Antonio De Belvis

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore | UNICATT · Institute of Hygiene

Introduction Integrated Care Pathways (ICPs) are a method for the mutual decision-making and organization of care for a well-defined group of patients during a well-defined period. The aim of a care pathway is to enhance the quality of care by improving patient outcomes, promoting patient safety, increasing patient satisfaction, and optimizing the...

Risk management is a key tool in Clinical Governance. Our project aimed to define, share, apply and measure the impact of tools and methodologies for the continuous improvement of quality of care, especially in relation to the multi-disciplinary and integrated management of the hyperglycemic patient in hospital settings. A training project, coordin...

Risk management is a key tool in Clinical Governance. Our project aimed to define, share, apply and measure the impact of tools and methodologies for the continuous improvement of quality of care, especially in relation to the multi-disciplinary and integrated management of the hyperglycemic patient in hospital settings. A training project, coordin...

Objective: Emergency Departments (EDs) worldwide face the challenges of crowding, waiting times, and cost containment. This review aims to provide a synthesis of the current literature focused on how Lean Thinking Principles and tools can be applied in an ED to address overcrowding and hospital admissions. Materials and methods: Primary studies...

Patient engagement is based on the assumption that making patients co-producers of their health might enhance their satisfaction and responsibility with the healthcare system and it strictly linked with the health provider choice. Making patients active participants in their healthcare is considered a crucial component of high-quality healthcare se...

Background: Gender differences are evident in many common health conditions, especially respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The aim of this review was to identify published studies describing gender differences in asthma and COPD, in particular regarding pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment, wi...

Objective Antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) is useful to prevent antimicrobial overuse, misuse and abuse, as well against the occurrence of surgical site infections (SSIs). This study aimed to describe the implementation of a quality improvement intervention on AP for elective surgery, as informal interviews showed a lower than expected compliance with i...

To move the integration of care processes for diabetes in Europe forward, an expert group was constituted. The goal of the group’s activities was to develop a recommendation for integrated care pathways, targeting people with diabetes and comorbidities. Integrated care is an organising principle to achieve the delivery of improved patient care thro...

Patient engagement is based on the assumption that making patients co-producers of their health might enhance their satisfaction and responsibility with the healthcare system and it strictly linked with the health provider choice. Making patients active participants in their healthcare is considered a crucial component of high-quality healthcare se...

Background: Clinical governance (CG) is an approach to quality improvement in healthcare aimed at achieving a patient-centered health care system. The main objective of this study was to highlight human centered healthcare latent factors underlying the results of a CG assessment performed in the teaching hospital "A. Gemelli" of Rome, Italy. Mate...

Background: There isn't a validated questionnaire in Italian language to evaluate the quality perceived by the patient in Digestive Endoscopy. Objective: validation of the translation of a questionnaire from English to Italian language to measure the level of patient satisfaction. Materials and methods: we conducted a prospective study on vali...

The need to integrate clinical and public health training of medical students is increasingly important. Future physicians need to be able to deal with new, complex and growing public health challenges. A literature search was performed through Pubmed to identify the conceptual reference framework. Meetings were carried out to identify the most app...

To assess the long--term physical and psychological disabilities and their economic impact in severe trauma survivors. adult patients with ISS>15 and AIS ≤3 admitted to the ICU of a Level 1 trauma centre in the Lazio Region and discharged alive from hospital underwent a structured interview 12--24 months after the event. Self--reported somatic symp...

Clinical Governance provides a framework for assessing and improving clinical quality through a single coherent program. Organizational appropriateness is aimed at achieving the best health outcomes and the most appropriate use of resources. The goal of the present study is to verify the likely relationship between Clinical Governance and appropria...

Health policies on disease prevention differ widely between countries. Studies suggest that different countries have much to learn from each other and that significant health gains could be achieved if all countries followed best practice. This paper describes the policy development and planning process relating to prevention activities in Italy, t...

AIM: This study evaluated the knowledge and attitudes of Italian mothers - whose daughters had been vaccinated in 2012 - towards primary (anti-HPV vaccination) and secondary (Pap test screening) cervical cancer prevention, as well as sources of information and mother-daughter communication on health issues. METHODS: The survey - part of a multicen...

