Factors that contribute to patient length of stay in the emergency department: A time in motion observational study.

Objectives: Increased Emergency Department length of stay impacts access to emergency care and is associated with increased patient morbidity, overcrowding, reduced patient and staff satisfaction. We sought to determine the contributing factors to increased length of stay in our mixed ED.

Methods: A real-time observational study was conducted at Wollongong Hospital over a continuous 72-h period.

Rapid development and implementation of a behaviour change strategy to improve COVID-19 personal protective equipment use in a regional Australian emergency department.

Objective: To identify barriers to, describe the development of and evaluate the implementation of a behavioural theory informed strategy to improve staff personal protective equipment (PPE) compliance during COVID-19 in a regional Australian Emergency Department.

Methods: Barriers to PPE use were identified through staff consultation then categorised using the Theoretical Domains Framework. The Behaviour Change Wheel was used to develop a strategy to address the barriers to PPE compliance.

Analysis of genetic copy number changes in cervical disease progression.

Background: Cervical dysplasia and tumorigenesis have been linked with numerous chromosomal aberrations. The goal of this study was to evaluate 35 genomic regions associated with cervical disease and to select those which were found to have the highest frequency of aberration for use as probes in fluorescent in-situ hybridization.

Methods: The frequency of gains and losses using fluorescence in-situ hybridization were assessed in these 35 regions on 30 paraffin-embedded cervical biopsy specimens.

Gene copy mapping of the ERBB2/TOP2A region in breast cancer.

ERBB2 is one of the most important oncogenes in breast cancer, and its disordered expression is commonly associated with gene amplification. Amplification of at least one gene near ERBB2, topoisomerase IIalpha (TOP2A), has been shown to be clinically significant, but the prevailing patterns of gene amplification in this region of chromosome arm 17q have not been studied systematically in clinical cases of breast cancer. For characterizing this region, a commercial ERBB2-containing contig probe and 7 probes prepared from single overlapping BAC and P1 clones lying telomeric to ERBB2 and including TOP2A were hybridized to 77 ERBB2-amplified archival breast tumor specimens from 75 patients.

A fluorescence in situ hybridization-based assay for improved detection of lung cancer cells in bronchial washing specimens.

Background: Interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is a powerful tool for detecting chromosome and locus-specific changes in tumor cells. We developed a FISH-based assay to detect genetic changes in bronchial washing specimens of lung carcinoma patients.

Methods: The assay uses a mixture of fluorescently labeled probes to the centromeric region of chromosome 1 and to the 5p15, 8q24 (site of the c-myc gene), and 7p12 (site of the EGFR gene) loci to assess cells in bronchial washing specimens for chromosomal abnormalities indicative of lung carcinoma.