1,721,029 research outputs found
Placing prevention in the pockets: The role of mHealth in preventive medical services
No full textPrevention is an essential part of the continuum of care in medicine and health. The focus of preventive services can be on individuals as well as communities and populations. Traditionally, preventive interventions in medical care have been classified into three hierarchical levels:\ud
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1. Primary prevention: includes methods that help in avoiding disease occurrence, specifically in healthy people (e.g., health promotion)\ud
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2. Secondary prevention: includes methods for diagnosing or treating risk factors and/ or diseases at early stages with a special focus on at-risk people before they experi- ence morbidity (e.g., screening)\ud
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3. Tertiary prevention: includes methods that help in reducing the impact of existing diseases in patients, usually by preventing progression of disease or the develop- ment of complications and by rehabilitation (Pomeroy and Steiker 2012
"Precision" or "relevance"? Reporting considerations for articles focusing on evaluation of search strategies [Letter to the Editor]
No full textText messaging and medication adherence- Do we have a missed call?
No full textWe read the Original Investigation by Thakkar et al and the Invited Commentary by Nieuwlaat et al in a recent issue of JAMA Internal Medicine with great enthusiasm. Focusing on the second largest unsolved gap in health care and showing promisingly positive effects of short message service (SMS)-based interventions in improving the odds of medication adherence are important aspects of this research..
Mobile devices and applications for health; an exploratory review of the current evidence with public health perspective
No full textAdvances in mobile phone technology help in assessment, education and service provision for the benefit of public health. Mobile health solutions have been successful in transformation of service delivery – especially in resource-poor settings. But challenges arise from “patchwork of incompatible applications serving narrow, albeit valuable, needs”. We assessed available evidence on advantages of mobile devices and applications for the purpose of health improvement, considering a public health perspective. We reviewed the articles published in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Ovid from 2010 backwards according to their study design, population, objectives and findings. We then classified them according to World Health Organization’s health system building blocks, objectives, and roadmaps. Twenty five out of 43 articles met our inclusion criteria. Research experiences were still passing through their developmental phases and needed much harmonization to health system goals and objectives at large. The subjects that had been experienced in addition to the study designs varied widely. A substantial lack of higher-level evidence existed, especially in the form of well-designed trials. It is the responsibility of healthcare researchers to advocate for better study types and also a requirement for experts from information technology enterprise to get more insight into the nature of health system when planning a research on mobile health
Challenges and success factors in university mergers and academic integrations
No full textBACKGROUND: There are different reasons for mergers among higher education institutes. In October 2010 the Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) merged with two other medical universities in Tehran. In this study, we aim to review the literature on academic integrations and university mergers challenges and reasons for the success or failure of university mergers.\ud
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METHODS: We searched for studies that pertained to university or college mergers, amalgamation, dissolution, or acquisition in the following DATABASES: PubMed, Emerald, Web of Science, Scopus, and Ovid, without any limitations on country, language, or publication date. Two reviewers selected the search results in a joint meeting. We used content analysis methodology and held three sessions for consensus building on incompatibilities.\ud
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RESULTS: We reviewed a total of 32 documents. The “merger” phenomenon attracted considerable attention worldwide from the 1970s until the 1990s. The most important reasons for merging were to boost efficiency and effectiveness, deal with organizational fragmentation, broaden student access and implement equity strategies, increase government control on higher education systems, decentralization, and to establish larger organizations. Cultural incompatibility, different academic standards, and geographical distance may prevent a merger. In some countries, geographical distance has caused an increase in existing cultural, social, and academic tensions.\ud
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DISCUSSION: The decision and process of a merger is a broad, multi-dimensional change for an academic organization. Managers who are unaware of the fact that mergers are an evolutionary process with different stages may cause challenges and problems during organizational changes. Socio-cultural integration acts as an important stage in the post-merger process. It is possible for newly-formed schools, departments, and research centers to be evaluated as case studies in future research
Methodologic considerations in trials assessing prevention of asthma exacerbation by vitamin D supplementation [Correspondence]
No full textA bibliometric study of publication patterns in rational use of medicines in Iran
No full text<b>Background</b>\ud
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- Inappropriate use of drugs is commonly observed in health care system throughout the world especially in developing countries. The consequences of irrational use of drugs are enormous for patients and communities. Proper interventions would have important financial and public health benefits. Several studies have been performed about rational use of drugs in Iran.\ud
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<b>Objective</b>\ud
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- The objective of this study was to assess scientific output on rational use of drugs in Iran using a bibliometric analysis of publications.\ud
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<b>Methods</b>\ud
