Ministry of Health Library

Health Improvement and Innovation Digest

Issue 126 - 8 September 2016

Welcome to the fortnightly Health Improvement and Innovation Digest (HIID). 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.  You can use this link to subscribe to Grey Matter.

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 (New Zealand)

Reducing Harm from Falls programme evaluation
The Reducing Harm from Falls Programme is a national programme led by the Health Quality & Safety Commission. Synergia was commissioned to evaluate whether the programme was meeting its objectives and intended results; and to assist in determining what the sector needs from the Commission, to support a sustained focus on reducing harm from falls across care settings.

Quality Improvement (International)

Systematic review of approaches to using patient experience data for quality improvement in healthcare settings
The objectives of this systematic review, published in BMJ Open, were to explore how patient-reported experience measures are collected, communicated and used to inform quality improvement across healthcare settings.

Measurement of patient safety: a systematic review of the reliability and validity of adverse event detection with record review
Record review is the most used method to quantify patient safety. This systematic review, published in BMJ Open, reviewed the reliability and validity of adverse event detection with record review.

Tools developed and disseminated by guideline producers to promote the uptake of their guidelines
The uptake of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) is inconsistent, despite their potential to improve the quality of health care and patient outcomes. Some guideline producers have addressed this problem by developing tools to encourage faster adoption of new guidelines. This Cochrane Review focuses on the effectiveness of tools developed and disseminated by guideline producers to improve the uptake of their CPGs.

Hospital Productivity (International)

Efficiency improvement in the operating room
In the changing health care environment, health systems, hospitals, and health care providers must focus on improving efficiency to meet an increasing demand for high-quality, low-cost health care. This systematic review, published in the Journal of Surgical Research, reviews published efforts to improve intraoperative efficiency; assess the outcomes of these efforts, and propose standardized reporting of future studies.

Shorter Waits for Cancer Treatment (New Zealand)

Continuity of cancer patient care in New Zealand: the general practitioner perspective
As cancer treatments become more effective, increasing numbers of cancer patients seek long-term support from general practice. This study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, aimed to canvass the perspective of GPs on issues around continuity of care for these patients.

Shorter Stays In Emergency Departments (International)

Changing paediatric emergency department model of care is associated with improvements in the National Emergency Access Target and a decrease in inpatient admissions
The objective of this study, published in Emergency Medicine Australasia, was to assess the impact on patient flow as noted by the National Emergency Access Target (NEAT), with the introduction of a new Paediatric ED (PEM ED) model of care.

More Heart and Diabetes Checks (New Zealand)

More Heart and Diabetes Checks Evaluation
Health targets are a set of national measures designed to improve the performance of health services. They focus on population health objectives and on reducing inequities. The More Heart and Diabetes Checks health target began in 2012 and includes a cardiovascular risk assessment (CVDRA) and a blood test for diabetes (HbA1c) delivered in primary care settings. This publication, conducted by Allen and Clarke for the Ministry of Health, evaluated this target and its implementation.

More Heart and Diabetes Checks (International)

Screening for rheumatic heart disease: quality and agreement of focused cardiac ultrasound by briefly trained health workers
Echocardiographic screening for rheumatic heart disease (RHD) has the potential to detect subclinical cases for secondary prevention, but is constrained by inadequate human resources in most settings. Training non-expert health workers to perform focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) may enable screening at a population-level. The authors of this study, published in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, aimed to evaluate the quality and agreement of FoCUS for valvular regurgitation by briefly trained health workers.

Primary Health Care (New Zealand)

Developing a response to family violence in primary health care: the New Zealand experience
Despite primary health care being recognised as an ideal setting to effectively respond to those experiencing family violence, responses are not widely integrated as part of routine health care. The Primary Health Care Family Violence Responsiveness Evaluation Tool was developed as a guide to implement a formal systems-led response to family violence within New Zealand primary health care settings. Given the difficulties integrating effective, sustainable responses to family violence, this study, published in BMC Family Practice, shared the experience of primary health care sites that embarked on developing a response to family violence, presenting the enablers, barriers and resources required to maintain, progress and sustain family violence response development.

