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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (211)
Rationale:
Due to the emergence of oral anticancer therapies, existing care processes in oncology - that are mainly focused on in-hospital treatments - must be rethought. The development of a care pathway is a well-known methodology to reorganise and standardise care for a specific patient group. However, care pathway development might be complex...
Purpose
In the Collaborative Network To Take Responsibility for Oral Anticancer Therapy (CONTACT) project, an evidence-based and patient-centered care pathway was implemented in 12 oncology departments in Flanders. The care pathway was developed in co-creation by an interdisciplinary project team, and tailored to the local hospital context. In this...
Although medication use during pregnancy is common, most available products lack sufficient safety information. As prospective data collection and perinatal pharmacoepidemiologic research on medication safety in pregnancy did not exist in Belgium yet, the BELpREG data registration system was developed. BELpREG enables comprehensive ‘real-world’ dat...
Background
To address the many challenges health systems and communities face, primary care is constantly searching for new strategies to improve quality of care. One of the strategies is to focus on patients’ personal goals to direct the care process. To adopt an explicit focus on patients’ personal goals, actions at different levels are required....
Objective
To describe the mental health of perinatal women in five European countries during the third pandemic wave and identify risk factors related to depressive and anxiety symptoms.
Design
A cross-sectional, online survey-based study.
Setting
Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK, 10 June 2021–22 August 2021.
Participants...
Background
as a result of the high prevalence of polypharmacy in nursing homes (NHs), nursing home residents (NHRs) are exposed to numerous drug–drug interactions (DDIs) that can lead to adverse drug effects, and increased morbidity and mortality.
Objectives
to evaluate (i) the prevalence of DDIs among NHRs and its evolution over time, and (ii) fa...
Patients who take oral anticancer drugs (OACD) alternate between the hospital and the community setting. Little is known about how general practitioners (GPs) and community pharmacists (CPs) from primary care (PC) can be involved in providing seamless care. In an exploratory qualitative study, semi-structured interviews with healthcare professional...
Purpose
To investigate factors affecting the cocreation and implementation of care pathways for patients treated with oral anticancer drugs.
Methods
An explorative qualitative process evaluation was performed at four Belgian hospitals, cocreating and implementing a care pathway for patients on oral anticancer drugs. Semistructured interviews and f...
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed tremendous challenges to healthcare systems. Care for oncology patients, a vulnerable population during the pandemic, was disrupted and drastically changed. A multicenter qualitative study was conducted in 11 Belgian hospitals with the aim to provide an overview of the most important changes that were made in the car...
Aims
To provide in‐depth insight into how patients and their relatives experienced change or delay in cancer treatment and care due to COVID‐19.
Design
A qualitative study including semi‐structured interviews with patients with cancer and their relatives.
Methods
Between July and October 2020, 42 patients who were confronted with a change or dela...
Objective: To assess the knowledge and counseling preferences of the public (‘individuals’) and pharmacy staff (‘professionals’) in Belgium on emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs).
Study design: Cross-sectional study using two different anonymous, online surveys (one addressing the public and one professionals).
Results: Overall, 1518 individua...
A Teratology Information Service (TIS) does not exist in Belgium yet but will hopefully be established soon. To prepare for this, we aimed to provide insight into the information needs and counseling preferences of the Belgian public and healthcare professionals (HCPs) regarding medication use in pregnancy and breastfeeding. A cross-sectional study...
Objective:
Instruments to measure quality of patient-centred care (PCC) for the rapidly growing population of patients treated with oral anticancer drugs (OACD) are lacking. The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to assess PCC in the context of OACD.
Methods:
The CONTACT-Patient-Centred Care Questionnaire (CONTACT-P...
Pharmaceutical industry is involved in medication safety monitoring through post-marketing spontaneous reporting or product-specific registries. However, it is unclear how marketing authorization holders (MAHs) experience their role and current activities in this field.
This qualitative study aimed to gain insight into the experiences and perspec...
