Search

Objective: to propose Mental Health Indicators aimed at management of the Mental Health Care Network, starting with convergence of their use, in countries with public health organization. Method: an exploratory analysis of the indicators adopted and used in these countries, from the detailed analysis of their respective normative documents, considering the World Health Organization guidelines. After selection of the indicators, the Mental Health Matrix was adopted as a suggestion for their development and application in the Brazilian Psychosocial Care Network. The matrix was prepared in two dimensions, respecting the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the indicators studied, as follows: geographical (national/regional, local, individual), and time (entry, process and results). Results: the analysis indicates 41 indicators that presented diverse evidence regarding their use. All were allocated in the Mental Health Matrix, contributing as a metric to analyze the purpose of the Mental Health services, in the levels and phases of each dimension. Conclusion: the indicators selected, distributed in the different Mental Health Matrix dimensions, are being made available for their use in management and in the clinical practice, as well as for scientific studies and, in the future, to be used as definers of Mental Health policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of biomass is extremely important, aiming to discover the potential of alternative source that are capable of promoting the development of new technologies. The thermal behavior and chemical characteristics of the Capsicum waste from the use for the manufacture of sauces and condiments were investigated using thermogravimetric analysis, higher heating values, ignition (Ti) and burnout temperatures (Tb) and kinetic study using isoconversional models. Torrefaction and pyrolysis conditions were applied. Characterization based on ultimate and proximate analysis, gravimetric and gravimetric yield factor were also realized. Thermal analysis showed a biomass conversion between 150 °C and 500 °C. Proximate analysis identified an average volatile content of 46.5%, and carbon and fixed carbon were 22.3 and 31.1%, respectively. Gravimetric yield varied between 28 and 58%. Considering the intersection model, ignition and burnout temperature varied between 342–354 °C and 470–503 °C, respectively. The deviation model found an ignition temperature between 210 and 249 °C. Biomass proved to be a possible source of biofuel with a significant economic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Sludges from Submerged Biofilter (SBF) and Aerobic Three Phase Airlift Fluidized Bed Reactor with Circulation in Concentric Tubes (AAFBR-CT) wastewater treatment of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) were evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis. It was considered a microstructural analysis by SEM-EDX and XRD to identify the sample composition. SBF and AAFBR-CT sludge, presented three stages for both combustion and pyrolysis. The first stage to 180 °C was characterized by loss of water, low-stability organic compounds, the second stage, between 235 °C and 385 °C was characterized by decomposition of carbohydrate, lipids, and proteins. The third stage, between 420 °C and 540 °C represents a decomposition of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated fatty acids and amino groups. This sludge had a high ash content and is not viable to use for energy purposes. Presence of granular material was revealed by SEM. XRD analysis only identified SiO 2. The sludges generated by RAS could be used in brick and ceramic manufacture, adsorbent material or for phosphorus recovery. Highlights • Combustion and pyrolysis presented three decomposition thermical steps in RAS-BS. • The percentage of ashes indicated high inorganic material quantity. • These RAS-BS could have use with ceramic or adsorbent material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aimed to study the kinetic of thermal degradation of red pepper waste as solid biofuel to bioenergy production. The thermal degradation experiments were conducted at three heating rates, 5 °C/min, 7.5 °C/min and 10 °C/min in a thermogravimetric analyzer and oxidative atmosphere. The kinetic analysis was carried out applying the isoconversional model of Ozawa–Flynn–Wall. The activation energy was considerate low and varied 29.49–147.25 kJ/mol. The enthalpies revealed the energy difference between the reagent and the activated complex agreed with activation energies, the values of the pre-exponential factor indicated empirical first order reactions, Gibbs free energy varied from 71.77 kJ/mol to 207.03 kJ/mol and the changes of entropies had negative values, indicating that the degree of disorder of products formed through bond dissociations was lower than initial reactants. The calorific value was 19.5 MJ/kg, considered a relevant result for bioenergy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of an infectious disease in a population involves interactions leading to an epidemic outbreak through a network of contacts. Extending on Watts and Strogatz (1998) who showed that short-distance connections create a small-world effect, a model combining short- and long-distance probabilistic and regularly updated contacts helps considering spatial heterogeneity. The method is based on cellular automata. The presence of long-distance connections accelerates the small-world effect, as if the world shrank in proportion of their total number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tuberculosis is the leading cause of infectious disease-related death, surpassing even the immunodeficiency virus. Treatment loss to follow up and irregular