Designing an Informatics Infrastructure for a National Aged Care Medication Roundtable.

In the residential aged care sector medication management has been identified as a major area of concern contributing to poor outcomes and quality of life for residents. Monitoring medication management in residential aged care in Australia has been highly reliant on small, internal audits. The introduction of electronic medication administration systems provides new opportunities to establish improved methods for ongoing, timely and efficient monitoring of a range of medication indicators, made more meaningful by linking medication data with resident characteristics and outcomes. Benchmarking contemporary medication indicators provides a further opportunity for improvement and is most effective when indicator data are adjusted to take account of confounding factors, such as residents' characteristics and health conditions. Roundtables provide a structure for sharing and discussing indicator data in a trusted and supportive environment and encourage the identification of strategies which may be effective in improving medication management. This paper describes a new project to establish, implement and evaluate a National Aged Care Medication Roundtable.

[Kinetic and kinematic gait analysis of the back movement in chondrodystrophic breeds following hemilaminectomy in comparison to a healthy control population]. / Kinetische und Kinematische Gangbildanalyse der Rückenbewegung chondrodystropher Rassen nach Hemilaminektomie im Vergleich zu einer gesunden Population.

OBJECTIVE: To collect kinetic and kinematic data on the back movement in healthy dogs in comparison to chondrodystrophic dogs following hemilaminectomy while walking and trotting. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Gait analysis on the back movement was obtained from 19 healthy dogs and 21 chondrodystrophic dogs following hemilaminectomy procedure in consequence to disc herniation in the thoracic or lumbar region. RESULTS: In transverse and sagittal planes the group of surgically treated dogs showed a higher range of motion (ROM) throughout the spine while walking and trotting. The difference in back movement depended on the region of the hemilaminectomy (thoracic, thoracolumbar, or lumbar). Operated dogs showed a significantly higher weight distribution towards their front limbs. When comparing the weight distribution among the hind limbs, there was a decreased Peak Vertical Force (PVF) and Vertical Impulse (VI) on the side corresponding to the hemilaminectomy. CONCLUSIONS: Following hemilaminectomy, dogs displayed increased instability within their spine, which - depending on the region and side of the hemilaminectomy - affected the back movement in different ways. Weight bearing was generally shifted away from the hind limb of the affected side, and towards the front limbs. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Even though hemilaminectomy has an effect on the back movement of dogs, it seems not to have relevant influence of quality of life.