Interorganisational collaboration to improve accessibility of diagnostic evaluations for children with a developmental disability.

Introduction: A timely integrated diagnostic and care trajectory for children with a developmental disability may prevent severe problems in later life. In Flanders, Belgium, different types of governmental regulated and subsidised settings offer diagnostic evaluations, as (part of) their mission. However, they operate in a non-coordinated way inducing severe accessibility problems for the public.

Development, Testing, and Implementation of the Belgian Patient Reported Experience Measure for Pancreatic Cancer Care (PREPARE) Project: Protocol for a Multi-Method Research Project.

Background: Patients with pancreatic cancer do not feel involved in the development of their treatment and care plans. In Belgium, these plans are decided on during multidisciplinary team meetings. However, limited time is spent on the discussion of the preferences of the patient during these meetings.

Exploring non-physician care professionals' roles in cancer multidisciplinary team meetings: A qualitative study.

The growing complexity of cancer care necessitates collaboration among different professionals. This interprofessional collaboration improves cancer care delivery and outcomes. Treatment decision-making within the context of a multidisciplinaire team meeting (MDTMs) may be seen as a particular form of interprofessional collaboration.

Organizational perspectives and diagnostic evaluations for children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Aim: To clarify organizational perspectives on diagnostic evaluations for children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), with the goal to enhance interorganizational collaboration and improve accessibility.

Method: Focus groups with expert stakeholders in Flanders, Belgium, were organized. Data were analyzed in a continuous, comparative method with researcher and data triangulation, and a member check validation.

Understanding the Complexity, Underlying Processes, and Influencing Factors for Optimal Multidisciplinary Teamwork in Hospital-Based Cancer Teams: A Systematic Integrative Review.

Background: Multidisciplinary teamwork has become the standard in care for oncological patients and their treatment trajectory when comprehensive, holistic, and high-quality cancer care is needed. Working together from a variety of perspectives is difficult to achieve and has well-known pitfalls, such as miscommunication and poor coordination.

Objective: To describe and synthesize the factors influencing and the processes underlying optimal multidisciplinary teamwork.

Key dimensions of collaboration quality in mental health care service networks.

Appropriate care delivery for patients with severe mental illness (SMI) requires a high level of collaboration quality between primary, mental health, and social care services. Few studies have addressed the interpersonal and inter-organizational components of collaboration within one unique study setting and it is unclear how these components contribute to overall collaboration quality. Using a comprehensive model that includes ten key indicators of collaboration in relation to both components, we evaluated how interpersonal and inter-organizational collaboration quality were associated in 19 networks that included 994 services across Belgium.

How multidisciplinary are multidisciplinary team meetings in cancer care? An observational study in oncology departments in Flanders, Belgium.

Background: In current cancer care, multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTMs) aim at uniting care professionals from different disciplines to decide upon the best possible treatment plan for the patients based on the available scientific evidence. In Belgium, the multidisciplinary approach is mandatory and formally regulated since 2003. Current research indicates that MDTMs are not always truly multidisciplinary, ie, with a mix of medical as well as paramedical disciplines, and that the medical profession (physicians and medical specialists) tends to dominate the interaction in MDTMs.

Effectiveness of Health and Social Service Networks for Severely Mentally Ill Patients' Outcomes: A Case-Control Study.

Mental health and social care services networks aim to provide patients with continuity of care and support their recovery. There is, however, no conclusive evidence of their effectiveness. Since 2011, Belgium has been implementing a nation-wide reform of mental health care by commissioning service networks.

Qualitative assessment of opportunities and challenges to improve evidence-informed health policy-making in Hungary - an EVIPNet situation analysis pilot.

Background: In evidence-informed policy-making (EIP), major knowledge gaps remain in understanding the context and possibilities for institutionalisation of knowledge translation. In 2014, the WHO Evidence-informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Europe initiated a number of pilot countries, with Hungary among them, to engage in a 'situation analysis' (SA) in order to fill some of those gaps. This contribution discusses the results of the SA in Hungary on research-policy interactions, facilitating factors and potential barriers to establish a knowledge translation platform (KTP).

Input of Psychosocial Information During Multidisciplinary Team Meetings at Medical Oncology Departments: Protocol for an Observational Study.

Background: Multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTMs) have become standard practice in oncology and gained the status of the key decision-making forum for cancer patient management. The current literature provides evidence that MDTMs are achieving their intended objectives but there are also indications to question the positive impact of MDTMs in oncology settings. For cancer management to be patient-centered, it is crucial that medical information as well as psychosocial aspects-such as the patients' living situation, possible family problems, patients' mental state, and patients' perceptions and values or preferences towards treatment or care-are considered and discussed during MDTMs.

Emergency psychiatric care for children and adolescents: a literature review.

