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Ventricular tachycardia: a life-threatening arrhythmia in a patient with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries.

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is an uncommon finding in patients with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA). Cardiac death in patients with CCTGA has been attributed to complete heart block, systemic ventricular dysfunction, or severe AV valve regurgitation with heart failure. We describe the case of a patient who presented with palpitations and near-syncope that was associated with clinical episodes of VT. Programmed ventricular stimulation revealed easily inducible sustained VT that immediately degenerated to ventricular fibrillation and subsequently required therapy with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

Adult↗

Considerations in participatory action research when working cross-culturally.

Professionals from minority world nations are increasingly consulting with majority world nations to develop intervention and educational training programs, yet minority world programs cannot be simply transferred to majority world countries. Participatory action research (PAR) provides a methodology that can be used to facilitate the development of programs that are useful for and sustainable by the majority world communities. This article describes the principles of PAR and gives examples of the ways that cultural values and behaviors may influence interactions between minority and majority world persons. An understanding of these cultural variations in values is essential for the successful implementation of PAR and will reduce miscommunication and incorrect interpretations of behaviors.

Cultural Diversity↗

Residency training: challenges and opportunities in preparing trainees for the 21st century.

The future will see increased medicalization of psychiatry and will demand changes in training that better prepare residents for the realities of practice in a sustained period of physician shortage. Residency programs will need to move from the current apprenticeship model of training to competency-based programs built on the CanMEDS 2000 articulation of physician roles. Training will need to focus on evidence-based treatments, more efficient models of health care delivery, more attentive tracking of resident clinical work, and more reliable and standardized methods of evaluating resident competencies.

Canada↗

Physical therapy and Parkinson's disease: a controlled clinical trial.

In a randomized, single-blind, crossover study, we evaluated physical disability in moderately advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) patients after 4 weeks of normal physical activity and 4 weeks of an intensive physical rehabilitation program. We used a timed motor task and a standard assessment of PD severity (the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale [UPDRS] with subscales for mentation, activities of daily living [ADL], and motor function) completed by an investigator blinded to the physical rehabilitation status of the patient. Following physical rehabilitation, there was significant improvement in the UPDRS ADL and motor scores, but no change in mentation score. During the 6 months following physical rehabilitation, patients did not regularly exercise, and the UPDRS scores returned to baseline. We conclude that physical disability in moderately advanced PD objectively improves with a regular physical rehabilitation program, but this improvement is not sustained when normal activity is resumed.

Aged↗

Taking aim at fall injury adverse events: best practices and organizational change.

Fall injuries represent a huge healthcare, social and financial burden to the Canadian population. In 2004, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) was awarded recognition as a National Spotlight Organization for Implementation of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario Best Practice Guidelines (BPGs). That same year, the author and co-leader of the Best Practice Guideline Program began the CHSRF Executive Training in Research Application (EXTRA) Program with the goal of reducing falls injuries, one of the most common adverse events in the MUHC and in acute care in Canada. This demonstration project used multiple strategies to strengthen a culture of safety and improve performance relating to adverse events, including: pilot testing several evidence-based falls prevention interventions (autumn 2005), training teams of champions to work across multiple sites, developing an infrastructure to support organizational change, modifying existing quality indicators to become benchmarkable, conducting a cost analysis of falls prevention, evaluating pre- and post-pilot surveys of organizational climate and obtaining initial baseline measures of the safety climate within the organization. Positive patient, practitioner and organizational outcomes suggest that falls safety prevention is feasible in large, complex healthcare organizations--and that safety is both a moral and a financial imperative. Next stages of the BPG program include full rollout, and measuring sustainability via a formal outcome evaluation study.

Academic Medical Centers↗

Restructuring asthma care in a hospital setting to improve outcomes.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To restructure asthma care as the pilot program in hospital-wide redesign aimed at providing better and more standardized care. We chose asthma care to begin our reorganization because it is the highest-volume diagnosis at our hospital and it involves a broad spectrum of services. DESIGN: Key elements of our restructuring included the following: (1) establishing a pulmonary unit with expanded bed capacity from 8 to 22 beds for asthma patients; (2) standardized treatment protocols; (3) availability of direct admission by primary care physicians who maintained management of their patients with the option of consultation with a specialist; and (4) use of case managers who helped patients and their families overcome obstacles to optimum care. SETTING: A hospital serving a high proportion of Medicaid patients. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: Children with asthma and their families. INTERVENTIONS: Standardized care for asthma; use of case managers to facilitate adherence to treatment. RESULTS: With the restructured asthma care program, parent satisfaction with treatment was sustained; the average length of stay and use of the emergency department (ED) were reduced; observation unit use increased; and there were fewer readmissions to both the inpatient unit and the ED. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that an inner-city hospital can provide optimum care for asthma patients by standardizing treatment, aggregating asthma patients in one location, and providing education and follow-up through the use of case managers. The protocol shifts some costs from expensive services such as the pediatric ICU and the ED to less costly case management and outreach personnel. In the long run, this allocation of resources should help to lower costs as well as improve quality of care.

Asthma↗

Biliopancreatic Diversion in Prader-Willi Syndrome Associated with Obesity.

