BackgroundThis systematic review aims to review the literature on trial-based economic evaluations of non-pharmacological interventions directly targeted at persons with dementia as well as persons with mild cognitive impairment and their respective caregivers.MethodsA systematic literature research was conducted for the timeframe from 2010 to 2016 in the following databases: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, EconLit, Embase, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO and PubMed. Study quality was assessed according to the Drummond criteria.ResultsIn total sixteen publications were identified. Health economic evaluations indicated the cost-effectiveness of physical exercise interventions and occupational therapy. There was also evidence to suggest that psychological and behavioral therapies are cost-effective. Health economic studies investigating psychosocial interventions mainly targeted towards informal caregivers showed inconsistent results.ConclusionsDue to the increasing prevalence of dementia non-pharmacological interventions and their health economic impact are of increasing importance for health care decision-makers and HTA agencies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12877-018-0751-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Telehealth applications can appropriately be used to diagnose dementia. However, most of the studies included only small sample sizes and did not test the applications explicitly in rural or remote populations. Therefore, studies taking these limitations into account are needed. On top, only two RCTs are included in this review indicating that more high quality studies in this field are needed.
Introduction
Evaluation of individual teachers in undergraduate medical education helps clinical teaching fellows identify their own strengths and weaknesses. In addition, evaluation data can be used to guide career decisions. In order for evaluation results to adequately reflect true teaching performance, a range of parameters should be considered when designing data collection tools.
Methods
Clinical teaching fellows at five London teaching hospitals were evaluated by third-year students they had supervised during a ten-week clinical attachment. The questionnaire addressed (a) general teaching skills and (b) student learning outcome measured via comparative self-assessments. Teachers were ranked using different algorithms with various weights assigned to these two factors.
Results
A total of 133 students evaluated 14 teaching fellows. Overall, ratings on teaching skills were largely favourable, while the perceived increase in student performance was modest. Considerable variability across teachers was observed for both factors. Teacher rankings were strongly influenced by the weighting algorithm used. Depending on the algorithm, one teacher was assigned any rank between #2 and #10.
Conclusion
Both parts of the questionnaire address different outcomes and thus highlight specific strengths and weaknesses of individual teachers. Programme directors need to carefully consider the weight assigned to individual components of teacher evaluations in order to ensure a fair appraisal of teacher performance.
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