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IntroductionPeople live busy complex lives cheap levitra 10mg where https://glasgowskeptics.com/levitra-20mg-price-in-online-pharmacy/ most decisions need to be made quickly. As a cheap levitra 10mg consequence, people tend to prefer simple rather than expanded choice sets, easy alternatives that require no complex tradeoffs and benign options that avoid major moral quandaries. Choice architecture is defined formally as the behavioural science examining how the layout, sequencing and range of available options can influence decisions.

The Google search engine, for example, is a familiar illustration of refined choice architecture where its spartan user interface tries to avoid overloading individuals, provoking cheap levitra 10mg deep thought or maximising information. The core assumption is that people want to feel gently guided and not overwhelmed. The intriguing insight is that many unrecognised features of choice architecture can influence decisions.In this issue of the journal, Hart et al explore physicians’ knowledge cheap levitra 10mg of choice architecture in medical care.1 The investigators focus on eight principles related to decision science including how first impressions are weighted heavily, defaults matter, people are risk averse toward gains, multiple options increase status quo bias and social norms have abounding influence.

The main finding is that over cheap levitra 10mg one-third of basic questions on these principles were answered incorrectly by medical residents. An important added finding is that the majority of medical residents endorsed the relevance of choice architecture for clinical practice. Together, this careful and thorough study identifies a shortfall in physicians’ understanding of decision science and an opportunity for improving medical education beyond correcting errors in diagnostic reasoning.The study by Hart et al joins a larger body of basic science examining how choice architecture can be important and readily modified cheap levitra 10mg outside of medicine.

A classic example is retirement savings plans where changing the default to automatic enrolment can lead to a large increase in retirement savings plan participation rates (49% vs 86%, p<0.001).2 3 Another example involves providing a prefilled application to underprivileged high school students can lead to an increase in college enrolment (34% vs 42%, p<0.05).4 One recent review suggests changes in choice architecture can also be more cost-effective than traditional policy interventions in social domains.5 The main limitation of choice architecture is that this scientific paradigm is not a falsifiable idea since any failure might be blamed on poor implementation.6A limitation of the study by Hart et al is the analysis only explored a subset of important choice architecture tactics that could make clinicians more effective (table 1). Interventions based on optimising salience, appealing to social norms and preserving ego may be distinctly relevant given a physician’s personal knowledge of the cheap levitra 10mg patient. Gradual persuasion could also have substantial potential since clinical practice involves following the same patient over time, thereby allowing future choices to be primed and also steered by past choices.

In contrast, selecting the right messenger, providing incentives, enhancing attractiveness and switching defaults are interventions typically beyond a clinician’s control.7 These tactics (the bricks-and-mortar for modifying cheap levitra 10mg choice architecture) are not exhaustive and Hart et al have tested only a subset.View this table:Table 1 MINDSPACE approach to pragmatic tactics in choice architecture*Modifications in choice architecture differ from quality improvement initiatives that remove options from clinicians. Automatic stop dates for antibiotics, policies for discontinuing Foley catheters, reductions in drug formularies and many other successful examples of quality improvement work mostly by eliminating options deemed inappropriate.8–11 Conversely, initiatives such as adding a surgical checklist or other quality interventions that increase clinician workload tend to be less reliable.12 cheap levitra 10mg 13 Changes in choice architecture neither subtract nor add a distinct burden onto clinicians. Instead, their goal is to guide choice without a constraining function (eg, spell-checking software that offers corrections when writing a medical note).

This means changes in choice architecture require less institutional clout and create less cheap levitra 10mg stakeholder backlash.Many other elements of choice architecture coincide with standard quality improvement. This includes emphasising the value of giving feedback (eg, see-through drip chambers to show intravenous infusion rates), anticipating error (eg, automatic double checks before initiating blood product infusions) and clear process mappings (eg, cardiopulmonary resuscitation algorithms for following resuscitation guidelines). Choice architecture sometimes highlights the disproportionate effect of small salient positive incentives (eg, a slice of pizza cheap levitra 10mg offered to a hungry medical student).

Choice architecture also strongly emphasises the importance of defaults (eg, distinguishing opt-in from opt-out organ donation programmes) and structured choices (eg, organised order sets for inpatients admitted for heart failure). Good choice architecture rarely conflicts with good quality improvement.14A recent advance in choice architecture involves clean-up campaigns against sludge, defined as barriers that discourage people from doing the right thing.15 A clear example of sludge arises in corporations that make cheap levitra 10mg it easy to enrol in a subscription service and difficult to cancel the subscription later. The typical cheap levitra 10mg features of sludge are awkward obstacles that burden the customer.

The thoughtful identification and elimination of sludge can be a remarkably effective way to advance decisions and prosocial behaviour by changing the choice environment (eg, automated telephone answering systems for patients to refill prescriptions). Of course, sometimes sludge is not an unintentional remnant structure that can cheap levitra 10mg be readily modified but a deliberate commercial tactic to stop people acting in their own best interests.An important debate around choice architecture involves preserving patient autonomy, avoiding coercion and allowing freedom. At one extreme, a choice architect might become tantamount to a paternalistic authority infringing on patient liberty or acting maliciously.16 At the other extreme, a choice architect may be relegated to a subordinate position, constrained to featherweight interventions and limited to offering trivial changes to patient health.17 Each society will have its own values when determining the correct balance between freedom and safety, thereby implying that changes in choice architecture may be more acceptable in some regions than others.

Inevitably, this leads to inconsistent clinical implementation of choice architecture despite medical science being portrayed as universal regardless of situation.The future cheap levitra 10mg is likely to provide more opportunities for improved choice architecture that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety in medicine. One framework for conceiving such opportunities is the FEAST mnemonic adapted from the Behavioural Insights Team in the UK (table 2).18 The elements are Fun (motivate all stakeholders), Easy (reduce hassle factors), Attractive (design to attract attention), Social (encourage people to commit to others) and Timely (prompt people when they are likely most receptive). These concepts (the vision and blueprint of choice architecture) are now at the frontier for patient safety and quality cheap levitra 10mg improvement science.

Some of these concepts have been implicitly understood in commercial industries for decades.19 The study by Hart et al suggests clinicians are hungry for this FEAST.View cheap levitra 10mg this table:Table 2 FEAST approach to design theory for choice architecture*erectile dysfunction treatment and police brutality have simultaneously heightened public awareness of disparities in health outcomes by race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status, and the underlying structural drivers of systemic racism and social privilege in the USA.1 2 Increasingly major professional associations such as the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, and Association of American Medical Colleges are decrying racism and inequities, and many individual healthcare organisations are committing to addressing health disparities. Hospitals, clinics and health plans are looking inwards to identify organisational biases and discrimination, and developing outward interventions to advance health equity for their patients. Looking in the mirror honestly takes cheap levitra 10mg courage.

Frequently the discoveries and self-insights are troubling.3 At their best, discussions about racism and inequities are challenging.4 Within the quality of care field, disparities in patient safety are relatively understudied.5 6 Thus, Schulson et al’s study in this issue of BMJ Quality and Safety, finding that voluntary incident reporting systems may underdetect safety issues in marginalised populations, is an important sentinel event.7 Implicit bias in providers and structural bias in safety reporting systems might explain this underdetection of problems.In this editorial, I summarise the practical lessons for advancing health equity sustainably, with the hope of accelerating equity in patient safety. I present a framework for advancing health cheap levitra 10mg equity, describe common pitfalls and apply the framework to patient safety to inform research and policy recommendations. The wider health disparities field has been criticised for spending too many years describing the phenomenon of inequities before emphasising interventions and solutions.

The patient safety field should move faster, incorporating major advances that have occurred regarding how to reduce health disparities.8 9 While equity issues in patient safety have been understudied, the principles for successfully advancing health equity align well with the culture and toolkit of the safety field.10 Thus, achieving equitable patient cheap levitra 10mg safety is a realistic and important opportunity.My lessons are from the ‘school of hard knocks’. Over 25 years of performing multilevel health disparities research and interventions locally,11 nationally9 12 13 and internationally.14 I have been fortunate to work with many passionate, inspirational staff and leaders from healthcare and the community who have demonstrated that advancing health equity is not a mirage—it can be done.A framework for advancing health equityThe WHO defines health equity as ‘the absence of unfair and avoidable or remediable differences in health among population groups defined socially, economically, demographically or geographically’.15 To achieve health equity, people should receive cheap levitra 10mg the care they need, not necessarily the exact same care.16I summarise a framework for advancing health equity (figure 1). In brief, individuals and organisations must commit to the mission of maximising the health of diverse individuals and populations.

Their actions, cheap levitra 10mg policies and procedures must intentionally advance health equity. This intentional design to advance health equity consists of two simultaneous tracks. (1) Create a culture of equity in which the whole organisation—senior leadership, mid-level management, front-line staff and clinicians—truly values and buys cheap levitra 10mg in to the mission of advancing health equity.17 Developing a culture of equity requires an inward personal look for biases as well as examination for systematic structures within the organisation that bias against and oppress marginalised groups.

(2) Implement the Road Map to Reduce Disparities.9 18 Road map principles are the tenets of good quality improvement, emphasising an equity lens that tailors care to meet the needs of diverse patients rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Key steps cheap levitra 10mg of the road map are to. Identify disparities with stratified clinical performance data cheap levitra 10mg and input of clinicians, staff and patients.

Do a root cause analysis of the drivers of the disparities. And design and implement cheap levitra 10mg care interventions that address the root causes in collaboration with the affected patients and populations. These actions will ultimately improve individual and population health and improve health and healthcare equity.Framework for Advancing Health Equity.9 18 " data-icon-position data-hide-link-title="0">Figure 1 Framework for Advancing Health Equity.9 18Creating a culture of equity and implementing the concrete actions of the road map are equally important for change.

Management consultant Peter Drucker’s famous cheap levitra 10mg aphorism that ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ applies to equity work. Technically sound disparity interventions and strategies will not be implemented or sustained unless equity is an organisational priority among all workers. Similarly, well-meaning intentions will not take an organisation far unless cheap levitra 10mg accompanied by concrete actions.

The key bridge between a culture of equity and road map principles is that every worker in the organisation, from the chief executive officer to front-line cheap levitra 10mg staff, must know how to practically operationalise advancing health equity in their daily jobs. Successful application of these lessons is in part interacting effectively with diverse persons, as classically taught in cultural humility classes.19 However, operationalisation goes beyond interpersonal relations to each worker knowing how they should perform their daily jobs with an equity lens and reform the structures in which they work, regardless of whether they are working in clinical care, data analytics, quality improvement, strategic operations, finances, patient experience, environmental services, health information technology or human resources. Leadership needs to provide front-line staff with the cheap levitra 10mg training and support necessary for success.

The wider environment requires payment reform that supports and incentivises care transformation that advances health equity.20–22 Partnerships across health and social sectors need to align goals and efforts to address the medical and social drivers of health, both drivers for individual persons as well as the underlying systematic structural drivers.23Common pitfalls(1) Not being intentional about advancing health equity. Relying on magical cheap levitra 10mg thinking. When I ask healthcare leaders what they are doing to advance health cheap levitra 10mg equity, I frequently hear well-meaning statements such as.

€˜We’re already doing quality improvement.’ ‘We’re a safety-net organization that cares for the most vulnerable persons. It’s who we are.’ ‘The shift from fee-for-service payment to value-based payment and alternative payment models will fix things.’ Such statements are variants of the ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ philosophy and the belief that the ‘invisible cheap levitra 10mg hand’, whether it be general free market principles, a general system of quality improvement and patient safety, or general commitment to serving marginalised populations, will suffice in reducing health disparities. Yet, disparities stubbornly persist in quality of care and outcomes by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.24Culturally tailored care interventions that address the underlying causes of disparities often work better than default one-size-fits-all approaches.25 However, the ‘invisible hand’ incentives in general quality improvement and pay-for-performance approaches are frequently too weak to drive organisations to tailor approaches to advance health equity,13 and can even be counterproductive.

Rather than implement individualised, tailored care that can improve outcomes for diverse minority populations, some organisations perceive that it is easier to improve their aggregate patient outcomes or clinical performance per dollars spent cheap levitra 10mg by investing resources in the general system of care, or by intentionally or unintentionally erecting barriers that make it harder for marginalised populations to access their system of care. For example, persons living in zip code areas that have higher percentages of African Americans or persons living in poverty have less access to physicians practising in accountable care organisations.26 27 Moreover, inadequately designed incentive systems can penalise safety-net hospitals that care for marginalised populations, leading to a downward spiral in quality of care and outcomes. The initial iteration of Medicare’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) reduced Medicare payments to safety-net hospitals by 1%–3% and increased readmission rates for black patients in these hospitals.28 Directed by legislation passed by Congress, the Medicare programme intentionally addressed this equity problem in the HRRP in 2019 by stratifying hospitals by proportion of patients dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, so that a given hospital’s clinical performance would be compared with that of hospitals with a similar prevalence of poverty when calculating financial rewards and penalties.29(2) Focusing exclusively on cultural humility or implicit bias training and avoiding looking for systemic, structural cheap levitra 10mg drivers of inequities.

Many organisations institute cultural humility or implicit bias training as their equity intervention.19 cheap levitra 10mg While an important and essential component of creating a culture of equity, such training must be accompanied by hard examination for structural processes that lead to inequities. For example, in a project designed to decrease hospital length of stay, the University of Chicago Medicine data analytics group discovered that the process the organisation had proposed for developing and using machine learning predictive algorithms to identify patients for intervention would have systematically shifted resources away from African Americans to more affluent white patients.30 31 This inequitable process was caught before implementation, and now the data analytics group is proactively building analytical processes to advance health equity.(3) Insufficiently engaging patients and community. Too often cheap levitra 10mg perfunctory or no efforts are made to meaningfully engage patients and community in quality improvement and patient safety efforts.

Patients and families frequently feel they have not been heard and that their experiences and preferences are not adequately valued.32 33 A common mistake is using proxies for the community rather than the actual community. One organisation we worked with sought advice from Latinx (gender-neutral, non-binary term to indicate of Latin American descent) healthcare workers to design an intervention to reduce disparities in the outcomes of cheap levitra 10mg their Latinx patients with depression, rather than speaking with actual patients. The organisation designed a telephone intervention that failed, partly because their patients frequently had pay-by-the-minute cellphone plans rather than unlimited minute cellphone plans that were probably more commonly used by the Latinx employees.

Few patients agreed to enrol in the intervention because of cost.(4) Marginalising equity efforts rather than involving cheap levitra 10mg the whole organisation. Frequently healthcare organisations will do an isolated care demonstration project to reduce disparities or appoint a siloed chief equity officer rather than mobilising the whole organisation to advance health equity cheap levitra 10mg. It helps having health equity leaders with dedicated resources to catalyse reform, but meaningful sustainable change only occurs when everyone makes it their job to improve health equity.

Most organisations do not engage in substantive discussions with payers regarding how to support and incentivise disparities reduction, nor consider how cross-sector partnerships can be organised in effective cheap levitra 10mg and financially sustainable ways.(5) Requiring a linear, stepwise process for reducing disparities and allowing the ‘perfect to be the enemy of the good’. For example, some organisations get stuck collecting race/ethnicity/language data so they can stratify their clinical performance measures by these factors. Such stratified data are valuable but it can be time cheap levitra 10mg consuming to establish the initial data collection systems.

While those efforts are ongoing, other projects could occur. These additional projects could include creating a culture of equity, and identifying disparity problems based on clinician, staff and patient input, and then designing and implementing interventions to mitigate them.34Recommendations for the patient safety field to advance health equityI offer several recommendations to inform research, policy and practical action.(1) Broaden collaborators to include cheap levitra 10mg experts on racism, intersectionality and systems of oppression.3 4 35 A great strength of the patient safety field is its interdisciplinary team approach. However, it is difficult for even the most well-meaning people to understand cheap levitra 10mg what they have not experienced.

