Cost-utility analysis of teduglutide compared to standard care in weaning parenteral nutrition support in children with short bowel syndrome.

Background & Aims: A growing proportion of children with short bowel syndrome (SBS) remain dependent on long-term parenteral nutrition (PN). Teduglutide offers the potential for more children to decrease PN support and achieve enteral autonomy (EA), but at a significant expense. This study aims to assess the incremental costs of teduglutide plus standard of care compared to standard of care alone in weaning PN support per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained in children with SBS.

Drug Prescriptions Requiring Compounding at a Canadian University Affiliated Pediatric Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Despite ongoing international efforts, many drugs administered to children must be compounded from dosage forms designed for adults because they remain unavailable in commercial formulations that suit their needs. Even though oral drug compounding is common in pediatrics, the extent of this practice has not been well described in recent years. This cross-sectional and retrospective study was conducted at a Canadian university-affiliated, 484-bed, tertiary care pediatric hospital and its rehabilitation centre on two randomly selected days.

Biologic medicine inclusion in 138 national essential medicines lists.

Background: Essential medicines lists (EMLs) are intended to reflect the priority health care needs of populations. We hypothesized that biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are underrepresented relative to conventional DMARDs in existing national EMLs. We aimed to survey the extent to which biologic DMARDs are included in EMLs, to determine country characteristics contributing to their inclusion or absence, and to contrast this with conventional DMARD therapies.

"Call Me by My Name": Improving Communication with Family Members at the Bedside via the Caregiver Identification Badge.

Background: Patient and family experience are integral to the care that we provide. In the pediatric hospital setting, multiple family members are directly involved in patient care. We identified the need for greater caregiver name recognition at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON.