Regional Collaboration for Heart Failure Patients Certified as Needing Support or Care in Long-Term Care Insurance System.

Background: Heart failure (HF) patients with complex care needs often experience exacerbations during the transitional phase as care providers and settings change. Regional collaboration aims to ensure continuity of care; however, its impact on vulnerable patients certified as needing support or care under the Japanese long-term care insurance (LTCI) system remains unclear.

Methods And Results: We implemented a regional collaborative program for HF patients involving 3 pillars of transitional care with general practitioners and nursing care facilities: (1) standardized health monitoring using a patient diary and identification of exacerbation warning signs; (2) standardized information sharing among care providers; and (3) standardized HF management manuals.

Association of a Transitional Heart Failure Management Program With Readmission and End-of-Life Care in Rural Japan.

Evidence on transitional care for heart failure (HF) in Japan is limited. We implemented a transitional HF management program in rural Japan in 2019. This involved collaboration with general practitioners or nursing care facilities and included symptom monitoring by medical/nursing staff using a handbook; standardized discharge care planning and information sharing on self-care and advance care planning using a collaborative sheet; and sharing expertise on HF management via manuals.

Factors affecting the willingness of nursing care staffs for cooperation with heart failure care and the role of internet video education.

Background: With the aging of heart failure (HF) patients, collaboration between medical and nursing care facilities is essential for HF care. The aims of this study were: (1) to identify the factors that affect willingness of nursing care staffs to cooperate with HF care; (2) to test whether the internet video education is useful in improving their willingness to collaborate.

Methods: A web-based questionnaire was e-mailed to 417 registered medical corporations that operated nursing care facilities in the prefecture where the authors work.

Differences in needs for community collaboration for heart failure between medical and nursing care staff.

The increased numbers of older and frail patients with heart failure (HF) means there is an urgent need to establish regional collaborative systems for medical and nursing care. However, expectations related to collaborative HF care among medical and care staff remain unclear. We conducted a questionnaire survey with staff in hospitals, clinics, and nursing care facilities (NCFs) who had experienced collaboration through the common HF collaborative pathway in the western region of Tottori Prefecture, Japan, from July 2019 to July 2020.

Considerations for intravascular administration of oncolytic herpes virus for the treatment of multiple liver metastases.

Purpose: Oncolytic viral therapy is a newly developed modality for treating tumors. Many clinical trials using oncolytic virus have been performed worldwide, but most of them have used local injection in the tumor. Determination of the effect and safety of intravascular virus injection instead of local injection is necessary for clinical use against multiple liver metastases and systemic metastases.

Effects of tumor selective replication-competent herpes viruses in combination with gemcitabine on pancreatic cancer.

Purpose: Pancreatic cancer still has a poor prognosis, even if aggressive therapy is pursued. Currently, new modalities of oncolytic virus therapy are being tested against this cancer. The combination of one of two representative mutant herpes simplex viruses (R3616: gamma(1)34.

Hyperlactemia can predict the prognosis of liver resection.

Although hyperlactemia is known to accompany hepatic failure and metabolic acidosis, few reports examined the relationships between lactate concentrations and outcome after liver resection. We examined the ability of arterial plasma lactate concentration to predict the patient outcome after hepatectomy. The relationships of arterial lactate and base excess (BE) measured on admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) after hepatectomy to postoperative outcome were investigated in 151 consecutive patients.