A lifestyle educational course as an adjunct to biologic administration in patients with severe asthma: A feasibility study.

Objective: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of adapting a psychoeducation course (Body Reprogramming) for severe asthma and finding suggestions for improvement.

Methods: Severe asthma patients were recruited from a single centre and enrolled in an online group-based course. Each course consisted of four sessions: introduction to BR, stress, exercise, and diet.

Automated quality control analysis for American College of Radiology (ACR) digital mammography (DM) phantom images.

Purpose: To develop and validate an automated software analysis method for mammography image quality assessment of the American College of Radiology (ACR) digital mammography (DM) phantom images.

Methods: Twenty-seven DICOM images were acquired using Fuji mammography systems. All images were evaluated by three expert medical physicists using the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) mammography quality control guideline.

Trends in patient dose and compression force for digital (DR) mammography systems over an eleven-year period.

This study evaluated trends in patient dose and compression force for screening digital (DR) mammography systems. The results of five audits (carried out in 2011, 2014, 2018, 2020 and 2022) were compared. For every audit, anonymised screening examinations from each system consisting of the standard craniocaudal (CC) and mediolateral oblique (MLO) views of both breasts were analysed.

Motivational support intervention to reduce smoking and increase physical activity in smokers not ready to quit: the TARS RCT.

Background: Physical activity can support smoking cessation for smokers wanting to quit, but there have been no studies on supporting smokers wanting only to reduce. More broadly, the effect of motivational support for such smokers is unclear.

Objectives: The objectives were to determine if motivational support to increase physical activity and reduce smoking for smokers not wanting to immediately quit helps reduce smoking and increase abstinence and physical activity, and to determine if this intervention is cost-effective.

"Life-changing": the experience of super-responders to biologics in severe asthma.

Background: There is limited information on the patient's perspective of how biologic treatments impact their lives. We conducted a qualitative study to explore the patient's experience of being considered a super-responder from a quality of life perspective.

Methods: Patients with severe asthma identified as super-responders were invited to semi-structured interviews conducted online.

Perceptions of long-term impact and change following a midwife-led biomass smoke education program for mothers in rural Uganda: a qualitative study.

Introduction: Women and children in Uganda and other low- and middle-income countries are exposed to disproportionately high levels of household air pollution from biomass smoke generated by smoke-producing cookstoves, especially in rural areas. This population is therefore particularly vulnerable to the negative health effects caused by household air pollution, including negative pregnancy outcomes and other health issues throughout life. The Midwife Project, a collaboration between research and health teams in the UK and Uganda, began in 2016 to implement an education program on lung health for mothers in Uganda, to reduce the health risks to women and children.

PCXMC cone beam computed tomography dosimetry investigations.

With cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in image guided radiation therapy being amongst the most widely used imaging modalities, there has been an increasing interest in quantifying the concomitant dose and risk. Whilst there have been several studies on this topic, there remains a lack of standardisation and knowledge on dose variations and the impact of patient size. Recently, PCXMC (a Monte Carlo simulator) has been used to assess both the concomitant dose and dosimetric impact of patient size variations for CBCT.

Feasibility and acceptability of a midwife-led health education strategy to reduce exposure to biomass smoke among pregnant women in Uganda, A FRESH AIR project.

Biomass smoke exposure is a threat to child and maternal health in many resource-limited countries and is associated with poor pregnancy outcomes and serious lung diseases in the offspring. We aimed to assess the feasibility, acceptability and impact of a midwife-led education programme on biomass risks and prevention for women attending maternity clinics in Uganda. Education materials were co-developed through an iterative process by midwives and other stakeholders.

Diagnostic reference levels for digital mammography in New South Wales.

Introduction: This work aims to explore radiation doses delivered in screening mammography in Australia, with a focus on whether compressed breast thickness should be used as a guide when determining patient derived diagnostic reference levels (DRLs).

Methods: Anonymized mammograms (52,405) were retrieved from a central database, and DICOM headers were extracted using third party software. Women with breast implants, breast thicknesses outside 20-110 mm and images with incomplete exposure or quality assurance (QA) data were excluded.