Trends in end digit preference for blood pressure and associations with cardiovascular outcomes in Canadian and UK primary care: a retrospective observational study.

Objectives: To study systematic errors in recording blood pressure (BP) as measured by end digit preference (EDP); to determine associations between EDP, uptake of Automated Office BP (AOBP) machines and cardiovascular outcomes.

Design: Retrospective observational study using routinely collected electronic medical record data from 2006 to 2015 and a survey on year of AOBP acquisition in Toronto, Canada in 2017.

Setting: Primary care practices in Canada and the UK.

Piloting electronic screening forms in primary care: findings from a mixed methods study to identify patients eligible for low dose CT lung cancer screening.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that screening with low dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans significantly reduces mortality from lung cancer. However, optimal methods to identify potentially eligible patients in primary care are not known. Using brief electronic screening forms administered prior to a primary care visit is a strategy to identify high risk, asymptomatic patients eligible for LDCT screening.

No association between prenatal viral infection and depression in later life--a long-term cohort study of 6152 subjects.

Objective: Previous studies have suggested a role for prenatal viral infections in the etiology of schizophrenia; however, little is known about depression. We examined whether in-utero viral infections result in increased risk of depression in later life.

Method: We identified a cohort (n = 3076) born between 1946 and 1980, whose mothers suffered known viral infections in pregnancy.

'Working at the margins' or 'leading from behind'? A Canadian study of hospital-community collaboration.

Collaboration between hospitals and community organisations has been promoted over the past 20 years by various levels of government, hospital associations, health promotion advocates, and others at the state/province, national and international levels as a way to improve the 'efficiency of the system', reduce duplication, enhance effectiveness and service coordination, improve continuity of care, and enhance community capacity to address complex issues. Nevertheless, and despite a growing literature on interagency collaboration, systematic documentation and empirical analysis of hospital-community collaboration (HCC) is almost completely lacking in the literature, particularly as regards collaborations that address the determinants of health beyond the hospital walls. In this paper, we describe the methodology and key findings from a research study of HCC.