The traditional Chinese medicine has played an important role in the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Based on the role of traditional Chinese medicine in dealing with the previous epidemics and COVID-19, this paper analyzes the problems and challenges of current situation, and focuses on improving traditional Chinese medicine scientific identification, strengthening the construction of traditional Chinese medicine system, and increasing the intensity of Chinese and Western medicine and so on. In order to improve the cooperation mechanism of Chinese and Western medicine for epidemic prevention and control, and give full play to the role of traditional Chinese medicine in the construction of national public health emergency system, this paper also gives ten corresponding suggestions.
The rapid development of medical informatization and continuous innovation of artificial intelligence have made it possible to analyze data and predict prognosis through making full use of data analysis or data mining methods in medical field, which can provide not only more accurate basis of diagnosis and treatment for patients but also important decision-making reference for the government and hospitals to allocate medical resources reasonably. As a classical model for processing time series data in machine learning, long short-term memory network can break through some limitations of statistics to process large and complex medical data. The current applications of long short-term memory networks in medical and biomedical fields can be mainly summarized as seven themes, including natural language processing, biomedical information, signals, motion, clinical medical records, hospital management, and public health and policy.
In order to help Chinese guideline developers, clinicians, health policy makers and other relevant researchers fully understand and make appropriate use of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, Chinese GRADE Center and Guidelines Review Committee of WHO (WHO-GRC) have written a series of papers about development methods, review principles and the structure and content of WHO guidelines. This is the first paper of this series introducing the basic principles and methods of development based on the WHO Handbook of Guideline Development and WHO Handbook of Guideline Development 2nd edition. We aim to provide guidance for Chinese guideline developers, and promote the development of high-quality guideline.
Objective To evaluate the reporting quality of rapid guidelines on Chinese medicine responding to public health emergencies. Methods The databases of PubMed, Embase, CNKI, CBM, WanFang Data, and preprint platforms were electronically searched. A supplementary search was performed by navigating the websites and Wechat public platforms specific to guideline development and dissemination, health and medical governing bodies, and academic organizations of Chinese medicine. Only guidelines published within three months after the onset of acute respiratory infectious diseases were eligible. The database search settings were as follows: SARS guidelines up to May 2003, H1N1 guidelines up to August 2009, and COVID-19 guidelines up to April 2020. The report quality was assessed using the Reporting Items for practice Guidelines in HealThcare (RIGHT) and its extension for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Results A total of 50 rapid guidelines on Chinese medicine responding to public health emergencies were included, indicating a growing trend in the number of guidelines. The RIGHT items most frequently reported were item 1c (n=46, 92.00%), item 7a (n=47, 94.00%), item 13a (n=49, 98.00%). The items extended to TCM was generally frequently reported (≥50%). However, the ten key items related to evidence, recommendations, funding, and the declaration and management of interest were rarely reported. Conclusion Enhancing the reporting quality of rapid guidelines on Chinese medicine in response to public health emergencies requires methodological solutions. The development of such guideline reporting standards should consider the unique characteristics of public health emergencies and the special nature of Chinese medicine evidence.
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemics, universities take responsibility for the health of their students and epidemic control. Our urgent recommendation focuses on four key questions of emergency management in universities following rigorous evidence-based approaches and provides timely suggestions to university managers, academic faculties and student affairs managers. We recommend universities during the COVID-19 epidemics should: 1) suspend offline lectures; 2) provide proper health education on the disease; 3) encourage face masks, however oppose using N95 masks on the campus; 4) encourage hand hygiene and provide sanitizing products on the campus.
China is facing the serious situation of 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection. The health care institutions have actively participated in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease. Proper regulation of in-hospital policy may help control virus spreading. We developed seven key clinical questions about the prevention and control of 2019-novel coronavirus infection in hospital, and provided recommendations based on the best available evidence and expert experience. We interpreted the recommendations for better feasibility in Chinese hospital. The current recommendations provide evidence and reference for the domestic medical institutions to reasonably adjust the hospital workflow during 2019-nCoV infection period..
