Simulating the council-specific impact of anti-malaria interventions: A tool to support malaria strategic planning in Tanzania.

INTRODUCTION: The decision-making process for malaria control and elimination strategies has become more challenging. Interventions need to be targeted at council level to allow for changing malaria epidemiology and an increase in the number of possible interventions. Models of malaria dynamics can support this process by simulating potential impacts of multiple interventions in different settings and determining appropriate packages of interventions for meeting specific expected targets. METHODS: The OpenMalaria model of malaria dynamics was calibrated for all 184 councils in mainland Tanzania using data from malaria indicator surveys, school parasitaemia surveys, entomological surveillance, and vector control deployment data. The simulations were run for different transmission intensities per region and five interventions, currently or potentially included in the National Malaria Strategic Plan, individually and in combination. The simulated prevalences were fitted to council specific prevalences derived from geostatistical models to obtain council specific predictions of the prevalence and number of cases between 2017 and 2020. The predictions were used to evaluate in silico the feasibility of the national target of reaching a prevalence of below 1% by 2020, and to suggest alternative intervention stratifications for the country. RESULTS: The historical prevalence trend was fitted for each council with an agreement of 87% in 2016 (95%CI: 0.84-0.90) and an agreement of 90% for the historical trend (2003-2016) (95%CI: 0.87-0.93) The current national malaria strategy was expected to reduce the malaria prevalence between 2016 and 2020 on average by 23.8% (95% CI: 19.7%-27.9%) if current case management levels were maintained, and by 52.1% (95% CI: 48.8%-55.3%) if the case management were improved. Insecticide treated nets and case management were the most cost-effective interventions, expected to reduce the prevalence by 25.0% (95% CI: 19.7%-30.2) and to avert 37 million cases between 2017 and 2020. Mass drug administration was included in most councils in the stratification selected for meeting the national target at minimal costs, expected to reduce the prevalence by 77.5% (95%CI: 70.5%-84.5%) and to avert 102 million cases, with almost twice higher costs than those of the current national strategy. In summary, the model suggested that current interventions are not sufficient to reach the national aim of a prevalence of less than 1% by 2020 and a revised strategic plan needs to consider additional, more effective interventions, especially in high transmission areas and that the targets need to be revisited. CONCLUSION: The methodology reported here is based on intensive interactions with the NMCP and provides a helpful tool for assessing the feasibility of country specific targets and for determining which intervention stratifications at sub-national level will have most impact. This country-led application could support strategic planning of malaria control in many other malaria endemic countries.

Chronic Kidney Disease: The Complex History of the Organization of Long-Term Care and Bioethics. Why Now, More Than Ever, Action is Needed.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been redefined in the new millennium as any alteration of kidney morphology, function, blood, or urine composition lasting for at least 3 months. This broad definition also encompasses diseases or conditions that are associated with normal kidney function, such as a kidney scarring from an acute pyelonephritis episode or a single kidney, as a result of kidney donation. CKD is a relevant public health problem. According to the 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study, it was the 12th leading cause of death, leading to 1.1 million deaths, worldwide, each year. The role of CKD as a cause of death is evident where renal replacement therapy (RRT) is not available, however, its role in increasing death risk is not easily calculated. RRT consumes about 3⁻5% of the global healthcare budget where dialysis is available without restrictions. While the prevalence of CKD is increasing overall as lifespans extend, being linked to diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and atherosclerosis, CKD is at least partly preventable and its effects may be at least partly counterbalanced by early and appropriate care. We will welcome papers on all aspects of CKD, including organization, cost, and models of care. Papers from developing countries will be particularly welcomed.

[Health promotion and logic models]. / Promotion de la santé et logiques de programme.

The first phase of interventional research in the health of populations is the development of its conceptual basis. Programme logic models are used to describe the way in which the results should be generated. The programme theory is used to develop intermediary objectives and to increase the chances of success of public health actions. This approach requires the coproduction of knowledge between researchers and partners. The teams can benefit from the application of evaluation to the theory in order to clarify the results obtained.

["MonDossierMedical.ch": an efficient tool for sharing medical data between patients and doctors]. / L'aventure "MonDossierMedical.ch". En route vers le déploiement a large échelle.

"MonDossierMedical.ch" is a project led by the canton of Geneva, making it possible for every patient to access his own electronic health record (EHR) and to share the medical files with his doctors. It was introduced across the canton in mid-2013, and provided to all patients free of charge. it is based on the first Swiss-wide e-health-compliant pilot project "e-toile". The canton of Geneva developed "e-toile" as a public-private partnership together with Swiss Post and it was launched in 2009 in some of the canton's municipalities. Back then, Geneva's EHR represented the first Swiss attempt to link all healthcare professionals in the treatment chain. Today, it serves more than 4,600 patients and 380 physicians. This number is growing regularly, as well as the health care institutions (physicians, private hospitals, labs) joining the community. Added value tools, such as a shared care plan and a shared medication list will make the platform even more attractive.

Unified-planning, graded-administration, and centralized-controlling: a management modality for treating acquired immune deficiency syndrome with Chinese medicine in Henan Province of China.

Henan Province in China has a major epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Chinese medicine (CM) has been used throughout the last decade, and a management modality was developed, which can be described by unified-planning, graded-administration, and centralized-controlling (UGC). The UGC modality has one primary concept (patient-centered medicine from CM theory), four basic foundations (classifying administrative region, characteristics of CM on disease treatment, health resource conditions, and distribution of patients living with HIV), six important relationships (the "three uniformities and three combinations," and the six relationships therein guide the treatment of AIDS with CM), and four key sections (management, operation, records, and evaluation). In this article, the authors introduce the UGC modality, which could be beneficial to developing countries or resource-limited areas for the management of chronic infectious disease.

