The lived experience of adults and parents: Transitioning from paediatric to adult health care with oesophageal atresia and tracheo-oesophageal fistula.

Aim And Objective: To explore the experience of healthcare transition from paediatric to adult health care for adults born with oesophageal atresia and tracheo-oesophageal fistula (OA/TOF) and parents.

Background: OA/TOF is a rare and chronic health condition that can require lifelong medical follow-up and management. There is evidence to suggest that transitioning from paediatric to adult health care can be problematic for people with rare and chronic conditions, including OA/TOF.

"It's not one size fits all"; the use of videoconferencing for delivering therapy in a Specialist Paediatric Chronic Fatigue Service.

Background: There are few specialist paediatric Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME) services in the UK. Therefore, the distance some families have to travel to reach these services can be a barrier to accessing evidence-based treatment. Videoconferencing technology such as Skype provides a means of delivering sessions remotely.

Dose reduction of biologic therapy in inflammatory arthritis: A qualitative study of patients' perceptions and needs.

Objective: Successful biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (bDMARD) dose reduction appears increasingly possible from clinical trials. The present study aimed to understand the patient perspective of bDMARD dose reduction.

Methods: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis or psoriatic arthritis who were self-administering subcutaneous bDMARDs therapy at two National Health Service trusts participated in semi-structured interviews.

What stops children with a chronic illness accessing health care: a mixed methods study in children with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME).

Background: Paediatric Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is relatively common and disabling with a mean time out of school of more than one academic year. NICE guidelines recommend referral to specialist services immediately if severely affected, within 3 months if moderately affected and within 6 months if mildly affected. However, the median time-to-assessment by a specialist service in the UK is 18 months.

What to do about attention and memory problems in children with CFS/ME: a neuropsychological approach.

Our recent research has shown that children with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyopathy (CFS/ME) describe problems with focused attention, sustained attention, recall and stress. Neuropsychological testing demonstrated lower scores for sustained attention, switching attention, divided attention, auditory learning and immediate recall compared to normative data. This paper describes what is currently known about memory and attention problems in children with CFS/ME and suggests a variety of strategies that could be used to overcome these difficulties.