medication use contribute to persistent morbidity and mortality. This increases bacillus drug resistance and has a negative impact on disease control.Objective: This study aims to develop a computational model that predicts the loss to follow up treatment in tuberculosis patients, thereby increasing treatment adherence and cure, reducing efforts regarding treatment relapses and decreasing disease spread.Methods: This is a case-controlled study. Included in the data set were 103,846 tuberculosis cases from the state of São Paulo. They were collected using the TBWEB, an information system used as a tuberculosis treatment monitor, containing samples from 2006 to 2016. This set was later resampled into 6 segments with a 1-1 ratio. This ratio was used to avoid any bias during the model construction.Results: The Classification and Regression Trees were used as the prediction model. Training and test sets accounted for 70% in the former and 30% in the latter of the tuberculosis cases. The model displayed an accuracy of 0.76, F-measure of 0.77, sensitivity of 0.80 and specificity of 0.71. The model emphasizes the relationship between several variables that had been identified in previous studies as related to patient cure or loss to follow up treatment in tuberculosis patients.Conclusion: It was possible to construct a predictive model for loss to follow up treatment in tuberculosis patients using Classification and Regression Trees. Although the fact that the ideal predictive ability was not achieved, it seems reasonable to propose the use of Classification and Regression Trees models to predict likelihood of treatment follow up to support healthcare professionals in minimising the loss to follow up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical research outcomes depend on the correct definition of the research protocol, the data collection strategy, and the data management plan. Furthermore, researchers often need to work within challenging contexts, as is the case in tuberculosis services, where human and technological resources for research may be scarce. Electronic Data Capture Systems mitigate such risks and enable a reliable environment to conduct health research and promote result dissemination and data reusability. The proposed solution is based on needs pinpointed by researchers, considering the need for an accommodating solution to conduct research in low-resource environments. The REDbox framework was developed to facilitate data collection, management, sharing, and availability in tuberculosis research and improve the user experience through user-friendly, web-based tools. REDbox combines elements of the REDCap and KoBoToolbox electronic data capture systems and semantics to deliver new valuable tools that meet the needs of tuberculosis researchers in Brazil. The framework was implemented in five cross-institutional, nationwide projects to evaluate the users' perceptions of the system's usefulness and the information and user experience. Seventeen responses (representing 40% of active users) to an anonymous survey distributed to active users indicated that REDbox was perceived to be helpful for the particular audience of researchers and health professionals. The relevance of this article lies in the innovative approach to supporting tuberculosis research by combining existing technologies and tailoring supporting features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Brazilian Policy for Comprehensive Care for People with Rare Diseases (BPCCPRD) was published in 2014, accrediting several reference centers and incorporating many genetic tests for the diagnosis of rare diseases (RDs). The Brazilian Network of Rare Diseases (RARAS) comprises more than 40 institutions that offer diagnosis and treatment for RDs in Brazil. This network includes Reference Services for Rare Diseases (RDRS), Reference Services for Newborn Screening (NSRS), and University Hospitals distributed in all Brazilian regions. Objective: The aim of the study was to map the availability and distribution of the BPCCPRD diagnostic procedures in the Brazilian Unified Health System through RARAS. Method: Data were collected through a questionnaire on the Research Electronic Data Capture platform, with 22 questions regarding the availability of procedures. Thirty-seven coordinators from RARAS participating centers received the questionnaire link for participation by email from August/2020 to March/2021. All participating institutions ethically approved this project. Results: Of the 37 institutions, 23 (62.16%) offered cytogenetic tests, 20 (54.05%) offered molecular procedures, and 22 (59.46%) offered inborn errors of metabolism diagnostic tests. The Southern blot analysis, enzyme assays on cultured tissue and urinary organic acid tests had the highest outsourcing rate. On the other hand, the procedures most frequently performed on-site were bone marrow karyotype and long-term cultured karyotype. It was observed that 10 of the 37 centers (27%) did not provide access to investigated procedures (on-site or outsourced). The North and Midwest regions stood out in terms of the unavailability of such techniques in at least 40% of the evaluated institutions. Discussion and Conclusion: This study reveals large discrepancies in the supply of diagnostic procedures in the Brazilian territory. Moreover, there is a broad collaboration between services through the outsourcing of multiple diagnostic techniques to address this issue. Finally, this work corroborates the importance of mapping services for the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with RDs to propose actions for the better supply and distribution of these procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: to develop a mobile app for