Consent and widespread access to personal health information for the delivery of care: a large scale telephone survey of consumers' attitudes using vignettes in New Zealand
The objective of this study, published in BMJ Open, was to examine factors which influence the public's willingness to consent to share their health information in a national electronic health record.

Primary Health Care (International)

Interventions to increase or decrease the length of primary care physicians' consultation
Observational studies have shown differences in process and outcome between the consultations of primary care physicians whose average consultation lengths differ. These differences may be due to self selection. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the effects of interventions to alter the length of primary care physicians' consultations.

Primary Mental Health (International)

How to early recognize mood disorders in primary care: A nationwide, population-based, cohort study
Mood disorders are managed predominantly in primary care. However, general practitioners' (GPs) ability to detect and diagnose patients with mood disorders is still considered unsatisfactory. The aim of the present study, published in European Psychiatry, was to identify predictors for the early recognition of depressive disorder and bipolar disorder in general practice.

Better Help for smokers to Quit (International)

Nicotine and Tobacco Use Prevention among Youth and Families
The objective of this study, published in Seminars in Oncology Nursing, was to review the importance of and evidence-based strategies to prevent tobacco use and promote tobacco cessation in the pediatric setting.

Weight Management (New Zealand)

Long-term effectiveness of the New Zealand Green Prescription primary health care exercise initiative
The rising incidence of non-communicable diseases in western countries is being driven by poor lifestyle choices, including increasingly inadequate physical activity. The aim of this study, published in Public Health, was to quantify the effectiveness of a physical activity primary care intervention named the 'Green Prescription' on changes in physical activity levels 2-3 year's following original prescription.

PATU TM: Fighting fit, fighting fat! The Hinu Wero approach
The PATU TM Aotearoa Hinu Wero (Fat Challenge) is a group exercise initiative that promotes physical activity and focuses on fat loss in order to reduce obesity in Māori. This study, published in AlterNative, evaluated the effectiveness of the pilot nine-week Hinu Wero.

Weight Management (International)

Weight loss interventions for overweight and obese adolescents: a systematic review
The purpose of this study, published in Eating and Weight Disorders, was to determine what factors contribute to the efficacy of non-drug treatments designed to promote weight loss in overweight and obese adolescents.

Cost effectiveness of a multi-component school-based physical activity intervention targeting adolescents: the 'Physical Activity 4 Everyone' cluster randomized trial
Few school-based interventions have been successful in reducing physical activity decline and preventing overweight and obesity in adolescent populations. As a result, few cost effectiveness analyses have been reported. The aim of this paper, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, is to report the cost and cost effectiveness of the Physical Activity 4 Everyone (PA4E1) intervention which was a multi-component intervention implemented in secondary schools located in low-income communities.

Childhood Obesity (International)

Parental response to a letter reporting child overweight measured as part of a routine national programme in England: results from interviews with parents
Rising rates of childhood obesity have become a pressing issue in public health, threatening both the mental and physical well-being of children. Attempts to address this problem are multifaceted, and in England include the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) which assesses weight status in English primary school children in reception class (aged 4-5) and in year 6 (aged 10-11), with results being sent out to parents. However the effectiveness and impact of this routine parental feedback has yet to be fully understood. This paper, published in BMC Public Health, reports one component of a mixed methods study undertaken in North East England, examining the impact of the feedback letters on parents' understanding and feelings about their child's weight status and whether or not this seemed likely to lead to behaviour change.

Association between Body Mass Index, Waist-to-Height Ratio and Adiposity in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Obesity is defined as an abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) has been suggested as the gold standard to define obesity, but because its use is complex and expensive, anthropometric measures such as body mass index (BMI) or the waist-to-height ratio (WtHr) have been used as alternatives. The aim of this study, published in Nutrients, was to review the published literature and investigate the correlation of BMI and WtHr with body fat (BF) measured by DEXA in pediatric populations.

Key Ministry of Health Publications

New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline
The NZ Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline provides evidence-based information for people on the autism spectrum, their family and whanau, as well as health, disability and education professionals and social service agencies.  It includes information about good practice that is evidence-based and aims to improve the health, educational and social outcomes for people with ASD.