Genomics and Precision Medicine: Implications for Critical Care

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Kessler

A new paradigm for disease diagnosis and treatment is emerging that will bring about changes in health care delivery in and out of the hospital setting. Over the past several decades, genomic medicine has been one of the fastest growing fields in acute and chronic health care. This quick growth has created a lag in genomics knowledge and preparation among nurses and health care providers. Genomic medicine may lead to more precise evaluation, diagnosis, and management of selected acute care conditions. This article reviews the current state of genetic and genomics science and looks at the expanding field of genomic medicine’s integration into precision medicine. The aim of this article is to raise awareness and spark further inquiry to the remarkable field of genomics and precision medicine.

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 941-953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kianoush Kashani ◽  
Mitchell Howard Rosner ◽  
Michael Haase ◽  
Andrew J.P. Lewington ◽  
Donal J. O'Donoghue ◽  
...  

AKI is a global concern with a high incidence among patients across acute care settings. AKI is associated with significant clinical consequences and increased health care costs. Preventive measures, as well as rapid identification of AKI, have been shown to improve outcomes in small studies. Providing high-quality care for patients with AKI or those at risk of AKI occurs across a continuum that starts at the community level and continues in the emergency department, hospital setting, and after discharge from inpatient care. Improving the quality of care provided to these patients, plausibly mitigating the cost of care and improving short- and long-term outcomes, are goals that have not been universally achieved. Therefore, understanding how the management of AKI may be amenable to quality improvement programs is needed. Recognizing this gap in knowledge, the 22nd Acute Disease Quality Initiative meeting was convened to discuss the evidence, provide recommendations, and highlight future directions for AKI-related quality measures and care processes. Using a modified Delphi process, an international group of experts including physicians, a nurse practitioner, and pharmacists provided a framework for current and future quality improvement projects in the area of AKI. Where possible, best practices in the prevention, identification, and care of the patient with AKI were identified and highlighted. This article provides a summary of the key messages and recommendations of the group, with an aim to equip and encourage health care providers to establish quality care delivery for patients with AKI and to measure key quality indicators.


1997 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra K. Glazier

Discovering the genetic basis of a particular disease is not only of great interest to the medical community; private health insurers are also anxiously awaiting the results of genetic linkage studies. Apart from the scientific value of DNA studies, the results of genetic linkage research are relevant to health care delivery in two principal ways. First, identifying the genetic origin of a disease may allow doctors to detect the disease earlier. If doctors know that an individual is genetically predisposed to a particular disease, then health care providers can increase screening efforts and watch for early symptoms. Second, if an individual has a genetic predisposition to a particular disease, health care providers may employ preventive or “prophylactic" measures to reduce or eliminate the risk of developing the disease or condition to which the individual is genetically predisposed. Genetic linkage studies will soon allow more individuals to learn of their own genetic predispositions to certain diseases. Currently genetic predisposition tests (both pedigrees of family history and DNA analysis) can indicate that an individual is at high risk for developing a disease.


1985 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-225
Author(s):  
Karla Kelly

AbstractUntil recently, physicians have been the primary health care providers in the United States. In response to the rising health care costs and public demand of the past decade, allied health care providers have challenged this orthodox structure of health care delivery. Among these allied health care providers are nurse practitioners, who have attempted to expand traditional roles of the registered nurse.This article focuses on the legal issues raised by several major obstacles to the expansion of nurse practitioner services: licensing restrictions, third party reimbursement policies, and denial of access to medical facilities and physician back-up services. The successful judicial challenges to discriminatory practices against other allied health care providers will be explored as a solution to the nurse practitioners’ dilemma.


Author(s):  
Hesam Seyedin ◽  
Morteza Rostamian ◽  
Fahimeh Barghi Shirazi ◽  
Haleh Adibi Larijani

Abstract Providing health care in times of complex emergencies (CEs) is one of the most vital needs of people. CEs are situations in which a large part of the population is affected by social unrest, wars, and food shortages. This systematic review study was conducted to identify the challenges of health-care delivery in CEs. We searched terms related to health-care delivery and CEs in PubMed, Web of Sciences, Science Direct, and Google scholar databases, as well as Persian databases SID and Magiran. The searching keywords included: “Health Care, Complex Crises, War, Humanitarian, Refugees, Displaced Persons, Health Services, and Challenges.” Of 409 records, we selected 6 articles based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) checklist. Studies were analyzed through qualitative content analysis. The results show that CEs affect health-care delivery in 4 primary areas: the workforce, infrastructure, information access, and organization of health services. These areas can pose potential threats for health-care providers and planners at times of emergencies. Thus, they should be informed about these challenges to strengthen the health-care system.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 473
Author(s):  
Henry Ogoe ◽  
Odame Agyapong ◽  
Fredrick Troas Lutterodt