In 2021, a prototype of a Belgian registration system (“BELpREG”) was established, enabling comprehensive data collection on maternal medication use and mother-infant outcomes through online questionnaires. After ‘in-house’ testing on functionality and performance, the feasibility and validity of data collection by the BELpREG prototype will be ass...
Objective
This scoping review aimed to identify patient goal elicitation and evaluation methods for older adults, and to investigate which methods can be used in medication optimization interventions for nursing home residents (NHRs).
Methods
The Arksey and O’Malley framework guided the review. A search was launched in PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and...
Community pharmacists in Belgium frequently dispense emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs). However, variable and insufficient counseling practices exist across pharmacies, highlighting the need for standardization and quality improvement strategies. The aim of this project was to de-velop and test an ECP dispensing protocol for pharmacists. An ‘exp...
Achtergrond
In 2021 werd aan de KU Leuven een prospectief registratiesysteem voor medicatiegebruik tijdens zwangerschap en moeder-kind uitkomsten ontwikkeld (‘BELpREG’). Het is momenteel onduidelijk welke rol officina-apothekers willen opnemen in het BELpREG project.
Doel
Deze studie onderzocht de bereidheid van apothekers in verband met het info...
Although marketing authorisation holders (MAHs) are involved in monitoring medication safety, it was unclear how they experience their role and current monitoring activities in pregnancy. Therefore, a qualitative study using online focus groups with MAHs and the Belgian umbrella organisation of MAHs was conducted in June–July 2021. In total, 38 rep...
Background
Coping with a chronic disease can be really challenging. Self-management represents a promising strategy to improve daily life experiences. The role of primary healthcare professionals cannot be underestimated in supporting self-management. Due to a shortage of theory, implementation of self-management support is hindered in primary care...
Background:
In times of COVID-19, we are challenged to experiment with alternative platforms or software to connect people. In particular, the struggle that arose in health research was how to interact with patients and care professionals. The latter is additionally faced with an extreme workload to fight the pandemic crisis. Creative strategies ha...
Although marketing authorization holders (MAHs) are involved in monitoring medication safety, it was unclear how they experience their role and current monitoring activities in pregnancy. Therefore, a qualitative study using online focus groups with MAHs and the Belgian umbrella organisation of MAHs was conducted in June-July 2021. In total, 38 rep...
Background
Clinical decision support systems are implemented in many hospitals to prevent medication errors and associated harm. They are however associated with a high burden of false positive alerts and alert fatigue. The aim of this study was to evaluate a drug–drug interaction (DDI) clinical decision support system in terms of its performance,...
Background
Person-centered care has been shown to be beneficial for nursing home residents. The know-how and attitude of healthcare professionals, however, can make its implementation difficult. Also, research on person-centered care with regard to medication decision-making and the medicines’ pathway in nursing homes is lacking. This study aimed t...
Insight into the epidemiology of perinatal medication use during the COVID-19 pandemic is scarce. Therefore, a cross-sectional study using an anonymous web survey was performed in Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom (UK) to investigate the prevalence and type of medications used by pregnant and breastfeeding women duri...
Aims and objectives: Gaining insight in how people living with chronic conditions experience primary healthcare within their informal network.
Background: The primary healthcare system is challenged by the increasing number of people living with chronic conditions. To strengthen chronic care management, literature and policy plans point to a person...
Introduction Treatment options for multiple myeloma have increased substantially. To find the best therapy for each in-dividual patient, patient preferences should be taken into account whenever a decision regarding relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) treatment has to be made. Shared decision-making (SDM) is one of the keys to person-centre...
BACKGROUND
In times of COVID-19, we are challenged to experiment with alternative platforms or software to connect people. In particular, the struggle in health research arose to interact with patients and care professionals. The latter is additionally faced with an extreme workload to fight the pandemic crisis. Creative strategies are developed to...
Background
Coping with a chronic disease can be really challenging. Self-management represents a promising strategy to improve daily life experiences. The role of primary healthcare professionals cannot be underestimated in supporting self-management. Due to a shortage of theory, implementation of self-management support is hindered in primary care...
