Evaluation of myCOPD Digital Self-management Technology in a Remote and Rural Population: Real-world Feasibility Study.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common, costly, and incurable respiratory disease affecting 1.2 million people in the United Kingdom alone. Acute COPD exacerbations requiring hospitalization place significant demands on health services, and the incidence of COPD in poor, remote, and rural populations is up to twice that of cities.

The identification of topics for research that are important to people with ulcerative colitis.

Objectives: To identify topics for research that are important to people with ulcerative colitis, and to provide a framework by which their research priorities can be analysed.

Methods: This is a qualitative study using focus groups and interviews. Forty people with ulcerative colitis participated.

Hearts and mouths: perceptions of oral hygiene by at-risk heart surgery patients.

Objective: To assess and use the attitudes of patients who are placed at risk after valvular heart surgery due to the connection between poor oral hygiene, valvular heart disease/surgery and the risk of developing infective endocarditis.

Design: A qualitative (focus group) design based study carried out on subjects three months post heart surgery.

Method: There were five focus groups of five participants each convened by an experienced moderator.

Frequency of anesthesia-related complications in children with Down syndrome under general anesthesia for noncardiac procedures.

Background: Craniofacial and cardiac anomalies of Down syndrome (DS; trisomy 21) would seem to place these patients at higher risk of anesthesia-related complications (ARCs), but to date no comprehensive large-scale study has quantified this risk.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted on all patients with DS undergoing anesthesia between April 1, 1988, and May 31, 1995, at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. In addition, the Anesthesiology Department Quality Assurance (QA) System database of concurrently collected anesthesia information on all patients undergoing anesthesia at the hospital since 1985 was analyzed.

A qualitative study, using focused interviews, of the information needs of families whose children's names are on a cerebral palsy register.

Background: We were concerned that information held on a register of children with cerebral palsy was not being made available to contributing families, and that the existence and purpose of the register was not sufficiently understood.

Methods: Focused interviews with 13 families selected by purposive sampling.

Results: Many parents would like more information about the data on registers which include their child.