Ministry of Health Library

Health Improvement and Innovation Digest

Issue 162 - 1 March 2018

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)

Clinical care review systems in healthcare: a systematic review
Clinical care review is the process of retrospectively examining potential errors or gaps in medical care, aiming for future practice improvement. The objective of this systematic review, published in the International Journal of Emergency Medicine, is to identify the current state of care review reported in peer-reviewed publications and to identify domains that contribute to successful systems of care review.

Hospital Productivity (International)

Interprofessional Teamwork Innovation Model (ITIM) to promote communication and patient-centred, coordinated care
Despite recommendations and the need to accelerate redesign of delivery models to be team-based and patient-centred, professional silos and cultural and structural barriers that inhibit working together and communicating effectively still predominate in the hospital setting. The authors of this study, published in BMJ Quality and Safety, aimed to improve team-based rounding by developing, implementing, and evaluating the Interprofessional Teamwork Innovation Model (ITIM).

Shorter Stays In Emergency Departments (International)

Primary care professionals providing non-urgent care in hospital emergency departments
In many countries emergency departments (EDs) are facing an increase in demand for services, long waits, and severe crowding. One response to mitigate overcrowding has been to provide primary care services alongside or within hospital EDs for patients with non-urgent problems. However, it is unknown how this impacts the quality of patient care and the utilisation of hospital resources, or if it is cost-effective. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the effects of locating primary care professionals in hospital EDs to provide care for patients with non-urgent health problems, compared with care provided by regularly scheduled emergency physicians (EPs).

Improvement of emergency department patient flow using lean thinking
The objective of this study, published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care, was to apply lean thinking in triage acuity level-3 patients in order to improve emergency department (ED) throughput and waiting time.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (International)

Information needs in people with diabetes mellitus: a systematic review
The purpose of this study, published in Systematic Reviews, was to identify and analyse currently available knowledge on information needs of people with diabetes mellitus.

Primary Health Care (New Zealand)

Indigenous Youth Peer-Led Health Promotion in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States: A Systematic Review of the Approaches, Study Designs, and Effectiveness
Youth peer-led interventions have become a popular way of sharing health information with young people and appear well suited to Indigenous community contexts. This systematic review, published in Frontiers in Public Health, aimed to understand the range and characteristics of Indigenous youth-led health promotion projects implemented and their effectiveness.

Scabies is strongly associated with acute rheumatic fever in a cohort study of Auckland children
This study, published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, sought to determine whether scabies infection is associated with acute rheumatic fever (ARF) or chronic rheumatic heart disease.

Primary Mental Health (New Zealand)

New Zealand adolescents' concerns about their alcohol use and access to services: Associations with ethnicity and other factors
Using a national survey of New Zealand high school students, this study, published in the Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, investigated adolescents' concerns about their drinking, associated factors including help-seeking preferences and access to health care services, and how these varied by ethnicity and level of socioeconomic deprivation.

Weight Management (New Zealand)

Pasifika Youth Empowerment Programme: a potential public health approach in tackling obesity-health related issues
In New Zealand, the burden of obesity is greatest among Pacific people. However, targeted prevention strategies among Pacific communities are needed to learn about how to partner with indigenous groups to successfully apply such strategies. The aim of this study, published in AlterNative, was to pilot the Pasifika Youth Empowerment Programme.

Combined diet and physical activity is better than diet or physical activity alone at improving health outcomes for patients in New Zealand's primary care intervention
A dearth of knowledge exists regarding how multiple health behaviour changes made within an exercise prescription programme can improve health parameters. This study, published in BMC Public Health, aimed to analyse the impact of changing diet and increasing exercise on health improvements among exercise prescription patients.

Weight Management (International)

Role of the family doctor in the management of adults with obesity: a scoping review 
Obesity management is an important issue for the international primary care community. This scoping review, published in BMJ Open, examines the literature describing the role of the family doctor in managing adults with obesity.

Childhood Obesity (International)

Effects of total fat intake on bodyweight in children
As part of efforts to prevent childhood overweight and obesity, we need to understand the relationship between total fat intake and body fatness in generally healthy children. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the effects of total fat intake on measures of weight and body fatness in children and young people not aiming to lose weight.

Māori Innovation

Co-designing an mHealth tool in the New Zealand Māori community with a “Kaupapa Māori” approach
Obesity rates in Aotearoa/New Zealand continue to rise, and there is an urgent need for effective interventions. However, interventions designed for the general population tend to be less effective for Māori communities and may contribute to increased health inequities. This paper, published in AlterNative, describes the integration of co-design and kaupapa Māori research approaches to design a mobile-phone delivered (mHealth) healthy lifestyle app that supports the health aspirations of Māori communities.

Key Ministry of Health Publications

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment and Management for Primary Care
Morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be one of the largest burdens of disease for New Zealanders. More people are surviving acute cardiac events, and there have been advances in preventing and treating CVD. However, it is still responsible for 40 percent of deaths (often premature and preventable) in New Zealand. This publication has recommendations for cardiovascular disease risk assessment and risk management. It replaces previous advice on CVD risk assessment.

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.