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Acknowledgements First and foremost, I am very grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Kerstin de Wit, for her mentorship and guidance throughout my time as a graduate student. It has been a pleasure to work with someone so innovative and passionate about clinical research. Her ability to bridge thrombosis and emergency medicine research to improve and change clinical practice is inspiring. I am grateful to my supervisory committee members, Dr. Teresa Chan, Dr. Lori-Ann Linkins, and Dr. Mathew Mercuri, for their continuous support throughout this process. Our scientific discussions were always insightful, and motivated me to push myself as a researcher. I am very thankful to the entire EMeRGE Research Group for creating such a helpful and friendly environment. Their diligence and commitment to conducting high-quality research motivated me to do the same, and greatly expanded my knowledge on clinical research. Working with this team made my experience as a graduate student very memorable. I would like to thank my family and friends for all of the support they gave me throughout this entire process. Their constant encouragement and emotional support helped me overcome challenges and persevere, for which I am infinitely grateful. / Background: There is an evidence-practice gap between guidelines for diagnosing pulmonary embolism (PE) and emergency physician practice. This is concerning because computed tomography (CT) scanning is being overused to exclude PE in the emergency department (ED). It is possible that the answer behind this lies within the physician-patient relationship. Past research on shared decision-making strategies have shown to decrease use of hospital resources, and improve patient outcomes. Objective: The aim of this three-part MSc thesis was to achieve a patient-centered approach to the testing of PE in the ED. Method: 1) A systematic review on existing shared decision-making models used for testing and/or treatment of medical decisions in the ED was conducted. 2) Qualitative interviews with ED patients being tested for PE identified patient-specific values and preferences which may present as barriers to patient-centered care in the ED. 3) Both the systematic review and patient interviews informed the development of a new shared information tool to be used in the ED. Results: The systematic review found that shared decision-making interventions in ED patients tested for acute coronary syndrome and clinically-important traumatic brain injuries can potentially reduce hospital admissions and increase discharge rates without negatively affecting health outcomes. The qualitative interviews highlighted four major themes: 1) patient satisfaction comes from addressing their primary concern; 2) preference for imaging over clinical examination; 3) patients expect 100% certainty when given a diagnosis; and 4) patients expect individualized care throughout their entire ED visit. This data led to the formation of a shared information sheet which ensures that testing decisions for low-risk PE patients align with patient-specific values. Conclusion: By placing the focus on patient-centered care, this study incorporates evidence-based medicine with patient priorities in order to improve patient outcomes in the ED. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Pulmonary embolism occurs when blood clots form in veins of the legs, and travel to the lungs, causing chest pain and shortness of breath. There are well-established, evidence-based guidelines on how to diagnose pulmonary embolism. Diagnostic tools such as the Wells score and D-dimer have been proven to be safe and effective in ruling out pulmonary embolism in low risk patients preventing the need for a CT scan. However, CT scans are still being overused to diagnose pulmonary embolism in low risk patients. Unnecessary testing in the emergency department (ED) exposes patients to the harms associated with CT scanning: such as increased risk of cancer, and diagnosing blood clots that are not actually there, resulting in unnecessary treatment. It is possible that the answer behind the over-testing of PE in the ED lies within the physician-patient relationship. This three-part study first reviewed all prior studies on shared decision-making strategies, which are techniques used to help physician align medical decisions with patient-specific values, in the ED. Second, we employed qualitative methods to identify patient-specific values and preferences on PE testing in the ED. Finally, both of these aims informed the development of a patient-centered shared information tool to overcome barriers to patient-centered care. Ultimately, the goal of this study is to achieve a patient-centered approach to the testing of pulmonary embolism in the ED.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Symptom research with advanced lung cancer patients has primarily focused on symptom severity, frequency, and distress; yet, little is known about advanced lung cancer patients’ priorities and success criteria for symptom improvement. To address these gaps in the literature, this study examined these outcomes using a modified Patient Centered Outcomes Questionnaire (PCOQ), which has largely been used with adults with chronic pain. Advanced lung cancer patients (N = 102) were recruited from the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center to participate in a one-time self-report survey, including demographic and medical questionnaires, symptom treatment history, standardized measures of symptom severity and quality of life, and the modified PCOQ focused on eight common symptoms in advanced lung cancer. Cancer information was collected from medical records. My primary aim was to evaluate the construct validity of the PCOQ. As hypothesized, symptom severity ratings on the PCOQ were positively correlated with standardized assessments of the same symptoms as well as functional status. Greater severity of most symptoms on the PCOQ was also correlated with worse quality of life, and greater severity of four symptoms was correlated with having more medical comorbidities. Positive, moderate correlations were found between the severity and importance of seeing improvement in cough, fatigue, sleep problems, and pain on the PCOQ. Patients considered low levels of symptom severity to be acceptable following symptom treatment; no differences were found across the eight symptoms. Latent profile analysis identified four patient subgroups based on the importance of seeing improvement in each of the symptoms: (1) those who rated all symptoms as low in importance (n = 12); (2) those who rated bronchial symptoms and sleep problems as low in importance and all other symptoms as moderately important (n = 29); (3) those who rated nausea and emotional distress as low in importance and all other symptoms as moderately important (n = 23); and (4) those who rated all symptoms as highly important (n = 33). These subgroups were unrelated to demographic and clinical factors, except for functional status. Findings suggest that symptom severity and importance are related yet distinct aspects of the advanced lung cancer symptom experience. Furthermore, patients have heterogeneous priorities for symptom management, which has implications for tailoring treatment.