A recent powerful formative experience for me was living in Aotearoa/New Zealand for several months and writing a paper with diverse international colleagues comparing what Aotearoa/New Zealand and the USA were doing to advance health equity.14 After dozens of frank conversations with my Maori coauthors, I began to understand in depth the devastating nature of colonialism, and the overt and insidious ways power structures can oppress marginalised populations. Increasing the diversity of lived experiences and expertise on patient safety teams is critical, and requires a hard look for systemic biases in hiring practices and procedures.(2) cheap levitra 10mg Examine safety criteria and systems for bias. Design and implement equitable systems for identifying, measuring and eliminating safety problems.

Patient safety is an inherently complex field that will require explicit and cheap levitra 10mg implicit criteria to capture and monitor problems.36 37 Schulson et al’s paper highlights how voluntary reporting systems can introduce bias.7 In practice, automatic and voluntary reporting systems have different strengths and weaknesses that will require careful integration to maximise the chance that equitable safety outcomes will be attained. Automated measures are explicit review measures that are objective but can be relatively crude and limited for capturing safety issues. In general, voluntary measures are implicit review measures that are subject to a variety of cheap levitra 10mg personal and judgement biases but which are more comprehensive and potentially richer.

Given that cheap levitra 10mg individual discretion is used in voluntary reporting, reports could be grouped into different categories based on degree of legitimate discretion. Such categorisation could help identify whether variation across different patient groups in rates of reported safety defects occurs primarily among criteria with legitimate discretion versus ones where variation likely reflects implicit bias. Diverse workers and patients should be empowered to help create and implement the safety systems and report potential safety problems.33(3) View failures in treatment plans due to social determinants of health as safety issues cheap levitra 10mg.

A treatment plan that is likely to fail because of social challenges is a safety problem. Discharging a patient from the hospital when they are medically stable but likely to have poor outcomes because of cheap levitra 10mg homelessness is a safety problem. If the purpose of healthcare is to maximise health, then healthcare organisations must collaborate with community partners to address medical and social issues.38(4) Develop validated patient safety equity performance measures.

What is measured and rewarded influences what is done.39 40 Safety equity measures could include general safety measures stratified by social factors such as race/ethnicity, population health metrics incorporating the impact of medical and social interventions,41 and structural and process measures such as procedures that incorporate marginalised populations in the safety review process or use safety checklists with explicit consideration of equity at key junctures.30 42(5) Use a full implementation science cheap levitra 10mg framework to maximise the chance of effective scale-up and spread of patient safety interventions that advance health equity. Patient safety work has the strength of being an integral valued part of cheap levitra 10mg healthcare organisations’ operations. Thus, patient safety leaders, researchers and implementers frequently have a seat at the table when strategic planning is occurring regarding institutional priorities, system reform, financing and relations with external stakeholders such as payers.

A strength of the patient safety field has been its ability to understand and shape culture, and its awareness of how inner and outer contexts affect systems change.43 These perspectives need to be intentionally viewed through an equity lens to reduce disparities.44 45 For example, American organisations need to honestly ask themselves to what extent they will advocate for payment policies that incentivise maximising population health and equitable patient safety rather than current payment systems that support too much low value cheap levitra 10mg care.38 46(6) Ride and nurture the moral wave for equity in patient safety. Intrinsic motivation is the most powerful driver of behaviour.47 People want to do the right thing, and they will do so if supported and provided the training and tools for success.48 Seize the opportunity presented by the heightened public readiness for addressing racism and inequities. Keep the cheap levitra 10mg momentum going.

Now is the time for us to make strong, bold choices.49 We can make a difference and advance health equity, providing hope and the opportunity for a healthy life to all.50.

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Diagnostic errors in hospital buy levitra online cheap medicine have mostly remained in uncharted waters.1 This is partly because several factors make measurement of which is safer viagra cialis or levitra diagnostic errors challenging. Patients are often admitted which is safer viagra cialis or levitra to hospitals with a tentative diagnosis and need additional diagnostic investigations to determine next steps. This evolving nature of a diagnosis makes it hard to determine when the correct diagnosis could have been established and if a more specific diagnosis was needed to start the right treatment.2 Hospitalised patients also may have diagnoses that are atypical or rare and pose dilemmas for treating clinicians. As a result, delays in diagnosis may not which is safer viagra cialis or levitra necessarily be related to a diagnostic error.

Furthermore, what types of diagnostic errors occur in the hospital and their prevalence depends on how one defines them which is safer viagra cialis or levitra. Different approaches to define them have included counting missed, wrong or delayed diagnoses regardless of whether there was a process error;3 counting them only when there was a clear ‘missed opportunity’ – ie, something different could have been done to make the correct or timely diagnosis;4 or diagnostic adverse events (ie, diagnostic errors resulting in harm);5 all leading to views of the problem through different lenses.Two articles in this issue of the journal provide new insights into the epidemiology of diagnostic errors in hospitalised patients.6 7 Gunderson and colleagues conducted a systematic review to determine the prevalence of harmful diagnostic errors in hospitalised patients.6 Raffel and colleagues studied readmitted patients using established methods for diagnostic error detection and analysis to gain insights into contributing factors.7 Both studies advance the science of measurement and understanding of how to reduce diagnostic error in hospitals. We discuss the significance of the results for hospital medicine and implications for emerging research and practice improvement efforts.Finding diagnostic errors in hospitalsGunderson and colleagues performed a systematic review and meta-analysis which is safer viagra cialis or levitra to inform a new estimate for the prevalence of diagnostic adverse events among hospitalised patients, a rate of 0.7%.6 Their review shows how diagnostic error is a global problem, with studies from countries across five continents. The prevalence however is lower than what might be expected looking at previous research, mostly in outpatient care, and based on expert estimates.8–11 The prevalence of diagnostic error in hospital care may be lower because outpatient care, especially primary care, has the challenging task of identifying patients with a serious disease from a large sample of patients who present with common symptoms and mostly benign non-urgent diseases.

A higher state of attention in the hospital and higher prior probability of a patient having a more serious disease may also reduce the likelihood of something being missed (ie, the prevalence effect).12 13 Furthermore, the hospital setting offers more diagnostic evaluation possibilities (consultations, imaging, laboratory) and more members of the diagnostic team to alert a clinician on the wrong diagnostic track.The heterogeneity of the studies in the review and meta-analysis and which is safer viagra cialis or levitra a broad scope may also explain the lower prevalence rate.6 14 The included studies did not have an exclusive focus on detecting diagnostic errors but rather aimed to identify all types of adverse events, including medication and surgical adverse events,5 15 which are relatively easier to measure. Consequently, the data collection instruments were likely which is safer viagra cialis or levitra not sufficiently sensitive to pick up diagnostic adverse events, resulting in an underestimation. Some diagnostic adverse events may also be classified as ‘other’ types. For instance delayed diagnosis of a wound leakage after surgery is often considered a surgical complication and not categorised which is safer viagra cialis or levitra as a delay in diagnosis.16 Studies in the review also detected adverse events (ie, errors that resulted in harm)6 which is a subgroup of diagnostic errors, because not every diagnostic error results in harm.17 Lastly, while the random selection of patients is a strength for determining prevalence of medical error, not all admissions involve making a diagnosis—patients are often hospitalised for treatment and procedures.

As the literature in the area becomes more robust, future reviews may be able to provide an updated estimate. For now, Gunderson and which is safer viagra cialis or levitra colleagues estimate 250,000 diagnostic adverse events occur annually in the USA, which should be alarming enough to warrant attention and intervention.While the study by Raffel and colleagues is not a true prevalence study (it only evaluated 7-day readmissions), it uses dedicated tools to identify diagnostic error in hospitals, a crucial next step. By examining a subset of hospital admissions at greater risk of diagnosis-related problems (ie, readmissions within 7 days after hospital discharge) and by using tools dedicated to identifying diagnostic error, the investigators were which is safer viagra cialis or levitra able to describe error types and contributing factors. The advantage of studying such a high-risk sample is that diagnostic errors can be found more efficiently, that is, the positive predictive value is higher than if you review all consecutive patients.

This could identify a higher number of which is safer viagra cialis or levitra cases to identify contributing factors. While the positive predictive value they achieved through this method was still rather low, methods to selectively identify diagnostic errors are valuable in measurement efforts. Future studies could build on this work to develop sampling methods with higher predictive values that can be used by others for research and practice improvement.Diseases at risk for diagnostic which is safer viagra cialis or levitra error in the hospital settingTypes of conditions involved in diagnostic error in both studies reflect a broad range of diseases commonly identified in previous studies, such as malignancies, pulmonary embolism, aortic aneurysm and s.5 8 18 A recent malpractice claims-based study has led some to suggest that initial diagnostic error reduction efforts, including allocation of funding for research and quality measurement/improvement, should focus on three broad types of disease categories, the so-called ‘Big Three’, namely cancer, s and cardiovascular diseases, because they are highly prevalent and result in significant harm.11 19 20 These three disease categories cover a large portion of diagnoses made in medicine. Indeed, data beyond claims also suggest that diagnostic errors in each of these categories are common.5 18 However, diagnostic errors span a large range of other diseases as shown in both studies, which is similar to what prior studies have which is safer viagra cialis or levitra found.

For instance, in one primary care study, 68 unique diagnoses were missed with the most common condition accounting for only 6.7% of errors.21Contributing factors in hospital medicineRaffel and colleagues applied established tools (ie, SAFER Dx22 and DEER23) to identify contributing factors. They found that most of these involved failures in which is safer viagra cialis or levitra clinical assessment and/or testing. Contributing factors in these two domains occurred in more than 90% of diagnostic errors, a high proportion consistent with previous work.8 17 18 which is safer viagra cialis or levitra Furthermore, these main contributing factors are common across diagnostic errors regardless of the diseases involved. For instance, similar process breakdowns emerge across different types of missed cancer diagnoses.24–26Finding ‘Forests’ not just the ‘Big Trees’ to enable scientific progressSo should initial scientific efforts just target disease categories?.

And if so, which is safer viagra cialis or levitra should they address just the ‘Big Three’?. Data from prior studies across different settings, including those from Gunderson and Raffel and colleagues, find large diversity in misdiagnosed diseases.5–7 18 21 27 This suggests that an exclusive focus on the ‘Big Three’ would neglect a substantial proportion of other common and harmful diagnostic errors.27 Furthermore, research on contributing factors of diagnostic errors reveals a number of common system and process factors that would require robust disease-agnostic approaches. If funding and advocacy for diagnostic safety becomes mostly disease oriented, it will pull resources away from broader ‘disease-agnostic’ research and quality which is safer viagra cialis or levitra improvement efforts needed to understand and address these underlying system and process factors.28 Biomedical research is already quite disease focused and supported by many disease-specific institutes and this now needs to be balanced by work that catalyses much-needed foundational and cross-cutting healthcare delivery system improvements.We would thus recommend a balanced strategy that carefully combines disease-specific and disease-agnostic approaches to help address common contributing factors, system issues and process breakdowns for diagnostic error that cut across these many unique diseases. For example, if new quality measures to quantify delays in colorectal cancer diagnosis and missed diagnosis of sepsis are developed, we would also need ‘disease-agnostic’ studies that evaluate the which is safer viagra cialis or levitra implementation and effectiveness of such measures.

This includes how they fit within current measurement programmes, what their measurement burden is and what the unintended consequences may be. A combined approach would create more synergistic and collaborative understanding in addition to enabling application of common frameworks and approaches to multiple conditions, rather than ‘reinventing the wheel’ for each disease or disease which is safer viagra cialis or levitra category. This type of approach may have a larger population-based impact and help us see the entire ‘forest’ to reduce diagnostic error.Implications for practice improvementA crucial first step for improving diagnosis in hospitals is to create programmes to identify and analyse diagnostic errors.29 Most hospitals have systems and programmes in place to report and analyse safety issues such as falls, surgical complications and medication errors, but they do not capture diagnostic errors. With increased recognition of risks for diagnostic error, hospitals should use recent guidance, such as from the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and consider pragmatic measurement approaches to start identifying and learning from diagnostic errors.30To reduce cognitive errors, ‘cognitive debiasing strategies’ have been widely recommended.31 However, there is increasing evidence that those strategies are not effective for diagnostic error reduction and recent insights have revealed lack of knowledge as the fundamental which is safer viagra cialis or levitra cause of errors in the diagnostic reasoning process.32–34 Next steps for practice improvement would therefore need to involve studying the role of knowledge and its interplay with cognitive processes.

Interventions should explore opportunities which is safer viagra cialis or levitra to increase clinicians’ knowledge base (eg, by education and feedback) as well as testing and implementing clinical decision support systems to allow for timely access to the relevant knowledge. While specific interventions need more development and testing, other general safety practices such as better collaboration with the laboratory and radiology departments to facilitate more accurate ordering and interpretation of the tests,33 are ready for adoption.ConclusionsTwo studies6 7 of diagnostic error in hospital medicine—by Gunderson and colleagues and Raffel and colleagues—have advanced our knowledge about its epidemiology. Consistent with prior studies, a large range of diseases and a whole host of common contributory which is safer viagra cialis or levitra factors are involved. Although the estimated prevalence of diagnostic error relies on data from prior studies conducted during an era of limited dedicated tools to identify diagnostic errors, these numbers have significant research and practice implications.

Measurement science is still evolving but both studies should inspire all hospitals to apply more contemporary methods to identify and analyse diagnostic errors for which is safer viagra cialis or levitra learning and improvement. Given that errors across multiple diseases in multitude of settings have many common contributing factors, disease-agnostic approaches focused on common systems and process contributory factors are likely to have significant benefit and should be which is safer viagra cialis or levitra emphasised in further research and development efforts.Patient advocates have long called for patients to have access to all of their healthcare data, including electronic health records (EHRs).1 In parallel, experts have suggested that providing patients with access to EHRs will improve patient engagement, care quality, and, by extension, health/healthcare outcomes.2 Prior observational studies have supported some of these claims—for example, documenting that patients are overwhelmingly interested in and satisfied with receiving their healthcare data electronically,3 to finding that patients do identify errors when they read physician notes in the EHR.4 Because studies of EHR access for patients have been conducted and disseminated across disparate clinical conditions and settings and often using varied methodologies, the systematic review by Neves et al in this issue of BMJ Quality &. Safety provides a valuable contribution in assessing the impact of patients’ EHR access specifically within the randomised controlled trial (RCT) literature.5 Their meta-analysis demonstrates some significant but potentially limited benefits within these 20 RCTs that involved sharing EHR data/access with patients.Overall, Neves et al found a few clear trends. First, there which is safer viagra cialis or levitra was a consistent, modest improvement in glycaemic control in RCTs targeting patients with diabetes, reinforcing the observational research focused on portal use for diabetes care.6 In addition, patient access to EHRs seemed to support safety of care in facilitating medication adherence and identification of medication discrepancies.

These results are similar to observational studies,7 as well as a recent scoping review of patient engagement interventions to promote the safety which is safer viagra cialis or levitra of care and to improve short-term and intermediate-term clinical outcomes.8 Finally, for patient-reported outcomes ranging from self-efficacy to patient activation to patient satisfaction, results were mixed, with about half of included studies showing some improvement. Thus, this review highlighted a wide variation and potential lack of consensus about what patient-centred outcome to include in studying EHR-enabled interventions, given the diffuse set of behaviours that could be targeted. More importantly, this review highlights that none of the included studies, many of which are older, focused on equity as a primary objective of the work (and very few even included data on racial/ethnic, educational attainment, digital literacy and/or health literacy differences9 10)—even though there are known barriers which is safer viagra cialis or levitra to digital health interventions by these characteristics.Despite the modest benefits seen in these 20 randomised trials of EHR-facilitated complex care interventions, we still believe in the clinical value and potential improvement in patient-reported outcomes in this space. A more careful examination of the 20 included studies in this review actually sheds important light on delivering complex interventions to improve quality of care, during which patient access to EHRs was implemented in varied ways that might have led to more muddled results.