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- A systematic search was conducted for finding all papers (English and Persian) using Pubmed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, CINAHL, Proquest, International Pharmaceutical Abstract and Persian databases including SID, Iran Medex and MagIran. Retrieved articles were categorized by research topics and year of publication. Impact Factor of the journals, citation analysis of first authors, most cited topics and average citations per item were analyzed.\ud
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<b>Results</b>\ud
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- A total of 668 articles were retrieved from all search engines after excluding irrelevant, 466 articles were included in the review. Number of publications increased dramatically after 2001(more than 10 times). Evaluation of prescribing pattern (15%), self-medication (11.3%) and adverse drug reaction (9.1%) were among the most studied topics. From the total of 165 journals, 60 of them had Impact factors and 125 articles were published in these journals. Antimicrobial resistance and adverse drug reaction were the most cited topic.\ud
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<b>Conclusion</b>\ud
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- Publication of articles on rational use of drugs research in Iran has undergone an important increase during last decade. Further analysis of research outputs is necessary to achieve rational use of medicines goal
Efficacy of pregabalin in childhood refractory partial seizure
No full text<b>Objective</b>\ud
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- About one third of partial seizures are refractory to treatment. Several anticonvulsant drugs have entered the market in recent decades but concerns about intolerance, drug interactions, and the safety of the drug are notable. One of these new anticonvulsants is pregabalin, a safe drug with almost no interaction with other antiepileptic drugs.\ud
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<b>Methods</b>\ud
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- In this open label clinical trial study, pregabalin was used for evaluation of its efficacy on reducing seizure frequency in 29 children suffering from refractory partial seizures.\ud
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- Average daily and weekly seizure frequency of the patients was recorded during a 6-week period (baseline period). Then, during a period of 2 weeks (titration period), pregabalin was started with a dose of 25-75 mg/d, using method of flexible dose, and was brought to maximum dose of drug that was intended in this study (450 mg/d) based on clinical response of the patients and seizure frequency. Then the patients were given the drug for 12 weeks and the average frequency of daily and weekly seizures were recorded again (treatment period).\ud
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<b>Findings</b>\ud
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- Reduction in seizure frequency in this study was 36% and the responder rate or number of patients who gained more than 50% reduction in seizure frequency was 51.7%.\ud
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<b>Conclusion</b>\ud
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- This study showed that pregabalin can be used with safety and an acceptable efficacy in treatment of childhood refractory partial seizures
Secular trends in the national and provincial births of new thalassemia cases in Iran from 2001 to 2006
No full textThalassemia is one of the genetic diseases for which there are only a few successful prevention protocols. In this study, we aimed to analyze data for thalassemia newborns in a period of 6 years to find out the geographical distribution of cases, the “high-risk” provinces in Iran, the causes of thalassemia newborn cases, the coverage rate of the prevention programs and the limitations of the thalassemia registration system.\ud
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To further our aim, an analytic cross-sectional study was designed at the Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization (IBTO), Tehran, Iran. A questionnaire was then prepared to gather data from each of the 30 provincial centers to find out the number and causes of thalassemia births. Furthermore, another questionnaire, to be completed by the physicians in charge, was aimed at gathering data from all 207 thalassemia care centers. We then performed a stratified analysis of the frequency of distributions; the associations among the existing variables were evaluated using the χ2 or Fisher’s exact tests at a 5.0% significance level.\ud
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According to the findings, from 2001–2006, a total of 2091 thalassemia patients were born. The main causes were: the at-risk couples not using prenatal diagnosis (PND), marriages before the commencement of Iranian prevention plans, unregistered marriages based on religious conventions, among foreign citizens and the existence of some test errors. The causes of birth for 284 (13.6%) of new cases were not documented. There was a statistically significant difference between the five high-risk provinces regarding the proportional causes of thalassemia newborns [Pearson χ2 = 4.549; degree of freedom (df) = 8, p value = 0.0001].\ud
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Although the plan succeeded in avoiding the annual birth of 826 new cases on average, there is continuing concern that more than 300 new cases were born every year during 2001–2006 and new prevention strategies need to be put into practice. It is highly recommended that focus be put on factors persistently causing the birth of new cases, especially in high-risk areas in which the success rates are lower than 50.0%
Letter to the Editor: Assessment and reporting considerations for medication knowledge and adherence studies
No full textTo the Editor,\ud
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We read the article by <u><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/pds.3275/abstract">Okuyan et al</a></u>. with great interest. Assessing medication knowledge in different contexts and its relationship with medication adherence will help us obtain valuable insights for better research actions in our country. But there are a few points in need for clarification by\ud
the authors; we try to mention them in no order of preference..
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