Translating a Clinical Practice Guideline to a Portuguese, Spanish and English Practice Brief to promote exercise therapy for paediatric Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

BACKGROUND: Implementing scientific knowledge in clinical practice is a challenge. In this context, the effective dissemination of scientific findings is of utmost importance. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a Practice Brief in Portuguese, Spanish and English based on a previously published Clinical Practice Guideline to promote safe and effective exercise for children and young people with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and related neuropathies (CMT). METHODS: The Practice Brief was developed by eight health professionals from Brazil and Australia with English, Portuguese, and Spanish translations. The target audience chosen were the medical and allied health professionals involved in the rehabilitation of paediatric CMT. The content was based on the world first "Clinical Practice Guideline for the management of paediatric Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease" [1]. The layout of the Practice Brief was designed according to the criteria for the development of educational materials. The disclosure plan for the Practice Brief involves its publication on University and Hospital websites, www.ClinicalOutcomeMeasures.org and through social media platforms such as ResearchGate, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, as well as in print format for CMT patient care centres. RESULTS: The English, Portuguese and Spanish versions of the Practice Brief is organised into six sections about assessment, exercise and physical rehabilitation, of which one is focused on progressive resistance exercises for the foot dorsiflexor muscles. CONCLUSION: We developed a Practice Brief in three languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish), synthesising the main recommendations for exercise and related rehabilitative therapies for paediatric CMT from a published clinical guideline.

Evaluating the Standardization of Transitions of Care in a Texas-Mexico Border Academic Family Medicine Practice.

PURPOSE: This quality improvement project aimed to assess the elements of the current workflow process that meets requirements for transitions of care from a family medicine inpatient to outpatient service following the Transitional Care Management (TCM) program developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The purpose of the study was to assess the current family medicine workflow and determine whether the current process meets the criteria for billing and calculate the potential loss of reimbursement. METHODS: Interviews with key personnel, review of practice policies, and a retrospective chart review were performed for clinic patients discharged from the inpatient to outpatient family medicine service. RESULTS: A total of 37 patients met inclusion criteria for the chart review. Of these, 8% of patients seen at the outpatient clinic met all criteria for TCM. Potential reimbursement for those who met TCM criteria was $293.14 USD; the estimated potential TCM reimbursement for patients not meeting criteria was $1997.76 USD. CONCLUSION: Standardized, team-based TCM services have shown to decrease readmission rates for high-risk patient populations. Results from this project identified processes in place at the family medicine practice to facilitate the development of a standardized transitional care service which could meet both TCM and best practice models.