For example, many of the included studies tested evidence-based practices that are known to independently enhance the quality of care, such as patient outreach and reminders for healthcare tasks, self-management training and increased healthcare provider communication access which is safer viagra cialis or levitra. Therefore, without detailed behavioural pathways for the targeted which is safer viagra cialis or levitra intervention components surrounding EHR data access, it is challenging to interpret observed trial effects. In our opinion and in our previous work,11 one-time action by systems or clinics granting patient access to EHRs is unlikely to replicate the effect of these interventions. In particular, which is safer viagra cialis or levitra access versus training to use EHRs should likely be considered separately, as well as the study of specific features within the EHR.

For example, passive provision of medical information from the EHR via online portals (eg, after-visit summaries or list of immunisations) differs substantially from active communication or completion of healthcare tasks via EHR-linked websites (eg, secure messaging exchanges between patients and providers about medical concerns or medication refill requests).Therefore, we hope that this review can push the field beyond RCTs of patient access to EHR data and into specific mechanisms for patient uptake/use that could be more generalisable. First and foremost, it is now generally accepted that patients have the right to view their own health data, both because of their which is safer viagra cialis or levitra ownership of that information and the convenience it may offer. This indicates that it will likely be impossible to randomise patients to either receive or not receive EHR data in the future, and interventions surrounding universal EHR data access which is safer viagra cialis or levitra could be more specific to targeted behaviours. For example, now that patient electronic access to data is here to stay, future attention to research methods that tailor interventions, tease apart core implementation strategies, and engage patients and providers in codesign will be important next steps to ensure efficiency and relevance.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, RCT participants often differ significantly from target populations, with volunteers often exhibiting higher educational attainment and less racial/ethnic diversity.12 Given known disparities in patient EHR access by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and health literacy mentioned previously, these which is safer viagra cialis or levitra trials are not likely to generalise to more diverse populations.Moving forward, the results of this review highlight several principles for future studies of technology-facilitated healthcare delivery. First, all studies need to both include diverse participants and report on race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and health and digital literacy.13 Second, future work must focus on both internal and external validity of patient access/use of EHR data. The review by Neves et al gives us some clearer understanding of the internal validity of studies on clinical and patient-reported outcomes, but it remains unclear what impact these types of interventions will have on health outcomes across an entire healthcare which is safer viagra cialis or levitra system or region outside of RCT samples. Studies of patient EHR access/use can move into the external validity space (even while conducting RCTs)14 by including implementation outcomes, such as the proportion of individuals offered EHR access who take it up, the extent of which is safer viagra cialis or levitra use over time, the type/features used, and costs for providers and staff, in addition to effectiveness in promoting health outcomes and differences across socioeconomic status, racial/ethnic groups and literacy levels.Like patient advocates and experts for many years, we absolutely agree that patient records belong to patients and should be readily available in structured, electronic form for patients and families.15 Given the complexity of the information provided and the specific context for interacting or supporting patients in completing tasks via online patient portals/platforms, we should not expect access alone to ameliorate current gaps in care or significantly improve morbidity and mortality.

As more care becomes digital-first (ie, with virtual care and telemedicine), there are real concerns about widening healthcare disparities for low-income, racial–ethnic minority and linguistically diverse populations. Our specific recommendations to avoid such undesirable developments moving forward includeWider measurement of patient interest and access/skills to using technology-based health platforms and tools.Tailoring of interventions to match patient preferences and needs, such as by digital literacy skills as well as inclusion of caregivers/families to support use.Use of mixed method and implementation science studies to understand use, usability, and uptake alongside clinical impact and effectiveness.Attention to these points will allow us to understand the ways in which patient portals and other forms of EHR access for patients may produce different which is safer viagra cialis or levitra impacts across distinct patient groups. This understanding will not only mitigate potential adverse effects for vulnerable groups but also achieve the intended goal of improving healthcare quality for all patients through freer access to information about their care..

Diagnostic errors in hospital medicine have mostly remained in uncharted waters.1 This is partly because several cheap levitra 10mg factors make measurement of diagnostic errors challenging. Patients are often admitted to hospitals with a tentative diagnosis and need additional diagnostic investigations to determine next steps cheap levitra 10mg. This evolving nature of a diagnosis makes it hard to determine when the correct diagnosis could have been established and if a more specific diagnosis was needed to start the right treatment.2 Hospitalised patients also may have diagnoses that are atypical or rare and pose dilemmas for treating clinicians.

As a result, cheap levitra 10mg delays in diagnosis may not necessarily be related to a diagnostic error. Furthermore, what types of diagnostic errors occur in cheap levitra 10mg the hospital and their prevalence depends on how one defines them. Different approaches to define them have included counting missed, wrong or delayed diagnoses regardless of whether there was a process error;3 counting them only when there was a clear ‘missed opportunity’ – ie, something different could have been done to make the correct or timely diagnosis;4 or diagnostic adverse events (ie, diagnostic errors resulting in harm);5 all leading to views of the problem through different lenses.Two articles in this issue of the journal provide new insights into the epidemiology of diagnostic errors in hospitalised patients.6 7 Gunderson and colleagues conducted a systematic review to determine the prevalence of harmful diagnostic errors in hospitalised patients.6 Raffel and colleagues studied readmitted patients using established methods for diagnostic error detection and analysis to gain insights into contributing factors.7 Both studies advance the science of measurement and understanding of how to reduce diagnostic error in hospitals.

We discuss the significance of the results for hospital medicine and implications for emerging research and practice improvement efforts.Finding diagnostic errors in hospitalsGunderson and colleagues performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to inform a new estimate for the prevalence of diagnostic cheap levitra 10mg adverse events among hospitalised patients, a rate of 0.7%.6 Their review shows how diagnostic error is a global problem, with studies from countries across five continents. The prevalence however is lower than what might be expected looking at previous research, mostly in outpatient care, and based on expert estimates.8–11 The prevalence of diagnostic error in hospital care may be lower because outpatient care, especially primary care, has the challenging task of identifying patients with a serious disease from a large sample of patients who present with common symptoms and mostly benign non-urgent diseases. A higher state of attention in the hospital and higher prior probability of a patient having a more serious disease may also reduce the likelihood of something being missed (ie, the prevalence effect).12 13 Furthermore, the hospital setting offers more diagnostic evaluation possibilities (consultations, imaging, laboratory) and more members of the diagnostic team to alert a clinician on the wrong diagnostic track.The heterogeneity of the studies in the review and meta-analysis and a broad scope may also explain the lower prevalence rate.6 14 The included studies did not have an exclusive focus on detecting diagnostic errors but rather aimed to identify all types of adverse events, including medication and surgical adverse events,5 15 cheap levitra 10mg which are relatively easier to measure.

Consequently, the data collection instruments were likely not sufficiently sensitive to pick up diagnostic adverse events, resulting in cheap levitra 10mg an underestimation. Some diagnostic adverse events may also be classified as ‘other’ types. For instance delayed diagnosis of a wound leakage after surgery is often considered a surgical complication and not categorised as a delay in diagnosis.16 Studies in the review also detected adverse events (ie, errors that resulted in harm)6 which is a subgroup of diagnostic errors, because not every diagnostic error results in harm.17 Lastly, cheap levitra 10mg while the random selection of patients is a strength for determining prevalence of medical error, not all admissions involve making a diagnosis—patients are often hospitalised for treatment and procedures.

As the literature in the area becomes more robust, future reviews may be able to provide an updated estimate. For now, Gunderson and colleagues estimate 250,000 diagnostic adverse events occur annually in the USA, which should be alarming enough to warrant attention and intervention.While the study by cheap levitra 10mg Raffel and colleagues is not a true prevalence study (it only evaluated 7-day readmissions), it uses dedicated tools to identify diagnostic error in hospitals, a crucial next step. By examining a subset of hospital admissions at greater risk of diagnosis-related problems (ie, readmissions within 7 days after hospital discharge) and by cheap levitra 10mg using tools dedicated to identifying diagnostic error, the investigators were able to describe error types and contributing factors.

The advantage of studying such a high-risk sample is that diagnostic errors can be found more efficiently, that is, the positive predictive value is higher than if you review all consecutive patients. This could identify cheap levitra 10mg a higher number of cases to identify contributing factors. While the positive predictive value they achieved through this method was still rather low, methods to selectively identify diagnostic errors are valuable in measurement efforts.

Future studies could build on this work to develop sampling methods with higher predictive values that can be used by others for research and practice improvement.Diseases at risk for diagnostic error in the hospital settingTypes of conditions involved in cheap levitra 10mg diagnostic error in both studies reflect a broad range of diseases commonly identified in previous studies, such as malignancies, pulmonary embolism, aortic aneurysm and s.5 8 18 A recent malpractice claims-based study has led some to suggest that initial diagnostic error reduction efforts, including allocation of funding for research and quality measurement/improvement, should focus on three broad types of disease categories, the so-called ‘Big Three’, namely cancer, s and cardiovascular diseases, because they are highly prevalent and result in significant harm.11 19 20 These three disease categories cover a large portion of diagnoses made in medicine. Indeed, data beyond claims also suggest that diagnostic errors in each of these categories are common.5 18 However, diagnostic errors span a large range of other diseases as shown in both studies, which is similar cheap levitra 10mg to what prior studies have found. For instance, in one primary care study, 68 unique diagnoses were missed with the most common condition accounting for only 6.7% of errors.21Contributing factors in hospital medicineRaffel and colleagues applied established tools (ie, SAFER Dx22 and DEER23) to identify contributing factors.

They found that most of these involved failures in clinical assessment cheap levitra 10mg and/or testing. Contributing factors cheap levitra 10mg in these two domains occurred in more than 90% of diagnostic errors, a high proportion consistent with previous work.8 17 18 Furthermore, these main contributing factors are common across diagnostic errors regardless of the diseases involved. For instance, similar process breakdowns emerge across different types of missed cancer diagnoses.24–26Finding ‘Forests’ not just the ‘Big Trees’ to enable scientific progressSo should initial scientific efforts just target disease categories?.

And if cheap levitra 10mg so, should they address just the ‘Big Three’?. Data from prior studies across different settings, including those from Gunderson and Raffel and colleagues, find large diversity in misdiagnosed diseases.5–7 18 21 27 This suggests that an exclusive focus on the ‘Big Three’ would neglect a substantial proportion of other common and harmful diagnostic errors.27 Furthermore, research on contributing factors of diagnostic errors reveals a number of common system and process factors that would require robust disease-agnostic approaches. If funding and advocacy for diagnostic safety becomes mostly disease oriented, it will pull resources away from broader ‘disease-agnostic’ research and quality improvement efforts needed to understand and address these underlying system and process factors.28 Biomedical research is already quite disease focused and supported by many disease-specific institutes and this now needs to be balanced by work that catalyses much-needed foundational and cross-cutting healthcare delivery system improvements.We would thus recommend a balanced strategy that carefully combines cheap levitra 10mg disease-specific and disease-agnostic approaches to help address common contributing factors, system issues and process breakdowns for diagnostic error that cut across these many unique diseases.

For example, if new quality measures to cheap levitra 10mg quantify delays in colorectal cancer diagnosis and missed diagnosis of sepsis are developed, we would also need ‘disease-agnostic’ studies that evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of such measures. This includes how they fit within current measurement programmes, what their measurement burden is and what the unintended consequences may be. A combined approach would create more synergistic and collaborative understanding in addition to enabling application of common frameworks and approaches to multiple conditions, rather cheap levitra 10mg than ‘reinventing the wheel’ for each disease or disease category.

This type of approach may have a larger population-based impact and help us see the entire ‘forest’ to reduce diagnostic error.Implications for practice improvementA crucial first step for improving diagnosis in hospitals is to create programmes to identify and analyse diagnostic errors.29 Most hospitals have systems and programmes in place to report and analyse safety issues such as falls, surgical complications and medication errors, but they do not capture diagnostic errors. With increased recognition of risks for diagnostic error, hospitals should use recent guidance, such as from the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and consider pragmatic measurement approaches to start identifying and learning from diagnostic errors.30To reduce cognitive errors, ‘cognitive debiasing strategies’ have been widely recommended.31 However, there is increasing evidence that those strategies are not effective for diagnostic error reduction and recent insights have revealed lack of knowledge as the fundamental cause of cheap levitra 10mg errors in the diagnostic reasoning process.32–34 Next steps for practice improvement would therefore need to involve studying the role of knowledge and its interplay with cognitive processes. Interventions should explore opportunities to increase clinicians’ knowledge base (eg, by education and feedback) as well as testing cheap levitra 10mg and implementing clinical decision support systems to allow for timely access to the relevant knowledge.

While specific interventions need more development and testing, other general safety practices such as better collaboration with the laboratory and radiology departments to facilitate more accurate ordering and interpretation of the tests,33 are ready for adoption.ConclusionsTwo studies6 7 of diagnostic error in hospital medicine—by Gunderson and colleagues and Raffel and colleagues—have advanced our knowledge about its epidemiology. Consistent with prior studies, a large cheap levitra 10mg range of diseases and a whole host of common contributory factors are involved. Although the estimated prevalence of diagnostic error relies on data from prior studies conducted during an era of limited dedicated tools to identify diagnostic errors, these numbers have significant research and practice implications.

Measurement science is still evolving but both studies should inspire all hospitals to apply more cheap levitra 10mg contemporary methods to identify and analyse diagnostic errors for learning and improvement. Given that errors across multiple diseases in multitude of settings have many common contributing factors, disease-agnostic approaches focused on common systems and process contributory factors are likely to have significant benefit and should be emphasised in further research and development efforts.Patient advocates have long called for patients to have access to all of their healthcare data, including electronic health records (EHRs).1 In parallel, experts have suggested that providing patients with access to EHRs will improve patient engagement, care quality, and, by extension, health/healthcare outcomes.2 Prior observational studies have supported some of these claims—for example, documenting that patients are overwhelmingly interested in and satisfied with cheap levitra 10mg receiving their healthcare data electronically,3 to finding that patients do identify errors when they read physician notes in the EHR.4 Because studies of EHR access for patients have been conducted and disseminated across disparate clinical conditions and settings and often using varied methodologies, the systematic review by Neves et al in this issue of BMJ Quality &. Safety provides a valuable contribution in assessing the impact of patients’ EHR access specifically within the randomised controlled trial (RCT) literature.5 Their meta-analysis demonstrates some significant but potentially limited benefits within these 20 RCTs that involved sharing EHR data/access with patients.Overall, Neves et al found a few clear trends.

First, there was a consistent, modest improvement in glycaemic control in RCTs cheap levitra 10mg targeting patients with diabetes, reinforcing the observational research focused on portal use for diabetes care.6 In addition, patient access to EHRs seemed to support safety of care in facilitating medication adherence and identification of medication discrepancies. These results are similar to observational cheap levitra 10mg studies,7 as well as a recent scoping review of patient engagement interventions to promote the safety of care and to improve short-term and intermediate-term clinical outcomes.8 Finally, for patient-reported outcomes ranging from self-efficacy to patient activation to patient satisfaction, results were mixed, with about half of included studies showing some improvement. Thus, this review highlighted a wide variation and potential lack of consensus about what patient-centred outcome to include in studying EHR-enabled interventions, given the diffuse set of behaviours that could be targeted.

More importantly, this review highlights that none of the included studies, many of cheap levitra 10mg which are older, focused on equity as a primary objective of the work (and very few even included data on racial/ethnic, educational attainment, digital literacy and/or health literacy differences9 10)—even though there are known barriers to digital health interventions by these characteristics.Despite the modest benefits seen in these 20 randomised trials of EHR-facilitated complex care interventions, we still believe in the clinical value and potential improvement in patient-reported outcomes in this space. A more careful examination of the 20 included studies in this review actually sheds important light on delivering complex interventions to improve quality of care, during which patient access to EHRs was implemented in varied ways that might have led to more muddled results. For example, many of the cheap levitra 10mg included studies tested evidence-based practices that are known to independently enhance the quality of care, such as patient outreach and reminders for healthcare tasks, self-management training and increased healthcare provider communication access.

Therefore, without detailed behavioural pathways for the targeted intervention components surrounding EHR data access, it is challenging cheap levitra 10mg to interpret observed trial effects. In our opinion and in our previous work,11 one-time action by systems or clinics granting patient access to EHRs is unlikely to replicate the effect of these interventions. In particular, access versus training to cheap levitra 10mg use EHRs should likely be considered separately, as well as the study of specific features within the EHR.

