Leveraging digital health technologies in heart failure self-care interventions to improve health equity.

For patients with heart failure, self-care is crucial, but recommendations for self-care are often not adhered to. Digital health interventions have the potential to help patients improve their self-care and, ultimately, their health outcomes, but without careful examination, digital interventions may generate further inequality. In this study, we use a digital health equity framework to examine challenges and opportunities related to digital health interventions across many domains of influence that may affect health equity.

Acceptability of Using a Decision Aid to Support Family Carers of People With Dementia Towards the End of Life: A Qualitative Study.

Objectives: To explore the experiences, acceptability and utility of a decision aid for family carers of people with dementia towards the end of life.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with a sample of family carers enroled into a 6-month feasibility study in England, sampling to gain a range of experiences and views, based on relationship to person they cared for (e.g.

Understanding the association between pain and delirium in older hospital inpatients: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: Delirium and pain are common in older adults admitted to hospital. The relationship between these is unclear, but clinically important. We aimed to systematically review the association between pain (at rest, movement, pain severity) and delirium in this population.

Development of a decision-support framework to support professionals and promote comfort among older hospital inpatients living with dementia.

Background: Acute hospital wards can be difficult places for many people living with dementia. Promoting comfort and wellbeing can be challenging in this environment. There is little evidence-based support for professionals working on acute care wards on how to respond to distress and maximise comfort and wellbeing among patients living with dementia.

Models of care and the role of clinical pharmacists in UK primary care for older adults: A scoping review protocol.

Introduction: There has been global investment of new ways of working to support workforce pressures, including investment in clinical pharmacists working in primary care by the NHS in the England. Clinical pharmacists are well suited to support older adults who have multiple long-term conditions and are on multiple medications. It is important to establish an evidence base for the role of clinical pharmacists in supporting older adults in primary care, to inform strategic and research priorities.

Sustained Viral Suppression With Dolutegravir Monotherapy Over 192 Weeks in Patients Starting Combination Antiretroviral Therapy During Primary Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection (EARLY-SIMPLIFIED): A Randomized, Controlled, Multi-site, Noninferiority Trial.

Background: Starting combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) during primary human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection results in a smaller HIV-1 latent reservoir, reduced immune activation, and less viral diversity compared to starting cART during chronic infection. We report results of a 4-year study designed to determine whether these properties would allow sustained virological suppression after simplification of cART to dolutegravir (DTG) monotherapy.

Methods: EARLY-SIMPLIFIED is a randomized, open-label, noninferiority trial.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Volatile Organic Compound Analysis in the Detection of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Cancers.

Background: Hepatobiliary cancers are notoriously difficult to detect, frequently leading to diagnosis in later stages of disease when curative treatment is not an option. The currently used biomarkers such as AFP (alpha-fetoprotein) and CA19.9 lack sensitivity and specificity.

Health inequalities for older people from minority ethnic groups receiving palliative care and end of life care: A scoping review protocol.

Objective: The proposed scoping review aims to explore international literature on how older people from minority ethnic groups engage with and utilise palliative and end of life care, investigate the barriers and facilitators, and compare how this varies between ethnicities and health conditions.

Introduction: Minority ethnic groups make up substantial parts of the populations of many countries around the world. Research has found that there are disparities in access to palliative care and end of life care among minority ethnic groups.

Views of people living with dementia and their carers on their present and future: a qualitative study.

Background: Dementia leads to multiple issues including difficulty in communication and increased need for care and support. Discussions about the future often happen late or never, partly due to reluctance or fear. In a sample of people living with dementia and carers, we explored their views and perceptions of living with the condition and their future.

Psychometric evaluation of the Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia scale in an acute general hospital setting.

Background: People with dementia are at risk of unplanned hospital admissions and commonly have painful conditions. Identifying pain is challenging and may lead to undertreatment. The psychometric properties of the Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) scale, in medical inpatients with dementia have not been evaluated.

Canakinumab in patients with COVID-19 and type 2 diabetes - A multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity have chronic activation of the innate immune system possibly contributing to the higher risk of hyperinflammatory response to SARS-CoV2 and severe COVID-19 observed in this population. We tested whether interleukin-1β (IL-1β) blockade using canakinumab improves clinical outcome.

Methods: CanCovDia was a multicenter, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to assess the efficacy of canakinumab plus standard-of-care compared with placebo plus standard-of-care in patients with type 2 diabetes and a BMI > 25 kg/m hospitalised with SARS-CoV2 infection in seven tertiary-hospitals in Switzerland.

Rapid development of a COVID-19 care planning decision-aid for family carers of people living with dementia.

