UNASSIGNED: An integrated care program for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Thailand has shown its effectiveness in delaying the decline in kidney function, as evidenced by the Effectiveness of Integrated Care on Delaying Progression of Stages 3 to 4 CKD in Rural Communities of Thailand (ESCORT-1) randomized control trial and the ESCORT-2 prospective cohort study. Designed for sustainability within the primary healthcare system, the program optimizes the use of the existing workforce by fostering collaboration among local multidisciplinary care teams (MDCTs) and community care networks (CCNs).
UNASSIGNED: A Markov model with a lifetime horizon was used to conduct a cost-utility analysis from a societal perspective. Individual participant level data from ESCORT studies, national registries, and relevant literature were used to estimate model parameters. A budget impact analysis from the payer\'s perspective was also assessed over a 5-year period.
UNASSIGNED: The integrated care program yielded a dominant result with 1.84 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained with \"less\" lifetime cost, resulting in a negative incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Probabilistic analysis showed that the intervention being cost-effective almost 100% of the time at the local willingness-to-pay threshold. The intervention maximized cost-effectiveness when delivered as early as possible, both in terms of age and stage. The budget impact analysis estimated that the introduction of the intervention could save about 7% of the Thai government\'s total health expenditure or 205 billion Thai-Baht ($5.9 billion) over 5 years with cost savings beginning from the third year onwards.
UNASSIGNED: The integrated care program for CKD offers potential benefits and cost savings for patients, caregivers, and payers. Future efforts should focus on the screening and implementation processes across various regions and healthcare settings.

UNASSIGNED: Recommendations state that multidisciplinary team expertise should be utilised for more accurate survival predictions. How the multidisciplinary team discusses prognoses during meetings and how they reference time, is yet to be explored.
UNASSIGNED: To explore how temporality is conveyed in relation to patients\' prognoses during hospice multidisciplinary team meetings.
UNASSIGNED: Video-recordings of 24 hospice multidisciplinary team meetings were transcribed and analysed using Conversation Analysis.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 65 staff participating in multidisciplinary team meetings in a UK hospice from May to December 2021.
UNASSIGNED: Team members conveyed temporality in three different ways. (i) Staff stated that a patient was dying as part of the patient\'s current health status. These formulations did not include a time reference per se but described the patient\'s current situation (as dying) instead. (ii) Staff used specific time period references where another specific reference had been provided previously that somehow constrained the timeframe. In these cases, the prognosis would conflict with other proposed care plans. (iii) Staff members used unspecific time period references where the reference appeared vague and there was greater uncertainty about when the patient was expected to die.
UNASSIGNED: Unspecific time period references are sufficient for achieving meaningful prognostic talk in multidisciplinary teams. In-depth discussion and accurate prediction of patient prognoses are not deemed a priority nor a necessity of these meetings. Providing precise predictions may be too difficult due to uncertainty and accountability. The lack of staff pursuing more specific time references implies shared knowledge between staff and a context-specific use of prognostic estimates.

