Objective To investigate the attitudes of Chinese doctors towards the difficulties they have concerning the involvement of patients in decision-making about treatment. Method We surveyed 1 088 doctors at different levels (70% internal medicine, 22% general surgery, 8% gynecology) from 20 general hospitals and 5 university hospitals covering 25 provinces and cities in China, using a simple questionnaire, which we had developed. Results A total of 780 doctors returned the questionnaire and of these only 488 (62%) had completed it. The difficulties that doctors were most concerned about focused on lack of time (27%), expressing uncertainties to patients (15%), dealing with patients who have little medical knowledge (13%), eliciting patients’ preferences (12%), and establishing a stable relationship (9%). Conclusion Increasing their knowledge of patient involvement in making treatment decisions may reinforce appropriate attitudes towards this concept among doctors.
ObjectiveTo develop a survey questionnaire on preferences and values regarding perineal injury prevention measures during pregnancy and conduct reliability and validity tests. MethodsCombining literature reviews, qualitative interviews, and expert consultations, we summarized key elements of perineal injury prevention during pregnancy and synthesized the best evidence. Through multiple discussions within the core working group, a survey questionnaire on preferences and values regarding perineal injury prevention measures during pregnancy was formulated. Using convenience sampling, pregnant women were recruited, and a pre-survey was conducted using the questionnaire. Pre-survey results were analyzed using item analysis and reliability and validity testing methods to validate and refine the questionnaire. ResultsThe questionnaire was compiled based on the theory of evidence-based decision-making. The initial version of the questionnaire was developed by combining systematic evaluation, network meta-analysis, and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire was modified and improved through expert consultation, group discussion, and pre-investigation, which ensured that the questionnaire had good reliability, validity, and practicability. The Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.87, the split-half reliability was 0.71, and the content validity index was 0.97 of the survey questionnaire. ConclusionThe present version of the perineal injury preventive measures preference and values questionnaire has good reliability, validity, and practicability. It can serve as a valuable tool for investigating preferences and values related to perineal injury prevention during pregnancy.
ObjectiveTo understand the cognition and mediation tendencies of health care workers in terms of third-party mediation for medical disputes, analyze the factors influencing the trust of both doctors and patients on third-party mediation, and propose suggestions on building third-party mediation mechanisms for medical disputes. MethodsBetween August and December 2012, we made the cognition questionnaire on third-party mediation for medical disputes based on the past medical literature, and the knowledge of doctor-patient relationship as well as third-party mediation agency's organizational structure (including locations and management authorities), staffing, mediation basis, validity sources and fund ensuring. We performed the random cluster sampling survey on all health care workers in five hospitals of different levels. The original data were put into the computer for statistical analysis by SPSS 18.0. ResultsThe knowledge of health care workers on third-party mediation was high. They believed that the best place for solving medical disputes should be the court or judicial administrative department, and the management authorities should be health administrative departments. In case of mediation failure, the majority of health care staff chose to continue to solve the dispute through legal channels. For the effectiveness of mediation conclusion, most health care workers tended to believe in the form of arbitration. They thought that mediators should have professional background of medicine and law; the majority of those surveyed doctors tended to accept forensic conclusions as a basis for mediation. For determining the compensation, doctors were in favor of Applicable Regulations for Medical Malpractice. Over 40% of medical staff believed that third-party mediation should be financed by government financial allocation, and more than half of the medical staff believed that it should be paid by the insurance company. ConclusionThird-party mediation should be set in and managed by the court or judicial and administrative departments. Mediator group should be formed by professionals of law and medical sciences. In the mediation process, it is recommended that the focus of controversy should be identified by forensic identification in order to form a clear division of responsibilities and high mediation efficiency. We recommend that the government introduce in financial allocations at all levels on the basis of medical liability insurance system, and force medical institutions to purchase medical liability insurance through the regulations of law, in order to provide funding support for the operation of third-party mediation organizations. Meanwhile, medical liability insurance companies should be operated under strict supervision to avoid their interference on the mediation work.
