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☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Comprehensive quality assessment for aphasia rehabilitation after stroke: protocol for a multicentre, mixed-methods study

Por: Harvey · S. · Stone · M. · Zingelman · S. · Copland · D. A. · Kilkenny · M. F. · Godecke · E. · Cadilhac · D. A. · Kim · J. · Olaiya · M. T. · Rose · M. L. · Breitenstein · C. · Shrubsole · K. · OHalloran · R. · Hill · A. J. · Hersh · D. · Mainstone · K. · Mainstone · P. · Unsworth · C. A — Marzo 21st 2024 at 16:38
Introduction

People with aphasia following stroke experience disproportionally poor outcomes, yet there is no comprehensive approach to measuring the quality of aphasia services. The Meaningful Evaluation of Aphasia SeRvicES (MEASuRES) minimum dataset was developed in partnership with people with lived experience of aphasia, clinicians and researchers to address this gap. It comprises sociodemographic characteristics, quality indicators, treatment descriptors and outcome measurement instruments. We present a protocol to pilot the MEASuRES minimum dataset in clinical practice, describe the factors that hinder or support implementation and determine meaningful thresholds of clinical change for core outcome measurement instruments.

Methods and analysis

This research aims to deliver a comprehensive quality assessment toolkit for poststroke aphasia services in four studies. A multicentre pilot study (study 1) will test the administration of the MEASuRES minimum dataset within five Australian health services. An embedded mixed-methods process evaluation (study 2) will evaluate the performance of the minimum dataset and explore its clinical applicability. A consensus study (study 3) will establish consumer-informed thresholds of meaningful change on core aphasia outcome constructs, which will then be used to establish minimal important change values for corresponding core outcome measurement instruments (study 4).

Ethics and dissemination

Studies 1 and 2 have been registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (ACTRN12623001313628). Ethics approval has been obtained from the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (HREC/2023/MNHB/95293) and The University of Queensland (2022/HE001946 and 2023/HE001175). Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and engagement with relevant stakeholders including healthcare providers, policy-makers, stroke and rehabilitation audit and clinical quality registry custodians, consumer support organisations, and individuals with aphasia and their families.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Qualitative study of challenges with recruitment of hospitals into a cluster controlled trial of clinical decision support in Australia

Por: Baysari · M. T. · Van Dort · B. A. · Stanceski · K. · Hargreaves · A. · Zheng · W. Y. · Moran · M. · Day · R. O. · Li · L. · Westbrook · J. · Hilmer · S. N. — Marzo 13th 2024 at 05:20
Objective

To identify barriers to hospital participation in controlled cluster trials of clinical decision support (CDS) and potential strategies for addressing barriers.

Design

Qualitative descriptive design comprising semistructured interviews.

Setting

Five hospitals in New South Wales and one hospital in Queensland, Australia.

Participants

Senior hospital staff, including department directors, chief information officers and those working in health informatics teams.

Results

20 senior hospital staff took part. Barriers to hospital-level recruitment primarily related to perceptions of risk associated with not implementing CDS as a control site. Perceived risks included reductions in patient safety, reputational risk and increased likelihood that benefits would not be achieved following electronic medical record (EMR) implementation without CDS alerts in place. Senior staff recommended clear communication of trial information to all relevant stakeholders as a key strategy for boosting hospital-level participation in trials.

Conclusion

Hospital participation in controlled cluster trials of CDS is hindered by perceptions that adopting an EMR without CDS is risky for both patients and organisations. The improvements in safety expected to follow CDS implementation makes it challenging and counterintuitive for hospitals to implement EMR without incorporating CDS alerts for the purposes of a research trial. To counteract these barriers, clear communication regarding the evidence base and rationale for a controlled trial is needed.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Association between sleep quality and blood pressure control among hypertensive patients at a rural tertiary hospital in Southern Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

Por: Oseni · T. I. A. · Udonwa · N. E. · Oku · A. O. · Makinde · M. T. · Archibong · F. — Marzo 9th 2024 at 02:25
Objectives

Restorative sleep is critical in preventing hypertension and other chronic diseases. Limited research has explored the relationship between sleep quality and hypertension in Africa. This study investigated the association between sleep quality and blood pressure control among hypertensive patients in Southern Nigeria.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

A rural tertiary hospital in Southern Nigeria, April to June 2023.

