Implementation of a simulation free palliative Radiation Therapy pathway: An inter-professional collaborative project

The Western New South Wales Local Health District (WNSWLHD) has a significant footprint within the state of New South Wales (NSW). Due to the significant size of the WNSWLHD, patients residing in the local health district face many barriers to receiving Radiation Therapy. The inter-professional collaboration behind the successful implementation and evaluation of a simulation free pathway for palliative Radiation Therapy in WNSWLHD will be explored within this narrative. The process known in WNSWLHD as Medical Imaging Simulated Radiation Therapy (MISRT) removes the need for a computed tomography (CT) simulation and allows for palliative Radiation Therapy to be planned on previously acquired diagnostic CT imaging. The implementation of MISRT has required significant inter-professional collaboration. This also extends to inter-centre partnership, intra-district cooperation with Medical Imaging and inter-discipline teamwork amongst Radiation Oncologists, Radiation Oncology Medical Physicists, Radiation Oncology Nursing and Radiation Therapists. The impact and involvement of the inter-disciplinary teamwork will be explored. The methods of implementing MISRT will be outlined covering changes to standard workflow, educational requirements and inclusion criteria. The evaluation of the implementation will also be covered with two evaluation surveys being conducted. Inter-professional communication, education, teamwork and collaboration is highlighted to demonstrate improving access to quality care in a rural and regional healthcare setting whilst reducing known barriers to accessing Radiation Oncology.

Reintroducing face-to-face support alongside remote support to form a hybrid stop smoking service in England: a formative mixed methods evaluation

BACKGROUND

During the COVID-19 pandemic, United Kingdom (UK) stop smoking services had to shift to remote delivery models due to social distancing regulations, later reintroducing face-to-face provision. The "Living Well Smokefree" service in North Yorkshire County Council adopted a hybrid model offering face-to-face, remote, or a mix of both. This evaluation aimed to assess the hybrid approach's strengths and weaknesses and explore potential improvements.

METHODS

Conducted from September 2022 to February 2023, the evaluation consisted of three components. First, qualitative interviews involved 11 staff and 16 service users, analysed thematically. Second, quantitative data from the QuitManager system that monitored the numbers and proportions of individuals selecting and successfully completing a 4-week quit via each service option. Third, face-to-face service expenses data was used to estimate the value for money of additional face-to-face provision. The qualitative findings were used to give context to the quantitative data via an "expansion" approach and complementary analysis.

RESULTS

Overall, a hybrid model was seen to provide convenience and flexible options for support. In the evaluation, 733 individuals accessed the service, with 91.3% selecting remote support, 6.1% face-to-face, and 2.6% mixed provision. Remote support was valued by service users and staff for promoting openness, privacy, and reducing stigma, and was noted as removing access barriers and improving service availability. However, the absence of carbon monoxide monitoring in remote support raised accountability concerns. The trade-off in "quantity vs. quality" of quits was debated, as remote support reached more users but produced fewer carbon monoxide-validated quits. Primarily offering remote support could lead to substantial workloads, as staff often extend their roles to include social/mental health support, which was sometimes emotionally challenging. Offering service users a choice of support options was considered more important than the "cost-per-quit". Improved dissemination of information to support service users in understanding their options for support was suggested.

CONCLUSIONS

The hybrid approach allows smoking cessation services to evaluate which groups benefit from remote, face-to-face, or mixed options and allocate resources accordingly. Providing choice, flexible provision, non-judgmental support, and clear information about available options could improve engagement and match support to individual needs, enhancing outcomes.

The independent and joint risks of alcohol consumption, smoking, and excess weight on morbidity and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis exploring synergistic associations

OBJECTIVE

Alcohol consumption, smoking, and excess weight independently increase the risk of morbidity/mortality. Less is known about how they interact. This research aims to quantify the independent and joint associations of these exposures across health outcomes and identify whether these associations are synergistic.

STUDY DESIGN

The protocol for this systematic review and meta-analysis was pre-registered (PROSPERO CRD42021231443).

METHODS

Medline and Embase were searched between 1 January 2010 and 9 February 2022. Eligible peer-reviewed observational studies had to include adult participants from Organisation for Co-Operation and Development countries and report independent and joint associations between at least two eligible exposures (alcohol, smoking, and excess weight) and an ICD-10 outcome (or equivalent). For all estimates, we calculated the synergy index (SI) to identify whether joint associations were synergistic. Meta-analyses were conducted for outcomes with sufficiently homogenous data.

