Thinking Critically: How to Teach Translational Medicine.

Translational Medicine (TM) is a comparatively new field of study that focusses on the continuum of activities from the conception of an idea, to advanced clinical testing and the development of a new medical technology or drug. In recent years, graduate education programs have been established internationally to train a new generation of professionals with specific skills necessary to navigate the translational landscape. Literature in the area highlights the importance of integrating specific competencies relevant to translational medicine as part of curriculum development.

Provocative dose of methacholine causing a 20% drop in FEV1 should be used to interpret methacholine challenge tests with modern nebulizers.

Rationale: The American Thoracic Society guidelines (1999) for methacholine challenge tests (MCTs) using the 2-minute tidal breathing protocol were developed for the now-obsolete English-Wright (EW) nebulizer. In addition, the guideline recommendation to use the provocative concentration of methacholine causing a 20% drop in FEV1 (PC20) rather than the provocative dose of methacholine causing a 20% drop in FEV1 (PD20) for determining the level of bronchial hyperresponsiveness has been challenged.

Objectives: To determine if cumulative dose or concentration of methacholine delivered to the airways is the determinant for airway responsiveness and to validate use of the AeroEclipse* II BAN (Aero; Trudell Medical International, London, ON, Canada) nebulizer compared with use of the reference standard EW nebulizer.

Presence of other allergic disease modifies the effect of early childhood traffic-related air pollution exposure on asthma prevalence.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a surrogate measure of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP), has been associated with incident childhood asthma. Timing of exposure and atopic status may be important effect modifiers. We collected cross-sectional data on asthma outcomes from Toronto school children aged 5-9years in 2006.

Socioeconomic factors and epinephrine prescription in children with peanut allergy.

Background: Epinephrine autoinjectors provide life-saving therapy for individuals with peanut allergies. OJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and epinephrine prescription among urban Canadian children with peanut allergy.

Methods: Population-based survey data from school children in grades 1 and 2 participating in the Toronto Child Health Evaluation Questionnaire were used.

Verifying a questionnaire diagnosis of asthma in children using health claims data.

Background: Childhood asthma prevalence is widely measured by parental proxy report of physician-diagnosed asthma in questionnaires. Our objective was to validate this measure in a North American population.

Methods: The 2884 study participants were a subsample of 5619 school children aged 5 to 9 years from 231 schools participating in the Toronto Child Health Evaluation Questionnaire study in 2006.

Do questions reflecting indoor air pollutant exposure from a questionnaire predict direct measure of exposure in owner-occupied houses?

Home characteristic questions are used in epidemiological studies and clinical settings to assess potentially harmful exposures in the home. The objective of this study was to determine whether questionnaire-reported home characteristics can predict directly measured pollutants. Sixty home inspections were conducted on a subsample of the 2006 population-based Toronto Child Health Evaluation Questionnaire.

Predictors of universal influenza vaccination uptake in grades 1 and 2 Toronto school children: effective vaccination strategies should not end with at risk children.

The first population-based survey to determine predictors of influenza vaccination among children in a major metropolitan city with access to publicly funded health care and a universal influenza immunization program (UIIP). Previously collected demographic and health related data from 5619 school children aged 5-9 in Toronto, in 2006 were used to predict influenza vaccination. Vaccination was more likely in children with current asthma (OR 1.

Asthma and allergic disease prevalence in a diverse sample of Toronto school children: results from the Toronto Child Health Evaluation Questionnaire (T-CHEQ) Study.

Background: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children.

Objectives: To describe the prevalence of asthma and allergic disease in a multiethnic, population-based sample of Toronto (Ontario) school children attending grades 1 and 2.

Methods: In 2006, the Toronto Child Health Evaluation Questionnaire (T-CHEQ) used the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood survey methodology to administer questionnaires to 23,379 Toronto school children attending grades 1 and 2.