Adherence to oral anticancer treatment: focus on quality of execution during continuous schema of treatment

Background and objective: Oral anti-cancer treatments have expanded rapidly over the last years. While taking oral tablets at home ensures a better quality of life, it also exposes patients to the risk of sub-optimal adherence. The objective of this study is to assess how well ambulatory cancer patients execute their prescribed dosing regimen while they are engaged with continuous anti-cancer treatments. Design: This is an on-going longitudinal study. Consecutive patients starting an oral treatment are proposed to enter the study by the oncologist. Then they are referred to the pharmacy, where their oral anticancer treatment is dispensed in a Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMSTM), which records date and time of each opening of the drug container. Electronically compiled dosing history data from the MEMS are summarized and used as feedback during semistructured interviews with the pharmacist, which are dedicated to prevention and management of side effects. Interviews are scheduled before each medical visit. Report of the interview is available to the oncologist via an on-line secured portal. Setting: Seamless care approach between a Multidisciplinary Oncology Center and the Pharmacy of an Ambulatory Care and Community Medicine Department. Main outcome measures: For each patient, the comparison between the electronically compiled dosing history and the prescribed regimen was summarized using a daily binary indicator indicating whether yes or no the patient has taken the medication as prescribed. Results: Study started in March 2008. Among 22 eligible patients, 19 were included (11 men, median age 63 years old) and 3 (14%) refused to participate. 15 patients were prescribed a QD regimen, 3 patients a BID and 1 patient switched from QD to BID during follow-up. Median follow up was 182 days (IQR 72-252). Early discontinuation happened in four patients: side effects (n = 1), psychiatric reasons (n = 1), cancer progression (n = 1) and death (n = 1). On average, the daily number of medications was taken as prescribed in 99% of the follow-up days. Conclusions: Execution of the prescribed dosing regimens was almost perfect during the first 6 months. Maintaining this high degree of regimen execution and persistence over time might however be challenging in this population and need therefore to be confirmed in larger and longer follow-up cohort studies.

Enseignement prégradué de la médecine ambulatoire a la PMU: quelques repères [Pregraduate training in ambulatory care: a Swiss perspective].

The current lack of general practitioners in Switzerland is the result of health care policy which aimed in the past years to reduce the number of medical students and physicians in private practice. Furthermore, during the past decades, the Swiss Medical Schools emphasized on the transmission of medical care by specialists and neglected primary care medicine. The Faculty of medicine at the University of Lausanne recently decided to renew the curriculum. The Department of ambulatory care and community medicine (Policlinique Médicale Universitaire) of Lausanne is committed to the elaboration of this move. The biomedical model, essential to the acquisition of clinical competence, is still taught to the students. Nevertheless, from the beginning to the end of the curriculum, an emphasis is now put on the clinical skills and the clinical reasoning.

La PMU au carrefour des nouveaux chemins du système de santé [Redesigning Swiss ambulatory health care system].

Primary care medicine is first in line to meet the necessary changes in our health care system. Innovations in this field pursue three types of objectives: accessibility, quality and continuity of care. The Department of ambulatory care and community medicine of the University of Lausanne (Policlinique médicale universitaire) is committed to this path, emphasizing interprofessional collaboration. The doctor, nurse and medical assistant coordinate their activities to contribute efficiently to meet the needs of patients today and tomorrow. This paper also addresses how our department, as a public and academic institution, might play a major role as a health care network actor. A master degree dissertation in health management has started to identify the critical success factors and the strategic core competencies needed to achieve this development.

Maternal health care professionals perspective on the provision and use of antenatal and delivery care : a qualitative descriptive study in rural Vietnam

Background. High quality maternal health care is an important tool to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. Services offered should be evidence based and adapted to the local setting. This qualitative descriptive study explored the perspectives and experiences of midwives, assistant physicians and medical doctors on the content and quality of maternal health care in rural Vietnam. Method. The study was performed in a rural district in northern Vietnam. Four focus group discussions with health care professionals at primary health care level were conducted. The data was analysed using qualitative manifest and latent content analysis. Result. Two main themes emerged: "Contextual conditions for maternal health care" and "Balancing between possibilities and constraints". Contextual conditions influenced both pregnant women's use of maternal health care and health care professionals' performance. The study participants stated that women's uses of maternal health care were influenced by economical constraints and cultural norms that impeded their autonomy in relation to childbearing. Structural constraints within the health care system included inadequate financing of the primary health care, resulting in lack of human resources, professional re-training and adequate equipment. Conclusion. Contextual conditions strongly influenced the performance and interaction between pregnant women and health care professionals within antenatal care and delivery care in a rural district of Vietnam. Although Vietnam is performing comparatively well in terms of low maternal and child mortality figures, this study revealed midwives' and other health care professionals' perceived difficulties in their daily work. It seemed maternal health care was under-resourced in terms of staff, equipment and continuing education activities. The cultural setting in Vietnam constituting a strong patriarchal society and prevailing Confucian norms limits women's autonomy and reduce their possibility to make independent decisions about their own reproductive health. This issue should be further addressed by policy-makers. Strategies to reduce inequities in maternal health care for pregnant women are needed. The quality of client-provider interaction and management of pregnancy may be strengthened by education, human resources, re-training and provision of essential equipment.

