A SOA Based Solution for MDRO Surveillance and Improved Antibiotic Prescription in the Abruzzo Region.

Prevention and control of hospital and community acquired infections caused by multi drug resistant organisms (MDROs) are one major priority nowadays for health care systems worldwide. To improve actions and plans to tackle this problem, the creation of automated regional, national and international MDRO surveillance networks is a mandatory path for international health Institutions and Ministries. In this paper, the authors report on the surveillance system designed for the Abruzzo Region (Central Italy) to monitor the prevalence of MDROs in both infected and colonized patients, to verify appropriateness of antibiotic prescription in hospitalized patients and to interact with other national and sovra-national networks.

Teleretinography into diabetes integrated care: an Italian experience.

Introduction: Integrated care, by allowing information exchange among health professionals, improves outcomes and favours a reduction in hospital admission in diabetes. Retinal complications can be sight-threatening, and diabetic patients often miss the suggested yearly clinical examination.

Methods: Teleretinography can be easily performed in patients attending Diabetes Clinics: images are sent to a remote ophthalmologist, grading and instructions are received and forwarded to General Practitioners by a dedicated software.

The impact of a pharmacist as a member of healthcare team on facilitating evidenced-based prescribing of innovative drugs in an Italian oncology department.

Aims And Background: At the Oncology Department of the Chieti and Ortona Hospitals, the pharmacist designated by the Abruzzo Region to oversee the obligatory monitoring of innovative oncological drugs listed in the database of the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) collaborates with oncologists to educate them about evidenced-based prescribing for off-label uses of drugs and to optimize the efficiency of spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reaction (ADR) local system.

Methods: The contribution of the pharmacist as a member of the healthcare team was evaluated using the following indices: the percentage of off-label prescriptions of the innovative drugs monitored, the number of reported ADRs, and the percentage of pharmacist suggestions actually implemented by physicians.

Results: In the course of 3 years (2008-2010), the pharmacist monitored a total of 843 patients treated with 716 appropriate uses and 127 off-label uses of drugs, oversaw a reduction in the latter from 28.