Objectives: Over the years, increasing numbers of children and adolescents have sought help for acute psychiatric problems. The responses to this treatment-seeking behavior are heterogeneous in different settings and nations. This review aimed to provide an answer to the questions "which care should be offered to children and adolescents presenting with a psychiatric emergency or crisis and how should it be organized.

Illness trajectory and Internet as a health information and communication channel used by parents of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit.

Background: Internet use became an integral part of the healthcare relationship. Literature indicates that the illness trajectory plays a role in the use of Internet as a health information tool. This study focuses on infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit.

Using threshold values for cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained in healthcare decisions.

Background: In many countries, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) is used to assess whether an intervention is worth its costs. At the same time, policy makers often feel uncomfortable with refusing reimbursement of any intervention purely on the basis of the fact that the ICER exceeds a specific threshold value. Reluctance to define a single threshold value for the ICER seems to have been stronger in social security systems than in national healthcare services systems.

Information behaviour of parents of children admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit: Constructing a conceptual framework.

This article explores the concepts 'information behaviour' and 'illness trajectory' at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). On the basis of literature review and exploratory interviews with neonatologists and head nurses of Belgian NICUs a conceptual framework is presented. The 'information behaviour' of parents of infants admitted to a NICU is analytically divided into five dimensions: ways of getting information; interpersonal information sources; time-related issues; location of information transfer; and content of information.

Variations in follow-up services after inpatient stroke rehabilitation: a multicentre study.

Background: Care after discharge from inpatient stroke rehabilitation units varies across Europe. The aim of this study was to compare service delivery after discharge.

Methods: A total of 532 consecutive patients after stroke were recruited from 4 European rehabilitation centres in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the UK.

Information needs of parents of children admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit: a review of the literature (1990-2008).

Objective: This literature review focuses on information and communication needs of parents of children admitted to the NICU and on their use of information sources in the illness trajectories at NICU.

Methods: Literature search in 4 electronic databases (Ovid Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Sociological Abstracts), covering 1990-March 2008.

Results: The seventy-eight included articles revealed that NICU parents have high information needs.

Anxiety and depression in the first six months after stroke. A longitudinal multicentre study.

Purpose: To document the prevalence, severity and time course of anxiety and depression in stroke rehabilitation patients in four European countries.

Method: At two, four and six months post-stroke, the prevalence and severity of anxiety and depression were determined in 532 consecutively recruited patients, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Time course of prevalence and severity was examined, using Cochran-Q and Friedman-tests, respectively.

A methodology for shifting the focus of e-health support design onto user needs: a case in the homecare field.

Background: Epidemiological shifts, financial pressures and changing policy priorities in healthcare initiate reflections on innovative ways to deliver care. Technologies offer opportunities to change health services delivery. One of the emerging fields is telehomecare-applications.

Motor and functional recovery after stroke: a comparison of 4 European rehabilitation centers.

Background And Purpose: Outcome after first stroke varies significantly across Europe. This study was designed to compare motor and functional recovery after stroke between four European rehabilitation centers.

Methods: Consecutive stroke patients (532 patients) were recruited.

Inpatient stroke rehabilitation: a comparative study of admission criteria to stroke rehabilitation units in four European centres.

Objective: To explore the clinical and non-clinical factors involved in decision-making concerning admission to European stroke rehabilitation units.

Design: Observational study on case-mix at intake combined with questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with the medical consultants of each European stroke rehabilitation unit.

Patients And Settings: Clinical data on 532 first-ever patients after stroke.

Effect of socioeconomic status on functional and motor recovery after stroke: a European multicentre study.

Background: Previous studies have shown an inverse gradient in socioeconomic status for disability after stroke. However, no distinction has been made between the period in the stroke rehabilitation unit (SRU) and the period after discharge. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of education and equivalent income on motor and functional recovery for both periods.

Use of time by physiotherapists and occupational therapists in a stroke rehabilitation unit: a comparison between four European rehabilitation centres.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the time allocated to therapeutic activities (TA) and non-therapeutic activities (NTA) of physiotherapists (PT) and occupational therapists (OT) in stroke rehabilitation units in four European countries.

Method: Therapists documented their activities in 15-min periods for two weeks. They recorded: activity, number of patients, number of stroke patients, involvement of other people, location and frequency of each activity.

Balancing evidence and public opinion in health technology assessments: the case of leukoreduction.

Leukoreduction, filtering white blood cells from transfusion blood, effectively avoids leukocyte-related complications of blood transfusion. The technology has proven its relative cost-effectiveness for specific patient populations. With the advent of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a transmittable spongiform encephalopathy caused by mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), the hard hit United Kingdom introduced universal leukoreduction for all patients as a precaution for transmission of prions in 1999.

Stroke rehabilitation in Europe: what do physiotherapists and occupational therapists actually do?

Background And Purpose: Physiotherapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) are key components of stroke rehabilitation. Little is known about their content. This study aimed to define and compare the content of PT and OT for stroke patients between 4 European rehabilitation centers.