research on the use of tobacco among psychiatric patients and the general population. Method: applied research with the technological development of an app for data collection on an Android tablet. For its development, we considered three criteria: data security, benefits for participants and optimization of the time of researchers. We performed tests with twenty fictitious participants and a final test with six pilots. Results: the app collects data, stores them in the database of the tablet and export then to an Excel spreadsheet. Resources: calculator, stopwatch, offline operation, branching logic, field validation and automatic tabulation. Conclusion: the app prevents human error, increases the quality of the data by validating them during the interview, allows the performing of automatic tabulation and makes the interviews less tiring. Its success may encourage the use of this and other computational resources by nurses as a research tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Policy of Comprehensive Care for People with Rare Diseases (BPCCPRD) was established by the Ministry of Health to reduce morbidity and mortality and improve the quality of life of people with rare diseases (RD). Several laboratory tests, most using molecular genetic technologies, have been incorporated by the Brazilian Public Health System, and 18 specialised centres have so far been established at university hospitals (UH) in the capitals of the Southern, Southeastern and Northeastern regions. However, whether the available human and technological resources in these services are appropriate and sufficient to achieve the goals of care established by the BPCCPRD is unknown. Despite great advances in diagnosis, especially due to new technologies and the recent structuring of clinical assessment of RD in Brazil, epidemiological data are lacking and when available, restricted to specific disorders. This position paper summarises the performance of a nationally representative survey on epidemiology, clinical status, and diagnostic and therapeutic resources employed for individuals with genetic and non-genetic RD in Brazil. The Brazilian Rare Disease Network (BRDN) is under development, comprising 40 institutions, including 18 UH, 17 Rare Diseases Reference Services and five Newborn Screening Reference Services. A retrospective study will be initially conducted, followed by a prospective study. The data collection instrument will use a standard protocol with sociodemographic data and clinical and diagnostic aspects according to international ontology. This great collaborative network is the first initiative of a large epidemiological data collection of RD in Latin America, and the results will increase the knowledge of RD in Brazil and help health managers to improve national public policy on RD in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: to identify indicators that can be used in the management of Mental Health Services. Method: an integrative review in which we adopted the Population, Concept, and Context strategy to formulate the following Guiding Question: "Which indicators can be used for the management of mental health services?". Results: a total of 22 articles were included and divided into two main groups: countries with initial high income (54%) as well as low- and middle-income countries (46%). We identified 5 studies that had experienced the use of indicators, 5 studies that had reported partial implementation, 9 studies that did not report use or implementation, 1 study on the indicator selection process, 1 as an implementation pilot, and a final study with a discussion for implementation. High-income countries also find it difficult to implement mental health indicators. The main difficulties in adopting the use of indicators are lack of basic mental health services, financial resources, legislation, political interest, and guidelines for its management. Conclusion: it is unusual to find a descriptive comparison of quality monitoring programs at the system level in the technical-scientific literature related to mental health indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The healthcare system can be understood as the dynamic result of the interaction of hospitals, patients, providers, and government configuring a complex network of reciprocal influences. In order to better understand such a complex system, the analysis must include characteristics that are feasible to be studied in order to redesign its functioning. The analysis of the emergent patterns of pregnant women flows crossing municipal borders for birth-related hospitalizations in a region of São Paulo, Brazil, allowed to examine the functionality of the regional division in the state using a complex systems approach and to propose answers to the dilemma of concentration vs. distribution of maternal care regional services in the context of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS).Methods: Cross-sectional research of the areas of influence of hospitals using spatial interaction methods, recording the points of origin and destination of the patients and exploring the emergent patterns of displacement.Results: The resulting functional region is broader than the limits established in the legal provisions, verifying that 85% of patients move to hospitals with high technology to perform normal deliveries and cesarean sections. The region has high independence rates and behaves as a "service exporter." Patients going to centrally located hospitals travel twice as long as patients who receive care in other municipalities even when the patients' conditions do not demand technologically sophisticated services. The effects of regulation and the agents' preferences reinforce the tendency to refer patients to centrally located hospitals.Conclusions: Displacement of patients during delivery may affect indicators of maternal and perinatal health. The emergent pattern of movements allowed examining the contradiction between wider deployments of services versus concentration of highly specialized resources in a few places. The study shows the potential of this type of analysis applied to other type of patients' flows, such as cancer or specialized surgery, as tools to guide the regionalization of the Brazilian Health System. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals use software that affects the patients. Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course is the name given to the tuberculosis control strategy recommended by the World Health Organization. The main goal of this work is to propose a protocol for evaluating the impact of healthcare software supporting Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course on patients, healthcare professionals, and services. The proposed protocol consists of a set of instruments and steps. The instruments are reliable and validated existing questionnaires to be applied before and after using the software tool. The literature points out the need for standards on the software assessment. This is particularly critical when software affects patients directly. The present protocol is a universal tool to assess the impact of software used to support the fight against the tragedy of tuberculosis where a rigorous evaluation of IT in healthcare is highly recommended and of great importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Escalation in the global rates of labour interventions, particularly cesarean section and oxytocin augmentation, has renewed interest in a better understanding of natural labour progression. Methodological advancements in statistical and computational techniques addressing the limitations of pioneer studies have led to novel findings and triggered a re-evaluation of current labour practices. As part of the World Health Organization's Better Outcomes in Labour Difficulty (BOLD) project, which aimed to develop a new labour monitoring-to-action tool, we examined the patterns of labour progression as depicted by cervical dilatation over time in a cohort of women in Nigeria and Uganda who gave birth vaginally following a spontaneous labour onset.Methods and Findings: This was a prospective, multicentre, cohort study of 5,606 women with singleton, vertex, term gestation who presented at ≤ 6 cm of cervical dilatation following a spontaneous labour onset that resulted in a vaginal birth with no adverse birth outcomes in 13 hospitals across Nigeria and Uganda. We independently applied survival analysis and multistate Markov models to estimate the duration of labour centimetre by centimetre until 10 cm and the cumulative duration of labour from the cervical dilatation at admission through 10 cm. Multistate Markov and nonlinear mixed models were separately used to construct average labour curves. All analyses were conducted according to three parity groups: parity = 0 (n = 2,166), parity = 1 (n = 1,488), and parity = 2+ (n = 1,952). We performed sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of oxytocin augmentation on labour progression by re-examining the progression patterns after excluding women with augmented labours. Labour was augmented with oxytocin in 40% of nulliparous and 28% of multiparous women. The median time to advance by 1 cm exceeded 1 hour until 5 cm was reached in both nulliparous and multiparous women. Based on a 95th percentile threshold, nulliparous women may take up to 7 hours to progress from 4 to 5 cm and over 3 hours to progress from 5 to 6 cm. Median cumulative duration of labour indicates that nulliparous women admitted at 4 cm, 5 cm, and 6 cm reached 10 cm within an expected time frame if the dilatation rate was ≥ 1 cm/hour, but their corresponding 95th percentiles show that labour could last up to 14, 11, and 9 hours, respectively. Substantial differences exist between actual plots of labour progression of individual women and the 'average labour curves' derived from study population-level data. Exclusion of women with augmented labours from the study population resulted in slightly faster labour progression patterns.Conclusions: Cervical dilatation during labour in the slowest-yet-normal women can progress more slowly than the widely accepted benchmark of 1 cm/hour, irrespective of parity. Interventions to expedite labour to conform to a cervical dilatation threshold of 1 cm/hour may be inappropriate, especially when applied before 5 cm in nulliparous and multiparous women. Averaged labour curves may not truly reflect the variability associated with labour progression, and their use for decision-making in labour management should be de-emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Regional networking between services that provide mental health care in Brazil's decentralized public health system is challenging, partly due to the simultaneous existence of services managed by municipal and state authorities and a lack of efficient and transparent mechanisms for continuous and updated communication between them. Since 2011, the Ribeirao Preto Medical School and the XIII Regional Health Department of the Sao Paulo state, Brazil, have been developing and implementing a web-based information system to facilitate an integrated care throughout a public regional mental health care network. Case presentation: After a profound on-site analysis, the structure of the network was identified and a web-based information system for psychiatric admissions and discharges was developed and implemented using a socio-technical approach. An information technology team liaised with mental health