For example, passive provision of medical information from the EHR via online portals (eg, after-visit summaries or list of immunisations) differs substantially from active communication or completion of healthcare tasks via EHR-linked websites (eg, secure messaging exchanges between patients and providers about medical concerns or medication refill requests).Therefore, we hope that this review can push the field beyond RCTs of patient access to EHR data and into specific mechanisms for patient uptake/use that could be more generalisable. First and foremost, it is now generally accepted that patients have the right to view their own health data, both because of their ownership of that cheap levitra 10mg information and the convenience it may offer. This indicates that it will likely be impossible to randomise patients to either receive or not cheap levitra 10mg receive EHR data in the future, and interventions surrounding universal EHR data access could be more specific to targeted behaviours.

For example, now that patient electronic access to data is here to stay, future attention to research methods that tailor interventions, tease apart core implementation strategies, and engage patients and providers in codesign will be important next steps to ensure efficiency and relevance. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, RCT participants often differ significantly from target populations, with volunteers often exhibiting higher educational attainment and less racial/ethnic diversity.12 Given known disparities in patient EHR access by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and health literacy mentioned previously, these trials are not likely cheap levitra 10mg to generalise to more diverse populations.Moving forward, the results of this review highlight several principles for future studies of technology-facilitated healthcare delivery. First, all studies need to both include diverse participants and report on race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and health and digital literacy.13 Second, future work must focus on both internal and external validity of patient access/use of EHR data.

The review by Neves et al gives us some clearer understanding of the cheap levitra 10mg internal validity of studies on clinical and patient-reported outcomes, but it remains unclear what impact these types of interventions will have on health outcomes across an entire healthcare system or region outside of RCT samples. Studies of patient EHR access/use can move into the external validity space (even while conducting RCTs)14 by including implementation outcomes, such as the proportion of individuals offered EHR access who take it up, the extent of use over time, the type/features used, and costs for providers and staff, in addition to effectiveness in promoting health outcomes and differences across socioeconomic status, racial/ethnic groups and literacy levels.Like patient advocates and experts for many years, we absolutely agree that patient records belong to patients and should be readily available in structured, electronic form for patients and families.15 Given the complexity of the information provided and the specific context for interacting or supporting patients in completing tasks via online patient portals/platforms, we should not expect access alone to ameliorate current gaps in care or significantly improve cheap levitra 10mg morbidity and mortality. As more care becomes digital-first (ie, with virtual care and telemedicine), there are real concerns about widening healthcare disparities for low-income, racial–ethnic minority and linguistically diverse populations.

Our specific recommendations to avoid such undesirable developments moving forward includeWider measurement of patient interest and access/skills to using technology-based health platforms and tools.Tailoring of interventions to match cheap levitra 10mg patient preferences and needs, such as by digital literacy skills as well as inclusion of caregivers/families to support use.Use of mixed method and implementation science studies to understand use, usability, and uptake alongside clinical impact and effectiveness.Attention to these points will allow us to understand the ways in which patient portals and other forms of EHR access for patients may produce different impacts across distinct patient groups. This understanding will not only mitigate potential adverse effects for vulnerable groups but also achieve the intended goal of improving healthcare quality for all patients through freer access to information about their care..

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Visit cloudmd.ca.About Canada Health InfowayInfoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and effective use of digital can i buy levitra at walmart health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and access to care and more efficient delivery of health services for patients and clinicians. Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded can i buy levitra at walmart by the federal government. Visit www.infoway-inforoute.ca.About PrescribeIT®Canada Health Infoway is working with Health Canada, the provinces and territories, and industry stakeholders to develop, operate and maintain the national e-prescribing service known as PrescribeIT®. PrescribeIT® will serve all Canadians, pharmacies and prescribers and provide safer and more effective medication management by enabling prescribers to transmit a prescription electronically between a prescriber’s electronic medical record (EMR) and the pharmacy management system (PMS) of can i buy levitra at walmart a patient’s pharmacy of choice.

PrescribeIT® will can i buy levitra at walmart protect Canadians’ personal health information from being sold or used for commercial activities. Visit www.PrescribeIT.ca.-30-Media Inquiries Karen SchmidtDirector, Corporate/Internal CommunicationsCanada Health Infoway(416) 886-4967 Email UsFollow @InfowayJulia BeckerVice President, Investor RelationsCloudMDThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Inquiries can i buy levitra at walmart about PrescribeIT®September 24, 2020 (TORONTO) — Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and CloudMD are pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement to advance e-prescribing in Canada. PrescribeIT® is Infoway’s national e-prescribing service that enables prescribers and pharmacists to electronically create, receive, renew and cancel prescriptions, while improving overall patient care through secure clinician messaging.Under the agreement, CloudMD will integrate its Juno electronic medical record (EMR) with PrescribeIT’s solution infrastructure. CloudMD is can i buy levitra at walmart aiming to have the technical work completed in early 2021.

Once complete, physicians and nurse practitioners who offer virtual consultations with patients will be able to send prescriptions electronically from their EMR to the patient’s pharmacy of choice, and pharmacies will be able to request prescription renewals electronically from the patient’s prescriber.“We are excited to partner with Infoway because we believe a national, modern e-prescribing service will engender greater patient trust and confidence in prescriptions,” said Essam Hamza, MD, Chief Executive Officer of CloudMD. €œThe enhanced security offered by PrescribeIT® will be beneficial can i buy levitra at walmart to health providers and patients who use CloudMD’s services.”CloudMD provides virtual medical care to a combined network of 376 clinics, more than 3,000 licensed practitioners and almost three million patients through its technology components.“We look forward to working with CloudMD to make PrescribeIT® more widely available across the country,” said Jamie Bruce, Executive Vice President, Infoway. €œPrescribeIT® makes can i buy levitra at walmart prescribing safer, more secure, easier and more convenient by eliminating the use of paper and faxed prescriptions, resulting in better health outcomes for Canadians.”About CloudMDCloudMD (TSXV. DOC, OTC. DOCRF) is digitizing the delivery of healthcare by providing patients access to all points of their care can i buy levitra at walmart from their phone, tablet or desktop computer.

The Company offers SAAS based health technology solutions to medical clinics across Canada and has developed proprietary technology that delivers quality healthcare through the combination of connected primary care clinics, telemedicine and artificial intelligence (AI). CloudMD currently can i buy levitra at walmart provides service to a combined ecosystem of 376 clinics, more than 3,000 licensed practitioners and almost three million patient charts across its servers. Visit cloudmd.ca.About Canada Health InfowayInfoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and effective use of digital health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and can i buy levitra at walmart access to care and more efficient delivery of health services for patients and clinicians. Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government can i buy levitra at walmart.

Visit www.infoway-inforoute.ca.About PrescribeIT®Canada Health Infoway is working with Health Canada, the provinces and territories, and industry stakeholders to develop, operate and maintain the national e-prescribing service known as PrescribeIT®. PrescribeIT® will serve can i buy levitra at walmart all Canadians, pharmacies and prescribers and provide safer and more effective medication management by enabling prescribers to transmit a prescription electronically between a prescriber’s electronic medical record (EMR) and the pharmacy management system (PMS) of a patient’s pharmacy of choice. PrescribeIT® will protect Canadians’ personal health information from being sold or used for commercial activities. Visit www.PrescribeIT.ca.-30-Media Inquiries Karen SchmidtDirector, Corporate/Internal CommunicationsCanada Health Infoway(416) 886-4967 Email UsFollow @InfowayJulia BeckerVice can i buy levitra at walmart President, Investor RelationsCloudMDThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Inquiries about PrescribeIT®SALT LAKE CITY, Sept.

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Its customers leverage the cloud-based data platform—powered by data from more than 100 million patient records and encompassing trillions of facts—as well as its analytics software and professional services expertise to make data-informed decisions and realize measurable clinical, financial, and operational improvements. Health Catalyst envisions a future in which all healthcare decisions are data informed.Health Catalyst Investor Relations Contact:Adam BrownSenior Vice President, Investor Relations+1 (855)-309-6800ir@healthcatalyst.comHealth Catalyst Media Contact:Kristen BerryVice President, Public Relations+1 (617) 234-4123+1 (774) 573-0455 (m)kberry@we-worldwide.com Source. Health Catalyst, Inc.SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Health Catalyst, Inc. ("Health Catalyst", Nasdaq.

HCAT), a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations, today announced that Patrick Nelli, Chief Financial Officer, and Adam Brown, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, will participate in the 2020 Cantor Global Virtual Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, September 15, 2020, which will include a fireside chat presentation at 1:20 p.m. ET. A live audio webcast and replay of this presentation will be available at https://ir.healthcatalyst.com/investor-relations.About Health CatalystHealth Catalyst is a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations committed to being the catalyst for massive, measurable, data-informed healthcare improvement. Its customers leverage the cloud-based data platform—powered by data from more than 100 million patient records and encompassing trillions of facts—as well as its analytics software and professional services expertise to make data-informed decisions and realize measurable clinical, financial, and operational improvements. Health Catalyst envisions a future in which all healthcare decisions are data informed.Health Catalyst Investor Relations Contact:Adam BrownSenior Vice President, Investor Relations+1 (855)-309-6800ir@healthcatalyst.comHealth Catalyst Media Contact:Kristen BerryVice President, Public Relations+1 (617) 234-4123+1 (774) 573-0455 (m)kberry@we-worldwide.com Source.

September 24, cheap levitra 10mg 2020 (TORONTO) — Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and CloudMD are pleased to announce buy vardenafil levitra that they have reached an agreement to advance e-prescribing in Canada. PrescribeIT® is Infoway’s national e-prescribing service that enables prescribers and pharmacists to electronically create, receive, cheap levitra 10mg renew and cancel prescriptions, while improving overall patient care through secure clinician messaging.Under the agreement, CloudMD will integrate its Juno electronic medical record (EMR) with PrescribeIT’s solution infrastructure. CloudMD is aiming to have the technical work completed in early 2021.

Once complete, physicians and nurse practitioners who offer virtual consultations with patients will be able to send prescriptions electronically from their EMR to the patient’s pharmacy of choice, and pharmacies will be able to request prescription renewals electronically from the patient’s prescriber.“We cheap levitra 10mg are excited to partner with Infoway because we believe a national, modern e-prescribing service will engender greater patient trust and confidence in prescriptions,” said Essam Hamza, MD, Chief Executive Officer of CloudMD. €œThe enhanced security offered by PrescribeIT® will be beneficial to health providers and patients who use CloudMD’s services.”CloudMD provides virtual medical care to a combined network of 376 clinics, more than 3,000 licensed practitioners and almost three million patients through its technology components.“We look forward to working with CloudMD to make PrescribeIT® more widely available across the country,” said Jamie Bruce, Executive Vice President, Infoway. €œPrescribeIT® makes prescribing safer, more secure, easier and more convenient by eliminating the use of paper and faxed prescriptions, resulting in better health outcomes for Canadians.”About cheap levitra 10mg CloudMDCloudMD (TSXV.

DOC, OTC. DOCRF) is digitizing the delivery of healthcare by providing patients access to all points cheap levitra 10mg of their care from their phone, tablet or desktop computer. The Company offers SAAS based health technology solutions to medical clinics cheap levitra 10mg across Canada and has developed proprietary technology that delivers quality healthcare through the combination of connected primary care clinics, telemedicine and artificial intelligence (AI).

CloudMD currently provides service to a combined ecosystem of 376 clinics, more than 3,000 licensed practitioners and almost three million patient charts across its servers. Visit cloudmd.ca.About Canada Health InfowayInfoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and cheap levitra 10mg effective use of digital health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and access to care and more efficient delivery of health services for patients and clinicians.

Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government cheap levitra 10mg. Visit www.infoway-inforoute.ca.About PrescribeIT®Canada Health Infoway is working with Health Canada, the provinces and territories, and industry stakeholders to develop, operate and maintain the national e-prescribing service known as PrescribeIT®. PrescribeIT® will serve all Canadians, pharmacies and prescribers and provide safer and more effective medication management by enabling prescribers to transmit a prescription electronically between a prescriber’s electronic medical record (EMR) and the pharmacy management system (PMS) of a patient’s pharmacy of cheap levitra 10mg choice.

PrescribeIT® will protect Canadians’ personal health information from being sold or used for commercial cheap levitra 10mg activities. Visit www.PrescribeIT.ca.-30-Media Inquiries Karen SchmidtDirector, Corporate/Internal CommunicationsCanada Health Infoway(416) 886-4967 Email UsFollow @InfowayJulia BeckerVice President, Investor RelationsCloudMDThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Inquiries about PrescribeIT®September 24, 2020 (TORONTO) — cheap levitra 10mg Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and CloudMD are pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement to advance e-prescribing in Canada.

PrescribeIT® is Infoway’s national e-prescribing service that enables prescribers and pharmacists to electronically create, receive, renew and cancel prescriptions, while improving overall patient care through secure clinician messaging.Under the agreement, CloudMD will integrate its Juno electronic medical record (EMR) with PrescribeIT’s solution infrastructure. CloudMD is aiming to have the technical work completed in cheap levitra 10mg early 2021. Once complete, physicians and nurse practitioners who offer virtual consultations with patients will be able to send prescriptions electronically from their EMR to the patient’s pharmacy of choice, and pharmacies will be able to request prescription renewals electronically from the patient’s prescriber.“We are excited to partner with Infoway because we believe a national, modern e-prescribing service will engender greater patient trust and confidence in prescriptions,” said Essam Hamza, MD, Chief Executive Officer of CloudMD.

€œThe enhanced security offered by PrescribeIT® will be beneficial to health providers and patients who use CloudMD’s services.”CloudMD provides virtual medical care to a combined network of 376 clinics, more than 3,000 licensed practitioners and cheap levitra 10mg almost three million patients through its technology components.“We look forward to working with CloudMD to make PrescribeIT® more widely available across the country,” said Jamie Bruce, Executive Vice President, Infoway. €œPrescribeIT® makes prescribing safer, more secure, easier and cheap levitra 10mg more convenient by eliminating the use of paper and faxed prescriptions, resulting in better health outcomes for Canadians.”About CloudMDCloudMD (TSXV. DOC, OTC.

DOCRF) is digitizing the delivery of healthcare by providing patients access to all points of their care from cheap levitra 10mg their phone, tablet or desktop computer. The Company offers SAAS based health technology solutions to medical clinics across Canada and has developed proprietary technology that delivers quality healthcare through the combination of connected primary care clinics, telemedicine and artificial intelligence (AI). CloudMD currently cheap levitra 10mg provides service to a combined ecosystem of 376 clinics, more than 3,000 licensed practitioners and almost three million patient charts across its servers.

Visit cloudmd.ca.About Canada Health InfowayInfoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and effective use of digital health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and access to care and more efficient delivery of cheap levitra 10mg health services for patients and clinicians. Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the cheap levitra 10mg federal government.

Visit www.infoway-inforoute.ca.About PrescribeIT®Canada Health Infoway is working with Health Canada, the provinces and territories, and industry stakeholders to develop, operate and maintain the national e-prescribing service known as PrescribeIT®. PrescribeIT® will serve all Canadians, pharmacies and prescribers and provide safer and more effective medication management by enabling prescribers to transmit a prescription electronically between a prescriber’s electronic medical record (EMR) and the pharmacy management system (PMS) of a patient’s pharmacy of cheap levitra 10mg choice. PrescribeIT® will protect Canadians’ personal health information from being sold or used for commercial activities.

Visit www.PrescribeIT.ca.-30-Media Inquiries Karen SchmidtDirector, Corporate/Internal CommunicationsCanada Health Infoway(416) 886-4967 Email UsFollow @InfowayJulia BeckerVice cheap levitra 10mg President, Investor RelationsCloudMDThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Inquiries about PrescribeIT®SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 09, 2020 cheap levitra 10mg (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Health Catalyst, Inc.

("Health Catalyst", cheap levitra 10mg Nasdaq. HCAT), a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations, today announced that Patrick Nelli, Chief Financial Officer, and Adam Brown, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, will participate in the 2020 Cantor Global Virtual Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, September 15, 2020, which will include a fireside chat presentation at 1:20 p.m. ET.

