Opportunities and lessons learned from a retrospective analysis of administrative billing data to understand the language profile of high-risk close contacts of COVID-19 cases in Ontario.

Background: During a public health emergency, it is vital to have access to data sources that can identify communities disproportionately affected and to ensure public health communications are meeting the needs of diverse populations.

Objective: To explore how administrative billing data for language interpretation services could be used as an additional source of information to understand the language profile of high-risk close contacts of COVID-19 cases.

Methods: A retrospective descriptive analysis was conducted using administrative billing data from Public Health Ontario's Contact Tracing Initiative from May 2020 to February 2022.

Correction to: Are Clerks Proficient in the Basic Sciences? Assessment of Third-Year Medical Students' Basic Science Knowledge Prior to and at the Completion of Core Clerkship Rotations.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s40670-021-01249-3.].

Are Clerks Proficient in the Basic Sciences? Assessment of Third-Year Medical Students' Basic Science Knowledge Prior to and at the Completion of Core Clerkship Rotations.

Basic sciences are a cornerstone of undergraduate medical education (UME), yet research indicates that students' basic science knowledge is not well retained. Many UME curricula are increasing the integration between the basic and clinical sciences with the goal of enhancing students' knowledge levels; however, the impact of clerkship training on students' basic science knowledge remains inconclusive. Thus, using clerkship directors' expectations as framework, we aimed to assess third-year medical students' basic science knowledge during clerkship training and evaluate the influence of clerkship training on their basic science knowledge.

Expectations and Perceptions of Students' Basic Science Knowledge: Through the Lens of Clerkship Directors.

Basic sciences are a cornerstone of undergraduate medical education (UME) as they provide a necessary foundation for the clinical sciences to be built upon and help foster trainees' competency. However, research indicates that students' basic science knowledge is not well retained, and as a result, students are ill-prepared, with respect to their basic science knowledge, when entering clerkship. One potential reason why students may not be prepared for clerkship is a lack of understanding as to which basic science concepts are critical for medical students to retain from pre-clerkship.

Mechanical differences of sickle cell trait (SCT) and normal red blood cells.

Sickle cell trait (SCT) is a condition in which an individual inherits one sickle hemoglobin gene (HbS) and one normal beta hemoglobin gene (HbA). It has been hypothesized that under extreme physical stress, the compromised mechanical properties of the red blood cells (RBCs) may be the underlying mechanism of clinical complications of sickle cell trait individuals. However, whether sickle cell trait (SCT) should be treated as physiologically normal remains controversial.

Decreased deformability of lymphocytes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

This paper reports the first study of stiffness/deformability changes of lymphocytes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients, demonstrating that at the single cell level, leukemic metastasis progresses are accompanied by biophysical property alterations. A microfluidic device was utilized to electrically measure cell volume and transit time of single lymphocytes from healthy and CLL patients. The results from testing thousands of cells reveal that lymphocytes from CLL patients have higher stiffness (i.