Participants

250 systematically selected hypertensive adults. Participants completed a validated semistructured interviewer-administered questionnaire to assess their sleep patterns, including sleep duration, self-reported trouble sleeping and a history of clinical diagnosis of sleep disorders. Sleep patterns were categorised as restorative (healthy) or non-restorative (unhealthy). The blood pressure of respondents was checked and categorised as controlled (

Outcome measures

Quality of sleep and blood pressure control.

Results

Respondents had a mean age of 51.5±10.0 years, with the majority being female (156, 62.4%), married (135, 54.0%) and belonging to the Esan tribe (125, 50.0%). The prevalence of restorative sleep was 36%, while the blood pressure control rate was 23.6%. An association was found between restorative sleep and blood pressure control (adjusted OR =4.38; 95% CI=2.37–8.10; p

Conclusion

The study found an association between poor quality sleep and poor blood pressure control. Incorporating sleep assessments and interventions into comprehensive hypertension management strategies could be explored as a possible approach to improve sleep quality and enhance blood pressure control.

Trial registration number

PACTR202301917477205.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Knowledge, attitude and practices of insulin therapy among patients with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study

Por: Almheiri · A. · Binjab · E. A. · Albloushi · M. M. · Alshamsi · M. T. · Khansaheb · H. H. · Zidan · M. · Hassoun · A. A. K. — Marzo 6th 2024 at 05:12
Objectives

This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of patients with type 2 diabetes on insulin regarding insulin therapy.

Design

A cross-sectional study.

Setting

This study was conducted at the Dubai Diabetes Center from 1 December 2018 to 1 March 2020.

Participants

Face-to-face interviews were conducted for 350 participants with type 2 diabetes at the Dubai Diabetes Center. Interviews followed the structured format of a questionnaire designed to obtain demographic details and score participants on knowledge, attitude and practices. We included patients aged >18 years and receiving insulin therapy. Patients with type 1 diabetes, pregnant women with gestational diabetes, those aged

Results

The median age of participants was 61 years (first quartile, 53 years; third quartile, 67 years); 35.7% were male individuals and 64.3% were female individuals. The median percentage scores for knowledge, attitude and practices were 62.5% (62.5%, 75%), 85.7% (71.4%, 100%) and 77.7% (66.6%, 88.8%), respectively. Highly educated participants had a high level of knowledge. Significant negative correlations were found between the percentage knowledge scores and participants’ age and between the participants’ percentage attitude scores and haemoglobin A1C levels; Spearman’s correlations were –0.182 (p

Conclusion

Patients with type 2 diabetes receiving insulin therapy and attending the Dubai Diabetes Center had adequate knowledge, a positive attitude and correct practice regarding insulin therapy. However, knowledge of specific facts did not always translate into correct behaviours and practices.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Prevalence and determinants of antibiotics self-medication among indigenous people of Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

Por: Mannan · A. · Chakma · K. · Dewan · G. · Saha · A. · Chy · N. U. H. A. · Mehedi · H. M. H. · Hossain · A. · Wnaiza · J. · Ahsan · M. T. · Rana · M. M. · Alam · N. — Marzo 6th 2024 at 05:12
Objectives

Self-medication with antibiotics (SMA) contributes significantly to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), especially in low-income countries including Bangladesh. This study aimed to generate evidence on the self-reported prevalence of antibiotic self-medication and its determinants among indigenous people residing in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) districts.

Design

This study used a cross-sectional design with data collected through a survey using a semi-structured questionnaire.

Setting

This study was conducted from late January to early July 2021; among different indigenous group populations aged 18 years or more olders residing in the three districts of CHT.

Participants

A total of 1336 indigenous people residing in Bangladesh’s CHT districts were included.

Primary outcome and explanatory variables

The primary outcome measure was SMA while explanatory variables were socio-demographic characteristics, health status of participants, and knowledge of antibiotics usage and its side effects.

