Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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Pharmaceutical companies make payments to physicians such as compensations for lecturing or consulting. Of particular, financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and leaders of professional medical societies are concern in medical community. However, little was known about them in Japan. ⋯ This study demonstrated that nearly all EBMs of 15 medical associations representing internal medicine subspecialties had substantial financial relationships with the pharmaceutical companies in Japan over the past 5 years.
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Observational Study
Relative billing complexity of in-person versus telehealth outpatient encounters.
Video visits became more widely available during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the ongoing role and value of video visits in care delivery and how these may have changed over time are not well understood. ⋯ In-person and video visits had differing proportions of complexity codes (typically skewing towards lower complexity for video visits). The complexity of video visits changed over time in many specialities. Observed patterns for both phenomena varied by speciality.
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Wait lists are common in the provision of publicly funded services in outpatient and community settings. ⋯ More consumer-centred approaches are needed for access systems for outpatient and community services, featuring honesty about what services can realistically be provided, early access to initial assessment and information and clear lines of communication.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) kept track of COVID-19 data at country level daily during the pandemic that included the number of tests, infected cases and fatalities. This daily record was susceptible to change depending on the time and place and impacted by underreporting. In addition to reporting cases of excess COVID-19-related deaths, the WHO also provided estimates of excess mortality based on mathematical models. ⋯ The study revealed that, for some of the chosen nations, the mathematical model proposed by the WHO is practical and capable of estimating the number of excess deaths brought on by COVID-19. However, the derived approach cannot be applied globally.
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Healthcare systems are confronted with a rising number of patients with chronic conditions and complex care needs, requiring the development of new models of coordinated, patient-centred care. In this study, we aimed to describe and compare a range of new models of care recently implemented in primary care in Switzerland, as well as to gain insight into the type of coordination or integration implemented, the strengths and weaknesses of each model and the challenges they face. ⋯ The integrated care models implemented in Switzerland are promising; nevertheless, financial and legal reforms must be introduced to promote integrated care in practice.