[Lung cancer screening is not the right answer, a ban on smoking is].

The Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Netherlands has asked the Dutch Health Council an advice on lung cancer screening. But even the target group will gain little: yearly approximately 90 fewer lung cancer deaths of over 8,000 due to smoking, and most if not all of them will die as quickly from other consequences of smoking. Moreover, lung cancer screening harms the population screened, as well as our society and health care providers.

Successful implementation of self-managing teams.

Purpose: Following health-care organisations, many mental health-care organisations nowadays consider starting to work with self-managing teams as their organisation structure. Although the concept could be effective, the way of implementing self-managing teams in an organisation is crucial to achieve sustainable results. Therefore, this paper aims to examine how working with self-managing teams can be implemented successfully in the mental health-care sector where various factors for the successful implementation are distinguished.

Impact and cost-effectiveness of different vaccination strategies to reduce the burden of pneumococcal disease among elderly in the Netherlands.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae causes morbidity and mortality among all ages in The Netherlands. To reduce this burden, infants in The Netherlands receive the 10-valent pneumococcal conjugated vaccine (PCV10), but older persons are not targeted. We assessed the impact and cost-effectiveness of vaccination with 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) or 13-valent PCV (PCV13) among all those aged 60, 65 or 70 and/or in combination with replacing PCV10 with PCV13 in the infant vaccination programme.

Online mindfulness as a promising method to improve exercise capacity in heart disease: 12-month follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.

Unlabelled: There is increasing evidence that mindfulness can reduce stress, and thereby affect other psychological and physiological outcomes as well. Earlier, we reported the direct 3-month results of an online modified mindfulness-based stress reduction training in patients with heart disease, and now we evaluate the effect at 12-month follow-up. 324 patients (mean age 43.

Azathioprine Therapy in a Pediatric TPMT-Deficient Patient-Still an Option.

We describe the case of a pediatric patient on azathioprine therapy with previously undiagnosed homozygote thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) deficiency, resulting in myelotoxic thiopurine metabolite levels. The patient was successfully treated with a very low azathioprine dose of 50 mg once a week (4% of standard dose), guided by frequent thiopurine metabolite measurement and a close clinical surveillance. We demonstrate that azathioprine therapy still might be an effective and safe therapeutic option in pediatric thiopurine S-methyltransferase-deficient IBD patients.

Lean healthcare from a change management perspective.

Purpose - Lean healthcare is used in a growing number of hospitals to increase efficiency and quality of care. However, healthcare organizations encounter problems with the implementation of change initiatives due to an implementation gap: the gap between strategy and execution. From a change management perspective, the purpose of this paper is to increase scientific knowledge regarding factors that diminish the implementation gap and make the transition from the "toolbox lean" toward an actual transformation to lean healthcare.

Prospective cross-sectional study on faecal immunochemical tests: sex specific cut-off values to obtain equal sensitivity for colorectal cancer?

Background: Faecal immunochemical tests (FITs) are commonly used in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Diagnostic accuracy of FIT differs between males and females. This so far unexplained difference could result in a dissimilarity in screening outcome between both sexes.

Quality criteria for health checks: development of a European consensus agreement.

Objective: Health checks may empower individuals to take better care of their health, but they may incorporate risks of incorrect test results, overdiagnosis and overtreatment as well. Some health checks are strictly regulated, such as in many of the national screening programs, but the ones offered outside such programs and in the commercial domain, are not. We developed a European consensus agreement for quality criteria.

Gastrointestinal symptoms in low-dose aspirin users: a comparison between plain and buffered aspirin.

Background: Aspirin is associated with gastrointestinal side effects such as gastric ulcers, gastric bleeding and dyspepsia. High-dose effervescent calcium carbasalate (ECC), a buffered formulation of aspirin, is associated with reduced gastric toxicity compared with plain aspirin in healthy volunteers, but at lower cardiovascular doses no beneficial effects were observed.

Aim: To compare the prevalence of self-reported gastrointestinal symptoms between low-dose plain aspirin and ECC.

Gastrointestinal symptoms in NSAID users in an 'average risk population': results of a large population-based study in randomly selected Dutch inhabitants.

Aim: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use is widespread and associated with gastrointestinal symptoms and complications. The aims of this study were to assess (i) gastrointestinal symptoms in users of prescribed and over-the-counter (OTC) NSAIDs and (ii) proton pump inhibitor (PPI) co-prescription rates in NSAID users at increased risk for gastrointestinal complications.

Methods: Surveys were sent to a randomly selected sample of the adult Dutch general population in December 2008.

Antidepressants and gastrointestinal symptoms in the general Dutch adult population.

Background: Gastrointestinal symptoms are frequently reported adverse effects of antidepressants, but antidepressants are also a treatment modality in functional gastrointestinal disorders. We aimed to assess the association between antidepressant use and gastrointestinal symptoms in the general adult population.

Methods: We assessed gastrointestinal symptoms, medication use, and comorbidity through structured questionnaires in randomly selected individuals.

Similar fecal immunochemical test results in screening and referral colorectal cancer.

Aim: To improve the interpretation of fecal immunochemical test (FIT) results in colorectal cancer (CRC) cases from screening and referral cohorts.

Methods: In this comparative observational study, two prospective cohorts of CRC cases were compared. The first cohort was obtained from 10 322 average risk subjects invited for CRC screening with FIT, of which, only subjects with a positive FIT were referred for colonoscopy.

Hemorrhoids detected at colonoscopy: an infrequent cause of false-positive fecal immunochemical test results.

Background: Colorectal cancer screening by fecal immunochemical tests (FITs) is hampered by frequent false-positive (FP) results and thereby the risk of complications and strain on colonoscopy capacity. Hemorrhoids might be a plausible cause of FP results.

Objective: To determine the contribution of hemorrhoids to the frequency of FP FIT results.

Adding familial risk assessment to faecal occult blood test can increase the effectiveness of population-based colorectal cancer screening.

Background: The Dutch Health Council recently recommended the introduction of a colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programme by faecal occult blood testing (FOBT) for individuals aged 55-75 at population risk of CRC. Individuals at an increased familial CRC risk (≥ 2 times population risk) should be identified at a younger age, so they and their relatives can receive earlier, more intensive surveillance instead of FOBT.

Aims: To determine the percentage of participants with a positive FOBT in a CRC screening programme with an increased familial CRC risk.

[Intentional paracetamol intoxication in children].

As paracetamol is widely used and easily available acetaminophen auto-intoxication is frequently seen. In the majority of patients no complications will occur, but in a small group it may lead to liver damage and death. Children are less susceptible to complications than adults.

Use of faecal markers in screening for colorectal neoplasia: a European group on tumor markers position paper.

Several randomized controlled trials have shown that population-based screening using faecal occult blood testing (FOBT) can reduce mortality from colorectal neoplasia. Based on this evidence, a number of countries have introduced screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) and high-risk adenoma and many others are considering its introduction. The aim of this article is to critically review the current status of faecal markers as population-based screening tests for these neoplasia.

[Nationwide colorectal cancer screening].

Usually, colorectal cancer presents with complaints in a late stage, but can be detected in an earlier stage, with better prognosis, by colonoscopy. Using colonoscopy, also precancerous tumours, adenomas, can be detected and excised, but only in a national screening programme. However primary screening with colonoscopy is too burdensome and expensive.

Exposure to colorectal examinations before a colorectal cancer diagnosis: a case-control study.

Objectives: To assess the prior exposure to colorectal examinations between colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and matched control participants to estimate the effect of these examinations on the development of CRC and to obtain insight into the background incidence of colorectal examinations.

Methods: A population-based case-control study was conducted within the Dutch Integrated Primary Care Information database over the period 1996-2005. All incident CRC cases were matched with up to 18 controls (n=7,790) for age, sex, index date (date of CRC diagnosis) and follow-up before diagnosis.