The ophthalmic surgical backlog associated with the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-based and microsimulation modelling study.

Background: Jurisdictions worldwide ramped down ophthalmic surgeries to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, creating a global surgical backlog. We sought to predict the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the timely delivery of non-emergent ophthalmology sub-specialty surgical care in Ontario.

Methods: This is a microsimulation modelling study.

Heat therapy shows benefit in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Aims: Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a common health condition which prevalence increases with age. Besides lifestyle modifications, passive heating could be a promising intervention to improve glycemic control. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of passive heat therapy on glycemic and cardiovascular parameters, and body weight among patients with T2DM.

Surgical Outcomes among Focused versus Diversified Cataract Surgeons.

Purpose: Narrowly focused surgical practice has become increasingly common in ophthalmology and may have an effect on surgical outcomes. Previous research evaluating the influence of surgical focus on cataract surgical outcomes has been lacking. This study aimed to evaluate whether surgeons' exclusive surgical focus on cataract surgery influences the risk of cataract surgical adverse events.

Correction to: COVID-19 and heme oxygenase: novel insight into the disease and potential therapies.

In the original publication, one of the last paragraphs should have read as follows.

Exclusive cataract surgical focus among ophthalmologists: a population-based analysis.

Objective: An important potential unintended consequence of the growth of surgical subspecialization is the narrowing of surgical practice among comprehensive ophthalmologists. We investigated trends in the narrowing of surgical practice and the exclusive provision of cataract surgery.

Design: Population-based, retrospective study.

COVID-19 and heme oxygenase: novel insight into the disease and potential therapies.

The COVID-19 pandemic needs therapies that are presently available and safe. We propose that subjects with metabolic syndrome, old age, and male gender have the greatest morbidity and mortality and have low stress proteins, in particular, low intracellular heme oxygenase (HO-1), making them particularly vulnerable to the disease. Additionally, COVID-19's heme reduction may contribute to even lower HO-1.

Diabetes-induced eye disease among First Nations people in Ontario: a longitudinal, population-based cohort study.

Background: In Canada, First Nations populations experience a higher incidence of diabetes and diabetes-related complications than other people. Given the paucity of information on use of preventive eye examinations and the need for interventional care for severe retinopathy among First Nations people, we carried out a population-based study to compare rates of eye examinations and interventional therapies to treat vision-threatening stages of diabetic retinopathy among First Nations people and other people with diabetes in Ontario.

Methods: In collaboration with the Chiefs of Ontario, we carried out a population-based study to identify cohorts of First Nations people and other people with diabetes in Ontario from 1995/96 to 2014/15.

Cataract Surgery Quality and Capacity.

Cataract surgery is the most common operation performed in most developed countries, including Canada. Nuanced, evidence-driven policies are needed to ensure appropriate access to this sight-saving operation while maintaining the highest standards in quality of care. The Vision Health Services Research Program at Queen's University, in partnership with members of the Ontario Provincial Vision Task Force, has developed evidence to inform policies aimed at optimizing both access and quality across the eye care spectrum.

Evolution in the Risk of Cataract Surgical Complications among Patients Exposed to Tamsulosin: A Population-Based Study.

Purpose: Tamsulosin is associated with intraoperative floppy iris syndrome (IFIS), an important risk factor for complications during cataract surgery. Significant efforts have been made to increase awareness of the risks associated with tamsulosin, and educational initiatives have fostered the uptake of technical adjustments to decrease adverse event rates among tamsulosin-exposed patients. However, the effectiveness of these efforts at the population level has not been studied.

Association of Cataract Surgical Outcomes With Late Surgeon Career Stages: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Importance: Evidence suggests that the quality of some aspects of care provided by physicians may decrease during their late career stage. However, to our knowledge, data regarding the association of advancing surgeon career phase with cataract surgical outcomes have been lacking.

Objective: To investigate whether an increase in cataract surgical adverse events occurs during later surgeon career stages.

New Surgeon Outcomes and the Effectiveness of Surgical Training: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Purpose: Reports have questioned the technical proficiency of newly graduating surgeons. However, objective data supporting these concerns are limited. Surgical outcomes among recent graduates are an important indicator of residency programs' ability to graduate surgeons who are ready to meet the needs of their patients.

Effect of cataract surgery volume constraints on recently graduated ophthalmologists: a population-based cohort study.

Background: Across Canada, graduates from several medical and surgical specialties have recently had difficulty securing practice opportunities, especially in specialties dependent on limited resources such as ophthalmology. We aimed to investigate whether resource constraints in the health care system have a greater impact on the volume of cataract surgery performed by recent graduates than on established physicians.

Methods: We used population-based administrative data from Ontario for the period Jan.

Adequacy of the ophthalmology workforce under Ontario's Local Health Integration Networks.

Objective: To determine the current distribution of ophthalmologists across Ontario's Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) and the influence on LHIN-specific cataract surgery wait times.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Participants: Ophthalmologists listed in the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSO) database and the Canadian population.

The central role of heat shock factor 1 in synaptic fidelity and memory consolidation.

Networks of neuronal synapses are the fundamental basis for making and retaining memory. Reduced synapse number and quality correlates with loss of memory in dementia. Heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), the major transcription factor regulating expression of heat shock genes, plays a central role in proteostasis, in establishing and sustaining synaptic fidelity and function, and in memory consolidation.

An acute bout of whole body passive hyperthermia increases plasma leptin, but does not alter glucose or insulin responses in obese type 2 diabetics and healthy adults.

Acute and chronic hyperthermic treatments in diabetic animal models repeatedly improve insulin sensitivity and glycemic control. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that an acute 1h bout of hyperthermic treatment improves glucose, insulin, and leptin responses to an oral glucose challenge (OGTT) in obese type 2 diabetics and healthy humans. Nine obese (45±7.

Dihydropyridine Derivatives Modulate Heat Shock Responses and have a Neuroprotective Effect in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) have chaperone activity and play a pivotal role in the homeostasis of proteins by preventing misfolding, by clearing aggregated and damaged proteins from cells, and by maintaining proteins in an active state. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is thought to be caused by amyloid-β peptide that triggers tau hyperphosphorylation, which is neurotoxic. Although proteostasis capacity declines with age and facilitates the manifestation of neurodegenerative diseases such as AD, the upregulation of chaperones improves prognosis.

Prospective evaluation of teleophthalmology in screening and recurrence monitoring of neovascular age-related macular degeneration: a randomized clinical trial.

Importance: Teleophthalmology has the potential to reduce costs and inconveniences associated with frequent patient visits. Evaluating teleophthalmology in the management of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) will allow for future implementation of this technology.

Objective: To evaluate teleophthalmology as a tool for the screening and monitoring of neovascular AMD.

Intravitreal ranibizumab for the treatment of fibrovascular pigment epithelial detachment in age-related macular degeneration.

Objective: To determine the response of predominantly fibrovascular pigment epithelial detachments (PED)-type lesions (secondary to age-related macular degeneration [AMD]) to intravitreal ranibizumab.

Design: This was an open-label prospective study.

Participants: Thirty-two patients with predominantly fibrovascular PED-type lesions secondary to AMD were included in this study.

The importance of the cellular stress response in the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Organisms have evolved to survive rigorous environments and are not prepared to thrive in a world of caloric excess and sedentary behavior. A realization that physical exercise (or lack of it) plays a pivotal role in both the pathogenesis and therapy of type 2 diabetes mellitus (t2DM) has led to the provocative concept of therapeutic exercise mimetics. A decade ago, we attempted to simulate the beneficial effects of exercise by treating t2DM patients with 3 weeks of daily hyperthermia, induced by hot tub immersion.