The pre-CT checklist: A simple tool to improve workflow and patient safety in an outpatient CT setting.

Purpose: We aim to share our experience with implementation of a simple checklist to improve workflow and safety in patients scheduled for outpatient CT.

Methods: After identification of several recurrent problems leading to study delays or cancellation, a pre-CT checklist to be used by designated CT technologist in advance of patients' scheduled appointment was designed with input from CT technologists, radiologists, schedulers and nurses.

Results: Implementation of the checklist led to further actions in 25.

16-Year Survival of the Canadian Collaborative Cohort of Related Dementias.

Background Survival estimates are integral to care for patients diagnosed with dementia. Few Canadian studies have carried out long-term follow-up of well-described cohorts, analyzing survival related to multiple risk factors. Methods Survival analysis of an inception cohort enrolled at a British Columbia (BC) tertiary dementia referral clinic between 1997 and 1999 was undertaken.

Improving access to school based education for South African children in rural areas who have a tracheostomy: A case series and recommendations.

Objectives: Currently few children with tracheostomies attend rural mainstreams schools in South Africa limiting their ability to gain an education. We sought to document the current school experience for the few children attending school who have tracheostomies and devise educational tools for teachers and administrators that will facilitate greater acceptance and safety in classrooms for this population.

Methods: The four patients that are currently attending school with a tracheostomy were identified from the patient records of a tertiary hospital with a pediatric tracheostomy home based care service.

An Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program to Prepare Nursing Students for Future Workforce Roles.

It is important for nurses today and for those joining the workforce in the future to have familiarity and training with respect to interprofessional research, evidence-based practice, and quality improvement. In an effort to address this need, we describe a 10-week summer research program that immerses undergraduate nursing students in a broad spectrum of clinical and translational research projects as part of their exposure to advanced nursing roles. In doing so, the program increases the ability of the students to participate in research, effectively interact with academic medical center researchers, and incorporate elements of evidence-based practice into future nursing interventions.

Prospective CT screening for lung cancer in a high-risk population: HIV-positive smokers.

Background: Epidemiological evidence suggests that HIV-infected individuals are at increased risk of lung cancer, but no data exist because large computed tomography (CT) screening trials routinely exclude HIV-infected participants.

Methods: From 2006 to 2013, we conducted the world's first lung cancer screening trial of 224 HIV-infected current/former smokers to assess the CT detection rates of lung cancer. We also used 130 HIV-infected patients with known lung cancer to determine radiographic markers of lung cancer risk using multivariate analysis.