This publication provides insights into the health system context for chronic care in twelve European countries. It looks at the range of care models that have been implemented to better meet the needs of people with long-term health conditions. There is indeed growing recognition of the need to innovate service delivery in order to better bridge t...

Background Surgical site infections (SSIs) are a major contributor to patient injury, mortality and health care costs. There is a strong evidence of effectiveness of antimicrobial prophylaxis and the spread availability of national and international guidelines, its use is often suboptimal. Classically inappropriateness in antibiotic prophylaxis i...

Background Integrated care models respond to the complexities of long terms conditions, in particular the increasing prevalence of multiple morbidity and poly-pharmacy. The integration of care across primary, intermediate and secondary care providers could help reducing duplication or gaps in services, emphasize the continuity and coordination of...

Italy is the sixth largest country in Europe and has the second highest average life expectancy, reaching 79.4 years for men and 84.5 years for women in 2011. There are marked regional differences for both men and women in most health indicators, reflecting the economic and social imbalance between the north and south of the country. The main disea...

Purpose: To perform a preliminary feasibility acute and late toxicity evaluation of an intensified and modulated adjuvant treatment in prostate cancer (PCa) patients after radical prostatectomy. Material and methods: A phase I/II has been designed. Eligible patients were 79 years old or younger, with an ECOG of 0-2, previously untreated, histolo...

PRISMA statement was published in 2009 in order to set standards in the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of PRISMA endorsement on the quality of reporting and methodological quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, published in journals in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology (GH)...

Public Health (PH) and Primary Health Care (PHC) need to be better integrated, at different levels of the healthcare system, in order to improve health and social outcomes. The aim of this study was to review international models and approaches supporting the integration of PH and PHC and to classify these according to their main focus. A literatur...

Objective: The aim of this survey is to compare the main sources of information about vaccination against Human papillomavirus (HPV) of young women aged over-18 and under-18 years. Methods: A multicenter study was carried out in Italy through the administration of a questionnaire. Univariate analyses were conducted to evaluate possible differences...

Background: hospitalization for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSC), also known as avoidable hospitalization (AH) has been proposed as effect measure of the accessibility and effectiveness of primary care. In the last years in developed countries, including Italy, hospitalization rates have decreased as well as the rates of AH. The decline...

Introduction PRISMA statement was developed in order set standards in the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of PRISMA endorsement on the methodological quality and the quality of reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, published in scientific journals in the field of gas...

Background Italian Regions developed their Regional Prevention Plans 2010-2012 (PRPs) following the guidance provided by the Ministry of Health’s National Prevention Plan 2010-2012 (PNP). Within PRPs, each Region should implement projects in the areas of universal prevention, prevention in populations at risk, predictive medicine and prevention o...

Issue: In all European Countries, it’s necessary to set the improvement of public health as a priority. An evidence-based priority setting process is imperative for funding decisions about primary and secondary prevention. Description of the problem On July 2012, on behalf of CCM (Centre for Disease Prevention and Control of the Italian Minist...

Issue/problem At European level, antibiotic prophylaxis is of crucial relevance in surgery, thus relating not only with the appropriate choice of the drug (ranging from 91.4 to 92.2%), but also considering its duration (40.7-52.9% of appropriateness) and time of administration (47.6 to 69.7% of appropriateness). The implementation of clinical go...

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Objectives. The aim of our study is to examine the role of some factors (sociodemographic patterns, social relationship support, and trust in healthcare actors) on structure of quality of life among the Italian elderly population, by stratifying according to presence or absence of disability. Methods. Using data of the Italian National Institute of...

The goal of this chapter is to describe the role of health communication in preventing smoking habits providing the reader with useful insight toward the theoretical and empirical underpinning of mass media campaigns. At the end of this chapter you will be able to address the tobacco prevention mass media campaigns core issues (e.g., theoretical fr...

Objective: This study describes and evaluates the application of a waiting list management program in ambulatory care. Design: Waiting list active management survey (telephone call and further contact); before and after controlled trial. Setting: Local Health Trust in Veneto Region (North-East of Italy) in 2008-09. Participants: Five hundred...

