Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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The UK National Health Service (NHS) employs a group of 14 separate allied health professions. Prosthetics and orthotics are the smallest of these professions. ⋯ There is still a paucity of relevant data or initiatives to support the service provision. The work within this paper has taken the first step to address this gap, presenting a summary of the information relating to appointments and costs, and provides a discussion on the implications of variations across the NHS orthotic services within England in terms of spend, staffing and skill mix for orthotic services and service users and the need for further data on service users and the UK prosthetic and orthotic workforce.
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Mobile stroke units (MSUs) are increasingly being implemented to provide acute stroke care in the prehospital environment, but a comprehensive implementation evaluation has not been undertaken. ⋯ Successes and challenges of establishing a new MSU service extend beyond technical, to include operational and social aspects across prehospital and hospital environments.
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The disciplinary profile and the quality of production of knowledge on Corona pandemic is studied. This scientific field is called 'Medical Corona Science'. ⋯ We suggest a deeper meta-scientific discussion of the epistemic value of MCS and propose the application of tools from systems science.
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Is data-driven analysis sufficient for understanding the COVID-19 pandemic and for justifying public health regulations? In this paper, we argue that such analysis is insufficient. Rather what is needed is the identification and implementation of over-arching hypothesis-related and/or theory-based rationales to conduct effective SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 (Corona) research. ⋯ For this reason, we propose nested and integrative systemic modelling approaches to understand Corona pandemic and Corona pathology. We conclude that institutional efforts for knowledge integration and systemic thinking, but also for integrated science, are urgently needed to avoid or mitigate future pandemics and to resolve infection pathology.
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Coronavirus (COVID-19)-related stressors precipitated the mental health crisis and increased substance use in Canada and worldwide. As the pandemic continues to evolve, monitoring and updating substance use-related ED visit trends is essential to ensure the stability and quality of ED services under the prolonged pandemic timeline. ⋯ Our findings indicate unmet substance use treatment needs due to the limited accessibility and heightened threshold for ED visits during the pandemic. Providing access to substance treatment/programs outside ED is critical to reducing substance use-related complications presenting in the ED. Also, policies addressing the pandemic-related complexities in the ED and Health Human Resource challenges are warranted.