Patient Portal Implementation and Uptake: Qualitative Comparative Case Study.

Background: Giving patients access to their health information is a provincial and national goal, and it is critical to the delivery of patient-centered care. With this shift, patient portals have become more prevalent. In Alberta, the Alberta Health Services piloted a portal (MyChart).

Tracing the Decisions That Shaped the Development of MyChart, an Electronic Patient Portal in Alberta, Canada: Historical Research Study.

Background: Understanding how health organizations decide on information technology (IT) investments is imperative to ensure successful implementation and adoption. There is a high rate of failure and a tendency to downplay the complexity of implementation progression. Alberta Health Services introduced a patient portal called MyChart.

Effects of a Web-Based Patient Portal on Patient Satisfaction and Missed Appointment Rates: Survey Study.

Background: Although electronic medical record (EMR)-tethered patient portals are common in other countries, they are still emerging in Canada.

Objective: We aimed to report user satisfaction and the effects of a patient portal on medical appointment attendance in a Canadian cohort of patients within our publicly funded health care system.

Methods: Two surveys were deployed, via email, at 2 weeks and 6 months following the first recorded patient portal access.

Emergency Physician Use of the Alberta Netcare Portal, a Province-Wide Interoperable Electronic Health Record: Multi-Method Observational Study.

Background: The adoption and use of an electronic health record (EHR) can facilitate real-time access to key health information and support improved outcomes. Many Canadian provinces use interoperable EHRs (iEHRs) to facilitate health information exchange, but the clinical use and utility of iEHRs has not been well described.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the use of a provincial iEHR known as the Alberta Netcare Portal (ANP) in 4 urban Alberta emergency departments.

Physicians' use of computerized clinical decision supports to improve medication management in the elderly - the Seniors Medication Alert and Review Technology intervention.

Background: Elderly people (aged 65 years or more) are at increased risk of polypharmacy (five or more medications), inappropriate medication use, and associated increased health care costs. The use of clinical decision support (CDS) within an electronic medical record (EMR) could improve medication safety.

Methods: Participatory action research methods were applied to preproduction design and development and postproduction optimization of an EMR-embedded CDS implementation of the Beers' Criteria for medication management and the Cockcroft-Gault formula for estimating glomerular filtration rates (GFR).

Attitudes and beliefs about hand hygiene among paediatric residents: a qualitative study.

Background: Despite the knowledge that contaminated hands play an important role in the transmission of healthcare-associated pathogens, and that hand hygiene (HH) reduces the transmission of these organisms, healthcare worker's adherence with HH is poor.

Objective: To understand the common beliefs and attitudes held by paediatric residents about HH.

Design: Qualitative study design.

Validation of the Work Observation Method By Activity Timing (WOMBAT) method of conducting time-motion observations in critical care settings: an observational study.

Background: Electronic documentation handling may facilitate information flows in health care settings to support better coordination of care among Health Care Providers (HCPs), but evidence is limited. Methods that accurately depict changes to the workflows of HCPs are needed to assess whether the introduction of a Critical Care clinical Information System (CCIS) to two Intensive Care Units (ICUs) represents a positive step for patient care. To evaluate a previously described method of quantifying amounts of time spent and interruptions encountered by HCPs working in two ICUs.

Critical care providers refer to information tools less during communication tasks after a critical care clinical information system introduction.

Electronic documentation methods may assist critical care providers with information management tasks in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). We conducted a quasi-experimental observational study to investigate patterns of information tool use by ICU physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists during verbal communication tasks. Critical care providers used tools less at 3 months after the CCIS introduction.

Impact of a critical care clinical information system on interruption rates during intensive care nurse and physician documentation tasks.

Computerized documentation methods in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) may assist Health Care Providers (HCP) with their documentation workload, but evaluating impacts remains problematic. A Critical Care clinical Information System (CCIS) is an electronic charting tool designed for ICUs that may fit seamlessly into HCP work. Observers followed ICU nurses and physicians in two ICUs in Edmonton, Canada, in which a CCIS had recently been introduced.

Adaptations in the walking pattern of spinal cord injured rats.

Walking ability is a measure of recovery used in many studies that test experimental strategies to treat injuries or diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) in animal models. A common measure in the rat animal model of thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI) is visual inspection and scoring of hind limb activity, which allows the documentation of movements associated with the recovery of locomotor function. In this study, we expand on previously documented visible changes in the locomotor pattern following SCI.

Spontaneous locomotor recovery in spinal cord injured rats is accompanied by anatomical plasticity of reticulospinal fibers.

Although injured axons in mammalian spinal cords do not regenerate, some recovery of locomotor function following incomplete injury can be observed in patients and animal models. Following a lateral hemisection injury of the thoracic spinal cord, rats spontaneously recover weight-bearing stepping in the hind limb ipsilateral to the injury. The mechanisms behind this recovery are not completely understood.

Task specific adaptations in rat locomotion: runway versus horizontal ladder.

In walking quadrupeds the alternating activity pattern of antagonistic leg muscles and the coordination between legs is orchestrated by central pattern generating networks within the spinal cord. These networks are activated by tonic input from the reticular formation in the brainstem. Under more challenging conditions, such as walking on a horizontal ladder, successful locomotion relies upon additional context dependent input from pathways such as the cortico- and rubro-spinal tracts.

The unilateral 6-OHDA rat model of Parkinson's disease revisited: an electromyographic and behavioural analysis.

The characteristic locomotor disturbances of Parkinson's disease (PD) include shuffling gait, short steps and low walking velocity. In this study we investigated features of walking and turning in a rat model of PD caused by unilateral infusion of the neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). We assessed gait and electromyographic (EMG) patterns of the ankle flexor tibialis anterior and the knee extensor vastus lateralis of the hindlimb, and triceps brachii of the forelimb, during overground locomotion, spontaneous rotation (turning) and apomorphine-induced rotation.

A BMP-mediated transcriptional cascade involving Cash1 and Tlx-3 specifies first-order relay sensory neurons in the developing hindbrain.

The divergent homeobox-containing transcription factor, Tlx-3 (also known as Hox11L2/Rnx), is required for proper formation of first-order relay sensory neurons in the developing vertebrate brainstem. To date, however, the inductive signals and transcriptional regulatory cascade underlying their development are poorly understood. We previously isolated the chick Tlx-3 homologue and showed it is expressed early (i.