Health-related quality of life across disease stages in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: results from a real-world survey.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by a rapid disease course, with disease severity being associated with declining health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in persons living with ALS (pALS). The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of disease progression on HRQoL across King's, Milano-Torino Staging (MiToS), and physician-judgement clinical staging. Additionally, we evaluated the impact of the disease on the HRQoL of care partners (cALS).

Consumers' and health providers' views and perceptions of partnering to improve health services design, delivery and evaluation: a co-produced qualitative evidence synthesis.

Background: Partnering with consumers in the planning, delivery and evaluation of health services is an essential component of person-centred care. There are many ways to partner with consumers to improve health services, including formal group partnerships (such as committees, boards or steering groups). However, consumers' and health providers' views and experiences of formal group partnerships remain unclear.

Pharmacological and Psychotherapeutic Interventions for Management of Obsessive-compulsive Disorder in Adults: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.

Reprinted under Creative Commons CC-BY license.

All in the Family: Living With ADNP Syndrome.

Purpose: The overarching purpose of this research was to examine the experiences of 1 family living with a child with Helsmoortel-Van Der Aa syndrome or activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) syndrome.

Design: A retrospective qualitative design was used for this study.

Methods: Two primary caregivers for a 5-year-old child with ADNP syndrome completed background questionnaires to provide context for semistructured interviews.

Applying activity theory to undergraduate medical curriculum reform: Lessons in contradictions from multiple stakeholders' perspectives.

Purpose: Medical school curricula require regular updating. We adopted an activity theory lens to conduct a holistic, multiple stakeholder-informed analysis of curricular reform, aiming to understand how the social relations between groups contribute to unanticipated tensions and outcomes.

Methods: A research assistant conducted semi-structured interviews with purposively sampled ( = 19) administrative staff, faculty course leads, faculty tutors, curriculum developers, change leaders and student leaders.

Classroom Activity Breaks Improve On-Task Behavior and Physical Activity Levels Regardless of Time of Day.

Classroom physical activity breaks (CAB) are beneficial for increasing children's physical activity (PA) levels as well as the amount of time spent being on-task within the classroom. To examine the effect of CAB at different times within the school day on on-task behavior and PA levels in primary school (grade 1-3) children. Thirty-five children (6 ± 1 y, 22 = male, 13 = female) participated in four conditions in a randomized order: morning (AM), afternoon (PM), morning and afternoon (BOTH), and no CAB (CTRL).

How far will you go before switching hands? Handedness on the long pegboard across the lifespan.

Handedness is a significant behavioral asymmetry; however, there is debate surrounding the age at which hand preference develops, and little research has been conducted on handedness in older adults. The current study examined performance on the long pegboard, to identify similarities and differences in young children (ages 4-7 years), older children (ages 8-12 years), young adults (ages 18-25 years), and older adults (ages 70+ years). Average time per hole, number of hand switches, and errors were assessed with left- and right-hand starts.

Diagnostic Imaging and Mechanical Objectivity in Medicine.

Background: Before the advent of automatism in image-making practices, scientists, anatomists, and physicians artistically depicted simplified images for scientific atlas making. This technique conferred subjectivity to a supposedly objective scientific process, sparking confrontations between anatomists regarding accuracy that heralded a new concept in the late 19 century - mechanical objectivity - that would revolutionize scientific knowledge and the field of medicine OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this health history research study is to trace the evolution of mechanical objectivity from empirical studies of early anatomists in the 19 century to the advent of x-ray technology, digitization of imaging, and disruptive technological innovations such as artificial intelligence, while simultaneously unveiling the challenges of mitigating human bias, despite advancements in medical imaging practices.

Methods: This narrative literature review was conducted using the Scopus® database under the guidance of both medical historians and practicing physicians to ensure its applicability and historical accuracy CONCLUSION: Despite a century-long quest for optimizing mechanical objectivity in diagnostic imaging to more accurately and efficiently interpret medical images, human bias remains an important factor.

From Pandemic to Progression: An Educational Framework for the Implementation of Virtual Mental Healthcare for Children and Youth as a Response to COVID-19.

COVID-19 restrictions have necessitated child/youth mental health providers to shift towards virtually delivering services to patients' homes rather than hospitals and community mental health clinics. There is scant guidance available for clinicians on how to address unique considerations for the virtual mental healthcare of children and youth as clinicians rapidly shift their practices away from in-person care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we bridge this gap by discussing a six-pillar framework developed at Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for delivering direct to patient virtual mental healthcare to children, youth and their families.

Cross-lateralisation in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and motor skill performance.

Cross-lateralisation and increased motor difficulties have been reported in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Nevertheless, the question of how crossed (i.e.

Real-Time Indoor Geolocation Tracking for Assisted Healthcare Facilities.

A leading cause of physical injury sustained by elderly persons is the event of unintentionally falling. A delay between the time of fall and the time of medical attention can exacerbate injury if the fall resulted in a concussion, traumatic brain injury, or bone fracture. The authors present a solution capable of finding and tracking, in real-time, the location of an elderly person within an indoor facility, using only existing Wi-Fi infrastructure.

