Objective To summarize the experience of medical rescue conducted in Aba prefecture after the Wenchuan earthquake in order to provide information for similar tasks in seismo-active regions. Methods We participated and witnessed the whole process of medical rescue through 100 days after the quake. Data regarding the medical rescue work, work mode, performance and problems were collected and analyzed. Results Twelve counties out of the 13 counties in Aba prefecture were affected by the earthquake, including 2 most-hit counties and 5 most-hit areas. A total of 20 233 people died and 7 873 disappeared. Aba Prefectural Headquarters for Earthquake Resistance and Disaster Relief was set up and medical rescue teams were dispatched to the disaster area immediately after the quake: ① From May 12 to May 15 2008, 20 local medical teams comprising 138 healthcare professionals and 14 teams involving 428 professionals from other regions arrived at the most-hit areas. Through 7 days after the quake, medical treatment was provided for 6 285 patient-times. ② A total of 1 444 healthcare professionals participated in the medical rescue work. Through August 20, 355 579 outpatients and 7 028 inpatients were treated in the prefectural medical institutions and on-site medical centers. Of those, 6 726 were discharged, 604 were severely wounded, 20 died and 456 were transferred to other regions for further treatment. 2 703 operations were performed for the wounded and psychological treatment was provided for 4 630 person-times. Conclusion The medical rescue work in Aba prefecture after the Wenchuan earthquake was effective and efficient. Management of human resources and medical devices should be strengthened to enhance the ability of emergency response.
Sir Iain Chalmers, the cofounder of the UK Cochrane Centre and The Cochrane Collaboration, a distinguished and talented leader, a meditative scholar, a responsive researcher, a zealous challenger, has fully devoted himself to the pursuit of better care for patients. His splendid achievements and reputations have never halted his endeavor. This biographic sketch is intended to shed light on the critical moments that have made Sir. Iain Chalmers such an extraordinary man.
We summarized and analyzed the researches of the workshop on Evidence-Based Medicine for Medical Editors which was recently held concerning its teachers, training method, trainee distribution and recent progress. We hope to provide a new approach to improving the level of medical editors and clinical trials.
Objective To assess the effect of a new educational model for evidence-based medicine (EBM), which is called "2+N" model with the main characteristic of classroom teaching plus volunteer practice. Methods Questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data. Results There were averagely 39 volunteers participated in this activity per year, with an increasing trend. Most of them were sophomore and junior undergraduates from different specialties in medical filed. All participates acquired a better understanding of EBM knowledge; more than 60% of them could handle data searching, collecting and assessing by themselves in the end of the activity. Conclusion Our five years’ experience of EBM education practice for medical students suggested that the new educational model has a promising future.
Objective To investigate present status of health care in peri-brain-death and analyze its effectiveness and health economic characteristics. Method Retrospective analysis of case series was conducted and a total of 940 patients from surgical intensive care unit (SICU) were reviewed on treatment and part of direct medical expenditure. The patients admitted from Jun. 1999 to Dec. 2000 and Nov. 2001 to Jun. 2002 were included in this study. Data were processed by SPSS 10.0. Results Patients were included if they had two of the three symptoms for at least one hour: deep coma, pupillar light reflex disappear, and no autonomic respiratory. Ultimately 115 patients were included, with a total cost of ￥2 515.9 per day for each case, whereas mortality was 99.10%. Mortality increased with the state of peri-brain-death prolonged. Eighty percent of patients included were dead within 72 hours after admission. Conclusions Attempts to resuscitate patients of peri-brain-death have been the most widely applied in China, however, it resulted in great unnecessary consumption of health resources. It is of great importance to promote legislation of brain death in China.
Objective To compare articles published in global primary journals titled “evidence-based” via bibliometric analysis in order to provide suggestion for evidence-based research and development of related journals. Methods We searched electronic databases to retrieve global primary journals titled “evidence-based”, and collected their impact factors, article click, download and citation frequency through the journal’s website and related citation databases. Results Three English and 4 Chinese primary journals titled “evidence-based” met the inclusion criteria. (1) Citation frequency: Evidence-Based Complementary amp; Alternative Medicine and Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing were indexed by SCI with impact factor over 1 (5th and 13th in relevant subject category), and their immediacy index was about 7 times as much as that of Chinese journals (0.2 vs 0.03). Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Pediatrics (CJEBP) had the highest impact factor among 4 Chinese journals (0.946, 23rd in the relevant subject category), while Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine had the highest immediacy index with 0.07; (2) Download frequency: Journal of Evidencebased Medicine (JEBM) had the highest download frequency per article in database (72 vs 23), but the website download frequencies per article of CJEBM and CJEBP were about 5 to 6 times as much as that of database; (3) Number of articles published: Two English journals published the fewest articles but with the highest impact factors. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine had the 2nd highest impact factor although published the most articles, as well as the highest download frequency and immediacy index among the 4 Chinese journals. It suggested that there was no direct relationship between the number of the published articles and the impact factor of a journal. Conclusion The impact of English journals is better than that of Chinese journals. CJEBM and CJEBP are the top 2 ones among the Chinese journals with open access websites. The selection of articles should be driven by readers’ demand, and the impact of journals could be improved by online publication with open access.
