Recent Submissions

History of Endometriosis Is Independently Associated with an Increased Risk of Ovarian Cancer 

Background: Endometriosis is a complex gynecologic disorder that has been associated with a higher risk of ovarian cancer. The purpose of this work is to determine to what extent a history of endometriosis is a risk factor for ovarian cancer in a Spanish population. Methods: A retrospective case-co...

Efficacy and safety of robotic spine surgery: systematic review and meta-analysis 

Background: Robotic surgery (RS) may offer benefits compared with freehand/conventional surgery (FS) in the treatment of patients with spinal disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of RS versus FS in spinal fusion. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was p...

Which actionable statements qualify as good practice statements In Covid-19 guidelines? A systematic appraisal. 

Objectives: To evaluate the development and quality of actionable statements that qualify as good practice statements (GPS) reported in COVID-19 guidelines. Design and setting: Systematic review . We searched MEDLINE, MedSci, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), databases of Grading of R...

Good or best practice statements: proposal for the operationalisation and implementation of GRADE guidance. 

An evidence-based approach is considered the gold standard for health decision-making. Sometimes, a guideline panel might judge the certainty that the desirable effects of an intervention clearly outweigh its undesirable effects as high, but the body of supportive evidence is indirect. In such case...

European collaboration on health Technology assessment: looking backward and forward 

The establishment of health technology assessment (HTA) has been an important topic in Europe for many years. There have been a series of activities starting with first projects in 1994 leading to joint actions from the European Network of HTA (EUnetHTA) ending in 2021. This long interval of engage...

Cost-effectiveness of multicomponent interventions in type 2 diabetes mellitus in a cluster randomised controlled trial: the INDICA study 

Objective: To analyse the cost-effectiveness of multicomponent interventions designed to improve outcomes in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in primary care in the Canary Islands, Spain, within the INDICA randomised clinical trial, from the public health system perspective. Design: An economic eval...

Study designs for clinical trials applied to personalised medicine: a scoping review 

Objective: Personalised medicine (PM) allows treating patients based on their individual demographic, genomic or biological characteristics for tailoring the 'right treatment for the right person at the right time'. Robust methodology is required for PM clinical trials, to correctly identify groups...

When to change treatment of acute invasive aspergillosis: an expert viewpoint 

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is an acute infection affecting patients who are immunocompromised, as a result of receiving chemotherapy for malignancy, or immunosuppressant agents for transplantation or autoimmune disease. Whilst criteria exist to define the probability of infection for clinical tria...

Postlaunch evidence-generation studies for medical devices in Spain: the RedETS approach to integrate real-world evidence into decision making 

The Monitoring Studies (MS) program, the approach developed by RedETS to generate postlaunch real-world evidence (RWE), is intended to complement and enhance the conventional health technology assessment process to support health policy decision making in Spain, besides informing other interested s...

Patient-reported outcome measures for knowledge transfer and behaviour modification interventions in type 2 diabetes-the INDICA study: a multiarm cluster randomised controlled trial 

Objective: This study assesses the effectiveness of different interventions of knowledge transfer and behaviour modification to improve type 2 diabetes mellitus patients' (T2DM) reported outcomes measures (PROMs) in the long-term. Design: open, community-based pragmatic, multicentre, controlled tri...

The ecosystem of health decision making: from fragmentation to synergy 

Clinicians, patients, policy makers, funders, programme managers, regulators, and science communities invest considerable amounts of time and energy in influencing or making decisions at various levels, using systematic reviews, health technology assessments, guideline recommendations, coverage dec...

Building a model of health technology assessment cooperation: lessons learned from EUnetHTA joint action 3 

Objective: The European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) was established in 2006. During its final project phase (joint action 3 [JA3]), it undertook an activity to define the scientific and technical principles of a model of health technology assessment (HTA) cooperation in Euro...

Impact of environmental and individual factors on COVID-19 mortality in children and adolescents in Mexico: An observational study 

Background: During the Covid-19 pandemic, children and adolescents faced poverty, potentially dying from preventable causes, or missing out essential vaccines. The aim of this study was to assess potential environmental and individual factors associated to COVID-19 mortality in children and adolesc...

Efficacy of a Strategy for Implementing Guidelines for the Control of Cardiovascular Risk in Primary Healthcare 

Background: A number of strategies exist for the implementation of clinical practice guides (CPGs). Aim: To assess the efficacy of implementing a cardiovascular risk CPG based on an educational method involving opinion leaders, and the habitual method of dissemination among primary healthcare teams...

Short- and Long-Term Implications of Human Milk Microbiota on Maternal and Child Health 

Human milk (HM) is considered the most complete food for infants as its nutritional composition is specifically designed to meet infant nutritional requirements during early life. HM also provides numerous biologically active components, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, milk fat globules, IgA, ...

Patient-reported outcome measures for knowledge transfer and behaviour modification interventions in type 2 diabetes-the INDICA study: a multiarm cluster randomised controlled trial 

Objective: This study assesses the effectiveness of different interventions of knowledge transfer and behaviour modification to improve type 2 diabetes mellitus patients' (T2DM) reported outcomes measures (PROMs) in the long-term. Design: open, community-based pragmatic, multicentre, controlled tri...

Efficacy of a strategy for implementing a guideline for the control of cardiovascular risk in a primary healthcare setting: the SIRVA2 study a controlled, blinded community intervention trial randomised by clusters 

Abstract This work describes the methodology used to assess a strategy for implementing clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for cardiovascular risk control in a health area of Madrid. Background: The results on clinical practice of introducing CPGs have been little studied in Spain. The strategy ...

Rapid and simultaneous determination of histidine metabolism intermediates in human and mouse microbiota and biomatrices 

Histidine metabolism is a key pathway physiologically involved in satiety, recognition memory, skin, and neural protection and allergic diseases. Microbiologically-produced imidazole propionate induces type II diabetes and interferes with glucose lowering drugs. Despite their determinant health imp...

Effect of a Surgical Care Bundle on the Incidence of Surgical Site Infection in Colorectal Surgery: A Quasi-Experimental Intervention 

Background: Surgical site infections (SSI) have an important impact on morbidity and mortality. Objective: This study, therefore, sought to assess the effect of a surgical care bundle on the incidence of SSI in colorectal surgery. Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental intervention study with r...

Association of clusterin with the BRI2-derived amyloid molecules ABri and ADan 

Familial British and Danish dementias (FBD and FDD) share striking neuropathological similarities with Alzheimer's disease (AD), including intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles as well as parenchymal and vascular amyloid deposits. Multiple amyloid associated proteins with still controversial role i...