From hermeneutics to heteroglossia: 'The Patient's View' revisited.

This article explores conceptual and methodological challenges surrounding the recovery of patients' voices in the history of medicine. We examine the debate that followed Roy Porter's seminal article, 'The Patient's View: Doing Medical History from Below' (1985). Porter argued that patients should be given a central role in medical history, aiming to restore to patients a voice and agency that is often lost in 'physician-centered' historical narratives.

Concurrent maturation of visuomotor skills and motion perception in typically-developing children and adolescents.

Perceptual and visuomotor skills undergo considerable development from early childhood into adolescence; however, the concurrent maturation of these skills has not yet been examined. This study assessed visuomotor function and motion perception in a cross-section of 226 typically-developing children between 4 and 16 years of age. Participants were tested on three tasks hypothesized to engage the dorsal visual stream: threading a bead on a needle, marking dots using a pen, and discriminating form defined by motion contrast.

Directly Acting Oral Anticoagulants for the Prevention of Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation in England and Wales: Cost-Effectiveness Model and Value of Information Analysis.

Determine the optimal, licensed, first-line anticoagulant for prevention of ischemic stroke in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) in England and Wales from the UK National Health Service (NHS) perspective and estimate value to decision making of further research. We developed a cost-effectiveness model to compare warfarin (international normalized ratio target range 2-3) with directly acting (or non-vitamin K antagonist) oral anticoagulants (DOACs) apixaban 5 mg, dabigatran 150 mg, edoxaban 60 mg, and rivaroxaban 20 mg, over 30 years post treatment initiation. In addition to death, the 17-state Markov model included the events stroke, bleed, myocardial infarction, and intracranial hemorrhage.

Investigating the Efficacy of the Hand Selection Complexity Task Across the Lifespan.

There is inconsistent evidence demonstrating a relationship between task complexity and hand preference. However, analyzing the point at which task complexity overrides the decision to demonstrate a biomechanically efficient movement can enable complexity to be quantified. Young children (ages 3-7), adolescents (ages 8-12), young adults (ages 18-25), and older adults (ages 65+) performed a newly developed Hand Selection Complexity Task (HSCT) and completed the Waterloo Handedness Questionnaire (WHQ).

Scoping Review: Physical Activity and Social Functioning in Young People With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects ~1 in 59 people in North America and diagnoses continue to rise (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). Unfortunately, the exact cause of ASD is unknown and therapy remains the primary means of intervention. People with ASD experience social and behavioral deficits associated with the disorder, which affect all aspects of life such as academics, relationships, and physical activity.

Hand selection in a preferential reaching task: The effects of object location, orientation, and task intention in preadolescent children.

Introduction And Methods: Hand selection was assessed in preadolescent children (ages 9-11) within a preferential reaching task to delineate the effects of object location, orientation, and task intention on the assessment procedure and compared to data previously acquired from young adults.

Results: The observed differences support the notion that children are still in a process of refining their movements in attempt to discern the most efficient and effective patterns of behavior. Notwithstanding differences in performance, similarities between preadolescents and young adults also emerged.

The alignment imperative in curriculum renewal.

Rationale: There are perennial calls for MD curricula to reform in order to meet the changing needs of students, patients, and society. And yet, efforts at renewal have also been suggested to have minimal impact on the pedagogy and outcomes of medical education. One reason may be misalignment between the components of the curriculum during design and implementation.

End-state comfort in two object manipulation tasks: Investigating how the movement context influences planning in children, young adults, and older adults.

The movement context (pantomime, pantomime with image/object as guide, and actual use) has been shown to influence end-state comfort-the propensity to prioritize a comfortable final hand position over an initially comfortable one-across the lifespan. The present study aimed to assess how the movement context (pantomime, using a dowel as the tool, and actual use) influences end-state comfort when acting with objects (glass/hammer) that differ in use-dependent experience. Children (ages 6-11, n = 70), young adults (n = 21), and older adults (n = 21) picked up an overturned glass to pour water and a hammer to hit a nail, where the handle faced away from the participant.

Oral anticoagulants for prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation: systematic review, network meta-analysis, and cost effectiveness analysis.

 To compare the efficacy, safety, and cost effectiveness of direct acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs) for patients with atrial fibrillation. Systematic review, network meta-analysis, and cost effectiveness analysis.  Medline, PreMedline, Embase, and The Cochrane Library.

Sex differences in the end-state comfort effect in pre-adolescent children.

There has been recent interest in the developmental trajectory of the end-state comfort effect (ESCE) in young children. However, potential sex differences have yet to be examined in the overturned glass task. We examined the ESCE using this task in a large sample (N=232) of typically-developing elementary school children (111 girls, 121 boys) in grades 1-5 (approximately 7-11years old).

End-State Comfort Across the Lifespan: A Cross-Sectional Investigation of How Movement Context Influences Motor Planning in an Overturned Glass Task.

Young adults plan actions in advance to minimize the cost of movement. This is exemplified by the end-state comfort (ESC) effect. A pattern of improvement in ESC in children is linked to the development of cognitive control processes, and decline in older adults is attributed to cognitive decline.