Programmed Cell Death-Ligand 1 Expression and Clinical Outcomes Among Patients with Resected, Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Real-World Study.

Treatment options for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are evolving, given recent and expected approvals of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting programmed cell death-(ligand) 1 (PD-1/PD-L1). We retrospectively evaluated outcomes among patients with resected stage IB-IIIA NSCLC tumors expressing PD-L1 using PALEOS (Pan-cAnadian Lung cancEr Observational Study) data (2016-2019). Key outcomes included PD-L1 expression rate and treatment patterns, recurrence, and median overall (mOS) and disease-free survival (mDFS) among PD-L1+ patients.

A National Registry for People With All Stages of Kidney Disease: The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Patient Network.

Rationale & Objective: The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) launched the first national US kidney disease patient registry, the NKF Patient Network, that is open to patients throughout the continuum of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The Network provides individualized education and will facilitate patient-centered research, clinical care, and health policy decisions. Here, we present the overall design and the results of a feasibility study that was conducted July through December 2020.

Severity Assessment in CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder.

Background: Pathologic mutations in cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 cause CDKL5 deficiency disorder, a genetic syndrome associated with severe epilepsy and cognitive, motor, visual, and autonomic disturbances. This disorder is a relatively common genetic cause of early-life epilepsy. A specific severity assessment is lacking, required to monitor the clinical course and needed to define the natural history and for clinical trial readiness.

Barriers to technology use among older heart failure individuals in managing their symptoms after hospital discharge.

Background: In North America, heart failure (HF) is the leading cause for hospital readmission. Supportive technology, such as computers and tablets, could potentially assist patients with self-care to manage their condition after hospital discharge; however, older individuals have difficulties in adopting technology to manage their condition.

Method: This study used a mixed methods design to identify barriers to technology use in HF self-care.

Post-pyloric versus gastric tube feeding for preventing pneumonia and improving nutritional outcomes in critically ill adults.

Background: Nutritional support is an essential component of critical care. Malnutrition has been associated with poor outcomes among patients in intensive care units (ICUs). Evidence suggests that in patients with a functional gut, nutrition should be administered through the enteral route.

A hybrid manifold learning algorithm for the diagnosis and prognostication of Alzheimer's disease.

The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) requires a variety of medical tests, which leads to huge amounts of multivariate heterogeneous data. Such data are difficult to compare, visualize, and analyze due to the heterogeneous nature of medical tests. We present a hybrid manifold learning framework, which embeds the feature vectors in a subspace preserving the underlying pairwise similarity structure, i.

An Internet-Based Counseling Intervention With Email Reminders that Promotes Self-Care in Adults With Chronic Heart Failure: Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol.

Background: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a public health priority. Its age-standardized prevalence has increased over the past decade. A major challenge for the management of CHF is to promote long-term adherence to self-care behaviors without overtaxing available health care resources.

CMR imaging with rapid visual T1 assessment predicts mortality in patients suspected of cardiac amyloidosis.

Objectives: This study tested the diagnostic and prognostic utility of a rapid, visual T1 assessment method for identification of cardiac amyloidosis (CA) in a "real-life" referral population undergoing cardiac magnetic resonance for suspected CA.

Background: In patients with confirmed CA, delayed-enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance (DE-CMR) frequently shows a diffuse, global hyperenhancement (HE) pattern. However, imaging is often technically challenging, and the prognostic significance of diffuse HE is unclear.

Impact of interventions on medication adherence and blood pressure control in patients with essential hypertension: a systematic review by the ISPOR medication adherence and persistence special interest group.

Objectives: To systematically review the evidence on the impact of interventions to improve medication adherence in adults prescribed antihypertensive medications.

Methods: An electronic search was undertaken of articles published between 1979 and 2009, without language restriction, that focused on interventions to improve antihypertensive medication adherence among patients (≥18 years) with essential hypertension. Studies must have measured adherence as an outcome of the intervention.

Antihypertensive medication use, adherence, stops, and starts in Canadians with hypertension.

Background: Some of the greatest barriers to achieving blood pressure control are perceived to be failure to prescribe antihypertensive medication and lack of adherence to medication prescriptions.

Methods: Self-reported data from 6017 Canadians with diagnosed hypertension who responded to the 2008 Canadian Community Health Survey and the 2009 Survey on Living with Chronic Diseases in Canada were examined.

Results: The majority (82%) of individuals with diagnosed hypertension reported using antihypertensive medications.

Health behaviour advice from health professionals to Canadian adults with hypertension: results from a national survey.

Background: Health professionals play an important role in providing health information to patients. The objectives of this study were to examine the type of advice that Canadians with hypertension recall receiving from health professionals to manage their condition, and to assess if there is an association between health behaviour advice provided by health professionals and self-reported engagement in health behaviour modification.

