Introduction: Health policy in the UK and globally regarding dementia, emphasises prevention and risk reduction. These goals could be facilitated by automated assessment of dementia risk in primary care using routinely collected patient data. However, existing applicable tools are weak at identifying patients at high risk for dementia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Digital therapeutic Sleepio has proven effective in improving sleep quality and decreasing symptoms of anxiety. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance recommends Sleepio as an alternative treatment to usual sleep hygiene education and hypnotic medications. General practitioners (GPs) play a critical role in the adoption of digital therapeutics in patient care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Remote (digital and/or telephone) access and consultation models are being driven by national policy with the goal being that the National Health Service operate on a remote-first (digital-first) basis by 2029. Previous research has suggested that remote methods of access to care and consulting may act to widen health inequalities for certain patients and/or groups such as those from ethnic minorities. South Asian (SA) patients comprise the largest ethnic minority group in England.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolymerase β (POLB), with dual functionality as a lyase and polymerase, plays a critical role in the base excision repair (BER) pathway to maintain genomic stability. POLB knockout and rescue studies in BRCA1/2-mutant cancer cell lines revealed that inhibition of lyase and polymerase activity is required for the synthetic lethal interaction observed with PARP inhibitors, highlighting POLB as a valuable therapeutic target. Traditional biochemical assays to screen for enzyme inhibitors focus on a single substrate to product relationship and limit the comprehensive analysis of enzymes such as POLB that utilize multiple substrates or catalyze a multi-step reaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To explore how to help make online consultation notes easier for patient audiences to understand.
Background: Most patients in England will soon be able to access all new prospective entries (including free-text) within their online primary care health record via the NHS App or other online services.
Method: We conducted interviews and focus group discussions with 26 patients from underserved communities.
Purpose: To develop a patient-reported outcome measure to assess the impact of glaucoma and treatment, including minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS).
Design: Observational study before and after concomitant cataract and Food and Drug Administration-approved implantable MIGS device surgery.
Setting: Survey administration was on a computer, iPad, or similar device.
Background: Patient engagement when providing patient access to health data results from an interaction between the available tools and individual capabilities. The recent digital advancements of the healthcare field have altered the manifestation and importance of patient engagement. However, a comprehensive assessment of what factors contribute to patient engagement remain absent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrcis: Intraocular pressure (IOP) measurements obtained with the HOME2 rebound tonometer are interchangeable with measurements obtained using the office-based IC100 and IC200 rebound tonometers, making characterization of circadian IOP achievable with no inter-device sources of variability.
Objective: To evaluate test-retest reliability between IOP measurements obtained with a home rebound tonometer operated by patients and those obtained with office rebound tonometers operated by experienced clinical staff.
Methods: After training and practice with a home rebound tonometer (iCare HOME2) in a randomly selected eye, patients with established or suspected open angle glaucoma underwent IOP measurement in the fellow eye as follows in randomized order: 3 good quality measurements with the iCare IC100 operated by experienced clinical staff, 3 good quality measurements with the iCare IC200 operated by experienced clinical staff, and 3 good quality measurements with the HOME2 operated by the patient.
Background: Research on age-progression facial morphing interventions for smoking cessation has not investigated the effect of different instructions for intervention delivery. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the influence of two instruction types used to deliver the intervention on efficacy of the intervention.
Method: Women were recruited and randomly allocated to an age-progression intervention session with (i) neutral instructions; (ii) instructions designed to reassure; or (iii) a condition that controlled for participant engagement ("control").
Introduction: The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is rising in the UK and is associated with maternal and neonatal complications. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance advises first-line management with healthy eating and physical activity which is only moderately effective for achieving glycaemic targets. Approximately 30% of women require medication with metformin and/or insulin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To describe the experiences and opinions of general practitioners (GPs) in England regarding patients having access to their full online GP health records.
Design: Convenience sample, online survey.
Participants: 400 registered GPs in England.
Purpose: Nearly all published ophthalmology-related Big Data studies rely exclusively on International Classification of Diseases (ICD) billing codes to identify patients with particular ocular conditions. However, inaccurate or nonspecific codes may be used. We assessed whether natural language processing (NLP), as an alternative approach, could more accurately identify lens pathology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile research on the effects of patient access to health records is increasing, a basic understanding of the spread of patient-accessible electronic health records worldwide is lacking. In this survey of healthcare experts with professional and personal experience from 29 countries, we explored the state of patient online record access (ORA). We asked participants whether ORA exists in their country and which information is available through it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Long-term conditions are a major burden on health systems. One way to facilitate more research and better clinical care among patients with long-term conditions is to collect accurate data on their daily symptoms (patient-generated health data) using wearable technologies. Whilst evidence is growing for the use of wearable technologies in single conditions, there is less evidence of the utility of frequent symptom tracking in those who have more than one condition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients' online record access (ORA) is growing worldwide. In some countries, including the United States and Sweden, access is advanced with patients obtaining rapid access to their full records on the web including laboratory and test results, lists of prescribed medications, vaccinations, and even the very narrative reports written by clinicians (the latter, commonly referred to as "open notes"). In the United States, patient's ORA is also available in a downloadable form for use with other apps.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Internationally, patient-accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) are increasingly being implemented. Despite reported benefits to patients, the innovation has prompted concerns among health care professionals (HCPs), including the possibility that access incurs a "dumbing down" of clinical records. Currently, no review has investigated empirical evidence of whether and how documentation changes after introducing PAEHRs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: NHS England have announced plans to enable all adult patients to have full prospective access to their primary care record by default. Despite this, little is known about the views and experiences of primary care staff regarding patients' online records access (ORA).
Aim: To examine the views and experiences of primary care staff regarding patients having online access to their primary care health record, and how this service could be supported and improved.
Background: Mobile health (mHealth) apps have great potential to support the management of chronic conditions. Despite widespread acceptance of mHealth apps by the public, health care providers (HCPs) are reluctant to prescribe or recommend such apps to their patients.
Objective: This study aimed to classify and evaluate interventions aimed at encouraging HCPs to prescribe mHealth apps.
Background: In 2022, NHS England announced plans to ensure that all adult primary care patients in England would have full online access to new data added to their general practitioner (GP) record. However, this plan has not yet been fully implemented. Since April 2020, the GP contract in England has already committed to offering patients full online record access on a prospective basis and on request.
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