Objective To evaluate the applicability of the cut-off points of different versions of the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) in the Chinese population and their consistency with the symptom control criteria of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), so as to provide strategies for cut-off point selection in clinical practice. Methods Based on baseline data from a multicenter prospective cohort study, asthma patients who completed pulmonary function tests, GINA symptom control assessments, and the ACQ-7 questionnaire were included. Taking the GINA symptom control level as the gold standard, the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC) was used to determine the optimal cut-off points of the ACQ for discriminating the GINA symptom control levels, and the consistency was analyzed by kappa statistics. Results Among 399 patients (58.9% female; mean age 44.5 ± 12.8 years), asthma symptom control, partial control, and uncontrolled rates were 61.7%, 27.6%, and 10.8%, respectively. ROC analysis revealed the following optimal cutoffs for identifying symptom control: ACQ-5 (0.5), ACQ-6Res (0.42), ACQ-6PFT (0.92), and ACQ-7 (0.93); for identifying uncontrolled symptoms: ACQ-5 (0.9), ACQ-6Res (1.08), ACQ-6PFT (1.42), and ACQ-7 (1.36). All corresponding areas under the ROC curve (AUC) exceeded 0.9. Consistency between ACQ and GINA symptom control levels was moderate (Fleiss’ κ = 0.453–0.531). Performance characteristics varied between traditional (0.75/1.5) and optimized cutoffs. After optimization, ACQ-5 emerged as the only version achieving balanced sensitivity-specificity (Youden index = 0.75) in dual tasks: ACQ-5 ≤ 0.5 demonstrated sensitivity (91%) and specificity (84%) for symptom control, while ACQ-5 ≥ 0.9 showed sensitivity (95%) and specificity (80%) for uncontrolled status. Conclusions Region-specific calibration of ACQ cutoffs enhances clinical utility in the Chinese population. A stratified application strategy is recommended: high-sensitivity cutoffs for initial screening to reduce underdiagnosis, high-specificity cutoffs for resource-constrained settings to minimize overtreatment, and optimized ACQ-5 cutoffs (≤0.5/≥0.9) for comprehensive management to balance sensitivity and specificity. Flexible combination of cutoff protocols tailored to screening objectives may optimize hierarchical asthma management.
ObjectiveTo know the fundamental status of painless digestive endoscopy in China. MethodsA 23-item survey including multiple choices and fill-in-the-blank questions on 3 pages was performed on anesthesiologists in China excluding Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong on www.xqnmz.com and www.dxy.cn/bbs from November 1 to December 31, 2013, among which 5 questions were on personal details, 9 on hospital and department, and 9 on clinic details. The results about the basic facts, risk factors of anesthesia and drug use and monitoring of painless digestive endoscopy in China were analyzed. ResultsA total of 726 questionnaires were collected, among which 667 (91.87%) were considered valid. Interviewed hospitals included hospitals from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions excluding Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong. Thirty questionnaires were from the first-grade hospitals (4.5%), 292 from the second-grade (43.78%), and 345 from the third-grade (51.72%). And 69.12% of the questionnaires showed these hospitals could only carry out painless gastroscopy and/or colonoscopy, while 80.81% showed the number of the mean painless endoscopy cases was 0-30 per day; 47.23% of the respondents working in digestive endoscopy center had to complete the anesthesia procedure alone, and 35.83% of the respondents illustrated their digestive endoscopy centers had established the post anesthesia care unit; 62.97% were equipped with anesthesia apparatus or ventilator; 89.96% were equipped with tracheal intubation tool; and 21.44% were equipped with defibrillator. Among them, 25.79% did not prepare rescue medicines regularly in digestive endoscopy center. Propofol was the most frequently used anesthetic, and composited fentanyl was at the highest use rate for gastrointestinal endoscopy. Respondents who used electrocardiogram, non-invasive blood pressure and pulse oxygen saturation the least to monitor during painless gastroscopy and colonoscopy took up 43.48% and 46.08% respectively. ConclusionPainless digestive endoscopy needs further development and standardization with the regulation of related guidelines and standardized residents training.
Objective To explore the factors which influence the doctor-patient relationship and to provide evidence to help decision makers improve hospital management and construct a harmonious doctor-patient relationship. Methods Discharged patients of West China Hospital from 2003-2006 were randomly selected and asked to complete a specially designed questionnaire. Results In total, 8 000 questionnaires were distributed and 2 526 were returned. The retrieval rate was 31.57%. The responses showed that non-medical factors have became the main factors affecting the doctor-patient relationship (91.8%). Other important factors included medical cost (21.5%) and doctor-patient communication (11.51%). Conclusion We should boost hospital management level, train non-medical staff, save costs and improve doctor-patient communication.
Objective To investigate the current status of management and operation in the public hospital pharmacies, and to provide the evidence and suggestions for improving the performance of the public hospital pharmacies. Method According to the principles and methods of business diagnosis, we designed the questionnaire to investigate the ideas of management and operation among 306 managers and pharmacists working in 74 public hospital pharmacies. We used percentage and proportion for statistical description. Result (1) Over 70% participants understood the strategic positioning, brand and development of hospital pharmacy. They had very b senses of innovation and risk awareness, and the comprehensive understanding to the risk and competitive factors. (2) Over 60% considered that the public pharmacies lacked in the awareness of the market competition and crisis, clear management plans as well as the active adaptation to market changes. They were also short of professional dedication and innovation capacity. (3) 52% thought that there was promising future of the public hospital pharmacies. Conclusion The public hospital pharmacies urgently needs the improvement and innovation of the management idea and models.