Medical aid system: change way overdue.

The South African medical aid system has evolved in such a way (fragmented risk pools, legally beholden to prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs), a free-for-all on provider tariffs), that there's little wonder it's adversarial and riven with antagonism, exploitation and mistrust.

Cancer guideline development in Europe: a survey among ECCO members.

A survey was conducted among European Cancer Organisations by the European CanCer Organisation (ECCO) to evaluate initiatives on cancer guideline development. An electronic questionnaire based on the 'Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation' (AGREE) instrument was sent to different ECCO members and other Scientific European Organisations involved in cancer care. Between April 2010 and July 2010, 30 European Cancer Organisations (ECOs) were contacted and 21 responded to the questionnaire. Of these, 13 were involved in the production of clinical practice guidelines. The majority of the cancer guidelines were treatment or disease-management related (84.6%). The objectives were appropriate clinical care (76.9%), cost containment (7.7%) or both (23.1%). Almost all organisations developed guidelines for their members but more than half were also aimed at policy makers (53.9%). In 69% of cases, the guidelines were developed according to specific instructions by searches in an electronic data base while in 46.2% there was a manual evaluation of the original articles. Disciplines almost always involved in guideline development groups were the medical and nursing specialities, while in some groups, communication specialists were always involved. Patients, as key stakeholders of the guidelines were involved by eight organisations in their development. The median costs for the development of a cancer guideline were between 25000 and 50,000 euro. This survey shows that many European cancer organisations are producing cancer guidelines. Since their development is both costly and time consuming, a coordinated approach should be encouraged.

Coordinación entre servicios de urgencias. Un modelo eficaz en la planificación sanitaria / Coordination among emergency services. An effective model for healthcare planning

Objetivo: Evaluar, mediante un estudio de intervención con controles históricos, la optimización del traslado de pacientes desde el servicio de urgencias de un hospital de alta complejidad -centro emisor (CE)- a un hospital de menor complejidad -centro receptor (CR)- durante el invierno. Material y método: La intervención consistió en la creación de los siguientes recursos y dispositivos: criterios de selección de pacientes aptos para ser trasladados, sistema exclusivo de comunicación, un horario de traslados, obtención de resultados pendientes de pruebas efectuadas en el CE, una unidad de hospitalización específica en el CR, circuito de altas y prealtas en el CR, normas escritas de coordinación entre la unidad asistencial, la Unidad de Trabajo Social y el Servicio de Farmacia Hospitalaria, hoja de acogida y un circuito de información a las residencias sanitarias. Resultados: Se trasladó a 247 pacientes. Ningún paciente permaneció en el área de urgencias del CR. No hubo ninguna desprogramación de ingresos en el CR. El índice de reingreso a los 30 días fue del 2,4 por ciento. La estancia media en el CR fue de 5,63 días. El índice funcional fue de 0,6; la razón de funcionamiento estándar, 0,6; la diferencia atribuible al funcionamiento, 4,0 y el impacto, 706.Conclusiones: La intervención en el traslado de pacientes desde un servicio de urgencias de un centro de alta complejidad a un centro de menor complejidad, para evitar el colapso del primero, mejora la calidad asistencial de los pacientes trasladados y evita mermar la del hospital receptor (AU)

[Processes and strategies for developing public health nurse directed community health projects in municipalities of Japan--focusing on setting agendas and making project alternatives].

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore processes and strategies for developing community health projects directed by public health nurses (PHNs) in municipalities of Japan. METHOD: Yin's case study design was adopted into the 5-step Policy Making Process Model as the theoretical framework. The first two steps involving agenda setting and project planning were the focus of this study. PHNs who had developed new community health projects in municipalities were interviewed as study participants. In order to maintain the quality of projects at a certain level, only these approved officially by municipalities with a program and budget were selected. RESULTS: Common strategies emerged for developing community health projects in the cases presented by the 5 PHNs. Out of 891 codes, twenty-six sub-categories were identified and integrated into 9 categories. When categories were analyzed in a time series, the following common processes were found: integration of related data, identification of the health problems in the community and recognition of project needs (Phase 1); refining the concept and characteristics of the project plan (Phase 2); and assuring that resources were available for the optimal implementation of the project by consolidating ideas (Phase 3). In Phase 1, PHNs integrated the information about previous experimental cases or social circumstances to identify community health problems needing solution. PHNs' thoughts were given to problems of existing projects and daily practices were grouped to make comprehensive plans for improvement. In Phase 2, PHNs discussed ideas for the project plans and considered resources and strategies that were necessary for putting new projects into place. In Phase 3, PHNs were attentive to the factors reviewed in Phase 2, kept account of necessary resources, and made certain of timing for immediate implementation of plans. The dual roles of PHNs, both as nurses and public servants, helped to clarify and solve the community health problems. CONCLUSION: Common strategies of developing programs were explored; "Identifying the community health problems through analyzing the causes of difficult cases," "Recognizing the necessity of coverall-projects which will improve the existing projects," "Understanding the awareness of those involved and discuss ideas for the project plan." The findings have based solely on the experiences of PHNs, they can provide suggestions that are keys to efficient development of new projects.