Objective: To measure the relative efficiency of primary care (PC) in turning their structures into services delivery and turning their services delivery into quality outcomes. Design: Cross-sectional study based on the dataset of the Primary Healthcare Activity Monitor for Europe project. Two Data Envelopment Analysis: models were run to comp...

The goal of this chapter is to describe the role of health communication in preventing smoking habits providing the reader with useful insight toward the theoretical and empirical underpinning of mass media campaigns. At the end of this chapter you will be able to address the tobacco prevention mass media campaigns core issues (e.g., theoretical fr...

Objectives: Given the growing recognition of patient-centeredness as a healthcare quality indicator and its limited implementation in practice, our study evaluated how the Italian hospitals (ItHs), including research hospitals (IRCCSs), research teaching hospitals (THs), and independent public hospital trusts (AOs), address the dimension of online...

The stewardship model has been adopted as a system of governance in several countries. In Italy, the Ministry of Health has proposed the use of the stewardship model for implementing the activities of the National Prevention Plan 2010-2012. The authors present the conceptual foundations and methodology used in the development of an assessment tool...

This study aimed to compare technical efficiency of general practice (GP) delivered by the twenty Regions of Italy's decentralized healthcare system and to determine if it was affected by contextual factors. First, we calculated the Regional efficiency scores by means of Data Envelopment Analysis. Then we carried out a regression analysis to invest...

p> Background : Stewardship is contemplated as a way to make the national Health Service more efficient and effective within the context of devolution. In december 2010, the Minister of Health commissioned the university of “Sapienza" and “cattolica" of rome the task of testing and ensuring that we have the appropriate tools for evaluating the impl...

When an health condition has been identified, the question of whether to continue driving depends not on a medical diagnosis, but on the functional consequences of the illness. The complex nature of physical and mental impairments and their relationship with safe driving make the availability of evidence based tools necessary for health professiona...

Background: Avoidable hospitalization (AH) has been widely studied as a possible measure of the performance of primary health care (PHC). However, studies examining the relationship between the efficiency and quality of PHC and AH have found mixed results. Our study aims at highlighting those factors related to the relationship between AH and acce...

This report analyses the quality assurance policies for long-term care (LTC) in the following countries: Austria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.The authors first discuss quality assurance in LTC by analysing: the dimensions of quality, th...

This report analyses the quality assurance policies for long-term care (LTC) in the following countries: Austria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The authors first discuss quality assurance in LTC by analysing: the dimensions of quality,...

The primary purpose of this study is to analyse the costs related to childhood obesity (CO) with reference to different models of healthcare systems. A systematic review of the economic impact of CO on healthcare systems was conducted by searching the main electronic scientific databases. Cost-of-illness (COI) analyses of children aged under 18 yea...

Vaccinations are globally recognized one of the most important tools for primary prevention of infectious diseases, but the spread of anti-vaccinations movements and the availability of unreliable health information on the Web can negatively influence the adherence to vaccination campaigns. Aim of the study is the evaluation of Italian WebPages co...

Background: The Italian Observatory Healthcare Report (IOHR - 8th edition) [1] aims to help policy makers in the process of decision making through a set of validated indicators resulting from the multidisciplinary activity of several public health experts. Its main task is to gather comparable data on the health status and the quality of health ca...

Adherence to vaccination campaigns can be negatively influenced by Web presence of unreliable information. Aim of study is qualitative and quantitative evaluation of Italian WebPages contents about vaccinations to address prevention strategies in countries that, like Italy, wouldn't like vaccination to be mandatory any longer In August 2011 two res...

Patients have a privileged perspective on health care quality, thus it is important to obtain from them judgments about offered services. Currently, there are no well developed quality monitoring systems related to the patient's perspective, though Istat data sources would b helpful on this issues. We performed a descriptive analysis relating to th...

strong>Abstract Background : Hospitalization may often be prevented by timely and effective outpatient care either by preventing the onset of an illness, controlling an acute illness or managing a chronic disease with an appropriate follow-up. The objective of the study is to examine the variability of hospital admissions within Italian regions fo...