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Ministry of Health Library

Health Improvement and Innovation Digest

Issue 148 - 3 August 2017

Welcome to the fortnightly Health Improvement and Innovation Digest (formerly the HIIRC digest). The Digest has links to key evidence of interest, with access to new content arranged by topic.

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Have you heard about Grey Matter?

We'd like to introduce you to another newsletter that the Ministry of Health Library prepares.  The Grey Matter newsletter provides monthly access to a selection of recent NGO, Think Tank, and International Government reports related to health. Information is arranged by topic, allowing readers to quickly find their areas of interest.  If you'd like to subscribe to Grey Matter, email library@moh.govt.nz

Article access

For articles that aren't open access, contact your DHB library, or organisational or local library for assistance in accessing the full text. If your organisation has a subscription, you may be able to use the icon under full text links in PubMed to access the full article.

Quality Improvement (International)

Quality improvement, implementation, and dissemination strategies to improve mental health care for children and adolescents: a systematic review
Some outcomes for children with mental health problems remain suboptimal because of poor access to care and the failure of systems and providers to adopt established quality improvement strategies and interventions with proven effectiveness. This review, published in Implementation Science, had three goals - to assess the effectiveness of quality improvement, implementation, and dissemination strategies intended to improve the mental health care of children and adolescents; to examine harms associated with these strategies; and to determine whether effectiveness or harms differ for subgroups based on system, organizational, practitioner, or patient characteristics.

What outcomes are associated with developing and implementing co-produced interventions in acute healthcare settings? A rapid evidence synthesis
Co-production is defined as the voluntary or involuntary involvement of users in the design, management, delivery and/or evaluation of services. Interest in co-production as an intervention for improving healthcare quality is increasing. In the acute healthcare context, co-production is promoted as harnessing the knowledge of patients, carers and staff to make changes about which they care most. However, little is known regarding the impact of co-production on patient, staff or organisational outcomes in these settings. The aim of this study, published in BMJ Open, was to identify and appraise reported outcomes of co-production as an intervention to improve quality of services in acute healthcare settings.


Shorter Waits for Cancer Treatment (New Zealand)

Risk of stomach cancer in Aotearoa/New Zealand: A Māori population based case-control study
Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, experience disproportionate rates of stomach cancer, compared to non-Māori. The overall aim of the study, published in PLOS One, was to better understand the reasons for the considerable excess of stomach cancer in Māori and to identify priorities for prevention.

Population-based study demonstrating an increase in colorectal cancer in young patients
New Zealand has among the highest rates of colorectal cancer in the world and is an unscreened population. The aim of this study, published in the British Journal of Surgery, was to determine the trends in incidence and tumour location in the New Zealand population before the introduction of national colorectal cancer screening.


Shorter Stays In Emergency Departments (International)

Adjusting patients streaming initiated by a wait time threshold in emergency department for minimizing opportunity cost
This study, published in the International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, considered two different systems for streaming patients to improve efficiency measures such as waiting times (WTs) and length of stay (LOS) for an emergency department (ED).


More Heart and Diabetes Checks (New Zealand)

Dietetic management of gestational diabetes in New Zealand: A cross-sectional survey
The aim of this study, published in Nutrition & Dietetics, was to evaluate dietetic practice in the management of gestational diabetes in New Zealand, compare this with evidence-based guidelines and determine the need for New Zealand-specific evidence-based nutrition practice guidelines for gestational diabetes.


More Heart and Diabetes Checks (International)

A systematic review of economic evaluations of screening programmes for cardiometabolic diseases
The early detection and adequate management of cardiometabolic diseases (CMD) is becoming a priority to prevent future health problems and related healthcare costs. This study, published in the European Journal of Public Health, systematically reviewed the economic evaluations of screening programmes for the early detection of persons at risk for CMD.


Primary Health Care (International)

Longitudinal qualitative study describing family physicians’ experiences with attempting to integrate physical activity prescriptions in their practice: ‘It’s not easy to change habits’ 
Physical activity (PA) prescriptions provided by family physicians can promote PA participation among patients, but few physicians regularly write PA prescriptions. The objective of this study, published in BMJ Open, was to describe family physicians’ experiences of trying to implement written PA prescriptions into their practice.

Community Care for People with Complex Care Needs: Bridging the Gap between Health and Social Care
A growing number of people are living with complex care needs characterised by multimorbidity, mental health challenges and social deprivation. Required is the integration of health and social care, beyond traditional health care services to address social determinants. This study, published in the International Journal of Integrated Care, investigates key care components to support complex patients and their families in the community.


Primary Mental Health (New Zealand)

Preventing suicide in indigenous communities
The purpose of this review, published in Current Opinion in Psychiatry, was to provide an update on recent studies on suicide prevention in indigenous populations with a focus on recently colonised indigenous peoples in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.


Primary Mental Health (International)

Efficacy of home-based non-pharmacological interventions for treating depression: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials 
The objective of this study, published in BMJ Open, was to systematically review and compare the efficacy of all available home-based non-pharmacological treatments of depression.

A Community-Partnered, Participatory, Cluster-Randomized Study of Depression Care Quality Improvement: Three-Year Outcomes
Community Partners in Care is a community-partnered, cluster-randomized trial with depressed clients from 93 Los Angeles health and community programs. This study, published in Psychiatric Services, examined the added value of a community coalition approach (Community Engagement and Planning [CEP]) versus individual program technical assistance (Resources for Services [RS]) for implementing depression quality improvement in underserved communities.


Better Help for smokers to Quit (New Zealand)

Exercise to Support Indigenous Pregnant Women to Stop Smoking: Acceptability to Māori
Smoking during pregnancy is harmful for the woman and the unborn child, and the harms raise risks for the child going forward. Indigenous women often have higher rates of smoking prevalence than non-indigenous. Exercise has been proposed as a strategy to help pregnant smokers to quit. Māori (New Zealand Indigenous) women have high rates of physical activity suggesting that an exercise programme to aid quitting could be an attractive initiative. This study, published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, explored attitudes towards an exercise programme to aid smoking cessation for Māori pregnant women.


Oral Health (International)

Implementation of oral health initiatives by Australian rural communities: Factors for success
This paper, published in Health and Social Care in the Community, considers factors significant in the success of community participation in the implementation of new oral health services.


Māori Innovation

Constructing prevention programmes with a Māori health service provider view
Mainstream approaches to chronic condition management and prevention inadequately address the needs of Māori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand. Māori health service providers (MHSPs) are uniquely placed to address the critical gap in the prevention of chronic conditions. This paper, published in Kōtuitui, reports qualitative research findings investigating how prevention was being modelled, practiced and measured in selected MHSP settings.


Key Ministry of Health Publications

Transforming Respite: Disability Support Services Respite Strategy 2017 to 2022
The Ministry of Health’s disability respite strategy, Transforming Respite, will make it easier for carers of disabled people to have a break from their caring responsibilities.


The information available on or through this newsletter does not represent Ministry of Health policy. It is intended to provide general information to the health sector and the public, and is not intended to address specific circumstances of any particular individual or entity.

Ministry of Health - Manatū Hauora
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New Zealand

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