Evidence based practice updates - 21 February 2013
New guidelines, research and other tools and updates on evidence based techniques and processes from across the UK. For more information about this theme see Quality and Safety e-Bulletin: evidence based practice.
Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.
BMC Medicine: RAMESES publication standards: meta-narrative reviews. Meta-narrative review is one of an emerging menu of new approaches to qualitative and mixed-method systematic review. This publication standard was developed as part of the RAMESES (Realist And MEta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards) project. No previous publication standards exist for the reporting of meta-narrative reviews so the project's aim is to produce preliminary publication standards for meta-narrative reviews.
BMC Nursing: The effect of foot massage on long-term care staff working with older people with dementia: a pilot, parallel group, randomized controlled trial. “Caring for a person with dementia can be physically and emotionally demanding, with many long-term care facility staff experiencing increased levels of stress and burnout. Massage has been shown to be one way in which nurses' stress can be reduced. However, no research has been conducted to explore its effectiveness for care staff working with older people with dementia in long-term care facilities.”
BMC Public Health: Understanding critical health literacy: a concept analysis. “Interest in and debates around health literacy have grown over the last two decades and key to the discussions has been the distinction made between basic functional health literacy, communicative/interactive health literacy and critical health literacy. Of these, critical health literacy is the least well developed and differing interpretations of its constituents and relevance exist. The aim of this study is to rigorously analyse the concept of critical health literacy in order to offer some clarity of definition upon which appropriate theory, well grounded practice and potential measurement tools can be based.”
Heart: The use of anticoagulants in the management of atrial fibrillation among general practices in England. This paper in the journal ‘Heart’ is open access. It concludes that "over one-third of patients with AF and known risk factors who are eligible for AC do not receive them. There is a high use of AP among patients not receiving AC. Uptake of AC is particularly poor among patients aged 80 years and over".
Implementation Science: Towards a general theory of implementation. This paper by Carl May sets out core constituents of a general theory of implementation, building on Normalization Process Theory and linking it to key constructs from recent work in sociology and psychology.
Implementation Science: How hard can it be to include research evidence and evaluation in local health policy implementation? Results from a mixed methods study. "Although an evidence-based approach is the ideal model for planning and delivering healthcare, barriers exist to using research evidence to implement and evaluate service change. This paper aims to inform policy implementation and evaluation by understanding the role of research evidence at the local level through implementation of a national chronic conditions management policy".
Implementation Science: Need to Knowledge (NtK) Model: an evidence-based framework for generating technological innovations with socio-economic impacts. “The Need to Knowledge (NtK) Model offers a practical, market-oriented approach that avoids the gaps, constraints and inefficiencies inherent in undirected activities and disconnected sectors. The NtK Model is a means to realizing increased returns on public investments in those science and technology programs expressly intended to generate beneficial socio-economic impacts”.
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research Programme: NIHR primary care interventions themed call. On the 28 February 2013, the NIHR will launch a cross-programme call for research which evaluates health care interventions or services delivered in primary care settings. The call closes on the 22 May 2013, with funding decisions expected in March 2014.
NHS Evidence: Prevention of unintentional injuries in under 15s: Evidence Update 29, February 2013. This new evidence update focuses on a summary of selected new evidence relevant to NICE public health guidance 29 ‘Strategies to prevent unintentional injuries among children and young people aged under 15’ (2010).
NICE clinical guidelines: Fertility: assessment and treatment for people with fertility problems (CG156). This clinical guideline updates and replaces NICE clinical guideline 11 ‘Fertility’ (published February 2004). It offers evidence-based advice on the care and treatment of people with fertility problems.
NICE Pathways: Fertility overview.
Podcast. Mr Tim Child, Director of Oxford’s Institute of Reproductive Sciences and a Consultant Gynaecologist, discusses the updated fertility guideline.
News: Greater treatment options for women with fertility problems. More women can receive appropriate and timely fertility treatment such as IVF, following updated guidelines from NICE.
BBC Health: IVF should be given sooner and to older women, says NICE.
NICE quality standard: Asthma (QS25). This quality standard defines clinical best practice within this topic area. It provides specific, concise quality statements, measures and audience descriptors to provide the public, health and social care professionals, commissioners and service providers with definitions of high-quality care. This quality standard covers the diagnosis and treatment of asthma in adults, young people and children aged 12 months and older.
NICE: Statement of collaboration between NICE and Public Health England. NICE and Public Health England and have agreed to collaborate on: Communicating with and supporting the local public health system; Reviewing evidence and providing evidence-based guidance and other products; Providing access to evidence about public health; Providing support to put guidance into practice; Creating a standard public health taxonomy.
NICE: What should NICE take into account when developing social guidance? "Working out which of NICE's current methods and processes should apply to social care, which may need to be adapted, and whether new methods should be introduced is an issue that NICE must get to grips with in order to produce effective and meaningful recommendations".
NICE: New accreditations from NICE. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has accredited The British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) for its processes to produce BSACI guidelines and the College of Occupational Therapists (COT) for its processes to produce Practice Guidelines.
Research Unit for Research Utilisation, University of St Andrews: What counts as good evidence? (PDF 708KB). Making better use of evidence is essential for governments if public services are to deliver more service for less money. Central to this challenge is the need for a consensus on standards of evidence that can be applied to research that informs social policy. This social policy paper from Scotland reviews ways of identifying and labelling evidence.
Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN): Acute coronary syndromes (93). This guideline has been updated and provides recommendations based on current evidence for best practice in the selection of the safest and most effective reperfusion strategy depending on the anticipated travel time to a centre providing pPCI.
SIGN: Survey of medical trainees. In summer 2012, the SIGN Healthcare Professionals in Training group ran a survey of all junior doctors in training across Scotland. The purpose was to seek the views of trainees about the level of awareness of SIGN and its products and give an opportunity to suggest new ways in which SIGN could support doctors in training. 226 doctors responded and the results are summarised below accompanied by some comments from SIGN.