There are about 51 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Malta. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
The goal of this clinical trial is to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a multi-component smoking cessation intervention for individuals living with diabetes which is delivered by diabetes specialist nurses. The main question it aims to answer is: Is a diabetes specialist nurse-led multi-component smoking cessation intervention tailored for persons living with diabetes who smoke feasible and acceptable among the providers and the participants, the individuals with diabetes? Eligible individuals living with diabetes who smoke will be asked to participate in a feasibility study lasting twelve weeks. The participants will be allocated at random either to the diabetes specialist nurse-led multi-component smoking cessation intervention, or to standard care - an active referral to the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate's one-to-one smoking cessation service. The multi-component smoking cessation intervention will be provided by the diabetes specialist nurses at the Diabetes Education Unit at Mater Dei Hospital. The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate's one-to-one smoking cessation service is provided by tobacco cessation facilitators within the health centres of Mosta, Floriana, and Paola. Both interventions will help participants re-consider their smoking habits and support them to quit smoking, free of charge. Primarily the researchers will: - assess the feasibility of a largescale randomized controlled trial, by analyzing the recruitment and study uptake, and the nurses' perceived challenges and facilitators to implementation; - and assess the acceptability of the intervention, by analyzing the nurses' feedback and the participants' satisfaction with and perceived usefulness of the smoking cessation intervention provided, in comparison to the satisfaction with standard care - the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate's one-to-one smoking cessation service.
Older and more vulnerable persons are more likely to get very ill when infected with the coronavirus, and have the highest COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rate. The majority of patients that are admitted to the hospital are older (>70 years), and some of them have been admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU). In the case of rehabilitation of older patients post-COVID-19, we do not know what the course of recovery for these patients will be, and what treatment/approaches will deliver the best outcomes. Persons that are recovering from a COVID-19 infection, and admitted on a geriatric ward for early rehabilitation, or geriatric rehabilitation ward or facility, can be included in the study. They will receive routine, usual care; participation in this study will not affect their rehabilitation care. Routine care data will be collected from their electronic patient files at admission to geriatric rehabilitation, and at discharge. This also includes some data about their premorbid status. In addition, study participants will be called six weeks and six months after discharge from rehabilitation and asked some questions about their recovery. There is no risk association with participation in this study. Data will be anonymously collected in an online database. The primary aim of this study is to get insight into the course of recovery in (geriatric) rehabilitation patients affected by COVID-19 in Europe. Mainly, we are interested in functioning in activities of daily living (ADL-functioning) such as toileting, bathing, dressing, etc., and in quality of life. The second aim of this study is to get insight into the treatment modalities employed and the organization of geriatric rehabilitation that post-COVID patients in Europe receive. Therefore, we collect data on the types of care provided and the professionals involved. Moreover, we collect some patient characteristics such as year of birth, gender, date of admission and date of discharge; and data about complications such as delirium, pain, post-traumatic stress syndrome, hospital readmissions, and mortality. Our hypothesis is that most patients will show recovery during geriatric rehabilitation and in the six months after. However, we expect that the amount and/or speed of recovery will vary between patients.
The ITAMA project, which ended in 03/2022, came from the need to increase/anticipate the number of diagnosed cases of celiac disease (CD). The project involved the preliminary development of 'software tools' (Graphical User Interface (GUI), DATABASE, Decision Support System (DSS)) used to support the physicians to optimize CD diagnosis. Subsequently, through a screening of about 20,000 subjects of school age in Malta and about 1,000 subjects in Sicily, it was shown that, in compliance with international guidelines, it is possible to anticipate CD diagnosis and make it easy with the aid of a tool based on the search for specific antibodies in the blood, collecting a single drop of blood - with a test performed directly "in the points where care is provided" (eg schools, outpatient clinics) that is with a Point-of-Care-Test (PoCT). This system proved to be effective, and the method was minimally invasive (at least in some pediatric cases it was possible to avoid the endoscopic examination). The ITAMA project has made it possible to bring out a submerged part of the "CD iceberg", a condition that in a large percentage of cases remains undiagnosed and transfer the know-how to commercial companies in the medical sector. ITAMA project results allowed to verify and validate, on a large sample of subjects subjected to screening, that: 1. Diagnosis can be anticipated and facilitated by combined use of a rapid test (PoCT), medical history (supported by software) and traditional serological tests. 2. The diagnosis can be optimized by the support of Information Technology (IT) tools based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). 3. Non-invasive methods, if correctly applied, allow CD diagnosis avoiding invasive diagnostic techniques. 4. The reported procedures grant considerable savings for the National Health System (NHS). Starting from the results of ITAMA, this capitalization project aims to extend the previous experience in a larger population with heterogeneous characteristics (both adults and children). The goal of the new project is to use the combination of PoCT + tools software, to increase/anticipate CD diagnosis and, therefore, bring the number of diagnosed subjects closer to the number of expected cases, in Sicily and Malta. The inevitable implication of this would be the improvement in the quality of life of patients (reduction of symptoms, fewer medical visits and instrumental examinations performed, reduction of lost working days, improvement of social relations) and a significant reduction in costs for the NHS.
18 participants (novices, intermediates and experts) performed in total 248 insertions in a systematic way on Thiel embalmed bodies with wide and small bore versions of the conventional VNc (conventional Veress Needle) and the VN+(The Veress Needle plus). Insertion depth was measured by recording the graduations on the needle under direct laparoscopic vision.
Prospective multi centre cohort study examining the clinical presentation, diagnostic tests, and management of adult Emergency Department (ED) patients presenting with Transient Loss of Consciousness (TLOC) either undifferentiated or thought to be of syncopal origin.
The investigators propose to create a prospective Crohn Disease cohort, where patients receiving the most up-to-date therapies with a treat-to-target strategy, will be closely followed to characterize the progression of Crohn Disease by measuring the Lémann Index over time. The goal of the CROCO Study - "Crohn's Disease Cohort Study" is to promote a greater understanding of the long-term evolution of Crohn Disease , to describe prospectively the impact of different therapeutic strategies and develop accurate predictors of bowel disease damage and disability.
This study is aimed at non-invasive extraction of cardiovascular and respiratory parameters from red-green-blue (RGB) and thermal imaging cameras from patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. The main focus of this study is in assessing the feasibility of implementing such a camera-based system for prolonged monitoring of patients, identifying limiting factors which may interfere with accuracy or practical aspects of the system, and postulating solutions to overcoming these.
An observational cohort study of patients discharged from the ICU following admission with COVID19 infection, looking at their medical wellbeing 6 months after discharge from the ICU.
This study aims to establish whether tocilizumab has any significant effect on procalcitonin levels on patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia requiring intensive care admission. The effects on other biochemical and clinical markers are also considered.
This is an international, cross-sectional and descriptive study that aims to investigate differences in patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) and that aims to explore the profile and healthcare needs of adults with congenital heart diseases.