A live audio webcast and replay of this presentation will be available at https://ir.healthcatalyst.com/investor-relations.About Health CatalystHealth Catalyst is a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations committed to being the catalyst for massive, measurable, data-informed healthcare improvement. Its customers leverage the cloud-based data platform—powered by data from more than 100 million patient records and encompassing trillions of facts—as well as its analytics software and professional services expertise to make data-informed decisions and realize measurable clinical, financial, and operational improvements. Health Catalyst envisions a future in which all healthcare decisions are data informed.Health Catalyst Investor Relations Contact:Adam BrownSenior Vice President, Investor Relations+1 (855)-309-6800ir@healthcatalyst.comHealth Catalyst Media Contact:Kristen BerryVice President, Public Relations+1 (617) 234-4123+1 (774) 573-0455 (m)kberry@we-worldwide.com Source.

Health Catalyst, Inc.SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Health Catalyst, Inc. ("Health Catalyst", Nasdaq.

HCAT), a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations, today announced that Patrick Nelli, Chief Financial Officer, and Adam Brown, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, will participate in the 2020 Cantor Global Virtual Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, September 15, 2020, which will include a fireside chat presentation at 1:20 p.m. ET. A live audio webcast and replay of this presentation will be available at https://ir.healthcatalyst.com/investor-relations.About Health CatalystHealth Catalyst is a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations committed to being the catalyst for massive, measurable, data-informed healthcare improvement.

Its customers leverage the cloud-based data platform—powered by data from more than 100 million patient records and encompassing trillions of facts—as well as its analytics software and professional services expertise to make data-informed decisions and realize measurable clinical, financial, and operational improvements. Health Catalyst envisions a future in which all healthcare decisions are data informed.Health Catalyst Investor Relations Contact:Adam BrownSenior Vice President, Investor Relations+1 (855)-309-6800ir@healthcatalyst.comHealth Catalyst Media Contact:Kristen BerryVice President, Public Relations+1 (617) 234-4123+1 (774) 573-0455 (m)kberry@we-worldwide.com Source. Health Catalyst, Inc..

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High efficacy of high dose intravenous ceftriaxone against what does levitra do extragenital gonorrhoeaCeftriaxone monotherapy is well established for treating Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) urethritis, but data are limited for pharyngeal and rectal s. This prospective single-centre study was conducted in Japan in 2017–2020 among HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM) who underwent what does levitra do routine STI screening, including nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for rectal and pharyngeal NG every 3 months.1 Among 320 cases of extragenital gonorrhoea (all asymptomatic), 208 received only ceftriaxone (single 1 g intravenous dose) and 112 received additional treatment with doxycycline (100 mg two times a day for 7 days) or azithromycin (single 1 g dose) for concomitant STIs (predominantly, Chlamydia trachomatis (CT)). There was no difference in NG cure rates between the two groups (98.1% vs 95.5%) or by site.

Data are what does levitra do needed for other ceftriaxone dosing strategies and in areas where ceftriaxone resistance is a major concern.Published in STI—The Editor’s Choice. Neisseria gonorrhoeae is associated with poor pregnancy and birth outcomesThis systematic review and meta-analysis compiled data from 30 studies that reported NG testing during pregnancy and compared pregnancy and birth outcomes between women with and without NG.2 Results indicated that NG s during pregnancy nearly doubled the risk of preterm birth what does levitra do (summary adjusted OR 1.90. 95% CI 1.14 to 3.19).

The effect what does levitra do was more pronounced in low-income and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Additionally, results suggested that NG may be what does levitra do associated with premature rupture of membranes, perinatal mortality, low birth weight and ophthalmia neonatorum, although estimates in most studies did not sufficiently control for confounders. The findings identify NG s as risk factor for poor pregnancy outcomes.Inadvertent HPV vaccination during or peripregnancy is not associated with adverse outcomesHuman papillomalevitra (HPV) vaccination is not recommended in pregnancy due to lack of safety data.

However, a pregnancy test is what does levitra do not required prior to vaccination. This multisite cohort study collated data from 445 women who received the nonavalent HPV treatment during pregnancy and 496 that received the treatment peripregnancy (within 42 days before last menstrual period (LMP)).3 Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in these groups were compared with those of 552 distal (16–22 weeks pre-LMP) exposures to the quadrivalent or nonavalent HPV treatment. Compared with distal-exposures, during-pregnancy or peripregnancy, exposures were not associated with spontaneous what does levitra do abortion, preterm birth or small-for-gestational-age births.

Birth defects what does levitra do were rare in all groups. The findings inform counselling for women who inadvertently receive the nonavalent (and possibly quadrivalent) HPV treatment during pregnancy. Data are needed for what does levitra do the bivalent HPV treatment.Has the time come for point-of-care STI testing?.

Point-of-care (POC) STI testing has been proposed as a strategy what does levitra do to both improve treatment rates and optimise antibiotic stewardship. This study investigated the performance of the Visby Medical Sexual Health Test, a POC PCR-based NAAT for rapid (30 m) detection of CT, NG and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV).4 The analysis used self-collected vaginal samples from 1535 women who attended 10 clinics in seven US states over an 11-month period. Results were compared with those of clinician-collected samples what does levitra do tested using gold-standard laboratory-based NAATs.

Specificity and sensitivity of the POC test were 98.3% and 97.4% for CT, 97.4% and 99.4% for NG and 99.2% and 96.9% for TV. These results highlight the potential utility of easy-to-use POC NAATs in clinical practice.Point of care HIV-1 RNA testing facilitates the same-day confirmation of HIV and what does levitra do leads to rapid viral suppression when followed by immediate antiretroviral treatmentMSM with primary HIV (PHI) and those with established but undiagnosed can be an important source of onward transmission. This study from Amsterdam evaluated what does levitra do a strategy comprising.

(i) an online media campaign to increase awareness about PHI among MSM and promote self-referral for testing, (ii) qualitative POC HIV-1 RNA testing for same-day confirmation of and delivery of results and (iii) immediate referral of newly diagnosed men to a treatment centre to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART within 24 hours.5 Time to viral suppression was only 55 days for MSM who benefitted from the strategy and shorter than previous strategies that deferred ART initiation and/or did not employ HIV-1 RNA POC testing. The approach proved feasible in Amsterdam and should be investigated in other settings.Pre-exposure prophylaxis, HIV incidence and risk behaviour among MSM in West AfricaThis prospective cohort study investigated what does levitra do the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among MSM in Côte D’Ivoire, Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso as an extension of CohMSM, a prevention study that did not include PrEP.6 Participants were free to choose between daily or event-driven PrEP, change between the two and stop and restart PrEP. Among 598 MSM followed for 743.6 person years, HIV incidence was 2.3 per 100 person-years (95% what does levitra do CI 1.3 to 3.7) and lower than in CohMSM (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.21.

95% CI 0.12 to 0.36). There was no what does levitra do evidence of an increase in risk behaviour since reports of condomless anal sex and prevalence of STIs remained stable, whereas the number of male sexual partners and of sex acts with casual male partners decreased. PrEP is an effective prevention tool for MSM in West Africa.Ethics statementsPatient consent for publicationNot required..

High efficacy of high dose intravenous ceftriaxone against extragenital gonorrhoeaCeftriaxone monotherapy is well established for treating Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) urethritis, but data are limited for pharyngeal and rectal cheap levitra 10mg s. This prospective single-centre study was conducted in Japan in 2017–2020 among HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM) who underwent routine STI screening, including nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for rectal and pharyngeal NG every 3 months.1 Among 320 cheap levitra 10mg cases of extragenital gonorrhoea (all asymptomatic), 208 received only ceftriaxone (single 1 g intravenous dose) and 112 received additional treatment with doxycycline (100 mg two times a day for 7 days) or azithromycin (single 1 g dose) for concomitant STIs (predominantly, Chlamydia trachomatis (CT)). There was no difference in NG cure rates between the two groups (98.1% vs 95.5%) or by site. Data are needed for other ceftriaxone dosing strategies and in cheap levitra 10mg areas where ceftriaxone resistance is a major concern.Published in STI—The Editor’s Choice. Neisseria gonorrhoeae is associated with poor pregnancy and birth outcomesThis systematic review and meta-analysis compiled data from 30 studies that reported NG testing during cheap levitra 10mg pregnancy and compared pregnancy and birth outcomes between women with and without NG.2 Results indicated that NG s during pregnancy nearly doubled the risk of preterm birth (summary adjusted OR 1.90.

95% CI 1.14 to 3.19). The effect cheap levitra 10mg was more pronounced in low-income and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Additionally, results suggested that NG may be associated with premature rupture of membranes, perinatal mortality, low birth weight cheap levitra 10mg and ophthalmia neonatorum, although estimates in most studies did not sufficiently control for confounders. The findings identify NG s as risk factor for poor pregnancy outcomes.Inadvertent HPV vaccination during or peripregnancy is not associated with adverse outcomesHuman papillomalevitra (HPV) vaccination is not recommended in pregnancy due to lack of safety data. However, a pregnancy cheap levitra 10mg test is not required prior to vaccination.

This multisite cohort study collated data from 445 women who received the nonavalent HPV treatment during pregnancy and 496 that received the treatment peripregnancy (within 42 days before last menstrual period (LMP)).3 Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in these groups were compared with those of 552 distal (16–22 weeks pre-LMP) exposures to the quadrivalent or nonavalent HPV treatment. Compared with distal-exposures, during-pregnancy or peripregnancy, exposures were not cheap levitra 10mg associated with spontaneous abortion, preterm birth or small-for-gestational-age births. Birth defects cheap levitra 10mg were rare in all groups. The findings inform counselling for women who inadvertently receive the nonavalent (and possibly quadrivalent) HPV treatment during pregnancy. Data are needed for the bivalent HPV treatment.Has the time cheap levitra 10mg come for point-of-care STI testing?.

Point-of-care (POC) cheap levitra 10mg STI testing has been proposed as a strategy to both improve treatment rates and optimise antibiotic stewardship. This study investigated the performance of the Visby Medical Sexual Health Test, a POC PCR-based NAAT for rapid (30 m) detection of CT, NG and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV).4 The analysis used self-collected vaginal samples from 1535 women who attended 10 clinics in seven US states over an 11-month period. Results were compared cheap levitra 10mg with those of clinician-collected samples tested using gold-standard laboratory-based NAATs. Specificity and sensitivity of the POC test were 98.3% and 97.4% for CT, 97.4% and 99.4% for NG and 99.2% and 96.9% for TV. These results highlight the potential utility of easy-to-use POC NAATs in clinical cheap levitra 10mg practice.Point of care HIV-1 RNA testing facilitates the same-day confirmation of HIV and leads to rapid viral suppression when followed by immediate antiretroviral treatmentMSM with primary HIV (PHI) and those with established but undiagnosed can be an important source of onward transmission.

This study from Amsterdam evaluated a strategy cheap levitra 10mg comprising. (i) an online media campaign to increase awareness about PHI among MSM and promote self-referral for testing, (ii) qualitative POC HIV-1 RNA testing for same-day confirmation of and delivery of results and (iii) immediate referral of newly diagnosed men to a treatment centre to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART within 24 hours.5 Time to viral suppression was only 55 days for MSM who benefitted from the strategy and shorter than previous strategies that deferred ART initiation and/or did not employ HIV-1 RNA POC testing. The approach proved feasible in Amsterdam and should be investigated in other settings.Pre-exposure prophylaxis, HIV incidence and risk behaviour among MSM in West AfricaThis prospective cohort study investigated the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among MSM in Côte D’Ivoire, Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso as an extension of CohMSM, a prevention study that did not include PrEP.6 cheap levitra 10mg Participants were free to choose between daily or event-driven PrEP, change between the two and stop and restart PrEP. Among 598 cheap levitra 10mg MSM followed for 743.6 person years, HIV incidence was 2.3 per 100 person-years (95% CI 1.3 to 3.7) and lower than in CohMSM (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.21. 95% CI 0.12 to 0.36).

There was cheap levitra 10mg no evidence of an increase in risk behaviour since reports of condomless anal sex and prevalence of STIs remained stable, whereas the number of male sexual partners and of sex acts with casual male partners decreased. PrEP is an effective prevention tool for MSM in West Africa.Ethics statementsPatient consent for publicationNot required..

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About This TrackerThis tracker provides the number of confirmed cases and deaths from novel erectile dysfunction by country, the trend in confirmed case and death counts by country, common side effects of levitra and a global map showing which countries have confirmed cases and deaths. The data are drawn from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) erectile dysfunction Resource Center’s erectile dysfunction treatment Map and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) erectile dysfunction Disease (erectile dysfunction treatment-2019) situation reports.This tracker will be updated regularly, as new data are released.Related Content. About erectile dysfunction treatment erectile dysfunctionIn late 2019, a new erectile dysfunction emerged in central common side effects of levitra China to cause disease in humans.

Cases of this disease, known as erectile dysfunction treatment, have since been reported across around the globe. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the levitra represents a public health emergency of international concern, and on common side effects of levitra January 31, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared it to be a health emergency for the United States.The Henry J.

Kaiser Family Foundation common side effects of levitra Headquarters. 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400 Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center. 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 common side effects of levitra | Phone 202-347-5270 www.kff.org | Email Alerts.

Kff.org/email | facebook.com/KaiserFamilyFoundation | twitter.com/kff Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues, the Kaiser Family Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California..

About This TrackerThis tracker provides the number of confirmed cases and deaths from novel erectile dysfunction by country, the trend in confirmed case cheap levitra 10mg and death counts by country, and a global How to buy cheap kamagra online map showing which countries have confirmed cases and deaths. The data are drawn from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) erectile dysfunction Resource Center’s erectile dysfunction treatment Map and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) erectile dysfunction Disease (erectile dysfunction treatment-2019) situation reports.This tracker will be updated regularly, as new data are released.Related Content. About erectile dysfunction treatment erectile dysfunctionIn late 2019, a new erectile dysfunction emerged in central cheap levitra 10mg China to cause disease in humans.

Cases of this disease, known as erectile dysfunction treatment, have since been reported across around the globe. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the levitra represents a public health emergency of international concern, and on January 31, cheap levitra 10mg 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared it to be a health emergency for the United States.The Henry J.

Kaiser Family Foundation Headquarters cheap levitra 10mg. 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400 Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center. 1330 G cheap levitra 10mg Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 | Phone 202-347-5270 www.kff.org | Email Alerts.

Kff.org/email | facebook.com/KaiserFamilyFoundation | twitter.com/kff Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues, the Kaiser Family Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California..

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A broadly buy original levitra online neutralising antibody http://blackshirtseo.com/viagra-price to prevent HIV transmissionTwo HIV prevention trials (HVTN 704/HPTN 085. HVTN 703/HPTN 081) enrolled 2699 at-risk cisgender men and transgender persons in the Americas and Europe and 1924 at-risk women in sub-Saharan Africa who were randomly assigned to receive the broadly neutralising antibody (bnAb) VRC01 or placebo (10 infusions at an interval of 8 weeks). Moderate-to-severe adverse events related to VRC01 were buy original levitra online uncommon. In a prespecified pooled analysis, over 20 months, VRC01 offered an estimated prevention efficacy of ~75% against VRC01-sensitive isolates (30% of levitraes circulating in the trial regions).

However, VRC01 did not prevent with other HIV isolates and overall buy original levitra online HIV acquisition compared with placebo. The data provide proof of concept that bnAb can prevent HIV acquisition, although the approach is limited by viral diversity and potential selection of resistant isolates.Corey L, Gilbert PB, Juraska M, et al. Two randomized trials of neutralizing buy original levitra online antibodies to prevent HIV-1 acquisition. N Engl J Med.

