A Retrospective Comparison of Clinical and Laboratory Aspects of Patients With COVID-19-Related Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and Non-COVID-19-Related ARDS.

Aim/objective: This study investigated demographic characteristics, hemodynamic values, respiratory datas, laboratory values ​​such as biochemistry and blood gas, and treatment approaches of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related and non-COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Background: Determining the differences and similarities between COVID-19-related ARDS (CARDS) patients and non-COVID-19-related ARDS (NCARDS) patients will be useful to better understand these two diseases.

Materials And Methods: A total of 32 NCARDS patients who were followed and treated in the ICU for various reasons between January 2015 and December 2020 and 32 CARDS patients who were followed and treated in the ICU for various reasons between March 2020 and December 2020 were examined retrospectively.

Basic Training in Palliative Medicine for Internal Medicine Residents: Pilot Testing of a Canadian Model in Switzerland.

Background: In Switzerland, palliative care (PC) clinical training is well established at undergraduate and specialist postgraduate levels. However, postgraduate nonspecialist training curricula are less documented.

Local Problem: A structured curriculum for nonspecialist rotation within internal medicine (IM) in specialized PC wards is lacking.

The Effect of Oxygenation on Mortality in Patients With Head Injury.

Introduction In this study, we planned to investigate the effect of hyperoxygenation on mortality and morbidity in patients with head trauma who were followed and treated in the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods Head trauma cases (n = 119) that were followed in the mixed ICU of a 50-bed tertiary care center in Istanbul between January 2018 and December 2019 were retrospectively analyzed for the negative effects of hyperoxia. Age, gender, height/weight, additional diseases, medications used, ICU indication, Glasgow Coma Scale score recorded during ICU follow-up, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, length of hospital/ICU stay, the presence of complications, number of reoperations, length of intubation, and the patient's discharge or death status were evaluated.

How is Students' Understanding of Nature of Science Related with Their Metacognitive Awareness?

The paper reports an empirical study on the relationship between middle school students' understanding of nature of science (NOS) and their metacognitive awareness. The reconceptualised family resemblance approach to the nature of science (RFN) (Erduran & Dagher, 2014; Kaya & Erduran, 2016) as a holistic framework that covers science as epistemic-cognitive and social system guided the study. A total of 701 students (180 5, 167 6, 170 7, and 184 8 grade) and 3 students from each grade level (in total 12 students) who have low, moderate, high-RFN understanding, and metacognitive awareness levels were interviewed.

Effect of Chemokine Gene Variants on Covid-19 Disease Severity.

Patients immune phenotype/genotype data may be useful to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection and can contribute to the identify the different levels of disease severity. The roles of chemokines have been reported in the coronavirus-related diseases SARS and MERS and they may likewise play a critical role in the development of the symptoms of COVID-19 disease. We analyzed the association of the MCP-1-A2518 G, SDF-1-3'A, CCR5-delta32, CCR5-A55029 G, CXCR4-C138T and CCR2-V64I gene polymorphisms with COVID-19 severity to further unveil the immunological pathways leading to disease severity and death.

Identifying barriers and facilitators to palliative care integration in the management of hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A qualitative study.

Background: Palliative care is well suited to support patients hospitalized with COVID-19, but integration into care has been variable and generally poor.

Aim: To understand barriers and facilitators of palliative care integration for hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Methods: Internists, Intensivists and palliative care physicians completed semi-structured interviews about their experiences providing care to patients with COVID-19.

Referral Practices of Cardiologists to Specialist Palliative Care in Canada.

Background: Patients with heart failure have palliative care needs that can be effectively addressed by specialist palliative care (SPC). Despite this, SPC utilization by this patient population is low, suggesting barriers to SPC referral. We sought to determine the referral practices of cardiologists to SPC.

