Publications by authors named "Mary OʼConnor"

Predicting the effects of climate change on plant disease is critical for protecting ecosystems and food production. Here, we show how disease pressure responds to short-term weather, historical climate and weather anomalies by compiling a global database (4339 plant-disease populations) of disease prevalence in both agricultural and wild plant systems. We hypothesised that weather and climate would play a larger role in disease in wild versus agricultural plant populations, which the results supported.

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Background: Attending to patient-reported outcomes (PROs) using data visualisation dashboards could enhance shared decision-making (SDM) and care delivery for serious chronic illnesses. However, few studies have evaluated real-world strategies and resulting implementation outcomes of PRO dashboards.

Method: From June 2020 to January 2022, we implemented an electronic health record (EHR)-integrated PRO dashboard for advanced cancer and chronic kidney disease.

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Purpose: Evaluation of the First 1,000 Days Suncoast Family Navigation program aimed to (1) describe the social needs of families in Southwest Florida and (2) measure the program's impact on client-reported mental health and social support outcomes.

Design: A multi-method design was employed, including quantitative data collected through an online social care referral network and longitudinal surveys, supplemented by qualitative key informant interview data.

Methods: A convenience sample of 538 parents who submitted online assistance request forms to First 1,000 Days between August 2020 and January 2024 were included.

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Objectives: Surgeons' awareness of ethno-racial disparities in orthopedic care is critical to the implementation and success of efforts to reduce them. We examine the association between surgeons' self-reported intentions to enhance their ability to work with orthopedic patients from diverse cultures and their awareness of disparities.

Methods: Seventy U.

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Linguistic inequity drives systemic disparities in healthcare for non-native English speakers. This study evaluates a project to train and provide qualified medical interpreters (QMI) to assist volunteer and safety-net clinics and community-based organizations in supporting healthcare for immigrants and refugees. We provided scholarships to bilingual community members to take a medical interpreter training course and developed a workforce for those who passed the training course.

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Background: The authors examined baseline physical functional (PF) impairment among cancer outpatients in the National Cancer Institute Cancer Moonshot study Northwestern University Improving the Management of Symptoms During and Following Cancer Treatment (NU IMPACT). They hypothesized that PF impairment, measured with the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System-Physical Function (PROMIS-PF) survey, would (1) be common and more prevalent for patients receiving treatment compared with no treatment and (2) differ across tumor types, independent of cancer continuum phase.

Methods: Adults who were diagnosed with cancer in NU IMPACT (n = 2273) were sampled, and their PROMIS-PF scores were compared across tumor types and cancer continuum (curative, noncurative, or no treatment), with scores ≤40 indicating moderate-severe impairment.

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Introduction: Accelerating smoking cessation, particularly among young adults, is a national priority for decreasing tobacco-related disease. Healthcare providers play a critical role in delivering tobacco treatment interventions to this population. This study examined associations of demographic and tobacco use characteristics with young adults' self-reported past-year clinical encounters to identify opportunities to facilitate cessation.

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Objectives: To assess the use of a co-designed patient-reported outcome (PRO) clinical dashboard and estimate its impact on shared decision-making (SDM) and symptomatology in adults with advanced cancer or chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Materials And Methods: We developed a clinical PRO dashboard within the Northwestern Medicine Patient-Reported Outcomes system, enhanced through co-design involving 20 diverse constituents. Using a single-group, pretest-posttest design, we evaluated the dashboard's use among patients with advanced cancer or CKD between June 2020 and January 2022.

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Article Synopsis
  • Shared decision making (SDM) involves patients and clinicians collaborating to make informed healthcare choices, with clinical dashboards providing valuable information like patient-reported outcomes to enhance this process.
  • A co-design initiative was executed over 14 sessions with multidisciplinary teams, including patients, care partners, and clinicians, aiming to develop a PRO-informed clinical dashboard tailored for patients with advanced cancer or chronic kidney disease (CKD).
  • The co-design strategy showed strong success in its implementation, with high observer-rated fidelity and adoption scores, along with robust stakeholder representation, confirming its effectiveness in promoting SDM in these patient populations.
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The shift to a genotype-first approach in genetic diagnostics has revolutionized our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders, expanding both their molecular and phenotypic spectra. Kleefstra syndrome (KLEFS1) is caused by EHMT1 haploinsufficiency and exhibits broad clinical manifestations. EHMT1 encodes euchromatic histone methyltransferase-1-a pivotal component of the epigenetic machinery.

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Ecosystem restoration can increase the health and resilience of nature and humanity. As a result, the international community is championing habitat restoration as a primary solution to address the dual climate and biodiversity crises. Yet most ecosystem restoration efforts to date have underperformed, failed, or been burdened by high costs that prevent upscaling.

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A global decline in seagrass populations has led to renewed calls for their conservation as important providers of biogenic and foraging habitat, shoreline stabilization and carbon storage. Eelgrass () occupies the largest geographic range among seagrass species spanning a commensurately broad spectrum of environmental conditions. In Canada, eelgrass is managed as a single phylogroup despite occurring across three oceans and a range of ocean temperatures and salinity gradients.

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The unprecedented and growing number of cancer survivors requires comprehensive quality care that includes cancer surveillance, symptom management, and health promotion to reduce morbidity and mortality and improve quality of life. However, coordinated and sustainable survivorship care has been challenged by barriers at multiple levels. We outline the survivorship programs at Northwestern Medicine and the Robert H.

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Introduction: Under-resourced communities face disaster preparedness challenges. Research is limited for resettled refugee communities, which have unique preparedness needs.

Study Objective: This study aims to assess disaster preparedness among the refugee community in Clarkston, GA.

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The effect of climate warming on community composition is expected to be contingent on competitive outcomes, yet approaches to projecting ecological outcomes often rely on measures of density-independent performance across temperatures. Recent theory suggests that the temperature response of competitive ability differs in shape from that of population growth rate. Here, we test this hypothesis empirically and find thermal performance curves of competitive ability in aquatic microorganisms to be systematically left-shifted and flatter compared to those of exponential growth rate.

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In this consensual qualitative research study, we investigated the role of refugees' Christian faith in meaning-making coping. High percentages of religiosity in refugee populations support the need to understand the role of religion in their coping processes. Interviews with 20 Christian refugees from 10 African and Asian countries revealed that participants drew heavily from their faith resources to cope with their experiences.

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Background: Patient specific implants (PSI) represent a novel innovation aimed to improve patient satisfaction and function after total knee arthroplasty (TKA); however, longitudinal patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) for PSI are not well described. We sought to primarily evaluate PROMs of patients undergoing TKA with either PSI or off-the-shelf (OTS) implants at mid-term follow-up.

Methods: A retrospective review was performed on a prospectively collected cohort of 43 primary, cruciate-retaining TKAs performed with PSI (n = 23) and OTS implants (n = 20) by a single surgeon.

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