Introduction: COVID-19 has disproportionately affected people living with dementia and their carers. Its effects on health and social care systems necessitated a rapid-response approach to care planning and decision-making in this population, with reflexivity and responsiveness to changing individual and system needs at its core. Considering this, a decision-aid to help families of persons with dementia was developed.

Antibodies from convalescent plasma promote SARS-CoV-2 clearance in individuals with and without endogenous antibody response.

BACKGROUNDNeutralizing antibodies are considered a key correlate of protection by current SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The manner in which human infections respond to therapeutic SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, including convalescent plasma therapy, remains to be fully elucidated.METHODSWe conducted a proof-of-principle study of convalescent plasma therapy based on a phase I trial in 30 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with a median interval between onset of symptoms and first transfusion of 9 days (IQR, 7-11.

Trust and inclusion during the Covid-19 pandemic: Perspectives from Black and South Asian people living with dementia and their carers in the UK.

Introduction: People from ethnic minority backgrounds living with dementia are more likely to be diagnosed later and have less access to health and social care support than their White counterparts in the United Kingdom (UK). Covid-19 has exacerbated health inequalities and diminished trust from underserved communities in the government and health services. The wider aim of the study was to explore the impact of covid-19 on Black and South-Asian people living with dementia and their carers as well as exploring the experiences of dementia care.

Grief in family carers of people living with dementia: A systematic review.

Objectives: Grief research in family carers of people with dementia has increased. We aimed to report the prevalence of pre-death and post-death grief and to synthesize associated factors and the relationship between pre-death factors and post-death grief and services used to manage grief.

Design: (Prospero protocol: CRD42020165071) We systematically reviewed literature from PsycINFO, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and ASSIA until April 2020.

Challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic by family carers of people living with dementia towards the end of life.

Background: People living with dementia account for a large proportion of deaths due to COVID-19. Family carers are faced with making significant and emotive decisions during the pandemic, including decisions about end of life. We aimed to explore the challenges faced by family carers of people living with dementia during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in England, as reported by charity telephone support line staff, who were able to objectively discuss a range of different experiences of many different carers who call the helpline.

A decision aid to support family carers of people living with dementia towards the end-of-life: Coproduction process, outcome and reflections.

Background: Family carers of people living with dementia often need support with making decisions about care. Many find end-of-life care decisions particularly difficult. The aim of this article is to present an evidence- and theoretical-based process for developing a decision aid to support family carers of people with dementia towards the end-of-life.

Exploration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with dementia and carers from black and minority ethnic groups.

Introduction: Despite community efforts to support and enable older and vulnerable people during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people with dementia and their family carers are still finding it difficult to adjust their daily living in light of the disruption that the pandemic has caused. There may be needs specific to black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) populations in these circumstances that remain thus far unexplored.

Objective: The aim of the study was to explore the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living with dementia and their family carers of BAME backgrounds, in relation to their experiences of community dementia care and the impact on their daily lives.

Rapid review of decision-making for place of care and death in older people: lessons for COVID-19.

Introduction: The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has affected the functioning and capacity of healthcare systems worldwide. COVID-19 has also disproportionately affected older adults. In the context of COVID-19, decision-making surrounding place of care (PoC) and place of death (PoD) in older adults involves significant new challenges.

Pain and delirium: mechanisms, assessment, and management.

Purpose: Pain and delirium are common problems for older people. Both conditions are prevalent in acute hospital settings. In people living in the community, delirium often precipitates presentation to the emergency department.

Atypical presentations of congenital hemangiomas: Extending the clinical phenotype.

Background/objectives: Congenital hemangiomas (CH) are a group of benign vascular tumors that are present at birth and exhibit variable involution during infancy. Congenital hemangiomas that do not involute are typically solitary patch or plaque-type tumors that grow proportionally with somatic growth. We report a case series of 9 patients with persistent CH, which exhibited uncommon features including segmental involvement, recurrent or severe pain, or growth via volumetric increase in size or apparent increased extent of anatomic involvement over time.

Strains of Staphylococcus aureus that Colonize and Infect Skin Harbor Mutations in Metabolic Genes.

Staphylococcus aureus is the most common cause of skin and soft tissue infections, yet the bacterial genetic changes associated with adaptation to human skin are not well characterized. S. aureus strains isolated from patients with chronic skin colonization and intermittent infection were used to determine the staphylococcal genotypes or phenotypes associated with adaptation to human skin.

The Walch type B humerus: glenoid retroversion is associated with torsional differences in the humerus.

Background: The Walch type B glenoid has the hallmark features of retroversion, joint subluxation, and bony erosion. Although the type B glenoid has been well described, the morphology of the corresponding type B humerus is poorly understood. As such, the aim of this imaging-based anthropometric study was to investigate humeral torsion in Walch type B shoulders.