To introduce the definition, applicable scenarios, methodology and examples of mixed methods systematic reviews, aiming to promote the application of mixed methods in China and to help clinical decision-makers to select appropriate qualitative results from systematic reviews to guide clinical practice.
In the process of formation of recommendations of clinical practice guidelines, experts have many difficult problems of lack of transparency and high subjectivity in making final decisions, such as incomplete comprehensive consideration of dimensions and great heterogeneity in the evaluation of importance between dimensions, etc. As a decision-making tool, multi-criterion decision analysis improves the decision-making level of recommendation by adding the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. By analyzing the challenges facing the formation of recommendations, this paper introduces the decision assistance of multi-criterion decision, and analyzes and summarizes the advantages and methods of the application of multi-criterion decision, so as to provide reference and guidance for guide makers to solve the difficulties in the formation of recommendations.
Given the severe situation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the elderly, especially elderly patients with chronic diseases are the key populations for prevention and control. We developed recommendations of daily diets for elderly and the elderly patients with chronic diseases during the COVID-19 epidemic, based on the best available evidence and expert experiences. Levels of evidence and recommendations were determined by the method of the Oxford Centre for EBM Levels of Evidence (2001). These urgent recommendations aim to guide staffs in medical institutions to assist the elderly make sensible meal arrangements during this particular period.
IDEAL framework and recommendations provide a scientific and integrated evaluation pathway for surgical innovations and other complex therapeutic interventions, and underline that the preliminary studies are needed to prepare for a successful randomized controlled trial. IDEAL framework provides a series of recommendations in terms of nature stages of surgical innovation. We have reported the introduction and reporting guidelines of the IDEAL framework and recommendations in our IDEAL series paper. This paper aimed to provide some empirical evidence, focusing specifically on stages 2a and 2b, to help surgeons and researchers to understand how to imply IDEAL framework and recommendations into their clinical practice.
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.
Mitral valve replacement is one of the most common heart valve surgeries in China. In recent years, with the increase in degenerative valve diseases, older patients, and the progress of anti-calcification technology of biological valves, the proportion of mitral valve biological valve replacement has been increasing year by year. After the damage of traditional mitral valve biological valves, re-operation of valve replacement with thoracotomy is required. However, the adhesion between the heart and sternum, as well as the damage caused by cardiopulmonary bypass and cardiac arrest, can cause significant trauma to elderly patients and those with multiple organ dysfunction, leading to increased mortality and complication rates. In recent years, interventional valve surgery, especially transcatheter valve-in-valve surgery, has developed rapidly. This procedure can correct the damaged mitral valve function without stopping the heart, but there are still many differences between its technical process and conventional aortic valve replacement surgery. Therefore, organizing and writing multicenter expert recommendations on the technical process of transcatheter valve-in-valve surgery for damaged mitral valve biological valves is of great significance for the training and promotion of this technology.
The pre-market approval and clinical application of innovative medical devices should be based on high-quality evidence, proving their reliability, safety and effectiveness. In 2016, the IDEAL (Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment and Long-term follow-up) collaboration modified the original IDEAL framework and recommendation to the IDEAL-D methodological framework for the entire life cycle evaluation of innovative medical devices. The framework included five stages, namely the preclinical development stage, idea stage, exploration stage, assessment stage and long-term follow-up stage. This paper aims to interpret the study purpose, content and design at each step of the IDEAL-D framework based on IDEAL framework and recommendation (2019) to provide practical methodological guidance for the design and conduct of clinical research on innovative medical devices.
In order to monitor the emotional state changes of audience on real-time and to adjust the music playlist, we proposed an algorithm framework of an electroencephalogram (EEG) driven personalized affective music recommendation system based on the portable dry electrode shown in this paper. We also further finished a preliminary implementation on the Android platform. We used a two-dimensional emotional model of arousal and valence as the reference, and mapped the EEG data and the corresponding seed songs to the emotional coordinate quadrant in order to establish the matching relationship. Then, Mel frequency cepstrum coefficients were applied to evaluate the similarity between the seed songs and the songs in music library. In the end, during the music playing state, we used the EEG data to identify the audience’s emotional state, and played and adjusted the corresponding song playlist based on the established matching relationship.
The prevention and control of COVID-19 has entered a critical moment. “Disease control of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in hospital: West China urgent recommendation” based on the best available evidence and expert experience, provided emergency recommendations for key clinical issues in hospital prevention and control during the COVID-19 epidemic. This recommendation with strong reference value and timeliness is worth learning for hospital managers, sensory control personnel and medical staff at all levels. All medical institutions should establish an emergency response mechanism to accelerate the formation of medical teams and strengthen the protection of medical staff and hospital infection control. We should enhance the implementation of policy and reinforce risk assessment. It is essential to strengthen the implementation of various prevention and control measures as well as risk assessment so as to eventually win the battle of coronavirus infection as soon as possible.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the researches on grading criteria for quality of evidence and strength of recommendations of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). MethodsPubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP databases were electronically searched to collect researches on grading criteria for quality of evidence and strength of recommendations of traditional Chinese medicine from inception to June 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data; and then, descriptive analysis was performed using qualitative methods. ResultsA total of 18 studies were included. Specifically, 8 studies presented both the level of evidence and the strength of recommendations, 9 presented the level of evidence, and 1 presented the strength of recommendations. Thirteen studies considered both TCM evidence and modern medical evidence sources, 3 included only evidence from ancient literature, 1 focused only on post-marketing safety evaluation of Chinese medicine, and 1 focused only on real-world studies of TCM. ConclusionCurrently, there are numerous criteria for TCM related quality of evidence and strength of recommendations, and some are developed only for TCM characteristic evidence. Most researchers of TCM guidelines expect to fully value the significance of ancient literature and expert experience or opinion in guideline development.