Neonatal hypotonia presents with low muscle tone and an array of symptoms that vary depending on the etiology. The differential diagnosis for this condition is complex. It is crucial to exclude life-threatening causes before following a diagnostic algorithm and performing additional tests. Given the wide range of clinical symptoms and etiologies for neonatal hypotonia, rapid genetic testing has the potential to expedite diagnosis, reduce invasive testing such as muscle biopsy, reduce hospital stays, and guide condition management.  A four-week-old girl was admitted to the emergency department (ED) with a one-day history of lethargy, poor feeding, congestion, cough, and hypoxemia. Given positive rhino-enterovirus testing and high inflammatory markers, antibiotics were administered. Imaging, venous blood gas, and blood cultures were negative, and the patient was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for hypoxemia. After speech-language pathology (SLP) and occupational therapy (OT) evaluation, weak orofacial muscles and feeding issues resulted in a nasogastric tube placement. A swallow study revealed decreased pharyngeal contraction and post-swallow liquid residue. Laryngoscopy showed mild laryngomalacia and dysphagia with aspiration. Genetic testing identified an ACTA1 mutation and confirmed nemaline myopathy (NM). The patient\'s oxygen levels dropped further during sleep, resulting in diagnoses of severe obstructive and moderate-severe central sleep apnea. Treatment included oxygen therapy, SLP, physical therapy, albuterol, and cough assists. After discharge, the patient was frequently re-admitted with chronic respiratory failure and bronchiolitis and later had gastrostomy and tracheostomy tubes inserted.  This specific case highlights the importance of implementing a diagnostic algorithm for neonatal hypotonia. It is also important for physicians, especially emergency medicine (EM) providers, to first exclude infection, sepsis, and cardiac and respiratory organ failure before looking into other tests. Then, physicians should evaluate for more rare etiologies. In this patient\'s case, the hypotonia was due to a rare genetic disease, nemaline myopathy, and a multidisciplinary approach was used for this patient\'s care.

Metabolic-associated fatty-liver disease (MAFLD), previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, is the most widespread and emerging chronic liver disease worldwide, with increasing prevalence rates also in the Asia-Pacific region. The disease has a high socio-economic burden as it negatively impacts the finances and quality of life of individuals affected and has a major burden on healthcare systems. The most important pathological event in MAFLD aetiopathogenesis is oxidative stress, which leads to functional and structural abnormalities in the liver as well as being involved in the development of other concomitant cardiometabolic diseases. MAFLD is a rather complex multisystemic clinical condition involving liver damage and a wide spectrum of extrahepatic manifestations such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases. This complexity requires the cooperation of multiple experts to identify MAFLD at an early stage, treat associated comorbidities, and promptly refer the patient to the hepatologist when needed. This review summarizes the current knowledge about MAFLD and reports the opinion of a group of experts on the increasing prevalence and burden of the disease in the southeast Asia region, the current journey of patients with MAFLD in developing countries, the role of oxidative stress and antioxidant treatment, and the importance of a multidisciplinary approach for early diagnosis and disease management. This article is part of the Current clinical use of silymarin in the treatment of toxic liver diseases: a case series Special Issue: https://www.drugsincontext.com/special_issues/current-clinical-use-of-silymarin-in-the-treatment-of-toxic-liver-diseases-a-case-series.

Introduction The urology multidisciplinary team meeting (MDT) is the key weekly meeting that allows the opportunity to review results and discuss management plans for all urological cancers within a department. As populations age and cancer detection and management improve, the demand for the MDT will increase. We conducted a collaborative transregional study within the UK to evaluate the current workload on the urology MDT. Methods The study was divided into two parts: a multicenter retrospective audit and a snapshot survey. Three UK hospitals in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Cardiff were recruited into the multicenter study. Each hospital provided full MDT lists for all weekly meetings between August 2017 and 2022. Retrospective data gathered included the number of patients discussed per week, the average age of patients per week, the time allocated to their weekly MDT, and the total number of consultants in the department. The second part of the study involved the distribution of an online questionnaire to urologists across the UK to obtain a snapshot picture with the above parameters. Results Snapshot data from 34 different UK hospitals showed MDT length ranged from 1-6 hours, patients discussed ranged from 10-90 per week, and the maximum average discussion time was 3.8 minutes per case. Furthermore, 76% (N = 28/37) of respondents said unnecessary cases were discussed. Varied suggestions were provided on how the MDT could be improved. Multicenter five-year data showed a rise in mean total numbers of patients discussed per week in all centers: a 34.8% increase in Birmingham (from 34.5 patients to 46.5 patients), a 23.5% increase in Liverpool (27.2 patients to 33.6 patients), and a 38.8% increase in Cardiff (22.7 patients to 31.5 patients). Hours per meeting were Birmingham (2), Liverpool (3), and Cardiff (4), which meant the average minutes per patient discussion were Birmingham (2.6), Liverpool (5.4), and Cardiff (7.6). Conclusion There is a rapidly rising trend across UK regions for the number of patients being discussed in the urology MDT meeting. The MDT structure and function across the country are highly variable. There is consensus that the MDT discusses cases that are unnecessary, and this has been recognized for many years. Widespread implementation of the latest MDT management guidelines is urgently required to ensure MDT meetings are able to function effectively and efficiently into the future.

