Daughters of Charity Health System

This study explored antiepileptic drug use, frequency of seizures, and the effect of psychotropic drugs with the potential to lower the seizure threshold in persons diagnosed with epilepsy and intellectual disability. Data for this study were drawn from Wave 3 of the Intellectual Disability Supplement to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (IDS-TILDA). Psychotropic drugs were categorised for potential seizure threshold-lowering risk (low, moderate, high). Binary logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with seizure frequency. Epilepsy prevalence was 35.8% (n=196), of which 57.7% reported a mental health condition. Participants with seizure data classified as taking at least one moderate-/high-risk medication were significantly less likely to experience a seizure compared to participants taking no potential seizure threshold-lowering medication. Psychotropic drugs recommended to be avoided or used with caution did not provoke increased seizure frequency in this cohort.

Mary H. Hager, PhD, RD, has a background in higher education, social services, and the food and drug industries; Dr Hager is a government relations professional advocating for nutrition, food, and health issues on Capitol Hill and with the administrative agencies. Immediately before working in government relations, she was director of the AIDS Center for Hope House, a Catholic Charity organization in Dover, New Jersey. She also worked as the founding dean of the graduate school and professor of foods and nutrition at Saint Elizabeth College in Morristown, New Jersey; as a consultant to global pharmaceutical companies; and as a clinical scientist in food and drug product development. Her teaching career has also included full-time positions at Texas Christian University and the College of Mount St Joseph in Ohio, where she taught courses in foods and nutrition and was an adjunct professor of chemistry. Although a native of Southern California, she decided to explore the greater United States and earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Delaware and completed a dietetic internship at the University of Michigan Hospital before embarking on graduate studies at the University of California, Davis. There she earned an MS and PhD in nutrition with concentrations in endocrinology and physiological chemistry. As an amateur endurance athlete, Dr Hager has won awards in her age group. She enjoys music, her 2 cats, and her outstanding husband and 2 daughters. Correspondence: Mary H. Hager, PhD, RD, Hager and Associates, 1514 17th St NW, 514, Washington, DC 20036 ([email protected]).

Person-centred planning with people who have learning disabilities raises issues of power and control. Anne-Marie Martin and Eileen Carey describe how a woman with moderate intellectual disability was helped to develop her own person-centred approach to her care

It had been almost a decade since the hospitals that make up the Daughters of Charity Health System (DCHS) had engaged in a formal information technology strategic planning process. In the summer of 2002, as the health system re-formed, there was a unique opportunity to introduce a planning process that reflected the governance style of the new health system. DCHS embarked on this journey, with the CIO initiating and formally sponsoring the information technology strategic planning process in a dynamic and collaborative manner The system sought to develop a plan tailored to encompass both enterprise-wide and local requirements; to develop a governance model to engage the members of the local health ministries in plan development, both now and in the future; and to conduct the process in a manner that reflected the values of the Daughters of Charity. The DCHS CIO outlined a premise that the CIO would guide and be continuously involved in the development of this tailored process, in conjunction with an external resource. Together, there would be joint responsibility for introducing a flexible information technology strategic planning methodology; providing an education on the current state of healthcare IT, including future trends and success factors; facilitating support to tap into existing internal talent; cultivating a collaborative process to support both current requirements and future vision; and developing a well-functioning governance structure that would enable the plan to evolve and reflect user community requirements. This article highlights the planning process, including the lessons learned, the benchmarking during and in post-planning, and finally, but most importantly, the unexpected benefit that resulted from this planning process.