2021;384:1003–1014.Seminal cytokine profiles are associated with the risk of HIV transmissionInvestigators analysed a panel of 34 cytokines/chemokines in blood and semen of men (predominantly men who have sex with men) with HIV, comparing 21 who transmitted HIV to their partners and buy original levitra online 22 who did not. Overall, 47% of men had a recent HIV , 19% were on antiretroviral therapy and 84% were viraemic. The cytokine profile in seminal fluid, but not in blood, differed significantly between transmitters and non-transmitters, with transmitters showing higher seminal concentrations of interleukin 13 (IL-13), IL-15 and IL-33, and lower concentrations buy original levitra online of interferon‐gamma, IL-15, macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), IL-17, granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF), IL-4, IL-16 and eotaxin. Although limited, the findings suggest that the seminal milieu modulates the risk of HIV transmission, providing a potential development opportunity for HIV prevention strategies.Vanpouille C, Frick A, Rawlings SA, et al.

Cytokine network and sexual HIV transmission in men who have sex with buy original levitra online men. Clin Infect Dis. 2020;71:2655–2662.The challenge of estimating global treatment eligibility for buy original levitra online chronic hepatitis B from incomplete datasetsWorldwide, over 250 million people are estimated to live with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), although only ~11% is diagnosed and a minority receives antiviral therapy. An estimate of the global proportion eligible for treatment was not previously available.

A systematic review analysed studies of CHB populations done buy original levitra online between 2007 and 2018 to estimate the prevalence of cirrhosis, abnormal alanine aminotransferase, hepatitis B levitra DNA >2000 or >20 000 IU/mL, hepatitis B e-antigen, and overall eligibility for treatment as per WHO and other guidelines. The pooled treatment eligibility estimate was 19% (95% CI 18% to 20%), with about 10% requiring urgent treatment due to cirrhosis. However, the buy original levitra online estimate should be interpreted with caution due to incomplete data acquisition and reporting in available studies. Standardised reporting is needed to improve global and regional estimates of CHB treatment eligibility and guide effective policy formulation.Tan M, Bhadoria AS, Cui F, et al.

Estimating the proportion of people with chronic hepatitis B levitra eligible for hepatitis B buy original levitra online antiviral treatment worldwide. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Gastroenterol buy original levitra online Hepatol, 2021. 6:106–119.Broad geographical disparity in the contribution of HIV to the burden of cervical cancerThis systematic review and meta-analysis estimated the contribution of HIV to the global and regional burden of cervical cancer using data from 24 studies which included 236 127 women with HIV.

HIV markedly increased the risk of cervical cancer buy original levitra online (pooled relative risk 6.07. 95% CI 4.40 to 8.37). In 2018, 4.9% (95% CI 3.6% to 6.4%) of cervical cancers were attributable to HIV globally, although the population-attributable fraction for HIV varied geographically, reaching 21% (95% CI 15.6% buy original levitra online to 26.8%) in the African region. Cervical cancer is preventable and treatable.

Efforts are needed buy original levitra online to expand access to HPV vaccination in sub-Saharan Africa. More immediately, there is an urgent need to integrate cervical cancer screening within HIV services.Stelzle D, Tanaka LF, Lee KK, et al. Estimates of the buy original levitra online global burden of cervical cancer associated with HIV. Lancet Glob Health.

2020. 9:e161–69.The complex relationship between serum vitamin D and persistence of high-risk human papilloma levitra Most cervical high-risk human papilloma levitra (hrHPV) s are transient and those that persist are more likely to progress to cancer. Based on the proposed immunomodulatory properties of vitamin D, a longitudinal study examined the association between serum concentrations of five vitamin D biomarkers and short-term persistent (vs transient or sporadic) detection of hrHPV in 72 women who collected monthly cervicovaginal swabs over 6 months. No significant associations were detected in the primary analysis.

In sensitivity analyses, after multiple adjustments, serum concentrations of multiple vitamin D biomarkers were positively associated with the short-term persistence of 14 selected hrHPV types. The relationship between vitamin D and hrHPV warrants closer examination. Studies should have longer follow-up, include populations with more diverse vitamin D concentrations and account for vitamin D supplementation.Troja C, Hoofnagle AN, Szpiro A, et al. Understanding the role of emerging vitamin D biomarkers on short-term persistence of high-risk HPV among mid-adult women.

J Infect Dis 2020. Online ahead of printPublished in STI—the editor’s choice. One in five cases of with Neisseria gonorrhoeae clear spontaneouslyStudies have indicated that Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) s can resolve spontaneously without antibiotic therapy. A substudy of a randomised trial investigated 405 untreated subjects (71% men) who underwent both pretrial and enrolment NG testing at the same anatomical site (genital, pharyngeal and rectal).

Based on nuclear acid amplification tests, 83 subjects (20.5%) showed clearance of the anatomical site within a median of 10 days (IQR 7–15) between tests. Those with spontaneous clearance were less likely to have concurrent chlamydia (p=0.029) and dysuria (p=0.035), but there were no differences in age, gender, sexual orientation, HIV status, number of previous NG episodes, and symptoms other than dysuria between those with and without clearance. Given the high rate of spontaneous resolution, point-of-care NG testing should be considered to reduce unnecessary antibiotic treatment.Mensforth S, Ayinde OC, Ross J. Spontaneous clearance of genital and extragenital Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Data from GToG. STI 2020. 96:556–561.BackgroundReproductive aged women are at risk of both pregnancy and sexually transmitted s (STI). The modern contraceptive prevalence among married and unmarried women in South Africa is 54% and 64%, respectively, with injectable progestins being most widely used.1 Moreover, current global efforts aim towards all women having access to a range of reliable contraceptives options.2 The prevalences of chlamydia and gonorrhoea are high among women in Africa, particularly among younger women.

A recent meta-analysis of over 37 000 women estimated prevalences for chlamydia and gonorrhoea by region and population type (South Africa clinic/community-based, Eastern Africa higher-risk and Southern/Eastern Africa clinic community-based). High chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences were found among 15–24 year-old South African women and high risk populations in East Africa.3 Both chlamydia and gonorrhoea are associated with numerous comorbidities including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), ectopic pregnancy, infertility, increased risk of HIV and other STIs, as well as significant social harm.4While STIs are a significant global health burden, data on STI prevalence by gender and drivers of are limited, hindering an effective public health response.5 Moreover, data on the association between contraceptive use and risk of non-HIV STIs are limited. The WHO recently reported stagnation in efforts to decrease global STI incidence.5 Understanding drivers of STI acquisition, including any possible associations with widely used contraceptive methods, is necessary to effectively target public health responses that reduce STI incidence and associated comorbidities.The ECHO Trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier. NCT02550067) was a multicentre, open-label randomised trial of 7829 HIV-seronegative women seeking effective contraception in Eswatini, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia.

Detailed trial methods and results have been published.6 7 We conducted a secondary analysis of ECHO trial data to evaluate absolute and relative chlamydia and gonorrhoea final visit prevalences among women randomised to intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-IM), a copper intrauterine device (IUD) and a levonorgestrel (LNG) implant.MethodsStudy design, participants and ethicsWomen were enrolled in the ECHO trial from December 2015 through September 2017. Institutional review boards at each site approved the study protocol and women provided written informed consent before any study procedures. In brief, women who were not pregnant, HIV-seronegative, aged 16–35 years, seeking effective contraception, without medical contraindications, willing to use the assigned method for 18 months, reported not using injectable, intrauterine or implantable contraception for the previous 6 months and reported being sexually active, were enrolled. At every visit, participants received HIV risk reduction counselling, HIV testing and STI management, condoms and, as it became a part of national standard of care, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.

Counselling messages related to HIV risk were implemented consistently across the three groups throughout the trial.6The trial was implemented in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice. Informed consent was obtained from participants or their parents/guardians and human experimentation guidelines of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and those of the authors' institution(s) were followed.Contraceptive exposureAt enrolment, women were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to DMPA-IM, copper IUD or LNG implant.6 Participants received an injection of 150 mg/mL DMPA-IM (Depo Provera. Pfizer, Puurs, Belgium) at enrolment and every 3 months until the final visit at 18 months after enrolment, a copper IUD (Optima TCu380A. Injeflex, Sao Paolo, Brazil) or a LNG implant (Jadelle.

Bayer, Turku, Finland) at enrolment. Women returned for follow-up visits at 1 month after enrolment to address initial contraceptive side-effects and every 3 months thereafter, for up to 18 months with later enrolling participants contributing 12 to 18 months of follow-up. Visits included HIV serological testing, contraceptive counselling, syndromic STI management and safety monitoring.STI outcomesThe primary outcomes of this secondary analysis were prevalent chlamydia and gonorrhoea at the final visit. Syndromic STI management was provided at screening and all follow-up visits.

Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae was conducted at screening and final visits, at the visit of HIV detection for participants who became HIV infected and at clinical discretion. Any untreated participants with positive NAAT results were contacted to return to the study clinic for treatment.CovariatesAt baseline (inclusive of screening and enrolment visits), we collected demographic, sexual and reproductive risk behaviour and reproductive and contraceptive history data. Baseline risk factors evaluated as covariates included age, whether the participant earned her own income, chlamydia and gonorrhoea status, herpes simplex levitra type 2 (HSV-2) sero-status and suspected PID. Final visit factors evaluated as covariates included number of sex partners in the past 3 months, number of new sex partners in the past 3 months, HIV serostatus, HSV-2 serostatus, condom use in the past 3 months, sex exchanged for money/gifts, sex during vaginal bleeding, follow-up time and number of pelvic examinations during follow-up.

Age and HSV-2 serostatus were evaluated for effect measure modification.Statistical analysisWe conducted analyses using R V.3.5.3 (Vienna, Austria), and log-binomial regression to estimate chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences within each contraceptive group and pairwise prevalence ratios (PR) between each arm in as-randomised and consistent use analyses.In the as-randomised analysis, we analysed participants by the contraceptive method assigned at randomisation independent of method adherence. We estimated crude point prevalences by arm and study site and pairwise adjusted PRs.In the consistent use analysis, we only included women who initiated use of their randomised contraceptive method and maintained randomised method adherence throughout follow-up. We estimated crude point prevalences by arm and pairwise adjusted PRs, with evaluation of age and HSV-2 status first as potential effect measure modifiers, and all covariates above as potential confounders. Study site and age were retained in the final model.

Other covariates were retained if their inclusion in the base model led to a 10% change in the effect estimate through backwards selection.Supplementary analysesAdditional supporting analyses to assess postrandomisation potential sources of bias were conducted to inform interpretation of results. These include evaluation of recent sexual behaviour at enrolment, month 9 and the final visit. Cohort participation (ie, follow-up time, early discontinuation and timing of randomised method discontinuation) and health outcomes (ie, final visit HIV and HSV-2 status) and frequency and results of pelvic examinations by STI status, site and visit month by randomised arm.ResultsA total of 7829 women were randomly assigned as follows. 2609 to the DMPA-IM group, 2607 to the copper IUD group and 2613 to the LNG implant group (figure 1).

Participants were excluded if they were HIV positive at enrolment, did not have at least one HIV test or did not have chlamydia and gonorrhoea test results at the final visit. Overall, 90%, 94% and 93% from the DMPA-IM, copper IUD and LNG implant groups, respectively, were included in analyses.Study profile. DMPA-IM, depot medroxy progesterone acetate. IUD, intrauterine device.

LNG, levonorgestrel." data-icon-position data-hide-link-title="0">Figure 1 Study profile. DMPA-IM, depot medroxy progesterone acetate. IUD, intrauterine device. LNG, levonorgestrel.Participant characteristicsBaseline characteristics were similar across groups (table 1).

Nearly two-third of enrolled women (63%) were aged 24 and younger and 5768 (74%) of the study population resided in South Africa.View this table:Table 1 Participant baseline and final visit characteristicsThe duration of participation averaged 16 months with no differences between randomised groups (table 1). A total of 1468 (19%) women either did not receive their randomised method or discontinued use during follow-up. Overall method continuation rates were high with minimal differences between randomised groups when measured by person-years.6 The proportion, however, of method non-adherence as defined in this analysis (ie, did not receive randomised method at baseline or discontinued randomised method at any point during follow-up), was greater in the DMPA-IM group (26%), followed by the copper IUD (18%) and LNG implant (12%) groups. Timing of discontinuation also differed across methods.

During the first 6 months, method discontinuation was highest in the copper IUD group (7%) followed closely by DMPA-IM (6%) and LNG implant (4%) groups. Between 7 and 12 months of follow-up, it was highest in DMPA-IM group (15%), with equivalent proportions in the LNG implant (5%) and copper IUD (5%) groups.Point prevalences of chlamydia and gonorrhoea at baseline and final visitsIn total, 18% of women had chlamydia at baseline (figure 2A) and 15% at the final visit. Among women 24 years and younger, 22% and 20% had chlamydia at baseline and final visits, respectively. Women aged 25–35 at baseline were less likely to have chlamydia at both baseline (12%) and final visits (8%) compared with younger women.

Baseline chlamydia prevalence ranged from 5% in Zambia to 28% in the Western Cape, South Africa (figure 2B).Point prevalence (per 100 persons) of chlamydia and gonorrhoea at baseline and final visit by age category and study site region. Y-axis scale differs for chlamydia and gonorrhoea figures." data-icon-position data-hide-link-title="0">Figure 2 Point prevalence (per 100 persons) of chlamydia and gonorrhoea at baseline and final visit by age category and study site region. Y-axis scale differs for chlamydia and gonorrhoea figures.Among all women, 5% had gonorrhoea at baseline and the final visit (figure 2C). Women aged 24 and younger were more likely to have gonorrhoea compared with women aged 25 and older at both baseline (5% vs 4%, respectively) and the final visit (6% vs 3%, respectively).

Baseline gonorrhoea prevalence ranged from 3% in Zambia and Kenya to 9% in the Western Cape, South Africa (figure 2D). Similar prevalences were observed at the final visit.Point prevalences of chlamydia and gonorrhoea at final visit by randomised contraceptive methodFourteen per cent of women randomised to DMPA-IM, 15% to copper IUD and 17% to LNG implant had chlamydia at the final visit (table 2).View this table:Table 2 Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae prevalence at final visitThe prevalence of chlamydia did not significantly differ between DMPA-IM and copper IUD groups (PR 0.90, 95% CI (0.79 to 1.04)) or between copper IUD and LNG implant groups (PR 0.92, 95% CI (0.81 to 1.04)). Women in the DMPA-IM group, however, had a significantly lower risk of chlamydia compared with the LNG implant group (PR. 0.83, 95% CI (0.72 to 0.95)).

Findings from the consistent use analysis were similar, and neither age nor HSV-2 status modified the observed associations.Four per cent of women randomised to DMPA-IM, 6% to copper IUD and 5% to LNG implant had gonorrhoea at the final visit (table 2). Gonorrhoea prevalence did not significantly differ between DMPA-IM and LNG implant groups (PR. 0.79, 95% CI (0.61 to 1.03)) or between copper IUD and LNG implant groups (PR. 1.18, 95% CI (0.93 to 1.49)).

Women in the DMPA-IM group had a significantly lower risk of gonorrhoea compared with women in the copper IUD group (PR. 0.67, 95% CI (0.52 to 0.87)). Results from as randomised and continuous use analyses did not differ. And again, neither age nor HSV-2 status modified the observed associations.Clinical assessment by randomised contraceptive methodTo assess the potential for outcome ascertainment bias, we evaluated the frequency of pelvic examinations and abdominal/pelvic pain and discharge by study arm.

Women in the copper IUD group were generally more likely to receive a pelvic examination during follow-up as compared with women in the DMPA-IM and LNG implant groups (online supplemental appendix 1). Similarly, abdominal/pelvic pain on examination or abnormal discharge was observed most frequently in the copper IUD group. The number of pelvic examinations met the prespecified criteria for retention in the adjusted gonorrhoea model but not in the chlamydia model.Supplemental materialFrequency of syndromic symptoms and potential reAmong women who had chlamydia at baseline, 23% were also positive at the final visit (online supplemental appendix 2, figure 3A). Nine per cent of gonorrhoea-positive women at baseline were also positive at the final visit (online supplemental appendix 2, figure 3B).

