Publications by authors named "Elena Kum"

Background: Cough severity represents an important endpoint to assess the impact of therapies for patients with refractory chronic cough (RCC).

Objective: To develop a new patient-reported outcome measure addressing cough severity in patients with RCC.

Methods: Phase 1 (item generation): A systematic survey, focus groups, and expert consultation generated 51 items.

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Objectives: Studies evaluating the effectiveness of care based on patients' risk of adverse outcomes (risk-guided care) use a variety of study designs. In this scoping review, using examples, we review characteristics of relevant studies and present key design features to optimize the trustworthiness of results.

Study Design And Setting: We searched five online databases for studies evaluating the effect of risk-guided care among adults on clinical outcomes, process, or cost.

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Importance: Gefapixant represents an emerging therapy for patients with refractory or unexplained chronic cough.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of gefapixant for the treatment of adults with refractory or unexplained chronic cough.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Web of Science from November 2014 to July 2023.

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We aimed to assess the impact of allocation concealment and blinding on the results of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) trials, using the World Health Organization COVID-19 database (to February 2022). We identified 488 randomized trials comparing drug therapeutics with placebo or standard care in patients with COVID-19. We performed random-effects meta-regressions comparing the results of trials with and without allocation concealment and blinding of health-care providers and patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to evaluate how trustworthy and impactful preprint trial reports were during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing their methods and results with later published versions.
  • Researchers reviewed a total of 356 trials, finding that 101 were only preprints, while others were published later; the average time to publication for preprints was about six months.
  • Results showed that there were minimal differences in key methods and results between preprints and published articles, with only a small percentage affecting the certainty of evidence in treatment effectiveness comparisons.
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Objective: To compare the effects of interleukin 6 receptor blockers, tocilizumab and sarilumab, with or without corticosteroids, on mortality in patients with covid-19.

Design: Systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Data Sources: World Health Organization covid-19 database, a comprehensive multilingual source of global covid-19 literature, and two prospective meta-analyses (up to 9 June 2021).

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Objectives: Minimal important difference (MID), the smallest change or difference that patients perceive as important, aids interpretation of change in patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) scores. A credibility instrument that assesses the methodological rigor of an anchor-based MID includes one core item addressing the correlation between the PROM and the anchor. However, the majority of MID studies in the literature fail to report the correlation.

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Introduction: Educational programs on chronic cough may improve patient care, but little is known about how Canadian physicians manage this common debilitating condition. We aimed to investigate Canadian physicians' perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of chronic cough.

Methods: We administered a 10-min anonymous, online, cross-sectional survey to 3321 Canadian physicians in the Leger Opinion Panel who managed adult patients with chronic cough and had been in practice for > 2 years.

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Background: Stories are powerful in their ability to disseminate information in a meaningful way. We hypothesized that a stem cell donation story library optimized for social media could support the education and recruitment of committed unrelated hematopoietic stem cell donors from needed demographic groups.

Study Design And Methods: We developed Why We Swab, a library of stories on stem cell donation (facebook.

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Background: Most systematic reviews of opioids for chronic pain have pooled treatment effects across individual opioids under the assumption they provide similar benefits and harms. We examined the comparative effects of individual opioids for chronic non-cancer pain through a network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials to March 2021 for studies that enrolled patients with chronic non-cancer pain, randomised them to receive different opioids, or opioids vs placebo, and followed them for at least 4 weeks.

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Background: Cough symptom severity represents an important subjective end-point to assess the impact of therapies for patients with refractory or unexplained chronic cough (RCC/UCC). As existing instruments assessing the severity of cough are neither widely available nor tested for measurement properties, we aim to develop a new patient-reported outcome measure addressing cough severity.

Objective: The aim of this study was to establish items and domains that would inform development of a new cough severity instrument.

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Background: To summarise specific adverse effects of remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: We searched 32 databases through 27 October 2020. We included randomised trials comparing any of the drugs of interest to placebo or standard care, or against each other.

