Article
Education & Educational Research
Iris Borch, Ragnhild Sandvoll, Torsten Risor
Summary: This study analyzed documents relating to student evaluation practices at a Norwegian university, supplemented by interviews with academics and students. The research reveals discrepancies between how evaluation practices are described in documents versus interviews, which may hinder improvements to the evaluation process.
ASSESSMENT & EVALUATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Joachim Cohen, Kirsten Hermans, Charless Dupont, Lieve van den Block, Luc Deliens, Kathleen Leemans
Summary: This study evaluated the quality of palliative care in 36 Belgian palliative care teams and found large risk-adjusted variations between teams in multiple quality indicators. The results suggest the importance of repeated and standardized quality improvement evaluations to identify areas in palliative care delivery that need improvement and to allow teams to benchmark themselves against each other.
PALLIATIVE MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Primary Health Care
Geoffrey Mills, Samantha Kelly, Denine R. Crittendon, Amy Cunningham, Christine Arenson
Summary: A novel approach combining self-directed learning, real-world experience, small-group discussion, and a Shark Tank presentation format increased students' knowledge and confidence in quality improvement during a family medicine clerkship. The majority of students reported feeling confident in their ability to create change in healthcare after the curriculum.
Article
Nursing
Scott Lamont, Andrew Murray, Emine Tetik, Jiaming Yeo, Bianca Blair
Summary: This study aimed to explore the rigor of nurse-led quality improvement projects involving education, training, or continuing professional development and examine the evaluation frameworks used. The findings revealed that most projects did not meet the internationally recognized standards for quality improvement reporting, highlighting the need to follow the SQUIRE international consensus guidelines in designing and reporting such projects.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING
(2023)
Article
Education, Scientific Disciplines
Richard Darnton, Maaz Khan, Xiu Sheng Tan, Mark Jenkins
Summary: The study found that during the pandemic, student-patient contact decreased, but the use of triaging systems increased the educational value of each contact. Remote consultations were essential for achieving adequate case-mix, but require proper supervision to avoid diminishing students' sense of responsibility for patient care.
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Meng Zhang, Fei Tao, Biqing Huang, A. Y. C. Nee
Summary: Real-time quality prediction is crucial for defect prevention in manufacturing products, but it is vulnerable to production perturbations. This paper proposes a data network-based approach to enhance model robustness.
CIRP ANNALS-MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Victoria R. Marino, Kathryn Hyer, LaChiana Hamilton, Anne Maynard Wenders, Ross Andel
Summary: With longer life expectancy, there is a growing concern over long periods of comorbidity and low quality of life before death. Advance care planning in primary care settings can increase patient agency and prioritize personal wishes. This study presents a quality improvement initiative in a federally qualified health center, which successfully implemented new procedures to track advance directive conversations and achieved substantial improvements.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Karen E. Joynt Maddox, E. John Orav, Jie Zheng, Arnold M. Epstein
Summary: The Bundled Payments for Care Improvement-Advanced program led to small reductions in Medicare payments among participating hospitals compared to control hospitals in its first year. There were no significant differences in other outcomes such as readmission, mortality, volume, or case mix.
NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Industrial
Kristina Warmefjord, Lars Lindkvist, Rikard Soderberg, Bjorn Lindau, Maria Andren
Summary: Traditionally, the quality of assembled products has been evaluated based on their deviation from nominal values. However, with the increased use of mixed materials and non-rigid simulation, new evaluation criteria, such as the energy needed for joining, can complement the traditional deviation-based evaluation. This paper suggests using the energy needed for joining as a criterion to assess the severity of deviation from nominal values.
CIRP ANNALS-MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Reena Devi, Neil H. Chadborn, Julienne Meyer, Jay Banerjee, Claire Goodman, Tom Dening, John R. F. Gladman, Kathryn Hinsliff-Smith, Annabelle Long, Adeela Usman, Gemma Housley, Sarah Lewis, Matthew Glover, Heather Gage, Philippa A. Logan, Finbarr C. Martin, Adam L. Gordon
Summary: This study explored how QICs work to improve healthcare in care homes, finding that QICs need to have a broad and easily understandable remit, recruit staff with established partnership working, build relationships, minimize hierarchy, protect and pay for staff time, enable staff to implement improvements aligned with existing work. However, teams did not use measurement for change, citing difficulties integrating this into pre-existing workload.
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
C. M. Hespe, K. Giskes, M. F. Harris, D. Peiris
Summary: This study evaluated a quality improvement program (QPulse) aimed at addressing the discrepancies between evidence-based guidelines for cardiovascular disease screening and management and their implementation in Australian general practice. The study found considerable barriers associated with the program, including lack of time, technical support, internal capacity and leadership.
BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Romain Leygonie, Ali Motamedi, Ivanka Iordanova
Summary: Despite the widespread use of BIM in the design and construction phases, its utilization during the operation and maintenance phase is still limited. This is because owners and operators lack the expertise to effectively use and update BIM models, and industry standards do not provide clear guidance on the use, interoperability, and maintainability of FM-BIM. This paper investigates the correspondence between as-built models and O&M requirements, and proposes a checklist, procedures, and tools for quality management activities in FM-BIM.
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Veterinary Sciences
Britt A. L. Thevelein, Amie Koenig, Benjamin M. Brainard, Selena L. Lane
Summary: The study assessed the agreement in measurements of Hct values and Hgb concentrations in blood samples from dogs and cats between a commercially available veterinary point-of-care (POC) Hct meter and a laboratory-based (LAB) analyzer, showing good agreement between the two. Interestingly, various conditions such as lipemia, hyperbilirubinemia, hemolysis, autoagglutination, and reticulocytosis did not affect the accuracy of the POC meter.
JAVMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
(2021)
Article
Health Policy & Services
Sarah R. Blackstone, Amanda N. Sebring, Claudia Allen, Joseph S. Tan, Rebekah Compton
Summary: This study describes a quality improvement initiative to increase depression screening in five Family Medicine clinics, resulting in a significant increase in the proportion of up-to-date patients from 61.03% in September 2020 to 82.33% in April 2021. Patients aged 65+ and patients with comorbidities were more likely to be up-to-date on screening. Patients with telemedicine visits had lower odds of being up-to-date on depression screening.
JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Aleida Ringwald, Katja Goetz, Jost Steinhaeuser, Nina Fleischmann, Alexandra Schuessler, Kristina Flaegel
Summary: The study translated and culturally adapted the Medical Home Care Coordination Survey (MHCCS) into German, and found that the German versions of the survey for patients and healthcare team members are reliable instruments in measuring care coordination in German primary care practices. The practicality of the instruments is high due to the low number of items, making them effective tools for assessing care coordination in healthcare settings.
BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Richard Kasch, Julia Truthmann, Mark J. Hancock, Christopher G. Maher, Markus Otto, Christopher Nell, Niklas Reichwein, Robin Bulow, Jean-Francois Chenot, Andre Hofer, Georgi Wassilew, Carsten Oliver Schmidt
Summary: This population-based cohort study examined the associations between common lumbar degenerative changes observed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and low back pain (LBP). The study found that there is no clinically important association between these degenerative findings and LBP, with most effects less than one unit on a 0 to 10 pain scale. Longitudinal studies on this topic are limited.
Article
Nursing
Stephanie Heinemann, Anne-Kathrin Kasper-Deussen, Vivien Weiss, Gabriella Marx, Wolfgang Himmel
Summary: This study explored nursing students' experiences with handling patients' sleeping problems and the usage of sleep-inducing drugs in hospitals. Findings suggest that students prefer pharmacological solutions over non-drug alternatives, which are rarely taught or used. More training and role modeling by healthcare professionals is needed to address this issue.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Carsten Oliver Schmidt, Elizabeth Sierocinski, Sebastian Baumeister, Katrin Hegenscheid, Henry Voelzke, J-F Chenot
Summary: Whole-body MRI (wb-MRI) may lead to increased outpatient healthcare costs, particularly due to incidental findings; the long-term cost increase is mainly driven by imaging and specialist care services.
Article
Urology & Nephrology
Simone Kiel, Gesine Weckmann, Jean-Francois Chenot, Sylvia Stracke, Jacob Spallek, Aniela Angelow
Summary: This study assessed the referral rates and healthcare expenditure based on different referral criteria. The results showed that different criteria resulted in different referral rates and costs, with referral rates exceeding the actually observed consultation rates.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Thomas Grimmsmann, Wolfgang Himmel
Summary: The study found that while there were a large number of private prescriptions for benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, the proportion of private prescriptions was only slightly higher for refills than for single prescriptions. Doctors do not seem to issue private prescriptions as a strategy to mask especially long-term use of these substances.
PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY AND DRUG SAFETY
(2023)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Gesine Weckmann, Janine Wirkner, Elisa Kasbohm, Carolin Zimak, Annekathrin Haase, Jean-Francois Chenot, Carsten Oliver Schmidt, Sylvia Stracke
Summary: This study aimed to evaluate the management and quality of care for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in ambulatory care. The results showed that patient diagnosis awareness was low, monitoring frequency did not fully meet recommendations, and adherence to referral criteria varied.
BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
(2022)
Letter
Clinical Neurology
Julia Truthmann, Richard Kasch, Mark J. Hancock, Christopher G. Maher, Jean-Francois Chenot, Carsten O. Schmidt
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Gesine Weckmann, Simone Kiel, Jean-Francois Chenot, Aniela Angelow
Summary: This study investigated the association between symptoms commonly attributed to anemia, such as fatigue, dyspnea, lack of energy, and concentration, and the actual presence of anemia. The results showed that although these symptoms were more prevalent in anemic individuals, they were also common in non-anemic individuals. Therefore, other diagnoses should be considered when evaluating these symptoms, such as depression, heart failure, asthma, and COPD.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Martin Junge, Markus Krueger, Dietlind L. Wahner-Roedler, Brent A. Bauer, Marcus Doerr, Martin Bahls, Jean-Francois Chenot, Reiner Biffar, Carsten O. Schmidt
Summary: The studies aimed to evaluate the reliability and measurement agreement of a preventive medical device, the Preventiometer, for cardiovascular outcomes. The results showed high retest-reliability of the clinical examinations in the Preventiometer, but there were some differences in measurement agreement compared to other methods.
BMC MEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Elizabeth Sierocinski, Lina Droege, Jean-Francois Chenot, Natalie Ebert, Elke Schaeffner, Tim Bothe, Nina Mielke, Sylvia Stracke, Simone Kiel
Summary: Quality indicators (QIs) were developed to assess the quality of outpatient care for patients with CKD over the age of 70. These QIs were based on the German national guideline and international QIs, and were evaluated and selected by a panel of experts. The QIs will be used to evaluate and improve the quality of outpatient care for CKD patients.
BUNDESGESUNDHEITSBLATT-GESUNDHEITSFORSCHUNG-GESUNDHEITSSCHUTZ
(2023)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Ana S. Oliveira Goncalves, Imke Mayer, Ricarda S. Schulz, Agnes Floeel, Felix von Podewils, Anselm Angermaier, Kerstin Wainwright, Tobias Kurth, NeTKoH Consortium
Summary: Tele-neurology has the potential to improve access to healthcare services and quality of care in rural and underserved areas. The NeTKoH trial aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and policy implications of a tele-neurological intervention in primary care in Germany. The economic evaluation will provide high-quality evidence for the effectiveness and potential application of tele-neurological programs.
BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Kerstin Wainwright, Imke S. Mayer, Ana S. Oliveira S. Goncalves, Ricarda Schulz, Simone Kiel, Jean-Francois Chenot, Agnes Floeel, Felix von Podewils, Anselm Angermaier, Tobias Kurth, NeTKoH Consortium
Summary: This study aims to evaluate the effects of a tele-neurologic intervention in primary care in a rural area in Germany. It uses a cluster-randomized controlled trial design and involves 33 outpatient general practitioner's offices. The intervention group receives tele-neurologic consultations while the control group receives usual care. The study is rated with an importance score of 8.
BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Julia Truthmann, Julia Freyer Martins Pereira, Adrian Richter, Franziska Schuster, Amelie Witte, Susanne Boehm, Alexandra Greser, Petra Kamin, Sylvia Stracke, Marcus Doerr, Robin Buelow, Stefan Engeli, Ildiko Gagyor, Eva Hummers, Jean-Francois Chenot
Summary: This study aims to investigate whether prednisolone is non-inferior to colchicine in the treatment of acute gout. The study is a pragmatic, prospective, double-blind, parallel-group, randomized trial conducted in 60 primary care practices. The primary outcome is the level of severe pain on day 3 measured using a numerical rating scale. Secondary outcomes include response to treatment, joint swelling and tenderness, global assessment of treatment success, use of additional pain medication, and safety assessment.
Article
Primary Health Care
Johannes Hauswaldt, Katharina Schmalstieg-Bahr, Wolfgang Himmel
Summary: This study compares the impact of different models on the prevalence of multimorbidity and determines the effect of a time delimiter. The results show that the prevalence of multimorbidity in primary care practices seems to be lower if advanced definitions and a time delimiter are applied.
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Norbert Hosten, Robin Buelow, Henry Voelzke, Martin Domin, Carsten Oliver Schmidt, Alexander Teumer, Till Ittermann, Matthias Nauck, Stephan Felix, Marcus Doerr, Marcello Ricardo Paulista Markus, Uwe Voelker, Amro Daboul, Christian Schwahn, Birte Holtfreter, Torsten Mundt, Karl-Friedrich Krey, Stefan Kindler, Maria Mksoud, Stefanie Samietz, Reiner Biffar, Wolfgang Hoffmann, Thomas Kocher, Jean-Francois Chenot, Andreas Stahl, Frank Tost, Nele Friedrich, Stephanie Zylla, Anke Hannemann, Martin Lotze, Jens-Peter Kuehn, Katrin Hegenscheid, Christian Rosenberg, Georgi Wassilew, Stefan Frenzel, Katharina Wittfeld, Hans J. Grabe, Marie-Luise Kromrey
Summary: The Study of Health in Pomerania conducted a population-based study using whole-body MR imaging in a rural area. Through analyzing the imaging sequences used and their citation frequency, fruitful sequences and focused body parts were identified. The study suggests that more precise goals should be defined when allocating imaging time and proposes recording the number and impact of published work for quality control.