Publications by authors named "Per O Vandvik"

Clinical Question: In adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis), or psoriasis taking biologic drugs, does proactive therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) improve outcomes as compared with standard care?

Context And Current Practice: Standard care for immune mediated inflammatory diseases includes prescribing biologic drugs at pre-determined doses. Dosing may be adjusted reactively, for example with increased disease activity. In proactive TDM, serum drug levels and anti-drug antibodies are measured irrespective of disease activity, and the drug dosing is adjusted to achieve target serum drug levels, usually within pre-specified therapeutic ranges.

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  • SGLT-2 inhibitors have been shown to provide cardiovascular and kidney benefits for adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD), regardless of whether they have type 2 diabetes or not.
  • Current guidelines are incomplete as they do not fully consider the latest evidence or provide specific recommendations based on varying risk levels of CKD progression.
  • The guideline panel recommends SGLT-2 inhibitors for adults with CKD, with stronger recommendations for those at higher risk of disease progression and complications.
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  • The study explores the use of computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) in the resect-and-discard strategy for the optical diagnosis of diminutive polyps during colonoscopy, aiming to improve diagnosis and reduce unnecessary pathology assessments.
  • It involved a systematic review of existing research to analyze the effectiveness of CADx systems compared to traditional histology for small polyps (≤5 mm), including comparisons of CADx-assisted and unassisted methods.
  • The meta-analysis included 11 studies with a total of 7400 polyps examined, highlighting the potential benefits and harms of using CADx in terms of accurate diagnosis and avoidance of false positives/negatives.
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  • Poverty-related diseases are a major cause of death in children under five in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the need for effective clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) to improve health outcomes.
  • The Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) project aims to enhance the development of CPGs by strengthening the capacity of researchers and decision-makers to utilize global research in Malawi, South Africa, and Nigeria over three years.
  • The project's monitoring and evaluation work package will assess the impact of various activities on local stakeholder engagement, capacity development, and the application of evidence in decision-making processes.
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Objectives: To map whether and how systematic reviews (SRs) with network meta-analysis (NMA) use presentation formats to report (a) structured evidence summaries - here defined as reporting of effects estimates in absolute effects with certainty ratings and with a method to rate interventions across one or more outcome(s) - and (b) NMA results in general.

Study Design And Setting: We conducted a systematic survey, searching MEDLINE (Ovid) for SRs with NMA published between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021. We planned to include a random sample of publications, with predefined mechanisms in place for saturation, and included SRs that met prespecified quality criteria and extracted data on presentation formats that reported: (a) estimates of effects, (b) certainty of the evidence, or (c) rating of interventions.

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Objectives: To evaluate and improve "Making Alternative Treatment Choices Intuitive and Trustworthy" (MATCH-IT)-a digital, interactive decision support tool displaying structured evidence summaries for multiple comparisons-to help physicians interpret and apply evidence from network meta-analysis (NMA) for their clinical decision-making.

Study Design And Setting: We conducted a qualitative user testing study, applying principles from user-centered design in an iterative development process. We recruited a convenience sample of practicing physicians in Norway, Belgium, and Canada, and asked them to interpret structured evidence summaries for multiple comparisons-linked to clinical guideline recommendations-displayed in MATCH-IT.

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  • Computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) aims to improve the prediction of polyp histology during colonoscopy, potentially decreasing unnecessary removals of harmless polyps, though its overall benefits and risks remain uncertain.
  • The study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of CADx for diagnosing small rectosigmoid polyps (≤5-mm) by comparing the accuracy of endoscopists' predictions with and without CADx assistance.
  • Analysis of ten studies involving over 3,600 patients indicated that while CADx showed high sensitivity (87.3%) and specificity (88.9%) in identifying neoplastic polyps, there was no significant change in the rate of nonneoplastic polyps predicted to be avoided for removal when CADx
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Background: Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest under-five mortality rate globally. Child healthcare decisions should be based on rigorously developed evidence-informed guidelines. The Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) project is enhancing capacity to use global research to develop locally relevant guidelines for newborn and child health in South Africa (SA), Malawi, and Nigeria.

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  • Pharmacotherapy can help adults with overweight and obesity lose weight when lifestyle changes aren't effective, and recent studies provide insights into the effectiveness and safety of these drugs.
  • A systematic review identified 132 randomized trials involving over 48,000 participants, concluding that all weight-lowering medications significantly outperformed lifestyle changes in reducing body weight.
  • Phentermine-topiramate emerged as the most effective option, while some drugs, including naltrexone-bupropion and GLP-1 receptor agonists, were linked to a higher risk of adverse events leading to treatment discontinuation, although semaglutide demonstrated significant benefits without escalating risks.
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Background: Open-door policy is a recommended framework to reduce coercion in psychiatric wards. However, existing observational data might not fully capture potential increases in harm and use of coercion associated with open-door policies. In this first randomised controlled trial, we compared coercive practices in open-door policy and treatment-as-usual wards in an urban hospital setting.