Individuals tend to receive medical care from different health care providers as they drift from one location to another. Oftentimes, multiple providers operate disparate systems of managing patients medical records. These disparate systems, which are unable to share and/or exchange information, have the propensity to create fragmentation of care, which poses a serious threat to the realization of continuity of care in the Ghanaian health care delivery. Continuity of care, which is the ability to seamlessly access, update, and manage patients medical information as they visit multiple providers, is a crucial component of quality of care in any health delivery system. The current system of managing patients records in Ghanapaper-basedmakes continuity of care difficult to actualize. To this end, we have developed a smartcard based personal health records system, SMART-MED, which can effectively promote continuity of care in Ghana. SMART-MED is platform-independent; it can run as standalone or configured to plug into any Java-based electronic medical record system. Results of a lab simulation test suggest that it can effectively promote continuity of care through improved data security, support interoperability for disparate systems, and seamless access and update of patients health records. Keywords: Continuity of Care, Fragmentation of Care, Interoperability, Personal Health Records, Smartcard.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Rutherford ◽  
Roghinio Noray ◽  
Caolán Ó HEarráin ◽  
Kevin Quinlan ◽  
Aisling Hegarty ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Escalating demand for specialist health care puts considerable demand on hospital services. Technology offers a means by which health care providers may increase the efficiency of health care delivery. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to conduct a pilot study of the feasibility, benefits, and drawbacks of a virtual clinic (VC) in the general surgical service of a busy tertiary center. METHODS Patient satisfaction with current care and attitudes to VC were surveyed prospectively in the general surgical outpatient department (OPD; n=223). A subset of patients who had undergone endoscopy and day surgery were recruited to follow-up in a VC and subsequently surveyed with regard to their satisfaction (20/243). Other outcomes measured included a comparison of consultation times in traditional and virtual outpatient settings and financial cost to both patients and the institution. RESULTS Almost half of the patients reported barriers to prospective use of VCs. However, within the cohort who had been followed-up in the VC, satisfaction was higher than the traditional OPD (100% as compared with 187/223, 83.9%). Significant savings in both time (<italic>P</italic>=.003) and financial costs to patients and the institution were found. CONCLUSIONS For an appropriately selected group of patients, VCs offer a viable alternative to traditional OPD. This alternative can improve both patient satisfaction and efficiency of patient care.


1970 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-206
Author(s):  
S Bhattacharya ◽  
SK Bhattacharya ◽  
AP Gautam

The Inter Professional Education (IPE) is an innovative teaching learning intervention in Health Professions’ Education during which members of more than one health profession learn interactively together to improve collaborative practice and/health of the patients. Thus this approach provides positive outcomes for students enhancing their awareness towards other professional groups, improving knowledge and understanding of how to work in an inter professional team and strengthening their communication and collaboration skills. Within the hierarchical nature of many clinical settings, the aims of IPE courses intersect with socialization of health professional (HP) students into roles of responsibility and authority. The IPE in HP courses emphasizes the practice of frequent high quality communication, strong relationships and partnerships among health care providers to maximize the quality of care thus improving the efficiency of care thereby improving clinical outcomes. Health Professional Schools are this motivated to opt for inter professional education to improve the learning of the students, health care delivery and patient outcomes. Keywords: Inter professional relations; patient centered care; education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hren.v9i3.5591   HR 2011; 9(3): 201-206


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  

AbstractA recent settlement between Massachusetts and Partners HealthCare, along with successful antitrust actions by the Federal Trade Commission, may signal the beginning of the end of two decades of consolidation of health care providers. This consolidation has been associated with higher prices resulting from market power, justifying the antitrust actions. However, the appropriate remedy for the health sector is a unique challenge. The proposed settlement appears to lock into place the legacy of the hospital-based delivery model, rather than orchestrating a pathway to a new care delivery models. Clearly, we need a regulatory framework that will introduce innovative alternatives into the market, not enshrine the current costly paradigm.


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