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Background and Objectives Communities of practice (CoPs) represent effective models to achieve quality outcomes in health care. We report the development and evaluation of a CoP to improve stem cell donor recruitment in Canada. Materials and Methods In September 2017, we invited national stakeholders in stem cell donor recruitment to participate in a Facebook group and regular e-meetings.

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Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of antiviral antibody therapies and blood products for the treatment of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19).

Design: Living systematic review and network meta-analysis, with pairwise meta-analysis for outcomes with insufficient data.

Data Sources: WHO covid-19 database, a comprehensive multilingual source of global covid-19 literature, and six Chinese databases (up to 21 July 2021).

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Objective: To determine the benefits and harms of medical cannabis and cannabinoids for chronic pain.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, PsycInfo, CENTRAL, CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, Cannabis-Med, Epistemonikos, and trial registries up to January 2021.

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Background: Cough severity represents an important subjective endpoint in assessing the effectiveness of therapies for patients with chronic cough. Although cough-specific quality of life questionnaires exist, a widely available cough severity instrument with established measurement properties remains unavailable.

Aims: To identify and summarise the results of studies reporting on the experience of patients with chronic cough and, in the process, develop a conceptual framework to inform development of a patient-reported outcome measurement (PROM) addressing cough severity.

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Introduction: Chronic, non-cancer, axial or radicular spinal pain is a common condition associated with considerable socioeconomic burden. Clinicians frequently offer patients various interventional procedures for the treatment of chronic spine pain; however, the comparative effectiveness and safety of available procedures remains uncertain.

Methods: We will conduct a systematic review of randomised controlled trials that explores the effectiveness and harms of interventional procedures for the management of axial or radicular, chronic, non-cancer, spine pain.

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Updates: This is the second version (first update) of the living systematic review, replacing the previous version (available as a data supplement). When citing this paper please consider adding the version number and date of access for clarity.

Objective: To determine and compare the effects of drug prophylaxis on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19).

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Clinical Question: What is the role of drugs in preventing covid-19? WHY DOES THIS MATTER?: There is widespread interest in whether drug interventions can be used for the prevention of covid-19, but there is uncertainty about which drugs, if any, are effective. The first version of this living guideline focuses on the evidence for hydroxychloroquine. Subsequent updates will cover other drugs being investigated for their role in the prevention of covid-19.

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Patients with a variety of blood, immune, and metabolic disorders may require an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant as part of their treatment. However, over 70% of these patients do not have a matched sibling donor and require an alternative donor, such as a matched unrelated donor. We present a multi-part story of a Canadian stem cell recipient who underwent transplantation for treatment of refractory chronic myelogenous leukemia, and the matched unrelated donor who saved his life.

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Background: Recruitment of committed unrelated hematopoietic stem cell donors from the most-needed demographics remains a challenge for donor recruitment organizations worldwide. Multimedia resources are gaining attention as a modality to support recruitment efforts; however, there is a lack of guidance for the development of such tools. This qualitative study explores the perspectives of eligible stem cell donors on an educational whiteboard video about stem cell donation, generating insights into how whiteboard videos and related multimedia may be optimized for donor recruitment.

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Objective: To compare the effects of treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19).

Design: Living systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Data Sources: WHO covid-19 database, a comprehensive multilingual source of global covid-19 literature, up to 3 December 2021 and six additional Chinese databases up to 20 February 2021.

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Whiteboard videos are a popular video format, allowing viewers to see drawings of concepts alongside explanatory text and speech. We hypothesized that whiteboard videos could support the education and recruitment of unrelated stem cell donors in Canada. A series of 5 sharable whiteboard videos about stem cell donation was produced and posted online in September 2018, including 1 full-length video (https://youtu.

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Objectives: Opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) is a phenomenon whereby opioids increase patients' pain sensitivity, complicating their use in analgesia. We explored practitioners' attitudes towards, and knowledge concerning diagnosis, risk factors, and treatment of OIH.

Materials And Methods: We administered an 18-item cross-sectional survey to 850 clinicians that managed chronic pain with opioid therapy.

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