An interrupted time-series analysis of the effects of withdrawal of financial incentives on diagnosis of atrial fibrillation as resolved. Does withdrawal of an incentive reverse its unintended effects?

Background: The UK introduced financial incentives for management of atrial fibrillation (AF) in 2006, after which there was an increase in the proportion of patients with AF diagnosed as resolved. Removal of incentives in Scotland provides a natural experiment to investigate the effects of withdrawal of an incentive on diagnosis of resolved AF.

Aim: To investigate the effects of introduction and withdrawal of financial incentives on the diagnosis of resolved AF.

Development and external validation of prognostic models for COVID-19 to support risk stratification in secondary care.

Objectives: Existing UK prognostic models for patients admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 are limited by reliance on comorbidities, which are under-recorded in secondary care, and lack of imaging data among the candidate predictors. Our aims were to develop and externally validate novel prognostic models for adverse outcomes (death and intensive therapy unit (ITU) admission) in UK secondary care and externally validate the existing 4C score.

Design: Candidate predictors included demographic variables, symptoms, physiological measures, imaging and laboratory tests.