Novel ENT live telehealth and live video-otoscopy clinics in remote Australia: outcomes and comparisons to traditional clinic models.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 challenged the delivery of healthcare in Australia, disproportionately impacting vulnerable patients, including Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples and those living in remote regions. The otolaryngology service provided to remote Western Australia adapted to these barriers by altering clinical consultations to a digital model.

Methods: A review was undertaken of patients in regional Western Australia.

Clarifying Discrepancies in Responsiveness Between Reliable Change Indices.

Objective: Several reliable change indices (RCIs) exist to evaluate statistically significant individual change with repeated neuropsychological assessment. Yet there is little guidance on model selection and subsequent implications. Using existing test-retest norms, key parameters were systematically evaluated for influence on different RCI models.

Choice of reliable change model can alter decisions regarding neuropsychological impairment after sports-related concussion.

Objective: Impaired neuropsychological test performance after concussion has been used to guide restraint from play, in particular using reliable change indices (RCI). It remains unclear which of the RCI is most appropriate.

Design: Athletes were assessed prospectively before and after cerebral concussion and compared with control athletes.

Specificity of reliable change models and review of the within-subjects standard deviation as an error term.

There is an ongoing debate over the preferred method(s) for determining the reliable change (RC) in individual scores over time. In the present paper, specificity comparisons of several classic and contemporary RC models were made using a real data set. This included a more detailed review of a new RC model recently proposed in this journal, that used the within-subjects standard deviation (WSD) as the error term.

Deriving reliable change statistics from test-retest normative data: comparison of models and mathematical expressions.

The use of reliable change (RC) statistics to determine whether an individual has significantly improved or deteriorated on retesting is growing rapidly in clinical neuropsychology. This paper demonstrates how with only basic test-retest data and a series of simple expressions, the clinician/researcher can implement the majority of contemporary RC model(s). Though sharing a fundamental structure, RC models vary in how they derive predicted retest scores and standard error terms.

Investigation of factors relating to neuropsychological change following cardiac surgery.

Background: An analysis of neuropsychological impairment following cardiopulmonary bypass was performed in 55 patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting.

Methods: Neurocognitive function was measured preoperatively using the MicroCog: Assessment of Cognitive Functioning computer-based testing tool. Testing was repeated in the postoperative period immediately prior to discharge from hospital.

Test-retest norms and reliable change indices for the MicroCog Battery in a healthy community population over 50 years of age.

The increasing availability of computerized test batteries used to assess neuropsychological changes requires the availability of suitable test-retest normative data. Reliable change indices can then be used to evaluate significance of change in an individual's performance on retesting. We tested (N = 40) neurologically normal adults on three occasions (initially, two weeks, and three months) on the MicroCog: Assessment of Cognitive Functioning computerized testing instrument.

Assessment of statistical change criteria used to define significant change in neuropsychological test performance following cardiac surgery.

Objective: This paper compares four techniques used to assess change in neuropsychological test scores before and after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG), and includes a rationale for the classification of a patient as overall impaired.

Methods: A total of 55 patients were tested before and after surgery on the MicroCog neuropsychological test battery. A matched control group underwent the same testing regime to generate test-retest reliabilities and practice effects.

Severity of sports-related concussion and neuropsychological test performance.

Concussion severity grades according to the Cantu, Colorado Medical Society, and American Academy of Neurology systems were not clearly related to the presence or duration of impaired neuropsychological test performance in 21 professional rugby league athletes. The use of concussion severity guidelines and neuropsychological testing to assist return to play decisions requires further investigation.