Prevalence and Management of Anaemia in Renal Transplant Recipients: Data from Ten European Centres.

Background: Although it is a known predictor of mortality, there is a relative lack of recent information about anaemia in kidney transplant recipients. Thus, we now report data about the prevalence and management of post-transplant anaemia (PTA) in Europe 5 years after the TRansplant European Survey on Anemia Management (TRESAM) study. Methods: In a cross-sectional study enrolling the largest number of patients to date, data were obtained from 5,834 patients followed at 10 outpatient transplant clinics in four European countries using the American Society of Transplantation anaemia guideline. Results: More than one third (42%) of the patients were anaemic. The haemoglobin (Hb) concentration was significantly correlated with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (r = 0.4, p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, eGFR, serum ferritin, age, gender, time since transplantation and centres were independently and significantly associated with Hb. Only 24% of the patients who had a Hb concentration <110 g/l were treated with an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent. The prevalence of anaemia and also the use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents were significantly different across the different centres, suggesting substantial practice variations. Conclusions: PTA is still common and under-treated. The prevalence and management of PTA have not changed substantially since the TRESAM survey.

Integrated Family Centres: Directions for Future Developments

This article explores the potential for an integrated family centre to meet the demands of agencies to assess child protection risks whilst meeting family requirements to engage in partnership to enhance child welfare.

Intellectual Property management in publicly funded R&D centres—A comparison of university-based and company-based research centres

Recent thinking on open innovation and the knowledge-based economy have stressed the importance of external knowledge sources in stimulating innovation. Policy-makers have recognised this, establishing publicly funded Centres of R&D Excellence with the objective of stimulating industry–science links and localised innovation spillovers. Here, we examine the contrasting IP management practices of a group of 18 university- and company-based R&D centres supported by the same regional programme. Our analysis covers all but one of the Centres supported by the programme and suggests marked contrasts between the IP strategies of the university-based and company-based centres. This suggests the potential for very different types of knowledge spillovers from publicly funded R&D centres based in different types of organisations, and a range of alternative policy approaches to the future funding of R&D centres depending on policy-makers’ objectives.

Risk reducing mastectomy: outcomes in 10 European centres

Background: Increasingly women at high risk of breast cancer are opting for risk reducing surgery. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of this approach in women at high risk in both carriers and non-carriers of BRCA1/2.

Creating advantage in peripheral regions: The role of publicly funded R&D centres

Regional investment in R&D, technological development and innovation is perceived as being strongly associated with productivity, growth and sustained international competitiveness. One policy instrument by which policy makers have attempted to create regional advantage has been the establishment of publicly funded research centres (PRCs). In this paper we develop a logic model for this type of regional intervention and examine the outputs and longer-term outcomes from a group of (18) publicly funded R&D centres. Our results suggest some positive regional impacts but also identify significant differences in terms of innovation, additionality and sustainability between university-based and company-based PRCs. University-based PRCs have higher levels of short-term additionality, demonstrate higher levels of organisational innovation but prove less sustainable. Company-based PRCs demonstrate more partial additionality in the short-term but ultimately prove more sustainable.

Catalysing open innovation through publicly funded R&D: A Comparison of University and Company-based research centres

Public funding of university and company-based R&D centres of excellence is widespread both in core and more peripheral regions. What is less well-known is whether these R&D centres can catalyse multi-directional, multi-actor and iterative innovation. Based on data from a real-time monitoring study, this article explores the development of 18 R&D centres’ external connections. University-based R&D centres establish more new connections than company-based centres and are more likely to be interacting with small or micro-firms. However, there is a general bias towards links with larger firms; micro, small and medium-sized enterprises also are less likely to be involved in collaborative R&D with research centres than other types of relationships. The results suggest the potential for R&D centres to act as a catalyst for open innovation but emphasise the need to ensure that the focus of the R&D being conducted is relevant to the needs of smaller firms.