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Background: Low and middle-income countries remain disproportionately affected by high rates of child mortality. Clinical practice guidelines are essential clinical tools supporting implementation of effective, safe, and cost-effective healthcare. High-quality evidence-based guidelines play a key role in improving clinical management to impact child mortality.

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  • The text discusses the effectiveness of various therapies for chronic pain related to temporomandibular disorders (TMD), which impact a significant percentage of adults worldwide.
  • Current guidelines for treating TMD are primarily based on consensus, leading to inconsistent recommendations across the board.
  • Strong recommendations favor cognitive behavioral therapy and physical interventions like supervised exercises, while conditional recommendations address a mix of both supportive and discouraged treatments, such as acupuncture and the use of certain medications.
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In recent years, several novel agents have become available to treat individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D), such as sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i), tirzepatide, which is a dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor agonist (GIP RA)/glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA), and finerenone, a non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) that confers significant renal and cardiovascular benefits in individuals with (CKD). New medications have the potential to improve the lives of individuals with diabetes. However, clinicians are challenged to understand the benefits and potential risks associated with these new and emerging treatment options.

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Objectives: To investigate medical students' ability to interpret evidence, as well as their self-assessed understandability, perceived usefulness and preferences for design alternatives in an interactive decision support tool, displaying GRADE evidence summaries for multiple treatment options (Making Alternative Treatment CHoices Intuitive and Trustworthy, MATCH-IT).

Design: A combined randomised controlled trial and survey. Participants were presented with a clinical scenario and randomised to one of two versions of the MATCH-IT tool (A/B), instructed to explore the evidence and decide on a recommendation.

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  • The 'Oslo Chronic Fatigue Consortium' challenges the belief that chronic fatigue syndromes, like post-covid conditions, are untreatable diseases, offering a more hopeful perspective for patients.
  • The consortium suggests that symptoms are linked to the brain's response to various biological, psychological, and social factors rather than being tied to a specific illness, and emphasizes how perception of these symptoms can influence their persistence.
  • They advocate for a shift in approach from prolonged rest and isolation to encouraging patients to understand their symptoms differently and gradually resume normal activities, while also promoting open discussions that include recovered patients' insights.
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  • AI-assisted detection during colonoscopy can improve adenoma detection rates (ADRs), potentially reducing the number of missed adenomas, but may lead to more nonneoplastic polyps being removed.
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 randomized trials involving over 18,000 patients showed a significant increase in ADRs with AI assistance compared to standard colonoscopy.
  • The study found that while the AI group detected more polyps, the extra time spent during the procedure was minimal, suggesting a balance between improved detection and the risk of overdiagnosis.
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Objectives: To explore guideline panelists' understanding of panel surveys for eliciting panels' inferences regarding patient values and preferences, and the influence of the surveys on making recommendations.

Study Design And Setting: We performed sampling and data collection from all four guideline panels that had conducted the surveys through October 2020. We collected the records of all panel meetings and interviewed some panelists in different roles.

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Objective: Universally acknowledged standards for trustworthy guidelines include the necessity to ground recommendations in patient values and preferences. When information is limited-which is typically the case-guideline panels often find it difficult to explicitly integrate patient values and preferences into their recommendations. Our objective was to develop and evaluate a framework for systematically navigating guideline panels in incorporating patient values and preferences in making recommendations.

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  • The study aims to evaluate the pros and cons of various drug treatments for adults with type 2 diabetes, including new options like non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists and tirzepatide.
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted on data from 816 trials involving over 471,000 patients, focusing on drug classes with a follow-up period of at least 24 weeks.
  • Findings indicate that SGLT-2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists significantly lower the risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular events, while finerenone shows potential in reducing hospitalization for heart failure, although certainty of evidence varies for other drugs.
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Objective: To determine the harms of ezetimibe in people who need lipid-lowering treatment.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data Sources: Randomised controlled trials and cohort studies.

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Objective: To determine the harms of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors in people who need lipid-lowering therapy.

Methods: This systematic review included randomised controlled trials that compared PCSK9 inhibitors with placebo, standard care or active lipid-lowering comparators in people who need lipid-lowering therapy with the follow-up duration of at least 24 weeks. We summarised the relative effects for potential harms from PCSK9 inhibitors using random-effect pairwise meta-analyses and assessed the certainty of evidence using GRADE (Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation) for each outcome.

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Objective: To compare the impact of ezetimibe and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors on cardiovascular outcomes in adults taking maximally tolerated statin therapy or who are statin intolerant.

Design: Network meta-analysis.

Data Sources: Medline, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library up to 31 December 2020.

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