ObjectiveTo systematically review the research issues related to evidence quality grading methods for public health decision making. MethodsPubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang Data, CBM and VIP databases were electronically searched to collect studies related to the application of evidence quality grading methods for public health decision making from inception to December 2022. The questions were constructed according to the SPIDER model. The quality of the included literature was evaluated by using the CASP checklist, and a three-level interpretation analysis of the questions on the application of quality rating methods for public health decision making was conducted using the thematic synthesis method to establish a pool of question entries. ResultsA total of 14 papers were included, covering seven countries. GRADE was the commonly used method for grading the quality of evidence. CASP evaluation results showed eight high quality studies, four medium quality studies and two low quality studies. The thematic synthesis method summarized 13 question entries in 7 categories. ConclusionThe existing methodology for grading the quality of evidence for public health decision making suffers from the diversity of evidence sources and the underestimation of the level of evidence from complex intervention studies.
ObjectiveTo investigate the essential healthcare system performance in Xinjin county of Chengdu city from 2009 to 2010, so as to provide baseline data for further study. MethodsThe general information of the essential healthcare, such as the numbers of out and in-patients, service and profits were collected and then analyzed using the software of Microsoft Excel 2003 and SPSS 13.0. Resultsa) The results showed that the numbers of out and in-patients were in the rank of the county, township and community hospital. The numbers of out and emergency patients has been decreased 31.0% and 25.3% in the community hospital from 2009 to 2010, while patients in the county and township hospital has been increased. The numbers of in-patients has been increased by year; b) hospital bed occupancy has been increased by year, and the hospital bed occupancy of county hospitals was 8% lower than national level in 2009, 33.5% higher in 2010, the hospital bed occupancy of township hospitals from 2009 to 2010 was higher than national level, the ones of community hospital was lower than national level; c) there is an annual decreasing tendency for average days for hospitalization in county and community hospital, which were higher than national level; d) it was lower than national average rate; e) the inpatient fee per time was lower than national average rate; f) in the components of the in-patients expense, drug expense, operation expense and diagnose expense were constituted more than 86% in all eight costs; and g) the receipts and expenditure of Xinjin hospital throughout the year increased by years, the income and expenses showed 39.3% and 37.7%. ConclusionThe hospital bed occupancy, average hospitalization days and the inpatient fee per time in Xinjin county of Chengdu city during 2009-2010, were higher than national level. The overall health performance of hospitals in Xinjin county was satisfied. However, there was significant difference between the best and the worst. In order to distribute health resources, both benefit and efficient should be emphasized.
Objective To describe the range of Public-private partnerships (PPP) in the provision of healthcare services, and how the authors have assessed these partnerships. Methods We searched 19 international electronic databases and 3 grey literature databases up to September 2008. Nine websites of relevant organizations and Google were searched for any missing information. Search terms were determined by both health policy experts and search specialists after repeated discussion and pilot searching. Our inclusion criteria were research papers that reported describing or evaluating any public-private partnerships in provision of healthcare services. Two reviewers independently screened, appraised and extracted the data, and disagreements were resolved by discussion or by consulting a third researcher. The studies that scored A or B in terms of quality assessment were analyzed. Results Of the 38 studies included in the analysis, 22 studies aimed to describe strategies, while 16 ones were to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies. The targeted populations were tuberculosis patients, AIDS patients, psychiatric patients, community residents and children. Six partnership mechanisms were categorized: ① formal/ informal contract; ② working group committee; ③ supervision, training and regulation; ④ support and subsidizing; ⑤ integration of health care organizations; and ⑥ co-location. Most of the studies evaluating effectiveness were observational studies. Only three studies were comparative studies, pre- and post- intervention. The results of the most evaluation studies showed that PPP had positive impact on service provision, while it also had some problems and challenges. Conclusion Current studies show that PPP could improve health service provisions to some extent. There are limitations in the range of health services and the depth of the studies, especially evaluation studies that lack rigorous design. However, people should be cautious when they try to learn from the experience from internationally successful PPPs and consider the Chinese context, as the effect of PPP is closely associated with the relevant implementation context.