Publications by authors named "Curran N"

Background: People of African and Caribbean heritage in the UK have a higher prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) and poorer health outcomes than white Europeans. Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyles for Diabetes Online (HEAL-D Online) is a co-designed, culturally tailored T2D self-management programme for black African and Caribbean adults, which, due to online delivery, is well positioned for spread. This qualitative evaluation uses the Exploration-Preparation-Implementation-Sustainment (EPIS) framework to explore factors affecting scale-up from delivery and commissioning perspectives.

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Objectives: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of delivering Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyles for Diabetes (HEAL-D) Online.

Intervention: HEAL-D Online-a 7-week culturally tailored type 2 diabetes educational programme delivered using online platform.

Setting: Programme delivered by a London NHS trust, with patients referred from primary care healthcare professionals via a central booking system.

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As a first step in preparing for the return of samples from the Moon by the Artemis Program, NASA initiated the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program (ANGSA). ANGSA was designed to function as a low-cost sample return mission and involved the curation and analysis of samples previously returned by the Apollo 17 mission that remained unopened or stored under unique conditions for 50 years. These samples include the lower portion of a double drive tube previously sealed on the lunar surface, the upper portion of that drive tube that had remained unopened, and a variety of Apollo 17 samples that had remained stored at -27 °C for approximately 50 years.

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Objectives: To assess if participation in a North Carolina produce prescription program for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants with diet-sensitive health conditions (SuperSNAP) is associated with changes in purchase composition and spending source.

Methods: This study used loyalty-card transaction data (October 2019-April 2022). We applied a linear mixed-effects model with overlap weights to perform a difference-indifferences analysis of purchases by SuperSNAP program enrollees compared to the control group.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study introduced the Quality Assessment of Medical Artificial Intelligence (QAMAI), a tool aimed at evaluating the quality of health information from AI platforms, highlighting the need for such assessments as AI use expands in healthcare.
  • QAMAI was validated through a rigorous process involving 27 reviewers who evaluated responses generated by ChatGPT4, demonstrating strong reliability and validity metrics, including a high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.837) and excellent inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.983).
  • The successful validation of QAMAI suggests it could be an important resource for healthcare professionals as more patients turn to AI for medical information, helping ensure they receive quality data.
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Objective: There is a lack of a definitive study in the literature comparing early versus late tracheostomy and exploring the impact of tracheostomy timing on patient outcomes. This study may help guide treatment paradigms and contribute to a consensus for optimal tracheostomy timing.

Methods: A retrospective review was performed comparing early versus late timing of tracheostomy placement and their respective outcomes.

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Purpose: We study outcomes after tracheostomy in COVID-19 positive patients versus COVID-19 negative patients who underwent tracheostomy during the same time frame in an effort to better understand the influence of COVID-19 despite variances in virus strain and treatment practices.

Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of all Veterans Affairs centers nationwide, using data provided by the Veterans Affairs Informatics and Computing Infrastructure. Our cohort consisted of veteran patients who underwent tracheostomy between March 2020 and September 2022.

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Postpartum lifestyle modification is recommended to hypertension risk. We conducted a systematic literature review to assess the evidence for postpartum lifestyle interventions to reduce blood pressure. We searched for relevant publications from 2010 through November 2022.

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Introduction: The National Health Service Insight Prioritisation Programme was established to accelerate the implementation and evaluation of innovation that supports post-pandemic working. Supporting this, the Academic Health Science Network and National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration in South London are testing and evaluating the implementation and scale-up of a type 2 diabetes (T2D) intervention.T2D is estimated to be three times more prevalent in UK African and Caribbean communities than in white Europeans.

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Many low-income Americans experience food insecurity, which may have been exacerbated by economic instability during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this study we assessed the impact of Healthy Helping, a short-term fruit and vegetable incentive program aimed at alleviating food insecurity and improving diet quality for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants, on grocery purchases, using transaction data from a large supermarket chain in North Carolina. We compared Healthy Helping participants' purchases of key food groups before and during the program with purchases by control shoppers participating in federal food assistance programs during the same period.

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At a Mars analog site in Utah, we tested two science operation methods for data acquisition and decision-making protocols: a scenario where the tactical day is preplanned, but major adjustments may still be made before plan delivery; and a scenario in which the sol path must largely be planned before a given tactical planning day and very few adjustments to the plan may be made. The goal was to provide field-tested insight into operations planning for rover missions where science operations must facilitate the efficient choice of sampling locations at a site relevant to searching for habitability and biosignatures. Results of the test indicate that preplanning sol paths did not result in a sol cost savings nor did it improve science return or optimal biologically relevant sample collection.

