What next for the Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation series? Focusing the system on appropriate and sustainable health care.

Mapping, identifying and reducing unwarranted healthcare variation is integral to improving the appropriateness of care - minimising wasteful or unnecessary care and redirecting care to those who could benefit most (J Eval Clin Pract 26: 687-696, 2020). The Australian Atlas of Healthcare Variation series has examined variation in healthcare use since 2015. The findings reported in the Atlas series have led to important system changes.

Moving toward precision in prenatal evidence-based home visiting to achieve good birth outcomes: assessing the alignment of local programs with their national models.

Background: Low birthweight and preterm birth rates are higher in the United States than in other developed countries and exhibit pronounced racial inequities. Home visiting is a strategy to promote equity in birth outcomes. Research points to precision home visiting as the path to equity.

Service Coordination in Early Childhood Home Visiting: a Multiple-Case Study.

Early childhood home visiting is a preventive service delivery strategy that aims to promote child and parent health, positive parenting, child development and school readiness, and family economic self-sufficiency. To meet families' needs, programs provide a combination of direct services, and referrals and linkages to community-based services. Service coordination is therefore a critical component of home visiting's role within the early childhood system of care.

Referrals to Home Visiting: Current Practice and Unrealized Opportunities.

Introduction: Evidence supports ongoing investment in maternal and early childhood home visiting in the US. Yet, a small fraction of eligible families accesses these services, and little is known about how families are referred. This report describes priority populations for home visiting programs, the capacity of programs to enroll more families, common sources of referrals to home visiting, and sources from which programs want to receive more referrals.

Establishment and initial implementation of the Australasian Pelvic Floor Procedure Registry.

Introduction And Hypothesis: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) are common pelvic floor disorders (PFDs). Owing to significant adverse events associated with mesh-related pelvic floor procedures (PFPs) in a proportion of the surgically treated population, and deficits in collection and reporting of these events, the Australian Government identified an urgent need for a tracking mechanism to improve safety and quality of care. The Australasian Pelvic Floor Procedure Registry (APFPR) was recently established following the 2018 Senate Committee Inquiry with the aim of tracking outcomes of PFP involving the use of devices and/or prostheses, with the objective of improving the health outcomes of women who undergo these procedures.

Changing the home visiting research paradigm: models' perspectives on behavioral pathways and intervention techniques to promote good birth outcomes.

Background: The US is scaling up evidence-based home visiting to promote health equity in expectant families and families with young children. Persistently small average effects for full models argue for a new research paradigm to understand what interventions within models work best, for which families, in which contexts, why, and how. Historically, the complexity and proprietary nature of most evidence-based models have been barriers to such research.

Tbx2 is a master regulator of inner versus outer hair cell differentiation.

The cochlea uses two types of mechanosensory cell to detect sounds. A single row of inner hair cells (IHCs) synapse onto neurons to transmit sensory information to the brain, and three rows of outer hair cells (OHCs) selectively amplify auditory inputs. So far, two transcription factors have been implicated in the specific differentiation of OHCs, whereas, to our knowledge, none has been identified in the differentiation of IHCs.

The Role of Open Science Practices in Scaling Evidence-Based Prevention Programs.

The goal of creating evidence-based programs is to scale them at sufficient breadth to support population-level improvements in critical outcomes. However, this promise is challenging to fulfill. One of the biggest issues for the field is the reduction in effect sizes seen when a program is taken to scale.

Improving Outcomes for Families of Children With Medical Needs Known to Child Welfare: A Nurse Care Coordination Program.

Children known to child welfare are more likely to have poor health compared to the general population. Most children served by child welfare are served in their own homes. New Jersey implemented the Child and Family Nurse Program (CFNP) to provide nurse care coordination to address the health needs of children who remain in-home.

Service Coordination to Address Maternal Mental Health, Partner Violence, and Substance Use: Findings from a National Survey of Home Visiting Programs.

Maternal risks such as poor mental health, partner violence, and substance misuse can undermine child health and development. Maternal and early childhood home visiting programs address these risks primarily through referral and coordination with community-based services, yet effects on these outcomes have been small. This study assessed the strengths of local home visiting sites' systems to support coordination of mental health, partner violence, and substance use services.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on utilisation of healthcare services: a systematic review.

Objectives: To determine the extent and nature of changes in utilisation of healthcare services during COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Systematic review.

Eligibility: Eligible studies compared utilisation of services during COVID-19 pandemic to at least one comparable period in prior years.

Head of bed elevation to relieve gastroesophageal reflux symptoms: a systematic review.

