Clinical factors associated with smoking cessation among smokers with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease by sex: Longitudinal analyses from French smoking cessation services.

Background: Smoking is responsible for 80 % of cases of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), while the prognosis is improved by smoking cessation (SC). We examined clinical factors associated with SC among smokers with COPD comparing women and men. Methods: The study comprised a cohort of 1470 smokers who visited a SC service and completed at least 28-day of follow-up visits. The outcome was smoking status at follow-up (abstinence, reduction, no change). Abstinence was defined as continuous abstinence for at least 28 days, validated by the measurement of expired Carbon Monoxide. Reduction was defined as a halving of the baseline tobacco consumption. Results: The average age of the population was 53 (±11) years and 58.2 % were women. Men were 2 years younger than women and consulted more likely after a hospital contact, whereas women consulted on their own initiative. Women more often had a depression history, whereas men had medical comorbidities and co-addictions. There was no significant difference by sex regarding the abstinence rate (41.0 % in women vs 40.7 in men, p > 0.9). The factors significantly associated with higher abstinence rates in both sexes were: at least one previous quit attempt and number of follow-up visits ≥4. The factors negatively associated with quitting in women were diabetes, intake of mood stabilizers and consuming more than 10 cigarettes per day while having a chronic bronchitis, taking antidepressants and having consumed cannabis in the last 30 days hampered SC in men. Conclusions: Concerning factors associated with SC, few differences were found between female and male smokers suffering from COPD. However, due to the different medical and smoking behavior characteristics according to sex, it might be important to take these differences into account in order to provide tailored SC management.

Cardiovascular Risk Among Patients Who Smoke: Risk Profiles and Differences by Sex.

INTRODUCTION: Smoking is particularly harmful to the cardiovascular system, and smoking-cessation is a key target for cardiovascular prevention. From a large nationwide database on subjects who visited smoking-cessation services, this study assessed the profile and abstinence rate comparing female with male smokers at high cardiovascular risk. METHODS: This was an observational study from the French smoking-cessation services cohort (French national cohort Consultations de Dépendance Tabagique) between 2001 and 2018. Inclusion criteria were being aged ≥18 years and having ≥1 cardiovascular risk factor. Abstinence was self-reported (stopping cigarettes or other tobacco products use ≥28 consecutive days) and confirmed by exhaled carbon monoxide <10 parts per million. Analysis was conducted in 2021. RESULTS: Among 36,864 people who smoke, 15,407 (42%) were women. Women were 3 years younger (48 vs 51 years, p<0.001) and more educated (≥high school diploma: 54% vs 45%, p<0.001) than men. The burden of cardiovascular risk factors was slightly lower in women than in men and, for hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, were half as frequent in women as they were in men (16% vs 32%, p<0.001). However, women suffered more often from obesity, respiratory diseases, and anxiety‒depression symptoms (53% vs 39%, p<0.001). Finally, although women were less nicotine dependent, their abstinence rate was slightly lower (52.6% vs 55.2%, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Women who smoked had a high burden of risk factors, especially obesity and elevated rates of lung diseases, and a lower abstinence rate, with more common anxiety‒depression symptoms. Men who smoked had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease, higher nicotine dependence, and coaddictions. These findings highlight the need to strengthen cardiovascular prevention strategies through comprehensive sex-tailored smoking-cessation interventions.

Predictors of Smoking Cessation Attempt and Continued Abstinence among Low-Income Disabled Smokers: Evidence from the French National Smoking Cessation Cohort CDT-Net.

Background: In France, daily smoking has been highly prevalent among low-income smokers.Objectives: Our aim was to search for factors associated with both continued abstinence and attempting to quit among low-income disabled smokers. Methods: From the French national smoking cessation cohort CDT-net, we included 1624 adults living with disability pension or disabled adult allowance. Our dependent variables (abstainers, attempting to quit among non-abstainers) were used in logistic regressions. Continued abstinence was defined as self-reports of no smoking for more than 28 days and attempting to quit was defined as self-reports of no smoking for less than 28 days; both validated with carbon monoxide < 10 ppm. Results: The average age was 48.5 years, with a predominance of men (55.5%). Achieved continued abstinence was 29.9% and was positively associated with age ≥ 55, history of previous attempts, low-dependence, and number of consultations during follow-up (all p < .05). Depression history, anxiety symptoms and cannabis use were negatively associated with continued abstinence (p < .05). Quit attempts were associated with lower dependence and number of consultations during follow-up. Pharmacological treatments prescribed at inception did not contribute to improve continued abstinence rates but varenicline was found to increase quit attempts unless the number of prescriptions was scarce. Conclusion: Even among low-income disabled smokers, achieving continued abstinence and attempting to quit could be promoted with similar predictors than among affluent smokers. Treatment of anxiety symptoms and specific support for smokers with a depression history could be included in the follow-up of quit attempts.

