Going digital: a narrative overview of the clinical and organisational impacts of eHealth technologies in hospital practice.

Objective The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of hospital-based eHealth technologies on quality, safety and efficiency of care and clinical outcomes. Methods Systematic reviews and reviews of systematic reviews of eHealth technologies published in PubMed/Medline/Cochrane Library between January 2010 and October 2015 were evaluated. Reviews of implementation issues, non-hospital settings or remote care or patient-focused technologies were excluded from analysis. Methodological quality was assessed using a validated appraisal tool. Outcome measures were benefits and harms relating to electronic medical records (EMRs), computerised physician order entry (CPOE), electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) and computerised decision support systems (CDSS). Results are presented as a narrative overview given marked study heterogeneity. Results Nineteen systematic reviews and two reviews of systematic reviews were included from 1197 abstracts, nine rated as high quality. For EMR functions, there was moderate-quality evidence of reduced hospitalisations and length of stay and low-quality evidence of improved organisational efficiency, greater accuracy of information and reduced documentation and process turnaround times. For CPOE functions, there was moderate-quality evidence of reductions in turnaround times and resource utilisation. For ePrescribing, there was moderate-quality evidence of substantially fewer medications errors and adverse drug events, greater guideline adherence, improved disease control and decreased dispensing turnaround times. For CDSS, there was moderate-quality evidence of increased use of preventive care and drug interaction reminders and alerts, increased use of diagnostic aids, more appropriate test ordering with fewer tests per patient, greater guideline adherence, improved processes of care and less disease morbidity. There was conflicting evidence regarding effects on in-patient mortality and overall costs. Reported harms were alert fatigue, increased technology interaction time, creation of disruptive workarounds and new prescribing errors. Conclusion eHealth technologies in hospital settings appear to improve efficiency and appropriateness of care, prescribing safety and disease control. Effects on mortality, readmissions, total costs and patient and provider experience remain uncertain. What is known about the topic? Healthcare systems internationally are undertaking large-scale digitisation programs with hospitals being a major focus. Although predictive analyses suggest that eHealth technologies have the potential to markedly transform health care delivery, contemporary peer-reviewed research evidence detailing their benefits and harms is limited. What does this paper add? This narrative overview of 19 systematic reviews and two reviews of systematic reviews published over the past 5 years provides a summary of cumulative evidence of clinical and organisational effects of contemporary eHealth technologies in hospital practice. EMRs have the potential to increase accuracy and completeness of clinical information, reduce documentation time and enhance information transfer and organisational efficiency. CPOE appears to improve laboratory turnaround times and decrease resource utilisation. ePrescribing significantly reduces medication errors and adverse drug events. CDSS, especially those used at the point of care and integrated into workflows, attract the strongest evidence for substantially increasing clinician adherence to guidelines, appropriateness of disease and treatment monitoring and optimal medication use. Evidence of effects of eHealth technologies on discrete clinical outcomes, such as morbid events, mortality and readmissions, is currently limited and conflicting. What are the implications for practitioners? eHealth technologies confer benefits in improving quality and safety of care with little evidence of major hazards. Whether EMRs and CPOE can affect clinical outcomes or overall costs in the absence of auxiliary support systems, such as ePrescribing and CDSS, remains unclear. eHealth technologies are evolving rapidly and the evidence base used to inform clinician and managerial decisions to invest in these technologies must be updated continually. More rigorous field research using appropriate evaluation methods is needed to better define real-world benefits and harms. Customisation of eHealth applications to the context of patient-centred care and management of highly complex patients with multimorbidity will be an ongoing challenge.

Ovarian malignancy unmasked by venous gangrene in a patient on warfarin therapy: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Venous gangrene complicating deep vein thrombosis in the context of anticoagulation use in patients with gynecologic malignancy is rarely reported. We report an unusual presentation of venous gangrene of the lower limbs associated with warfarin therapy in a 53-year-old woman from the Cook Islands with an occult ovarian cancer. CASE PRESENTATION: A 53-year-old woman of Cook Islands origin presented with exertional dyspnea, rapid atrial fibrillation, bilateral lower limb edema, and painful digital ischemia of her hallux. She was on warfarin therapy for atrial fibrillation and had a stable therapeutic international normalized ratio. Bilateral proximal lower limb deep vein thrombosis and digital gangrene subsequently developed in the setting of a supratherapeutic international normalized ratio and platelet count depletion. Her warfarin was reversed and heparin therapy was commenced with resulting correction of her thrombocytopenia. CONCLUSIONS: We would like to attract the attention of the reader to the potential hazard of the use of warfarin in patients with malignancy. In our case, we also demonstrated a predictive value of supratherapeutic international normalized ratio and platelet count depletion that could herald massive thrombosis and gangrene in a patient who was previously stable on warfarin therapy. Early recognition and prompt reversal of warfarin in these circumstances is essential to correct the unbalanced prothrombotic process that leads to extensive thrombosis and gangrene. The outlook of such cases remains dismal and results in extensive morbidity and mortality.

Hydralazine-induced anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-positive renal vasculitis presenting with a vasculitic syndrome, acute nephritis and a puzzling skin rash: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis has been associated with many drugs and it is a relatively rare side effect of the antihypertensive drug hydralazine. The diagnosis and management of patients who have anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis may be challenging because of its relative infrequency, variability of clinical expression and changing nomenclature. The spectrum of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis is wide and can be fatal. This case documents a 62-year-old woman who presented with hydralazine-induced anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-positive renal vasculitis with a puzzling cutaneous rash. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a rare case of hydralazine-induced anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis in a 62-year-old Caucasian woman who presented with a vasculitic syndrome with a sore throat, mouth ulcers and otalgia after several months of constitutional symptoms. She then proceeded to develop a rash over her right lower limb. Clinically, the rash had features to suggest Sweet's syndrome, but also had some appearances consistent with embolic phenomena and did not have the appearance of palpable purpure usually associated with cutaneous vasculitis. Differential diagnoses were hydralazine-associated Sweet's syndrome, streptococcal-induced cutaneous eruption or an unrelated contact dermatitis. A midstream urine sample detected glomerular blood cells in the setting of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-positive renal vasculitis and Streptococcus pyogenes bacteremia. A renal biopsy revealed a pauci-immune, focally necrotizing glomerulonephritis with small crescents. Her skin biopsy revealed a heavy neutrophil infiltrate involving the full thickness of the dermis with no evidence of a leucocytoclastic vasculitis, but was non-specific. She was initially commenced on intravenous lincomycin for her bloodstream infection and subsequently commenced on immunosuppression after cessation of hydralazine. The patient was subsequently discharged from hospital after a rapid clinical improvement. CONCLUSION: Hydralazine-induced anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-positive renal vasculitis is a rare adverse effect and can present with a severe vasculitic syndrome with multiple organ involvement. Features of this association include the presence of high titres of anti-myeloperoxidase-anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody with multi-antigenicity, positive anti-histone antibodies and the lack of immunoglobulin and complement deposition histopathogically. A rash that is characteristic of Sweet's syndrome has also been described as an association. Prompt cessation of hydralazine may be sufficient to reverse disease activity but immunosuppression may be needed for definite treatment.