Texting to Reduce Alcohol Misuse (TRAM): main findings from a randomized controlled trial of a text message intervention to reduce binge drinking among disadvantaged men.

Aims: To test the effectiveness of a theoretically based text-message intervention to reduce binge drinking among socially disadvantaged men.

Design: A multi-centre parallel group, pragmatic, individually randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Community-based study conducted in four regions of Scotland.

Alcohol and disadvantaged men: A feasibility trial of an intervention delivered by mobile phone.

Introduction And Aims: Disadvantaged men suffer substantial harm from heavy drinking. This feasibility study developed and evaluated the methods for a trial of a brief intervention delivered by text messages to disadvantaged men. It aimed to test the methods for recruitment and retention, to monitor engagement with the intervention and assess the overall acceptability of study methods.

A primary care Web-based Intervention Modeling Experiment replicated behavior changes seen in earlier paper-based experiment.

Objectives: Intervention Modeling Experiments (IMEs) are a way of developing and testing behavior change interventions before a trial. We aimed to test this methodology in a Web-based IME that replicated the trial component of an earlier, paper-based IME.

Study Design And Setting: Three-arm, Web-based randomized evaluation of two interventions (persuasive communication and action plan) and a "no intervention" comparator.

A mobile phone intervention to reduce binge drinking among disadvantaged men: study protocol for a randomised controlled cost-effectiveness trial.

Background: Socially disadvantaged men are at a substantially higher risk of developing alcohol-related problems. The frequency of heavy drinking in a single session is high among disadvantaged men. Brief alcohol interventions were developed for, and are usually delivered in, healthcare settings.

Paper-based and web-based intervention modeling experiments identified the same predictors of general practitioners' antibiotic-prescribing behavior.

Objectives: To evaluate the robustness of the intervention modeling experiment (IME) methodology as a way of developing and testing behavioral change interventions before a full-scale trial by replicating an earlier paper-based IME.

Study Design And Setting: Web-based questionnaire and clinical scenario study. General practitioners across Scotland were invited to complete the questionnaire and scenarios, which were then used to identify predictors of antibiotic-prescribing behavior.

Can text messages reach the parts other process measures cannot reach: an evaluation of a behavior change intervention delivered by mobile phone?

Background: Process evaluation is essential in developing, piloting and evaluating complex interventions. This often involves observation of intervention delivery and interviews with study participants. Mobile telephone interventions involve no face to face contact, making conventional process evaluation difficult.

E-mail invitations to general practitioners were as effective as postal invitations and were more efficient.

Objective: To evaluate which of two invitation methods, e-mail or post, was most effective at recruiting general practitioners (GPs) to an online trial.

Study Design And Setting: Randomized controlled trial. Participants were GPs in Scotland, United Kingdom.

Developing and evaluating interventions to reduce inappropriate prescribing by general practitioners of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections: a randomised controlled trial to compare paper-based and web-based modelling experiments.

Background: Much implementation research is focused on full-scale trials with little evidence of preceding modelling work. The Medical Research Council Framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions has argued for more and better theoretical and exploratory work prior to a trial as a means of improving intervention development. Intervention modelling experiments (IMEs) are a way of exploring and refining an intervention before moving to a full-scale trial.

Reducing prescribing errors: can a well-designed electronic system help?

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: In this study, the aim was to investigate if an electronic prescribing system designed specifically to reduce errors would lead to fewer errors in prescribing medicines in a secondary care setting.

Method: The electronic system was compared with paper prescription charts on 16 intensive care patients to assess any change in the number of prescribing errors.

Results: The overall level of compliance with nationally accepted standards was significantly higher with the electronic system (91.

Automated assessment of polyethylene wear in cemented acetabular components using anteroposterior radiographs of total hip replacements.

Polyethylene wear in the acetabular components of hip prostheses is implicated in loosening and failure. Radiographic measurement of wear is used to identify patients at risk and to assess prosthesis designs. This paper focuses on analysis of prostheses with cemented acetabular cups from anteroposterior (AP) radiographs.

Decision-making about mode of delivery after previous caesarean section: development and piloting of two computer-based decision aids.

Objective: To develop and pilot two computer-based decision aids to assist women with decision-making about mode of delivery after a previous caesarean section (CS), which could then be evaluated in a randomized-controlled trial.

Background: Women with a previous CS are faced with a decision between repeat elective CS and vaginal birth after caesarean. Research has shown that women may benefit from access to comprehensive information about the risks and benefits of the delivery options.

Learning active shape models for bifurcating contours.

Statistical shape models are often learned from examples based on landmark correspondences between annotated examples. A method is proposed for learning such models from contours with inconsistent bifurcations and loops. Automatic segmentation of tibial and femoral contours in knee X-ray images is investigated as a step towards reliable, quantitative radiographic analysis of osteoarthritis for diagnosis and assessment of progression.