Ministry of Health Library
Health Improvement and Innovation Digest
Issue 211 - 12 March 2020
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.
You can forward this newsletter to others who may be interested in receiving it. They can register and subscribe here. You can also access other recent issues of the digest here.
If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, you can unsubscribe here.
If you have any queries, please email us at library@health.govt.nz.
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@health.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)
Enhancing teamwork communication and patient safety responsiveness in a paediatric intensive care unit using the daily safety huddle tool
Open communication between leadership and frontline staff at the unit level is vital in promoting safe hospital culture. This hospital staff culture survey identified the failure to address safety issues as one of the areas where staff felt unable to express their concerns openly. This article, published in BMJ Open Quality explorers a improvement project. This project using the daily safety huddle tool has been developed to enhance teamwork communication and respond effectively to patient safety issues identified in a paediatric intensive care unit.
|
Cancer Services (New Zealand)
Cytopathological review of cervical pathology: Impact for women and follow‐up results
Cervical screening programs have had an important effect on the reduction of cervical cancer rates. Comprehensive programs require access to pathological review to improve the sensitivity of screening cytology and the specificity of diagnostic histology. The aim of this study, published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, was to determine the number of cases where cervical cytology or histology was amended at cytopathological review; whether amendments were ‘upgrades’ or ‘downgrades’, and how amendments aligned with follow‐up results for these patients.
Prevalence and characteristics of post‐colonoscopy colorectal cancers in a New Zealand regional centre, a 10‐year analysis
Post‐colonoscopy colorectal cancers (PCCRC) are cancers which appear following a colonoscopy in which no cancer is diagnosed. The occurrence of PCCRC is thought to be multifactorial, reflecting both endoscopy quality as well as potential differences in tumour biology between detected colorectal cancers and PCCRC. This study, published in the Internal Medicine Journal, sought to identify the prevalence and characteristics of PCCRC in a New Zealand regional centre over a 10‐year period.
|
Shorter Stays In Emergency Departments (International)
Using emergency physicians' abilities to predict patient admission to decrease admission delay time
In many EDs, emergency physicians (EPs) do not have admitting privileges and must wait for consultants to further assess and admit patients. This delays bed requests and increases ED crowding. This study, published in the Emergency Medicine Journal, measured EPs' abilities to predict patient admission prior to consultation and estimated the potential ED stretcher time saved if EPs requested a bed with consultation.
|
Better Help for smokers to Quit (International)
Pharmacological interventions for promoting smoking cessation during pregnancy
Tobacco smoking in pregnancy causes serious health problems for the developing fetus and mother. When used by non‐pregnant smokers, pharmacotherapies (nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), bupropion, and varenicline) are effective for increasing smoking cessation, however their efficacy and safety in pregnancy remains unknown. Electronic cigarettes (ECs) are becoming widely used, but their efficacy and safety when used for smoking cessation in pregnancy are also unknown. The objectives of this Cochrane Review were to determine the efficacy and safety of smoking cessation pharmacotherapies and ECs used during pregnancy for smoking cessation in later pregnancy and after childbirth, and to determine adherence to smoking cessation pharmacotherapies and ECs for smoking cessation during pregnancy.
|
Key Ministry of Health Publications
Longer, Healthier Lives: New Zealand’s Health 1990–2017
This publication provides an overview of the health of New Zealanders and explores how our health has changed over the past quarter of a century using Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) as an integrated measure of poor health and premature death.
|
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.
|
|