Results

Among the study participants, more males (60.54%) than females (51.57%) reported using antibiotics. The SMA rate was high among individuals with education levels below secondary (over 50%) and those in the low-income group (55.19%). The most common diseases reported were cough, cold and fever, with azithromycin being the most frequently used antibiotic. Levels of education, family income, having a chronic illness and place of residence were found to be the significant predictors of having good knowledge of antibiotic use as found in the ordered logit model. Findings from a logistic regression model revealed that men had 1.6 times higher odds (adjusted OR (AOR) 1.57; 95% CI 1.12 to 2.19) of SMA than women. Participants with ≥US$893 per month family income had lowest odds (AOR 0.14; 95% CI 0.03 to 0.64) of SMA than those who earned

Conclusion

Male gender, family income, place of residence and knowledge of antibiotics were the significant predictors of antibiotic self-medication. Hence, it is important to streamline awareness-raising campaigns at the community level to mitigate the practice of SMA in indigenous people and ultimately address the devastating effects of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Bangladesh.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

AI assisted reader evaluation in acute CT head interpretation (AI-REACT): protocol for a multireader multicase study

Por: Fu · H. · Novak · A. · Robert · D. · Kumar · S. · Tanamala · S. · Oke · J. · Bhatia · K. · Shah · R. · Romsauerova · A. · Das · T. · Espinosa · A. · Grzeda · M. T. · Narbone · M. · Dharmadhikari · R. · Harrison · M. · Vimalesvaran · K. · Gooch · J. · Woznitza · N. · Salik · N. · Campbell · A. — Febrero 13th 2024 at 01:46
Introduction

A non-contrast CT head scan (NCCTH) is the most common cross-sectional imaging investigation requested in the emergency department. Advances in computer vision have led to development of several artificial intelligence (AI) tools to detect abnormalities on NCCTH. These tools are intended to provide clinical decision support for clinicians, rather than stand-alone diagnostic devices. However, validation studies mostly compare AI performance against radiologists, and there is relative paucity of evidence on the impact of AI assistance on other healthcare staff who review NCCTH in their daily clinical practice.

Methods and analysis

A retrospective data set of 150 NCCTH will be compiled, to include 60 control cases and 90 cases with intracranial haemorrhage, hypodensities suggestive of infarct, midline shift, mass effect or skull fracture. The intracranial haemorrhage cases will be subclassified into extradural, subdural, subarachnoid, intraparenchymal and intraventricular. 30 readers will be recruited across four National Health Service (NHS) trusts including 10 general radiologists, 15 emergency medicine clinicians and 5 CT radiographers of varying experience. Readers will interpret each scan first without, then with, the assistance of the qER EU 2.0 AI tool, with an intervening 2-week washout period. Using a panel of neuroradiologists as ground truth, the stand-alone performance of qER will be assessed, and its impact on the readers’ performance will be analysed as change in accuracy (area under the curve), median review time per scan and self-reported diagnostic confidence. Subgroup analyses will be performed by reader professional group, reader seniority, pathological finding, and neuroradiologist-rated difficulty.

Ethics and dissemination

The study has been approved by the UK Healthcare Research Authority (IRAS 310995, approved 13 December 2022). The use of anonymised retrospective NCCTH has been authorised by Oxford University Hospitals. The results will be presented at relevant conferences and published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Trial registration number

NCT06018545.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Use of drugs for hyperlipidaemia and diabetes and risk of primary and secondary brain tumours: nested case-control studies using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD)

Por: Robinson · J. W. · Martin · R. · Ozawa · M. · Elwenspoek · M. M. C. · Redaniel · M. T. · Kurian · K. · Ben-Shlomo · Y. — Febrero 9th 2024 at 17:00
Objectives

Previous studies have suggested that fibrates and glitazones may have a role in brain tumour prevention. We examined if there is support for these observations using primary care records from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD).

Design

We conducted two nested case–control studies using primary and secondary brain tumours identified within CPRD between 2000 and 2016. We selected cases and controls among the population of individuals who had been treated with any anti-diabetic or anti-hyperlipidaemic medication to reduce confounding by indication.

Setting

Adults older than 18 years registered with a general practitioner in the UK contributing data to CPRD.

Results

We identified 7496 individuals with any brain tumour (4471 primary; 3025 secondary) in total. After restricting cases and controls to those prescribed any anti-diabetic or anti-hyperlipidaemic medication, there were 1950 cases and 7791 controls in the fibrate and 480 cases with 1920 controls in the glitazone analyses. Longer use of glitazones compared with all other anti-diabetic medications was associated with a reduced risk of primary (adjusted OR (aOR) 0.89 per year, 95% CI 0.80 to 0.98), secondary (aOR 0.87 per year, 95% CI 0.77 to 0.99) or combined brain tumours (aOR 0.88 per year, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.95). There was little evidence that fibrate exposure was associated with risk of either primary or secondary brain tumours.

