Telemedicine as a tool for continuing medical education.

Background: There is a growing interest in the use of digital technologies to foster learning in the health professions, along with the drive to expand teleconsultations arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to explore whether telemedicine between levels of care can act as continuous medical education (CME) tool for general practitioners (GPs) and hospital consultants at the referral cardiology department.

Methods: This qualitative study was embedded in an organizational case study of the introduction of a new service model in the Portuguese health system.

Interaction at the primary-secondary care interface: Patients' and physicians' perceptions of teleconsultations.

Introduction: Previous qualitative research on teleconsultations has focused on synchronous communication between a patient and a clinician. This study aims to explore physicians' and patients' perceptions of the interaction on the interface between primary care and the Cardiology service of a referral hospital through teleconsultations.

Methods: This qualitative study was embedded in an organizational case study concerning the introduction and rollout of a new service model that took place at the point of care.

Barriers and facilitators to implementing a continuing medical education intervention in a primary health care setting.

Background: Continuing medical education (CME), as a systematic attempt to facilitate change in General Practitioners' (GPs) practices, is considered crucial, assuming that if physicians are up-to-date, they will change and improve their practice, resulting in better performance and ultimately better patient care. However, studies continue to demonstrate considerable gaps between the real and ideal performance and patient-related outcomes. The objective of this study was to explore GP's perception of the factors affecting the implementation of a CME digital platform in a primary health care setting in Portugal.

Teleconsultations and their implications for health care: A qualitative study on patients' and physicians' perceptions.

Background: Digitization in everyday medical practice has gained importance along with the drive to expand teleconsultations arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous qualitative research on teleconsultations has focused on synchronous communication between patients and clinicians. This study aims to explore physicians' and patients' perspectives on the adoption of teleconsultations between primary care and the referral cardiology department.

Implementing an Online Program to Change Benzodiazepine Prescription: Protocol of a Hybrid Type 1 Cluster-Randomised Trial.

Introduction: Excessive benzodiazepine (BZD) prescription has long been considered a serious mental health concern in many countries. Many interventions using different methodologies have been implemented to change BZD prescription patterns in primary health care settings, with limited positive results.

Objectives: The primary objective of our study was to analyse the effectiveness and implementation process of an intervention aimed at changing BZD prescription patterns in a primary health care setting in Portugal.

PTEN mediates Notch-dependent stalk cell arrest in angiogenesis.

Coordinated activity of VEGF and Notch signals guides the endothelial cell (EC) specification into tip and stalk cells during angiogenesis. Notch activation in stalk cells leads to proliferation arrest via an unknown mechanism. By using gain- and loss-of-function gene-targeting approaches, here we show that PTEN is crucial for blocking stalk cell proliferation downstream of Notch, and this is critical for mouse vessel development.

Strabismus, visual acuity, and uncorrected refractive error in portuguese children aged 6 to 11 years.

Introduction: Visual anomalies that affect school-age children represent an important public health problem. Data on the prevalence are lacking in Portugal but is needed for planning vision services. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of strabismus, decreased visual acuity, and uncorrected refractive error in Portuguese children aged 6 to 11 years.

Inhibition of the p110α isoform of PI 3-kinase stimulates nonfunctional tumor angiogenesis.

Understanding the direct, tumor cell-intrinsic effects of PI 3-kinase (PI3K) has been a key focus of research to date. Here, we report that cancer cell-extrinsic PI3K activity, mediated by the p110α isoform of PI3K, contributes in an unexpected way to tumor angiogenesis. In syngeneic mouse models, inactivation of stromal p110α led to increased vascular density, reduced vessel size, and altered pericyte coverage.

Outcomes from ovarian hyperstimulation following the sole administration of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist in the context of in vitro fertilization: report of two cases and review of the literature.

Objective: To report the outcomes from two cases of ovarian stimulation following the sole administration of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) in the context of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Design: A case study was conducted.

Setting: National Referral Unit of Reproductive Medicine.

[Controlled ovarian stimulation and intrauterine insemination: an actual therapy?].

Purpose: To evaluate the pregnancy rate in intrauterine insemination (IUI), and to determine possible prognostic factors of successful pregnancy.

Methods: A retrospective study of IUI cycles performed in the Reproductive Medicine Unit of Vila Nova de Gaia Hospital, between January 2007 and July 2010. The IUI cycles were preceded by ovarian stimulation and monitored by vaginal ultrasound.

Medical technocracies in liver transplantation: drawing boundaries in medical practices.

This article explores the ways in which the mastery of particular medical technologies plays a crucial role in drawing the boundaries between medical specialities, to form what we refer to as medical technocracies. It sets out, above all, to demonstrate how the frontiers between the different medical specialities act, on the one hand, as articulating mechanisms to be found in the division of medical work and, on the other hand, as barriers to the interaction of the various skills. Through a more searching study of the division of labour between surgeons and liver specialists (hepatologists) and surgeons and anaesthetics, we highlight the contrast between those two sets of relations.