Mobile applications to prescribe physical exercise in frail older adults: review of the available tools in app stores.

INTRODUCTION: Different remote interventions, such as applications (apps), have been used to continue promoting healthy ageing and preventing disability during the COVID-19 pandemic. The growing trend of apps in health is exponential and may facilitate scaling up physical activity prescription. Numerous tools are available, but little is known regarding their appropriateness, validation and recommendation, especially for frail older adults. METHODS: In-house, we developed an application that makes both the Apple app Store and the Google Play Store searchable using topic-related keywords and facilitates the extraction of basic app-information of the search results. The study was aimed at apps available to an English-speaking market. The resulting apps were filtered using various inclusion and exclusion criteria. The resultant apps underwent a more in-depth characterisation and searches for scientific publications on each app website and PubMed. RESULTS: From an initial search result of >2,800 apps, 459 met the initial inclusion criteria. After a more in-depth review of their features, 39 apps remained for possible app in older frail patients. After testing them, 22 apps were excluded. Seventeen apps fit the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were deemed appropriate after peer review. Of these, only one app, Vivifrail, had any type of publication/published evidence. CONCLUSION: Apps can be valuable tool in prescribing exercise for frail older adults living in the community. However, few apps seem useful on a large scale, and there is limited evidence to support their effectiveness. It is important to invest in adapting Information and Communication Technologies to this population group.

Cost-Effectiveness of the EdAl (Educació en Alimentació) Program: A Primary School-Based Study to Prevent Childhood Obesity.

BACKGROUND: The cost-effectiveness of childhood obesity prevention interventions is critical for their sustained implementation. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of the Educació en Alimentació (EdAl) program, a school-based intervention for reducing obesity. METHODS: Total EdAl program implementation costs and per-child costs were estimated. Cost-effectiveness, defined using the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER), was estimated as the difference between the intervention and control group costs divided by the obesity-related outcome effects for boys (avoided cases of obesity, obesity prevalence, body mass index [BMI], and BMI z-score units) for each group. As a significant difference (4.39%) in the reduction of obesity prevalence between the intervention and control groups was observed for boys in the EdAl program, the data were calculated only for boys. RESULTS: The intervention cost was 24,246.53 € for 1,550 children (15.64 €/child/3 years) or 5.21 €/child/year. The ICERs/boy were 968.66 € to avoid one case of obesity, 3.6 € to reduce the obesity prevalence by 1%, 44.68 € to decrease BMI by one unit, and 65.16 € to reduce the BMI z-score by one unit. CONCLUSIONS: The cost of reducing the obesity prevalence in boys by 4.39% was 5.21 €/child/year, half the cost proposed by the Spanish Health Ministry, indicating that the EdAl program is cost-effective.

DEFINING INNOVATION WITH RESPECT TO NEW MEDICINES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW FROM A PAYER PERSPECTIVE.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate how innovation is defined with respect to new medicines. METHODS: MEDLINE, Embase, and EconLit databases were searched for articles published between January 1, 2010 and May 25, 2016 that described a relevant definition of innovation. Identified definitions were analyzed by mapping the concepts described onto a set of ten dimensions of innovation. RESULTS: In total, thirty-six articles were included, and described a total of twenty-five different definitions of innovation. The most commonly occurring dimension was therapeutic benefit, with novelty and the availability of existing treatments the second and third most common dimensions. Overall, there was little agreement in the published literature on what characteristics of new medicines constitute rewardable innovation. CONCLUSIONS: Alignment across countries and among regulators, health technology assessment bodies and payers would help manufacturers define research policies that can drive innovation, but may be challenging, as judgements about what aspects of innovation should be rewarded vary among stakeholders, and depend on political and societal factors.

Health technology assessment in Catalonia: an overview of past and future perspectives.

OBJECTIVES: The current and past situation of health technology assessment (HTA) in Catalonia is presented in this study. METHODS: The approach used here is a historical review of facts and landmarks. RESULTS: Spain has undergone radical change in many aspects, but the changes in healthcare provision have been major indeed. Catalonia has had the ability to benefit from these changes and has been able to build upon professionals' experience and expertise to development a consistent HTA network and continuous evaluation paradigm. The early involvement of the Catalan Agency for Health Technology Assessment (CAHTA) in several relevant HTA international initiatives and the relationship of CAHTA and Research with other HTA agencies in Spain is also stressed. CONCLUSIONS: HTA is currently of common use in Catalonia for decision making at different levels. Now emphasis has to be put on the coming challenges that the HTA community will have to face in the coming years: uncontrolled demand, capacity scarcity, a rapidly evolving knowledge frontier, and insufficient input from the economic sphere into evaluations.

