Background: Multifaceted interventions that address barriers and facilitators have been shown to be most effective for increasing the adoption of high-value care, but there is a knowledge gap on this type of intervention for the de-implementation of low-value care. Trauma is a high-risk setting for low-value care, such as unnecessary diagnostic imaging and the use of specialized resources. The aim of our study was to develop and assess the usability of a multifaceted intervention to reduce low-value injury care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisabil Rehabil Assist Technol
January 2025
This exploratory qualitative study examines the challenges faced by manual wheelchair (MWC) users and their clinicians, with a focus on mobility difficulties in both outdoor and indoor environments, as well as training priorities. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 18 clinicians and 25 MWC users from various rehabilitation centres. The interviews, lasting between 30 and 60 minutes, explored specific aspects of MWC use, including mobility challenges, training needs, and psychological factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Recent evidence has shown that vitamin C has analgesic and opioid sparing properties in immediate postoperative context. However, this has never been studied for acute musculoskeletal (MSK) emergency department (ED) injuries. The aim of this pilot study is to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a randomized placebo-controlled study to determine the opioid sparing and analgesic effect of vitamin C compared to placebo, in acute MSK injured ED patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Most Canadians receive their care in community hospitals, yet most clinical research is conducted in academic hospitals. This study aims to compare patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) treated in academic and community hospitals with respect to their demographics, clinical characteristics, treatments and outcomes.
Methods: This nested observational cohort substudy of the Community Acquired Pneumonia: Toward InnoVAtive Treatment (CAPTIVATE) trial included 1,329 hospitalized adults with CAP recruited between March 1st, 2018 and September 31st, 2023 from 15 Canadian hospitals.
Objective: The objective is to externally validate and assess the opportunity to update the Canadian COVID-19 Mortality Score (CCMS) to predict in-hospital mortality among consecutive non-palliative COVID-19 patients infected with Omicron subvariants at a time when vaccinations were widespread.
Design: This observational study validated the CCMS in an external cohort at a time when Omicron variants were dominant. We assessed the potential to update the rule and improve its performance by recalibrating and adding vaccination status in a subset of patients from provinces with access to vaccination data and created the adjusted CCMS (CCMS).
Unlabelled: We aimed to measure the sustainability of health professionals' intention to have serious illness conversations with patients using the Serious Illness Conversation Guide (SICG) after individual-focused training versus team-based training. In a cluster randomised trial, we trained healthcare professionals in 40 primary care clinics and measured their intention to hold serious illness conversations immediately (T1), after 1 year (T2) and after 2 years (T3). Primary care clinics ( = 40) were randomly assigned to individual-focused training (comparator) or team-based training (intervention).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Improving care transitions for older adults can reduce emergency department (ED) revisits, and the strain placed upon caregivers. We analyzed whether caregivers felt a change in burden following a care transition, and what may be improved to reduce it.
Methods: This mixed-methods observational study nested within LEARNING WISDOM included caregivers of older patients who experienced an ED care transition.
Background: Little research has been done on the follow-up of patients in the active phase of treatment in primary care. This study aimed to build up a corpus of authentic clinical situations and carry out an inductive analysis of the data.
Method: Research in two stages: case study and qualitative analysis of verbatims.
Background: Data on the predictors of nonmedical problems (NMP) in older adults attending the emergency department (ED) for low acuity conditions is lacking and could help rapid identification of patients with NMP and integration of these needs into care planning.
Objectives: To determine the prevalence and predictors of NMP among older adults attending EDs for low acuity conditions.
Methods: Prospective cohort study in eight EDs (May-August 2021).
Background And Objectives: People aged 65 and older, deemed most "vulnerable" by public health, were targeted by the coronavirus disease 2019 protection measures, which sought to minimize physical contact and social activities. Older adults living alone were particularly affected by these measures. However, such measures meant to protect the older population may not have necessarily reflected older adults' individual prioritization choices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeep-space missions require preventative care methods based on predictive models for identifying in-space pathologies. Deploying such models requires flexible edge computing, which Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) formats enable by optimizing inference directly on wearable edge devices. This work demonstrates an innovative approach to point-of-care machine learning model pipelines by combining this capacity with an advanced self-optimizing training scheme to classify periods of Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR), Atrial Fibrillation (AFIB), and Atrial Flutter (AFL).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe skeletons of long-lived bamboo coral (Family Keratoisididae) are promising archives for deep-water palaeoceanographic reconstructions as they can record environmental variation at sub-decadal resolution in locations where in-situ measurements lack temporal coverage. Yet, detailed three dimensional (3D) characterisations of bamboo coral skeletal architecture are not routinely available and non-destructive investigations into microscale variations in calcification are rare. Here, we provide high-resolution micro-focus computed tomography (µCT) data of skeletal density for two species of bamboo coral (Acanella arbuscula: 5 specimens, voxel size, 15 µm (central branch scans) and 50 µm (complete structure scan); Keratoisis sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith increasing interest in RNA as a therapeutic and a potential target, the role of RNA structures has become more important. Even slight changes in nucleobases, such as modifications or protomeric and tautomeric states, can have a large impact on RNA structure and function, while local environments in turn affect protonation and tautomerization. In this work, the application of empirical tools for p and tautomer prediction for RNA modifications was elucidated and compared with ab initio quantum mechanics (QM) methods and expanded toward macromolecular RNA structures, where QM is no longer feasible.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Frailty is common in critically ill patients but the timing and optimal method of frailty ascertainment, trajectory and relationship with care processes remain uncertain. We sought to elucidate the trajectory and care processes of frailty in critically ill patients as measured by the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and Frailty Index (FI).
Methods: This is a multi-centre prospective cohort study enrolling patients ≥ 50 years old receiving life support > 24 h.
Objective: To compare health outcomes and costs given in the emergency department (ED) and walk-in clinics for ambulatory children presenting with acute respiratory diseases.
Design: A retrospective cohort study.
Setting: This study was conducted from April 2016 to March 2017 in one ED and one walk-in clinic.
Background: Audit and Feedback (A&F) interventions based on quality indicators have been shown to lead to significant improvements in compliance with evidence-based care including de-adoption of low-value practices (LVPs). Our primary aim was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of adding a hypothetical A&F module targeting LVPs for trauma admissions to an existing quality assurance intervention targeting high-value care and risk-adjusted outcomes. A secondary aim was to assess how certain A&F characteristics might influence its cost-effectiveness.
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