Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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Patient preference for interventions aimed at preventing in-hospital falls has not previously been investigated. This study aims to contrast the amount patients are willing to pay to prevent falls through six intervention approaches. ⋯ There may be considerable indirect and intangible costs associated with interventions to prevent falls in hospitals that can substantially affect patient preferences. These costs could substantially influence the ability of these interventions to generate a net benefit in a cost-benefit analysis.
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Strategies to improve primary care in the Canadian Primary Care Reform include integrating different professionals to the medical team. ⋯ Having an on-site psychologist was highly satisfactory for patients and providers, resulting in improved patient care and outcomes.
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Technological changes will have a large influence on medical practice. This article discusses the influences of technology and innovation on the role of general practitioners. ⋯ The tasks of general practitioners as well as the role allocation between medical generalists and specialists may change profoundly. We predict that innovation will lead to a situation where general practitioners will increasingly have to face the challenge of acting as intermediaries. They will have to integrate various information sources for their patients. At the same time, they may increasingly contribute to biomedical research.
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The diversity of the population worldwide suggests a great need for cross-culturally validated research instruments or scales. Researchers and clinicians must have access to reliable and valid measures of concepts of interest in their own cultures and languages to conduct cross-cultural research and/or provide quality patient care. Although there are well-established methodological approaches for translating, adapting and validating instruments or scales for use in cross-cultural health care research, a great variation in the use of these approaches continues to prevail in the health care literature. Therefore, the objectives of this scholarly paper were to review published recommendations of cross-cultural validation of instruments and scales, and to propose and present a clear and user-friendly guideline for the translation, adaptation and validation of instruments or scales for cross-cultural health care research. ⋯ Translation, adaptation and validation of instruments or scales for cross-cultural research is very time-consuming and requires careful planning and the adoption of rigorous methodological approaches to derive a reliable and valid measure of the concept of interest in the target population.
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A national guideline was proposed to enable shared care in hearing complaints and therefore to change patient flows. In this study the effect of this guideline is evaluated. ⋯ The present study emphasizes the importance of designing evidence-based guidelines for shared care.