A Health System-Wide Initiative to Decrease Opioid-Related Morbidity and Mortality.

BACKGROUND: The opioid overdose crisis now claims more than 40,000 lives in the United States every year, and many hospitals and health systems are responding with opioid-related initiatives, but how best to coordinate hospital or health system-wide strategy and approach remains a challenge. METHODS: An organizational opioid stewardship program (OSP) was created to reduce opioid-related morbidity and mortality in order to provide an efficient, comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to address the epidemic in one health system. An executive committee of hospital leaders was convened to empower and launch the program. To measure progress, metrics related to care of patients on opioids and those with opioid use disorder (OUD) were evaluated. RESULTS: The OSP created a holistic, health system-wide program that addressed opioid prescribing, treatment of OUD, education, and information technology tools. After implementation, the number of opioid prescriptions decreased (-73.5/month; p < 0.001), mean morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per prescription decreased (-0.4/month; p < 0.001), the number of unique patients receiving an opioid decreased (-52.6/month; p < 0.001), and the number of prescriptions ≥ 90 MME decreased (-48.1/month; p < 0.001). Prescriptions and providers for buprenorphine increased (+6.0 prescriptions/month and +0.4 providers/month; both p < 0.001). Visits for opioid overdose did not change (-0.2 overdoses/month; p = 0.29). CONCLUSION: This paper describes a framework for a new health system-wide OSP. Successful implementation required strong executive sponsorship, ensuring that the program is not housed in any one clinical department in the health system, creating an environment that empowers cross-disciplinary collaboration and inclusion, as well as the development of measures to guide efforts.

Data-driven knowledge acquisition, validation, and transformation into HL7 Arden Syntax.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to help a team of physicians and knowledge engineers acquire clinical knowledge from existing practices datasets for treatment of head and neck cancer, to validate the knowledge against published guidelines, to create refined rules, and to incorporate these rules into clinical workflow for clinical decision support. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A team of physicians (clinical domain experts) and knowledge engineers adapt an approach for modeling existing treatment practices into final executable clinical models. For initial work, the oral cavity is selected as the candidate target area for the creation of rules covering a treatment plan for cancer. The final executable model is presented in HL7 Arden Syntax, which helps the clinical knowledge be shared among organizations. We use a data-driven knowledge acquisition approach based on analysis of real patient datasets to generate a predictive model (PM). The PM is converted into a refined-clinical knowledge model (R-CKM), which follows a rigorous validation process. The validation process uses a clinical knowledge model (CKM), which provides the basis for defining underlying validation criteria. The R-CKM is converted into a set of medical logic modules (MLMs) and is evaluated using real patient data from a hospital information system. RESULTS: We selected the oral cavity as the intended site for derivation of all related clinical rules for possible associated treatment plans. A team of physicians analyzed the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for the oral cavity and created a common CKM. Among the decision tree algorithms, chi-squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID) was applied to a refined dataset of 1229 patients to generate the PM. The PM was tested on a disjoint dataset of 739 patients, which gives 59.0% accuracy. Using a rigorous validation process, the R-CKM was created from the PM as the final model, after conforming to the CKM. The R-CKM was converted into four candidate MLMs, and was used to evaluate real data from 739 patients, yielding efficient performance with 53.0% accuracy. CONCLUSION: Data-driven knowledge acquisition and validation against published guidelines were used to help a team of physicians and knowledge engineers create executable clinical knowledge. The advantages of the R-CKM are twofold: it reflects real practices and conforms to standard guidelines, while providing optimal accuracy comparable to that of a PM. The proposed approach yields better insight into the steps of knowledge acquisition and enhances collaboration efforts of the team of physicians and knowledge engineers.

Integrated information visualization to support decision-making in order to strengthen communities: Design and usability evaluation.