Conclusions

Longer exposure to glitazones was associated with reduced primary and secondary brain tumour risk. Further basic science and population-based research should explore this finding in greater detail, in terms of replication and mechanistic studies.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Forecasting disease trajectories in critical illness: comparison of probabilistic dynamic systems to static models to predict patient status in the intensive care unit

Por: Duggal · A. · Scheraga · R. · Sacha · G. L. · Wang · X. · Huang · S. · Krishnan · S. · Siuba · M. T. · Torbic · H. · Dugar · S. · Mucha · S. · Veith · J. · Mireles-Cabodevila · E. · Bauer · S. R. · Kethireddy · S. · Vachharajani · V. · Dalton · J. E. — Febrero 6th 2024 at 17:23
Objective

Conventional prediction models fail to integrate the constantly evolving nature of critical illness. Alternative modelling approaches to study dynamic changes in critical illness progression are needed. We compare static risk prediction models to dynamic probabilistic models in early critical illness.

Design

We developed models to simulate disease trajectories of critically ill COVID-19 patients across different disease states. Eighty per cent of cases were randomly assigned to a training and 20% of the cases were used as a validation cohort. Conventional risk prediction models were developed to analyse different disease states for critically ill patients for the first 7 days of intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Daily disease state transitions were modelled using a series of multivariable, multinomial logistic regression models. A probabilistic dynamic systems modelling approach was used to predict disease trajectory over the first 7 days of an ICU admission. Forecast accuracy was assessed and simulated patient clinical trajectories were developed through our algorithm.

Setting and participants

We retrospectively studied patients admitted to a Cleveland Clinic Healthcare System in Ohio, for the treatment of COVID-19 from March 2020 to December 2022.

Results

5241 patients were included in the analysis. For ICU days 2–7, the static (conventional) modelling approach, the accuracy of the models steadily decreased as a function of time, with area under the curve (AUC) for each health state below 0.8. But the dynamic forecasting approach improved its ability to predict as a function of time. AUC for the dynamic forecasting approach were all above 0.90 for ICU days 4–7 for all states.

Conclusion

We demonstrated that modelling critical care outcomes as a dynamic system improved the forecasting accuracy of the disease state. Our model accurately identified different disease conditions and trajectories, with a

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Study protocol for the validation of a new pictorial functional scale in patients with knee osteoarthritis: the functional activity scoring tool (FAST)

Por: Tang · Z. Y. · Ng · K. S. · Koh · Y. L. E. · Yeung · M. T. — Enero 8th 2024 at 17:52
Background

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are required for patient-centred care. There are limited PROMs with good psychometric properties, and limitations to any language-based scale are often constrained by the written words or numerals used. Therefore, we developed the Functional Activity Scoring Tool (FAST), a self-reporting pictorial scale. FAST measures the impact of knee osteoarthritis on essential activities of daily living (ADL) and the significant changes in the self-perceived functional status over time.

Objectives

This study aims to (1) develop FAST with adaptation from the Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale, (2) validate FAST against the Patient-Specific Functional Scale (PSFS) and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and (3) establish the reliability, validity and responsiveness of FAST in individuals with knee osteoarthritis.

Methods and analysis

The prospective study protocol investigates the validity, responsiveness and reliability of FAST. The PSFS and KOOS will be gold standard comparisons. Participant recruitment will occur at four public polyclinics that offer physiotherapy outpatient services in Singapore. Onsite physiotherapists familiar with the study eligibilities will refer potential participants to the investigators after the routine physiotherapy assessment. After providing written consent, eligible participants will complete outcome measurements with FAST, the PSFS and KOOS during baseline and follow-up assessments. The Global Rating of Change (GROC) scale will determine how the participant’s knee status was changed compared with the beginning of the physiotherapy intervention.

Ethics and dissemination

SingHealth Centralised Institutional Review Board approved the study (CIRB reference number: 2022/2602). The final results will be published via scientific publication. FAST will benefit the evaluation and management of those who suffer knee osteoarthritis regardless of English proficiency or language barriers.

