task AI can perform to a reliable degree. Predictions can be a significant advantage to health care if they are accurate, prompt, and can be personalized and acted upon efficiently. This is where AI plays a crucial role in "Earlier Medicine" implementation.

Dimensions of service quality in healthcare: a systematic review of literature.

PURPOSE: Various dimensions of healthcare service quality were used and discussed in literature across the globe. This study presents an updated meaningful review of the extensive research that has been conducted on measuring dimensions of healthcare service quality. DATA SOURCES: Systematic review method in current study is based on PRISMA guidelines. We searched for literature using databases such as Google, Google Scholar, PubMed and Social Science, Citation Index. STUDY SELECTION: In this study, we screened 1921 identified papers using search terms/phrases. Snowball strategies were adopted to extract published articles from January 1997 till December 2016. DATA EXTRACTION: Two-hundred and fourteen papers were identified as relevant for data extraction; completed by two researchers, double checked by the other two to develop agreement in discrepancies. In total, 74 studies fulfilled our pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria for data analysis. DATA SYNTHESIS: Service quality is mainly measured as technical and functional, incorporating many sub-dimensions. We synthesized the information about dimensions of healthcare service quality with reference to developed and developing countries. 'Tangibility' is found to be the most common contributing factor whereas 'SERVQUAL' as the most commonly used model to measure healthcare service quality. CONCLUSION: There are core dimensions of healthcare service quality that are commonly found in all models used in current reviewed studies. We found a little difference in these core dimensions while focusing dimensions in both developed and developing countries, as mostly SERVQUAL is being used as the basic model to either generate a new one or to add further contextual dimensions. The current study ranked the contributing factors based on their frequency in literature. Based on these priorities, if factors are addressed irrespective of any context, may lead to contribute to improve healthcare quality and may provide an important information for evidence-informed decision-making.

A positive legacy of trauma? A study on the impact of natural disasters on medical utilization.

OBJECTIVE: The impact of natural disasters on medical utilization is largely unknown and often overlooked how it affects bereaving and non-bereaving survivors. The aim of this study is to determine the medical utilization between both survivor groups and long-term effects. STUDY DESIGN: A 10-year 1999-2009 population-based retrospective study by using the National Health Insurance claim database and the Household Registration database from the Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan. SETTINGS: Taiwan 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake-affected areas. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 49 834 individuals which included 1183 bereaving survivors and 48 651 non-bereaving earthquake survivors. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Medical utilization of bereaving and non-bereaving survivors. RESULTS: The results showed that bereaving survivors had significantly more outpatient visits before the earthquake, within 3-month period and 1 year after earthquake (odds ratio (OR) = 1.11, 1.16 and 1.08). However, after 1 year after earthquake their outpatient visits were not significantly different from non-bereaving, and even significantly less in some years. Inpatient visits of bereaving survivors had similar trend to outpatient visits, i.e. visits were more both before earthquake and within 3-month period after earthquake (OR = 1.59 and 1.89), however, they were not significantly higher than non-bereaving survivors for the following years of the study. CONCLUSION: Our study reveals that compared to non-bereaving survivors, bereaving survivors slightly had higher medical utilization in the beginning stage of earthquake, i.e. for the first 3-month period or 1 year after earthquake. However, there were no differences between these two groups in medical utilization including outpatient and inpatient visits in long run.

Quality improvement and emerging global health priorities.

Quality improvement approaches can strengthen action on a range of global health priorities. Quality improvement efforts are uniquely placed to reorient care delivery systems towards integrated people-centred health services and strengthen health systems to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This article makes the case for addressing shortfalls of previous agendas by articulating the critical role of quality improvement in the Sustainable Development Goal era. Quality improvement can stimulate convergence between health security and health systems; address global health security priorities through participatory quality improvement approaches; and improve health outcomes at all levels of the health system. Entry points for action include the linkage with antimicrobial resistance and the contentious issue of the health of migrants. The work required includes focussed attention on the continuum of national quality policy formulation, implementation and learning; alongside strengthening the measurement-improvement linkage. Quality improvement plays a key role in strengthening health systems to achieve UHC.

Levothyroxine use and the risk of breast cancer: a nation-wide population-based case-control study.

PURPOSE: To investigate whether the use of levothyroxine was associated with breast cancer risk. METHODS: We conducted a population-based case-control study in Taiwan. Cases consisted of all patients who were aged 20 years and older, and had a first-time diagnosis of breast cancer for the period between 2001 and 2011. The controls were matched to the cases by age, sex, year, and month of diagnosis. Adjusted odd ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated by a conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: We examined 65,491 breast cancer cases and 261,964 controls. We found that use of levothyroxine was associated with a significant increase in breast cancer risk (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.15-1.33; P < 0.001). Compared with no use levothyroxine, the adjusted odd ratio was 1.22 (95% CI 1.11-1.35; P = 0.01) for the group having been prescribed levothyroxine 2 months to 1 year, and 1.26 (95% CI 1.12-1.41; P < 0.01) for the group with more than 1 year. When stratified by age, the adjusted odd ratio was 1.45 (95% CI 1.23-1.71; P < 0.01) for the patients aged 65 years or more and 1.19 (95% CI 1.09-1.29, P < 0.01) for the patients aged less than 65 years. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study are the first to suggest that levothyroxine use increased the risk of breast cancer. However, a larger long-term prospective randomized-controlled trial specifically designed to assess the effect of levothyroxine use on the risk of developing breast cancer is needed.

