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Background: The accessibility of services within community pharmacies provides an ideal opportunity to manage minor ailments, yet over £1.1 billion is spent by the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) in managing minor ailments in high cost settings. There is a need to review the evidence base around clinical effectiveness of pharmacy-based management of minor ailments since the absence of such may lead to under-utilisation of pharmacy services and non-implementation of available pharmacy service models. This study aimed to systematically review the methodological approaches used to assess clinical outcomes of pharmacy-based management of minor ailments in the research literature. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify relevant literature using the following databases: Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, IPA, CRD, CDSR, and Google Scholar from publication year 2000 onwards. Studies were included if they evaluated clinical outcomes of pharmacy-based management of any minor ailments, with or without a comparator setting such as Emergency Departments (EDs) or general practices. Screening and selection of titles, abstracts and full texts followed by data extraction and quality assessment (QA) was conducted. Paired researchers, from the team, reviewed papers using a protocol based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). QA was undertaken using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP). Reporting was conducted in accordance with PRISMA checklist and statements. Results: A total of 19 studies were included. The majority of studies were observational, conducted in community pharmacies, and did not use a comparator participant group nor a comparator setting. Interventions included counselling, medicines supply and provision of advice on the management of minor ailments. One study used the randomised controlled trial (RCT) design with majority of the study utilising observational design. A range of clinical outcomes including symptom severity, pattern, resolution, and quality of life were reported. Methods used for the assessment of clinical outcomes were, overall, poorly reported. This included a lack of information on the development and validation of the data collection tools and the timing of baseline and follow-up data collection. Adverse clinical outcomes data were collected by only seven studies. Conclusions: Currently, there are methodological limitations in the studies that have sought to assess clinical outcomes of pharmacy-based management of minor ailments. Such lack of high quality evidence may contribute to failings to shift care from high cost settings, such as EDs and general practices. Generation of high quality evidence is likely to influence public choices when seeking care for minor ailments. There is scope for development of a core outcomes set specific to minor ailments management and development of a validated methodology for measuring such outcomes in a research study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The shortage of emergency drugs in China is severe. This study aimed to characterize emergency drug shortages in China and to measure their effects. Methods: An online questionnaire based on a literature review was sent to emergency department physicians in Chinese secondary and tertiary hospitals from November 2016 to February 2017. The survey asked physicians questions about their experiences with emergency drug shortages. Results: In total, 236 physicians from 29 provinces participated in the survey. According to their responses, 90.7% of the respondents experienced drug shortages during the last year. More than half of the physicians (65.7%) reported that drug shortages occurred at least once a month. Hospitals in the eastern and western regions of China had more emergency drugs in shortage than hospitals in central China, especially those with many inpatient beds (≥800). In addition, the shortage situation was more serious in secondary hospitals than in tertiary hospitals. More respondents agreed that original medicines, injections, essential medicines, medicines without alternative agents and cheap medicines were more susceptible to shortages than generics, oral medicines, nonessential medicines, medicines with alternative agents and expensive medicines, respectively. Most respondents thought that drug shortages always, often or sometimes affected patients [delayed therapy (62.6%), longer rescue and recovery times (58.9%) and higher costs (58.7%)] and physicians [inconvenience (81.0%), higher pressure (76.5%) and harm to patient-doctor relationships (72%)] and compromised hospital reputations (55.1%). Conclusions: The shortage of emergency drugs in China is serious, especially in secondary hospitals located in eastern and western China. Emergency drug shortages have significant effects on patients and physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To compare the influence of devices for manual ventilation and individual experience on the applied respiratory mechanics and sustained lung inflation. Methods: A total of 114 instructors and non-instructors from the Neonatal Resuscitation Program of the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics participated in this study. Participants ventilated an intubated manikin. To evaluate respiratory mechanics and sustained lung inflation parameters, a direct comparison was made between the self-inflating bag and the T-shaped resuscitator (T-piece), followed by an analysis of the effectiveness of the equipment according to the participants’ education and training. Results: A difference between equipment types was observed for the tidal volume, with a median (interquartile range) of 28.5 mL (12.6) for the self-inflating bag and 20.1 mL (8.4) for the T-piece in the instructor group and 31.6 mL (14) for the self-inflating bag and 22.3 mL (8.8) for the T-piece in the non-instructor group. Higher inspiratory time values were observed with the T-piece in both groups of professionals, with no significant difference between them. The operator’s ability to maintain the target pressure over the 10 seconds of sustained lung inflation was evaluated using the area under the pressure-time curve and was 1.7-fold higher with the use of the T-piece. Inspiratory pressure and mean airway pressure applied during sustained lung inflation were greater with the self-inflating bag, as evaluated between the beginning and the end of the procedure. Conclusion: The T-piece resulted in lower tidal volume and higher inspiratory time values, irrespective of the operator’s experience, and increased the ease of performing the sustained lung inflation maneuver, as demonstrated by the maintenance of target pressure for the desired period and a higher mean airway pressure than that obtained using the self-inflating bag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]