Trial registration number

NCT05590663

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Rural caregivers preparedness for detecting and responding to the signs of worsening health conditions in recently hospitalised patients at risk for readmission: a qualitative descriptive study

Por: Fox · M. T. · Butler · J. I. — Diciembre 28th 2023 at 16:47
Objectives

This study aimed to explore informal rural caregivers’ perceived preparedness to detect and respond to the signs of worsening health conditions in patients recently discharged from hospital and at risk for readmission.

Design

A qualitative descriptive design and semistructured interviews were used. Data were thematically analysed.

Setting

Data collection occurred in 2018 and 2019 in rural communities in Southwestern and Northeastern Ontario, Canada.

Participants

The study included sixteen informal caregivers who were all family members of a relative discharged from hospital at high risk for readmission following hospitalisation mostly for a medical illness (63%). Participants were mostly women (87.5%), living with their relative (62.5%) who was most often a parent (56.3%).

Results

Three themes were identified: (1) warning signs and rural communities, (2) perceived preparedness, and (3) improving preparedness. The first theme elucidates informal caregivers’ view that they needed to be prepared because they were taking over care previously provided by hospital healthcare professionals yet lacked accessible medical help in rural communities. The second theme captures informal caregivers’ perceptions that they lacked knowledge of how to detect warning signs and how to respond to them appropriately. The last theme illuminates informal caregivers’ suggestions for improving preparation related to warning signs.

Conclusions

Informal caregivers in rural communities were largely unprepared for detecting and responding to the signs of worsening health conditions for patients at high risk for hospital readmission. Healthcare professionals can anticipate that informal caregivers, particularly those whose relatives live far from medical help, need information on how to detect and respond to warning signs, and may prioritise their time to this aspect of postdischarge care for these caregivers.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Development and application of simulation modelling for orthopaedic elective resource planning in England

Por: Harper · A. · Monks · T. · Wilson · R. · Redaniel · M. T. · Eyles · E. · Jones · T. · Penfold · C. · Elliott · A. · Keen · T. · Pitt · M. · Blom · A. · Whitehouse · M. R. · Judge · A. — Diciembre 22nd 2023 at 17:32
Objectives

This study aimed to develop a simulation model to support orthopaedic elective capacity planning.

Methods

An open-source, generalisable discrete-event simulation was developed, including a web-based application. The model used anonymised patient records between 2016 and 2019 of elective orthopaedic procedures from a National Health Service (NHS) Trust in England. In this paper, it is used to investigate scenarios including resourcing (beds and theatres) and productivity (lengths of stay, delayed discharges and theatre activity) to support planning for meeting new NHS targets aimed at reducing elective orthopaedic surgical backlogs in a proposed ring-fenced orthopaedic surgical facility. The simulation is interactive and intended for use by health service planners and clinicians.

Results

A higher number of beds (65–70) than the proposed number (40 beds) will be required if lengths of stay and delayed discharge rates remain unchanged. Reducing lengths of stay in line with national benchmarks reduces bed utilisation to an estimated 60%, allowing for additional theatre activity such as weekend working. Further, reducing the proportion of patients with a delayed discharge by 75% reduces bed utilisation to below 40%, even with weekend working. A range of other scenarios can also be investigated directly by NHS planners using the interactive web app.

Conclusions

The simulation model is intended to support capacity planning of orthopaedic elective services by identifying a balance of capacity across theatres and beds and predicting the impact of productivity measures on capacity requirements. It is applicable beyond the study site and can be adapted for other specialties.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Non-specific effects of Pneumococcal and Haemophilus vaccines in children aged 5 years and under: a systematic review

Por: Geraghty · K. · Rooney · D. · Watson · C. · Ledwidge · M. T. · Glynn · L. · Gallagher · J. — Diciembre 15th 2023 at 06:39
Objective

To determine the evidence for non-specific effects of the Pneumococcal and Haemophilus influenza vaccine in children aged 5 years and under.

Data sources

A key word literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the European Union Clinical Trials Register and ClinicalTrials.gov up to June 2023.

Study eligibility criteria

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-RCT or cohort studies.

Participants

Children aged 5 or under.

Study appraisal and synthesis methods

Studies were independently screened by two reviewers, with a third where disagreement arose. Risk of bias assessment was performed by one reviewer and confirmed by a second. Results were tabulated and a narrative description performed.

