Publications by authors named "A McWilliams"
Introduction: Lung cancer screening (LCS) using low-dose-computed tomography reduces lung cancer mortality in high-risk individuals. Evaluating and monitoring LCS programs are important to ensure and improve quality, efficiency and participant outcomes. There is no agreement on LCS quality indicators (QIs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hypertension management is a national priority. However, hypertension control rates are suboptimal and vary across clinics, even among those in the same health system and geographic region.
Objective: To identify organizational barriers and facilitators that impact hypertension management at the provider, clinic, and health system level.
Australia's National Lung Cancer Screening Program will commence in July 2025, targeted at individuals aged 50-70 years with a 30 pack-year smoking history (equivalent to 20 cigarettes per day for 30 years), who either currently smoke or have quit within the past 10 years. We forecasted the number of screening-eligible individuals over the first 5 years of the program using data from the 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey and the 2022 Australian Bureau of Statistics population projections. Multiple imputation integrated with predictive modelling of future or unmeasured smoking characteristics was used to address missing data and, simultaneously, to project individuals' smoking histories to 2030.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study focuses on creating and validating two predictive models for patients with uncontrolled hypertension, aiming to forecast sustained uncontrolled hypertension and hypertensive crises.
- Data from over 142,000 patients were analyzed using various machine learning frameworks, including logistic regression and gradient boosting, with a focus on factors recorded in the year leading up to their index visit.
- Results indicated that both models demonstrated good predictive performance, with a C-statistic of 0.72 for sustained hypertension and 0.81 for hypertensive crises, outperforming standard treatment protocols across different decision-making scenarios.
Background And Objectives: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is a frequent additional finding on lung cancer screening (LCS) low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of death in LCS participants. We aimed to describe prevalence of incidental CAC detected on LDCT in LCS participants without prior history of coronary artery disease (CAD), evaluate their CVD risk and describe subsequent investigation and management.
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