Across both baseline and final visits, a minority of women with chlamydia or gonorrhoea presented with signs and/or symptoms. Among chlamydia-positive women, only 12% presented with either abnormal vaginal discharge and/or abdominal/pelvic pain at their test-positive visit (online supplemental appendix 2, figure 3C). Similarly, only 15% of gonorrhoea-positive women presented with abnormal vaginal discharge and/or abdominal/pelvic pain at their test-positive visit (online supplemental appendix 2, figure 3D).Potential re and symptoms among women with chlamydia or gonorrhoea. Data are pooled across the screening and final visits in figures (C) and (D).

Symptomatic is defined as presenting with abnormal vaginal discharge and/or abdominal/pelvic pain. Final visit is described as potential re because test of cure was not conducted following baseline diagnosis and treatment." data-icon-position data-hide-link-title="0">Figure 3 Potential re and symptoms among women with chlamydia or gonorrhoea. Data are pooled across the screening and final visits in figures (C) and (D). Symptomatic is defined as presenting with abnormal vaginal discharge and/or abdominal/pelvic pain.

Final visit is described as potential re because test of cure was not conducted following baseline diagnosis and treatment.DiscussionWe observed differences in final prevalences of chlamydia and gonorrhoea by contraceptive group in both as-randomised and consistent-use analyses. The DMPA-IM group had lower final visit chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences as compared with copper IUD and LNG implant groups, though only the DMPA-IM versus the copper IUD comparison of gonorrhoea and DMPA-IM versus LNG implant comparison of chlamydia reached statistical significance. These are novel findings that have not previously been reported to our knowledge and were determined in a randomised trial setting with high participant retention, robust biomarker testing and high randomised method adherence. Interestingly, the copper IUD group had higher gonorrhoea and lower chlamydia prevalence compared with the LNG implant group, though neither finding was statistically significant.Two recent systematic reviews of the association between contraceptives and STIs found inconsistent and insufficient evidence on the association between the contraceptive methods under study in ECHO and chlamydia and gonorrhoea.8 9 Neither systematic review identified any randomised studies or any direct comparative evidence for DMPA-IM, copper IUD and LNG implant, thus enabling a unique scientific contribution from this secondary trial analysis.

Nonetheless, these findings should be interpreted in light of biological plausibility, as well as the design strengths and limitations of this analysis.The emerging science on the biological mechanisms underlying HIV susceptibility demonstrates the complex relationship between the infectious pathogen, the host innate and adaptive immune response and the interaction of both with the vaginal microbiome and other -omes. Data on these factors in relationship to chlamydia and gonorrhoea acquisition are much more limited but can be assumed to be equally complex. Vaginal microbiome composition, including microbial metabolic by-products, have been shown to significantly modify risk of HIV acquisition and to vary with exogenous hormone exposure, menstrual cycle phase, ethnicity and geography.10–12 These same biological principles likely apply to chlamydia and gonorrhoea susceptibility. While DMPA-IM has been associated with decreased bacterial vaginosis (BV), initiation of the copper IUD has been associated with increased BV prevalence, and BV is associated with chlamydia and gonorrhoea acquisition.13 14 Moreover, Lactobacillus crispatus, which is less abundant in BV, has been shown to inhibit HeLa cell by Chlamydia trachomatis and inhibits growth of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in animal models.15 16 In addition, microbial community state types that are deficient in Lactobacillus crispatus and/or dominated by dysbiotic species are associated with inflammation, which is a driver of both STI and HIV susceptibility.

Thus, while the exact mechanisms of chlamydia and gonorrhoea in the presence of exogenous hormones and varying host microbiomes are unknown, it is biologically plausible that these complex factors may result in differential susceptibility to chlamydia and gonorrhoea among DMPA-IM, copper IUD and LNG implant users.An alternative explanation for these findings may be postrandomisation differences in clinical care and/or sexual behaviour. Participants in the copper IUD arm were more likely to have pelvic examinations and more likely to have discharge compared with women in the DMPA-IM and LNG implant groups. While interim STI testing and/or treatment were not documented, women in the copper IUD arm may have been more likely to receive syndromic STI treatment during follow-up due to more examination and observed discharge. More frequent STI treatment in the copper IUD group would theoretically lower the final visit point prevalence relative to women in the DMPA-IM and LNG implant arms, suggesting that the observed lower risk of STI in the DMPA-IM arm is not due to differential examination, testing and treatment.

Differential sexual risk behaviour may also have influenced the results. As reported previously, women in the DMPA-IM group less frequently reported condomless sex and multiple partners than women in the other groups, and both DMPA-IM and LNG implant users less frequently reported new partners and sex during menses than copper IUD users.6 Statistical control of self-reported sexual risk behaviour in the consistent-use analysis may have been inadequate if self-reported sexual behaviour was inaccurately or insufficiently reported.A second alternative explanation may be differences in randomised method non-adherence, which was greater in the DMPA-IM group, compared with copper IUD and LNG implant groups. Yet, the consistency of findings in the as-randomised and continuous use analyses suggests that method non-adherence had minimal effect on study outcomes. Taken as a whole, these findings indicate that there may be real differences in chlamydia and gonorrhoea risk associated with use of DMPA-IM, the copper IUD and LNG implant.

However, any true differential risk by method must be evaluated in light of the holistic benefits and risks of each method.The high observed chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences, despite intensive counselling and condom provision, warrants attention, particularly among women ages 24 years and younger and among women in South Africa and Eswatini. While the ECHO study was conducted in settings of high HIV/STI incidence, enrolment criteria did not purposefully target women at highest risk of HIV/STI in the trial communities, suggesting that the observed prevalences may be broadly applicable to women seeking effective contraception in those settings. Improved approaches are needed to prevent STIs, including options for expedited partner treatment, to prevent re.As expected, few women testing positive for chlamydia or gonorrhoea presented with symptoms (12% and 15%, respectively), and a substantial proportion of women who were positive and treated at baseline were infected at the final visit despite syndromic management during the follow-up. Given that syndromic management is the standard of care within primary health facilities in most trial settings, these data suggest that a large proportion of among reproductive aged women is missed, exacerbating the burden of curable STIs and associated morbidities.

Routine access to more reliable diagnostics, like NAAT and novel point-of-care diagnostic tests, will be key to managing asymptomatic STIs and reducing STI prevalence and related morbidities in these settings.17This secondary analysis of the ECHO trial has strengths and limitations. Strengths include the randomised design with comparator groups of equal STI baseline risk. Participants had high adherence to their randomised contraceptive method.6 While all participants received standardised clinical care and counselling, the unblinded randomisation may have allowed postrandomisation differences in STI risk over time by method. It is possible that participants modified their risk-taking behaviour based on study counselling messages regarding the potential association between DMPA-IM and HIV.In conclusion, our analyses suggest that DMPA-IM users may have lower risk of chlamydia and gonorrhoea compared with LNG implant and copper IUD users, respectively.

Further investigation is warranted to better understand the mechanisms of chlamydia and gonorrhoea susceptibility in the context of contraceptive use. Moreover, the high chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences in this population, independent of contraceptive method, warrants urgent attention.Key messagesThe prevalence of chlamydia and gonorrhoea varied by contraceptive method in this randomised trial.High chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences, despite intensive counselling and condom provision, warrants attention, particularly among young women in South Africa and Eswatini.Most chlamydia and gonorrhoea s were asymptomatic. Therefore, routine access to reliable diagnostics are needed to effectively manage and prevent STIs in African women..

A broadly http://blackshirtseo.com/viagra-price neutralising cheap levitra 10mg antibody to prevent HIV transmissionTwo HIV prevention trials (HVTN 704/HPTN 085. HVTN 703/HPTN 081) enrolled 2699 at-risk cisgender men and transgender persons in the Americas and Europe and 1924 at-risk women in sub-Saharan Africa who were randomly assigned to receive the broadly neutralising antibody (bnAb) VRC01 or placebo (10 infusions at an interval of 8 weeks). Moderate-to-severe adverse cheap levitra 10mg events related to VRC01 were uncommon.

In a prespecified pooled analysis, over 20 months, VRC01 offered an estimated prevention efficacy of ~75% against VRC01-sensitive isolates (30% of levitraes circulating in the trial regions). However, VRC01 did not prevent with cheap levitra 10mg other HIV isolates and overall HIV acquisition compared with placebo. The data provide proof of concept that bnAb can prevent HIV acquisition, although the approach is limited by viral diversity and potential selection of resistant isolates.Corey L, Gilbert PB, Juraska M, et al.

Two randomized trials of neutralizing antibodies to prevent HIV-1 acquisition cheap levitra 10mg. N Engl J Med. 2021;384:1003–1014.Seminal cytokine profiles are associated with the risk of HIV cheap levitra 10mg transmissionInvestigators analysed a panel of 34 cytokines/chemokines in blood and semen of men (predominantly men who have sex with men) with HIV, comparing 21 who transmitted HIV to their partners and 22 who did not.

Overall, 47% of men had a recent HIV , 19% were on antiretroviral therapy and 84% were viraemic. The cytokine profile in seminal fluid, but not in blood, differed significantly between transmitters and non-transmitters, with transmitters showing higher seminal concentrations of interleukin 13 (IL-13), IL-15 and IL-33, and lower concentrations of interferon‐gamma, IL-15, macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), IL-17, granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF), IL-4, cheap levitra 10mg IL-16 and eotaxin. Although limited, the findings suggest that the seminal milieu modulates the risk of HIV transmission, providing a potential development opportunity for HIV prevention strategies.Vanpouille C, Frick A, Rawlings SA, et al.

Cytokine network and sexual HIV transmission in men who cheap levitra 10mg have sex with men. Clin Infect Dis. 2020;71:2655–2662.The challenge of estimating cheap levitra 10mg global treatment eligibility for chronic hepatitis B from incomplete datasetsWorldwide, over 250 million people are estimated to live with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), although only ~11% is diagnosed and a minority receives antiviral therapy.

An estimate of the global proportion eligible for treatment was not previously available. A systematic review analysed studies of CHB populations done between 2007 and 2018 to estimate the prevalence of cirrhosis, abnormal alanine aminotransferase, hepatitis B levitra DNA >2000 or >20 000 IU/mL, hepatitis B e-antigen, and overall eligibility for cheap levitra 10mg treatment as per WHO and other guidelines. The pooled treatment eligibility estimate was 19% (95% CI 18% to 20%), with about 10% requiring urgent treatment due to cirrhosis.

However, the estimate should be interpreted cheap levitra 10mg with caution due to incomplete data acquisition and reporting in available studies. Standardised reporting is needed to improve global and regional estimates of CHB treatment eligibility and guide effective policy formulation.Tan M, Bhadoria AS, Cui F, et al. Estimating the proportion of cheap levitra 10mg people with chronic hepatitis B levitra eligible for hepatitis B antiviral treatment worldwide.

A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Gastroenterol cheap levitra 10mg Hepatol, 2021. 6:106–119.Broad geographical disparity in the contribution of HIV to the burden of cervical cancerThis systematic review and meta-analysis estimated the contribution of HIV to the global and regional burden of cervical cancer using data from 24 studies which included 236 127 women with HIV.

HIV markedly increased the risk cheap levitra 10mg of cervical cancer (pooled relative risk 6.07. 95% CI 4.40 to 8.37). In 2018, 4.9% (95% CI 3.6% cheap levitra 10mg to 6.4%) of cervical cancers were attributable to HIV globally, although the population-attributable fraction for HIV varied geographically, reaching 21% (95% CI 15.6% to 26.8%) in the African region.

Cervical cancer is preventable and treatable. Efforts are needed to expand access to HPV cheap levitra 10mg vaccination in sub-Saharan Africa. More immediately, there is an urgent need to integrate cervical cancer screening within HIV services.Stelzle D, Tanaka LF, Lee KK, et al.

Estimates of the cheap levitra 10mg global burden of cervical cancer associated with HIV. Lancet Glob Health. 2020.

9:e161–69.The complex relationship between serum vitamin D and persistence of high-risk human papilloma levitra Most cervical high-risk human papilloma levitra (hrHPV) s are transient and those that persist are more likely to progress to cancer. Based on the proposed immunomodulatory properties of vitamin D, a longitudinal study examined the association between serum concentrations of five vitamin D biomarkers and short-term persistent (vs transient or sporadic) detection of hrHPV in 72 women who collected monthly cervicovaginal swabs over 6 months. No significant associations were detected in the primary analysis.

In sensitivity analyses, after multiple adjustments, serum concentrations of multiple vitamin D biomarkers were positively associated with the short-term persistence of 14 selected hrHPV types. The relationship between vitamin D and hrHPV warrants closer examination. Studies should have longer follow-up, include populations with more diverse vitamin D concentrations and account for vitamin D supplementation.Troja C, Hoofnagle AN, Szpiro A, et al.

Understanding the role of emerging vitamin D biomarkers on short-term persistence of high-risk HPV among mid-adult women. J Infect Dis 2020. Online ahead of printPublished in STI—the editor’s choice.

One in five cases of with Neisseria gonorrhoeae clear spontaneouslyStudies have indicated that Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) s can resolve spontaneously without antibiotic therapy. A substudy of a randomised trial investigated 405 untreated subjects (71% men) who underwent both pretrial and enrolment NG testing at the same anatomical site (genital, pharyngeal and rectal). Based on nuclear acid amplification tests, 83 subjects (20.5%) showed clearance of the anatomical site within a median of 10 days (IQR 7–15) between tests.

Those with spontaneous clearance were less likely to have concurrent chlamydia (p=0.029) and dysuria (p=0.035), but there were no differences in age, gender, sexual orientation, HIV status, number of previous NG episodes, and symptoms other than dysuria between those with and without clearance. Given the high rate of spontaneous resolution, point-of-care NG testing should be considered to reduce unnecessary antibiotic treatment.Mensforth S, Ayinde OC, Ross J. Spontaneous clearance of genital and extragenital Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Data from GToG. STI 2020. 96:556–561.BackgroundReproductive aged women are at risk of both pregnancy and sexually transmitted s (STI).

The modern contraceptive prevalence among married and unmarried women in South Africa is 54% and 64%, respectively, with injectable progestins being most widely used.1 Moreover, current global efforts aim towards all women having access to a range of reliable contraceptives options.2 The prevalences of chlamydia and gonorrhoea are high among women in Africa, particularly among younger women. A recent meta-analysis of over 37 000 women estimated prevalences for chlamydia and gonorrhoea by region and population type (South Africa clinic/community-based, Eastern Africa higher-risk and Southern/Eastern Africa clinic community-based). High chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences were found among 15–24 year-old South African women and high risk populations in East Africa.3 Both chlamydia and gonorrhoea are associated with numerous comorbidities including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), ectopic pregnancy, infertility, increased risk of HIV and other STIs, as well as significant social harm.4While STIs are a significant global health burden, data on STI prevalence by gender and drivers of are limited, hindering an effective public health response.5 Moreover, data on the association between contraceptive use and risk of non-HIV STIs are limited.

The WHO recently reported stagnation in efforts to decrease global STI incidence.5 Understanding drivers of STI acquisition, including any possible associations with widely used contraceptive methods, is necessary to effectively target public health responses that reduce STI incidence and associated comorbidities.The ECHO Trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier. NCT02550067) was a multicentre, open-label randomised trial of 7829 HIV-seronegative women seeking effective contraception in Eswatini, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia. Detailed trial methods and results have been published.6 7 We conducted a secondary analysis of ECHO trial data to evaluate absolute and relative chlamydia and gonorrhoea final visit prevalences among women randomised to intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-IM), a copper intrauterine device (IUD) and a levonorgestrel (LNG) implant.MethodsStudy design, participants and ethicsWomen were enrolled in the ECHO trial from December 2015 through September 2017.

Institutional review boards at each site approved the study protocol and women provided written informed consent before any study procedures. In brief, women who were not pregnant, HIV-seronegative, aged 16–35 years, seeking effective contraception, without medical contraindications, willing to use the assigned method for 18 months, reported not using injectable, intrauterine or implantable contraception for the previous 6 months and reported being sexually active, were enrolled. At every visit, participants received HIV risk reduction counselling, HIV testing and STI management, condoms and, as it became a part of national standard of care, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.

