Colonoscopic surveillance of first-degree relatives of colorectal cancer patients in a faecal occult blood screening programme.

Background: In some Italian areas, colonoscopic surveillance of first-degree relatives (FDRs) of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients is provided as a part of local population-based faecal occult blood test (FOBT) screening programmes. The objective of the present study was to assess the feasibility and early results of this surveillance model.

Methods: Data from district screening centres were used to evaluate the process of identification and selection of eligible FDRs (residence in the Emilia-Romagna Region, age 40-75 years, no recent colonoscopy) of screen-detected CRC patients and the detected prevalence of disease.

Compliance checking of cancer-screening Careflows: an approach based on Computational Logic.

Clinical guidelines and Careflow systems have been recently identified as a means to improve and standardize health care services. A number of ICT-based management solutions have been proposed, focussing on several aspects such as specification, process logs verification with respect to specification (compliance), enactment and administration of careflows. In this paper we introduce the GPROVE framework, based on Computational Logic, and focused on the (formal) specification of careflows and on the compliance verification of the process executions w.

Estimate of overdiagnosis of breast cancer due to mammography after adjustment for lead time. A service screening study in Italy.

Introduction: Excess of incidence rates is the expected consequence of service screening. The aim of this paper is to estimate the quota attributable to overdiagnosis in the breast cancer screening programmes in Northern and Central Italy.

Methods: All patients with breast cancer diagnosed between 50 and 74 years who were resident in screening areas in the six years before and five years after the start of the screening programme were included.

[Evidence based nursing and distance learning in the Italian hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi].

An experience of distance learning on Evidence Based Nursing is being implemented at the Policlinico Sant'Orsola Malpighi of Bologna. Commented evidence based abstracts on nursing techniques or problems are produced by a resource group of 80 nurses who attended specific courses. An abridged version of the recommendations is distributed to the 2300 health care professionals of the hospital with information on the distance learning session that consists in reading an extended review of the literature on one of the topics chosen and in an evaluation session.

Intralaboratory quality assurance in cervical/vaginal cytology: evaluation of intercytologist diagnostic reproducibility.

Diagnostic reproducibility and accuracy in evaluating cervical/vaginal smears were the focus of this study concerning intralaboratory quality control. A set of 120 cytological samples was evaluated by 15 cytopathologists whose experience ranged from 3-29 yr. The study report form was based on the 1988 Bethesda System.