Investigating Inpatient Acceptance of a Unique Telemedicine Service Trialled in the Acute Ward in Rural Australia.

This study investigated inpatient acceptance of a unique telemedicine clinical service piloted from December 2022 to June 2025 in 3 rural acute wards in Victoria, Australia. The use of virtual care was complementary to the visiting general practitioner (GP) model common in rural hospitals. The qualitative study employed 3 researcher-designed questions: Did you feel safe using the virtual healthcare doctor?; Did you feel the care you experienced was as it should be? And; If you were offered virtual care again, would you use it? Participants ( = 38) were predominantly over 65 years (95%).

The incidence of cardiac surgery in adults with treated kidney failure in Australia: a retrospective cohort study.

ObjectiveKidney failure increases people's risk of cardiovascular disease, sometimes requiring cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to estimate the risk of cardiac surgery for adults with treated kidney failure in comparison with the general population in Australia.MethodsWe performed a population-based retrospective cohort study by linking data between the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons Cardiac Surgery Database, for 2010-2019.

In sickness and in health-A scoping review on social virtual reality clinical applications.

Objective: Evidence of virtual reality's (VR) efficacy in hospital settings coupled with the rise of inexpensive consumer devices have led to the development of social virtual reality (SVR) applications being incorporated in hospital settings. SVR provides opportunities for social interactions in virtual environments, allowing individuals to virtually socialize, regardless of geographic or mobility constraints. However, the full range of potential applications and the challenges of deploying SVR in hospital settings remain unexplored.

Correction: Exploring ethical practice in NGOS on mental health research in Malawi.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.

Developmental dysfunction in a preclinical model of Kcnq2 developmental and epileptic encephalopathy.

Background: Developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEE) are rare but severe neurodevelopmental disorders characterised by early-onset seizures often combined with developmental delay, behavioural and cognitive deficits. Treatment for DEEs is currently limited to seizure control and provides no benefits to the patients' developmental and cognitive outcomes. Genetic variants are the most common cause of DEE with KCNQ2 being one of the most frequently identified disease-causing genes.