Growing a provincial patient and family engagement network to optimize kidney care.

Patient and family engagement is crucial for a responsive health system and improves patient outcomes. However, few practical resources for purposeful engagement are available to health leaders. Over the past five years, BC Renal, the provincial kidney care network in British Columbia, developed, operationalized, and implemented a framework to enable meaningful patient and family engagement.

Developments in functional electrical stimulation systems.

It is estimated that more than 750,000 people suffer a stroke each year in Europe. An implantable neurostimulator is being developed to improve impaired upper limb function that results from stroke. Its mode of operation and early clinical trial results are reported.

Growth and physical outcome of children conceived by in vitro fertilization.

Objective: To determine the growth and physical outcome at 2 years of age for children born after assisted reproductive techniques in the state of Victoria.

Design: Using a case-matched control study between January 1991 and July 1993, 314 children (196 singletons, 47 sets of twins, 8 sets of triplets) conceived after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and related techniques at the Monash IVF and Royal Women's Hospital Reproductive Biology Unit and 150 control children (113 singletons, 17 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets) randomly selected from the general population using the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection Unit records were enrolled to be examined for minor dysmorphic and major organ abnormalities. Singleton and twin cases were matched for plurality and gestation and date of birth.

The children of IVF pregnancies: a cohort study.

A number of concerns have been publicly expressed concerning children conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF). For this reason the first 52 infants in the Monash University IVF Programme were seen for paediatric follow-up. Forty-nine children completed the Programme with one child dying at 4 months and one set of twins being withdrawn from the study.

In vitro fertilization children: early psychosocial development.

Following community concerns regarding the status of children conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF), 33 children who had received pediatric follow-up were seen for a psychosocial evaluation. Parents were interviewed in a semistructured format by a child psychiatrist regarding their child's development, child-centered problems, parental problems, marital issues, parenting experience, and experience of the IVF program. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development were administered to the children by a clinical psychologist.

Birth centre confinement at the Queen Victoria Medical Centre: four years' experience.

A review of the first four years of the functioning of the birth centre at the Queen Victoria Medical Centre is presented. In that time, 1040 pregnant women were accepted for confinement there. Of these, 52 withdrew for non-obstetric reasons, while 470 were transferred to alternative obstetrical care--274 because of antepartum complications and 196 because of intrapartum problems.

Children of IVF.

This chapter has reviewed issues relevant to the consideration of children conceived by in vitro fertilization. The rationale and motivation for studying these children and the factors which might be relevant to their development have been discussed. Such factors involve the child, the parents, the family as a whole and the influences of the community at large.

Clinical features of eight pregnancies resulting from in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer (ET) have resulted in the birth of nine babies, including twins. One of the twins had a congenital cardiac malformation and seven of the nine babies were girls. Labor occurred preterm in two pregnancies; and in six delivery was by cesarean section.

Birth centre confinement at the Queen Victoria Medical Centre. I. Obstetric and neonatal outcome.

A review of hte first 175 confinements at the Queen Victoria Medical Centre Birth Centre is presented. The design, structure and function of hte Birth Centre is described and the safety of the programme demonstrated. Seventy-four pregnancies (42%) accepted for Birth Centre confinement required transfer because of antepartum or intrapartum complications.

Discipline stereotyping and evaluative attitudes among community mental health center staff.

The Adjective Check List was administered to psychiatrists, psychiatric social workers, and clinical psychologists on the staff of a university-operated community mental health center, to measure attitudes toward five mental health disciplines. Adjective stereotypes and evaluative attitudes were highly positive, although social workers tended to be more negative toward psychiatrists than toward the other disciplines. Cognitive and dynamic factors are examined in an attempt to understand discipline differences in stereotyping and evaluative attitudes.

Conservatorship: an involuntary legal status for 'gravely disabled' mentally disordered persons.

Since 1969 in California, conservatorship has been the only form of civil, longterm involuntary psychiatric legal process. It does not require hospital-based treatment. This paper reports a preliminary study of this process through a retrospective analysis of conservatorship records in Sacramento County, California, from 1969 through 1976.

Peer rating by a community mental health team: a positive approach to accountability.

A peer rating system was devised in response to a request from members of a community mental health team for a positive method of self-evaluation. Team members rated each other three times at one month intervals. Reliability was high, and factor analysis generated two major dimensions--positive regard and competence--assessed by the rating instrument.