Counselling messages related to HIV risk were implemented consistently across the three groups throughout the trial.6The trial was implemented in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice. Informed consent was obtained from participants or their parents/guardians and human experimentation guidelines of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and those of the authors' institution(s) were followed.Contraceptive exposureAt enrolment, women were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to DMPA-IM, copper IUD or LNG implant.6 Participants received an injection of 150 mg/mL DMPA-IM (Depo Provera. Pfizer, Puurs, Belgium) at enrolment and every 3 months until the final visit at 18 months after enrolment, a copper IUD (Optima TCu380A.

Injeflex, Sao Paolo, Brazil) or a LNG implant (Jadelle. Bayer, Turku, Finland) at enrolment. Women returned for follow-up visits at 1 month after enrolment to address initial contraceptive side-effects and every 3 months thereafter, for up to 18 months with later enrolling participants contributing 12 to 18 months of follow-up.

Visits included HIV serological testing, contraceptive counselling, syndromic STI management and safety monitoring.STI outcomesThe primary outcomes of this secondary analysis were prevalent chlamydia and gonorrhoea at the final visit. Syndromic STI management was provided at screening and all follow-up visits. Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae was conducted at screening and final visits, at the visit of HIV detection for participants who became HIV infected and at clinical discretion.

Any untreated participants with positive NAAT results were contacted to return to the study clinic for treatment.CovariatesAt baseline (inclusive of screening and enrolment visits), we collected demographic, sexual and reproductive risk behaviour and reproductive and contraceptive history data. Baseline risk factors evaluated as covariates included age, whether the participant earned her own income, chlamydia and gonorrhoea status, herpes simplex levitra type 2 (HSV-2) sero-status and suspected PID. Final visit factors evaluated as covariates included number of sex partners in the past 3 months, number of new sex partners in the past 3 months, HIV serostatus, HSV-2 serostatus, condom use in the past 3 months, sex exchanged for money/gifts, sex during vaginal bleeding, follow-up time and number of pelvic examinations during follow-up.

Age and HSV-2 serostatus were evaluated for effect measure modification.Statistical analysisWe conducted analyses using R V.3.5.3 (Vienna, Austria), and log-binomial regression to estimate chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences within each contraceptive group and pairwise prevalence ratios (PR) between each arm in as-randomised and consistent use analyses.In the as-randomised analysis, we analysed participants by the contraceptive method assigned at randomisation independent of method adherence. We estimated crude point prevalences by arm and study site and pairwise adjusted PRs.In the consistent use analysis, we only included women who initiated use of their randomised contraceptive method and maintained randomised method adherence throughout follow-up. We estimated crude point prevalences by arm and pairwise adjusted PRs, with evaluation of age and HSV-2 status first as potential effect measure modifiers, and all covariates above as potential confounders.

Study site and age were retained in the final model. Other covariates were retained if their inclusion in the base model led to a 10% change in the effect estimate through backwards selection.Supplementary analysesAdditional supporting analyses to assess postrandomisation potential sources of bias were conducted to inform interpretation of results. These include evaluation of recent sexual behaviour at enrolment, month 9 and the final visit.

Cohort participation (ie, follow-up time, early discontinuation and timing of randomised method discontinuation) and health outcomes (ie, final visit HIV and HSV-2 status) and frequency and results of pelvic examinations by STI status, site and visit month by randomised arm.ResultsA total of 7829 women were randomly assigned as follows. 2609 to the DMPA-IM group, 2607 to the copper IUD group and 2613 to the LNG implant group (figure 1). Participants were excluded if they were HIV positive at enrolment, did not have at least one HIV test or did not have chlamydia and gonorrhoea test results at the final visit.

Overall, 90%, 94% and 93% from the DMPA-IM, copper IUD and LNG implant groups, respectively, were included in analyses.Study profile. DMPA-IM, depot medroxy progesterone acetate. IUD, intrauterine device.

LNG, levonorgestrel." data-icon-position data-hide-link-title="0">Figure 1 Study profile. DMPA-IM, depot medroxy progesterone acetate. IUD, intrauterine device.

LNG, levonorgestrel.Participant characteristicsBaseline characteristics were similar across groups (table 1). Nearly two-third of enrolled women (63%) were aged 24 and younger and 5768 (74%) of the study population resided in South Africa.View this table:Table 1 Participant baseline and final visit characteristicsThe duration of participation averaged 16 months with no differences between randomised groups (table 1). A total of 1468 (19%) women either did not receive their randomised method or discontinued use during follow-up.

Overall method continuation rates were high with minimal differences between randomised groups when measured by person-years.6 The proportion, however, of method non-adherence as defined in this analysis (ie, did not receive randomised method at baseline or discontinued randomised method at any point during follow-up), was greater in the DMPA-IM group (26%), followed by the copper IUD (18%) and LNG implant (12%) groups. Timing of discontinuation also differed across methods. During the first 6 months, method discontinuation was highest in the copper IUD group (7%) followed closely by DMPA-IM (6%) and LNG implant (4%) groups.

Between 7 and 12 months of follow-up, it was highest in DMPA-IM group (15%), with equivalent proportions in the LNG implant (5%) and copper IUD (5%) groups.Point prevalences of chlamydia and gonorrhoea at baseline and final visitsIn total, 18% of women had chlamydia at baseline (figure 2A) and 15% at the final visit. Among women 24 years and younger, 22% and 20% had chlamydia at baseline and final visits, respectively. Women aged 25–35 at baseline were less likely to have chlamydia at both baseline (12%) and final visits (8%) compared with younger women.

Baseline chlamydia prevalence ranged from 5% in Zambia to 28% in the Western Cape, South Africa (figure 2B).Point prevalence (per 100 persons) of chlamydia and gonorrhoea at baseline and final visit by age category and study site region. Y-axis scale differs for chlamydia and gonorrhoea figures." data-icon-position data-hide-link-title="0">Figure 2 Point prevalence (per 100 persons) of chlamydia and gonorrhoea at baseline and final visit by age category and study site region. Y-axis scale differs for chlamydia and gonorrhoea figures.Among all women, 5% had gonorrhoea at baseline and the final visit (figure 2C).

Women aged 24 and younger were more likely to have gonorrhoea compared with women aged 25 and older at both baseline (5% vs 4%, respectively) and the final visit (6% vs 3%, respectively). Baseline gonorrhoea prevalence ranged from 3% in Zambia and Kenya to 9% in the Western Cape, South Africa (figure 2D). Similar prevalences were observed at the final visit.Point prevalences of chlamydia and gonorrhoea at final visit by randomised contraceptive methodFourteen per cent of women randomised to DMPA-IM, 15% to copper IUD and 17% to LNG implant had chlamydia at the final visit (table 2).View this table:Table 2 Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae prevalence at final visitThe prevalence of chlamydia did not significantly differ between DMPA-IM and copper IUD groups (PR 0.90, 95% CI (0.79 to 1.04)) or between copper IUD and LNG implant groups (PR 0.92, 95% CI (0.81 to 1.04)).

Women in the DMPA-IM group, however, had a significantly lower risk of chlamydia compared with the LNG implant group (PR. 0.83, 95% CI (0.72 to 0.95)). Findings from the consistent use analysis were similar, and neither age nor HSV-2 status modified the observed associations.Four per cent of women randomised to DMPA-IM, 6% to copper IUD and 5% to LNG implant had gonorrhoea at the final visit (table 2).

Gonorrhoea prevalence did not significantly differ between DMPA-IM and LNG implant groups (PR. 0.79, 95% CI (0.61 to 1.03)) or between copper IUD and LNG implant groups (PR. 1.18, 95% CI (0.93 to 1.49)).

Women in the DMPA-IM group had a significantly lower risk of gonorrhoea compared with women in the copper IUD group (PR. 0.67, 95% CI (0.52 to 0.87)). Results from as randomised and continuous use analyses did not differ.

And again, neither age nor HSV-2 status modified the observed associations.Clinical assessment by randomised contraceptive methodTo assess the potential for outcome ascertainment bias, we evaluated the frequency of pelvic examinations and abdominal/pelvic pain and discharge by study arm. Women in the copper IUD group were generally more likely to receive a pelvic examination during follow-up as compared with women in the DMPA-IM and LNG implant groups (online supplemental appendix 1). Similarly, abdominal/pelvic pain on examination or abnormal discharge was observed most frequently in the copper IUD group.

The number of pelvic examinations met the prespecified criteria for retention in the adjusted gonorrhoea model but not in the chlamydia model.Supplemental materialFrequency of syndromic symptoms and potential reAmong women who had chlamydia at baseline, 23% were also positive at the final visit (online supplemental appendix 2, figure 3A). Nine per cent of gonorrhoea-positive women at baseline were also positive at the final visit (online supplemental appendix 2, figure 3B). Across both baseline and final visits, a minority of women with chlamydia or gonorrhoea presented with signs and/or symptoms.

Among chlamydia-positive women, only 12% presented with either abnormal vaginal discharge and/or abdominal/pelvic pain at their test-positive visit (online supplemental appendix 2, figure 3C). Similarly, only 15% of gonorrhoea-positive women presented with abnormal vaginal discharge and/or abdominal/pelvic pain at their test-positive visit (online supplemental appendix 2, figure 3D).Potential re and symptoms among women with chlamydia or gonorrhoea. Data are pooled across the screening and final visits in figures (C) and (D).

Symptomatic is defined as presenting with abnormal vaginal discharge and/or abdominal/pelvic pain. Final visit is described as potential re because test of cure was not conducted following baseline diagnosis and treatment." data-icon-position data-hide-link-title="0">Figure 3 Potential re and symptoms among women with chlamydia or gonorrhoea. Data are pooled across the screening and final visits in figures (C) and (D).

Symptomatic is defined as presenting with abnormal vaginal discharge and/or abdominal/pelvic pain. Final visit is described as potential re because test of cure was not conducted following baseline diagnosis and treatment.DiscussionWe observed differences in final prevalences of chlamydia and gonorrhoea by contraceptive group in both as-randomised and consistent-use analyses. The DMPA-IM group had lower final visit chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences as compared with copper IUD and LNG implant groups, though only the DMPA-IM versus the copper IUD comparison of gonorrhoea and DMPA-IM versus LNG implant comparison of chlamydia reached statistical significance.

These are novel findings that have not previously been reported to our knowledge and were determined in a randomised trial setting with high participant retention, robust biomarker testing and high randomised method adherence. Interestingly, the copper IUD group had higher gonorrhoea and lower chlamydia prevalence compared with the LNG implant group, though neither finding was statistically significant.Two recent systematic reviews of the association between contraceptives and STIs found inconsistent and insufficient evidence on the association between the contraceptive methods under study in ECHO and chlamydia and gonorrhoea.8 9 Neither systematic review identified any randomised studies or any direct comparative evidence for DMPA-IM, copper IUD and LNG implant, thus enabling a unique scientific contribution from this secondary trial analysis. Nonetheless, these findings should be interpreted in light of biological plausibility, as well as the design strengths and limitations of this analysis.The emerging science on the biological mechanisms underlying HIV susceptibility demonstrates the complex relationship between the infectious pathogen, the host innate and adaptive immune response and the interaction of both with the vaginal microbiome and other -omes.

Data on these factors in relationship to chlamydia and gonorrhoea acquisition are much more limited but can be assumed to be equally complex. Vaginal microbiome composition, including microbial metabolic by-products, have been shown to significantly modify risk of HIV acquisition and to vary with exogenous hormone exposure, menstrual cycle phase, ethnicity and geography.10–12 These same biological principles likely apply to chlamydia and gonorrhoea susceptibility. While DMPA-IM has been associated with decreased bacterial vaginosis (BV), initiation of the copper IUD has been associated with increased BV prevalence, and BV is associated with chlamydia and gonorrhoea acquisition.13 14 Moreover, Lactobacillus crispatus, which is less abundant in BV, has been shown to inhibit HeLa cell by Chlamydia trachomatis and inhibits growth of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in animal models.15 16 In addition, microbial community state types that are deficient in Lactobacillus crispatus and/or dominated by dysbiotic species are associated with inflammation, which is a driver of both STI and HIV susceptibility.

Thus, while the exact mechanisms of chlamydia and gonorrhoea in the presence of exogenous hormones and varying host microbiomes are unknown, it is biologically plausible that these complex factors may result in differential susceptibility to chlamydia and gonorrhoea among DMPA-IM, copper IUD and LNG implant users.An alternative explanation for these findings may be postrandomisation differences in clinical care and/or sexual behaviour. Participants in the copper IUD arm were more likely to have pelvic examinations and more likely to have discharge compared with women in the DMPA-IM and LNG implant groups. While interim STI testing and/or treatment were not documented, women in the copper IUD arm may have been more likely to receive syndromic STI treatment during follow-up due to more examination and observed discharge.

More frequent STI treatment in the copper IUD group would theoretically lower the final visit point prevalence relative to women in the DMPA-IM and LNG implant arms, suggesting that the observed lower risk of STI in the DMPA-IM arm is not due to differential examination, testing and treatment. Differential sexual risk behaviour may also have influenced the results. As reported previously, women in the DMPA-IM group less frequently reported condomless sex and multiple partners than women in the other groups, and both DMPA-IM and LNG implant users less frequently reported new partners and sex during menses than copper IUD users.6 Statistical control of self-reported sexual risk behaviour in the consistent-use analysis may have been inadequate if self-reported sexual behaviour was inaccurately or insufficiently reported.A second alternative explanation may be differences in randomised method non-adherence, which was greater in the DMPA-IM group, compared with copper IUD and LNG implant groups.

Yet, the consistency of findings in the as-randomised and continuous use analyses suggests that method non-adherence had minimal effect on study outcomes. Taken as a whole, these findings indicate that there may be real differences in chlamydia and gonorrhoea risk associated with use of DMPA-IM, the copper IUD and LNG implant. However, any true differential risk by method must be evaluated in light of the holistic benefits and risks of each method.The high observed chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences, despite intensive counselling and condom provision, warrants attention, particularly among women ages 24 years and younger and among women in South Africa and Eswatini.

While the ECHO study was conducted in settings of high HIV/STI incidence, enrolment criteria did not purposefully target women at highest risk of HIV/STI in the trial communities, suggesting that the observed prevalences may be broadly applicable to women seeking effective contraception in those settings. Improved approaches are needed to prevent STIs, including options for expedited partner treatment, to prevent re.As expected, few women testing positive for chlamydia or gonorrhoea presented with symptoms (12% and 15%, respectively), and a substantial proportion of women who were positive and treated at baseline were infected at the final visit despite syndromic management during the follow-up. Given that syndromic management is the standard of care within primary health facilities in most trial settings, these data suggest that a large proportion of among reproductive aged women is missed, exacerbating the burden of curable STIs and associated morbidities.

Routine access to more reliable diagnostics, like NAAT and novel point-of-care diagnostic tests, will be key to managing asymptomatic STIs and reducing STI prevalence and related morbidities in these settings.17This secondary analysis of the ECHO trial has strengths and limitations. Strengths include the randomised design with comparator groups of equal STI baseline risk. Participants had high adherence to their randomised contraceptive method.6 While all participants received standardised clinical care and counselling, the unblinded randomisation may have allowed postrandomisation differences in STI risk over time by method.

It is possible that participants modified their risk-taking behaviour based on study counselling messages regarding the potential association between DMPA-IM and HIV.In conclusion, our analyses suggest that DMPA-IM users may have lower risk of chlamydia and gonorrhoea compared with LNG implant and copper IUD users, respectively. Further investigation is warranted to better understand the mechanisms of chlamydia and gonorrhoea susceptibility in the context of contraceptive use. Moreover, the high chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences in this population, independent of contraceptive method, warrants urgent attention.Key messagesThe prevalence of chlamydia and gonorrhoea varied by contraceptive method in this randomised trial.High chlamydia and gonorrhoea prevalences, despite intensive counselling and condom provision, warrants attention, particularly among young women in South Africa and Eswatini.Most chlamydia and gonorrhoea s were asymptomatic.

Therefore, routine access to reliable diagnostics are needed to effectively manage and prevent STIs in African women..