BACKGROUND: Prader-Willi Syndrome (PRWS) is an uncommon neuroendocrine disorder of genetic origin, described in 1956 by Prader, Labhart and Willi. The main clinical manifestations in the adult are mental retardation, hyperphagia with gross obesity, hypogonadismcriptorhismus and short stature. The life expectancy of the affected individual ranges between 20 and 30 years rarely beyond - due to complications related to excessive obesity. Sustained dieting combined with behavior modification programs, as well as gastric restrictive surgery for obesity, proved to have a high failure rate in PRWS, due to the patients' inability to cooperate in changing their eating habits. METHODS: Biliopancreatic Diversion (BPD), which does not require the patient's cooperation in changing eating habits after surgery, was performed in two PRWS patients (13- and 22-years-old), both with excessive obesity, severe respiratory distress, day sleepiness and limited mobility. RESULTS: Two years after surgery, the 13-year-old had lost 80% of her overweight, while the 22-year-old, after 1 year, had lost 34%. Recent laboratory tests showed normal data in both patients. Their respiratory distress had subsided completely, their mobility improved dramatically, and their self-image and alertness enhanced. CONCLUSION: BPD resulted in an improved quality of life in these patients.

Journal Article↗

Marketing a medical group practice.

Managers and physicians alike need to realize that a crucial first step in establishing a marketing program is the basic commitment to sustaining group growth. The next step is getting down to the business of accomplishing that goal.

Group Practice↗

The evolution of hospitalist programs.

In just a few years, hospitalist programs have evolved to a third generation, affording key participants an opportunity to reduce inpatient healthcare costs. Because the method of inpatient payment determines the economic winners and losers in the program, the key participants will benefit from the implementation of a program that includes shared incentives. Even though reduced payments for inpatient services might be offset by reduced variable costs for hospitals and increased office revenues for primary care physicians, a hospitalist program is more likely to achieve sustained success if it is structured so that financial rewards are distributed fairly among the participants.

Contract Services↗

Health at any size: the size-acceptance nondiet movement.

A controversial new approach to obesity treatment has emerged during the last two decades in response to traditional programs that do not result in sustained reductions in weight. Goals of the size-acceptance nondiet movement include improving self-image, normalizing eating behavior, and increasing physical activity independent of body weight. This commentary presents the basic tenets and early voices in the movement, reviews government weight recommendations, and suggests strategies for the size-sensitive physician.

Body Image↗

Can a sustainable community intervention reduce the health gap?--10-year evaluation of a Swedish community intervention program for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

OBJECTIVES: This paper evaluates the 10-year outcomes of a Northern Sweden community intervention program for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), with special reference to the social patterning of risk development. METHODS: Using a quasi-experimental design, trends in risk factors and predicted mortality in an intervention area (Norsjö municipality) are compared with those in a reference area (Northern Sweden region) by repeated independent cross-sectional surveys. RESULTS: There were significant differences in changes in total cholesterol level and systolic blood pressure between the intervention and reference populations. The predicted coronary heart disease mortality (based on the North Karelia risk equation). after adjustment for age and education, was reduced by 36% in the intervention area and by 1% in the reference area. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a long-term community-based CVD prevention program which combines population and individual strategies can substantially promote a health shift in CVD risk in a high risk rural population. When evaluated for different social strata, we found no signs of an increasing health gap between socially privileged and less privileged groups. Socially less-privileged groups benefited the most from the present prevention program.

Adult↗

Retirement is no excuse for physical inactivity or isolation.

At all age levels and especially in the elderly population, a sedentary lifestyle and low fitness levels are independent risk factors for all causes of mortality, including cardiovascular mortality. Exercise improves cardiovascular outcomes by increasing vagal activity and attenuating sympathetic hyperactivity. The risk of diabetes mellitus type 2 developing is reduced by 40% in men of normal weight and 60% in overweight men when on a regular exercise program. Physical activity in the elderly sustains cerebral perfusion, maintaining cognitive function. Isolation, which is not uncommon among the elderly, fosters cognitive decline. Stimulating mental activity can protect against dementia.

Aged↗

Neurohumoral changes and the inducibility of ventricular tachycardias: effect of early reperfusion on the ischemic porcine myocardium.

The effects of early reperfusion were studied in closed-chest pigs subjected to either 45 min or 3 hr of regional ischemia. Myocardial enzyme release during early reperfusion and electrophysiological stability after two weeks were assessed. Coronary artery occlusion durations of 3 hr and early reperfusion after 45 min were compared. The creatine phosphokinase levels in the coronary effluent were lower after early reperfusion (p less than 0.001). Moreover, in the early reperfusion group, the coronary sinus catecholamine and purine levels rose to higher values than in the 3 hr group. The plasma levels of catecholamines and the plasma renin activity increased rapidly but transiently at reperfusion in the 45 min group. Both the rate-pressure product and the heart rate were elevated at the end of the reperfusion period (p less than 0.001) in the 45 min group. Survival for two weeks was 3 out of 6 animals in the 3 hr group and 5 out of 8 in the 45 min group. In all but one surviving animal, sustained ventricular tachycardias were inducible by programmed stimulation. Abnormally low QRS amplitudes and delayed potentials were found in the signal-averaged electrocardiogram in the early reperfusion group only. In conclusion, early reperfusion causes a reduction of myocardial tissue damage, but simultaneously, neurohumoral parameters showed a greater activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the renin-angiotensin system apparently causing a deleterious increase in oxygen consumption. Therefore, this injurious component of early reperfusion might prevent the potentially beneficial effects of a reduced tissue damage on survival or late arrhythmias.

Animals↗