Methods: Respondents of the 2009 Survey on Living with Chronic Diseases in Canada (N = 6142) were asked about sociodemographic characteristics, health care utilization, and health behaviour modification to control hypertension.

Moving beyond the stigma: systematic review of video games and their potential to combat obesity.

Increasing epidemic proportions of overweight children in the United States presents formidable challenges for education and healthcare. Given the popularity and pervasiveness of video gaming culture in North American children, the perfect opportunity arises to investigate the potential of video games to promote healthful behaviour. Our objective was to systematically review the literature for possible benefits of active and educational video games targeting diet and physical activity in children.

Hitting the ground running: Healthgrid deployment and adoption.

We consider the issues of healthgrid development, deployment and adoption in health care and research environments. While healthgrid technology could be deployed to support advanced medical research, we are not seeing its wide adoption. Understanding why this technology is not being exploited is one purpose of this paper.

Stopping randomized trials early for benefit and estimation of treatment effects: systematic review and meta-regression analysis.

Context: Theory and simulation suggest that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) stopped early for benefit (truncated RCTs) systematically overestimate treatment effects for the outcome that precipitated early stopping.

Objective: To compare the treatment effect from truncated RCTs with that from meta-analyses of RCTs addressing the same question but not stopped early (nontruncated RCTs) and to explore factors associated with overestimates of effect.

Data Sources: Search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Current Contents, and full-text journal content databases to identify truncated RCTs up to January 2007; search of MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects to identify systematic reviews from which individual RCTs were extracted up to January 2008.

Stopping randomized trials early for benefit: a protocol of the Study Of Trial Policy Of Interim Truncation-2 (STOPIT-2).

Background: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) stopped early for benefit often receive great attention and affect clinical practice, but pose interpretational challenges for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers. Because the decision to stop the trial may arise from catching the treatment effect at a random high, truncated RCTs (tRCTs) may overestimate the true treatment effect. The Study Of Trial Policy Of Interim Truncation (STOPIT-1), which systematically reviewed the epidemiology and reporting quality of tRCTs, found that such trials are becoming more common, but that reporting of stopping rules and decisions were often deficient.

A framework for planning and critiquing medication compliance and persistence research using prospective study designs.

Background: Medication compliance and persistence are important determinants of clinical outcomes. With the application of evidence-based therapy, it is increasingly important to ensure that studies that use compliance or persistence as a primary or secondary outcome are designed suitably and employ appropriate analyses to support the inferences made.

Objective: The aim of this work was to describe the designs of medication compliance/persistence studies and provide guidance on appropriate analyses, with the ultimate goal of helping health providers and payers of health care understand the impact of compliance and persistence on health outcomes.

TEACH: Trial of Education And Compliance in Heart dysfunction chronic disease and heart failure (HF) as an increasing problem.

Unlabelled: In this manuscript we outline the development of a randomized control trial.

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in North America. While great advances have been made in the treatment of this disease, many factors limit the effectiveness of treatment.

Delay in filling the initial prescription for a statin: a potential early indicator of medication nonpersistence.

Background: Identification of early predictors of medication nonpersistence may allow timely adherence-promoting interventions and potentially reduce the risk of negative health outcomes.

Objective: This study was conducted to determine whether delay in filling an initial statin prescription predicts subsequent nonpersistence with medication.

Methods: This observational study of a cohort of adult patients (>18 years) who newly initiated statin therapy between December 1997 and June 2000 employed data from the administrative claims database of a large US managed care organization.

A checklist for medication compliance and persistence studies using retrospective databases.

The increasing number of retrospective database studies related to medication compliance and persistence (C&P), and the inherent variability within each, has created a need for improvement in the quality and consistency of medication C&P research. This article stems from the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) efforts to develop a checklist of items that should be either included, or at least considered, when a retrospective database analysis of medication compliance or persistence is undertaken. This consensus document outlines a systematic approach to designing or reviewing retrospective database studies of medication C&P.

Pilot study to determine the impact of a multidisciplinary educational intervention in patients hospitalized with heart failure.

Background: Patients with heart failure (HF) face challenges complying with multidrug regimens.

Objectives: To examine the impact of a compliance enhancing intervention on medication compliance and morbidity in HF.

Design: Patients were randomized to either usual care or an inhospital educational intervention delivered by a multidisciplinary team (Intervention).

A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies comparing readmission rates and mortality rates in patients with heart failure.

Background: Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization and readmission in many hospitals worldwide. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of multidisciplinary heart failure management programs on hospital admission rates.

Methods: We identified studies through an electronic search and mortality using 8 distinct methods.

Instruments to measure acceptability of information and acquisition of knowledge in patients with heart failure.

Background: Patients with heart failure suffer from poor health outcomes and require combinations of medications to treat their disease. Providing patients with knowledge through education is one mechanism to help them improve compliance with complicated treatment regimens.

Methods: We developed and tested two instruments.