News
Show 1 - 10 of about 10 results
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Final IMCA II meeting in Barcelona 12-13 April 2010
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The final IMCA II meeting took place in Barcelona on 12 and 13 April 2010. About 30 participants coming from almost all IMCA partner organizations took place. The meeting was the opportunity to share the ultimate results of the different activities of the project within the IMCA network. Partners agreed on future dissemination activities of the project's results through subsmission of abstracts to scientific journal of events. Among other activities, an IMCA symposium will be held during the European Respiratory Congress in Barcelona in September 2010 as well as an IMCA workshop during the European Public Health Association Congress scheduled in November 2010 in Amsterdam.
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September 2009: IMCA II poster presentations at the ERS Congress in Vienna
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Three poster presentations on IMCA were made during the ERS congress in Vienna. The main results of the HES five feasibility studies implemented in IMCA II was named "Wireless mobile tehcnologies facilitates home-based data collection and processing in large epidemiological surveys: results from the IMCA-HES feasibility study". The second presentation was a local declination of the first one and put the emphasis of the specific results of the feasibility study carried out in the area of Pisa in Italy. The third presentation was named "Recommended and priority indicators for monitoring COPD and asthma in the European union: results from the IMCA I project". During this presentation, the it was explained that one of the outputs of the IMCA II project was actually the collection of indicators at national level on COPD and asthma in 25 EU countries following the recommendations made by the IMCA I project.
Additionally, the IMCA II partners present at the ERS Congress in Vienna met in a private meeting in order to discuss about the latest developmment of the project.
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May 2009. New HES feasibility studies to be launched in five additional countries
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Five additional partners from Norway, Poland, France, Greece and Bulgary of the IMCA II will shortly start HES feasibility study in their country. Over the last few months, each site has been carrying out preliminary work to the studies: translations of the questionnaires, samples' extraction, staff selection and training and submission of protocal to local ethic committee for approval. They also have been trained in Barcelona to the proper implementation of the protocol and to the use of an updated version of an ICT application developped within the IMCA project that should enhance the implementation of Heath Examination Surveys. Tests with the application are being made in the participating country. These further studies are complementary to those made in 2008 in Barcelona, Rome, Pisa, Ulm and Upsalla and should provide further lessons as for the potencial of ICT and sensor devices for supporting HES implementation.
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April 2009: IMCA II Report on geographical variations and trends in mortality and hospital discharges as for COPD and Ashtma.
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This report is being finalized. The methods to be used in order to calculate mortality rates for asthma and COPD have been agreed with statistical officers at EUROSTAT. As the current “Atlas on mortality” published by EUROSTAT does not include data on COPD and Asthma, it is contemplated that a further edition of the Atlas would include the data extracted on these two conditions by the IMCA team.
Data were extracted manually from the EUROSTAT web application in order to obtain the mortality and hospitalization data at the level of detail required by the IMCA II project. Several problems concerning data quality, such as the changes over time of ICD classifications and codes for instance, have been taken into consideration when analyzing mortality data and specially trends over time.
The consolidated report including commented tables on mortality and hospitalization for COPD and asthma will be published on the intranet of this website and will serve as a base for future publications in scientific journals.
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Collection of COPD and asthma indicators from international studies
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The Imperial College, in coordination with the IMCA Coordinating Centre and several of the IMCA II partners, is collecting of COPD and asthma indicators by gender, age and social class from large international surveys. The studies used are in the first place the ECRHS I and ECRHS II (European Community Respiratory Health Survey). Other large studies such as ISAAC or the BOLD or AIRE will be other relevant sources of information. Once the data is gathered, it will complete the information collected via routine and administrative indicators in the countries participating to the IMCA II project. Indeed international studies are often the only source of information available for certain describing at country level certain indicators on COPD and Asthma.
