INTRODUCTION Nearly all children in Canada with an inherited metabolic disease (IMD) are treated at one of the country's Hereditary Metabolic Disease Treatment Centres. We sought to understand the system of care for paediatric IMD patients in Canada in order to identify sources of variation and inform future research priorities. METHODS Treatment centres were contacted by email and invited to...

OBJECTIVES To analyse simple national statistics and survival data collected in the central cardiac audit database after treatment for congenital heart disease and to provide long term comparative statistics for each contributing centre. DESIGN Prospective, longitudinal, observational, national cohort survival study. SETTING UK central cardiac audit database. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Surviva...

INTRODUCTION The Czech thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) quality assurance network was established in 1997. Its aim is to pursue a regular independent quality audit in Czech radiotherapy centres and to support state supervision. MATERIALS AND METHODS The audit is realised via mailed TL dosimetry. The TLD system consists of encapsulated LiF:Mg,Ti powder (type MT-N) read with Harshaw manual re...

AIMS To undertake a national audit of radiotherapy practice in head and neck cancer to estimate compliance with published guidelines and national standards. METHODS A two-part electronic data entry form was distributed to all U.K. radiotherapy centres in September 2000. The first part examined the centres' policies for managing interruptions, the second collected summaries of the management o...

BACKGROUND Many patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Malawi have or will develop non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The current capacity of ART sites to provide care for NCDs is not known. AIM This study aimed to assess the capacity of ART sites to provide care for hypertension and diabetes in rural Malawi. SETTING Twenty-five health centres and five hospitals in two rural districts i...

The Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Nursing and Midwifery Development is an independent, international, non-profit organization, with 44 Collaborating Centres. Among its members there are internationally recognized nursing and midwifery leaders, what emphasizes the unique meaning of this group. Based on its history, this article describes how the work as a network can transform ...

OBJECTIVE To test the efficacy of standardised monitoring using the disease activity index DAS28 versus usual care on disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) prescription and disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS A 24 week cluster randomised trial. Rheumatology outpatient centres were randomised to systematic monitoring of disease activity using the DAS28 (12 centres, 205 pat...