Patients are often advised to adopt healthier behaviours or change unhealthy ones on the basis that what they are doing or not doing is detrimental to their health. Some of these changes may include going on a diet, exercising, stopping cigarette smoking and even relaxing and sleeping more. MI was initially developed by Rollnick and Miller as a strategy for addictive behaviour change, but it has found many applications in helping patients change other health related behaviours. MI was initially defined as a client-oriented, directive method for enhancing intrinsic motivation to change by exploring and resolving ambivalence. The guiding stance, whilst respecting the patient's autonomy and the patient as the agency of change, maintain controls of the direction and structure of the consultation to evoke the patient's own arguments and strategies for change. The guiding process thus avoids the struggle or "fights" with the patient over changing behaviour and has been likened more to "dancing" with the patient. The four counselling principles in MI are: Develop discrepancy; Express empathy; Roll with resistance; and Support self-efficacy. Facilitating the patient to process and speak more about why and how to change then becomes one of the strategies to motivate change. In MI, this is known as change talk. Once change talk is elicited, the ways the practitioner can respond are: Elicit more (with open questions); Affirm; Reflect; and Summarise. Once the patient decides to change, goal setting becomes the next important process. Needless to say, the goal setting process must be done in collaboration with the patient, with the patient having the final say.

Agitation and delirium are commonly encountered symptoms in palliative care. Based on the clinical features, delirium may present in the hypoactive, hyperactive and mixed forms. By reason of the prevalence, the significant distress and symptom burden, as well as the possibility of reversibility, it is vital that the clinician be vigilant in identifying and treating delirium and its symptoms. This article describes how delirium may present, the clinical features, aetiologies and the methods to screen and diagnose delirium. When managing a delirious patient in the palliative care setting, it is necessary to contextualise any investigation and intervention in terms of the disease condition and trajectory, the level of distress and the care preferences and goals of the patient and family. Non-pharmacological management should always be in place though pharmacological treatments also have a definite role in the relief of distressing symptoms of agitation and delirium. Support and education for the patient, family and care providers are integral and continuous aspects of care for the agitated or delirious terminally ill patient.

The COVID-19 outbreak touches the vulnerabilities of frontline doctors. The scope of their inner experiences includes fear/anxiety, uncertainty, isolation, fatigue, moral distress or outrage. Learning how to manage the inner subjective experiences can improve the doctors’ capacity to serve at the frontline. Fear, though common and multi-layered, may be masked by storylines that externalises our difficulties. A method to contain and process fear and other unsettling emotional states is RAIN: Recognise, Allow, Investigate and Nurture. To cope with uncertainty, one needs to stay open to tolerate various outcomes and remainder issues. A framework that provides a narrative for groundedness is described, which comprises the elements of faith in the medical science and our practice, due diligence that supports the faith, acting with courage and compassion, and the focus of another- or community-directed service.

Family engagement should be part of a holistic management of any patient. This is especially so in patients who have an acute change in their health condition or function that stresses their social setup. Conducting a family conference is one of the many ways to engage patients and their caregivers and address their bio-psycho-social needs. It is a focused and purposeful approach that engages every member of the health care team and family members in facilitating a common understanding and decision-making with the aim of improving patient care and outcome. A family conference is resource intensive, and should be planned well to maximise the goals that it was set out to achieve. This article was written as a primer to help family physicians understand the indications, preparations needed, and steps to take in conducting a family conference. To facilitate a family conference confidently is a skill and an art that requires practice and constant refinement.

Health outcomes evaluation seeks to compare a new treatment or novel programme with the current standard of care, or to identify variation of outcomes across different healthcare providers. In the real world, it is not always possible to conduct randomised controlled trials to address the issue of comparator groups being different with respect to baseline risk factors for the outcomes. Therefore, risk adjustment is required to address patient factors that may lead to biases in estimates of treatment effects. It is essential when conducting outcomes evaluation of more than trivial significance. Risk adjustment begins by asking 4 questions: what outcome, what time frame, what population, and what purpose. Next, design issues are considered. This involves choosing the data source, planning data collection, defining the sample required, and selecting the variables carefully. Finally, analytical issues are considered. Regression modelling is central to every analytic strategy. Other methods that may augment regression include restriction, stratification, propensity scores, instrumental variables, and difference-in-differences. The construction of risk adjustment models is an iterative process requiring both art and science. Derived models should be validated. Limitations of risk adjustment include reliance on data availability and quality, imperfect method, ineffectiveness when comparators are very different, and sensitivity to different methods used. Thoughtful application of risk adjustment can improve the validity of comparisons between different treatments, programmes and providers. The extent of risk adjustment should be guided by its purpose. Finally, its methodology should be made explicit, so that informed readers can judge the robustness of results obtained.
Health Services Research ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Regression Analysis ; Risk Adjustment ; standards

Electrocardiography ; Humans ; ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction/therapy*

The coronary sinus (CS) normally drains into the right atrium (RA). We report a rare case of anomalous CS drainage into the left atrium (LA). A middle-aged lady underwent coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for evaluation of dyspnea. An earlier transthoracic echocardiogram showed normal chamber sizes and function. The CCTA revealed severe left anterior artery stenosis as well as an anomalous drainage of a normal sized CS into the LA. A small fistula from the CS also communicated with RA. These findings were confirmed during invasive angiography. No further intervention was offered as this was unlikely to be of hemodynamic significance. Nevertheless, understanding of this unusual anatomy will be of importance when planning for electrophysiological or pacing procedures.

A 43-year-old male with no past medical history presented with acute onset palpitations, chest pain and diaphoresis. Electrocardiogram showed atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I was elevated at 87 ng/L at presentation and rose further to 1874 ng/L 8 hours later. Invasive coronary angiography revealed significant stenosis of the left circumflex artery, which was treated with percutaneous coronary intervention. Transthoracic echocardiography showed severe left ventricular hypertrophy with mild systolic anterior motion of the anterior mitral leaflet. Cardiac magnetic resonance demonstrated features consistent with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with regional fibrosis. Of note, focal delayed enhancement was seen in the anterolateral papillary muscle.

The coronary sinus (CS) normally drains into the right atrium (RA). We report a rare case of anomalous CS drainage into the left atrium (LA). A middle-aged lady underwent coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for evaluation of dyspnea. An earlier transthoracic echocardiogram showed normal chamber sizes and function. The CCTA revealed severe left anterior artery stenosis as well as an anomalous drainage of a normal sized CS into the LA. A small fistula from the CS also communicated with RA. These findings were confirmed during invasive angiography. No further intervention was offered as this was unlikely to be of hemodynamic significance. Nevertheless, understanding of this unusual anatomy will be of importance when planning for electrophysiological or pacing procedures.

A 43-year-old male with no past medical history presented with acute onset palpitations, chest pain and diaphoresis. Electrocardiogram showed atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I was elevated at 87 ng/L at presentation and rose further to 1874 ng/L 8 hours later. Invasive coronary angiography revealed significant stenosis of the left circumflex artery, which was treated with percutaneous coronary intervention. Transthoracic echocardiography showed severe left ventricular hypertrophy with mild systolic anterior motion of the anterior mitral leaflet. Cardiac magnetic resonance demonstrated features consistent with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with regional fibrosis. Of note, focal delayed enhancement was seen in the anterolateral papillary muscle.