Publications by authors named "ELWOOD C"

Background: Many clinicians feel uncomfortable with de-labelling penicillin allergies despite ample safety data. Point of care tools effectively support providers with de-labelling. This study's objective was to increase the number of providers intending to pursue a penicillin oral challenge by 15% by February 2023.

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Article Synopsis
  • Penicillin allergies often lead to unnecessary treatment delays, as many reported allergies are not true allergies; efficient tools are needed to identify low-risk patients for safe de-labeling.
  • The FIRSTLINE electronic decision support tool was implemented to help clinicians assess and stratify penicillin allergy risk among pregnant women in Vancouver, with a focus on its reliability compared to allergist evaluations and other tools like JAMA and PENFAST.
  • Results showed that 97.2% of 181 patients were not allergic, and FIRSTLINE effectively identified a high percentage of low-risk patients, emphasizing the value of clinical algorithms in improving patient care.
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Students graduating from professional healthcare programs are expected to demonstrate competence in their area of study to enter the workforce and immediately start working with people. High expectations and a fast-paced environment are typical aspects of these professional positions and often result in higher rates of burnout, compassion fatigue, and lack of empathy, leading to an overall decrease in patient satisfaction. As a result, patients who face difficult situations may often feel as though their needs are not being addressed.

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Introduction: While 10% of pregnant individuals report a penicillin allergy, there is no established best practice for penicillin allergy delabeling in pregnancy. To better understand options for penicillin delabeling, we aimed to evaluate two penicillin allergy delabeling protocols in pregnancy regarding efficacy, adverse events, and patient satisfaction.

Material And Methods: From July 2019 to December 2022, we completed a two-center prospective cohort study, where each site recruited pregnant patients over 24 weeks gestational age with a reported penicillin allergy.

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Penicillin allergy is reported in 10% of the population; however, over 90% of patients are deemed non-allergic upon allergist assessment. The goal of this quality improvement project is to validate a patient-driven assessment tool to safely identify patients at low risk of penicillin allergy and de-label them. Pediatric patients and pregnant women referred to the institution's allergy clinics for penicillin allergy assessment were invited to use the patient tool to complete a self-assessment, resulting in the assignment of a risk category.

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Members of Veterinary Humanities UK argue that contextualised care should be considered as foundational to morally and economically sustainable veterinary practice in today's changing world.

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Objectives: To measure and evaluate the impact of receiving severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines in pregnancy on immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin A (IgA) titres in maternal and infant samples.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Tertiary obstetric centre.

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Despite success in managing HIV during pregnancy, challenges remain around sustained adherence with antiretroviral therapy (ART), and the suboptimal viral load (VL) suppression during the postpartum period. The objective of this study was to compare VL levels at delivery and during the postpartum period and assess factors associated with lack of viral suppression during the postpartum period in Canada. We combined data from two Canadian prospective cohorts, which included 286 HIV-positive women (352 pregnancies) who delivered between 2012 and 2020.

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Background: For pregnant women living with HIV (WLWH), engagement in care is crucial to maternal health and reducing the risk of perinatal transmission. To date, there have been no studies in Canada examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pregnant WLWH.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study assessing the impact of the pandemic on perinatal outcomes for pregnant WLWH using data from the Perinatal HIV Surveillance Program in British Columbia, Canada.

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Background: To describe baseline antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) metrics and apply AMS interventions in an inpatient obstetrical population.

Methods: From October 2018 to October 2019, our tertiary-care obstetrical center reviewed components of our AMS program, which included: (1) antimicrobial consumption data, (2) point prevalence surveys (PPS), and (3) prospective audit and feedback. We reviewed institutional data for antimicrobial consumption from the pharmacy database.

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Objective: To compare perioperative and postoperative complications in patients who underwent opportunistic salpingectomy (OS) (removal of the fallopian tubes for ovarian cancer risk reduction during another surgery) at the time of cesarean section (C-section) with those in patients who underwent tubal ligation.

Design: A population-based, retrospective cohort study.

Setting: British Columbia, Canada.

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Objective: Our objective was to determine the frequency at which CD4 counts drop below 200 cells/mm during pregnancy in women living with HIV and to identify factors associated with this.

Methods: Data from 2005 to 2020 from two prospective Canadian cohorts of pregnant women living with HIV were extracted. As per national guidelines, women received antiretroviral therapy and CD4 counts were monitored once per trimester and at delivery.

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Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of empiric antibiotic protocols for peripartum bacteremia at a quaternary institution by describing incidence, microbial epidemiology, clinical source of infection, susceptibility patterns, and maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Methods: Retrospective chart review of peripartum patients with positive blood cultures between 2010 and 2018.

Results: The incidence of peripartum bacteremia was 0.

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Early menopause (<45 years) has significant impacts on bone, cardiovascular, and cognitive health. Several studies have suggested earlier menopause for women living with HIV; however, the current literature is limited by reliance on self-report data. We determined age at menopause in women living with HIV and socio-demographically similar HIV-negative women based on both self-report of menopause status (no menses for ≥12 months) and biochemical confirmation (defined as above plus follicle-stimulating hormone level ≥ 25 IU/mL).

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Understanding the true burden of tobacco smoking on adverse pregnancy outcomes is critical in generating appropriate interventions to improve outcomes. Self-reporting of human behaviour that is associated with stigma is associated with underreporting in general and may bias the impact of smoking in studies; however, self-reporting is frequently the most practical method of gleaning this information. The objective of this study was to evaluate concordance between self-reported smoking and concentrations of plasma cotinine, a biomarker of smoking, among participants enrolled in two related HIV cohorts.

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Background: Inaccurate penicillin allergy labels lead to inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions and harmful patient consequences. System-wide efforts are needed to remove incorrect penicillin allergy labels, but more health services research is required on how to best deliver these services.

Methods: Data was extracted from five hospitals in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October 2018-May 2022.

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Birth mode has been implicated as a major factor influencing neonatal gut microbiome development, and it has been assumed that lack of exposure to the maternal vaginal microbiome is responsible for gut dysbiosis among caesarean-delivered infants. Consequently, practices to correct dysbiotic gut microbiomes, such as vaginal seeding, have arisen while the effect of the maternal vaginal microbiome on that of the infant gut remains unknown. We conducted a longitudinal, prospective cohort study of 621 Canadian pregnant women and their newborn infants and collected pre-delivery maternal vaginal swabs and infant stool samples at 10-days and 3-months of life.

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