Benzodiazepines use and breast cancer risk: A population-based study and gene expression profiling evidence.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether long-term use of Benzodiazepines (BZDs) is associated with breast cancer risk through the combination of population-based observational and gene expression profiling evidence. We conducted a population-based case-control study by using 1998 to 2009year Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database and investigated the association between BZDs use and breast cancer risk. We selected subjects age of >20years old and six eligible controls matched for age, sex and the index date (i.e., free of any cancer at the case diagnosis date) by using propensity scores. A bioinformatics analysis approach was also performed for the identification of oncogenesis effects of BZDs on breast cancer. We used breast cancer gene expression data from the Cancer Genome Atlas and perturbagen signatures of BZDs from the Library of Integrated Cellular Signatures database in order to identify the oncogenesis effects of BZDs on breast cancer. We found evidence of increased breast cancer risk for diazepam (OR, 1.16; 95%CI, 0.95-1.42; connectivity score [CS], 0.3016), zolpidem (OR, 1.11; 95%CI, 0.95-1.30; CS, 0.2738), but not for lorazepam (OR, 1.04; 95%CI, 0.89-1.23; CS, -0.2952) consistently in both methods. The finding for alparazolam was contradictory from the two methods. Diazepam and zolpidem trends showed association, although not statistically significant, with breast cancer risk in both epidemiological and bioinformatics analyses outcomes. The methodological value of our study is in introducing the way of combining epidemiological and bioinformatics approaches in order to answer a common scientific question. Combining the two approaches would be a substantial step towards uncovering, validation and further application of previously unknown scientific knowledge to the emerging field of precision medicine informatics.

Sharing sensitive health information through social media in the Arab world.

BACKGROUND: Sharing daily activities on social media has become a part of our lifestyle, but little is known about sharing sensitive health information in the Arab world. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to explore how social media users in the Arab world share sensitive health information through Facebook. DESIGN: A retrospective qualitative analysis was used in the study. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 110 Facebook groups, related to HIV, sickle cell and depression were screened between 5 June and 1 December 2014. RESULTS: Forty four Facebook groups met the inclusion criteria. 28 471 posts were extracted, of which 649 met inclusion criteria. Forty two percent of health information exchanged were related to HIV, 34% to depression and 24% to sickle cell diseases. The majority of postings were from Egypt 21.1%, Saudi Arabia 20%, Algeria 10% and Libya 9.2%. Male posts were 54.2% while 45.8% were posted by females. Individuals utilized Facebook groups to share personal experiences of their disease 31%, in addition to being used for seeking queries 13.6%, offering explicit advice 8.3%, reporting signs and symptoms of the disease 7.3% and posting their communication with the health-care provider 6.6%. CONCLUSIONS: Users in the Arab world use social media to exchange sensitive health information, which could have serious implications regarding the privacy of the information shared with other members of the group. On the other hand, sharing health information could have positive effects for patients, such as sharing disease experiences and peer support. However, more work is needed to ensure that Facebook users in the Arab world are aware of the potential consequences of sharing sensitive health information through social media.

Physical activity: A primary health quality determinant among community-dwelling geriatric women in Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the associations between frailty, physical activity and depression in community-dwelling geriatric women. DESIGN: A cross-sectional research design. SETTING: Community geriatric women in Illan County, Taiwan. STUDY PARTICIPANTS: Of note 216 participants, 65 years and older with full mobility, independent and able to communicate in Mandarin or Taiwanese Hokkien. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: An average weekly physical activity score International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) and Taiwan Geriatric Depression Scale. Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was used to perform decision analysis. RESULTS: The average IPAQ-SF score for the 216 participants was 9109.52. When an IPAQ-SF score of 4452 or below was obtained by participants, 38% of them encountered depression-like syndromes, regardless of their frailty status. Diabetes, high risk of metabolic syndrome and lower education were the risk factors found to cause depression among participants with low physical activity levels. CONCLUSIONS: As women have a longer life expectancy and experience twice the rates of depression of men particularly after menopause, healthcare providers should emphasize exercise and lifestyle changes in order to improve the quality of health in geriatric women.

Gender-based personalized pharmacotherapy: a systematic review.