[The opinion of practitioners and internists on the impact of health technologies introduced in the last 25 years]. / Las tecnologías médicas más relevantes de los últimos 25 años según la opinión de médicos generalistas.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the most important health technologies (HT) introduced in the last 25 years and their impact on patients' health according to hospital internists and generalist physicians. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional descriptive study. The 30 HT receiving the highest number of bibliometric citations in the previous 25 years (1977-2002) in generalist and primary care journals were selected. To assess the health impact of HT, a postal survey of the medical heads of 46 hospitals with 100-400 beds and an equal random sample of the directors of primary care centers was carried out in Catalonia, Spain. The professionals surveyed were asked to consider how adverse the effect on their patients' health would be if each of the HT on the list were unavailable. The personal and professional characteristics of the participating physicians were also collected. RESULTS: A total of 49 physicians answered the survey (53%). Instrumental and diagnostic technologies were considered to have the greatest impact on health, diagnostic imaging being the most highly scored. The lowest impact would be caused if some drugs were not available, hypoglycemic agents receiving the lowest scores. Although assessments were similar regardless of professional/practice characteristics (r > or = 0.7), some differences in diagnostic HT were observed, as well as variability in the participants' responses. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of the impact of HT from the physicians' point of view varied. However, diagnostic and instrumental-visual technologies seem to be more highly rated than pharmacological innovations. Variability in responses was more closely related to the physicians' personal characteristics than to practice setting.

Determining the value of medical technologies to treat ultra-rare disorders: a consensus statement.

BACKGROUND: In most jurisdictions, policies have been adopted to encourage the development of treatments for rare or orphan diseases. While successful as assessed against their primary objective, these policies have prompted concerns among payers about the economic burden that might be caused by an annual cost per patient in some cases exceeding 100,000 Euro. At the same time, many drugs for rare disorders do not meet conventional standards for cost-effectiveness or 'value for money'. Owing to the fixed (volume-independent) cost of research and development, this issue is becoming increasingly serious with decreasing prevalence of a given disorder. METHODS: In order to critically appraise the problems posed by the systematic valuation of interventions for ultra-rare disorders (URDs), an international group of clinical and health economic experts was convened in conjunction with the Annual European ISPOR Congress in Berlin, Germany, in November 2012. Following this meeting and during subsequent deliberations, the group achieved a consensus on the specific challenges and potential ways forward. RESULTS: The group concluded that the complexities of research and development for new treatments for URDs may require conditional approval and reimbursement policies, such as managed entry schemes and coverage with evidence development agreements, but should not use as justification surrogate end point improvement only. As a prerequisite for value assessment, the demonstration of a minimum significant clinical benefit should be expected within a reasonable time frame. As to the health economic evaluation of interventions for URDs, the currently prevailing logic of cost-effectiveness (using benchmarks for the maximum allowable incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year gained) was considered deficient as it does not capture well-established social preferences regarding health care resource allocation. CONCLUSION: Modified approaches or alternative paradigms to establish the 'value for money' conferred by interventions for URDs should be developed with high priority.

Urea for management of the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of ADH: A systematic review.

Urea has been recently proposed for the management of hyponatremia linked to the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of ADH (SIADH). The objective of the study was to review the levels of evidence for treatment of hyponatremia associated with SIADH with urea. We performed a: systematic review of experimental trials and grading according to SIGN. No clinical trials were found. The 6 studies analysed had methodological limitations and were prone to biases. In conclusion, there is no evidence to support the efficacy of urea for the treatment of hyponatremia following SIADH.

The efficiency of telemedicine to optimize metabolic control in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus: Telemed study.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the impact of an Internet-based telematic system on the economic and clinical management of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This 6-month prospective, randomized, comparative, open, multicenter study included patients with type 1 diabetes >18 years old treated with multiple insulin doses and with a glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level of >8%. We compared an intervention group (IG) (two face-to-face and five telematic appointments) with a control group (CG) (seven face-to-face appointments). The variables studied were (1) patient and healthcare team costs, (2) metabolic control, (3) knowledge of diabetes, (4) quality of life, and (5) self-care treatment adherence. RESULTS: Of the 154 patients included, 118 (76.6%) completed the study (IG, 54; CG, 64). The time used by the CG to follow the program was 823±645 min versus 353±222 min in the IG (P<0.0001). Compared with the CG, the IG required less healthcare time from the professionals (288±105 min vs. 232±89 min; P<0.001). HbA1c improved in both groups (IG, 9.2±1.5% [77.0±17.0 mmol/mol] vs. 8.7±1.5% [71.6±17.0 mmol/mol] [P<0.001]; CG, 9.2±0.9% [77.0±10.0 mmol/mol] vs. 8.6±0.9% [70.5±10.0 mmol/mol] [P<0.001], as did knowledge and self-care treatment adherence. CONCLUSIONS: The use of interactive telematic appointments in subjects with type 1 diabetes and inadequate metabolic control is an efficient strategy, providing results comparable to those of face-to-face appointments in relation to improvement in glycemic control, knowledge acquisition, and self-care treatment adherence, with a significant reduction in the time used, especially by patients.

Incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year gained? The need for alternative methods to evaluate medical interventions for ultra-rare disorders.

Drugs for ultra-rare disorders (URDs) rank prominently among the most expensive medicines on a cost-per-patient basis. Many of them do not meet conventional standards for cost-effectiveness. In light of the high fixed cost of R&D, this challenge is inversely related to the prevalence of URDs. The present paper sets out to explain the rationale underlying a recent expert consensus on these issues, recommending a more rigorous assessment of the clinical effectiveness of URDs, applying established standards of evidence-based medicine. This may include conditional approval and reimbursement policies, which should be combined with a firm expectation of proof of a minimum significant clinical benefit within a reasonable time. In contrast, current health economic evaluation paradigms fail to adequately reflect normative and empirical concerns (i.e., morally defensible 'social preferences') regarding healthcare resource allocation. Hence there is a strong need for alternative economic evaluation models for URDs.

Innovative continuous non-invasive cuffless blood pressure monitoring based on photoplethysmography technology.

PURPOSE: To develop and validate a continuous non-invasive blood pressure (BP) monitoring system using photoplethysmography (PPG) technology through pulse oximetry (PO). METHODS: This prospective study was conducted at a critical care department and post-anesthesia care unit of a university teaching hospital. Inclusion criteria were critically ill adult patients undergoing invasive BP measurement with an arterial catheter and PO monitoring. Exclusion criteria were arrhythmia, imminent death condition, and disturbances in the arterial or the PPG curve morphology. Arterial BP and finger PO waves were recorded simultaneously for 30 min. Systolic arterial pressure (SAP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and diastolic arterial pressure (DAP) were extracted from computer-assisted arterial pulse wave analysis. Inherent traits of both waves were used to construct a regression model with a Deep Belief Network-Restricted Boltzmann Machine (DBN-RBM) from a training cohort of patients and in order to infer BP values from the PO wave. Bland-Altman analysis was performed. RESULTS: A total of 707 patients were enrolled, of whom 135 were excluded. Of the 572 studied, 525 were assigned to the training cohort (TC) and 47 to the validation cohort (VC). After data processing, 53,708 frames were obtained from the TC and 7,715 frames from the VC. The mean prediction biases were -2.98 ± 19.35, -3.38 ± 10.35, and -3.65 ± 8.69 mmHg for SAP, MAP, and DAP respectively. CONCLUSIONS: BP can be inferred from PPG using DBN-RBM modeling techniques. The results obtained with this technology are promising, but its intrinsic variability and its wide limits of agreement do not allow clinical application at this time.

[Health technology assessment in public health interventions: is prevention better than cure?]. / La evaluación de tecnologías sanitarias en intervenciones de salud pública: más vale prevenir que curar?

Medical activities are increasingly performed with preventive purposes, as part of community programs for secondary prevention but also as part of many clinical activities. However, there are few evaluations of preventive and health promotion activities and, in general, these evaluations only assess aspects of efficacy/effectiveness with little consideration of cost and cost-effectiveness and even less of the ethical, legal, social or organizational consequences. Given the growing interest in evaluation of these interventions from different perspectives, health technology assessment (HTA) has emerged as a multidisciplinary analysis strategy with distinct methodological approaches that may be useful to health administrations and policy-makers for decision making at different levels (micro, meso and macro). This manuscript discusses the characteristics and differential aspects related to assessment of preventive and health promotion activities. This type of evaluation poses constraints, limitations and challenges that should be considered during the process of HTA. In the case of public health there are additional challenges, because the evidence must satisfy a diverse audience, including public health professionals, clinicians, politicians, managers, economists and consumers. The challenge is even greater when evaluating complex, integrated community interventions in which local and contextual aspects are of tremendous importance. In addition, assessment of ethical issues is of the utmost importance since these issues comprise the origin of health services and the target populations are usually healthy.