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The article discusses the panorama of international literature that addresses the organic intellectual, sociologist, professor, writer, parliamentarian and Brazilian publicist Florestan Fernandes. The objective was to analyze the scientific production disseminated by the Scopus database about Florestan Fernandes from 2000 to 2022. For that, a bibliometric study was developed, which took as empirical material 69 publications located on July 11, 2022 to from Scopus indexes. The Excel and VOSviewer programs were used to process and analyze the data, interpreted considering the referenced theoretical support. The results confirmed the broad scope of the circulation of Florestan Fernandes' ideas, with 69 products, published by researchers from six countries. Its intellectual legacy makes it possible to critically address multiple social problems, which insist on perpetuating themselves on Brazilian society, such as social inequality, racism, patriarchy, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To analyze the Ecuadorian experience regarding the adoption, scale-up, and institutionalization of active management of the third stage of labor (AMTSL) for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage via continuous quality improvement (CQI) processes. Methods: Average AMTSL implementation rates for women with vaginal deliveries were compared using unweighted provincial aggregate data from facilities participating in 3 phases of AMTSL programming. Months taken to implement AMTSL at 80% or more and 90% or more compliance were compared across phases. Results: Rate of oxytocin administration during the first 3months was 5.0% in phase 1, 9.8% in phase 2, and 72.2% in phase 3 (P ≤0.001 vs phases 1 and 2). The average number of months provinces took to increase oxytocin administration to 80% or more and 90% or in more women with vaginal deliveries was, respectively, 21.6±18.7 and 30.6±16.4 in phase 1, 23.5±15.1 and 30.1±14.9 in phase 2, and 4.7±4.9 (P ≤0.01 vs phase 1; P ≤0.001 vs phase 2) and 4.0±3.4 (P ≤0.001 vs phases 1 and 2) in phase 3. By December 2009, AMTSL implementation was sustained at 90% or more in all provinces. Conclusion: CQI processes identified resistance and operational barriers, and developed mechanisms to overcome them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objectives Health care quality improvement (QI) efforts commonly use self-assessment to measure compliance with quality standards. This study investigates the validity of self-assessment of quality indicators. Design Cross sectional. Setting A maternal and newborn care improvement collaborative intervention conducted in health facilities in Ecuador in 2005. Participants Four external evaluators were trained in abstracting medical records to calculate six indicators reflecting compliance with treatment standards. Interventions About 30 medical records per month were examined at 12 participating health facilities for a total of 1875 records. The same records had already been reviewed by QI teams at these facilities (self-assessment). Main Outcome Measures Overall compliance, agreement (using the Kappa statistic), sensitivity and specificity were analyzed. We also examined patterns of disagreement and the effect of facility characteristics on levels of agreement. Results External evaluators reported compliance of 69–90%, while self-assessors reported 71–92%, with raw agreement of 71–95% and Kappa statistics ranging from fair to almost perfect agreement. Considering external evaluators as the gold standard, sensitivity of self-assessment ranged from 90 to 99% and specificity from 48 to 86%. Simpler indicators had fewer disagreements. When disagreements occurred between self-assessment and external valuators, the former tended to report more positive findings in five of six indicators, but this tendency was not of a magnitude to change program actions. Team leadership, understanding of the tools and facility size had no overall impact on the level of agreement. Conclusions When compared with external evaluation (gold standard), self-assessment was found to be sufficiently valid for tracking QI team performance. Sensitivity was generally higher than specificity. Simplifying indicators may improve validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To systematically develop evidence-based bundles for care of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH).Methods: An international technical consultation was conducted in 2017 to develop draft bundles of clinical interventions for PPH taken from the WHO's 2012 and 2017 PPH recommendations and based on the validated "GRADE Evidence-to-Decision" framework. Twenty-three global maternal-health experts participated in the development process, which was informed by a systematic literature search on bundle definitions, designs, and implementation experiences. Over a 6-month period, the expert panel met online and via teleconferences, culminating in a 2-day in-person meeting.Results: The consultation led to the definition of two care bundles for facility implementation. The "first response to PPH bundle" comprises uterotonics, isotonic crystalloids, tranexamic acid, and uterine massage. The "response to refractory PPH bundle" comprises compressive measures (aortic or bimanual uterine compression), the non-pneumatic antishock garment, and intrauterine balloon tamponade (IBT). Advocacy, training, teamwork, communication, and use of best clinical practices were defined as PPH bundle supporting elements.Conclusion: For the first response bundle, further research should assess its feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness; and identify optimal implementation strategies. For the response to refractory bundle, further research should address pending controversies, including the operational definition of refractory PPH and effectiveness of IBT devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), particularly pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, remain one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and are contributory in many foetal/newborn deaths. This editorial discusses a supplement of seven papers which provide the results of the first round of the CLIP (Community Level Interventions for Pre-eclampsia) Feasibility Studies. These studies report a number of enablers and barriers in each setting, which have informed the implementation of a cluster-randomized trial (cRCT) aimed at reducing pre-eclampsia-related, and all-cause, maternal and perinatal mortality and major morbidity using community-based identification and treatment of pre-eclampsia in selected geographies of Nigeria, Mozambique, Pakistan and India. This supplement unpacks the diverse community perspectives on determinants of maternal health, variant health worker knowledge and routine management of HDP, and viability of task sharing for preeclampsia identification and management in select settings. These studies demonstrate the need for strategies to improve health worker knowledge and routine management of HDP and consideration of expanding the role of community health workers to reach the most remote women and families with health education and access to health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of deaths for children under five years. Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are effective at reducing mortality and serious morbidity amongst infants born at <34 weeks gestation. WHO guidelines strongly recommend use of ACS for women at risk of imminent preterm birth where gestational age, imminent preterm birth, and risk of maternal infection can be assessed, and appropriate maternal/newborn care provided. However, coverage remains low in high-burden countries for reasons not previously systematically investigated.Methods: The bottleneck analysis tool was applied in 12 countries in Africa and Asia as part of the Every Newborn Action Plan process. Country workshops involved technical experts to complete the survey tool, which is designed to synthesise and grade health system "bottlenecks", factors that hinder the scale up, of maternal-newborn intervention packages. We used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the bottleneck data, combined with literature review, to present priority bottlenecks and actions relevant to different health system building blocks for ACS.Results: Eleven out of twelve countries provided data in response to the ACS questionnaire. Health system building blocks most frequently reported as having significant or very major bottlenecks were health information systems (11 countries), essential medical products and technologies (9 out of 11 countries) and health service delivery (9 out of 11 countries). Bottlenecks included absence of coverage data, poor gestational age metrics, lack of national essential medicines listing, discrepancies between prescribing authority and provider cadres managing care, delays due to referral, and lack of supervision, mentoring and quality improvement systems.Conclusions: Analysis centred on health system building blocks in which 9 or more countries (>75%) reported very major or significant bottlenecks. Health information systems should include improved gestational age assessment and track ACS coverage, use and outcomes. Better health service delivery requires clarified policy assigning roles by level of care and cadre of provider, dependent on capability to assess gestational age and risk of preterm birth, and the implementation of guidelines with adequate supervision, mentoring and quality improvement systems, including audit and feedback. National essential medicines lists should include dexamethasone for antenatal use, and dexamethasone should be integrated into supply logistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]