Information technology on hand hygiene compliance among health care professionals: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIM: To determine the effectiveness of information technology interventions on hand hygiene compliance among health care professionals. BACKGROUND: Performing hand hygiene is the optimal approach to prevent the transmission of health care-associated infections. However, results regarding the effectiveness of information technology interventions on hand hygiene compliance were inconsistent to date. EVALUATION: A search for studies published up to May 2020 was undertaken. A meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software. KEY ISSUES: The most commonly used information technology systems were as follows: automated training, electronic counting devices and remote monitoring, real-time hand hygiene reminders and feedback, and automated monitoring. These four types of technology systems can significantly improve hand hygiene compliance among health care professionals (odds ratio = 3.06, p < .001). CONCLUSION: The four types of information technology can be effectively used to change the hand hygiene behaviour. Because the information systems can monitor personnel and conduct statistical analyses automatically, they save labour costs of human monitors, are more time efficient and eliminate accompanying human error. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The use of the four types of information technology is convenient and could reduce health care-associated infections; thus, they could be widely used in the future as the key to increase hand hygiene compliance rate.

Clinical characteristics of second primary cancer in colorectal cancer patients: the impact of colorectal cancer or other second cancer occurring first.

BACKGROUND: Due to improvements in early detection, treatment, and supportive care, the number of colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors is increasing; therefore, careful attention should always be paid to the second primary cancer (SPC) in treating these CRC patients. The present study attempts to determine the correlation and clinical aspects of CRC to other cancers in patients suffering from SPC involving CRC. METHODS: From January 2002 and June 2010, 1,679 cancer cases, CRC was accompanied by SPC in 89 patients (5.3%), including 16 (18%) synchronous and 73 (82%) metachronous SPC patients. These patients were subsequently classified into two groups: the first group had CRC diagnosed first as CRC first (CRCF); and the second group had another type of cancer diagnosed before the diagnosis of CRC as other cancer first (OCF). Of these 73 patients, 22 (30.1%) were in the group of CRCF, whereas 51 (69.9%) were in the group of OCF. Patients' clinicopathological characteristics and clinical outcomes were analyzed and compared between the two groups. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the sites of cancers between the two groups: 14 (27.5%) patients in the OCF group had gastric cancer, compared to one (4.5%) patient in the CRCF group (P = 0.026). Although there was no difference of hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) carriers between the OCF and CRCF groups (P = 0.165), there were six (27.3%) CRC patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the CRCF group, which was significantly higher than the two (3.9%) patients in the OCF group (P = 0.003). Furthermore, the cancer-specific survival rate of the CRCF patient group was significantly higher than that of the OCF patient group (P = 0.036). CONCLUSIONS: In this retrospective analysis, gastric cancer patients compared to other secondary cancers were at a higher risk of developing subsequent CRC as SPC; alternatively, patients with CRC were at a higher risk of developing HCC as SPC subsequently, no matter whether patients were HBV or HCV carriers. Therefore, careful attention should always be paid to the possibility of secondary CRC to construct effective surveillance when treating cancer patients.

Perspective of Immunopathogenesis and Immunotherapies for Kawasaki Disease.

Kawasaki Disease (KD) is an acute inflammatory illness that mostly occurs in children below 5 years of age, with intractable fever, mucocutaneous lesions, lymphadenopathy, and lesions of the coronary artery (CAL). KD is sharing clinical symptoms with systemic inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) which is related to COVID-19. Certain genes are identified to be associated with KD, but the findings usually differ between countries and races. Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) allele types and toll-like receptor (TLR) expression are also correlated to KD. The acute hyperinflammation in KD is mediated by an imbalance between augmented T helper 17 (Th17)/Th1 responses with high levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, IL-17A, IFN-γ, and IP-10, in contrast to reduced Th2/Treg responses with lower IL-4, IL-5, FoxP3, and TGF-ß expression. KD has varying phenotypic variations regarding age, gender, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) resistance, macrophage activation and shock syndrome. The signs of macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) can be interpreted as hyperferritinemia and thrombocytopenia contradictory to thrombocytosis in typical KD; the signs of KD with shock syndrome (KDSS) can be interpreted as overproduction of nitric oxide (NO) and coagulopathy. For over five decades, IVIG and aspirin are the standard treatment for KD. However, some KD patients are refractory to IVIG required additional medications against inflammation. Further studies are proposed to delineate the immunopathogenesis of IVIG-resistance and KDSS, to identify high risk patients with genetic susceptibility, and to develop an ideal treatment regimen, such as by providing idiotypic immunoglobulins to curb cytokine storms, NO overproduction, and the epigenetic induction of Treg function.