The application and uses of telemedicine in vascular surgery: A narrative review.

Technological advances over the past century have accelerated the pace and breadth of medical and surgical care. From the initial delivery of "telemedicine" over the radio in the 1920s, the delivery of medicine and surgery in the 21 century is no longer limited by connectivity. The COVID-19 pandemic hastened the uptake of telemedicine to ensure that health care can be maintained despite limited face-to-face contact.

Disease Behaviour Classification: A pragmatic model for predicting outcomes in Interstitial Lung Disease.

Background And Objective: The interstitial lung diseases (ILD) are a heterogenous group of disorders with similar clinical presentation, but widely varying prognoses. The use of a pragmatic disease behaviour classification (DBC), first proposed in international guidelines in 2013, categorises diseases into five behavioural classes based on their predicted clinical course. This study aimed to determine the prognostic utility of the DBC in an ILD cohort.

Acceptability and feasibility of the World Health Organization's Caregiver Skills Training Programme (WHO CST) delivered eLearning, videoconferencing, and in-person hybrid modalities in Hong Kong.

Background: Local children with developmental disabilities were deprived of learning opportunities due to recent social and health incidents, resulting in elevating challenging behaviors and familial conflicts. This study explored the acceptability and feasibility of the World Health Organization's Caregiver Skills Training Programme (WHO CST) in alternative delivery modes under new normal and post COVID-19 period.

Method: CST was delivered eLearning (EL), videoconferencing (VC), and in-person hybrid (IP) modes to 34 parent-child dyads, being randomly assigned to modes of asynchronous non-interfering EL ( = 9), synchronous with online coaching VC ( = 7), synchronous with in-person coaching IP ( = 9) and Wait-list Control WLC ( = 9).

Performance of a new symptom checker in patient triage: Canadian cohort study.

Background: Computerized algorithms known as symptom checkers aim to help patients decide what to do should they have a new medical concern. However, despite widespread implementation, most studies on symptom checkers have involved simulated patients. Only limited evidence currently exists about symptom checker safety or accuracy when used by real patients.

Translation and validation of the Reaction to Impairment and Disability Inventory for Chinese population in Hong Kong.

Purpose: This study translated the reaction to impairment and disability inventory (RIDI) to Chinese and validated it for use in Hong Kong.

Methods: We conducted an instrument validation of the Chinese RIDI, with a sample of 244 persons with CID. The research questionnaire collected demographic information, illness-related variables, the Chinese version of RIDI (C-RIDI), and measures of resilience and well-being.

Cryobiopsy for Identification of Usual Interstitial Pneumonia and Other Interstitial Lung Disease Features. Further Lessons from COLDICE, a Prospective Multicenter Clinical Trial.

Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBLC) is an emerging technique for interstitial lung disease diagnosis. Good histopathologic agreement between TBLC and surgical lung biopsy (SLB) was demonstrated in the COLDICE (Cryobiopsy versus Open Lung Biopsy in the Diagnosis of Interstitial Lung Disease Alliance) study; however, diagnostic confidence was frequently lower for TBLC than SLB. To characterize specific features of TBLC predictive of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) in corresponding SLB and to identify clinical indices predictive of biopsy concordance.

The detrimental impacts of negative age stereotypes on the episodic memory of older adults: does social participation moderate the effects?

Background: Older adults' cognitive abilities can be impaired through priming of negative age stereotypes. However, it is unclear whether the effects of negative priming can be extended to episodic memory, which is believed to be the most age-sensitive type among the long-term memory systems, in Asian populations. Social participation has recently emerged as a potential protective factor for maintaining the cognitive function of older adults.

Sense of Community Mediating Between Age-Friendly Characteristics and Life Satisfaction of Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

The growth of age-friendly community initiatives underscores a paradigmatic shift from the individual to the community, addressing dynamic transactions between people and the environment they are living in. The purpose of the present study is to address the gap in existing research by examining the psycho-social effects of the sense of community in mediating between WHO domains of age-friendliness and the life satisfaction of older adults. Data were obtained from 898 participants in Hong Kong.

Diagnostic accuracy of transbronchial lung cryobiopsy for interstitial lung disease diagnosis (COLDICE): a prospective, comparative study.

Background: Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBLC) is a novel technique for sampling lung tissue for interstitial lung disease diagnosis. The aim of this study was to establish the diagnostic accuracy of TBLC compared with surgical lung biopsy (SLB), in the context of increasing use of TBLC in clinical practice as a less invasive biopsy technique.

Methods: COLDICE was a prospective, multicentre, diagnostic accuracy study investigating diagnostic agreement between TBLC and SLB, across nine Australian tertiary hospitals.

Cryobiopsy versus open lung biopsy in the diagnosis of interstitial lung disease (COLDICE): protocol of a multicentre study.

