Patient, family member and caregiver engagement in shaping policy for primary health care teams in three Canadian Provinces.

Introduction: Improving health services integration through primary health care (PHC) teams for patients with chronic conditions is essential to address their complex health needs and facilitate better health outcomes. The objective of this study was to explore if and how patients, family members, and caregivers were engaged or wanted to be engaged in developing, implementing and evaluating health policies related to PHC teams. This patient-oriented research was carried out in three provinces across Canada: British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

An implementation history of primary health care transformation: Alberta's primary care networks and the people, time and culture of change.

Background: Primary care, and its transformation into Primary Health Care (PHC), has become an area of intense policy interest around the world. As part of this trend Alberta, Canada, has implemented Primary Care Networks (PCNs). These are decentralized organizations, mandated with supporting the delivery of PHC, funded through capitation, and operating as partnerships between the province's healthcare administration system and family physicians.

Insights into the impact and use of research results in a residential long-term care facility: a case study.

Background: Engaging end-users of research in the process of disseminating findings may increase the relevance of findings and their impact for users. We report findings from a case study that explored how involvement with the Translating Research in Elder Care (TREC) study influenced management and staff at one of 36 TREC facilities. We conducted the study at 'Restwood' (pseudonym) nursing home because the Director of Care engaged actively in the study and TREC data showed that this site differed on some areas from other nursing homes in the province.

Development and assessment of the Alberta Context Tool.

Background: The context of healthcare organizations such as hospitals is increasingly accepted as having the potential to influence the use of new knowledge. However, the mechanisms by which the organizational context influences evidence-based practices are not well understood. Current measures of organizational context lack a theory-informed approach, lack construct clarity and generally have modest psychometric properties.

Translating research in elder care: an introduction to a study protocol series.

Background: The knowledge translation field is undermined by two interrelated gaps - underdevelopment of the science and limited use of research in health services and health systems decision making. The importance of context in theory development and successful translation of knowledge has been identified in past research. Additionally, examination of knowledge translation in the long-term care (LTC) sector has been seriously neglected, despite the fact that aging is increasingly identified as a priority area in health and health services research.

Health researchers in Alberta: an exploratory comparison of defining characteristics and knowledge translation activities.

Background: Canadian funding agencies are no longer content to support research that solely advances scientific knowledge, and key directives are now in place to promote research transfer to policy- and decision-makers. Therefore, it is necessary to improve our understanding of how researchers are trained and supported to facilitate knowledge translation activities. In this study, we investigated differences in health researcher characteristics and knowledge translation activities.

Performance measurement in healthcare: part II--state of the science findings by stage of the performance measurement process.

Objective: This paper summarizes findings of a comprehensive, systematic review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature on performance measurement according to each stage of the performance measurement process--conceptualization, selection and development, data collection, and reporting and use. It also outlines implications for practice.

Methods: Six hundred sixty-four articles about organizational performance measurement from the health and business literature were reviewed after systematic searches of the literature, multi-rater relevancy ratings, citation checks and expert author nominations.

Performance measurement in healthcare: part I--concepts and trends from a State of the Science Review.

Objective: Performance measurement is touted as an important mechanism for organizational accountability in industrialized countries. This paper describes a systematic review of business and health performance measurement literature to inform a research agenda on healthcare performance measurement.

Methods: A search of the peer-reviewed business and healthcare literature for articles about organizational performance measurement yielded 1,307 abstracts.

Integrating genomics, bioinformatics, and classical genetics to study the effects of recombination on genome evolution.

This study presents compelling evidence that recombination significantly increases the silent GC content of a genome in a selectively neutral manner, resulting in a highly significant positive correlation between recombination and "GC3s" in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Neither selection nor mutation can explain this relationship. A highly significant GC-biased mismatch repair system is documented for the first time in any member of the Kingdom Fungi.

Significant competitive advantage conferred by meiosis and syngamy in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The presumed advantages of genetic recombinations are difficult to demonstrate directly. To investigate the effects of recombination and background heterozygosity on competitive ability, we have performed serial-transfer competition experiments between isogenic sexual and asexual strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The members of these diploid pairs of strains differed only in being heterozygous (sexual) or homozygous (asexual) at the mating type or MAT locus.

Knowledge, beliefs, and sun protection behaviors of Alberta adults.

Background: There is considerable evidence that exposure to ultraviolet radiation increases the risk of many dermatologic conditions including nonmelanoma skin cancers and the more serious cutaneous malignant melanoma. Despite this, there is little data on healthy persons' exposure patterns and protection behaviors.

Methods: As part of a larger survey for a cancer prevention demonstration program, a household survey of 3,843 adults ages 35-64 was conducted in four mid-size cities in Alberta, Canada.

Pleiotropic effects of heterozygosity at the mating-type locus of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae on repair, recombination and transformation.

Sexual (MAT a/alpha) and asexual (MAT a/a) strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which are completely isogenic except at the MAT locus, were compared in their response to ultraviolet radiation. The effects of UV on survival, mitotic intragenic recombination, photoreactivation, and transformation efficiency with UV-irradiated plasmid DNA were examined. The sexual strain had enhanced survival and higher rates of mitotic intragenic recombination compared with the asexual strain.

Steve Fonyo Cancer Prevention Program: description of an innovative program.

The Steve Fonyo Cancer Prevention Program (SFCPP) was a demonstration project of community-based education strategies designed to increase behaviours which will result in reduced cancer deaths, and to assess the feasibility of the involvement of a provincial cancer agency in the delivery of community-based prevention programs. Using primarily two different strategies, the SFCPP attempted to influence people to choose healthy lifestyles which would reduce their risk of getting cancer and to practice those behaviours which would increase early detection. The health unit intervention component consisted of risk assessment, personalized feedback and an invitation to appropriate health education programs delivered by a nurse.

Risk factors for ocular melanoma: Western Canada Melanoma Study.

Between April 1, 1979, and March 31, 1981, 90 individuals in the four western provinces of Canada were diagnosed as having ocular melanomas. Of 87 age-eligible cases (age 20-79 yr), 65 (75%) were interviewed along with age- and sex-matched controls chosen at random from the provincial populations. Individuals with blue eyes had a significantly greater crude risk of ocular melanoma than those with brown eyes [odds ratio (OR)=3.

Cutaneous malignant melanoma in Alberta: 1967-1976.

The records of 519 patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) were analyzed for the period 1967 to 1976 from the population-based cancer registry of the Province of Alberta in Canada. During this period, the incidence of CMM rose more rapidly in men (especially those older than age 50 years) than in women. Five-year survival rates were 59% and 74% for men and women, respectively.

Ocular melanoma: a population-based study.

During the 10-year period ending December 1976 ocular malignant melanoma developed in 99 patients in Alberta. To investigate the natural history of this disease we reviewed certain clinical and epidemiologic features of these cases. Of all the melanomas during that time 16% occurred in the eye, and of all the ocular malignant diseases 70% were malignant melanomas.