Medical residency is characterized by sleep deprivation, stress, and heavy workload. The impact of these pressures on physician-patient communication has not been fully explored. The aim of the current study was to investigate how contextual demands, stress, and burnout impact empathy and provision of patient-centered communication among internal medicine residents in two hospitals. The long-call shift was studied, as it is known to be particularly taxing and is a primary feature of medical residency. Assessments were obtained both prior to and at the conclusion of residents' shifts. Cognitive complexity was examined as a potential mediator of the relationship between stress and burnout, and burnout and empathy. Results revealed that there was a significant decline in physician empathy from the beginning to the end of the long-call shift and that this decline in empathy predicted less patient-centered communication from physicians. Stress, burnout, and decline in empathy were all positively associated, indicating that resident physicians who were more stressed and burned out were at increased risk for declines in empathy over the course of their shift. Cognitive complexity was not found to be a significant mediator of any associations between study variables, though it was associated with several key variables in unexpected ways. These findings highlight the importance of identifying and addressing barriers to patient-centered communication, as a number of these barriers may be routinely present in the demanding environment of medical residency.

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2017-02-23T17:48:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 VANESSA DOS SANTOS PICÃO.pdf: 1451406 bytes, checksum: b3d821582fccdf2cf2fd9e4d0c796781 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-23T17:48:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VANESSA DOS SANTOS PICÃO.pdf: 1451406 bytes, checksum: b3d821582fccdf2cf2fd9e4d0c796781 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26 / In Brazil, policies concerning women’s health are relatively new in Brazil, and in many states a program called Rede Cegonha is only gradually being realized. The present dissertation focuses the experience of obstetric intake at a service in hinterland of the state of Bahia. Objective: to investigate the experience of women in an obstetric unit during the moments immediately before childbirth. Method: Grounded Theory (GT) was chosen as theoretical and methodological reference for this study. Eleven women who had recently given birth were interviewed about their perception, feelings and experiences about the intake in the unit. Results: The analysis suggests three axes: Starting point, the Person in her context and e the Physical environment. These were constructed based on nine categories. The “Starting point” unites experiences and difficulties of transport to the unit. Many reported troubles in getting to the unit. The “Person in her context” describes vulnerabilities of the intake process, feeling cared for or not, valued or neglected. The recent mothers were sensitive to the interpersonal relation with the team, and to the rejection of their request to have a partner accompany them. However, most of them valued the service and the help they received. The axis “Physical environment” contains important ambient elements that positively or negatively influence the experience of the intake. Conclusion: Policies of personcentered care in obstetrics still have not been able to meet women’s real needs. Failure to meet the needs of women giving birth in the obstetric context leads to maladjustment in the process of delivery and birth. The perspectives analyzed in this study show that women are sensible to aspects like the personal relationship with the health professionals, care centered on the person with her vulnerabilities and the adequacy of the physical environment. Such factors can impact positively or negatively, depending on the experience of the woman giving birth. The same factors, when linked to the nursing practice, can also, aid or hinder adequate patient care. / As políticas de atenção à saúde da mulher no Brasil são relativamente novas e em muitos estados a Rede Cegonha ainda se encontra em fase de implantação. Esta dissertação enfoca a vivência do acolhimento à parturiente num serviço de obstetrícia no interior do estado de Bahia. Objetivo: investigar a vivência da parturiente em uma unidade obstétrica até os momentos que antecedem o parto. Método: a Grounded Theory (GT) ou Teoria Fundamentada nos Dados (TFD) foi escolhida como referencial teórico e metodológico para a realização deste estudo. Onze puérperas foram entrevistadas e as entrevistas concerniram à sua percepção, sentimentos e vivências acerca do acolhimento na unidade. Resultados: da análise das entrevistas surgiram três eixos norteadores, a saber: Ponto de partida, A pessoa no seu contexto e Ambiente físico; estes foram construídos a partir de nove categorias. O “Ponto de partida” abarcou vivências e complicações do deslocamento. Grande parte das parturientes apresentou dificuldade no transporte. “A pessoa no seu contexto” descreveu as fragilidades do processo, de sentir-se ou não assistida, valorizada ou negligenciada. As parturientes mostraram-se sensíveis à relação interpessoal com a equipe e à não permissão de acompanhante; contudo, quase todas valorizaram o serviço e o atendimento prestado, mesmo quando o percebiam de forma incompleta. O eixo “Ambiente físico” abarcou elementos importantes da ambiência que influenciam a vivência do acolhimento, positiva ou negativamente. Conclusão: as políticas e os programas de humanização na área obstétrica ainda não atendem às necessidades das parturientes. Falha em atender às necessidades das parturientes no contexto parto culmina em desajustes no processo de parto e nascimento. As perspectivas analisadas neste estudo mostram que as mulheres são sensíveis a aspectos como relacionamento com os profissionais, cuidados centrados na pessoa com suas fragilidades e adequação do ambiente físico. Tais fatores podem implicar positiva e/ou negativamente, a depender da vivência da parturiente. Essas mesmas vertentes, quando relacionadas à prática do enfermeiro, podem também, facilitar ou dificultar a assistência de enfermagem.