PURPOSE
Given the increasing burden of cancer on patients, health care providers, and payers, the shift of certain outpatient procedures to the patients' homes (further indicated as oncologic home-hospitalization [OHH]) might be a high-quality, patient-centered, and cost-effective alternative to standard ambulatory cancer care (SOC).
METHODS
A ran...
Although discussions are ongoing, Belgium still has no Teratology Information Service (TIS). While the need for a Belgian TIS has clearly been demonstrated, there is no insight into the preferences and expectations of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and the public in Belgium towards the role and organization of the future TIS. As such evidence is p...
Recent studies have demonstrated that perinatal medication use is also common in Belgium. As in other countries, this entails safety questions and information needs, among patients as well as healthcare professionals (HCP). The research potential of real-world data regarding medication safety is currently underused in Belgium due to a lack of compr...
Information on interprofessional team composition and functioning in the care for patients on oral anticancer drugs (OACDs), and how healthcare professionals (HCPs) evaluate in-hospital care processes is scarce. We aimed to investigate interprofessional care processes for OACD-patients in a partially mixed-methods study. A combination of (a) the Ca...
Background:
Recent studies have shown that perinatal medication use is also common in Belgium. Similar to other countries, this brings safety questions and information needs among patients and healthcare professionals (HCP). The research potential of real-world data regarding medication safety is currently underused in Belgium due to a lack of comp...
Background:
Healthcare authorities worldwide search for ways to develop integrated care and interprofessional collaboration. In Belgium, Medical-Pharmaceutical Concertation (MPC) was introduced as a format to promote constructive dialogues between GPs and community pharmacists (CPs) with a focus on pharmacotherapy.
Objective:
To evaluate the imp...
Background: Use of simulated patients (SP) to assess the quality of pharmacy services and impact of interventions is increasing. The CRiSP (Checklist for Reporting research using Simulated Patient methodology) checklist was recently developed, assisting researchers to report items necessary to meet a minimum agreed standard.
Objective(s): To ident...
Rationale, aims and objectives
The rise in chronic diseases urges for an identification of interventions that improve adherence. However, no golden standard exists for evaluating adherence in polymedicated patients. The objectives were to investigate the impact of a pharmacist‐led medication use review (MUR) service on adherence implementation rate...
The COVID-19 pandemic may be of particular concern for pregnant and breastfeeding women. We aimed to explore their beliefs about the coronavirus and COVID-19 vaccine willingness and to assess the impact of the pandemic on perinatal experiences and practices. A multinational, cross-sectional, web-based study was performed in six European countries b...
Background
Everolimus in combination with exemestane is indicated for the treatment of hormone receptor-positive, HER 2-neg endocrine resistant advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women. This study investigated treatment adherence, tolerability, satisfaction and efficacy.
MethodsA prospective, non-interventional, non-controlled, multicentric o...
A blended learning program for community pharmacists with regard to preconception, pregnancy and lactation was shown to be insufficient to implement high-quality counselling of women in Belgian pharmacies (Ceulemans et al, RSAP 2020). Academia and organizations involved in continuous education (CE) and professional development of community pharmaci...
Background
Over the past decade, treatment options for multiple myeloma have increased substantially. To find the best therapy for each individual patient, patient preferences should be taken into account whenever a decision regarding relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) treatment has to be made. Shared decision making is one of the keys to...
Background
Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are health information technology systems designed to support healthcare providers. Two clinical decision rules have recently been implemented in a subset of Belgian community pharmacies: a clinical rule providing support in the dispensing of osteoporosis medication and a clinical rule aiding in t...
Background
A clinical decision support system (CDSS) is a health information technology (IT) system that is designed to enhance physicians’ and other health professionals’ decisions and actions. CDSS can assist in the safe use of medicines and optimization of medication management, key tasks of community pharmacists in preventing and solving drug-r...
