Impact of clinical phenotypes on management and outcomes in European atrial fibrillation patients: a report from the ESC-EHRA EURObservational Research Programme in AF (EORP-AF) General Long-Term Registry

Abstract Background Epidemiological studies in atrial fibrillation (AF) illustrate that clinical complexity increase the risk of major adverse outcomes. We aimed to describe European AF patients’ clinical phenotypes and analyse the differential clinical course. Methods We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis based on Ward’s Method and Squared Euclidean Distance using 22 clinical binary variables, identifying the optimal number of clusters. We investigated differences in clinical management, use of healthcare resources and outcomes in a cohort of European AF patients from a Europe-wide observational registry. Results A total of 9363 were available for this analysis. We identified three …

Track 16: Planning 'in' or 'for' Multicultural Society, Diversity, Social Justice, Democracy and the Luxury of Spae

Codes of research ethics: what are they useful for; and what are their limitations?

This paper considers the usefulness, and limitations, of codes of research ethics for the planning researcher. Formal ethical approval of planning research, and explicit agreement to adhere to specified codes of ethics, is required for research by planning academics in more and more countries. What might those promoting these processes be hoping to achieve, and how do they think the codes will help? There has been discussion of codes of professional ethics in planning for some decades (Hendler,1990; Taylor,1992), and the paper considers whether these contain arguments which could also justify codes of research ethics. The fact that planning research is undertaken both outside and inside uni…

Track Descriptions: Track 5 - Planning in multicultural societies

Ethics and Planning Research

The consideration of ethics in social research has gained increasing prominence in the past few years, particularly research which seeks to inform public policy. This important and unique book provides a thorough examination of the issues relating to research ethics in planning for an international audience. The authors examine alternative frameworks within which ethical action can be discussed and critically describe the key institutional arrangements surrounding the management of ethical behaviour in research. Also included are highly relevant accounts of ethical challenges faced in planning research.