Integration of a Commercial Barcode-Assisted Medication Dispensing System in a Teaching Hospital.

OBJECTIVES: A commercial barcode-assisted medication administration (BCMA) system was integrated to secure the medication process and particularly the dispensing stage by technicians and the administration stage with nurses. We aimed to assess the impact of this system on medication dispensing errors and barriers encountered during integration process. METHODS: We conducted a controlled randomized study in a teaching hospital, during dispensing process at the pharmacy department. Four wards were randomized in the experimental group and control group, with two wards using the system during 3 days with dedicated pharmacy technicians. The system was a closed loop system without information return to the computerized physician order entry system. The two dedicated technicians had a 1-week training session. Observations were performed by one observer among the four potential observers previously trained. The main outcomes assessed were dispensing error rates and the identification of barriers encountered to expose lessons learned from this study. RESULTS: There was no difference between the dispensing error rate of the control and experimental groups (7.9% for both, p = 0.927). We identified 10 barriers to pharmacy barcode-assisted system technology deployment. They concerned technical (problems with semantic interoperability interfaces, bad user interface, false errors generated, lack of barcodes), structural (poor integration with local information technology), work force (short staff training period, insufficient workforce), and strategic issues (system performance problems, insufficient budget). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the difficulties encountered in integrating a commercial system in current hospital information systems. Several issues need to be taken into consideration before the integration of a commercial barcode-assisted system in a teaching hospital. In our experience, interoperability of this system with the electronic health record is the key for the success of this process with an entire closed loop system from prescription to administration. BCMA system at the dispensing process remains essential to purchase securing medication administration process.

Prevalence of computerized physician order entry systems-related medication prescription errors: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: The positive impact of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems on prescription safety must be considered in light of the persistence of certain types of medication-prescription errors. We performed a systematic review, based on the PRISMA statement, to analyze the prevalence of prescription errors related to the use of CPOE systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, DBLP, the International Clinical Trials Registry, the ISI Web of Science, and reference lists of relevant articles from March 1982 to August 2017. We included original peer-reviewed studies which quantitatively reported medication-prescription errors related to CPOE. We analyzed the prevalence of medication-prescription errors according to an adapted version of the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) taxonomy and assessed the mechanisms responsible for each type of prescription error due to CPOE. RESULTS: Fourteen studies were included. The prevalence of CPOE systems-related medication errors relative to all prescription medication errors ranged from 6.1 to 77.7% (median = 26.1% [IQR:17.6-42,1]) and was less than 6.3% relative to the number of prescriptions reviewed. All studies reported "wrong dose" and "wrong drug" errors. The "wrong dose" error was the most frequently reported (from 7 to 67.4%, median = 31.5% [IQR:20.5-44.5]). We report the associated mechanism for each type of medication described (those due to CPOE or those occurring despite CPOE). DISCUSSION: We observed very heterogeneous results, probably due to the definition of error, the type of health information system used for the study, and the data collection method used. Each data collection method provides valuable and useful information concerning the prevalence and specific types of errors related to CPOE systems. CONCLUSIONS: The reporting of prescription errors should be continued because the weaknesses of CPOE systems are potential sources of error. Analysis of the mechanisms behind CPOE errors can reveal areas for improvement.

A Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) layer implemented over i2b2.

