Development of a patient decision aid for people with chronic low back pain and degenerative disc disease considering lumbar fusion: A mixed-methods study.

Objectives: To develop and user-test a patient decision aid providing evidence-based information for people with chronic low back pain (LBP) and degenerative disc disease considering lumbar fusion.

Design: Convergent parallel mixed methods study.

Setting: A prototype patient decision aid was developed, guided by the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) criteria, a multidisciplinary steering committee, and insights from previous studies.

How gender shapes practice choices among family medicine residents and early career family physicians: a Canadian qualitative study.

Background: The practice choices of family medicine residents and early career family physicians shape access to primary care. A growing proportion of family physicians are women.

Aim: This study examined how gender operates in shaping family physician practice choices and subsequent practice patterns.

Effectiveness of a physiotherapist-led triage and treatment service on WAITing time for adults with musculoskeletal pain referred to Australian public hospital physiotherapy clinics: a protocol for the WAIT-less trial.

Introduction: Musculoskeletal pain is the second leading cause of disease burden in Australia, and there is a need to investigate new models of care to cope with the increasing demand for health services. This paper describes the protocol for a randomised controlled trial investigating whether a physiotherapist-led triage and treatment service is non-inferior for improving function at 6 months and superior for reducing treatment waiting times, compared with usual care for patients with musculoskeletal pain referred to public hospital outpatient physiotherapy clinics.

Methods And Analysis: A total of 368 participants (184 per arm) will be recruited from six public hospitals located in metropolitan Sydney, Australia.

Inferring effects of mutations on SARS-CoV-2 transmission from genomic surveillance data.

New and more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 have arisen multiple times over the course of the pandemic. Rapidly identifying mutations that affect transmission could improve our understanding of viral biology and highlight new variants that warrant further study. Here we develop a generic, analytical epidemiological model to infer the transmission effects of mutations from genomic surveillance data.

Contemporary Issues in Postmastectomy Radiotherapy: A Brief Review.

Breast cancer is the one of the most common cancers and causes a significant disease burden. Currently, postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) is indicated for breast cancer patients with higher risk of recurrence, such as those with positive surgical margins or high-risk breast cancer (T3 with positive lymph nodes, ≥4 positive lymph nodes or T4 disease). Whether PMRT should be used in intermediate-risk breast cancer (T3 with no positive lymph nodes or T1-2 with 1-3 positive lymph nodes) is contentious.