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Recipient vessel selection in head and neck reconstruction is based on multiple factors, including defect size and location, patient history, and vessel location, diameter, and length. The authors present a comparison of proximal and distal anastomotic sites of the facial artery. A chart review of head and neck reconstructions using the facial artery as a recipient vessel over a 7-year period was conducted.

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Importance: Food insecurity is associated with a less healthy diet. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is associated with reduced food insecurity, but benefit levels may be insufficient for beneficiaries to afford healthy foods.

Objective: To evaluate whether participation in SuperSNAP, a program that provides an additional $40 per month for the purchase of fruits and vegetables with no added sugar, sodium, or fat to SNAP beneficiaries, is associated with changes in food purchasing.

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Objective: To evaluate a Produce Prescription Programme’s utilisation and its effects on healthy food purchasing and diabetes control among participants with type 2 diabetes.

Design: Prospective cohort study using participants’ electronic health records and food transaction data. Participants were categorised as ‘Frequent Spenders’ and ‘Sometimes Spenders’ based on utilisation frequency.

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Postoperative infections after rhinoplasties are rare, yet devastating on patient outcomes. The literature reports an overall incidence of <2% with higher numbers seen in those requiring revision procedures. A retrospective chart review of rhinoplasty patients from 2002 to 2019 of the primary author (D.

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Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infection involving either native or prosthetic heart valves, the endocardial surface of the heart or any implanted intracardiac devices. IE is a rare condition affecting 3-15 patients per 100,000 population. In-hospital mortality rates in patients with IE remain high at around 20% despite treatment advances.

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The study of lymphangiogenesis is an emerging science that has revealed the lymphatic system as a central player in many pathological conditions including cancer metastasis, lymphedema, and organ graft rejection. A thorough understanding of the mechanisms of lymphatic growth will play a key role in the development of therapeutic strategies against these conditions. Despite the known potential of this field, the study of lymphatics has historically lagged behind that of hemangiogenesis.

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Introduction: Complex pain is a debilitating condition that is responsible for low quality of life and significant economic impacts. Although best practice in the treatment of complex pain employs a multidisciplinary team, many patients do not have access to this care, leading to poor outcomes.

Methods And Analysis: This study evaluates a novel inpatient complex pain team at a large London teaching hospital.

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Background And Aims: To improve care and management of patients with chronic pain it is important to understand patients' experiences of treatment, and of the people and the environment involved. As chronic pain patients often have long relationships with medical clinics and pain management centres, the team and team interactions with the patients could impact the treatment outcome. The aim of this study was to elicit as honest as possible an account of chronic pain patients' experiences associated with their care and feed this information back to the clinical team as motivation for improvement.

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Sexual pain disorders affect women's sexual and reproductive health and are poorly understood. Although many treatments have been evaluated, there is no one "gold standard" treatment. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate what treatments for female sexual pain have been evaluated in clinical studies and their effectiveness.

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Background: Obesity is a global epidemic. Behavioral change approaches towards improving nutrition, increasing physical activity level, improving sleep, and reducing sitting time are recommended as best practices in adolescent obesity management. However, access to evidence-based treatment is limited and portable technologies such as mobile apps may provide a useful platform to deliver such lifestyle interventions.

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Intravenous acetaminophen is a commonly used analgesic following surgery. The aims of this study were to determine the population pharmacokinetic profile of intravenous acetaminophen and its metabolites in adult surgical patients and to identify patient characteristics associated with acetaminophen metabolism in the postoperative period. 53 patients were included in the dataset; 28 were men, median age (range) 60 years (33-87), median weight (range) 74 kg (54-129).

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Interest in chronic pain after surgery has grown since the finding that more than a fifth of patients attending chronic pain clinics cite surgery as the cause for their chronic pain. The problem is not limited to major surgery; even common minor procedures such as hernia repair have a significant risk of chronic pain. Surgical technique can influence the development of chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) and techniques to minimise nerve injury should be used where possible.

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Pain is a vital function of the nervous system in providing the body with a warning of potential or actual injury. It is both a sensory and emotional experience, affected by psychological factors such as past experiences, beliefs about pain, fear or anxiety.

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