RESULTS

The search returned 26,290 studies, of which 98 were included. Based on 138,130 participants, the combined effect (SI) of alcohol and smoking on head and neck cancer death/disease was 3.78 times greater than the additive effect of each exposure (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.61, 5.48). Based on 2,603,939 participants, the combined effect of alcohol and excess weight on liver disease/death was 1.55 times greater than the additive effect of each exposure (95% CI = 1.33, 1.82).

CONCLUSION

Synergistic associations suggest the true population-level risk may be underestimated. In the absence of bias, individuals with multiple risks would experience a greater absolute risk reduction from an intervention that targets a single exposure than individuals with a single risk.

Involving young people in sexual health research and service improvement: conceptual analysis of patient and public involvement (PPI) in three projects

BACKGROUND

Although increasingly recognised as valuable within sexual and reproductive health (SRH) research and service improvement, examples of patient and public involvement (PPI) are underdocumented, including specific issues relating to young people's involvement. This article aims to contribute to greater transparency about the practical, methodological and ethical considerations of SRH-related PPI with young people, and to offer recommendations for their meaningful involvement.

METHODS

Guided by a conceptual tool for evaluating youth participation (the '7P' framework), we analysed learning from PPI within three projects (two academic studies and one service improvement project) that worked with young people to shape sexual health research and practice in Scotland.

ANALYSIS

Cross-project analysis of seven interconnected domains (purpose, positioning, perspectives, power relations, protection, place and process) generated productive dialogue about the nuances of meaningfully involving young people in shaping SRH research and services. Key learning includes the importance of: young people's early involvement in agenda-setting for SRH improvement; developing trusting partnerships that can support involvement of diverse groups of young people; creating multiple ways for young people to contribute, including those that do not rely on direct conversation; and formative evaluation of young people's experiences of involvement.

CONCLUSIONS

Mainstreaming young people's meaningful involvement in shaping SRH research and services requires systems-level change. Resources are required to support SRH researchers and practitioners to share learning and build sustainable multi-sector partnerships, which in turn can increase opportunities for young people from diverse groups to engage with SRH-related PPI activities.

Sumanirole versus placebo or ropinirole for the adjunctive treatment of patients with advanced Parkinson's disease

The aims of this study were to assess the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of sumanirole, a highly selective D(2) dopamine receptor agonist, versus placebo in subjects with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD), and to demonstrate noninferiority of sumanirole to ropinirole. In this flexible-dose, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, parallel-group study, 948 subjects were treated with sumanirole 1 to 48 mg/day, ropinirole 0.75 to 24 mg/day, or placebo. Treatment consisted of 13 weeks of dose escalation, 26 weeks of maintenance, and 1 week of tapering. Approximately 70% of subjects treated with either sumanirole or ropinirole completed the study. Statistical significance (P < 0.0001) was achieved when both sumanirole and ropinirole groups were compared with placebo, with mean differences of -7.7 and -8.8 on combined sum of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part II (average on and off) and part III total scores at the end of maintenance. Noninferiority of sumanirole to ropinirole was also demonstrated, with a sumanirole minus ropinirole difference of 1.17 (90% CI: -0.56 to 2.89). Both dopamine agonists, sumanirole and ropinirole, were statistically superior compared with placebo as adjunctive therapy for patients with advanced Parkinson's disease, based on UPDRS II + III total score. Noninferiority of sumanirole to ropinirole was established, with comparable tolerability profiles.

Management information and decision support for libraries in Europe: a concerted action

Management information for decision making is an essential tool for library managers. This paper outlines the European Commission Libraries Programme decision support projects that were brought together under the CAMILE concerted action. The three common themes to emerge from the CAMILE projects are then discussed. The themes are: information for decision making, systems for decision support, and the future challenges of measuring impact and developing performance measures for the elec‐tronic library. To conclude, recommendations for future research in the field of decision support in European libraries are considered.

Towards an inclusive methodology for the measurement of in house use

Introduces the background to the EQLIPSE (Evaluation and Quality in Library Performance: System for Europe) project and the work done in compiling a core set of performance indicators for evaluating libraries. Describes the collection of in house library use data at the University of Central Lancashire Library test site, where EQLIPSE staff gathered data as part of the data collection exercise to test the feasibility of the indicators and to accumulate data in the EQLIPSE system. Some of the difficulties encountered in the process are noted along with the measures taken to address them. In addition to measuring actual use, attempts were also made to establish whether users habitually reshelve items they consult, both when at the shelf and when working at study spaces. Unobtrusive direct observation eventually formed the mainstay of the methods used to measure this. Results suggest that users consulting items at the shelf would change every 10 minutes on average and that the number of users would fall or rise gradually during the two hours between counts. Future developments to the EQLIPSE methodology are discussed.