Machine Learning to Allocate Palliative Care Consultations During Cancer Treatment.

Purpose: For patients with advanced cancer, early consultations with palliative care (PC) specialists reduce costs, improve quality of life, and prolong survival. However, capacity limitations prevent all patients from receiving PC shortly after diagnosis. We evaluated whether a prognostic machine learning system could promote early PC, given existing capacity.

Machine Learning-Based Early Warning Systems for Acute Care Utilization During Systemic Therapy for Cancer.

Background: Emergency department visits and hospitalizations frequently occur during systemic therapy for cancer. We developed and evaluated a longitudinal warning system for acute care use.

Methods: Using a retrospective population-based cohort of patients who started intravenous systemic therapy for nonhematologic cancers between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2020, we randomly separated patients into cohorts for model training, hyperparameter tuning and model selection, and system testing.

Incidence and Current Treatment Gaps in Pediatric Stroke and TIA: An Ontario-Wide Population-Based Study.

Background: Reported incidence rates of pediatric stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) range widely. Treatment gaps are poorly characterized. We sought to evaluate in -Ontario, the incidence and characteristics of pediatric stroke and TIA including care gaps and the predictive value of International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes.

Outcomes following telestroke-assisted thrombolysis for stroke in Ontario, Canada.

Introduction Since 2002, the Ontario Telestroke Program has provided hospitals in under-served regions of the province the opportunity to offer intravenous thrombolysis with tissue plasminogen activator (IV tPA) to eligible patients. The purpose of this study was to determine whether telestroke-assisted IV tPA patients had similar risks of 7- and 90-day mortality, symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage (sICH), and poor functional outcome compared to patients who received IV tPA with on-site expertise. Methods Data from two audits of patients with acute ischaemic stroke hospitalized in Ontario, Canada in 2010 and 2012 were analysed.

Benchmarks for acute stroke care delivery.

Objective: Despite widespread interest in many jurisdictions in monitoring and improving the quality of stroke care delivery, benchmarks for most stroke performance indicators have not been established. The objective of this study was to develop data-derived benchmarks for acute stroke quality indicators.

Design: Nine key acute stroke quality indicators were selected from the Canadian Stroke Best Practice Performance Measures Manual.