Publications by authors named "Laura Wong"

Article Synopsis
  • Low energy availability (LEA) happens when athletes burn more calories than they consume, leading to decreased performance and higher injury risks, particularly affecting those in endurance and weight-class sports.
  • The study aimed to find out how common LEA and relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs) are among athletes and analyze their impact on performance and injuries.
  • Out of 59 studies reviewed, about 44.7% of athletes were found to have LEA, with specific decreases in performance and some mixed conclusions on the direct link to injury risks.
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Purpose: We undertook a trial to test the efficacy of a technology-assisted health coaching intervention for weight management, called Goals for Eating and Moving (GEM), within primary care.

Methods: This cluster-randomized controlled trial enrolled 19 primary care teams with 63 clinicians; 9 teams were randomized to GEM and 10 to enhanced usual care (EUC). The GEM intervention included 1 in-person and up to 12 telephone-delivered coaching sessions.

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Introduction: Since 2022, all Canadian post-graduate medical programs have transitioned to a Competence by Design (CBD) model within a Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) framework. The CBME model emphasized more frequent, formative assessment of residents to evaluate their progress towards predefined competencies in comparison to traditional medical education models. Faculty members therefore have increased responsibility for providing assessments to residents on a more regular basis, which has associated challenges.

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Introduction: Intensive weight management programs are effective but often have low enrollment and high attrition. Lack of motivation is a key psychological barrier to enrollment, engagement, and weight loss. Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII) is a unique imagery technique that increases motivation for behavior change.

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Background: The transition to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a lack of preexisting telehealth training for clinicians. As a workplace-based simulation methodology designed to improve virtual clinical skills, announced standardized patients (ASPs) may help meet evolving educational needs to sustain quality telehealth care.

Objective: We describe the development and implementation of an ASP program to assess and provide feedback to resident and faculty clinicians in virtual practice, and report on performance, feasibility, and acceptability.

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Rationale And Objectives: Queen's University (Kingston, ON, Canada) adopted a competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum for Diagnostic Radiology residency training in an accelerated manner in 2017, with the curriculum comprised of four stages of training. This article focuses on the final stage (Transition to Practice), during which assessment methods of the new national curriculum (implemented in July 2022) were piloted. This study aims to highlight the challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of CBME in Diagnostic Radiology training and specific considerations for programs undergoing this curricular transition.

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Background: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the postponement of low-acuity surgical procedures in an effort to conserve resources and ensure patient safety. This study aimed to characterize patient-reported concerns about undergoing surgical procedures during the pandemic.

Methods: We administered a cross-sectional survey to patients who had their general and plastic surgical procedures postponed at the onset of the pandemic, asking about barriers to accessing surgical care.

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Introduction: Among US veterans, more than 78% have a body mass index (BMI) in the overweight (≥25 kg/m) or obese range (≥30 kg/m). Clinical guidelines recommend multicomponent lifestyle programmes to promote modest, clinically significant body mass (BM) loss. Primary care providers (PCPs) often lack time to counsel and refer patients to intensive programmes (≥6 sessions over 3 months).

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Background: Canadian rheumatologists' attitudes toward and management of fibromyalgia remain uncertain.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore management strategies and attitudes of Canadian rheumatologists toward fibromyalgia and concordance with guideline recommendations.

Methods: We administered a 17-item cross-sectional survey to Canadian rheumatologists and explored the concordance between respondents' management practices with the 2012 Canadian Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of fibromyalgia.

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Recovery after a spinal cord injury often requires that axons restore synaptic connectivity with denervated targets several centimeters from the site of injury. Here we report that systemic artemin (ARTN) treatment promotes the regeneration of sensory axons to the brainstem after brachial dorsal root crush in adult rats. ARTN not only stimulates robust regeneration of large, myelinated sensory axons to the brainstem, but also promotes functional reinnervation of the appropriate target region, the cuneate nucleus.

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High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is the most common and aggressive form of epithelial ovarian cancer, for which few targeted therapies exist. To search for new therapeutic target proteins, we performed an in vivo shRNA screen using an established human HGSOC cell line growing either subcutaneously or intraperitoneally in immunocompromised mice. We identified genes previously implicated in ovarian cancer such as AURKA1, ERBB3, CDK2, and mTOR, as well as several novel candidates including BRD4, VRK1, and GALK2.

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Hashimoto's encephalopathy (HE) is a rare syndrome of progressive or relapsing-remitting encephalopathy associated with elevated serum anti-thyroid antibody concentrations. It is thought to be an autoimmune process that generally responds well to high-dose corticosteroids and other immunomodulatory therapies. However, some patients are unresponsive to steroids or are unable to receive immune therapy.

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Objective: To assess the feasibility of measuring maternal mortality in countries lacking accurate birth and death registration through national population censuses by a detailed evaluation of such data for three Latin American countries.

Methods: We used established demographic techniques, including the general growth balance method, to evaluate the completeness and coverage of the household death data obtained through population censuses. We also compared parity to cumulative fertility data to evaluate the coverage of recent household births.

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This is the first functional analysis in Drosophila of unfulfilled (unf; DHR51), the NR2E3 nuclear receptor superfamily ortholog of C. elegans fax-1 and human PNR. Both fax-1 and PNR mutations disrupt developmental events in a limited number of neurons, resulting in behavioral or sensory deficits.

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Objective. This article examines racial health disparities among the elderly in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It also explores whether these disparities differ among income groups.

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