Category: Respiratory Disease

Community health workers as drivers of a successful community-based disease management drive

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 29, 2012

Peretz, PJ. et al. American Journal of Public Health, 2012; 102(8): 1443-1446

In 2005, local leaders in New York City developed the Washington Heights/Inwood Network for Asthma Program to address the burden of asthma in their community. Bilingual community health workers based in community organizations and the local hospital provided culturally appropriate education and support to families who needed help managing asthma. Families participating in the yearlong care coordination program
received comprehensive asthma education, home environmental assessments, trigger reduction strategies, and clinical and social referrals. Since 2006, 472 families have enrolled in the yearlong program. After 12 months, hospitalizations and emergency department visits decreased by more than 50%, and caregiver confidence in controlling the child’s asthma increased to nearly 100%. Key to the program’s success was the commitment and involvement of community partners from program inception to date.

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Asthma CVD Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease Value

NHS atlas of variation in healthcare for people with respiratory disease: reducing unwanted variation to increase value and improve quality

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 9, 2012

By NHS Right Care (September 2012)

In revealing the extent of variation in clinical activity and outcomes, the indicators presented in this new Atlas underline the substantial scope clinicians and commissioners have to improve outcomes by ensuring that all patients receive the quality of care that is delivered in the best-performing localities.

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CVD Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease

Comparative effectiveness of antihypertensive medication for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: systematic review and multiple treatments meta-analysis

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 2, 2012

Fretheim, A. et al. BMC Medicine, 2012; 10:33

We conducted a systematic review of evidence from randomized controlled trials to answer the following research question: What are the relative effects of different classes of antihypertensive drugs in reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease outcomes for healthy people at risk of cardiovascular disease.

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CVD Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease Stroke

A polypill for all? Critical review of the polypill literature for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and stroke

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 2, 2012

Carey, KM. et al. Annals of Pharmacology, 2012; 46(5): 688-695

This article aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the polypill for prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke and to present literature related to the polypill components (statin, aspirin, antihypertensive) for primary prevention of CVD and stroke.

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Asthma CCGs Commissioning CVD Guidance Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease

Designing and commissioning services for adults with asthma

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date September 20, 2012

By Primary Care Commissioning (2012)

This guide sets out the fifteen points that good asthma services need to include, with detailed advice for commissioners and service developers together with examples of good practice.

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Commissioning CVD Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease

Browsing disease prevelance models

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date September 13, 2012

By the Public Health Observatory (2012)

Looking only at the numbers of patients currently being treated for a disease does not show the true prevalence and impact on the population’s health. At any given time there are many people who have a disease but are not aware of it because they have not yet been diagnosed. A robust and well-researched disease prevalence model can help commissioners to assess the true needs of their community, calculate the level of services needed and invest the appropriate level of resources for prevention, early detection, treatment and care. Prevalence models provide estimates of underlying prevalence derived from population statistics and scientific research on the risk factors for each disease. The models can also be used to support case-finding by identifying those areas where detection rates are low and targeting enhanced diagnostic activity on them.

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Asthma Community COPD CVD Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease Self-Management

Inhaler use technique and related interventions: an annotated bibliography

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date September 6, 2012

By London and South East Regional Medicines Information Service (August 2012)

This annotated bibliography with 194 references is based on searches of the National Electronic Library for Medicines (NeLM), Medline, Google Scholar and publishers’ websites. The use of inhaled therapy is of great importance in the treatment of asthma, COPD and other respiratory conditions. However, a substantial percentage of users of inhaler devices worldwide have been found to have inadequate technique or to make critical errors, which means that they do not obtain full benefit from their medication. Despite attention by researchers and the introduction of new types of device, real life use of inhalers seems to have made little progress over the past thirty years.

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Community COPD CVD Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease Self-Management

Five-year follow-up of a one-year self-management program for patients with COPD

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date August 31, 2012

Lomundal B.K. et al. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 2012; 7: 87-93

This article investigates the long-term effects 4 years after the end of a 1-year self-management program (SMP) with 30 hours of education and 16 hours of physical activity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

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Community COPD CVD General Practice Guidance Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease

Guideline-based survey of outpatient COPD management by pulmonary specialists in Germany

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date August 31, 2012

Glaab T. et al. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 2012; 7: 101-108

Little is known about the role of guidelines for the practical management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by office-based pulmonary specialists. The aim of this study was to assess their outpatient management in relation to current guideline recommendations for COPD.

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Asthma CVD Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease

Assessment of public health impact of work-related asthma

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date August 31, 2012

Jaakkola M.S. et al. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 2012; 12:22

Asthma is among the most common chronic diseases in working-aged populations and occupational exposures are important causal agents. Our aims were to evaluate the best methods to assess occurrence, public health impact, and burden to society related to occupational or work-related asthma and to achieve comparable estimates for different populations.

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