Introduction:
Evidence on perinatal mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential determinants is limited. Therefore, this multinational study aimed to assess the mental health status of pregnant and breastfeeding women during the pandemic, and to explore potential associations between depressive symptoms, anxiety and stress, and wo...
Background
The STOPPFrail criteria were developed to assist physicians in deprescribing medications among frail patients approaching end of life. We aimed to measure the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and to describe changes over time, using STOPPFrail, in frail nursing home residents (NHRs) with limited life expectancy...
Introduction: Community pharmacists acknowledge to have an important role in providing pharmaceutical care during preconception, pregnancy and lactation. However, pharmacists’ knowledge and counseling regarding this topic is still insufficient, underlining the need for educational initiatives on this topic. Hence, the ECTOPIC-study** was designed t...
COVID-19 also affects pregnant and breastfeeding women. Hence, clinicians and policymakers require reliable evidence on COVID-19 epidemiology and consequences in this population. We aimed to assess the susceptibility of pregnant women to SARS-CoV-2 and women's perceived impact of the pandemic on their breastfeeding practices, medical counseling and...
Background:
Community pharmacists acknowledge to have an important role in providing pharmaceutical care during preconception, pregnancy and lactation. However, pharmacists' knowledge and counseling regarding this topic is still insufficient. Hence, educational initiatives are urgently needed.
Objectives:
To assess the impact of a blended learni...
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES
To describe the use and deprescribing of benzodiazepine receptor agonists (BZRAs) among nursing home residents (NHRs), to evaluate appropriateness of use and to identify factors associated with BZRA use and deprescribing.
DESIGN
Posthoc analysis of the Collaborative Approach to Optimize Medication Use for Older People in Nurs...
Background and Aims: Dietary management, as an adjuvant therapy in Parkinson's disease (PD), provides clear benefits to patients. However, baseline information about the usual dietary intake of Parkinson's patients is lacking. Methods: We conducted an observational cross-sectional study, investigating the dietary intake in Belgian PD patients, as w...
Increased prevalence of depressive symptoms and anxiety among pregnant women and women in the early postpartum period was observed during the lockdown in Belgium. Obstetricians must take actions to safeguard perinatal mental health.
Purpose
To analyse the importance and performance of key elements in patient-centered care coordination, education and counseling of patients treated with oral anticancer drugs.
Method
In four Belgian non-academic hospitals, the importance and performance of a set of 82 key elements was cross-sectionally evaluated by primary and secondary healthca...
Background:
In the SIMENON study, medication use reviews were conducted for older polymedicated home-dwelling patients across 56 Belgian community pharmacies.
Objective:
To evaluate the impact of the service on patient-reported outcome measures and patient-reported experience measures, and to evaluate the suitability of the chosen instruments....
Background:
The COME-ON study was a cluster-controlled trial of a complex intervention that consisted of a blended training program, local interdisciplinary meetings, and interdisciplinary case conferences in Belgian nursing homes. The intervention was associated with significant improvements in the appropriateness of prescribing. The aims of this...
Background
Although preferably avoided, pregnant and lactating women often use medicines, including potentially inappropriate products. Pregnant women also commonly search for online information on medication. This underscores the need for appropriate counseling by healthcare professionals, including community pharmacists. However, little is known...
Aim:
To evaluate the effectiveness, feasibility, meaningfulness and appropriateness of the development and implementation of a transmural care pathway in four hospitals in Flanders to improve self-management support in healthcare professionals and self-management in patients treated with oral anticancer drugs.
Design:
A multicenter, prospective,...
Background:
A medication use review (MUR) aims to optimize medication use, patient knowledge and can improve health outcomes. This pharmaceutical care service is not yet available in Belgium.
Objectives:
To describe drug-related problems (DRPs) detected during a MUR, subsequent interventions proposed by pharmacists and evolution of DRPs until fo...
In order to effectively implement the gold standard for healthcare practice , person-centered care, communication between the patient and the pharmacist is required. As patients form a heterogeneous group with different needs depending on the disease stage they are in, coping strategies and health beliefs, an accurate understanding of the patient's...