Background: Overuse of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) - frequently used for relieving symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GORD) - raises long-term safety concerns, warranting evidence-based non-drug interventions. We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the effect of head-of-bed elevation on relieving symptoms of GORD in adults.

Methods: We included controlled trials comparing the effect of head-of-bed elevation interventions to control in adults with GORD.

The Role of State Context in Promoting Service Coordination in Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Programs.

Context: The federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program provides funding to states to promote health and development of at-risk expectant families and families with young children. MIECHV programs are required to coordinate services within a larger system of care; yet, little is known about state-level factors that support coordination.

Objective: This study examined state-level supports and barriers for coordination of home visiting with other entities within the early childhood system of care.

Innovative Research Methods to Advance Precision in Home Visiting for More Efficient and Effective Programs.

Home visiting during early childhood can improve a range of outcomes for children and families. As evidence-based models are implemented across the nation, two questions have emerged. First, can home visiting improve outcomes more efficiently? Second, can overall effects be strengthened for specific subgroups of families? For the past several decades, research focused on testing the average effects of home visiting models on short- to long-term outcomes has found small impacts.

Does Child Likeability Mediate the Link Between Academic Competence and Depressive Symptoms in Early Elementary School?

The present study investigated the role of teacher-rated likeability as a mediator of the relation between low academic competence and depressive symptoms in elementary-aged children. Analyses focused on a sample of children at risk for child maltreatment living in Hawaii (n = 380). Structural equation modeling supported the hypothesized negative relations between academic competence in first grade and depressive symptoms in third grade controlling for correlated constructs (e.

Using latent profile and transition analyses to understand patterns of informant ratings of child depressive symptoms.

The present study examined the latent profiles of child, parent, and teacher ratings of child depressive symptoms in a developmental sample of children from Hawaii at two time points (2nd and 3rd grade). The study attempted to identify patterns of agreement and discrepancy among raters and correlates of these patterns to test a new theory for understanding rating disagreements as Divergent Operations. Three profiles best described the ratings at both time points: Child-Only High Depression, Child-Only Mild Depression, and Normative (non-depressed).

Author Correction: Trans-differentiation of outer hair cells into inner hair cells in the absence of INSM1.

In Figs. 1e and 2g of this Letter, the labels 'actin' and 'VGLUT3', respectively, should have been in red instead of green font. This has been corrected online.

Trans-differentiation of outer hair cells into inner hair cells in the absence of INSM1.

The mammalian cochlea contains two types of mechanosensory hair cell that have different and critical functions in hearing. Inner hair cells (IHCs), which have an elaborate presynaptic apparatus, signal to cochlear neurons and communicate sound information to the brain. Outer hair cells (OHCs) mechanically amplify sound-induced vibrations, providing enhanced sensitivity to sound and sharp tuning.

Correction to: Randomized Trial of a Training Program to Improve Home Visitor Communication around Sensitive Topics.

The article "Randomized Trial of a Training Program to Improve Home Visitor Communication around Sensitive Topics", written by Allison West, Laina Gagliardi, Amanda Gatewood, Susan Higman, Jane Daniels, Kay O'Neill and Anne Duggan, was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 31 May 2018 without open access.

Impact of a Child Abuse Primary Prevention Strategy for New Mothers.

First Steps (FS) is a brief obstetrics-based primary prevention strategy that aims to strengthen protective factors to prevent child maltreatment. This randomized controlled trial assessed how well FS services aligned with family interests and needs, how FS providers used communication strategies to build partnership with mothers, and the impact of FS on mothers' parenting knowledge in core content areas and access to services. Mothers completed a baseline survey and were randomly assigned to FS and control conditions (n = 374 and 375, respectively).

Effective Home Visiting Training: Key Principles and Findings to Guide Training Developers and Evaluators.

Purpose Home visiting programs have produced inconsistent outcomes. One challenge for the field is the design and implementation of effective training to support home visiting staff. In part due to a lack of formal training, most home visitors need to develop the majority of their skills on the job.

Randomized Trial of a Training Program to Improve Home Visitor Communication around Sensitive Topics.

Introduction: Strong communication skills are necessary to engage families, perform accurate assessments, and motivate behavior change around sensitive issues encountered in home visiting.

Methods: A two-arm, cluster-randomized trial evaluated the impact of a trans-model communications training course for home visitors. Fourteen home visiting programs in Maryland were assigned to a training intervention (n = 7 programs; 30 visitors) or wait-list control group (n = 7 programs; 34 visitors).