Chronic conditions can lead to physical, cognitive and social decline; thus, increasing an individual\'s dependence on family who assist with activities of daily living. Interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP), involving two or more health professionals working with the patient and their family, is one model of care for the high-quality management of individuals with chronic conditions in primary care. Nevertheless, family carers have reported a disconnect between themselves and healthcare providers in previous research. This study aimed to explore the experiences and perspectives of family carers for individuals with chronic conditions, regarding their involvement in IPCP.
Aspects of constructivist grounded theory methodology were used. Family carers of individuals with chronic conditions were invited to participate in a one-on-one, semistructured interview about their experiences with IPCP in the care of their loved one. Interview transcripts were analysed using Charmaz\'s four-step iterative process: (1) line-by-line coding, (2) focused coding, (3) categorisation of codes and (4) potential theme and subtheme development with memo writing to support each phase of analysis. The research team collaborated on reflexivity exercises, the conceptualisation of categories and the development of themes.
Constructivist data analysis of interviews (average 40 min) with 10 family carers resulted in two themes. (1) Stepping in for my loved one represents the notion that carers take on external roles on behalf of their loved ones (subthemes: working with interprofessional teams, supporting independence and learning as I go). (2) Taking on the carer role, represents the internal factors that influence the external roles described in theme 1 (subthemes: feeling obligated to be involved and changing relationship dynamics).
This study outlines the external actions and internal influences on family carer involvement in an interprofessional team. The required knowledge and support to care for their loved ones is currently learned in an ad hoc manner, and carers\' resources should be better promoted by health professionals. Additionally, the relationship dynamics between a carer and their loved one change as the carer becomes more involved in IPCP and influences how and the extent health professionals involve family carers.
Carers were the study population involved in this qualitative study. Patient advocates who have chronic conditions, and are informal family carers, were involved in the creation and design of this study, including a review of the research question, participant information sheet and the interview guide.

Objectives: To investigate the factors influencing clinical pharmacists\' integration into the clinical multidisciplinary care team, using interprofessional collaboration between clinical pharmacists and physicians as the focus. Methods: Through stratified random sampling, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among clinical pharmacists and physicians in secondary and tertiary hospitals in China from July to August 2022. The questionnaire, comprising the Physician-Pharmacist Collaborative Index (PPCI) scale to reflect the collaboration level and a combined scale to measure influencing factors, was made available in two versions for clinical pharmacists and physicians. Multiple linear regression was adopted to analyze the association between the collaboration level and influencing factors, as well as the heterogeneity of the significant factors in hospitals of different grades. Results: Valid self-reported data from 474 clinical pharmacists and 496 paired physicians were included, who were serving in 281 hospitals from 31 provinces. In terms of participant-related factors, standardized training and academic degree, respectively, exerted significant positive effects on the perceived collaboration level by clinical pharmacists and physicians. In terms of context characteristics, manager support and system construction were the main factors for improving collaboration. In terms of exchange characteristics, clinical pharmacists having good communication skills, physicians trusting others\' professional competence and values, and both parties having consistent expectations had significant positive effects on collaboration. Conclusion: The study provides a baseline data set on the current level and associated factors of clinical pharmacists\' collaboration with other professionals in China and other countries with a related health system, providing references for individuals, universities, hospitals, and national policymakers to facilitate the development of clinical pharmacy and multidisciplinary models and further improve the patient-centered integrated disease treatment system.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Healthy Aging Brain Care Monitor (HABC-M) as a patient-reported outcome tool to measure cognitive, functional, and psychological symptoms among older adults who sustained non-neurologic injuries requiring hospital admission.
We used data from a multicenter randomized controlled trial to evaluate the utility of the HABC-M Self-Report version in older patients recovering from traumatic injuries. A total of 143 patients without cognitive impairment were included in the analysis. Cronbach\'s alpha was used to measure the internal consistency, and Spearman\'s rank correlation test was used to evaluate the relationship of the HABC-M with standard measures of cognitive, functional, and psychological outcomes.
The HABC-M subscales and the total scale showed satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach\'s alpha = 0.64 to 0.77). The HABC-M cognitive subscale did not correlate with the Mini-Mental State Examination. The HABC-M functional and psychological subscales correlated with corresponding standard reference measures (|rs| = 0.24-0.59).
The HABC-M Self-Report version is a practical alternative to administering multiple surveys to monitor functional and psychological sequelae in older patients recovering from recent non-neurologic injuries. Its clinical application may facilitate personalized, multidisciplinary care coordination among older trauma survivors without cognitive impairment.

