The future of cystic fibrosis care: a global perspective.

The past six decades have seen remarkable improvements in health outcomes for people with cystic fibrosis, which was once a fatal disease of infants and young children. However, although life expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis has increased substantially, the disease continues to limit survival and quality of life, and results in a large burden of care for people with cystic fibrosis and their families. Furthermore, epidemiological studies in the past two decades have shown that cystic fibrosis occurs and is more frequent than was previously thought in populations of non-European descent, and the disease is now recognised in many regions of the world.

Evaluation of a multidimensional cystic fibrosis transition program: a quality improvement initiative.

The adequate preparation of cystic fibrosis (CF) youth for the transfer from pediatric to adult-based health care services is essential to meet the needs of this changing population. This paper describes the evolution of a transition clinic for patients with CF into a multidimensional quality improvement transition initiative. Three transition interventions (a patient transition clinical pathway; collaboration with the adult clinic; and a tool to measure transfer readiness) were sequentially implemented and evaluated.