Prediction of Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Very Preterm Infants: Comparing Machine Learning Methods to Logistic Regression.

Purpose: Is machine learning (ML) superior to the traditionally used logistic regression (LR) in prediction of neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants?

Objectives: To develop and internally validate a ML model to predict neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) in very preterm infants (<31 weeks) at 36 months corrected age, using clinical predictors.

Methods: A retrospective cohort of very preterm infants (2330 weeks) born between January 2004 and December 2016 in Nova Scotia, Canada. Survivors with neurodevelopmental assessment at 36 months corrected age were included.

Correction: Using Natural Language Processing to Examine the Uptake, Content, and Readability of Media Coverage of a Pan-Canadian Drug Safety Research Project: Cross-Sectional Observational Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/13296.].

Using Natural Language Processing to Examine the Uptake, Content, and Readability of Media Coverage of a Pan-Canadian Drug Safety Research Project: Cross-Sectional Observational Study.

Background: Isotretinoin, for treating cystic acne, increases the risk of miscarriage and fetal abnormalities when taken during pregnancy. The Health Canada-approved product monograph for isotretinoin includes pregnancy prevention guidelines. A recent study by the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES) on the occurrence of pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes during isotretinoin therapy estimated poor adherence to these guidelines.

Development of a clinical decision support tool for diagnostic imaging use in patients with low back pain: a study protocol.

Background: Low back pain is one of the most common and disabling health problems in Canada and internationally. In most cases, low back pain is a benign, self-limiting condition that can be managed with little diagnostic investigation or treatment. Yet contrary to clinical practice guideline recommendations, diagnostic imaging (here meaning X-ray, MRI, CT) is commonly used in the assessment of low back pain.

Evaluating quality of life and cost implications of prophylactic radiotherapy in mesothelioma: Health economic analysis of the SMART trial.

Background: The SMART trial is a UK-based, multicentre RCT comparing prophylactic radiotherapy and symptom-based (deferred) radiotherapy in 203 patients with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma who had undergone large bore pleural interventions. Using costs and quality of life data collected alongside the clinical trial, we will estimate the cost-effectiveness of prophylactic radiotherapy compared to deferred radiotherapy over a 1-year period.

Methods: Healthcare utilization and costs were captured during the trial.

Addressing rural and remote access disparities for patients with inflammatory arthritis through video-conferencing and innovative inter-professional care models.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients followed longitudinally using video-conferencing and inter-professional care support have comparable disease control to those followed in traditional in-person rheumatology clinics.

Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial for 85 RA patients allocated to either traditional in-person rheumatology follow-up or video-conferenced follow-up with urban-based rheumatologists and rural in-person physical therapist examiners. Follow-up was every 3 months for 9 months.

Investigating Cost Implications of Incorporating Level III At-Home Testing into a Polysomnography Based Sleep Medicine Program Using Administrative Data.

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea is a common problem, requiring expensive in-lab polysomnography for proper diagnosis. Home monitoring can provide an alternative to in-lab testing for a subset of OSA patients. The objective of this project was to investigate the effect of incorporating home testing into an OSA program at a large, tertiary sleep disorders centre.

Leveraging medical taxonomies to improve knowledge management within online communities of practice: The knowledge maps system.

Background And Objective: Online communities of practice contain a wealth of information, stored in the free text of shared communications between community members. The Knowledge Maps (KMaps) system is designed to facilitate Knowledge Translation in online communities through multi-level analyses of the shared messages of these communications.

Methods: Using state-of-the-art semantic mapping technologies (Metamap) the contents of the messages shared within an online community are mapped to terms from the MeSH medical lexicon, providing a multi-level topic-specific summary of the knowledge being shared within the community.

The role of radiology in the quantification of digital ulnar deviation in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common inflammatory polyarthritis, which causes functional digital ulnar deviation (UD). Radiographic and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessment of the hands is essential in RA, but its role in the quantification of UD remains unclear.

Purpose: To compare UD measurements in RA patients between clinical goniometric assessments versus standardized radiographs and MRI.

Evaluating a Telehealth Follow-up Program for Cardiology Patients Using Administrative Data.

This project evaluated the effect of a telehealth follow-up intervention on readmission rates for patients discharged from the Saskatoon Health Region cardiology units with ACS or HF. 1-year readmission rates for ACS patients were 27.4% (95% CI: [26%, 29%]) before telehealth implementation and 25.

Improvement in obstructive sleep apnea diagnosis and management wait times: A retrospective analysis of home management pathway for obstructive sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a common condition within the Canadian population. The current gold standard for diagnosis and management of patients is in-laboratory (in-lab) polysomnography; however, the limited availability of testing options for patients has led to long wait times and increased disease burden within the population. The Sleep Research Laboratory in Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) implemented a home management program to run in parallel with the in-lab system several years ago in an effort to increase their capacity and reduce wait times.

Clinical guideline-driven personalized self-management diary for paediatric cancer survivors.

Shared Decision Making (SDM) is the process of patients and clinicians working together to manage medical treatment using the existing knowledge base. This paper presents the YouCan framework, a system for summarizing and presenting the necessary knowledge for SDM related to pediatric cancer follow-up management. Knowledge modelling of a Clinical Practice Guideline produced a customized ontology, which was then passed through a pellet reasoned to produce a customized patient diary that summarizes a patient's oncological history as well as the potential issues they may face in follow-up.

Validity of cardiovascular risk prediction models in kidney transplant recipients.

Background: Predicting cardiovascular risk is of great interest in renal transplant recipients since cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality.

Objective: To conduct a systematic review to assess the validity of cardiovascular risk prediction models in this population.

Methods: Five databases were searched (MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, CINAHL, and Web of Science) and cohort studies with at least one year of follow-up were included.

Applying social network analysis to understand the knowledge sharing behaviour of practitioners in a clinical online discussion forum.

Background: Knowledge Translation (KT) plays a vital role in the modern health care community, facilitating the incorporation of new evidence into practice. Web 2.0 tools provide a useful mechanism for establishing an online KT environment in which health practitioners share their practice-related knowledge and experiences with an online community of practice.

An infobutton for Web 2.0 clinical discussions: the knowledge linkage framework.

This paper aims to develop an infobutton to automatically retrieve published papers corresponding to a topic-specific online clinical discussion. The knowledge linkages infobutton is designed to supplement online clinical conversations with pertinent medical literature from Pubmed. The project involves three distinct steps: 1) Clinical messages around a specific problem are grouped together into a thread.