Reducing unnecessary use of intermittent pneumatic compression in intensive care: A before-and-after pilot study with environmental perspective.

Background: The healthcare sector in Australia has committed to reducing carbon emissions associated with care delivery. Thirty percent of care delivered in the Australian hospital sector is considered low-value care. Intensive care uses chemical prophylaxis to reduce risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Appropriateness of respiratory physiotherapy positioning for acute lobar collapse.

Background: Positioning is an important physiotherapy treatment modality for the management of aeration loss associated with acute lobar atelectasis (ALA). Physiotherapists typically rely on lung auscultation and interpretation of chest x-ray (CXR) to inform treatment selection. These tools lack diagnostic accuracy, which could limit the ability of a physiotherapist to locate ALA and select an appropriate treatment position.

"I've yet to meet anyone who's not keen for simulation" - a qualitative study of simulation-based education in the Pacific Islands.

Background: Simulation-based education (SBE) has been increasingly used to train healthcare workers in low-resource settings and has been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Consideration of the educational and cultural context is important to maximize the effectiveness of SBE. Despite its demonstrable benefits, there have been no studies of the general approach in the Pacific Islands.

Patient Experiences With Blood Pressure Measurement Methods for Hypertension Diagnosis: Qualitative Findings From the BP-CHECK Study.

Background: Out-of-office blood pressure (BP) measurement is recommended when making a new hypertension diagnosis. In practice, however, hypertension is primarily diagnosed using clinic BP. The study objective was to understand patient attitudes about accuracy and patient-centeredness regarding hypertension diagnostic methods.

The roles of emergency medical teams in response to Samoa's 2019 measles outbreak.

Problem: On 15 November 2019, Samoa's Government declared a state of emergency in response to a rapidly worsening measles outbreak. The outbreak overwhelmed Samoa's health system, necessitating international assistance, including from emergency medical teams (EMTs).

Context: Measles spread globally throughout 2019, with cases rising by more than 300% in the first quarter of 2019, as compared with 2018.

Relationship of Blood Pressure, Health Behaviors, and New Diagnosis and Control of Hypertension in the BP-CHECK Study.

Background: Undiagnosed hypertension and uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) are common and contribute to excess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. We examined whether BP control, changes in BP, and patient behaviors and attitudes were associated with a new hypertension diagnosis.

Methods: We performed a post hoc analysis of 323 participants from BP-CHECK (Blood Pressure Checks for Diagnosing Hypertension), a randomized diagnostic study of BP measuring methods in adults without diagnosed hypertension with elevated BP recruited from 12 primary care clinics of an integrated health care system in Washington State during 2017 to 2019.

Preventing severe hypoglycemia in adults with type 2 diabetes (PHT2): Design, delivery and evaluation framework for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Severe hypoglycemia is a common and feared complication of medications used to lower blood glucose levels in individuals with diabetes. Psychoeducational interventions can prevent severe hypoglycemia in individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D). We aim to determine the effectiveness of this approach among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) at elevated risk for severe hypoglycemia.

The use of diaphragm and lung ultrasound in acute respiratory physiotherapy practice and the impact on clinical decision-making: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: Diaphragm and lung ultrasound (DLUS) is emerging as an important point-of-care respiratory assessment tool and is being used in clinical care by trained respiratory physiotherapists, both in Australia and internationally. However, the impact of DLUS on physiotherapists' clinical decision-making remains largely unknown. This systematic review aims to review the evidence for implementing DLUS in acute respiratory physiotherapy management.

Is Hypertension Diagnostic Testing and Diagnosis Associated With Psychological Distress?

Background: Psychological impacts of hypertension diagnostic testing and new hypertension diagnoses are unclear.

Methods: BP-CHECK was a randomized diagnostic study conducted in 2017-2019 in an integrated healthcare system. Participants with no hypertension diagnosis or medications and elevated blood pressure (BP) were randomized to one of three diagnostic regimens: (i) Clinic, (ii) Home, or (iii) Kiosk.

Quantification of changes in lung aeration associated with physiotherapy using lung ultrasound in mechanically ventilated patients: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a novel and emerging tool for physiotherapists in ICU and may provide a way of monitoring lung aeration change in response to respiratory physiotherapy treatment during a patient's ICU stay.

Objective: To measure change in the LUS score associated with a respiratory physiotherapy treatment; to determine whether change in LUS score correlates with other physiological measures.