PURPOSE: In general, male and female are prescribed the same amount of dosage even if most of the cases female required less dosage than male. Physicians are often facing problem on appropriate drug dosing, efficient treatment, and drug safety for a female in general. To identify and synthesize evidence about the effectiveness of gender-based therapy; provide the information to patients, providers, and health system intervention to ensure safety treatment; and minimize adverse effects. METHODS: We performed a systematic review to evaluate the effect of gender difference on pharmacotherapy. Published articles from January 1990 to December 2015 were identified using specific term in MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and the Cochrane library according to search strategies that strengthen the reporting of observational and clinical studies. RESULTS: Twenty-six studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria for this systematic review, yielding a total of 6309 subjects. We observed that female generally has a lower the gastric emptying time, gastric PH, lean body mass, and higher plasma volume, BMI, body fat, as well as reduce hepatic clearance, difference in activity of Cytochrome P450 enzyme, and metabolize drugs at different rate compared with male. Other significant factors such as conjugation, protein binding, absorption, and the renal elimination could not be ignored. However, these differences can lead to adverse effects in female especially for the pregnant, post-menopausal, and elderly women. CONCLUSION: This systematic review provides an evidence for the effectiveness of dosage difference to ensure safety and efficient treatment. Future studies on the current topic are, therefore, recommended to reduce the adverse effect of therapy.

Benzodiazepine Use and Risk of Dementia in the Elderly Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Benzodiazepines are a widely used medication in developed countries, particularly among elderly patients. However, benzodiazepines are known to affect memory and cognition and might thus enhance the risk of dementia. The objective of this review is to synthesize evidence from observational studies that evaluated the association between benzodiazepines use and dementia risk. SUMMARY: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled observational studies to evaluate the risk of benzodiazepines use on dementia outcome. All control observational studies that compared dementia outcome in patients with benzodiazepine use with a control group were included. We calculated pooled ORs using a random-effects model. Ten studies (of 3,696 studies identified) were included in the systematic review, of which 8 studies were included in random-effects meta-analysis and sensitivity analyses. Odds of dementia were 78% higher in those who used benzodiazepines compared with those who did not use benzodiazepines (OR 1.78; 95% CI 1.33-2.38). In subgroup analysis, the higher association was still found in the studies from Asia (OR 2.40; 95% CI 1.66-3.47) whereas a moderate association was observed in the studies from North America and Europe (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.34-1.65 and OR 1.43; 95% CI 1.16-1.75). Also, diabetics, hypertension, cardiac disease, and statin drugs were associated with increased risk of dementia but negative association was observed in the case of body mass index. There was significant statistical and clinical heterogeneity among studies for the main analysis and most of the sensitivity analyses. There was significant statistical and clinical heterogeneity among the studies for the main analysis and most of the sensitivity analyses. Key Messages: Our results suggest that benzodiazepine use is significantly associated with dementia risk. However, observational studies cannot clarify whether the observed epidemiologic association is a causal effect or the result of some unmeasured confounding variable. Therefore, more research is needed.

An automated technique to identify potential inappropriate traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescriptions.

PURPOSE: Medication errors such as potential inappropriate prescriptions would induce serious adverse drug events to patients. Information technology has the ability to prevent medication errors; however, the pharmacology of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is not as clear as in western medicine. The aim of this study was to apply the appropriateness of prescription (AOP) model to identify potential inappropriate TCM prescriptions. METHODS: We used the association rule of mining techniques to analyze 14.5 million prescriptions from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The disease and TCM (DTCM) and traditional Chinese medicine-traditional Chinese medicine (TCMM) associations are computed by their co-occurrence, and the associations' strength was measured as Q-values, which often referred to as interestingness or life values. By considering the number of Q-values, the AOP model was applied to identify the inappropriate prescriptions. Afterwards, three traditional Chinese physicians evaluated 1920 prescriptions and validated the detected outcomes from the AOP model. RESULT: Out of 1920 prescriptions, 97.1% of positive predictive value and 19.5% of negative predictive value were shown by the system as compared with those by experts. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the negative predictive value could improve up to 27.5% when the model's threshold changed to 0.4. CONCLUSION: We successfully applied the AOP model to automatically identify potential inappropriate TCM prescriptions. This model could be a potential TCM clinical decision support system in order to improve drug safety and quality of care.

Observations on quality senior health business: success patterns and policy implications.

OBJECTIVE: Population ageing is a global issue that affects almost every country. Most ageing researches focused on demand side and studies related to supply side were relatively scarce. This study selected quality enterprises focus on ageing health and analysed their patterns on providing quality services successfully. DESIGN: Our study selected quality senior health enterprises and explored their success patterns through face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviews with CEO of each enterprise in 2013. SETTING: Thirty-three quality senior health enterprises in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-three CEO's of enterprises were interviewed individually. INTERVENTION: None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Core values and vision, historical development, organization structure, services/products provided, delivering channels, customer relationships and further development strategies. RESULTS: Our results indicated success patterns for senior enterprises that there were meeting diversified lifestyles and substitutive needs for the elderly and their caregivers, providing a total solution for actual/virtual integration and flexible one-stop shopping services. We classified these enterprises by used degree of clicks-and-mortar of services and residing situation of the elderly. Industry characteristics and policy implications were summarized. CONCLUSIONS: Our observations will serve as a primary evidenced base for enterprises developing their senior market, and also for opening dialogue between customers and enterprises to facilitate valuable opportunities for co-creation between the supply and demand sides.