Objective To summarize the experience of epidemic prevention in order to offer the first-hand data for reconstruction after the earthquake and epidemic control and prevention in the active seismic zone. Method We collected and analyzed the data of epidemic control and prevention and summarized their strengths and weaknesses. Results Of the 13 counties in Aba Prefecture, 12 were affl icted with 2 worst-hit counties and 5 worse-hit disaster areas. A total of 20 233 people were dead and 7 873 people were missing. Health system was severely damaged. Aba Center of Disease Control and Prevention started the contingency plan and sent 4 epidemic prevention teams to the disaster areas. With the combination of local materials and external aids, the epidemic prevention network of county, township and village was established. (1) Environment cleaning and el imination: up to August 27, 2008, 2 591 group times of teams involving 88 298 person times and 5 294 set times of vehicles were allocated. Disinfection area covered 18 181.3 m2 including 14 132 dumps, 33 271 cesspits and 154 391 breeding grounds of mosquitoes, fl ies and mice. (2) Critical supervision for the safety of drinking water and food: up to June 20, 21 central ized and 1 032 dispersed water supply sources were restored. We monitored 829 drinking water samples, among which 594 were qual ified with the qual ified rate of 66.59%. (3) A total of 86 396 people were resettled in 17 temporary sites. (4) Wild dogs were killed in Kala-azar epidemic areas. Mosquitoes, flies and mice were supervised once a week. (5) Disease supervision: A total of 762 cases in 15 legal infectious diseases were found within 90 days after the earthquake, and no death was found. No outbreak of infectious epidemic situations and burst publ ic health events was reported. A total of 57 157 Hepatitis A vaccinations were inoculated in the children aged from 18 months to 12 years old and 16 268 in children aged from 13 to 16 years old, medical staff, mil itary personnel and first-l ine workers. A total of 4 435 Japanese encephal itis vaccinations were inoculated in people in Xiaojin county. On June 15, routine inoculation cl inic recovered and on July 1, expansive inoculation was started on schedule. Conclusion Phased victory is gained in epidemic control and prevention in Aba Prefecture, although it is only a latter-wit. It is suggested that a long-term system of the earthquake disaster as well as human and environmental protection should be reconsidered through the first-hand data of anti-epidemic measures of the Wenchuan earthquake.
Objective To evaluate the efficacy of mycophenolate Mofetil (MMF) and azathioprine (AZA) after renal transplantation. Method Searching: Medline, Embase, Cochrane library and Chinese Biomedicine database (CBM); identified the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and applied Revman 4.11 for statistical analyses. Results Twenty-two RCTs were identified, involving MMF and AZA for anti-rejection after renal transplantation. The data shown that MMF (2 g/d) was more beneficial than AZA in improving the graft survival rate of short periods and the long-term patient survival rate, but there was no statistical differences between MMF (3 g/d) with AZA. Whether in 6 months or in 1 year after renal transplantation, the use of MMF (2 g/d) or MMF (3 g/d) could markedly reduce the incidence of biopsy-proven rejection. Conclusions Comparing with AZA, MMF is a more potent immunosuppressive drug, and more efficient in reducing the acute rejection after renal transplantation. MMF can improve the graft and patient survival rate. The 2 gram per day is more acceptable.
Objective To investigate the clinical effectiveness and adverse event of preventive medicine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and provide clinical data for designing prospective clinical trial. Method Retrospective study on medical staffs, that were exposed to SARS patients, was conducted in two main SARS designated hospitals to obtain information such as SARS exposure risk and preventive measures (medical and others). According to the type of preventive medicine, they were assigned to earthworm’s nucleases and protease (ENP) group, interferon group and blank control group respectively. Exposure risk, suspected sub-clinical infection rate and adverse event rate were compared between the three groups. Results Non-medical preventive measures used in each group were consistent, but the exposure intensity to risk factors between groups was statistically different, which biased the evaluation of clinical effectiveness of preventive medicine. The rate of suspected sub-clinical infection in earthworm’s nucleases and protease (ENP) group, interferon group and control group were 4.5%, 4.5%, and 9.9% (Pgt;0.05), respectively; and adverse event rate were 19.6%, 13.6% (Pgt;0.05), and 0%, respectively. Conclusions Suspected sub2clinical infection rate in ENP group, interferon (INF) group were lower than that in control group, which indicated that these two medicines might be effective in preventing SARS. Adverse event rate in ENP group was similar to that of interferon group, and the symptoms were mild in both groups, which was in accordance with the result of in vitro experiments. ENP spray is a kind of biological preparation; further purification may reduce its adverse event rate. However, because there had excessive confounding factors, especially because of the unequal of exposure risk between three groups, the results of this study can only provide insights to design prospective clinical trial in the future.