Community well-being refers to the qualities of an optimally healthy community life. This is the ultimate goal of all the various processes and strategies created to meet the needs of people living together in communities. We propose a holistic integrated visualization, in the form of a community well-being assessment system, as a web-based advanced tool to be used by the executive and health officers of the sub-district administration organization (SAO) network to improve decision-making in order to strengthen their communities. Data were obtained from the Family and Community Assessment Program (FAP) and the SAO in nine sub-districts, covering all of the four regions of Thailand. The system incorporates dashboard architecture and assists the executive and health officers in the SAO to achieve better decision-making for the deployment of proper measures in communities. The model was developed for the Pakpoon SAO and was applied to the other eight SAOs. In order to evaluate the model, 243 users, covering all user groups from three sites, were asked to answer 18 questions during a meeting. The overall average score for user satisfaction was 4.12. The results indicate that this model can be used for community well-being assessment, in order to improve decision-making to strengthen communities in Thailand.

Le Bon Samaritain: A Community-Based Care Model Supported by Technology.

BACKGROUND: The effective care and well-being of a community is a challenging task especially in an emergency situation. Traditional technology-based silos between health and emergency services are challenged by the changing needs of the community that could benefit from integrated health and safety services. Low-cost smart-home automation solutions, wearable devices and Cloud technology make it feasible for communities to interact with each other, and with health and emergency services in a timely manner. OBJECTIVES: This paper proposes a new community-based care model, supported by technology, that aims at reducing healthcare and emergency services costs while allowing community to become resilient in response to health and emergency situations. METHODS: We looked at models of care in different industries and identified the type of technology that can support the suggested new model of care. Two prototypes were developed to validate the adequacy of the technology. RESULTS: The result is a new community-based model of care called 'Le Bon Samaritain'. It relies on a network of people called 'Bons Samaritains' willing to help and deal with the basic care and safety aspects of their community. Their role is to make sure that people in their community receive and understand the messages from emergency and health services. The new care model is integrated with existing emergency warning, community and health services. CONCLUSION: Le Bon Samaritain model is scalable, community-based and can help people feel safer, less isolated and more integrated in their community. It could be the key to reduce healthcare cost, increase resilience and drive the change for a more integrated emergency and care system.

Managing interoperability and complexity in health systems.

In recent years, we have witnessed substantial progress in the use of clinical informatics systems to support clinicians during episodes of care, manage specialised domain knowledge, perform complex clinical data analysis and improve the management of health organisations' resources. However, the vision of fully integrated health information eco-systems, which provide relevant information and useful knowledge at the point-of-care, remains elusive. This journal Focus Theme reviews some of the enduring challenges of interoperability and complexity in clinical informatics systems. Furthermore, a range of approaches are proposed in order to address, harness and resolve some of the many remaining issues towards a greater integration of health information systems and extraction of useful or new knowledge from heterogeneous electronic data repositories.

Toward a science of learning systems: a research agenda for the high-functioning Learning Health System.

OBJECTIVE: The capability to share data, and harness its potential to generate knowledge rapidly and inform decisions, can have transformative effects that improve health. The infrastructure to achieve this goal at scale--marrying technology, process, and policy--is commonly referred to as the Learning Health System (LHS). Achieving an LHS raises numerous scientific challenges. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The National Science Foundation convened an invitational workshop to identify the fundamental scientific and engineering research challenges to achieving a national-scale LHS. The workshop was planned by a 12-member committee and ultimately engaged 45 prominent researchers spanning multiple disciplines over 2 days in Washington, DC on 11-12 April 2013. RESULTS: The workshop participants collectively identified 106 research questions organized around four system-level requirements that a high-functioning LHS must satisfy. The workshop participants also identified a new cross-disciplinary integrative science of cyber-social ecosystems that will be required to address these challenges. CONCLUSIONS: The intellectual merit and potential broad impacts of the innovations that will be driven by investments in an LHS are of great potential significance. The specific research questions that emerged from the workshop, alongside the potential for diverse communities to assemble to address them through a 'new science of learning systems', create an important agenda for informatics and related disciplines.

[The Information Flows System as an instrument for preventing technological illness]. / II sistema dei flussi informativi quale strumento di prevenzione delle tecnopatie.

