Showing papers by "Joan Escarrabill published in 2017"

Attitudes and preferences of home mechanical ventilation users from four European countries: an ERS/ELF survey.

Abstract: Home mechanical ventilation is increasingly used by people with chronic respiratory failure. However, there are few reports on attitudes towards treatment. A web-based survey in eight languages was disseminated across 11 European countries to evaluate the perception of home mechanical ventilation provision in ventilator-assisted individuals and caregivers. Out of 787 responders from 11 European countries, 687 were patients and 100 were caregivers. 95% of patients and 94% of caregivers were from only 4 countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain). The majority of respondents were male and aged 46–65 years. Obstructive lung diseases were proportionally more represented among respondent patients (46%), and neuromuscular diseases (65%) were more represented among patients of respondent caregivers. About 20% of respondent patients and caregivers were not sure of the modality of ventilation. Different interfaces were used, with a minority of respondents in all countries using invasive home mechanical ventilation by tracheostomy. These results may be useful for healthcare providers and policy makers to improve the quality of patients9 daily lives.

Characterization of the CPAP-treated patient population in Catalonia.

Abstract: There are different phenotypes of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), many of which have not been characterised. Identification of these different phenotypes is important in defining prognosis and guiding the therapeutic strategy. The aim of this study was to characterise the entire population of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)-treated patients in Catalonia and identify specific patient profiles using cluster analysis. A total of 72,217 CPAP-treated patients who contacted the Catalan Health System (CatSalut) during the years 2012 and 2013 were included. Six clusters were identified, classified as "Neoplastic patients" (Cluster 1, 10.4%), "Metabolic syndrome patients" (Cluster 2, 27.7%), "Asthmatic patients" (Cluster 3, 5.8%), "Musculoskeletal and joint disorder patients" (Cluster 4, 10.3%), "Patients with few comorbidities" (Cluster 5, 35.6%) and "Oldest and cardiac disease patients" (Cluster 6, 10.2%). Healthcare facility use and mortality were highest in patients from Cluster 1 and 6. Conversely, patients in Clusters 2 and 4 had low morbidity, mortality and healthcare resource use. Our findings highlight the heterogeneity of CPAP-treated patients, and suggest that OSA is associated with a different prognosis in the clusters identified. These results suggest the need for a comprehensive and individualised approach to CPAP treatment of OSA.

Protocol for regional implementation of community-based collaborative management of complex chronic patients

Abstract: Supported by CONNECARE (H2020-PHC-2015, Grant no. 689802), PITES (FIS-PI15/00576), SELFIE (H2020, Grant no. 634288), and NEXTCARE (RIS3CAT), Generalitat de Catalunya (2014SGR661), and CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya

Health consensus: a digital adapted Delphi for healthcare

Abstract: New tools are needed to facilitate the involvement of health professionals in healthcare participative processes, partially because a relevant segment of healthcare knowledge and decision-making is capillary distributed among them. A collaborative design strategy has been applied to the creation of an Internet tool to produce digitally adapted Delphi for healthcare purposes. During the period 2012-16 the prototype of the tool has been gradually improved through its application to 18 real cases. It is proposed the model Health Consensus as a digitally adapted Delphi supported by the various capabilities of Internet. The authors agree that Health Consensus is a useful and expandable tool for participative processes. The Internet provides several opportunities to overcome many of the limitations of conventional Delphi, as well as improving the final studies with new functionalities.

Population-based analysis of COPD patients in Catalonia: implications for case management

Abstract: Rationale: Despite substantial progresses on standard of care recommendations, management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary (COPD) patients show potential for improvement provided that patients’ heterogeneities are better understood. Objectives: To perform a population-based analysis of the COPD patients in Catalonia (ES) (7,5 M citizens) aiming at exploring the potential of the health registry information to enhance risk assessment and stratification in the clinical arena. Methods: The characteristics of 264,830 COPD cases registered in 2014 in the Health Surveillance System were assessed. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to elaborate predictive models for four health indicators: (i) mortality, (ii) unplanned hospitalizations (all and COPD-related hospitalizations), (iii) multiple exacerbators, and, (iv) high users of healthcare resources. No clinical, nor forced spirometry data were available. Main Results: Multimorbidity, expressed by GMA (adjusted morbidity groups) scoring, was the covariate with highest impact in the four predictive models. This score explained a substantial percentage of interindividual variability (AUC): (i) mortality (0.763); (ii) unplanned hospitalizations (0.829); (iii) multiple exacerbators (0.766); and, (iv) higher use of healthcare resources (0.803). Patients above the 85 percentile in terms of healthcare costs per year represented 59% of the overall costs of COPD patients. Conclusions: The predictive models stress the explanatory role of the covariate multimorbidity. The results highly encourage further developments fostering interoperability between health registries and electronic health records to enhance clinical risk prediction.