Design And Setting: A single-centre prospective cohort study was undertaken in a tertiary teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Primary care physician beliefs and practices regarding blood pressure measurement: results from BP-CHECK qualitative interviews.

Background: Early identification and control of hypertension is critical to reducing cardiovascular disease events and death. U.S.

Interrater reliability in assigning a lung ultrasound score.

Background And Purpose: Lung ultrasound (LUS) for physiotherapists is an emerging bedside tool. The LUS score of aeration presents as a possible means of assessing and monitoring lung aeration associated with respiratory physiotherapy treatments. There are no studies to date that have assessed the interrater reliability (IRR) of physiotherapists assigning the LUS score of aeration.

Decision-making among adolescents prescribed antipsychotic medications: Interviews to gain perspectives of youth without psychosis or mania.

Objectives: This study aimed to understand the experiences of youth who had been prescribed antipsychotics but did not have psychosis, mania, autism spectrum disorder, or developmental disability.

Methods: Twenty-three qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with youth aged 11-18 who had been prescribed an antipsychotic medication but did not have a diagnosis of psychotic disorder, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, or developmental disability. Participants were recruited from four U.

Barriers and facilitators to achieving competence in lung ultrasound: A survey of physiotherapists following a lung ultrasound training course.

Background And Purpose: Lung ultrasound (LUS) is an emerging tool for acute respiratory physiotherapists. In Australia, there are a select few LUS training courses run for physiotherapists. Research to date has evaluated LUS training courses for physiotherapists in terms of knowledge and skill acquisition.

Cohort profile: The Bariatric Experience Long Term (BELONG): a long-term prospective study to understand the psychosocial, environmental, health and behavioural predictors of weight loss and regain in patients who have bariatric surgery.

Purpose: The Bariatric Experience Long Term (BELONG) prospective study cohort was created to address limitations in the literature regarding the relationship between surgical weight loss and psychosocial, health, behaviour and environmental factors. The BELONG cohort is unique because it contains 70% gastric sleeve and 64% patients with non-white race/ethnicity and was developed with strong stakeholder engagement including patients and providers.

Participants: The BELONG cohort study included 1975 patients preparing to have bariatric surgery who completed a baseline survey in a large integrated health system in Southern California.

Blood Pressure Checks for Diagnosing Hypertension: Health Professionals' Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices.

Introduction: The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends out-of-office blood pressure (BP) measurement before making a new hypertension diagnosis and initiating treatment, using 24-hour ambulatory (ABPM) or home BP monitoring. However, this approach is not common.

Methods: e-mail-linked surveys were sent to primary care team members (n = 421) from 10 clinics.

Thoracic ultrasound influences physiotherapist's clinical decision-making in respiratory management of critical care patients: a multicentre cohort study.

Background: The potential influence of thoracic ultrasound on clinical decision-making by physiotherapists has never been studied. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of thoracic ultrasound on clinical decision-making by physiotherapists for critical care patients.

Methods: This prospective, observational multicentre study was conducted between May 2017 and November 2020 in four intensive care units in France and Australia.

Control and elimination of lymphatic filariasis in Oceania: Prevalence, geographical distribution, mass drug administration, and surveillance in Samoa, 1998-2017.

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a major public health problem globally and in the Pacific Region. The Global Programme to Eliminate LF has made great progress but LF is persistent and resurgent in some Pacific countries and territories. Samoa remains endemic for LF despite elimination efforts through multiple two-drug mass drug administrations (MDA) since 1965, including renewed elimination efforts started in 1999 under the Pacific Programme for Elimination of LF (PacELF).

Lung ultrasound has greater accuracy than conventional respiratory assessment tools for the diagnosis of pleural effusion, lung consolidation and collapse: a systematic review.

Question: In mechanically ventilated adults in intensive care, what is the accuracy of lung ultrasound (LUS) for the diagnosis of pleural effusion, lung consolidation and lung collapse when compared with chest radiograph (CXR) and lung auscultation, with computed tomography (CT) as the reference standard?

Design: Systematic review with meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.

Participants: Adult patients admitted to intensive care, with diagnostic uncertainty at enrolment regarding pleural effusion, lung consolidation and/or collapse/atelectasis.

Index Test: The diagnostic accuracy of LUS as the index test was estimated against CXR and/or lung auscultation as comparators, with thoracic CT scan as the reference standard.

Promoting Psychological Resilience in the U.S. Military.

As U.S. service members deploy for extended periods on a repeated basis, their ability to cope with the stress of deployment may be challenged.