Policies on the collection, analysis, and reporting of sex and gender in Australian health and medical research: a mixed methods study.

Objective: To explore the policies of key organisations in Australian health and medical research on defining, collecting, analysing, and reporting data on sex and gender, and to identify barriers to and facilitators of developing and implementing such policies.

Study Design: Mixed methods study: online planning forum; survey of organisations in Australian health and medical research, and internet search for policies defining, collecting, analysing, and reporting data by sex and gender in health and medical research.

Setting, Participants: Australia, 19 May 2021 (planning forum) to 12 December 2022 (final internet search).

Integrated epigenomic exposure signature discovery.

The epigenome influences gene regulation and phenotypes in response to exposures. Epigenome assessment can determine exposure history aiding in diagnosis. Here we developed and implemented a machine learning algorithm, the exposure signature discovery algorithm (ESDA), to identify the most important features present in multiple epigenomic and transcriptomic datasets to produce an integrated exposure signature (ES).

Human Immune Cell Epigenomic Signatures in Response to Infectious Diseases and Chemical Exposures.

Variations in DNA methylation patterns in human tissues have been linked to various environmental exposures and infections. Here, we identified the DNA methylation signatures associated with multiple exposures in nine major immune cell types derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) at single-cell resolution. We performed methylome sequencing on 111,180 immune cells obtained from 112 individuals who were exposed to different viruses, bacteria, or chemicals.

Health practitioner and student attitudes to caring for transgender patients in Tasmania: An exploratory qualitative study.

Background And Objectives: Healthcare practitioners struggle to provide inclusive and affirming care to transgender (trans) people. This study examined Tasmanian healthcare practitioners' and students' understandings and approaches to trans health.

Method: The study comprised qualitative semi-structured interviews with 17 healthcare practitioners (doctors, psychologists, nurses and other allied health workers) and students (of medicine, nursing and pharmacy) across Tasmania, Australia.

Understanding 'risk' in families living with mixed blood-borne viral infection status: The doing and undoing of 'difference'.

'Risk' has long been at the centre of expert and popular perceptions of transmissible and stigmatised blood-borne viral infections, such as HIV and viral hepatitis. There is a substantial body of research on transmission risk among couples with mixed viral infection status (serodiscordance). But we know very little about how families affected by HIV and viral hepatitis engage with understandings of infectiousness and how these shape family relationships in different ways.

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and the 'problems' of reduced condom use and sexually transmitted infections in Australia: a critical analysis from an evidence-making intervention perspective.

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been embraced in Australia, making PrEP available with public funding to people at risk of HIV. Here, we consider the associated 'problems' of reduced condom use and sexually transmissible infections (STIs), as seen by HIV professionals. Twenty-one interviews were conducted during May-August 2017.