BACKGROUND: Standards and technical specifications have been developed to define how the information contained in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) should be structured, semantically described, and communicated. Current trends rely on differentiating the representation of data instances from the definition of clinical information models. The dual model approach, which combines a reference model (RM) and a clinical information model (CIM), sets in practice this software design pattern. The most recent initiative, proposed by HL7, is called Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR). The aim of our study was to investigate the feasibility of applying the FHIR standard to modeling and exposing EHR data of the Georges Pompidou European Hospital (HEGP) integrating biology and the bedside (i2b2) clinical data warehouse (CDW). RESULTS: We implemented a FHIR server over i2b2 to expose EHR data in relation with five FHIR resources: DiagnosisReport, MedicationOrder, Patient, Encounter, and Medication. The architecture of the server combines a Data Access Object design pattern and FHIR resource providers, implemented using the Java HAPI FHIR API. Two types of queries were tested: query type #1 requests the server to display DiagnosticReport resources, for which the diagnosis code is equal to a given ICD-10 code. A total of 80 DiagnosticReport resources, corresponding to 36 patients, were displayed. Query type #2, requests the server to display MedicationOrder, for which the FHIR Medication identification code is equal to a given code expressed in a French coding system. A total of 503 MedicationOrder resources, corresponding to 290 patients, were displayed. Results were validated by manually comparing the results of each request to the results displayed by an ad-hoc SQL query. CONCLUSION: We showed the feasibility of implementing a Java layer over the i2b2 database model to expose data of the CDW as a set of FHIR resources. An important part of this work was the structural and semantic mapping between the i2b2 model and the FHIR RM. To accomplish this, developers must manually browse the specifications of the FHIR standard. Our source code is freely available and can be adapted for use in other i2b2 sites.

French smoking cessation services provide effective support even to the more dependent.

OBJECTIVE: France is one the few European countries offering a national quit line along with partially cost-covered nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and cessation services. This study assesses outcomes and predictors of continued abstinence in French smoking cessation services. METHOD: The French national smoking cessation registry (CDTnet) included 23,810 adult smokers followed-up between 2011 and 2013. We assessed 1-month continued abstinence among 10,161 who initiated a quit attempt before or during follow-up. Predictors of abstinence were determined using multivariable regression model. RESULTS: Among quitters, 45.2% achieved CO-validated abstinence. Prescription of pharmacotherapy was associated with abstinence rates as high as 47% for combination NRT and 53% for varenicline. The effect of behavioural support associated with combination NRT versus behavioural support alone increased with attendance: OR 1.11 (95% CI 0.89-1.39) for 2-3 visits, OR 1.43 (95% CI 1.13-1.80) for 4-6 visits, OR 1.60 (95% CI 1.21-2.12) for ≥7 visits. Unemployed participants were as likely to be successful as participants in employment (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.75-1.04). High cigarette dependence also did not significantly hinder abstinence. Young adults achieved the lowest abstinence rates. Predictors that significantly reduced odds of abstinence were: being aged 18 to 24 and a history of alcohol abuse. CONCLUSION: With adapted treatment, even the more dependent or less affluent maintained abstinence. Our findings suggest that French cessation services have been successful in providing cessation support. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement in tailoring treatment for some subgroups of smokers.

Using a snowflake data model and autocompletion to support diagnostic coding in acute care hospitals.

PURPOSE: Efficient and adequate coding is essential for all hospitals to optimize funding, follow activity, and perform epidemiological studies. OBJECTIVE: We propose an autocompletion method for optimizing diagnostic coding in acute care hospitals. METHODS: Using a terminology snowflake model integrating SNOMED 3.5 and ICD-10 codes, autocompletion algorithms generate a list of diagnostic expressions from partial input concepts. RESULTS: A general autocompletion component has been developed and tested on a set of inpatient summary reports. Concepts expressed as strings of three or four characters return a noisy list of diagnostic labels or codes. Concepts expressed as groups of strings return lists that are semantically close to the labels present in hospital reports. The most pertinent information lies in the length of the expressions entered. CONCLUSION: Autocompletion can be a complementary tool to existing coding support systems.

