Background: Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) improve patient care by standardising medical practice. However, little is known about their applicability in low-resource settings. Since 2010, Fiji has introduced guidelines to increase the application of evidence-based practice.
Aims: We describe the dissemination, utility and monitoring of guideline implementation in Fiji, a low-resource setting in the Pacific.
Methods: A mixed-methods design included a survey and focus groups. All 178 doctors in five departments at Fiji's largest tertiary hospital were invited to participate. Subsequently, two focus group interviews explored clinicians' perspectives in more detail. Analysis included data description, multi-variable logistic, multinomial regression and manifest content analyses.
Results: The response rate was 74%. Most doctors agreed that CPGs were good for patient management (100%), doctors continuing medical education (CME) (96%), patient education (73%), supported by systematic reviews (91%) and consistent with existing norms/values (83%). Ninety-five per cent stated that CPGs increased the quality of care, and 80% stated that CPGs increased physician satisfaction. Approximately two-thirds stated that CPGs decreased medical-legal problems (63%) and malpractice suits (68%). Sixty to 90% of doctors disagreed that CPGs were oversimplified/cookbook medicine (60%), too rigid to apply individually (65%), challenged physician autonomy (60%) or were ambiguous/unclear (86%) or not practical (89%). The preferred method of dissemination was CME, and quick reference guides were best for implementation. No formal CPG monitoring existed in any department.
Conclusion: Most physicians found CPGs to be valuable for improving the consistency of care. In low-resource settings, dissemination of guidelines should be paired with CME to improve their uptake. Increased monitoring of guideline use appears necessary.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imj.16349 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Department of Orthopedics, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Ratchathewi, Bangkok, Thailand.
Among control methods for robotic exoskeletons, biologically inspired control based on central pattern generators (CPGs) offer a promising approach to generate natural and robust walking patterns. Compared to other approaches, like model-based and machine learning-based control, the biologically inspired control provides robustness to perturbations, requires less computational power, and does not need system models or large learning datasets. While it has shown effectiveness, a comprehensive evaluation of its user experience is lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Background: Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) affects over 15 million individuals in the United States, contributing to oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and elevating the risk of neurodegeneration. Despite this, the connection between AUD and aging conditions, particularly Alzheimer's disease (AD), remains unclear. AD, with a heritability of 60-80%, is genetically linked, necessitating an exploration of the molecular implications of AUD and genetic susceptibility to AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Blood Cancer
January 2025
Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Introduction: While clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for pediatric oncology infection prophylaxis and management exist, few data describe actual management occurring at pediatric oncology centers.
Methods: An electronic survey querying infection management practices in nontransplant pediatric oncology patients was iteratively created by the Children's Oncology Group (COG) Cancer Control and Supportive Care Infectious Diseases Subcommittee and sent to leaders at all COG institutions, limiting each site to one response to represent their institution.
Results: The response rate was 57% (129/227 institutions).
Microorganisms
November 2024
Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is one of the fastest-growing cancers worldwide, lacking established causal factors or validated early diagnostics. Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), comprising 8% of human genomes, have potential as PTC biomarkers due to their comparably high baseline expression in healthy thyroid tissues, indicating homeostatic roles. However, HERV regions are often overlooked in genome-wide association studies because of their highly repetitive nature, low sequence coverage, and decreased sequencing quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPM R
January 2025
Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Oncological Physical Therapy, Board Certified Clinical Specialist in Women's Health Physical Therapy, LANA Certified Lymphedema Therapist, Select Medical, ReVital Cancer Rehabilitation, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
This methodological paper explores the intricacies of implementing evidence-based medicine in the health care sector specifically focusing on the clinical practice guideline (CPG) published by the American Physical Therapy Association's Academy of Oncologic Physical Therapy for diagnosing upper quadrant lymphedema secondary to cancer (diagnosis CPG). Although CPGs are widely available, their implementation into clinical practice remains inconsistent, slow, and complex. To address this challenge, this paper employs the Knowledge-to-Action framework, offering a detailed description of the seven stages through the lens of an in-progress case study on the implementation of the diagnosis CPG.
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