Home care for heart failure: can caregiver education prevent hospital admissions? A randomized trial in primary care.

Aim: To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of a low-complexity, low-cost model of caregiver education in primary care, targeted to reduce hospitalizations of heart failure patients.

Methods: A cluster-randomized, controlled, open trial was proposed to general practitioners, who were invited to identify patients with heart failure, exclusively managed at home and continuously attended by a caregiver. Participating general practitioners were then randomized to: usual treatment; caregiver education (educational session for recognizing early symptoms/signs of heart failure, with recording in a diary of a series of patient parameters, including body weight, blood pressure, heart rate).

Validity of hospital discharge records to identify pregestational diabetes in an Italian population.

Aims: In recent years, the prevalence of pregestational diabetes (PGDM) and the concern about the possibility of adverse pregnancy outcomes in affected women have been increasing. Routinely collected health data represent a timely and cost-efficient approach in PGDM epidemiological research. This study aims to evaluate the reliability of hospital discharge (HD) coding to identify a population-based cohort of pregnant women with PGDM and to assess trends in prevalence in two provinces of Northern Italy.

Long term effectiveness on prescribing of two multifaceted educational interventions: results of two large scale randomized cluster trials.

Introduction: Information on benefits and risks of drugs is a key element affecting doctors' prescribing decisions. Outreach visits promoting independent information have proved moderately effective in changing prescribing behaviours.

Objectives: Testing the short and long-term effectiveness on general practitioners' prescribing of small groups meetings led by pharmacists.

Feasibility and effectiveness of a low cost campaign on antibiotic prescribing in Italy: community level, controlled, non-randomised trial.

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that a multifaceted, local public campaign could be feasible and influence antibiotic prescribing for outpatients.

Design: Community level, controlled, non-randomised trial.

Setting: Provinces of Modena and Parma in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, November 2011 to February 2012.

Assessing paediatric asthma occurrence through dispensed prescription data and questionnaires.

Background: The prevalence of asthma, a common disorder in childhood, is often estimated by cross-sectional studies based on questionnaires, with the drawback that estimates are limited to certain age groups and areas. The use of electronic health data is increasingly allowing researchers to overcome these limitations. This study is aimed at assessing asthma occurrence of a school-aged population in Northeast Italy using two different data sources.

[Computerized medical records in monitoring hypertension. Longitudinal and horizontal evaluation of 25 general practitioners in a primary care setting of Modena, Italy].

This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of a computerized-based Clinical Record in monitoring hypertension in a Primary Care Setting. Blood pressure (BP) recording increased by 62% to 70% in the years 2004 to 2006. No improvement, however, was noticeable in the achievement of gold-standard targets in BP control (62% in all period).

Randomised controlled trials for evaluating the prescribing impact of information meetings led by pharmacists and of new information formats, in General Practice in Italy.

Background: Suboptimal translation of valid and relevant information in clinical practice is a problem for all health systems. Lack of information independent from commercial influences, limited efforts to actively implement evidence-based information and its limited comprehensibility are important determinants of this gap and may influence an excessive variability in physicians' prescriptions. This is quite noticeable in Italy, where the philosophy and methods of Evidence-Based Medicine still enjoy limited diffusion among practitioners.