BACKGROUND: Rising rates of maternal morbidity and mortality and persistent disparities in care utilization and outcomes signal a need for new approaches to prenatal care delivery. This study uses perspectives of low-socioeconomic status (SES) pregnant women to generate features of a patient-centered intervention aimed at improving outcomes in high cost, high need pregnant individuals. METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of qualitative interviews with Medicaid-insured pregnant high and low utilizers of unscheduled obstetric care. Using a grounded theory approach, we tightly mapped themes to generate intervention strategies with potential to improve prenatal care delivery. RESULTS: Three key themes translated into intervention features: social support, care delivery, and access. Unlike low utilizers, high utilizers had a desire for more social support, improved communication in care delivery, and access to timely and efficient appointments. For low utilizers, improved insurance access and the ability to opt out of support services that didn’t align with their priorities were essential. CONCLUSION: High and low utilizers of unscheduled obstetric care have unique ideas for improving their care. Targeted interventions to improve prenatal care can be tested to potentially address unmet needs of vulnerable subgroups of low-SES pregnant women at risk for poor outcomes. / 2019-10-31T00:00:00Z

An extensive body of literature supports the clinical utility and feasibility of client-centric goal-setting techniques in neurorehabilitation. However, such techniques are seldom used and difficult to adopt in mainstream clinical practice. Two primary barriers that limit uptake and adoption of individualized goal-setting techniques into routine practice include: (1) lack of an operationalized framework susceptible to variations in the characteristics of the user and constraints of a medical setting and (2) limited knowledge on the part of clinicians and clients to confidently engage in goal-setting conversations. The eGAS app was designed to address the need for a semi-structured client-centric goal-setting framework for clinicians engaged in neurorehabilitation. This study used a single-subject design to investigate the effects of using eGAS in an outpatient hospital setting on clinician behavior and client responsiveness. A nonconcurrent, multiple-baseline design was used across three clinicians to determine if use of eGAS would result in functional changes in collaborative interviewing behaviors, validity of generated goal scales, and reliability of the process. Results revealed that using eGAS had strong functional effects on collaborative interviewing behaviors and validity of goal scales, and a weak effect on reliability. Another noteworthy finding was that eGAS could be implemented with relatively high fidelity within the constraints of a clinical context despite variations in the characteristics of the end-user, i.e. clients and clinicians. I discuss support for ecological validity of eGAS in terms of implementation barriers and facilitators that affected outcomes, methodological limitations, and future steps to improve design validity and implementation integrity.

