Interventions addressing routine childhood immunization and its behavioral and social drivers.

Introduction: Despite the advances in vaccination, there are still several challenges in reaching millions of children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In this review, we present an extensive summary of the various strategies used for improving routine immunization in LMICs to aid program implementers in designing vaccination interventions. Methods: Experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluations conducted in LMICs evaluating the effectiveness of interventions in improving routine immunization of children aged 0-5 years or the intermediate outcomes were included from 3ie's review of systematic reviews. Some additional impact evaluation studies published in recent years in select LMICs with large number of unvaccinated children were also included. Studies were coded to identify interventions and the barriers in the study context using the intervention framework developed in 3ie's Evidence Gap Map and the WHO's Behavioral and Social Drivers (BeSD) of vaccination framework, respectively. Qualitative analysis of the content was conducted to analyze the intervention strategies and the vaccination barriers that they addressed. Results and conclusion: One hundred and forty-two impact evaluations were included to summarize the interventions. To address attitudinal and knowledge related barriers to vaccination and to motivate caregivers, sensitization and educational programs, media campaigns, and monetary or non-monetary incentives to caregivers, that may or may not be conditional upon certain health behaviors, have been used across contexts. To improve knowledge of vaccination, its place, time, and schedule, automated voice messages and written or pictorial messages have been used as standalone or multicomponent strategies. Interventions used to improve service quality included training and education of health workers and providing monetary or non-monetary perks to them or sending reminders to them on different aspects of provision of vaccination services. Interventions like effective planning or outreach activities, follow-up of children, tracking of children that have missed vaccinations, pay-for-performance schemes and health system strengthening have also been used to improve service access and quality. Interventions aimed at mobilizing and collaborating with the community to impact social norms, attitudes, and empower communities to make health decisions have also been widely implemented.

Assessing the accreditation council for graduate medical education requirement for temporary cardiac pacing procedural competency through simulation.

PURPOSE: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) guidelines recommend that residents perform 6 cardiac pacing attempts during residency training, while making no distinction between transcutaneous pacing (TCP) or transvenous pacing (TVP). This study seeks to enhance and validate emergency medicine residency curricula by assessing and measuring the minimum number of performances for TCP and TVP through simulation for procedural competency. METHODS: In 2009-2010, 36 residents were invited to the simulation laboratory to participate in individual procedural training sessions. The residents each rotated through the 2 following partial-task training stations staffed by faculty members: (1) TVP and (2) TCP. Using the process of deliberate practice, the procedures were repeated until the faculty members had determined procedural competency defined as 2 completions without error via a preset checklist. RESULTS: Residents required a mean (SD) of 3.11 (0.56) attempts and a median of 3 attempts to successfully perform TCP and a mean (SD) of 5.25 (0.94) attempts and a median of 6 attempts to successfully perform TVP. Learners required a mean (SD) total number of 8.39 (1.09) attempts and a median of 9 attempts to achieve competency at cardiac pacing. No resident required more than 5 attempts to achieve competency in TCP; no resident required more than 6 attempts to achieve competency in TVP. CONCLUSIONS: When measuring TVP alone, the number of attempts to achieve competency are comparable with that of the ACGME guidelines. When accounting for both TCP and TVP, the number of attempts required to achieve competency is greater than those delineated by the ACGME guidelines. The results of this trial warrant continuation and reproduction on a larger scale to revisit the ACGME guidelines.

Trimodality therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma.

BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a fatal disease. The optimal modality and sequence of therapy are controversial. We analyzed the outcomes of a cohort of mesothelioma patients treated with induction chemotherapy, followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) and adjuvant radiation. METHODS: The study comprised a retrospective cohort of 46 patients treated with induction chemotherapy, followed by EPP, during a 10-year period. Of these, 24 completed adjuvant external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), and 14 had intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 20.6 months (range, 0.5 to 75 months). Operative mortality after EPP was 4.3% (n = 2). Pathologic stage was p0, 4.3%; pII, 23.9%; pIII, 56.5%; and pIV, 15.2%. Median overall survival was 24 months. On univariate analysis and Cox proportional hazards model, only nodal metastases (hazard ratio, 3.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.6 to 8.7; p = 0.002) was a significant predictor of survival. First site of recurrence was local in 12, the contralateral chest in 5, abdominal in 8, and distant in 5. The incidence of local recurrence was 14.3% with IMRT vs 41.7% with EBRT (p = 0.03). The time to local recurrence with the use of IMRT was 12 months vs 7 for EBRT (p = 0.19). CONCLUSIONS: Induction chemotherapy, followed by EPP and adjuvant radiotherapy for selected patients with mesothelioma, is safe, with acceptable operative mortality. Adjuvant IMRT may be more effective in terms of local control than EBRT.