Improved access and care through the implementation of virtual Hallway, a consultation platform in Nova Scotia: preliminary findings from a feasibility evaluation.

Background: While previous studies have examined various platforms that enable providers to connect, Virtual Hallway (VH) stands out with its unique features. The value add is that this online platform connects primary care providers and specialists for synchronous phone-based conversations and aims to reduce referrals and enhance the quality of referrals. VH allows providers to easily log in, select the required specialty, book call times, receive reminders, and have calls documented, ensuring a high connection rate.

Wheelchair skills training for caregivers of manual wheelchair users: a randomized controlled trial comparing self-study and remote training.

Unlabelled: In this single-blind randomized controlled trial, we tested the hypotheses that, in comparison with control participants receiving only self-study materials (SS group), caregivers of manual wheelchair users who additionally receive remote training (RT group) have greater total Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire (WST-Q) performance and confidence scores post-training and at follow-up; and that self-study and remote training each individually lead to such gains. We studied 23 dyads of wheelchair users and their caregivers. Caregivers in the SS group received a handbook and videorecording.

Preventing Respiratory Viral Illness Invisibly (PRiVII): protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized trial evaluating far-UVC light devices in long-term care facilities to reduce infections.

Background: Respiratory viral illness (RVI)-e.g., influenza, COVID-19-is a serious threat in long-term care (LTC) facilities.

Assessing clinical frailty scale scoring by junior medical learners on an inpatient geriatrics consultation service.

The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is incorporated into our institution's comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). CGAs and CFS scoring are completed by junior medical trainees on the Geriatric consult service. The agreement between CFS score assignment by junior trainees and Geriatrics trained individuals in this setting is unknown.

Estimated Impact of Deemed Consent Legislation for Organ Donation on Individuals With Kidney Failure: A Dynamic Decision Analytic Model.

Background: There is little data modeling the impact of deemed consent legislation (eligible individuals who do not register their decision to decline to be a donor are presumed to consent after death) on outcomes for individuals with kidney failure.

Objective: To estimate the change in life-years (LYs) and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) resulting from different changes in the rate of deceased donor kidney transplantation associated with deemed consent legislation and health system transformation.

Design: Dynamic Decision Analytic Model.

An ex-ante cost-utility analysis of the deemed consent legislation compared to expressed consent for kidney transplantations in Nova Scotia.

Background: This study was an ex-ante cost-utility analysis of deemed consent legislation for deceased organ donation in Nova Scotia, a province in Canada. The legislation became effective in January 2021. The study's objective was to assess the conditions necessary for the legislation change's cost-effectiveness compared to expressed consent, focusing on kidney transplantation (KT).

What are the short-term annual cost savings associated with kidney transplantation?

Background: Kidney transplantation (KT) is often reported in the literature as associated with cost savings. However, existing studies differ in their choice of comparator, follow-up period, and the study perspective. Also, there may be unobservable heterogeneity in health care costs in the patient population which may divide the population into groups with differences in cost distributions.

The Text4HealthyAging Program: An Evidence-Based Text Messaging Innovation to Support Healthy Urban Aging in Canada and Australia.

Age-friendly cities are crucial to achieve the WHO goal of healthy aging. Such cities promote opportunities for health, participation, and security, thus enhancing quality of life as people age. Older people commonly experience psychosocial challenges such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, loss of autonomy, grief, fear, and loneliness.

Maternal cannabis use during pregnancy and maternal and neonatal outcomes: A retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To examine the relationship between reported prenatal cannabis use and neonatal and maternal outcomes and whether the legalisation of cannabis in Canada affected the rates of reported use or the association with maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Design: Population-based retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Routinely collected data in a real-world setting.

Microdiscectomy Is More Cost-effective Than a 6-Month Nonsurgical Care Regimen for Chronic Radiculopathy.

Background: A recent randomized controlled trial (RCT), performed by the authors, comparing early surgical microdiscectomy with 6 months of nonoperative care for chronic lumbar radiculopathy showed that early surgery resulted in improved outcomes. However, estimates of the incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR), which is often expressed as the cost of gaining one quality-adjusted life year (QALY), of microdiscectomy versus nonsurgical management have varied. Radiculopathy lasting more than 4 months is less likely to improve without surgical intervention and may have a more favorable ICUR than previously reported for acute radiculopathy.

A Cost-Utility Analysis of Endovascular Thrombectomy in a Real-World Setting.

Objective: Endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) is efficacious for ischemic stroke caused by proximal intracranial large-vessel occlusion involving the anterior cerebral circulation. However, evidence of its cost-effectiveness, especially in a real-world setting, is limited. We assessed whether EVT ± tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) was cost-effective when compared with standard care ± tPA at our center.

Relative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the midwifery-led care in Nova Scotia, Canada: A retrospective, cohort study.

Objectives: To compare neonatal and maternal outcomes, and the relative risk of interventions between mothers attended to by midwives, general practitioners, and obstetricians, and to assess the cost-effectiveness of the employee-model of midwifery-led care in Nova Scotia, Canada, when compared with general practitioners.

Design, Setting, And Participants: The study was a retrospective cohort study involving routinely collected clinical and administrative data from all low-risk births from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2017. There were 24,662 observations.

Does Sub-Anesthetic Ketamine Provide Postoperative Analgesia for Third Molar Surgery?

Purpose: Despite ketamine's effectiveness as an anesthetic and its known analgesic properties, the role of ketamine in postoperative pain after third molar surgery remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether patients undergoing third molar surgery who received a sub-anesthetic preoperative dose of intravenous ketamine would experience less postoperative pain.

Materials And Methods: We implemented a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.