Extramural Pilot Project: Designated On-Call Intensivist in Tertiary Care Centre Improves Access to Critical Care Consultation/Referral and Resources.

Timely consultation with an intensivist will promote early and appropriate management of critically ill patients. We determined whether implementing a call roster of intensivists who did not have on-call responsibilities in an intensive care unit (ICU) and who received referrals from community physicians would improve access to critical care services. This program created efficiencies to critical care services by: timely access to consultation with an intensivist (<10 minutes) and/or subspecialist, timely referral to an appropriate institution (<30 minutes) and optimal resource utilization by determining the availability of ICU beds at non-tertiary care hospitals capable of providing the care needs of the patient, thus relieving pressure on the neighbouring tertiary/quaternary care centre.

Evaluating a county-based healthy nail salon recognition program.

Objectives: The City of San Francisco, California established a recognition program for nail salons that use safer nail products and receive worker safety training. This pilot study examined whether participating salons had reduced levels of toluene, methyl methacrylate (MMA), and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), and improved knowledge and behavior compared to control salons.

Methods: We conducted personal air monitoring and administered surveys assessing knowledge and behaviors of two workers from each of six intervention salons and five control salons.

Parental information, motivation, and behavioral skills correlate with child sweetened beverage consumption.

Objective: To evaluate fit of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model applied to sweetened beverage (SB) consumption in children.

Design: Cross-sectional. Parents completed a home beverage inventory and IMB survey regarding SB consumption.

A nonsynaptic mechanism underlying interictal discharges in human epileptic neocortex.

Very fast oscillations (VFOs, >80 Hz) are important for physiological brain processes and, in excess, with certain epilepsies. Putative mechanisms for VFO include interneuron spiking and network activity in coupled pyramidal cell axons. It is not known whether either, or both, of these apply in pathophysiological conditions.

Parental perceptions of overweight during early childhood.

Prior to developing an overweight prevention program, researchers examined perceptions of overweight during early childhood among minority, low-socioeconomic status (SES) parents of preschoolers living in Hartford, Connecticut (USA). Content analysis of 10 focus groups (average size = 7) and 18 follow-up interviews revealed parents have a distorted, detached view of clinically defined overweight preschoolers, and they do not include weight in their definition of health. The result is a disconnect in communicating with health care providers regarding overweight during early childhood.

Differing perspectives of inner-city parents and pediatric clinicians impact management of iron-deficiency anemia.

Objective: To ascertain the beliefs and experiences of inner-city pediatric clinicians and parents regarding anemia in young children.

Design: Focus groups and in-depth interviews.

Setting: Pediatric clinics and community agencies in Hartford, Connecticut.

Managing anemia in low-income toddlers: barriers, challenges and context in primary care.

Iron-deficiency remains a concern among low-income toddlers in the U.S. This formative study describes how primary care providers serving high-risk 1- to 3-year-old children in an urban ambulatory care setting approach anemia.

Low birth weight across generations.

Objectives: This study sought to determine the relationship between maternal birth weight, prenatal care usage, and infant birth weight.

Methods: Stratified and logistic regression analyses were performed on a dataset of computerized Illinois vital records of White (N = 187, 074) and African-American (N = 58,856) infants born between 1989 and 1991 and their mothers born between 1956 and 1975.

Results: Among White mothers who received adequate prenatal care, the low birth weight (<2500 g) rate was 4% for infants of former low birth weight mothers (N = 5230) compared to 2.