Results

Four articles were identified and included in this review. We found a reduction in hospitalisations from influenza A (44%), pulmonary tuberculosis (42%), metapneumovirus (45%), parainfluenza virus type 1–3 (44%), along with reductions in mortality associated with pneumococcal vaccine. No data on the Haemophilus vaccine was found.

Conclusions and implications

In this systematic review, we demonstrate that there is a reduction in particular viral infections in children aged 5 years and under who received the 9-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine which differ from those for which the vaccine was designed to protect against. While limited studies have demonstrated a reduction in infections other than those which the vaccine was designed to protect against, substantial clinical trials are required to solidify these findings.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42020146640.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

Patterns, prevalence and risk factors of intimate partner violence and its association with mental health status during COVID-19: a cross-sectional study on early married female adolescents in Khulna district, Bangladesh

Por: Nishat · J. F. · Khan · U. S. · Shovo · T.-E.-A. · Ahammed · B. · Rahman · M. M. · Hossain · M. T. — Noviembre 18th 2023 at 02:44
Objectives

This study was designed to identify the patterns, prevalence and risk factors of intimate partner violence (IPV) against female adolescents and its association with mental health problems.

Design

Cross-sectional survey.

Settings

Dumuria Upazila (subdistrict) under the Khulna district of Bangladesh.

Participants

A total of 304 participants were selected purposively based on some specifications: they must be female adolescents, residents of Dumuria Upazila and married during the COVID-19 pandemic when under 18 years of age.

Outcome measures

By administering a semi-structured interview schedule, data were collected regarding IPV using 12 five-point Likert scale items; a higher score from the summation reflects frequent violence.

Results

The findings suggest that the prevalence of physical, sexual and emotional IPV among the 304 participants, who had an average age of 17.1 years (SD=1.42), was 89.5%, 87.8% and 93.7%, respectively, whereas 12.2% of the participants experienced severe physical IPV, 9.9% experienced severe sexual IPV and 10.5% experienced severe emotional IPV. Stepwise regression models identified age at marriage (p=0.001), number of miscarriages (p=0.005), education of spouse (p=0.001), income of spouse (p=0.016), age gap between spouses (p=0.008), marital adjustment (p

Conclusion

During the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in IPV and mental health problems among early married adolescents was documented. To reduce physical and mental harm and to assure their well-being, preventive and rehabilitative measures should be devised.

☐ ☆ ✇ BMJ Open

How digital health translational research is prioritised: a qualitative stakeholder-driven approach to decision support evaluation

Por: Bamgboje-Ayodele · A. · McPhail · S. M. · Brain · D. · Taggart · R. · Burger · M. · Bruce · L. · Holtby · C. · Pradhan · M. · Simpson · M. · Shaw · T. J. · Baysari · M. T. — Noviembre 6th 2023 at 15:57
Objectives

Digital health is now routinely being applied in clinical care, and with a variety of clinician-facing systems available, healthcare organisations are increasingly required to make decisions about technology implementation and evaluation. However, few studies have examined how digital health research is prioritised, particularly research focused on clinician-facing decision support systems. This study aimed to identify criteria for prioritising digital health research, examine how these differ from criteria for prioritising traditional health research and determine priority decision support use cases for a collaborative implementation research programme.

Methods

Drawing on an interpretive listening model for priority setting and a stakeholder-driven approach, our prioritisation process involved stakeholder identification, eliciting decision support use case priorities from stakeholders, generating initial use case priorities and finalising preferred use cases based on consultations. In this qualitative study, online focus group session(s) were held with stakeholders, audiorecorded, transcribed and analysed thematically.

Results

Fifteen participants attended the online priority setting sessions. Criteria for prioritising digital health research fell into three themes, namely: public health benefit, health system-level factors and research process and feasibility. We identified criteria unique to digital health research as the availability of suitable governance frameworks, candidate technology’s alignment with other technologies in use,and the possibility of data-driven insights from health technology data. The final selected use cases were remote monitoring of patients with pulmonary conditions, sepsis detection and automated breast screening.

Conclusion

The criteria for determining digital health research priority areas are more nuanced than that of traditional health condition focused research and can neither be viewed solely through a clinical lens nor technological lens. As digital health research relies heavily on health technology implementation, digital health prioritisation criteria comprised enablers of successful technology implementation. Our prioritisation process could be applied to other settings and collaborative projects where research institutions partner with healthcare delivery organisations.

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