Intensity of integrated cancer palliative care plans and end-of-life acute medical hospitalisation among cancer patient in Northern Italy.

A high hospital utilisation at the end of life (EOL) is an indicator of suboptimal quality of health care. We evaluated the impact of the intensity of different Integrated Cancer Palliative Care (ICPC) plans on EOL acute medical hospitalisation among cancer decedents. Decedents of cancer aged 18-84 years, who were residents in two Italian regions, were investigated through integrated administrative data.

End-of-Life Place of Care, Health Care Settings, and Health Care Transitions Among Cancer Patients: Impact of an Integrated Cancer Palliative Care Plan.

Context: Frequent end-of-life health care setting transitions can lead to an increased risk of fragmented care and exposure to unnecessary treatments.

Objectives: We assessed the relationship between the presence and the intensity of an Integrated Cancer Palliative Care (ICPC) plan and the occurrence of multiple transitions during the last month of life.

Methods: Decedents of cancer aged 18-85 years residents in two regions of Italy were investigated accessing their integrated administrative data (death certificates, hospital discharges, hospice, and home care records).

The implementation of a Community Health Centre-based primary care model in Italy. The experience of the Case della Salute in the Emilia-Romagna Region.

Background: The Comunity Health Centre (CHC) primary care model is a team-based health care delivery model intended to provide comprehensive and continuous medical care to patients within a defined community. The CHC, Case della Salute in Italian, model was introduced in the Emilia-Romagna Region in 2010.

Methods: We present updated data on the implementation on the CHC Case della Salute primary care model in the Emilia-Romagna Region.

[The primary healthcare centres].

The central attributes of primary care are: first contact (accessibility), longitudinality (person- focused preventive and curative care overtime), patient-oriented comprehensiveness and coordination (including navigation towards secondary and tertiary care). Besides taking care of the needs of the individuals, primary health care teams are also looking at the community, especially when addressing social determinants of health. The rationale for the benefits for primary care for health has been found in: 1) greater access to needed services; 2) better quality of care; 3) a greater focus on prevention; 4) early management of health problems; 5) organizing and delivering high quality care for chronic non-communicable diseases.

Group versus single handed primary care: a performance evaluation of the care delivered to chronic patients by Italian GPs.

Objectives: In family medicine contrasting evidence exists on the effectiveness of team practice compared with solo practice on chronic disease management. In Italy, several experiences of team practice have been introduced since the late 1990s but few studies detail their impact on the quality of care. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of team practice in family medicine in six Italian regions using chronic disease management process indicators as a measure of outcome.

MM2-thalamic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: neuropathological, biochemical and transmission studies identify a distinctive prion strain.

In Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), molecular typing based on the size of the protease resistant core of the disease-associated prion protein (PrP(Sc) ) and the M/V polymorphism at codon 129 of the PRNP gene correlates with the clinico-pathologic subtypes. Approximately 95% of the sporadic 129MM CJD patients are characterized by cerebral deposition of type 1 PrP(Sc) and correspond to the classic clinical CJD phenotype. The rare 129MM CJD patients with type 2 PrP(Sc) are further subdivided in a cortical and a thalamic form also indicated as sporadic fatal insomnia.

[Preventive cardiology: comparisons of European and Italian projects with the Cardiac Units from Emilia Romagna region. A workshop of IACPR/GICR - Emilia Romagna].

A workshop endorsed by the Italian Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation--Emilia Romagna Section--held in Piacenza in May 2011, gave the opportunity to discuss the emerging role of Preventive Cardiology in the modern era. From the new documents recently published by the European and Italian Scientific Associations, the barriers in their implementation, and the contribution of the health care providers, physicians, nurses, both in primary and secondary prevention were discussed. The local initiatives of cardiac prevention in different areas were presented and compared.