Pharmaceutical care can hardly be provided without collaboration with other healthcare providers. In its optimal form, interprofessional collaboration entails that providers discuss mutual goals, resources, and responsibility for patient care. In order to support this collaboration, interprofessional education is essential. Collaborating in healthc...
Background and objective
Medication errors in nursing homes are highly prevalent and occur in different stages of the medicines pathway. The application of the SEIPS (System Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety) model facilitates the identification of work system factors that contribute to errors. Therefore, the aim of our research was to inve...
RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVE:
In the absence of a Teratology Information Service in Belgium, the National Poison Centre might act as a substitute centre for answering pregnancy- and lactation-related questions regarding medication use. The aim of this study was to define the prevalence and characteristics of pregnancy- and lactation-related calls...
Introduction:
QTc-interval prolongation is associated with ventricular arrhythmias and mortality in a general population. Bazett's correction formula (QTcB) is routinely used despites its overcorrection at high heart rates. Recently, we proposed a patient-specific QT correcting algorithm (QTcA) resulting in improved rate correction and predictive...
Objectives:
To investigate the impact of a complex multifaceted intervention on the appropriateness of prescribing for Belgian nursing home (NH) residents.
Design:
A multicenter, nonblinded, cluster-randomized controlled trial, with randomization at the NH level, was set up [Cluster-Controlled Trial of an Intervention to Improve Prescribing in N...
Purpose:
To investigate the prevalence and type of health products used among pregnant women visiting a tertiary hospital in Belgium, as well as who advises these products, where women buy these products, which determinants are associated with medication and pregnancy vitamin intake, and preconception lifestyle changes such as folic acid intake an...
Rationale, aims, and objective:
In the absence of a Teratology Information Service in Belgium, the National Poison Centre might act as a substitute centre for answering pregnancy- and lactation-related questions regarding medication use. The aim of this study was to define the prevalence and characteristics of pregnancy- and lactation-related call...
Rationale, aims, and objectives: The Ghent Older People's Prescriptions community Pharmacy Screening (GheOP³ S)-tool was recently developed as an explicit screening tool to detect drug-related problems (DRPs) and to help in performing medication reviews. In this study, we aimed (a) to describe the characteristics of the detected DRPs and the subseq...
Purpose
To explore beliefs about medicines and information needs among pregnant women visiting a tertiary hospital in Belgium and to identify patient characteristics associated with beliefs about medicines.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was performed at the outpatient obstetrics clinic of the University Hospital Leuven, Belgium, between December...
BACKGROUND:
The diversity of the European population increased over the last decades due to migration influences. It is obvious that pregnant women with a migration background also need access to the healthcare system of their host country. Nevertheless, pregnancies among women with a migration background may be even more challenging due to a highe...
Tocolyse wordt aangewend om een dreigende vroeggeboorte te verhinderen tussen de 24ste en de 34ste zwangerschapsweek. Hiermee wil men tijd winnen om geneesmiddelen toe te dienen ter bevordering van de neonatale longrijping of neuroprotectie en eventueel het vervoer naar een ter- tiair centrum te faciliteren om de neonatale uitkomst te optimaliseren...
Purpose:
The process of education and counselling of patients treated with oral anticancer drugs, aimed to achieve adequate self-management, involves different stakeholders (i.e. physicians, oncology nurses, pharmacists) from primary and secondary care. However, currently no guiding principles exist on how to organize and perform education and cou...
Objectives: Oncological home-hospitalization (OHH) might be a patient-centred approach to deal with the increasing burden of cancer on health-care facilities and finances. Before implementation into practice, its feasibility, costs and support among stakeholders should be evaluated. The purpose of this trial was to explore patients’, specialists’ a...
Purpose: The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of oncological home-hospitalization and to compare its quality with standard ambulatory hospital care in terms of patient-reported quality of life and related endpoints by means of a set of validated patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).
Methods: An observational cohor...