Evaluation of Internet Social Networks using Net scoring Tool: A Case Study in Adverse Drug Reaction Mining.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Suspected adverse drug reactions (ADR) reported by patients through social media can be a complementary tool to already existing ADRs signal detection processes. However, several studies have shown that the quality of medical information published online varies drastically whatever the health topic addressed. The aim of this study is to use an existing rating tool on a set of social network web sites in order to assess the capabilities of these tools to guide experts for selecting the most adapted social network web site to mine ADRs. METHODS: First, we reviewed and rated 132 Internet forums and social networks according to three major criteria: the number of visits, the notoriety of the forum and the number of messages posted in relation with health and drug therapy. Second, the pharmacist reviewed the topic-oriented message boards with a small number of drug names to ensure that they were not off topic. Six experts have been chosen to assess the selected internet forums using a French scoring tool: Net scoring. Three different scores and the agreement between experts according to each set of scores using weighted kappa pooled using mean have been computed. RESULTS: Three internet forums were chosen at the end of the selection step. Some criteria get high score (scores 3-4) no matter the website evaluated like accessibility (45-46) or design (34-36), at the opposite some criteria always have bad scores like quantitative (40-42) and ethical aspect (43-44), hyperlinks actualization (30-33). Kappa were positives but very small which corresponds to a weak agreement between experts. CONCLUSION: The personal opinion of the expert seems to have a major impact, undermining the relevance of the criterion. Our future work is to collect results given by this evaluation grid and proposes a new scoring tool for Internet social networks assessment.

A simulation study of the interception of prescribing errors by clinical pharmacists in an acute hospital setting.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the performance of several pharmacists in the same department who analysed the same prescriptions in a simulation study. METHODS: One hundred prescriptions were retrospectively extracted from the prospective database of our hospital. Five clinical pharmacists working in the same department were asked to analyse individually the order lines of each prescription as if it were part of their routine daily practice. Afterward, an independent committee of five other clinical pharmacists reviewed the same 100 prescriptions. We calculated the sensitivity and the specificity of error detection in a line order by using the results of the committee as the gold standard. RESULTS: A total of 908 order lines were analysed (mean 9 ± 3 order lines per prescription). Fifty-one medication errors were identified by the committee (5.6%), including 23 related to laboratory test results: renal failure, or therapeutic concentrations being too low or too high. The sensitivity of the five pharmacists ranged between 19.6% and 56.9% and the specificity between 92.8% and 98.7%. The rates of agreement between each pharmacist and the committee, assessed using kappa coefficient, were between 0.20 and 0.39. The main factors affecting sensitivity and/or specificity in univariate analysis were the number of drugs per prescription, type of drug prescribed (ATC classification) and the glomerular filtration rate. CONCLUSION: Discrepancies between the performances of pharmacists exist, as there are between other health care professionals. Pharmacist training, standardization of the pharmaceutical analysis of drug prescription, and implementation of a clinical decision support system allowing biological values to be linked to drug prescriptions could improve individual performance.

Pharmaceutical validation of medication orders using an OWL Ontology and Business Rules.

In this paper we present an application of pharmaceutical validation of medication based on an OWL ontology and business rules or more specifically clinical decision rules. This application has been developed based on a prototype that enables business users to author, execute and manage their Business Rules over OWL Ontology. This prototype is based on the Business Rule Management System (BRMS) IBM WebSphere ILOG JRules.

A clinical data warehouse-based process for refining medication orders alerts.

The objective of this case report is to evaluate the use of a clinical data warehouse coupled with a clinical information system to test and refine alerts for medication orders control before they were fully implemented. A clinical decision rule refinement process was used to assess alerts. The criteria assessed were the frequencies of alerts for initial prescriptions of 10 medications whose dosage levels depend on renal function thresholds. In the first iteration of the process, the frequency of the 'exceeds maximum daily dose' alerts was 7.10% (617/8692), while that of the 'under dose' alerts was 3.14% (273/8692). Indicators were presented to the experts. During the different iterations of the process, 45 (16.07%) decision rules were removed, 105 (37.5%) were changed and 136 new rules were introduced. Extensive retrospective analysis of physicians' medication orders stored in a clinical data warehouse facilitates alert optimization toward the goal of maximizing the safety of the patient and minimizing overridden alerts.

Specification of business rules for the development of hospital alarm system: application to the pharmaceutical validation.

Although clinical alarm systems are part of the knowledge management setting within healthcare organisations, modelling of business processes related to decision support and knowledge representation of decision rules are seldom described. We propose a customization of the Unified Process that takes into account user requirements for clinical alarm systems by introducing the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR). This methodology was applied to the design and implementation of a clinical alarm system for pharmaceutical validation at the European Hospital Georges Pompidou (HEGP). Rules were implemented using the IlogJRules Business Rule Management System. We produced 3 business rules patterns and 427 instances of rules. As SBVR is close to natural language, pharmacists were able to understand rules and participate to their design.