Mass Training In Situ During COVID-19 Pandemic: Enhancing Efficiency and Minimizing Sick Leaves.

Introduction: Avoiding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) work-related infection in frontline healthcare workers is a major challenge. A massive training program was launched in our university hospital for anesthesia/intensive care unit and operating room staff, aiming at upskilling 2249 healthcare workers for COVID-19 patients' management. We hypothesized that such a massive training was feasible in a 2-week time frame and efficient in avoiding sick leaves.

Implementation of a multimodal patient safety improvement program "SafetyLEAP" in intensive care units.

Purpose Patient safety remains a top priority in healthcare. Many organizations have developed systems to monitor and prevent harm, and have invested in different approaches to quality improvement. Despite these organizational efforts to better detect adverse events, efficient resolution of safety problems remains a significant challenge.

An environmental scan of quality indicators in critical care.

Background: We performed a directed environmental scan to identify and categorize quality indicators unique to critical care that are reported by key stakeholder organizations.

Methods: We convened a panel of experts ( = 9) to identify key organizations that are focused on quality improvement or critical care, and reviewed their online publications and website content for quality indicators. We identified quality indicators specific to the care of critically ill adult patients and then categorized them according to the Donabedian and the Institute of Medicine frameworks.

A Survey of Rounding Practices in Canadian Adult Intensive Care Units.

Objective: To describe rounding practices in Canadian adult Intensive Care Units (ICU) and identify opportunities for improvement.

Design: Mixed methods design. Cross sectional survey of Canadian Adult ICUs (n = 180) with purposefully sampled follow-up interviews (n = 7).

Measuring the Cobb angle with the iPhone in kyphoses: a reliability study.

Purpose: Smartphones have gained widespread use in the healthcare field to fulfill a variety of tasks. We developed a small iPhone application to take advantage of the built-in position sensor to measure angles in a variety of spinal deformities. We present a reliability study of this tool in measuring kyphotic angles.

A community-based clinical trial of Intra-Venous zOledRonic acid once Yearly in comparison to oral bisphosphonates in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis: the IVORY trial Methodological considerations.

Background: Zoledronic acid is an intravenous once yearly bisphosphonate that has been shown to be effective and safe in improving BMD (bone mineral density) and reducing fracture risk in controlled clinical trials. IVORY is a Canadian post marketing study aiming at assessing real-life effectiveness, health care resource utilization, safety and compliance to treatment with zoledronic acid in comparison to orally administered bisphosphonates (OBP).

Methods: IVORY is a prospective two cohort observational study of patients treated with zoledronic acid or OBP.

Determinants of masked hypertension in hypertensive patients treated in a primary care setting.

Background: Recent data suggest that masked hypertension (MH) carries a cardiovascular risk similar to that of uncontrolled hypertension.

Aims: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and determinants of MH in patients treated for hypertension in a Canadian primary care setting.

Methods: Office blood pressure (OBP) was measured at baseline and after 3 months of valsartan-based therapy in 5636 hypertensive patients who had recorded their home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) for seven consecutive days at month 3 using an Omron HEM-711 apparatus.

Postural sway and effect of levodopa in early Parkinson's disease.

Objective: To characterize postural stability control and levodopa responsiveness in early Parkinson's disease (PD).

Methods: Postural sway was studied during quiet stance in ten patients within six years of PD onset, both before (OFF) and after (ON) regular oral levodopa dosing. Postural sway was recorded using a force platform during 30 sec with eyes open, and six dependent variables were examined.

Characterization of subclinical tremor in Parkinson's disease.

The physiological or pathological nature of subclinical tremor amplitude in Parkinson's disease (PD) is not well established. We analyzed characteristics of resting and postural tremors of subclinical amplitude in 17 patients with idiopathic PD without visible resting tremor, having a postural tremor in their least-affected hand rated 0 (12 subjects) or 1 (5 subjects) on Item 21 of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, compared to 17 control subjects matched for age, sex, and handedness. Tremor was recorded at the tip of the index finger using a displacement laser transducer.

Right-left orientation, mental rotation, and perspective-taking: when can children imagine what people see from their own viewpoint?

Right-left orientation, mental rotation, and perspective-taking were examined in a group of 406 subjects ranging from 5 to 11 yr. of age with equal numbers of children in each age group. Immediate recognition was not a difficult task as even young children succeeded adequately on the three tasks involving different images.

Right-left orientation: development of correct use of right and left terms.

Right-left orientation includes discrimination and recognition as well as identification, the former two differentiating between symmetrical cues and the latter using the words right and left. In the present experiment involving 406 children, the evolution of the knowledge and use of the concepts of right and left were assessed. Discrimination and recognition on all tasks used in this study are mastered much earlier than verbal identification, and, at even 11 years of age, half of the subjects of the present study still did not apply the words right and left properly onto other persons in the milieu.

Which handedness: preference or performance?

Two ways of measuring handedness, questionnaires and hand-efficiency tests, are compared. A method for combining performance scores of 128 children from different hand-efficiency tests to obtain a single handedness score based on efficiency is presented. Handedness classifications according to different thresholds of preference as well as of performance are shown.

The changing trends of uterine cancer and cytology: a study of morbidity and mortality trends over a twenty year period.

Data on squamous carcinoma of the cervix from a 20 year study period (1955 to 1974) in metropolitan Toledo revealed a 66% reduction of the average annual age-adjusted incidence rate and a 61% reduction in death rate of cervical squamous carcinoma when the first time period (1955 to 1958) was compared with the last time period (1971 to 1974). The decrease for both morbidity and mortality rates was more pronounced in women age 50 years and younger. The age-adjusted death rate during this study period revealed 15.