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利妥昔单抗治疗多发性硬化症
层状黄斑裂孔的手术治疗效果
多领域干预以预防痴呆和认知功能下降
运动心脏康复在冠心病中的应用
Spotlight on Cochrane’s Sustainable Healthcare Field: An interview with Minna Johansson
In this interview with Dr. Minna Johansson, Cochrane Sustainable Healthcare Field Director we learn more about the work of this field, the issues it wants to address and some of the ways they are engaging audiences to learn more.
Can you tell us about the Sustainable Healthcare Field?
Cochrane Sustainable Healthcare is a new Cochrane group focused on addressing medical excess. The background for our work is the notion that medical excess threatens the health of individuals and poses challenges for health system sustainability - and the need of an evidence base better suited to support sustainable decisions about healthcare. In essence, we are developing a global network for collaboration with partners within and beyond Cochrane on activities ranging from short‐term research projects to longer‐term reform initiatives.
What is the field’s main goal?
Our fundamental aim is to contribute to a more sustainable healthcare for patients, for health systems, for our societies, and for the planet. Our more concrete goals are to enhance the relevance of primary research and evidence synthesis to tackle medical excess, and to increase the use of that evidence to enable a more sustainable healthcare.
Who is involved?
I am leading the work, together with Dina Muscat Meng who is coordinator of Cochrane Sustainable Healthcare. But more importantly, during these first two years since the launch we have had enormous support, help and engagement from a broad international network of highly skilled people who have generously contributed with time and resources to help bring this work further. Some of these people and organizations are mentioned at our website. We would like to especially thank Cochrane Sweden and Cochrane Denmark. We will develop this network further by partnering with primary researchers, funders of research, organizations working with evidence synthesis, guideline developers, policy makers, health systems organizations, professional medical associations, citizen and patient organizations, and the general public. We welcome anyone who is interested in this initiative to contact us.
Where can we go to learn more?
An Editorial about us is available here, and at our website you can read more about our work.
We are just about to launch a pop-up podcast series; “The Recovery – Voices of action towards sustainable healthcare” - co-published with The BMJ. In these podcasts, our co-hosts Ray Moynihan from Bond University and Fiona Godlee, editor in chief of The BMJ, meet thought-leaders around the world who are cutting the edge of sustainable healthcare. From Mumbai to Minnesota, you will hear about new initiatives that are changing the way we practice medicine, to ensure better access to high quality, evidence-based, and safe healthcare. The series includes an interview with Rachelle Buchbinder and Ian Harris, recent author of book, Hippocrasy: How doctors are betraying their oath.
Further, in collaboration with people from Cochrane Argentina, Cochrane Chile, Cochrane Methods, Cochrane Sweden and Cochrane Denmark, we have recently launched a Special Collection of Cochrane Reviews featuring examples of resource-intense interventions, including those requiring extra healthcare visits, for which there is high or moderate certainty evidence that they confer clinically small or no effects, and for which there is some evidence of harm to patients. The reviews are particularly relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, and should inform guideline, and policy developers, and decision makers planning health care, both during and after the pandemic. This Special Collection is intended as the first in a series, with subsequent Collections focusing on other healthcare interventions shown to being ineffective, harmful, or unproven.
What is planned in the future?
We have a wide range of exciting projects in pipeline – one of the most exciting in my opinion is a collaboration with GRADE where we are just about to form a GRADE Working Group focused on medical excess. We are also working on a project evaluating the quality and balance of messaging in disease awareness campaigns observed by the WHO, Cochrane and the US government – and we plan to develop reporting guidance for such campaigns, which can be used by campaign organizers to ensure high quality and balanced messaging when developing a campaign, as well as by organizations and authorities when deciding on whether to endorse a campaign or not. We also aim to develop our collaboration with international and regional stakeholders – such as for example Choosing Wisely.
In conclusion, the need for novel approaches to tackle medical excess is increasingly recognized. We believe that an intensified focus on projects and initiatives that cross the traditional boundaries between the different stakeholders in the evidence chain is required. The reasons for these challenges are diverse and complex, and so are the solutions – a strong collaboration integrating differing and sometimes contradictory perspectives is indicated. This will undoubtedly be challenging, but a more sustainable healthcare will benefit individual patients, as well as our communities.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health seeks Tenure-Track Assistant or Associate Professor (Baltimore, US)
Location: Baltimore, MD, US
Deadline: 30 Nov, 2021
The Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor specializing in evidence synthesis. The candidate will be based in the Center for Clinical Trials and Evidence Synthesis.
They welcome applications from candidates who are in the early to mid phases their academic career. Academic rank will be commensurate with experience.
Applicants should hold a doctoral degree in epidemiology, medicine, or a related discipline with graduate training in epidemiology. Successful candidates will have demonstrated original scholarship, possess excellent written and communication skills as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications and professional meeting presentations, and have the capacity for an independent research program. Candidates will be expected to teach classes in epidemiology and mentor graduate students.