Severe thyrotoxicosis is an acute and life-threatening state of hyperthyroidism. While it is a rare presentation of hyperthyroidism, it is clinically significant because of its high mortality and necessitates early identification and treatment to reduce the incidence of poor outcomes. The most common causes of this hypermetabolic state are Graves\' disease, toxic thyroid adenoma or multinodular goiter, thyroiditis, iodine-induced hyperthyroidism, and excessive intake of levothyroxine. The less common causes include trauma, medications (i.e., amiodarone), discontinuation of anti-thyroid medications, and interactions with sympathomimetic medications such as ketamine that may be administered during general anesthesia. Regardless of etiology, thyrotoxicosis management should be coordinated using an interdisciplinary team-based approach to optimize outcomes. We discuss a molar pregnancy requiring emergency surgery as an uncommon cause of thyrotoxicosis and highlight appropriate management steps. The patient\'s symptoms resolved post-operatively, and her post-operative laboratory results (thyroid function and beta-human chorionic gonadotropin {β-hCG}) were followed until they normalized. The patient\'s preoperative presentation and preparation with a multidisciplinary team discussion, intraoperative anesthetic considerations and course, and post-operative management and follow-up are described.

The characteristics of health professionals and their understanding of person-centeredness may have important implications for the development of person-centered practice in specific care settings. In this study, we characterized the perceptions of the person-centered practice of a multidisciplinary team of health professionals working in the internal medicine inpatient unit of a Portuguese hospital. Data were collected using a brief sociodemographic and professional questionnaire and the person-centered practice inventory-staff (PCPI-S), and the effect of different sociodemographic and professional variables on each PCPI-S domain was determined using an analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that a person-centered practice was positively perceived in the major constructs of prerequisites (M = 4.12; SD = 0.36), the practice environment (M = 3.50; SD = 0.48), and person-centered process (M = 4.08; SD = 0.62) domains. The highest scored construct was developed interpersonal skills (M = 4.35; SD = 0.47), and the lowest was supportive organization systems (M = 3.08; SD = 0.80). Gender was found to influence the perceptions of knowing self (F(2,75) = 3.67, p = 0.03, partial η2 = 0.089) and the physical environment (F(2,75) = 3.63, p = 0.03, partial η2 = 0.088), as was profession on shared decision-making systems (F(2,75) = 5.38, p < 0.01, partial η2 = 0.125) and commitment to the job (F(2,75) = 5.27, p < 0.01, partial η2 = 0.123), and the educational level on being professionally competent (F(1,75) = 4.99, p = 0.03, partial η2 = 0.062) and having commitment to the job (F(2,75) = 4.49, p = 0.04, partial η2 = 0.056). In addition, the PCPI-S proved to be a reliable instrument for characterizing healthcare professionals\' perceptions of the person-centeredness of care in this context. Identifying personal and professional variables that influence these perceptions could provide a starting point for defining strategies to move practice toward person-centeredness and for monitoring changes in healthcare practice.