Introduction: Data on asthma remain scarce in our local setting. This study looked at asthma related admissions to RIPAS Hospital, in particular the aetiologies and the differences between short and long-stayers. Material and Methods: Patients admitted over a six months period (January to June 2008) were identified through the ward registries and the case notes were retrospectively reviewed. 2.9% (80/2,762) admissions to the medical wards were registered as asthma related admissions. Of the 80 cases identified, 72 notes were available for review. Results: The mean age was 39.5 ± 17.4 years old and males accounted for 34.7%. 19.4% were current/ex-smokers, 50% had other co-morbid conditions, 80.6% had previous accident and emergency attendances, 54.2% had previous hospital admissions and 6.9% had previous intensive care admissions. The median and mean duration of hospital stay were four days (range, 1 to 15) and 4.9 ± 2.7 days respectively. The aetiologies for admissions consisted of infective (58.3%), non-infective exacerbations (18.1%) or both (23.6%) with hospital stays of 4.5 ± 2.4, 4.1 ± 2.7 and 6.6 ± 3.2 days respectively. Long-stayers (more than four days) were associated with older age, more co-morbid conditions, previous hospital admissions and dual aetiologies for exacerbations. Intensive care unit admission was required in 6.9%. There was no death recorded. Conclusions: Asthma related admissions only accounted for a small proportion of medical admissions with predominantly infective aetiology. Older age, dual aetiologies, more co-morbidities and previous hospital admissions were associated with longer hospital stay.
Asthma ; Medication Therapy Management

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a medication management program on oral chemotherapy patients. METHODS: A nonequivalent control group ppretest-posttest design was used. Participants were 60 cancer patients (intervention group: 30, control group: 30). The medication management program was provided for 6 weeks. Collected data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. RESULTS: Although there were no statistically significant differences, scores of self-efficacy (t=−0.12, p=.902), knowledge (t=0.62, p=.537), medication adherence (t=0.51, p=.610), and staff satisfaction (t=1.44, p=.156) were higher in the experimental group than in the control group. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference in self-efficacy, knowledge, symptom experience, medication adherence and staff satisfaction. This can be explained by both groups having already received initial instruction concerning basic care when they started to receive chemotherapy. Considering the positive outcome of the medication management program, a specialist nursing effort is needed to improve symptoms and medication adherence. Furthermore, a medication counseling hotline is needed to support the medical staff.
Counseling ; Drug Therapy* ; Hotlines ; Humans ; Medical Staff ; Medication Adherence ; Medication Therapy Management ; Mouth ; Nursing ; Specialization

PURPOSE: This study investigated medication status by examining the effects of a medication management education program on the knowledge of medications and medication misuse behaviors in the elderly in a local community. METHODS: This study used a non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design. For the study, 116 subjects were assigned to the control group and another 116 subjects were assigned to the experimental group. The medication management education program consisted of 1:1 education, practice in medication management, consultation, and discussion. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 program. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups in terms of their knowledge of medications and medication misuse behaviors. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the medical management education program is effective in improving the knowledge of medications and decreasing medication misuse behaviors. Therefore, this education program can be used as an intervention to improve the medication behaviors of the elderly in local communities.
Aged* ; Education* ; Humans ; Medication Therapy Management ; Prescription Drug Misuse

PURPOSE: This study was done to investigate nurses' perceived importance of, and performance of intravenous fluid therapy. METHODS: Data were collected from a convenience sample of 234 nurses (return rate: 93%) working in 3 small-medium general hospitals. RESULTS: The score for perceived importance of intravenous fluid therapy (3.65+/-0.37) was higher than that of performance (3.45+/-0.39). There were positive correlations between perceived importance and performance (r=.576, p<.001). There were 180 (80.8%) errors in intravenous fluid therapy. Perceived importance and performance scores were higher in nurses who had not experienced medication errors in intravenous fluid therapy. CONCLUSION: The results indicate a need to develop appropriate strategies to improve perceived importance and performance and enhance safety management during intravenous fluid therapy for nurses in small-medium general hospitals.
Fluid Therapy* ; Hospitals, General* ; Infusions, Intravenous ; Medication Errors ; Safety Management