The Department of Epidemiology is one of the oldest and largest departments of epidemiology in the world, with over 200 doctoral and master’s students and a diverse research program directed by over 125 faculty. The institution has a strong research infrastructure and commitment to conduct both observational and experimental research. Candidates should possess a solid epidemiologic foundation to contribute to the research and teaching missions of the Department.
Friday, November 5, 2021 Category: Jobs与安慰剂或无干预措施相比,使用β受体阻滞剂对于非急性期心肌梗死的获益和伤害
Featured review: What are the benefits and risks of light therapy for treating atopic eczema?
Cochrane Skin is pleased to announce the publication of a new review, Phototherapy for atopic eczema. This review was led by dermatologists from Amsterdam University Medical Centers, and supported by a key stakeholder: the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). The AAD provided funding for this systematic review (32 studies, 1219 people with clinically diagnosed atopic eczema), which enabled publication of the protocol and full review within 13 months of title registration.
Key messages
- Narrowband (NB) ultraviolet B (UVB), compared to placebo (a sham treatment), may improve eczema severity (including itch) and may not affect the number of people leaving a study because of unwanted effects.
- We were unable to confidently draw conclusions for other phototherapy (light therapy) treatments.
- Future research needs to assess longer term effectiveness and safety of NB-UVB and other forms of phototherapy for eczema.
This Cochrane Review will be used to inform the AAD’s update to their guidelines of care for the management of acne (expected in the fourth quarter of 2023).
What is eczema and how is it treated?
Eczema is a condition that results in dry, itchy patches of inflamed skin. Eczema typically starts in childhood, but can improve with age. Eczema is caused by a combination of genetics and environmental factors, which lead to skin barrier dysfunction. Eczema can negatively impact quality of life, and the societal cost is significant.
Eczema treatments are often creams or ointments that reduce itch and redness, applied directly to the skin. If these are unsuccessful, systemic medicines that affect the whole body, or phototherapy are options. Phototherapy can be UVB, ultraviolet A (UVA), or photochemotherapy (PUVA), where phototherapy is given alongside substances that increase sensitivity to UV light.
What did we do?
We searched for studies that investigated phototherapy compared with no treatment, placebo, other forms of phototherapy, or another type of eczema treatment. Studies could include people of all ages, who had eczema diagnosed by a healthcare professional.
What did we find?
We found 32 studies, involving 1219 people with eczema (average age: 28 years), who were recruited from dermatology clinics. Most studies assessed people with skin type II to III (which is classed as white to medium skin colour), and moderate to severe eczema, with which they had lived for many years. Studies included similar numbers of males and females. The studies were conducted in Europe, Asia, and Egypt (setting was not reported by seven studies), and lasted, on average, for 13 weeks. Almost half of the studies reported their source of funding; two were linked to commercial sponsors.
Our included studies mostly assessed NB-UVB, followed by UVA1, then broadband ultraviolet B; fewer studies investigated other types of phototherapy. The studies compared these treatments to placebo, or no treatment, another type of phototherapy, different doses of the same sort of phototherapy, or other eczema treatments applied to the skin or taken by tablet.
None of the studies investigated excimer lamp (a source of UV radiation) or heliotherapy (the use of natural sunlight), other light therapies in which we were interested.
What are the main results of our review?
When compared to placebo, NB-UVB may:
- improve signs of eczema assessed by a healthcare professional (1 study, 41 people);
- increase the number of people reporting less severe itching (1 study, 41 people);
- increase the number of people reporting moderate or greater improvement of eczema, measured by the Investigator Global Assessment scale (IGA), a 5-point scale that measures improvement in eczema symptoms (1 study, 40 people); and
- have no effect on the rate of people withdrawing from treatment due to unwanted effects (3 studies, 89 people).
None of the studies assessing NB-UVB against placebo measured health-related quality of life.
We do not know if NB-UVB (compared with UVA1 or PUVA) or UVA1 (compared with PUVA) has an effect on the following:
- signs of eczema assessed by a healthcare professional;
- patient-reported eczema symptoms;
- IGA;
- health-related quality of life; and
- withdrawals due to unwanted effects.
This is because either we are not confident in the evidence, or they were not reported.
We did not identify any studies that investigated UVA1 or PUVA compared with no treatment.
Some studies reported that phototherapy caused some unwanted effects, including skin reactions or irritation, UV burn, worsening of eczema, and skin infections. However, these did not occur in most people.
What are the limitations of the evidence?
Our confidence in the evidence is limited, mainly because only a few studies could be included in each comparison, and the studies generally involved only small numbers of people.
How up to date is this evidence?
The evidence is up to date to January 2021.