Objective To understand the attitude of xinjiang medical workers towards national essential drugs and the requirements and suggestions about training, so as to provide necessary baseline information for spreading the application of Essential Medicine List (EML) in Xinjiang. Methods A questionnaire designed by Chinese Evidence-Based Medical Center was distributed for a face-to-face survey. The data were double-input by EpiData 3.1 with double checks, and statistically analyzed by EXCEL with constituent ratio as the statistical index. Results A total of 80 questionnaires were distributed and then retrieved with 100% recovery rate. Respondents employed in six public hospitals at or above the county level and in six community health service centers as well. a) The accuracy of 80 respondents about the basic concepts of essential drugs, serviceable range of EML, and the relationship between EML and basic medicare drug list were 72.6%, 89.5% and 17.8%, respectively; b) 33.8% (27) of the respondents always firstly considered using the essential medicine in their prescription, and 22.5% (18) of the respondents considered using essential drugs in most cases; c) EML were welcome loy 35% (28) of the respondents; d) The problems of practicing EML issued by respondents were the following in order: doctors’ awareness of essential drugs and prescribing habit of doctors, the safety and effectiveness of essential drugs, lower income, patients’ awareness of essential drugs and preference to medication, and the applicability of the essential medicine list; e) The main approaches to getting information about essential drugs were academic seminars (37 person-time, 46.2%), professional journals (27 person-time, 33.8%) and documents (25 person-time, 31.2%); f) There were 46 respondents who had participated in EML training once or twice; g) The total EML training or learning time of 34 respondents (42.5%) was less than one week; and h) Respondents suggested that, the training objects should be medical personnel, pharmacists and administrators; the training contents should be rational drug use, formularies and the use of essential drugs, drug policy, and the effectiveness of integration of the traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine; the training methods should be theoretical teaching and online learning; and the training place should be hospitals, homes or offices. Conclusion It is extremely urgent to improve doctors’ awareness of EML and strengthen the training of usage, and to conduct the research on EML applicability and effectiveness evaluation, financial subsidies, medical staff income, purchase and reimbursement problems.
Objective To investigate the feedback of continuing medical education (CME) based on short message service (SMS) for village doctors in Gaolan County of Gansu Province, and to explore how to improve the efficiency of CME based on SMS. Methods A total of 75 village doctors were investigated with a questionnaire when attending the training program conducted by the Health Bureau of Gaolan County. Results A total of 75 valid questionnaires were collected back. The statistical analyses showed that 56% of the doctors received the majority of the messages sent to them, of whom, 98% could read the messages promptly, 81% saved the majority of the messages they received, 98% could read the saved massages occasionally, 25% transmitted messages to others, 93% thought that the messages might be helpful in varying degrees, 96% would like to continue receiving the messages in the future, 51% thought the biggest shortcoming of the messages was the poor relevance to their concern, and 70% wanted the most to receive short messages about clinical diagnosis and treatment. At present, 39% of the doctors thought the most convenient approaches to get the updated medical knowledge are attending the study or training program organized by higher authorities, while 37% thought those are reading short messages on the mobile, websites or papers. Conclusion The village doctors are willing to receive the short messages about the best clinical evidence. However, both the receiving rate and use rate of the short messages have yet to improve. A complete SMS transmission system and highly-relevant contents are regarded as important guarantees for improving the receiving rate and use rate.
Objective To investigate the use of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and barriers to applying EBM in clinical practice in medical postgraduates. Methods Three hundred and sixty-five first and second-year medical postgraduates selecting the EBM courses were included. All the students were surveyed by questionnaires. Result The response rate to the survey was 100%. About half of the students read 1~5 professional articles per month before postgraduate study. Fifty-six percent of the students used professional literature and research findings when making clinical decisions. Fifty-seven point three percent used electronic databases to search for practice-relevant literature before postgraduate study. Sixty-one point four percent found it difficult to obtain relevant clinical guidelines and 68.5% never applied relevant clinical guidelines in clinical decision-making. The barriers to using EBM in clinical practice included difficulties in searching and accessing full text of potentially relevant articles, lack of EBM knowledge, influences from clinical experience and authorities, uncertainties about the quality of evidence and time-consuming. Conclusion EBM clinical practice and EBM medical education has transformed from dissemination and popularization stage to skill acquisition stage.