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Feb. 2009: Respiratory Health Survey in the Elderly initiated in Barcelona and Ulm
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The Respiratory Health Survey in the Elderly (RHSE) follows the RHSE protocol accessible to partners of the IMCA II project on the intranet of this website. The two first surveys already started in February in Ulm and in Barcelona and will shortly be launched in Rome, Pisa and Upsalla in Sweden. In each sites large samples of participants of 65 years old and more have been extracted. A core health respiratory questionnaire and core measurements (including spirometry, blood pressure, pulsioxymetry, weight and height) will be performed with older people in each of the five sites. Furthermore, the five partners involved in the RHSE agreed also on 10 optional questionnaires (such as the Barthel index, the anxiety and depression scales etc) , additional measurements (handgrip meaurement, SPPT test) and optional blood sample extraction. The optional protocol will be implemented to a more or less extended level in each site according to each site's priorities but partners managed to agree on certain optional measurements and questionnaires to be implemented in almost all sites. It is planned that the studies will be completed by the end of 2009.
For more information: protocol accessible on the intranet (IMCA II partners) or send an email to eduran@pamem.org
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IMCA II Study Manager and Fieldworker training session held in Barcelona on the 22 and 23 January 2009
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Study managers and fieldworkers from five sites (Rome, Pisa, Ulm and Marseille) in Europe participated to a training session organized in Barcelona by the IMCA coordinating centre on 22 and 23 January. The training was organized around three modules: 1- how to use a mobile ICT enhanced application for carrying out the survey at the participants' home or in a Health care centre? 2- how to practically implement the questionnaires and measurements with elderly participants? 3- how to perform a spirometry properly ?
These Respiratory Health Surveys in the Elderly (RHSE) follow the implementation of five Pilot feasibility studies that were carried out in 2008 in order to evaluate the added value of using information technologies for implementing Health Examination Surveys.
Soon the protocol of the RHSE will be available on this website.
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First results of the IMCA II Health Examination Survey (HES) feasibility studies
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The IMCA II HES feasibility studies were completed in Barcelona, Ulm, Upsalla, Rome and Pisa. Interesting lessons were learnt as for the potential of ICT for supporting home visits in HES and respiratory surveys in particular. Instantaneous international data transmission allowed by ICT is for sure an asset as it allows immediate data monitoring and international comparisons. A report of the main outcomes of this IMCA II HES feasibility study is under preparation and will be soon available on this site, as well as a report of the feasibility of using ICT for national and regional Health Examination Surveys. Certain limitations of the application used have been identified and will allow make further specifications for future updated releases. In that respect, five additional sites have agreed to engage in similar feasibility studies as from 2009 by using an new version of the ICT solution tested.
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IMCA II partners involved in routine and administrative indicators on COPD ans Asthma across Europe
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The IMCA I project agreed on a total of 262 indicators for monitoring COPD and asthma. The top 4 indicators for COPD were: prevalence of physician diagnosed COPD, prevalence of smoking, hospital admissions and age-specific death rate. For asthma they were: prevalence of physician diagnosed asthma, prevalence of wheeze, prevalence of asthma attacks and hospital admission rates. Though, for many nations in the EU this information is only partially available, partners IMCA II partners agreed on common guidelines for collecting the data available and on possible sources of alternative information (such as national / regional health surveys for instance) in case routine/administrative data is not available. The data collection is implemented in 25 EU countries. Each of the partners will send its indicators on a internet platform available on the intranet of the website. Once the collection is completed and the data consolidated, the data available per country will be made public.
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IMCA II informal meeting during the ERS congress in Berlin
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15 partners took part to an informal IMCA 2 Group meeting on the 7th of October 2008 during the ERS Congress in Berlin. Partners agreed on a work plan for the collection of routine indicators on COPD and Asthma in the 27 involved countries and on an action list for disseminating the project results in Europe. Those partners of IMCA involved in the HES Feasibility study and the Respiratory Health Survey in the Elderly informed the rest of the attending partners about the latest developments of theses two studies. Different partners not involved in none of these studies yet shown an interest in implementing one of them, in case they manage to get additional funding at national level in the next few months.