Decisions about stopping or continuing medications perioperatively should be based on withdrawal potential, the potential for disease progression if therapy is interrupted, and the potential for drug interactions with anesthesia. In general, most medications are tolerated well through surgery and do not interfere with anesthetic administration. Therefore, most drugs should be continued through the morning of surgery. However, some medications are known to influence surgical risk or surgical decisions (e.g., antiplatelet agents, anticoagulants, some hormonal therapies, and herbal remedies), so it is important to obtain a complete medication list from the patient and to advise adjusting doses or discontinuing certain potentially complicating medications in advance of surgery. This article reviews general recommendations for perioperative management of a number of common medication classes.
Anesthesia* ; Anticoagulants ; Disease Progression ; Drug Interactions ; Humans ; Medication Therapy Management ; Perioperative Care ; Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors ; Preanesthetic Medication

Thoracic aortic enlargement is a silent, but deadly, disease that is often diagnosed on imaging studies performed for unrelated indications and result in life threatening event such as aortic rupture and dissection. The etiologies underlying thoracic aortic enlargement are diverse and can range from degenerative or hypertensive aortic enlargement to more rare genetic disorders including Marfan syndrome and Loeys-Dietz syndrome. Therefore, the diagnosis and management of this disease can be complex. This review focuses on the periodic surveillance using imaging modality before surgical intervention and medical management of asymptomatic patients with thoracic aortic aneurysm.
Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic* ; Aortic Rupture ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Loeys-Dietz Syndrome ; Marfan Syndrome ; Medication Therapy Management

OBJECTIVEDiscussion on assessment and intervention models to promote the rational use of medicines of Chinese medicine injection effect.

METHODUsing systematic prescription assessment and intervention work mode, formed expert group guide established assessment standard, developed the prescription audit specification, and extracted all Chinese medicine injection prescription of outpatient 2010 first quarter (in front of intervention) and 2011 first quarter (behind intervention), respectively for 2 543 and 3 122.

RESULTThe percent of the non-indication of medication in front of intervention outpatient fell from 3.44% to behind intervention of 2.66% (P<0.05), the percent of contraindicated medication in front of intervention outpatient fell from 2. 14% to behind intervention of 1.33% (P<0.05), the incidence of adverse reactions in front of intervention outpatient fell from 1.01% to behind intervention of 0.29% (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe modes of prescription assessment and intervention have obvious results for the promotion of rational use of traditional Chinese medicine injections.

The prevalence of heart failure (HF) is rapidly increasing throughout the world, and is closely associated with serious morbidity and mortality. In particular, acute HF is one of the main causes of hospitalization and mortality, especially in elderly individuals. In Korea, the socioeconomic burden of HF is substantial. Because of this, the Korean HF society developed chronic and acute HF management guidelines in 2017, adapted process while including as much data from Korean studies as possible. The scope of the current review, which is based on the Korean HF guidelines, includes the definition, diagnosis, and treatment of acute HF with reduced or preserved ejection fractions of various etiologies.
Aged ; Diagnosis ; Heart Failure ; Heart ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Korea ; Medication Therapy Management ; Mortality ; Prevalence

Identification of the driver mutations in cancer has resulted in the development of a new category of molecularly targeted anti-cancer drugs. However, as was the case with conventional chemotherapies, the effectiveness of these drugs is limited by the emergence of drug-resistant variants. While most cancer therapies are given in combinations that are designed to avoid drug resistance, we discuss here therapeutic approaches that take advantage of the changes in cancer cells that arise upon development of drug resistance. This approach is based on notion that drug resistance comes at a fitness cost to the cancer cell that can be exploited for therapeutic benefit.We discuss the development of sequential drug therapies in which the first therapy is not given with curative intent, but to induce a major new sensitivity that can be targeted with a second drug that selectively targets the acquired vulnerability. This concept of collateral sensitivity has hitherto not been used on a large scale in the clinic and holds great promise for future cancer therapy.
Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm ; genetics ; Humans ; Medication Therapy Management ; Molecular Targeted Therapy ; adverse effects ; methods ; Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; genetics ; Pharmacogenomic Testing ; Therapies, Investigational ; methods

This paper discussed the management regulations and technical requirements of clinical investigational product for new drug of traditional Chinese medicine, analyzed some common problems on the management of them, and proposed the establishment of closed-loop management model and management requirements in various aspects.
Clinical Trials as Topic ; standards ; Drug Therapy ; Drug and Narcotic Control ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; standards ; therapeutic use ; Drugs, Investigational ; standards ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Medication Therapy Management ; standards ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional