1,721,201 research outputs found
One year on: The impact of COVID-19 on clinical research
No full textOne year on: The impact of COVID-19 on clinical researc
The battle against COVID-19: Mortality in Italy
No full textOn 30 January 30 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic officially started in Italy. Two elderly Chinese tourists (husband and wife) visiting Rome tested positive for COVID-19 and were hospitalized at ‘Spallanzani’ Hospital in Rome. On 19 February 2020 the conditions of the first two cases ameliorated. The Chinese Ambassador congratulated the hospital staff. The Italian population was told that COVID-19 affects the elderly, but it is curable. We all felt reassured
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Adherence to alendronic or risedronic acid treatment, combined or not to calcium and vitamin D, and related determinants in Italian patients with osteoporosis
No full textPurpose: Osteoporosis is a chronic disease and an important health and social burden due to its worldwide prevalence. Literature and clinical experience report incomplete adherence to the therapy. This retrospective observational study aimed at assessing the adherence to first-line antiosteoporosis drugs (AODs; reimbursed by the National Health System, according to the Italian Medicine Agency recommendation number 79), alendronate or risedronate, with or without calcium and/or vitamin D supplements, in a real, Italian clinical setting.Patients and methods: Analyses were carried out on data present in the ARNO Observatory, a population-based patient-centric Italian database. From a population of 5,808,832 inhabitants with available data, a cohort of 3.3 million of patients aged $40 years was selected. New users of first-line AODs as monotherapy (accrual period, 2007–2009) were followed up over 3 years to assess adherence at 6, 12, and 36 months to AODs and to supplements and related determinants.Results: Approximately 40,000 new users were identified: mostly women, aged on average (standard deviation) 71±10 years. Alendronate was the most prescribed (38.2% of patients), followed by risedronate (34.9%) and alendronate with colecalciferol as a fixed-dose combination (25.8%). Adherence at the 6-month follow-up was 54%, and this constantly and significantly decreased after 1 year to 46%, and after 3 years to 33% (P,0.01). Adherence to the fixed-dose combination was higher than to plain alendronate throughout the follow-up period. Similarly, adherence to supplements constantly decreased with the duration of treatment. Women and patients aged .50 years were more likely to adhere to treatment regimen (P,0.001). The use of drugs for peptic ulcer and gastroesophageal reflux disease and of corticosteroids for systemic use were significantly associated with high adherence at different times. Polytherapy (.5 drugs), cardiovascular, and neurological therapies were significantly associated with low adherence throughout the follow-up period.Conclusion: In a huge clinical practice sample, this study highlights suboptimal adherence to first-line AODs and to supplements and important determinants, such as concomitant therapies
New drugs for chronic diseases. Identification of target populations with real world data
No full textThe target populations for new drugs, in particular when these are labelled for the treatment of chronic diseases, are a central point of health planning as regulatory agencies make their decisions on pharmacoeconomic analyses performed on real-world data, health institutions have the need to plan care pathways starting from the identification of subjects requiring a specific care process and research has recognized real world evidence (RWE) studies as a complementary approach to clinical trials. On the topic of target populations for new drugs for chronic diseases, the first working group of the MaCroScopio project (observatory on chronic diseases) was launched, in which various stakeholders participated, whose reflections have been collected in this consensus document. Starting from the entry of RWE into national and international regulatory procedures, as a strategy for identifying target populations, the document describes the advantages and limitations of administrative health databases as a data source to achieve this goal. In the document is highlighted the need to adapt the identifying algorithms according to the aim to be achieved: exploratory aim, economic/organizational scope, planning/evaluation purpose in order to set up the health policy in relation to the positioning of a new drug in a given care path. Finally, the article points out the main methodological challenges that all those interested in this topic are called to face: the complementarity between RWE and randomized controlled clinical trials, the need to measure and evaluate the complexity and variability of clinical reality, as well as the opportunity to carry out validation studies of the identification algorithms of the target populations. The resulting consensus document, therefore, intends to lay the foundations for the application of the epidemiological methodology and the use of its results in the area of planning/evaluation of care interventions, in order to identify their effectiveness, quality and sustainability
Testing longitudinal data for prognostication in ambulatory heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction. A proof of principle from the GISSI-HF database
No full textBackground: Variability of parameter measurements in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) may contribute to reducing the prediction accuracy of available prognostic models. We investigated whether the use of longitudinal versus cross-sectional measurements of established predictors of mortality in patients with HFrEF would increase the accuracy of prognostication. Methods: We used longitudinal measurements of systolic blood pressure (SBP), heart rate, hemoglobin, creatinine and uric acid from HFrEF patients enrolled in the GISSI-HF trial. We performed linear mixed models to investigate the difference in first 6-month trajectories of these parameters between patients alive and dead at 4-year follow-up, and examined the change in prediction accuracy by comparing area under the curve (AUC) and net reclassification index (NRI) values obtained using a traditional cross-sectional survival model versus a longitudinal joint model using information up to 6-month follow-up. Results: We included 5469 patients with 32,206 repeated visits and measurements. We demonstrated a significant difference in the first 6-month change of each one of the selected parameters between those alive and dead at the end of follow-up (p-value for time∗mortality interaction ≤0.01). The comparison of prediction accuracy of the two models revealed a significant increase of about 2% in the AUCs when using longitudinal values of each parameter of interest up to 6 months, with significant concomitant increase in NRI. The greatest increase in accuracy was noticed when using longitudinal SBP measurements in patients with baseline SBP ≤ 110 mmHg. Conclusions: Our findings support the use of longitudinal data to improve prognostication in patients with HFrEF, and warrant validation in external cohorts and creation of new prognostic tools
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