This paper describes the project "Information Flows", its contents of INAIL data about accidents and occupational diseases reported and recognized and its usefulness for programs of preventive initiatives undertaken by INAIL and by the responsible structures in the single italian regions. We propose some processings of data and suggest how their collection, according to criteria based on occupational medicine, industrial hygiene and epidemiology and a careful analysis and processing of data from more sources could lead to an extension of the workers protection, relatively to "unrecognized" occupational diseases, diseases caused by the "old" risks and the identification of occupational diseases caused by "new" risks.

Integrated data visualisation: an approach to capture older adults' wellness.

Informatics tools can help support the health and independence of older adults. In this paper, we present an approach towards integrating health-monitoring data and describe several techniques for the assessment and visualisation of integrated health and well-being of older adults. We present three different visualisation techniques to provide distinct alternatives towards display of the same information, focusing on reducing the cognitive load of data interpretation. We demonstrate the feasibility of integrating health-monitoring information into a comprehensive measure of wellness, while also highlighting the challenges of designing visual displays targeted at multiple user groups. These visual displays of wellness can be incorporated into personal health records and can be an effective support for informed decision-making.

Recomendaciones sobre suplementos de vitamina D y calcio para personas adultas en España / Recommendations on Vitamin D and calcium supplements for adults in Spain

Fundamentos: Los suplementos de calcio y vitamina D están involucrados en debates sanitarios actuales, como la seguridad cardiovascular del calcio y la corrección de los niveles vitamínicos. El objetivo de esta revisión es la evaluación de la información existente de los suplementos de calcio y/o vitamina D disponibles y financiados en España, así como la evaluación de las recomendaciones para su utilización. Métodos: Análisis de la oferta comercial e información disponible sobre aspectos farmacológicos de los suplementos medicamentos españoles en 39 fichas técnicas, guías e informes institucionales y profesionales actualizados, con búsqueda complementaria de información y de datos epidemiológicos españoles relacionados en Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews®, PubMed® (herramienta "Clinical Queries"), base de datos Dialnet y búsqueda manual en revistas españolas directamente relacionadas. Resultados: No existe uniformidad en cuanto a indicación, expresión de contenido, posologías, precauciones y seguridad ni en fichas técnicas ni en los informes técnicos. La búsqueda bibliográfica ha encontrado un mayor volumen de publicaciones recientes para la vitamina D que para el calcio. No se han encontrado pruebas científicas apropiadas para establecer regímenes posológicos indiscutibles ni universales, ni pruebas de biodisponibilidad para colecalciferol con vehiculización acuosa. En España se constata una situación nutricional generalmente adecuada para el calcio pero un estatus mayoritariamente inadecuado para la vitamina D, con varias referencias de insuficiencia y carencia vitamínica en adultos. Los tratamientos correctores inciden fundamentalmente en el uso de suplementos de calcio. Conclusiones: Existe una amplia oferta de suplementos de calcio y vitamina D en España cuyo diseño farmacológico debería replantearse puesto que no responden a las necesidades detectadas ni a las posibilidades de corrección actualmente recomendadas. También se debería mejorar y mantener actualizada su información, con especial interés en la situación sanitaria relacionada con la hipovitaminosis D(AU)

Background: Calcium supplements and vitamin D are involved in current debates of health, as cardiovascular safety of calcium, and correction of vitamin levels. The aim is to review the possibilities of making better use of supplements marketed in Spain, depending on their availability, information and related epidemiology. Methods: Analysis of comercial offer and available information about pharmacological aspects of Spanish medicinal supplements in data-sheets (39), guides and reports current institutional and professional, with additional search of this information and epidemiological data related Spanish in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews ®, Pub- Med ® (tool "Clinical Queries"), Dialnet database and hand search of Spanish journals directly related. Results: There is no uniformity in terms of indication, expression of content, dosages, precautions and safety in data sheets or technical reports. The literature search found more recent publications volume for vitamin D than calcium, No evidence was found to establish appropriate dosing regimens indisputable or universal, or cholecalciferol bioavailability tests with aqueous vehiculización. In Spain nutritional situation is found generally suitable for the calcium but a status mostly unsuitable for vitamin D with several references for insufficiency and vitamin deficiency in adults. Corrective treatments primarily affect calcium supplements. Conclusions: There is an ample supply of calcium and vitamin D in Spain, whose drug design should rethink because don’t respond to the needs identified or correction possibilities currently recommended. It should also improve and update their information, with particular interest in health status related to hypovitaminosis D(AU)

