1,720,962 research outputs found
Estimation of Theoretical Cost Preventability Achievable with an Effective Pharmacovigilance Activity in a Pharmacovigilance Regional Centre in Italy
No full textIntroduction: The management of patients with adverse drug events (ADEs) has a significant economic impact owing to hospitalization and treatment costs. Recently, social and healthcare costs related to ADEs have become a relevant issue, and they are increasingly being included in budget estimations for health resource allocations.
Aim: To evaluate the costs of ADEs and their predictability, and to estimate the impact of a pharmacovigilance facility on ADE-related cost savings within a regional healthcare system.
Methods: A systematic review of English medical literature quoted in PUBMED (January 2005–March 2015) was conducted. We included all studies performed in Western Europe, USA and Canada about direct costs of ADEs in inpatient settings, for which the mean cost of serious and/or not-serious ADEs could be estimated. Studies on specific side-effects or drug-classes were excluded. The following data were extracted: mean cost of ADEs; percentage of preventable ADEs; charges for outpatient care and medications. The mean cost (into Euros) of serious and not-serious ADEs and the mean percentage of preventable ADEs were estimated. Based on spontaneous ADE reports recorded by the Tuscan Pharmacovigilance Centre in 2014, the theoretical cost of ADEs in Tuscany (3,704,152 inhabitants) was calculated. A sensitivity analysis was performed about cost (mean cost ±standard deviation ±50 %), and preventability (the maximum and minimum percentage estimated). The resulting range of ADE costs and the theoretically costs-saving that can be achieved with the implementation of pharmacovigilance activities were assessed.
Results: Fourteen studies were analyzed: 13 on serious ADEs; 3 on costs of not-serious ADEs; 8 on percentage of preventability. The mean cost of an ADE was: €3526 ± 1927 for serious and €172 ± 93 for not serious. We estimated a mean preventability of 51.3 ± 21 %. In 2014, the Italian National Network of Pharmacovigilance database accounted for 1498
serious ADEs and 2997 not-serious ADEs in Tuscany (1214 ADEs/million- inhabitants). The overall costs of ADEs incurred by the Tuscan Regional Healthcare System was: €5281,948 (€1,425,953/million-inhabitants; sensitivity analysis: €3304,827–322,957/million-inhabitants) for serious ADEs; €515,484 (€139,164/million-inhabitants; sensitivity analysis: €321,094 32,117/million-inhabitants) for not-serious ADEs. Based on the estimated preventable costs in Tuscany, an effective pharmacovigilance system could allow to save €2,974,083 (€802,905/million-inhabitants; sensitivity analysis: €1,697,370–237,115/million-inhabitants) over one-year.
Conclusion: Resource allocations to improve the regional pharmacovigilance systems might increase appropriateness and safety of therapies, thus reducing the costs incurred by regional healthcare systems. It could be obtained through: ADE evaluation systems; computerized prescription systems with alerts; continuing education of health professionals; multidisciplinary support to medical therapies
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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Neonatal Adaptation Issues After Maternal Exposure to Prescription Drugs: Withdrawal Syndromes and Residual Pharmacological Effects
No full textExposure to drugs during pregnancy has the potential to harm offspring. Teratogenic effects are the most feared adverse outcomes in newborns; however, a wide spectrum of less known, usually reversible and often acute, neonatal adverse events can also occur due to drug intake by mothers during pregnancy, particularly in close proximity to delivery. This narrative review is aimed at the description of drugs and drug classes for which licit maternal use in the predelivery period has been associated with neonatal non-teratogenic disorders. For each drug class, epidemiology, clinical features, biological mechanism and management of these adverse reactions have been discussed in detail. Although these adverse reactions have been described mainly for substances used illicitly for recreational purposes, several prescription drugs have also been involved; these include mainly psychotropic medications such as opioids, antidepressants, antiepileptics and antipsychotics. These effects can be partly explained by withdrawal syndromes (defined also as 'neonatal abstinence syndrome') caused by the delivery-related discontinuation of the drug disposition from the mother to the fetus, with symptoms that may include feeding disorders, tremors, irritability, hypotonia/hypertonia, vomiting and persistent crying, occurring a few hours to 1 month after delivery. Otherwise, neonatal neurological and behavioral effects can also be caused by a residual pharmacological effect due to an accumulation of the drug in the blood and tissues of the newborn, with various symptoms related to the toxic effects of the specific drug class, usually developing a few hours after birth. With few exceptions, validated protocols for the assessment and management of withdrawal or residual pharmacological effects of these drugs in neonates are often lacking or incomplete. Spontaneous reporting of these adverse reactions seems limited, although it might represent a useful tool for improving our knowledge about drug-induced neonatal syndromes
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