There is ample evidence that many investigations sent from the accident and emergency department are inappropriate, thus affecting the quality of patient care. A study was designed to address this issue in the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital of a large city. A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out during the 3-month period 1 December 1996 to 28 February 1997. A set ...

BACKGROUND Current laboratory and point-of-care tests for HIV detect different analytes and use different sample types. Some have fast turnaround times (<1 hour). We investigated how HIV test choice could impact case finding by testing programs. METHODS We analyzed 21,234 consecutive HIV tests with venous blood obtained by San Francisco HIV testing programs from 2003 to 2008. For a subset, or...

This study aimed to identify the bottlenecks in patients' journeys through an emergency department (ED). For each stage of the patient journey, the average times were compared between two groups divided according to the four hour time frame and disproportionate delays were identified using a significance test These bottlenecks were evaluated with reference to a lean thinking value-stream map an...

Colorectal cancer is a major public health burden worldwide. There is clear-cut evidence that screening will reduce colorectal cancer mortality and the only contentious issue is which screening tool to use. Most evidence points towards screening with fecal occult blood testing. The immunochemical fecal occult blood tests have a higher sensitivity than the guaiac-based tests. In addition, their ...

BACKGROUND The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test has become widely used in Canada to test for prostate cancer (PC), the most common cancer among Canadian men. Data suggest that population-based PSA screening may not improve overall survival. OBJECTIVES This analysis aimed to review existing economic evaluations of population-based PSA screening, determine current spending on opportun...

Colorectal cancer is a major cause of cancer-associated deaths in the world. Early detection would be greatly enhanced if accurate and cost-effective diagnostic biomarkers for this disease were accessible. The development of such a blood test will evidently lower the screening costs in regards of colorectal cancer detection. Lately, it has been suggested that microRNA diagnostic biomarkers are ...

INTRODUCTION Although dengue is endemic in all English-speaking Caribbean countries, there are no published studies on the clinical presentations and outcomes of children hospitalized with dengue from this region. This study aims to assess the clinical charcteristics and the outcome in children hospitalized with dengue. METHODS This was a population-based prospective study of all the children...

OBJECTIVES To determine the variation in charges for 10 common blood tests across California hospitals in 2011, and to analyse the hospital and market-level factors that may explain any observed variation. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the degree of charge variation between hospitals for 10 common blood tests using charge data reported by all non-...

OBJECTIVES To assess safety and efficacy of JiSaiXin (Recombinant Human Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor Injection manufactured in China, G-CSF) 150ug per day for three days and whether this regimen could reduce the incidence of febrile neutropenia caused by chemotherapy. METHOD From July 2014 to December 2014 patients treated by chemotherapy in our hospital were randomly divided into tw...

BACKGROUND Understanding the factors that motivate donors to donate will facilitate improvements in recruitment programmes. Donation incentives are often used to improve the effect of recruitment programmes. This cross-sectional study was designed to understand donors' attitudes toward incentives. MATERIAL AND METHODS Participants (n=421) were recruited among volunteer donors at the Shiraz Bl...