Atrial Fibrillation in Active Cancer Patients
CancerDrug Toxicity2 moreAtrial fibrillation is a common complication of both cancer and anticancer drugs but the consequences of such events remain poorly known and are not adressed in both phase III oncological trials and cardiological guidelines. The objective of this study is to create a prospective multicenter international registry of adult patients with an active cancer and experiencing atrial fibrillation to study major cardiovascular events occurrence during a 1 year follow-up.
DETECT-IP: a Clinical Decision Support System and Intelligent Procedures to Counter Some Adverse...
Patient Acceptance of Health CareAcute Renal FailureCurrent evidence shows that computerized decision support systems (CDSS) have shown to be insufficiently effective to prevent adverse drug reactions (ADRs) at large scale (e.g. whole hospital). Several barriers for successful implementation of CDSS have been identified: over-alerting, lack of specificity of rules, and physician interruption during prescription. The effectiveness of CDSS could be increased in two ways. Firstly, by creating rules that are more specific to a given adverse drug reaction: the current study focuses on acute renal failure and hyperkalemia (two serious and frequent ADR in older hospitalized patients). Secondly, by involving the pharmacist in the review of the alerts so that he/she can transmit, if deemed necessary, a pharmaceutical recommendation to the clinician. This procedure will reduce over-alerting and prevent task interruption. The hypothesis is that the use of specific rules created by a multidisciplinary team and implemented in a CDSS, combined with a strategy for managing and transmitting alerts, can reduce specific ADRs such as hyperkalemia and acute renal failure.
Improving Medication Prescribing-Related Outcomes for Vulnerable Elderly In Transitions
Patient DischargeDrug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions2 moreMedication safety is a crucial health issue for every older Canadian since many of the medications causing serious harm are those which also have life-saving or important symptom-relieving benefits. Very few specialists can accurately advise seniors which medications provide more benefit than harm for them personally, and make changes safely as this requires a very large breadth and depth of knowledge about the patient, the conditions they have and their therapies. Now that telemedicine is compatible with smart phones, this extends the ability of scarce specialists to 'see' any patient in Canada in a way that is more convenient for the patient and may be less expensive than current care. This project will find out whether a unique Clinical Pharmacology specialist team in Hamilton, Ontario can improve medication safety (stop medications no longer needed, reduce doses where appropriate, change to safer medications) for a high risk group of older hospitalized Canadians taking many medications. The hospital where this pilot study will take place was the first to install the world's leading electronic health record and set it up to facilitate and support high quality research. Patients who volunteer will be assigned to their usual care, or to the intervention which is the Clinical Pharmacology specialist team approach starting in hospital and following up with the patient at home using telemedicine and detailed communication with them, their caregiver, family physician, community pharmacist and other specialists. The investigators will study whether the intervention is effective and cost-effective at reducing harmful medication burden, reducing the need to return to hospital, or improving the patient's ratings of their care coordination. The results will determine whether a subsequent large trial is worthwhile.
Collaborative Nurse-pharmacist Counseling for Self-administered Biologics
Medication AdherenceMedication Nonadherence1 moreThe goal of this clinical trial is to learn if nurse-pharmacist counseling can improve patient knowledge and confidence and prevent side effects in patients who start a biologic medication in-office and later continue the medication at home. The main question it aims to answer are: • Does nurse-pharmacist counseling improve patient-reported knowledge and confidence in biologic self-treatment when moving from in-office to at-home administration? Participants will attend a brief counseling session in office and respond to a pre-counseling and post-counseling survey to look at medication knowledge and confidence. Participants will be contacted at three months after the survey to ask if they had any side effects related to their biologic medicine. Data will be collected from the participant's medical record at the study institution for up to six months after the study counseling session.
Drug Interactions in Outpatients.
PolypharmacyOutpatient2 moreMultiple morbidity is increasing, especially in elderly people, with a corresponding increase in polypharmacy and inappropriate prescriptions. According to different evaluations, between 25 and 75% of patients aged 75 or older are exposed to 5 or more drugs. There is increasing evidence that polypharmacy can cause more harm than good, especially in elderly people, due to factors such as drug-drug and drug-disease interactions. Many strategies were proposed to reduce polypharmacy and inappropriate prescribing, but there is little evidence to show benefit. There is an urgent need to implement effective strategies. The application methodology must be simple so that it does not fail in daily practice. For the current plan, an electronic medical record, named "DrApp", will be used, which will include a drug interaction program, (Interax-AI), which will automatically indicate the medication prescriptions that involve a risk for the patient. All outpatient indications followed by physicians using the DrApp electronic history will be registered. The indications will be compared in the 4 months prior to the incorporation of the Interax-AI program with the 4 months after the incorporation of the program. Between both stages a period of 2 weeks will be established in which the data will not be recorded. The minimum & maximum number of patients that will be included in each stage are 100 & 200. The primary end point is to compare the total number of indications per inpatient, before the availability of the Interax-AI program and after the application of this program. The objective is to evaluate if the computer program of detection of drug interactions allows to limit the polypharmacy in outpatients.