Aim of study Person-centered medicine (PCM) with its focus on humanistic-biographical-oriented medicine and integrated, positive-salutogenic health is a central aspect in the patient-physician relationship in general practice. The objective of this analysis is to assess the prevalence and type of research project in academic institutions of general practice in Germany (Ger) and Austria (At) and the thematic priorities of the projects in the areas PCM, health promotion (HP), prevention (PRE) and conventional medicine (CM). Methods A search was conducted (September–December 2015) on the websites of 30 institutes and divisions of general medicine for their current research projects. The retrieved projects were assigned to five categories: PCM, HP, PRE, CM and others. Subsequently, we identified the targeted patient groups of the projects as well as the thematic focus in the categories PCM, HP, PRE and CM with focus on PCM and HP. Results 541 research projects were identified, 452 in Germany and 89 in Austria. Research projects were only included if they were explicitly indicated as research-oriented. Seventy projects addressed PCM aspects, 15 projects HP aspects, 32 projects PRE aspects and 396 projects CM aspects. The most frequently target groups in the categories PCM (24 of 70) and HP (7 of 15) were chronically ill patients. The most common thematic focus in PCM was communication (13 of 70) and in HP, physical activity (6 of 15). Conclusion The vast majority of research projects focused on conventional medical topics. PCM (13%) or PCM including HP (16%) in Ger and At is below the European average of 20%. From our point of view, PCM and HP need to be considered in general practice.

Learning Objectives: Describe the concept of patient ‐centered care from the pharmacist’s perspective. Summarize the science of patient ‐centered communication in pain management. Describe pharmacogenetic tests that are available to guide the use of opioids in pain management. Discuss research opportunities related to patient ‐centered care and genetic testing in pain management. Describe strategies used by pharmacists to implement genetic testing in clinical pharmacy practice.

Abstract Due to the change of the times, the medical environment in Taiwan has adapted the mainstream of ¡§patient-centered¡¨ concept. It seems to become a slogan for all medical practitioners. However, little has really changed despite lip service paid to the process of medical improvement. The author has been treating patients with kidney failure for almost twenty years. As being a nephrologist, he realizes that the quality of medical care, the quality of life and the mortality rate are highly related to the length of going on hemodialysis for uremic patients. It means the longer a uremic patient goes on hemodialysis, the lower uremic toxin level and the better quality of life a patient can receive. However, due to the limitation of arranging schedule for all of the medical staff at hospitals, many uremic patients can not have enough delivered dialysis doses they need. By re-scheduling hospital staff¡¦s working hours, uremic patients¡¦needs can be easily met in order to achieve the truly ¡§one-by-one¡¨customized service. It seems to move a step closer to the concept of¡§patient-centered¡¨ service. In Taiwan, the current health insurance system, the total payment clause, and the increasing medical cost seem to play a crucial part in running hospitals. We can avoid causing medical accidence by providing sensible working hours and duties to hospital staff. After carrying out the customized working schedule, the hospital management has successfully reduced the working hours of all staff. It definitely creates a win-win situation for the hospital management and employees. This study is mainly observative, descriptive, cross-sectional, observing the connection and influence of personal and environmental factors on (1) the satisfactory degree of uremic patients, (2) the criterion of the quality of medical treatment¡X(A) the mortality rate of uremic patients (B) the index of KT/V and Albumin, HCT (C) the infection rate (D) the possibility of unpredictable in-hospital accidents¡X(3) potential uremic patients; CKD the chronic uremic patients¡¦ satisfaction (4) the satisfactory degree of nurses. This is a retrospective study, comparing the difference between before and after executing the customized schedule. It focus on the two periods¡X(1) From Jan. to April, 2001 (2) From Jan. to April, 2007 to find out the difference by looking at four variances¡X(A) Nursing hours (B) Mortality rate (C) Accidental rate (D) Job-quitting rate of nurses. To verify the workability and result of this system, we compare the difference between Kaohsiung Armed Forces General Hospital and a private dialysis clinic in Kaohsiung by analyzing the result of questionnaires. The finding shows that there has been a significant improvement on patients¡¦ satisfaction and the quality of medical treatment after carrying out the customized schedule. It¡¦s an undeniable social responsibility to all doctors and nurses to prevent even cure diseases. Taiwan has already had the highest rate of kidney failure around the world; therefore, the customized schedule can save time and manpower to provide better care to chronic kidney disease patients. Moreover, it can also make uremic patients suffer less while going on dialysis or delay the timing for patients going on dialysis. Key word¡G¡§one-by-one¡¨customized service¡Bhemodialysis¡Bpatient-centered