Actuaciones profesionales realizadas en la farmacia comunitaria / Professional services carried out in the community pharmacy

Objetivo: Describir todas las actuaciones profesionales (AP) que se llevan a cabo como respuesta a las demandas realizadas por los usuarios en la farmacia comunitaria (FC). Material y métodos: Estudio observacional, descriptivo y transversal, realizado durante 6 meses en dos farmacias comunitarias de Denia (Alicante). La población de estudio fueron todas las demandas de servicio que realizaron los usuarios de ambas farmacias. La variable de estudio fue la AP, es decir, cada uno de los servicios demandados por el usuario en la FC: dispensación, indicación, automedicación, consultas y ventas, clasificándose cada uno en sus resoluciones e incidencias. Resultados: En el estudio se realizaron 30.617 AP, correspondiendo un 42% a la dispensación con receta, y se registró casi un 23% de incidencias. Las indicaciones farmacéuticas supusieron un 9% del total, resolviéndose en la mayoría de casos con la recomendación de un medicamento. Un 33% fueron demandas de automedicación, cursando con casi un 20% de incidencias. Un 7% fueron consultas y un 10% ventas de productos sanitarios. Conclusiones: Del total de AP realizadas, el 90% se consideran farmacéuticas. El 83% fueron dispensaciones de medicamentos, más de la mitad de éstas sin prescripción médica, lo que revela la importancia del asesoramiento farmacéutico en las dispensaciones sin receta. El hecho de que 9 de cada 10 incidencias que se producen en la dispensación con receta y en la automedica ción sean por la falta de información del paciente nos pone en alerta sobre la necesidad de implementar medidas que mejoren esta carencia(AU)

Objective: To describe all the professional actions (PA) carried out by the community pharmacy in response to the requests made by pharmacy users. Methods: Observational, cross-sectional, descriptive study in two pharmacies in Spain, over a 6 month-period. Population: all service requests made by pharmacy users. Study variable: Professional action, each of the services requested by pharmacy users: prescription-drug-dispensing, patient-counseling in minor ailments, self-medication, pharmacist-consultations, and sales-services. Classifying each of them in their decisions and incidents. Results: The study involved 30,617 PA, of which 42% were requests for prescription-drug-dispensing. Incidences were also recorded (23%). Nine percent of requests were for patient-counseling in minor ailments, and these were solved in 99% of cases with recommending of a drug, herbal or homeopathy product. Of the total PA, 33% were self-medication cases, with 20% of incidences. Seven percent were inquiries to the pharmacist and 10% of total requests were sales-services. In one out of four prescription-drug-dispensing event an incidence was detected, and in self-medication cases, in one out of every five. Conclusions: Of all the PA performed in the pharmacies under study, 90% were pharmaceutical activities. Most of these (83%) are directly associated with drug delivery (with/without prescription). The fact that more than a half of the total PA requested were without medical prescription should be further analyzed. The fact that nine out of ten incidents that occur in prescription-drug-dispensing and self-medication are the lack of patient information, it alerts us to implement measures to improve this shortcoming(AU)

Providing confusion: the need for education not information in chronic care.

Patient information is one aspect of meeting the needs of health service users; it is meant to empower patients and their carers in making informed decisions and managing their health needs. Mary Dixon-Woods described two types of discourse in patient education: the first is more concerned with making patients comply with their doctors orders and the second is about empowering patients and rejecting direction. This article looks at the aims of the two and shows that neither is capable of supporting highly successful best practice within medicine. Instead, a hybrid set of strategic aims are proposed for patient education created by merging the two discourses in the same way that John Dewey merged the child-centred and child-led schools of thought in education. These hybrid strategic aims for patient education are then used to develop requirements for an information system to support patient education, using a mixture of system centric and user centric approaches.