professionals, health-service managers, municipal and state health secretariats and judicial authorities. Primary care, specialized community services, general emergency and psychiatric wards services, that comprise the regional mental healthcare network, were identified and the system flow was delineated. The web-based system overcame the fragmentation of the healthcare system and addressed service specific needs, enabling: detailed patient information sharing; active coordination of the processes of psychiatric admissions and discharges; real-time monitoring; the patients' status reports; the evaluation of the performance of each service and the whole network. During a 2-year period of operation, it registered 137 services, 480 health care professionals and 4271 patients, with a mean number of 2835 accesses per month. To date the system is successfully operating and further expanding. Conclusion: We have successfully developed and implemented an acceptable, useful and transparent web-based information system for a regional mental healthcare service network in a medium-income country with a decentralized public health system. Systematic collaboration between an information technology team and a wide range of stakeholders is essential for the system development and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The partograph is currently the main tool available to support decision-making of health professionals during labour. However, the rate of appropriate use of the partograph is disappointingly low. Apart from limitations that are associated with partograph use, evidence of positive impact on labour-related health outcomes is lacking. The main goal of this study is to develop a Simplified, Effective, Labour Monitoring-to-Action (SELMA) tool. The primary objectives are: to identify the essential elements of intrapartum monitoring that trigger the decision to use interventions aimed at preventing poor labour outcomes; to develop a simplified, monitoring-to-action algorithm for labour management; and to compare the diagnostic performance of SELMA and partograph algorithms as tools to identify women who are likely to develop poor labour-related outcomes. Methods/Design: A prospective cohort study will be conducted in eight health facilities in Nigeria and Uganda (four facilities from each country). All women admitted for vaginal birth will comprise the study population (estimated sample size: 7,812 women). Data will be collected on maternal characteristics on admission, labour events and pregnancy outcomes by trained research assistants at the participating health facilities. Prediction models will be developed to identify women at risk of intrapartum-related perinatal death or morbidity (primary outcomes) throughout the course of labour. These predictions models will be used to assemble a decision-support tool that will be able to suggest the best course of action to avert adverse outcomes during the course of labour. To develop this set of prediction models, we will use up-to-date techniques of prognostic research, including identification of important predictors, assigning of relative weights to each predictor, estimation of the predictive performance of the model through calibration and discrimination, and determination of its potential for application using internal validation techniques. Discussion: This research offers an opportunity to revisit the theoretical basis of the partograph. It is envisioned that the final product would help providers overcome the challenging tasks of promptly interpreting complex labour information and deriving appropriate clinical actions, and thus increase efficiency of the care process, enhance providers' competence and ultimately improve labour outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of health information systems consider different aspects of the system itself. They focus or on the professional who will use the software or on its usability or on the software engineering metrics or on financial and managerial issues. The existent approaches are very resources consuming, disconnected, and not standardized. As the software becomes more critical in the health organizations and in patients, becoming used as a medical device or a medicine, there is an urgency to identify tools and methods that can be applied in the development process. The present work is one of the steps of a broader study to identify standardized protocols to evaluate the health information systems as medicines and medical devices are evaluated by clinical trials. The goal of the present work was to evaluate the effect of the introduction of an information system for monitoring tuberculosis treatment (SISTB) in a Brazilian municipality from the patients’ perspective. The Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems were answered by the patients before and after the SISTB introduction, for comparison. Patients from an outpatient clinic, formed the control group, that is, at this site was not implanted the SISTB. Descriptive statistics and mixed effects model were used for data analysis. Eighty-eight interviews were conducted in the study. The questionnaire’s results presented better averages after the system introduction but were not considered statistically significant. Therefore, it was not possible to associate system implantation with improved patient satisfaction. The HIS evaluation need be complete, the technical and managerial evaluation, the safety, the impact on the professionals and direct and/or indirect impact on patients are important. Developing the right tools and methods that can evaluate the software in its entirety, from the beginning of the development cycle with a normalized scale, are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]