Scalable Model for Delivery of Inpatient Palliative Care During a Pandemic.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals worldwide have reported large volumes of patients with refractory symptoms and a large number of deaths attributable to COVID-19. This has led to an increase in the demand for palliative care beyond what can be provided by most existing programs. We developed a scalable model to enable continued provision of high-quality palliative care during a pandemic for hospitals without a palliative care unit or existing dedicated palliative care beds.

Online Bridging Program for new international palliative medicine fellows: development and evaluation.

Objectives: International medical graduates (IMGs) who pursue additional training in another country may encounter unique challenges that compromise their learning experience. This paper describes the development of an Online Bridging Program in the Division of Palliative Care at the University Health Network Toronto and examines its effectiveness in improving IMGs' readiness for Canadian fellowship training.

Methods: The annual Online Bridging Program was developed to help new IMGs transitioning to Canadian palliative fellowship using Kern's framework for curriculum development.

Palliative Care in Toronto During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first emerged in China in December 2019 and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. Clinicians around the world looked to cities that first experienced major surges to inform their preparations to prevent and manage the impact the pandemic would bring to their patients and health care systems. Although this information provided insight into how COVID-19 could affect the Canadian palliative care system, it remained unclear what to expect.

Subacute ascending myelopathy in adolescent athlete after spinal cord injury: a case report on dynamic complication of spine trauma.

Background: Subacute post-traumatic ascending myelopathy (SPAM) is a rare complication after spinal cord injury (SCI). SPAM onsets within few days or weeks after initial SCI. Here, we present an adolescent male athlete who developed SPAM after SCI and brief review of literature.

Palliative care provision at a tertiary cancer center during a global pandemic.

COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019; it rapidly spread around the world and was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. The palliative care program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Canada, provides comprehensive care to patients with advanced cancer and their families, through services including an acute palliative care unit, an inpatient consultation service, and an ambulatory palliative care clinic. In the face of a global pandemic, palliative care teams are uniquely placed to support patients with cancer who also have COVID-19.

Heart Failure: A Palliative Medicine Review of Disease, Therapies, and Medications With a Focus on Symptoms, Function, and Quality of Life.

Despite significant advances in heart failure (HF) treatment, HF remains a progressive, extremely symptomatic, and terminal disease with a median survival of 2.1 years after diagnosis. HF often leads to a constellation of symptoms, including dyspnea, fatigue, depression, anxiety, insomnia, pain, and worsened cognitive function.

The Role of Real-Time Elastography in the Differential Diagnosis of Salivary Gland Tumors.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to scrutinize the value of qualitative elastography in the diagnosis of salivary gland masses.

Methods: Sixty patients were enrolled in this prospective study. Patients aged between 1 and 91 years (mean age, 48.

Language Used by Health Care Professionals to Describe Dying at an Acute Care Hospital.

Context: Clinicians often rely on documentation to relay information, and this remains the mainstay of interprofessional communication regarding patient care. However, there has been scant research focused on clinicians' documentation of dying in hospital and how this is communicated to other team members in patient charting.

Objectives: To understand the language used to describe the deterioration and death of patients in an acute academic tertiary care center and to identify whether patient diagnoses or palliative care (PC) involvement was associated with clearer descriptions of this process.

The Transplant Palliative Care Clinic: An early palliative care model for patients in a transplant program.

Although patients within a transplant program are awaiting or have received disease modifying or curative treatment, they are also facing advanced illness and the possibility of death. The involvement of specialized palliative care services for these patients may improve symptom management and facilitate advance care planning. However, patients in organ transplantation programs have difficulty accessing palliative care resources and often do so only sporadically in the inpatient setting.

Simple prognostic model for patients with advanced cancer based on performance status.

Purpose: Providing survival estimates is important for decision making in oncology care. The purpose of this study was to provide survival estimates for outpatients with advanced cancer, using the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), Palliative Performance Scale (PPS), and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scales, and to compare their ability to predict survival.

Methods: ECOG, PPS, and KPS were completed by physicians for each new patient attending the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre outpatient Oncology Palliative Care Clinic (OPCC) from April 2007 to February 2010.