Frail older people have an inherent risk of polypharmacy due to the need to treat multiple comorbidities, thus leading to various negative effects on their health due to the adverse actions from the drugs. This issue was discussed from a person-centered perspective, highlighting the category of frail older adults who are at a higher risk. Appropriate medication reconciliation in this population with useful prescribing tools (Beers and START/STOPP criteria) to minimize polypharmacy and to provide alternative prescriptive intervention could go alongside primary care to reduce the extent of frailty and polypharmacy. Reducing delayed referrals and extended hospitalization with electronic health record systems and using the signs of frailty from the Electronic Frailty Index (EFI) to predict polypharmacy for frail older persons are preventative approaches that proactively respond to frailty associated with the risk of polypharmacy.
People with early-onset dementia have a potential risk of being marginalised with respect to care and social support as a result of the blame and stigma associated with their condition, and because they have reduced access to treatment options and postdiagnostic care. The limited use of community services and the resulting psychological implications are two key issues facing the group and their caregivers. Early diagnosis, behavioural therapies such as talking therapy, meaningful Montessori activities and friendly community services tailored to meet the needs of people with early-onset dementia are relationship-centred care approaches that could be implemented in practice, using the ‘Senses Framework’ to promote an enriched supportive environment of care with zero tolerance for marginalisation and discriminatory tendencies. Support for caregivers is invaluable in controlling behavioural changes in people with early-onset dementia. A combined approach involving pharmacological and behavioural interventions could be used in severe mood and behavioural changes.
There has been increased focus on clinically managing multi-morbidity in the older population, but it can be challenging to find appropriate paradigm that addresses the socio-economic burden and risk for polypharmacy. The Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) has examined the need for institutional change and the parallel need to address the social causes of poor health. This study explored three potential interventions namely, meaningful information from electronic health records (EHR), social prescribing, and redistributive welfare policies from a person-centered perspective using the CARE (connecting, assessing, responding, and empowering) approach. Economic instruments that immediately redistribute state welfare and reduce income disparity such as direct taxation and conditional cash transfers could be adopted to enable older people with long-term conditions have access to healthcare services. Decreased socioeconomic inequality and unorthodox prescriptive interventions that reduce polypharmacy could mitigate barriers to effectively manage the complexities of multi-morbidity.
1 January 2020 in Bioinformatics and Biology Insights
The current study seeks to compare 3 clustering algorithms that can be used in gene-based bioinformatics research to understand disease networks, protein-protein interaction networks, and gene expression data. Denclue, Fuzzy-C, and Balanced Iterative and Clustering using Hierarchies (BIRCH) were the 3 gene-based clustering algorithms selected. These algorithms were explored in relation to the subfield of bioinformatics that analyzes omics data, which include but are not limited to genomics, proteomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics data. The objective was to compare the efficacy of the 3 algorithms and determine their strength and drawbacks. Result of the review showed that unlike Denclue and Fuzzy-C which are more efficient in handling noisy data, BIRCH can handle data set with outliers and have a better time complexity.
Background: Diabetes is a long-term condition that can be treated and controlled but do not yet have a cure; it could be induced by inflammation and the goal of managing it is to prevent additional co-morbidities and reduce glycemic fluctuations. There is a need to examine inflammatory activities in diabetes-related angiopathies and explore interventions that could reduce the risk for future outcome or ameliorate its effects to provide insights for improved care and management strategies.Method: The study was conducted in Embase (1946–2020), Ovid Medline (1950–2020), and PubMed databases (1960–2020) using the PICO framework. Primary studies (randomized controlled trials) on type 2 diabetes mellitus and inflammatory activities in diabetes-related angiopathies were included. Terms for the review were retrieved from the Cochrane library and from PROSPERO using its MeSH thesaurus qualifiers. Nine articles out of 454 total hits met the eligibility criteria. The quality assessment for the selected study was done using the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine Critical Appraisal Sheet.Results: Data analysis showed that elevated CRP, TNF-α, and IL-6 were the most commonly found inflammatory indicator in diabetes-related angiopathies, while increased IL-10 and soluble RAGE was an indicator for better outcome. Use of drugs such as salsalate, pioglitazone, simvastatin, and fenofibrate but not glimepiride or benfotiamine reported a significant decrease in inflammatory events. Regular exercise and consumption of dietary supplements such as ginger, hesperidin which have anti-inflammatory properties, and those containing prebiotic fibers (e.g., raspberries) revealed a consistent significant (p < 0.05) reduction in inflammatory activities.Conclusion: Inflammatory activities are implicated in diabetes-related angiopathies; regular exercise, the intake of healthy dietary supplements, and medications with anti-inflammatory properties could result in improved protective risk outcome for diabetes patients by suppressing inflammatory activities and elevating anti-inflammatory events.
The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard is increasingly being adopted for healthcare data exchange in the United States and globally, but an overall picture of the applications (apps) that implement the standard is not well known. This study aimed to provide a preliminary assessment of real-world FHIR apps’ clinical, technical, and implementation characteristics. To achieve this aim, we (1) searched digital repositories and libraries containing FHIR apps, (2) extracted the app name, source, and developer contact information, and (3) collected information about the apps via an electronic survey of FHIR app developers and implementers. Respondents reported a variety of health domains, terminologies, FHIR specifications, and types of developing organizations for the 112 apps about which we received information. Apps were increasingly introduced from 2012 to 2022, and most focused on clinical care (n = 74) or research (n = 45). The majority were stand-alone web-based (n = 67) or embedded within an electronic health record (n = 51). Of the many health domains covered, cardiovascular care was the most common (n = 28). Half (n = 56) were implemented across multiple health settings, highlighting FHIR’s substitutable nature. Overall, this study demonstrates the momentum around FHIR, the diversity of FHIR apps, and the need for a robust global FHIR app repository.