Introduction: Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBLC) is a novel, minimally invasive technique for obtaining lung tissue for histopathological assessment in interstitial lung disease (ILD). Despite its increasing popularity, the diagnostic accuracy of TBLC is not yet known. The COLDICE Study (Cryobiopsy versus Open Lung biopsy in the Diagnosis of Interstitial lung disease allianCE) aims to evaluate the agreement between TBLC and surgical lung biopsy sampled concurrently from the same patients, for both histopathological and multidisciplinary discussion (MDD) diagnoses.

Telephone-based behavioral activation intervention for dementia family caregivers: Outcomes and mediation effect of a randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: The study examined the effects of a telephone-administered psycho-education with behavioral activation intervention (TBA) for family caregivers of person's with Alzheimer's dementia to reduce levels of depressive symptoms and burden and to enhance relationship satisfaction with the care-recipient METHODS: A double-blinded randomized trial compared TBA with telephone-based psycho-education with general monitoring (TGM). Ninety-six dementia caregivers were randomized. Both conditions received four weekly psycho-education sessions led by a social worker.

The Longer-Term Psychosocial Development of Adolescents: Child Development Accounts and the Role of Mentoring.

To examine the long-term development of adolescents who participated in the Child Development Fund (CDF), which was a community intervention that consisted of Child Development Accounts (CDAs) and mentorship components. This was an evaluative study of the CDF community intervention and was conducted between January and June 2016 in Hong Kong. A total of 902 adolescents from low socioeconomic backgrounds participated in this study (552 in the CDF and 350 in the comparison group).

Incidence of clinically relevant medication errors in the era of electronically prepopulated medication reconciliation forms: a retrospective chart review.

Background: To reduce medication discrepancies (unintended differences between a patient's outpatient and inpatient medication regimens), Canadian institutions have implemented medication reconciliation forms that are prepopulated with outpatient medication dispensing data. These may prompt prescribers to reorder discontinued medications or continue newly contraindicated medications. Our objective was to evaluate the incidence of medication discrepancies and errors of commission after the implementation of such forms.

Age-Friendliness and Life Satisfaction of Young-Old and Old-Old in Hong Kong.

Age-friendliness, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to enable and support individuals in different aspects of life for fostering life satisfaction and personal well-being as they age. We identified specific aspect(s) of age-friendliness associated with life satisfaction and examined similarities and differences in age-friendliness and life satisfaction in young-old and old-old adults. Six hundred and eighty-two ageing adults were asked to complete a survey questionnaire consisting of the Age-friendly City Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and sociodemographic variables.

The development of mentoring-relationship quality, future-planning style, and career goal setting among adolescents from a disadvantaged background.

Our behaviors are regulated by our perception of the future based on past experiences and knowledge. Children from a disadvantaged background might encounter obstacles more frequently when they plan their future. It is possible that a good relationship with an adult volunteer who provides assistance and guidance in the disadvantaged youth's development may facilitate their future-planning style and career goal setting.

Blood flow in intracranial aneurysms treated with Pipeline embolization devices: computational simulation and verification with Doppler ultrasonography on phantom models.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to validate a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of flow-diverter treatment through Doppler ultrasonography measurements in patient-specific models of intracranial bifurcation and side-wall aneurysms.

Methods: Computational and physical models of patient-specific bifurcation and sidewall aneurysms were constructed from computed tomography angiography with use of stereolithography, a three-dimensional printing technology. Flow dynamics parameters before and after flow-diverter treatment were measured with pulse-wave and color Doppler ultrasonography, and then compared with CFD simulations.

Vector projectile imaging: time-resolved dynamic visualization of complex flow patterns.

Achieving non-invasive, accurate and time-resolved imaging of vascular flow with spatiotemporal fluctuations is well acknowledged to be an ongoing challenge. In this article, we present a new ultrasound-based framework called vector projectile imaging (VPI) that can dynamically render complex flow patterns over an imaging view at millisecond time resolution. VPI is founded on three principles: (i) high-frame-rate broad-view data acquisition (based on steered plane wave firings); (ii) flow vector estimation derived from multi-angle Doppler analysis (coupled with data regularization and least-squares fitting); (iii) dynamic visualization of color-encoded vector projectiles (with flow speckles displayed as adjunct).

Design of anthropomorphic flow phantoms based on rapid prototyping of compliant vessel geometries.

Anatomically realistic flow phantoms are essential experimental tools for vascular ultrasound. Here we describe how these flow phantoms can be efficiently developed via a rapid prototyping (RP) framework that involves direct fabrication of compliant vessel geometries. In this framework, anthropomorphic vessel models were drafted in computer-aided design software, and they were fabricated using stereolithography (one type of RP).

Cerebral ischemic injury is enhanced in a model of oculodentodigital dysplasia.

Oculodentodigital dysplasia (ODDD) is a rare autosomal dominant disease that results in visible developmental anomalies of the limbs, face, eyes and teeth. Recently analysis of human connexin43 (Cx43) DNA sequences has revealed a number of different missense, duplication and frame shift mutations resulting in this phenotype. A mouse model of this disorder has been created with a missense point mutation of the glycine amino acid at position 60 to serine (G60S).