Observation Study of the Pharmacokinetics of Adductor Canal Block
ToxicityDrugWith the aging of the population, osteoarthritis of knees and hips become major orthopedic problems worldwide. Osteoarthritis of the knees and hips is associated with a significant pain problem and functional disability. Total joints replacement is the ultimate surgical procedure to deal with such problems. Multimodal analgesia, including periarticular local infiltration of analgesia (LIA), regional nerve block using adductor canal block (ACB), opioid and non-opioid have been shown to be effective in managing postoperative pain. Regional nerve block using femoral nerve block or adductor canal block (ACB) is also a well-established analgesic technique after total knee replacement. Standard bupivacaine (SB), levobupivacaine, ropivacaine were used in ACB in these studies. Whether combining ACB with periarticular LIA has the additional benefit of prolonging analgesia or with synergistic effect remains controversial, because the number of RCTs conducted is not enough. Liposomal bupivacaine (LB) may further prolong the analgesic effect of ACB, as the therapeutic levels of bupivacaine are below the toxic range and sustained for 72 hours after injection. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and systemic levels of serum bupivacaine following adductor canal block using LB 66.5mg in patients undergoing TKA with LIA over a 72-hour period. This also serves as a pilot study to determine the dose and timing of blood taking for serum bupivacaine level of a previously IRB approved study - "Comparing the efficacy of combining periarticular local infiltration of analgesia and adductor canal block using liposomal bupivacaine and standard bupivacaine- A prospective randomized controlled trial".
Post-operative Pain Control After Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy
Recurrent TonsillitisObstructive Sleep Apnea2 moreAdenotonsillectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures performed in the pediatric population in the United States. It is generally a well-tolerated procedure with post-operative bleeding risk ranging from 3-5% in children. Post-operative pain following adenotonsillectomy has significant morbidity and may result in prolonged hospital stay or re-admission to the hospital. Post-operative analgesia is most commonly managed with narcotic-containing pain medication. In recent years however, there is evidence that some patients may manifest increased sensitivity to narcotics, resulting in life-threatening respiratory compromise. Though there is a theoretical risk that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) increase bleeding time by disrupting platelet aggregation, evidence of detrimental effects (i.e. increased risk of postoperative bleeding) remains inconclusive for these generally well-tolerated medications. The goal of this study is to determine the incidence of post-operative bleeding and to determine the efficacy of NSAIDs in the management of post-operative pain following pediatric adenotonsillectomy, versus more commonly used narcotic pain medication. The study design will be an initial retrospective study to collect pilot data on the incidence of postoperative hemorrhage and indicators of adequate/inadequate pain control in children age 4 to 17 undergoing adenotonsillectomy. This will be followed by a prospective, randomized, single-blind controlled study in which orally-administered ibuprofen (test intervention) is compared to acetaminophen-hydrocodone (control intervention) in the postoperative period following adenotonsillectomy.
Amifostine and Melphalan in Treating Patients With Primary Systemic Amyloidosis Who Are Undergoing...
Drug/Agent Toxicity by Tissue/OrganMultiple Myeloma and Plasma Cell NeoplasmRATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of plasma cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Having a peripheral stem cell transplant to replace the blood-forming cells destroyed by chemotherapy, allows higher dose of chemotherapy to be given so that more plasma cells are killed. Giving a chemoprotective drug such as amifostine may protect kidney cells from the side effects of chemotherapy. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of melphalan given together with amifostine in treating patients who are undergoing peripheral stem cell transplant for primary systemic amyloidosis.
Safety of Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination
PainInjection Site Reaction1 moreThis is a prospective, observational study. During the study, children and adolescents (ages ≥ 5 to < 16) will be followed post administration of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Injection site (local), systemic reaction, and unsolicited adverse event data will be assessed on vaccination day and during the 7 days following each vaccination using either identical web-based or paper diaries, depending on study participant preference. At Duke University, Cincinnati's Children Hospital, and Kaiser Permanente Northern California, serum samples will be collected for optional assessment of antibody titers to COVID-19. Each participant who opts in will have baseline (within 3 days of vaccination) serologies obtained and immunogenicity assessment at 28 (+7) days after each dose. All participants will be followed for 180 days after dose 2 for serious adverse events and adverse events of special interest.
Treating Patients With Recurrent PCNSL With Carboplatin/BBBD and Adding Rituxan To The Treatment...
Brain and Central Nervous System TumorsDrug/Agent Toxicity by Tissue/Organ2 moreRATIONALE: Monoclonal antibodies, such as rituximab, can locate cancer cells and either kill them or deliver cancer-killing substances to them without harming normal cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, etoposide, etoposide phosphate, and cytarabine, use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Osmotic blood-brain barrier disruption uses certain drugs to open the blood vessels around the brain and allow anticancer substances to be delivered directly to the brain tumor. Chemoprotective drugs such as sodium thiosulfate may protect normal cells from the side effects of carboplatin-based chemotherapy. Combining rituximab with chemotherapy given with osmotic blood-brain barrier disruption plus sodium thiosulfate may kill more cancer cells. PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining rituximab with combination chemotherapy given with osmotic blood-brain barrier disruption plus sodium thiosulfate in treating patients who have refractory or recurrent primary CNS lymphoma.