Publications by authors named "Ramsey S"

In 2020, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) braced itself for the challenge of the COVID pandemic. Older, frail adults were among those at highest risk for morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to capture the lived experiences of patients, families/carers and staff on a COVID ward.

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Electronic health records (EHRs) provide a rich source of observational patient data that can be explored to infer underlying causal relationships. These causal relationships can be applied to augment medical decision-making or suggest hypotheses for healthcare research. In this study, we explored a large-scale EHR dataset on patients with asthma or related conditions (N = 14,937).

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Background: HIV disproportionately impacts people who experience incarceration. Incarceration represents an opportunity to engage in HIV prevention care for individuals who often experience a number of barriers accessing health services in the community. The development of evidence-based practices promoting pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention (PrEP) is crucial for ending the HIV epidemic within this highly marginalized population.

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To gain further insight into the conformational properties of small cyclic peptides that bind to the G-protein coupled receptor C5aR1, we report here for the first time the elucidation of three peptide solution conformations using residual dipolar couplings and NMR temperature coefficients. Each of these peptides varies by at least one amino acid, adopts a different intramolecular hydrogen bonding pattern, and has a different solution conformation. The solution conformations were used in combination with a homology structure of C5aR1 as a design template for increasing the potency of peptide leads for the C5a receptor.

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Introduction: Within the United States, individuals experiencing incarceration are at higher risk for HIV acquisition than the general population, yet may face additional difficulty engaging in HIV prevention clinical services. HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective approach to preventing HIV transmission, and the Centers for Disease Control recommends that PrEP be offered in carceral settings, particularly during the vulnerable community reentry period. However, there have been few efforts to scale PrEP in this setting.

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Prostate cancer continues to be one of the most lethal cancers in men. While androgen deprivation therapy is initially effective in treating prostate cancer, most cases of advanced prostate cancer eventually progress to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which is incurable. Similarly, the most aggressive form of prostatic carcinoma occurs in dogs that have been castrated.

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Peptidyl arginine deiminases (PADs) are important enzymes in many diseases, especially those involving inflammation and autoimmunity. Despite many years of effort, developing isoform-specific inhibitors has been a challenge. We describe herein the discovery of a potent, noncovalent PAD2 inhibitor, with selectivity over PAD3 and PAD4, from a DNA-encoded library.

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Prostate cancer continues to be one of the most lethal cancers in men. While androgen-deprivation therapy is initially effective in treating prostate cancer, most cases of advanced prostate cancer eventually progress to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which is incurable. Similarly, the most aggressive form of prostatic carcinoma occurs in dogs that have been castrated.

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Article Synopsis
  • The ISPOR Good Practices report outlines a framework to evaluate electronic health records (EHR) data for health technology assessments (HTAs), highlighting their benefits and limitations.
  • It consists of two main parts: data delineation, which involves assessing data characteristics, provenance, and governance, and data fitness for purpose, focusing on reliability and relevance for decision-making.
  • The report also provides the ISPOR SUITABILITY Checklist for EHR data, recommendations for HTA agencies, and discusses limitations and future prospects, particularly in relation to advancements in artificial intelligence.
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Importance: Reducing acute care use is an important strategy for improving value. Patients with cancer are at risk for unplanned emergency department (ED) visits and hospital stays (HS). Clinical trial patients have homogeneous treatment; despite this, structural barriers to care may independently impact acute care use.

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Wildfires are increasing in frequency and intensity, with significant consequences that impact human health. A scoping review was conducted to: (a) understand wildfire-related health effects, (b) identify and describe environmental exposure and health outcome data sources used to research the impacts of wildfire exposures on health, and (c) identify gaps and opportunities to leverage exposure and health data to advance research. A literature search was conducted in PubMed and a sample of 83 articles met inclusion criteria.

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Background: Noncompliance with evidence-based interventions and guidelines contributes to significant and variable recurrence and progression in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The implementation of a quality performance indicator (QPI) programme in Scotland's National Health Service (NHS) aimed to improve cancer outcomes and reduce nationwide variance.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of hospitals achieving benchmarks for two specific QPIs on time to recurrence and progression in NMIBC.

