Background: Regional-based Integrated Healthcare Networks (IHNs) have been promoted in Brazil to overcome the fragmentation due to the health system decentralization to the municipal level; however, evaluations are scarce. The aim of this article is to analyse the content of IHN policies in force in Brazil, and the factors that influence policy implementation from the policymakers' perspective.
Methods: A two-fold, exploratory and descriptive qualitative study was carried out based on (1) content analysis of policy documents selected to meet the following criteria: legislative documents dealing with regional-based IHNs; enacted by federal government; and in force, (2) semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to a theoretical sample of policymakers at federal (eight), state (five) and municipal levels (four). Final sample size was reached by saturation of information. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted.
Results: The results show difficulties in the implementation of IHN policies due to weaknesses that arise from the policy design and the performance of the three levels of government. There is a lack of specificity as to the criteria and tools for configuring and financing IHNs that need to be agreed upon between involved governments. For their part, policymakers emphasize the difficulty of establishing agreements in a health system with disincentives for collaboration between municipalities. The allocation of responsibilities that are too complex for the capacity and size of the municipalities, the abandonment of essential functions such as network planning by states and the strategic role by the Ministry, the 'invasion' of competences among levels of government and high political turnover are also highlighted.
Conclusions: The implementation of regional-based IHN policy in Brazil is hampered by the decentralized organization of the health system to the municipal level, suggesting the need to centralize certain functions to regional structures or states and to define better the role of the government levels involved.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czu048 | DOI Listing |
ACS Nano
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China.
Real-time monitoring of hemodynamics is crucial for diagnosing disorders within implanted vascular grafts and facilitating timely treatment. Integrating vascular grafts with advanced flexible electronics offers a promising approach to developing smart vascular grafts (SVGs) capable of continuous hemodynamic monitoring. However, most existing SVG devices encounter significant challenges in practical applications, particularly regarding biomechanical compatibility and the effective evaluation of vascular status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Nano
January 2025
Department of Internal Medicine-Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, United States.
Gut dysbiosis contributes to multiple pathologies, yet the mechanisms of the gut microbiota-mediated influence on systemic and distant responses remain largely elusive. This study aimed to identify the role of nanosized bacterial extracellular vesicles (bEVs) in mediating allodynia, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChem Res Toxicol
January 2025
Department of Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33146, United States.
This study employed high-time-resolution systems to examine the transient properties of aerosols and gases emitted from electronic cigarette (EC) puffs. Using a fast aerosol sizer, we measured particle size distributions (PSDs) across various EC brands (JUUL, VUSE, VOOPOO), revealing sizes ranging from 5 to 1000 nm at concentrations of 10 to 10 cm. Most aerosols were found to be in the ultrafine range (below 100 nm), with JUUL-, VUSE-, and VOOPOO-producing aerosols with geometric mean sizes of 19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJACC Clin Electrophysiol
December 2024
The Hull Family Cardiac Fibrillation Management Laboratory, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Background: Conduction velocity (CV) is a measure of the health of myocardial tissue. It can be measured by taking differences in local activation times from intracardiac electrodes. Several factors introduce error into the measurement, among which ignoring the 3-dimensional aspect is a major detriment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJACC Clin Electrophysiol
January 2025
Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal, Québec, Canada.
Background: Ventricular tachycardia (VT) substrate characteristics before transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR) in repaired tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF) are unknown.
Objectives: In this study, the authors sought to evaluate substrates for sustained monomorphic VT before TPVR in rTOF.
Methods: Retrospective (2017 to 2021) and prospective (commencing 2021) rTOF patients with native right ventricular outflow tract referred for electrophysiology study (EPS) before TPVR were included.
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