Reimagining India's National Telemedicine Service to improve access to care.

India's free-to-use National Telemedicine Service, eSanjeevani, has provided over 276 million consultations and shown promise to reduce systemic inequalities in access to care. However, recent reports of dropping footfall have raised questions about the potential of eSanjeevani to bridge service provision gaps in India. We reveal important problems linked to the design and practice of triage and tele-referral nationally within eSanjeevani, corroborated by the experience of one of the co-authors' practice of Obstetrics and Gynaecology on the platform since 2022.

Quasi-experimental evaluation of a nationwide diabetes prevention programme.

Diabetes is a leading cause of morbidity, mortality and cost of illness. Health behaviours, particularly those related to nutrition and physical activity, play a key role in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Whereas behaviour change programmes (also known as lifestyle interventions or similar) have been found efficacious in controlled clinical trials, there remains controversy about whether targeting health behaviours at the individual level is an effective preventive strategy for type 2 diabetes mellitus and doubt among clinicians that lifestyle advice and counselling provided in the routine health system can achieve improvements in health.

Achieving behavior change at scale: Causal evidence from a national lifestyle intervention program for pre-diabetes in the UK.

There remains widespread doubt among clinicians that mere lifestyle advice and counseling provided in routine care can achieve improvements in health. We aimed to determine the health effects of the largest behavior change program for pre-diabetes globally (the English Diabetes Prevention Programme) when implemented at scale in routine care. We exploited the threshold in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) used to decide on program eligibility by applying a regression discontinuity design, one of the most credible quasi-experimental strategies for causal inference, to electronic health data from approximately one-fifth of all primary care practices in England.

Internet of things-Enabled technologies as an intervention for childhood obesity: A systematic review.

Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century, with consequences lasting into adulthood. Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices have been studied and deployed for monitoring and tracking diet and physical activity of children and adolescents as well as a means of providing remote, ongoing support to children and their families. This review aimed to identify and understand current advances in the feasibility, system designs, and effectiveness of IoT-enabled devices to support weight management in children.

Promoting the Success and Sustainability of Coordinated Specialty Care Teams in Ohio.

Recent COVID-19-related federal legislation has resulted in time-limited increases in Mental Health Block Grant (MHBG) set-aside dollars for coordinated specialty care (CSC) throughout the United States. The state of Ohio has opted to apply these funds to establish a learning health network of Ohio CSC teams, promote efforts to expand access to CSC, and quantify the operating costs and rates of reimbursement from private and public payers for these CSC teams. These efforts may provide other states with a model through which they can apply increased MHBG funds to support the success of their own CSC programs.

A virtual bridge to Universal Healthcare in India.

Virtual care could be instrumental in helping India achieve Universal Healthcare. COVID-19 has catalysed virtual-care adoption by practitioners and end-users alike. Recent inclusive policy measures, a favourably-evolving technological landscape, and infrastructural development empower India to technology-leapfrog existing Western healthcare systems.

Survey of young women's state of knowledge and perceptions about oral contraceptives in Germany.

Background: In Germany, we see a decline in the use of the oral contraceptive pill. Although there have been studies showing a lack of knowledge about the mode of action of the pill and alternative methods, the number of German women who feel well informed about the pill increased over recent years. At the same time, a trend to increasingly cover negative aspects of oral contraception has emerged in German journalism and social media.

Use of lifestyle interventions in primary care for individuals with newly diagnosed hypertension, hyperlipidaemia or obesity: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: Lifestyle interventions can be efficacious in reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors and are recommended as first-line interventions in England. However, recent information on the use of these interventions in primary care is lacking. We investigated for how many patients with newly diagnosed hypertension, hyperlipidaemia or obesity, lifestyle interventions were recorded in their primary care electronic health record.

Factors influencing care-seeking behaviour for mental illness in India: a situational analysis in Tamil Nadu.

Background: The contribution of mental illness to the total burden of disease in India nearly doubled from 1990 to 2017, increasing from 2.5% of the total disability-adjusted life years in 1990 to 4.7% in 2017.

Is administered competition suitable for dealing with a public health emergency? Lessons from the local healthcare system at the centre of early COVID-19 outbreak in Italy.

Objectives: The Lombardy Region, Italy, was the most severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. In absence of effective treatments and with basic hygiene measures made mandatory, Lombardy response to COVID-19 relied on its healthcare system characteristics, the administered competition or "quasi-market" model. The aim of the study was to review the strengths and weaknesses of Lombardy's response during the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic, to explore whether the healthcare model influenced crisis management and describe which policies could help to contain future outbreaks.

Broadening the concept of patient safety culture through value-based healthcare.

Purpose: Decision-makers are looking for innovative approaches to improve patient experience and outcomes with the finite resources available in healthcare. The concept of value-based healthcare has been proposed as one such approach. Since unsafe care hinders patient experience and contributes to waste, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the value-based approach can help broaden the existing concept of patient safety culture and thus, improve patient safety and healthcare value.

Using an Ontology to Facilitate More Accurate Coding of Social Prescriptions Addressing Social Determinants of Health: Feasibility Study.

Background: National Health Service (NHS) England supports social prescribing in order to address social determinants of health, which account for approximately 80% of all health outcomes. Nevertheless, data on ongoing social prescribing activities are lacking. Although NHS England has attempted to overcome this problem by recommending 3 standardized primary care codes, these codes do not capture the social prescribing activity to a level of granularity that would allow for fair attribution of outcomes to social prescribing.

Use and impact of social prescribing: a mixed-methods feasibility study protocol.

Introduction: Social prescribing aims to address social determinants of health, which account for 80%-90% of health outcomes, but the evidence base behind it is limited due to a lack of data linkingsocial prescribing activity and outcomes.

Methods And Analysis: The objective of the quantitative component of this feasibility studyisto identify the characteristics of individuals who receive social prescriptions and describe the use and estimate the impact of social prescribing; the latter will be done on a homeless subgroup. We will use the Oxford Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Research and Surveillance Centre (RSC) primary care sentinel network, whose general practicescover a population of over 4 000 000 patients.