The dilemma of "to be or not to be": developing electronically e-health & cloud computing documents for overseas transplant patients from Taiwan organ transplant health professionals' perspective.

AIMS: The development of mutually accessible e-health documents (ehD) and cloud computing (CC) for overseas organ transplant health professionals (OTHP) in two medical parties (domestic and overseas) would ensure better quality of care. This project attempted to compare pro and con arguments from the perspective of Taiwan's OTHP. METHODS: A sample was obtained from three leading medical centers in Taiwan. RESULTS: Eighty subjects including transplant surgeons (n = 20), registered nurses (RN; n = 30), coordinating nurses (OTCN; n = 15), and e-health information and communication technologies experts (ehICTs; n = 15) participated in this research. The pros of developing ehD were: (1) better and continuous care through communication and cooperation in two parties (78%); (2) better collaborative efforts between health professionals, information technology experts in two medical parties is (74%); (3) easier retrieval and communication of personal health documents with the trustworthy OTHP in the different countries (71%); and (4) CC may help develop transplant patients medical cloud based on the collaboration between medical systems in political parties of Taiwan and mainland China (69%). The cons of developing ehD and CC included: (1) inadequate knowledge of benefits and manuals of developing ehD and CC (75%); (2) no reliable communication avenues in developing ehD and CC (73%); (3) increased workload in direct care and documentation in developing new ehD and CC (70%); (4) lack of coaching and accreditation systems in medical, electronic, and law aspects to settle discrepancies in medical diagnosis and treatment protocols between two parties (68%); and (5) lacking systematic ehD and CC plans developed by interdisciplinary teams in two parties (60%). CONCLUSION: In this initial phase, the establishment of an interdisciplinary team including transplant leaders, transplant surgeon, RN, OTCN, ehICTs, and law experts from two parties might be helpful in working out developing plans with careful monitoring mechanisms.

Chartbook: shining a light on the quality of healthcare in Canada: what can be learned to catalyze improvements in healthcare quality?

This paper provides a reflection on the findings of Canada's first-ever chartbook on the quality of healthcare in Canada. Quality of Healthcare in Canada: A Chartbook was published in 2010 by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation in partnership with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, and with support from Statistics Canada. This paper, by the chartbook authors (Sutherland and Leatherman) and colleagues (Law, Verma and Petersen), presents selected key findings and lessons from the chartbook and aims to serve as a catalyst for ideas and discussion in the papers that follow. The chartbook identified a lack of common language and indicators on quality across Canada's provinces and territories, underscoring the need to create and coordinate core measures. The Canadian chartbook and this issue of Healthcare Papers provide an update on the existing quality measures and the state of healthcare quality in Canada, and create the opportunity for jurisdictions to learn from one another and to contemplate the steps required to improve quality across the country.

Cloud computing technology applied in healthcare for developing large scale flexible solutions.

An extremely important area in which there is also vital information needed in different locations is the healthcare domain. In the areas of healthcare there is an important exchange of information since there are many departments where a patient can be sent for investigation. In this regard cloud computing is a technology that could really help supporting flexibility, seamless care and financial cuts.

[An interesting experience on the use of information and population data bases]. / Una experiencia interesante en el uso de la información y de las bases de datos poblacionales.

INTRODUCTION: In order to support decisions and analyze outcomes, the Spanish Health System has shown a great interest in developing data bases and high quality information systems. Nevertheless the use of these data bases are limited, not very systematized and, some times, their accessibility may be difficult. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We describe in this review the experience in using the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Science (ICES, Ontario, Canada) as an efficient model to improve the usefulness of these data bases. RESULTS: Under restrictive conditions of confidentiality and privacy, the ICES has the legal capacity to use several population based data bases, for research projects and reports. ICES's functional structure (with an administrative and scientific level) is an interesting framework since it guarantees its independent and economic assessment. DISCUSSION: To date, its scientific production has been high in many areas of knowledge and open to those interested, with points of view of many health care professionals (including management), for whom the quality of research is of the ultimate importance, to be able to access these resources.