Sint Franciscus Gasthuis

Rationale: Hypertension is the most significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease and can be mitigated by lifestyle and medical management. Telemonitoring as a novel management approach to perform hypertension management at distance has been thriving but became indispensable during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, evidence of an effective implementation for telemonitoring remains to be elucidated.
Hypothesis: Telemonitoring with a smartphone application, which includes mixed automated services for a personal counselling program (PCP), on top of self-monitoring (SM) will lead to improvement of hypertension control rates, medication adherence and lifestyle behaviors and lower health care costs in patients with hypertension when compared to usual care.
Objective: To investigate the effects of PCP+SM on hypertension control rate and lifestyle behaviors as compared with usual care.
Study design: The study is a non-blinded randomized controlled clinical trial in adults with hypertension, in a multicenter hospital setting . We will randomize participants in a 1:1 fashion to the intervention group (PCP+SM), or to the control group (usual care).
Study population: 400 patients, patients, aged ≥18 years with hypertension (RR >140/90) Main study outcome: hypertension control rate (%<140/90mmHg) after 6 months (as measured by the SPRINT protocol)

The aim EXACT@Home is to create an evidence-based health program using e.g. questionnaires, a digital health platform and multiple digital devices to further improve the assessment of patients diagnosed with severe asthma. By better charting treatable traits (e.g. poor adherence, physical inactivity, dysfunctional breathing), we expect to improve the indication for the use of biologics. One the devices that will be used is also a medicinal product: a digital inhaler, which monitors adherence and inhaler technique through its connected application and aims to improve adherence and inhaler technique with reminders and notifications. Next to this an activity tracker, hand-held spirometer and FeNO measuring device will be used. The information of the devices will be collected in a Personal Digital Healthcare Environment (PDHE). Patients diagnosed with severe asthma according to the regional asthma Multi-Disciplinary Team Meeting (MDTM) eligible for a treatment with biologics will be included. Half of the patients will immediately receive a biologic. The other half will first undergo the systematic assessment including home monitoring (=EXACT@home) and afterwards a treatment will be chosen based on this evaluation: optimization of treatable traits when present and/or biologics. The chosen treatment of both, the intervention and control group, will be evaluated during 11-12 months.

RESEARCH QUESTION Is the effectiveness of conservative policy comparable to that of surgery in children with trigonocephaly, with regard to clinical outcomes and psychosocial functioning, stress for parents, and costs? DESIGN Observational cohort study in children, aged 0 to 8 years old, with trigonocephaly, excluding metopic ridging (physiologic early closure of metopic suture), treated conservatively or surgically.
OUTCOME MEASURES Primary: Head growth decline, indicating raised intracranial pressure Secondary: fundoscopy, cognition, behavior, refraction and vision, forehead shape, quality of life, posttraumatic stress, decisional conflict, costs.