Identifying health-related quality of life concepts to inform the development of the WOUND-Q.

Objective: The impact of hard-to-heal wounds extends beyond traditional clinical metrics, negatively affecting a patient's health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Yet treatment outcomes are seldom measured from the patient's perspective. The purpose of the present study was to perform in-depth qualitative interviews with patients diagnosed with varying types of hard-to-heal wounds to identify outcomes important to them.

SCI-QOL and WOUND-Q Have the Best Patient-reported Outcome Measure Design: A Systematic Literature Review of PROMs Used in Chronic Wounds.

Unlabelled: Chronic wounds are a significant burden on healthcare systems due to high costs of care (2%-4% total healthcare cost) and a considerable burden on patient's quality of life. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are questionnaires developed to enable patient self-assessments of their outcomes. A gap in knowledge exists because previous reviews on wound-specific PROMs did not evaluate the quality of the development.

International study to develop the WOUND-Q patient-reported outcome measure for all types of chronic wounds.

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for chronic wounds mainly focus on specific types of wounds. Our team developed the WOUND-Q for use with all types of wounds in any anatomic location. We conducted 60 concept elicitation interviews with patients in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States.

Patient-reported experience measures are essential to improving quality of care for chronic wounds: An international qualitative study.

Traditional quality measures for chronic wounds have focused on objective outcomes that are challenging to risk adjust, lack patient input, and have limited ability to inform quality improvement interventions. Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) provide information from the patient perspective regarding health care quality and have potential to improve patient-centredness, increase care efficiency, and generate actionable data for quality improvement. The purpose of this study was to understand patient experiences and health care processes that impact quality of care among patients with chronic wounds.

International mixed methods study protocol to develop a patient-reported outcome measure for all types of chronic wounds (the WOUND-Q).

Introduction: Most patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) for chronic wounds are specific to a single wound type (eg, pressure ulcer) or part of the body. A barrier to outcome assessment in wound care and research is the lack of a rigorously designed PROM that can be used across wound types and locations. This mixed method study describes the protocol for an international collaboration to develop and validate a new PROM called the WOUND-Q for adults with chronic wounds.

Effect of smoke-free legislation on the incidence of sudden circulatory arrest in the Netherlands.

Objective: To investigate whether smoke-free legislation in the Netherlands led to a decreased incidence of out-of-hospital sudden circulatory arrest (SCA). Smoke-free legislation was implemented in two phases: a workplace ban in 2004 and an extension of this ban to the hospitality sector on 1 July 2008.

Design: Weekly incidence data on SCA were obtained from the ambulance registry of South Limburg, the Netherlands.