Contribuição à mudança curricular na graduação da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu

Descreve-se a inovação pedagógica de dois casos na graduação médica: uma matéria denominada Saúde Coletiva III, com (Administração, Ciências Sociais, Epidemiologia, Ética e Nutrição em Saúde Publica) e a disciplina de Semiologia Pediátrica. Para descrição e avaliação dos casos, utilizaram-se métodos qualitativos. A Saúde Coletiva III foi organizada por núcleos temáticos: Problemas em Saúde Publica; Nutrição em Saúde Publica; Planejamento em Saúde. O modelo de ensino centrou-se na problematização de situações vivenciadas na prática da Saúde Publica, trabalhando-se em centros, serviços e organizações de saúde. A Semiologia Pediátrica privilegiou a atenção integral à saúde da criança. O modelo de ensino centrou-se na aprendizagem baseada em problemas e no aprendizado prático da semiologia pediátrica em diferentes cenários, enfatizando-se o ensino ambulatorial. Privilegiou-se o trabalho em pequenos grupos, com a orientação docente. A principal missão voltou-se à utilização de estratégias que valorizassem o ensino centrado no estudante e sua capacidade de construir conhecimento com autonomia. No caso da Pediatria, avançou-se rumo a Medicina Integral, com enfoque amplo do modelo de atenção à criança. A Saúde Coletiva aproximou-se da Medicina Comunitária problematizando situações concretas no SUS e na atenção primária. O estudo mostra a possibilidade de inovação no ensino, e podendo contribuir para a mudança institucional.

O ensino de graduação médica na comunidade: vivências e percepções de alunos da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu - UNESP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Forecasting the need for medical specialists in Spain: application of a system dynamics model

[EN] Background: Spain has gone from a surplus to a shortage of medical doctors in very few years. Medium and long-term planning for health professionals has become a high priority for health authorities. Methods: We created a supply and demand/need simulation model for 43 medical specialties using system dynamics. The model includes demographic, education and labour market variables. Several scenarios were defined. Variables controllable by health planners can be set as parameters to simulate different scenarios. The model calculates the supply and the deficit or surplus. Experts set the ratio of specialists needed per 1000 inhabitants with a Delphi method. Results: In the scenario of the baseline model with moderate population growth, the deficit of medical specialists will grow from 2% at present (2800 specialists) to 14.3% in 2025 (almost 21 000). The specialties with the greatest medium-term shortages are Anesthesiology, Orthopedic and Traumatic Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Plastic Aesthetic and Reparatory Surgery, Family and Community Medicine, Pediatrics, Radiology, and Urology. Conclusions: The model suggests the need to increase the number of students admitted to medical school. Training itineraries should be redesigned to facilitate mobility among specialties. In the meantime, the need to make more flexible the supply in the short term is being filled by the immigration of physicians from new members of the European Union and from Latin America.

A terapia comunitária e a vivência de estudantes de medicina: uma estratégia de ensino aprendizagem do cuidado humanizado na ESF?

Before the scenario full of criticism about a medical model that gives privilege to the diseases and not to the diseased, there are many arguments that defend the need of redeem the humanized relationship between doctor and patient. It became indispensable to mold during the medical graduation a professional capable of perform a special care, less instrumental and more humanized; however, even though the advances of the pedagogical program of the medical graduation, we still face numerous challenges in the process of molding. This study has as general goal to understand if the students medicine experience with the Integrative Community Therapy (TCI) at the Primary Attention – APS/Family Healthy Strategy-ESF, presents potential to configure itself while strategy of teaching-learning to the integral and humanized care. It was held a qualitative research with the students of the medical graduation from the tenth to the twelfth semester that had experience with the TCI, as part of the Boarding of Family and Community Medicine – MFC. We used interviews with script and we resorted to analyze the narratives to Gadamerian Hermeneutics. It was possible to find that before join the boarding of MFC, the students were unaware the TCI and their preconceptions lined up with depreciated character. The experience with the TCI enabled the reframing of the prejudices and the build of new concepts. Internship in ESF and participate of TCI revealed potential to learning of the humanized care by the practical exercise with experiences that privilege the built of ties; the autonomy of the patient; the fulfillment of the longitudinality at the care of the patient; the acknowledgment of the power of resilience of the patients, at the strength of the collective, at the pain sharing, at the strength of a good communication, at the gains of qualified listening exercise. The absence of models of what to do was replaced by experiences of pains and joys at the learning of becoming a doctor. The pains spoke of the structural difficulties (inputs), at the get along with the socials vulnerabilities of the users and the difficult of perform a good communication with the patients. The joys were experienced at the finding of the humanized care exercise. Questions as structural difficulties, low number of people with TCI degree, a shortly experience of with TCI, show up as limitations to its utilization as pedagogical tool. In turn, the reflective potential is capable of cause resignifications about the know-how before the pain of the other being very much present at the narratives, signaling the potential of the learning of TCI. Therefore, this study advocate that the participation of the students at the TCI, beyond the power of offering the students a teaching-learning strategy to the humanized care, represents the possibility of enlarge the horizons of those future doctors at a glance much more conscious of the difficulties and potential of a professional at the ESF, contributing to the graduation of more sensitized professionals and prepared to perform an integral and humanized approach of the person and his/her community, contributing to an APS/ESF more resolute and rewarding to everyone.

Happy App

Aplicação de promoção de estilos de vida saudáveis e prevenção do cancro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ipatimup.happy