Monitoring emergency and urgent surgery: an improvement in a Healthcare Management Unit at a third-level hospital in Italy.

Introduction: At San Martino IRCCS Hospital in Genoa, Italy, emergency and urgent surgery is classified according to the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) classification, whereby cases are divided into two categories and colour-coded accordingly: - EMERGENCY - (Colour-code: RED) "Surgery to be performed within minutes"; - URGENCY - (colour-code: YELLOW) "Surgery to be performed within hours". In this context, it is essential that the emergency surgical team gets clear and complete information from the proposing surgeon, in order to complete the surgical list.

Methods: Between 14 April 2023 and 23 July 2023, a new method of requesting urgent and emergency surgery by filling out an online form was tested.

Adjuvanted influenza vaccine for the Italian elderly in the 2018/19 season: an updated health technology assessment.

Background: The elderly, defined here as subjects aged ≥ 65 years, are among at-risk subjects for whom annual influenza vaccination is recommended. For the 2018/19 season, three vaccine types are available for the elderly in Italy: trivalent inactivated vaccine (TIV), adjuvanted TIV (aTIV) and quadrivalent inactivated vaccines (QIV). No health technology assessment (HTA) of seasonal influenza vaccination in the elderly has previously been conducted in Italy.

Identifying people at risk for influenza with low vaccine uptake based on deprivation status: a systematic review.

Background: Influenza vaccination is an important public health intervention for controlling disease burden, but coverage rates are still low also in risk groups. In order to identify non-vaccinating subgroups, deprivation and socio-economic indices, i.e.

A comprehensive analysis of Italian web pages mentioning squalene-based influenza vaccine adjuvants reveals a high prevalence of misinformation.

Squalene-based adjuvants have been included in influenza vaccines since 1997. Despite several advantages of adjuvanted seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines, laypeople's perception of such formulations may be hesitant or even negative under certain circumstances. Moreover, in Italian, the term "squalene" has the same root as such common words as "shark" (squalo), "squalid" and "squalidness" that tend to have negative connotations.

The role of age-sex interaction in the development of post-herpetic neuralgia.

Post-herpetic neuralgia is the most frequent complication of herpes zoster and affects up to 30% of patients. Increased age is a well-recognized risk factor, while the role of gender is highly uncertain. Little research has been performed into a possible combined effect of age and sex in post-herpetic neuralgia.

Effectiveness of MF59-adjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccine in the elderly: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: In the elderly, traditional influenza inactivated vaccines are often only modestly immunogenic, owing to immunosenescence. Given that adjuvantation is a means of enhancing the immune response, the trivalent inactivated vaccine adjuvanted with MF59 (MF59-TIV) was specifically designed to overcome this problem. Considering that, for ethical reasons, the absolute effectiveness of an influenza vaccine in the elderly cannot be demonstrated in placebo-controlled studies, the present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of MF59-TIV in preventing influenza-related outcomes in the elderly.

An eHealth Project on Invasive Pneumococcal Disease: Comprehensive Evaluation of a Promotional Campaign.

Background: The recently launched Pneumo Rischio eHealth project, which consists of an app, a website, and social networking activity, is aimed at increasing public awareness of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). The launch of this project was prompted by the inadequate awareness of IPD among both laypeople and health care workers, the heavy socioeconomic burden of IPD, and the far from optimal vaccination coverage in Italy, despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines.

Objective: The objectives of our study were to analyze trends in Pneumo Rischio usage before and after a promotional campaign, to characterize its end users, and to assess its user-rated quality.

Clustering of health-related behaviors among early and mid-adolescents in Tuscany: results from a representative cross-sectional study.

Background: A huge amount of literature suggests that adolescents' health-related behaviors tend to occur in clusters, and the understanding of such behavioral clustering may have direct implications for the effective tailoring of health-promotion interventions. Despite the usefulness of analyzing clustering, Italian data on this topic are scant. This study aimed to evaluate the clustering patterns of health-related behaviors.

Assessing spatial inequalities in accessing community pharmacies: a mixed geographically weighted approach.

Geographical accessibility is an important determinant for the utilisation of community pharmacies. The present study explored patterns of spatial accessibility with respect to pharmacies in Liguria, Italy, a region with particular geographical and demographic features. Municipal density of pharmacies was proxied as the number of pharmacies per capita and per km2, and spatial autocorrelation analysis was performed to identify spatial clusters.

Development and validation of the Italian version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale and its generalisability to apps targeting primary prevention.

Background: A growing body of literature affirms the usefulness of mobile technologies, including mobile applications (apps), in the primary prevention field. The quality of health apps, which today number in the thousands, is a crucial parameter, as it may affect health-related decision-making and outcomes among app end-users. The mobile application rating scale (MARS) has recently been developed to evaluate the quality of such apps, and has shown good psychometric properties.

Development and preliminary data on the use of a mobile app specifically designed to increase community awareness of invasive pneumococcal disease and its prevention.

Given the growing use and great potential of mobile apps, this project aimed to develop and implement a user-friendly app to increase laypeople's knowledge and awareness of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). Despite the heavy burden of IPD, the documented low awareness of IPD among both laypeople and healthcare professionals and far from optimal pneumococcal vaccination coverage, no app specifically targeting IPD has been developed so far. The app was designed to be maximally functional and conceived in accordance with user-centered design.

The rat ErbB2 tyrosine kinase receptor produced in plants is immunogenic in mice and confers protective immunity against ErbB2(+) mammary cancer.

The rat ErbB2 (rErbB2) protein is a 185-kDa glycoprotein belonging to the epidermal growth factor-related proteins (ErbB) of receptor tyrosine kinases. Overexpression and mutations of ErbB proteins lead to several malignancies including breast, lung, pancreatic, bladder and ovary carcinomas. ErbB2 is immunogenic and is an ideal candidate for cancer immunotherapy.