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Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) play major roles in cancer and are emerging as therapeutic targets. Recent reports suggest low-molecular weight PTP (LMPTP)-encoded by the gene-is overexpressed in prostate tumors. We found up-regulated in human prostate tumors and expression inversely correlated with overall survival.

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Purpose: BMT CTN 1102 was a phase III trial comparing reduced-intensity allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (RIC alloHCT) to standard of care for persons with intermediate- or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). We report results of a cost-effectiveness analysis conducted alongside the clinical trial.

Methods: Three hundred eighty-four patients received HCT (n = 260) or standard of care (n = 124) according to availability of a human leukocyte antigen-matched donor.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study assesses the cost-effectiveness of gene therapy for sickle cell disease (SCD) and its value-based pricing, focusing on its economic impact in the U.S. and the African heritage community.
  • Two independent simulation models were used to analyze the cost-effectiveness, leading to different incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) based on factors like population and quality-of-life effects.
  • The analysis found that at a gene therapy price of $2 million, ICERs ranged from $126,000 to $427,000 per Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY), with value-based prices deemed acceptable between $1 million and $2.5 million, depending on methodology
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Health-related social needs are prevalent among cancer patients; associated with substantial negative health consequences; and drive pervasive inequities in cancer incidence, severity, treatment choices and decisions, and outcomes. To address the lack of clinical trial evidence to guide health-related social needs interventions among cancer patients, the National Cancer Institute Cancer Care Delivery Research Steering Committee convened experts to participate in a clinical trials planning meeting with the goal of designing studies to screen for and address health-related social needs among cancer patients. In this commentary, we discuss the rationale for, and challenges of, designing and testing health-related social needs interventions in alignment with the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 5As framework.

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  • The OPTIMIzE registry study examined the effectiveness of immuno-oncology therapies in advanced melanoma by comparing outcomes of patients treated with anti-PD-1 monotherapy and a combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab.
  • Patients receiving the combination therapy had a non-significantly lower risk of death and a higher disease control rate compared to those on monotherapy but experienced more severe side effects.
  • Overall, the findings suggest that immuno-oncology treatments can be beneficial for patients with advanced melanoma, balancing effectiveness with potential adverse effects.
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  • Knowledge graphs are increasingly used for representing knowledge, but their complexity and the diversity of sources make integration difficult due to semantic incompatibilities.
  • The Biomedical Translator Consortium has created a question-answering system called the Translator, which aids human reasoning by addressing biomedical queries related to various diseases.
  • A monthly "Question-of-the-Month Challenge" has been established to explore specific issues like drug-related liver injury and coronavirus, providing insights and identifying technical challenges to enhance the Translator system, while also comparing it to Large Language Models like ChatGPT.
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Objective: To assess changes in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) treatments and outcomes in Canada, comparing 2005-2010 and 2017-2021 inception cohorts.

Methods: Patients enrolled within three months of diagnosis in the Research in Arthritis in Canadian Children Emphasizing Outcomes (ReACCh-Out) and the Canadian Alliance of Pediatric Rheumatology Investigators Registry (CAPRI) cohorts were included. Cumulative incidences of drug starts and outcome attainment within 70 weeks of diagnosis were compared with Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and multivariable Cox regression.

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Objectives: Overdose is a major cause of preventable death among persons living with HIV. This study aimed to increase HIV clinicians' naloxone prescribing, which can reduce overdose mortality.

Methods: We enrolled 22 Ryan White-funded HIV practices and implemented onsite, peer-to-peer training, posttraining academic detailing, and pharmacy peer-to-peer contact around naloxone prescribing in a nonrandomized stepped wedge design.

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Purpose: We conducted a pragmatic, cluster-randomized trial to test whether a guideline-based standing order entry (SOE) improves use of primary prophylactic CSF (PP-CSF) prescribing for patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy. We investigated variability in adherence to the intervention.

Methods: We conducted a cluster-randomized trial among 32 oncology clinics from the NCI Community Oncology Research Program.

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