Centre-Specific Variation in Atrial Fibrillation Ablation-Treatment Rates in a Universal Single-Payer Healthcare System.

Background: Disparities in atrial fibrillation ablation rates have been studied previously, with a focus on either patient characteristics or systems factors, rather than geographic factors. The impact of electrophysiology (EP) centre practice patterns on ablation rates has not been well studied.

Methods: This population-based cohort study used linked administrative datasets covering physician billing codes, hospitalizations, prescriptions, and census data.

Altered inter-segmental coordination in athletes with a history of concussion.

Concussion-recovered athletes have a higher risk of injury following return to sport. This study investigated the effect of history of concussion on the pattern and variability of inter-segmental coordination in athletes during squat jumps and timed squat and hinge tasks. A human pose estimation algorithm was applied to videos of 111 athletes (72 with no history of concussion (NOHX), 9 within 1 year of concussion (CONC1), 30 more than one-year post-concussion (CONC2) performing a series of movement tasks.

Impact of Surgeon-Radiation Oncology Dyads in Oral Cavity Cancer Outcomes.

Background: Multidisciplinary care is paramount in patient-specific decision making, especially as pertaining to oral cavity squamous cell cancer (OCSCC) treatment. Protracted surgery-postoperative-radiation (S-PORT) has a detrimental impact on OCSCC patients' outcomes. This study examined the impact of surgeon-radiation oncologist dyads on the treatment of OCSCC, focusing on S-PORT interval and disease specific outcomes.

Combinations of First Responder and Drone Delivery to Achieve 5-Minute AED Deployment in OHCA.

Background: Defibrillation in the critical first minutes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) can significantly improve survival. However, timely access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) remains a barrier.

Objectives: The authors estimated the impact of a statewide program for drone-delivered AEDs in North Carolina integrated into emergency medical service and first responder (FR) response for OHCA.

Assessing feasibility of proposed extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation programmes for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Scotland via geospatial modelling.

Background: Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) can improve survival for refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We sought to assess the feasibility of a proposed ECPR programme in Scotland, considering both in-hospital and pre-hospital implementation scenarios.

Methods: We included treated OHCAs in Scotland aged 16-70 between August 2018 and March 2022.

Knowledge-based planning for Gamma Knife.

Background: Current methods for Gamma Knife (GK) treatment planning utilizes either manual forward planning, where planners manually place shots in a tumor to achieve a desired dose distribution, or inverse planning, whereby the dose delivered to a tumor is optimized for multiple objectives based on established metrics. For other treatment modalities like IMRT and VMAT, there has been a recent push to develop knowledge-based planning (KBP) pipelines to address the limitations presented by forward and inverse planning. However, no complete KBP pipeline has been created for GK.

Miss it like Messi: Extracting value from off-target shots in soccer.

Measuring soccer shooting skill is a challenging analytics problem due to the scarcity and highly contextual nature of scoring events. The introduction of more advanced data surrounding soccer shots has given rise to model-based metrics which better cope with these challenges. Specifically, metrics such as expected goals added, goals above expectation, and post-shot expected goals all use advanced data to offer an improvement over the classical conversion rate.

Lung- and diaphragm-protective strategies in acute respiratory failure: an in silico trial.

Background: Lung- and diaphragm-protective (LDP) ventilation may prevent diaphragm atrophy and patient self-inflicted lung injury in acute respiratory failure, but feasibility is uncertain. The objectives of this study were to estimate the proportion of patients achieving LDP targets in different modes of ventilation, and to identify predictors of need for extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCOR) to achieve LDP targets.

Methods: An in silico clinical trial was conducted using a previously published mathematical model of patient-ventilator interaction in a simulated patient population (n = 5000) with clinically relevant physiological characteristics.

Constrained Optimization for Decision Making in Health Care Using Python: A Tutorial.

This tutorial provides a user-friendly guide to mathematically formulating constrained optimization problems and implementing them using Python.Two examples are presented to illustrate how constrained optimization is used in health applications, with accompanying Python code provided.

Priorities for Artificial Intelligence Applications in Primary Care: A Canadian Deliberative Dialogue with Patients, Providers, and Health System Leaders.

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) implementation in primary care is limited. Those set to be most impacted by AI technology in this setting should guide it's application. We organized a national deliberative dialogue with primary care stakeholders from across Canada to explore how they thought AI should be applied in primary care.

Implementing artificial intelligence in Canadian primary care: Barriers and strategies identified through a national deliberative dialogue.

Background: With large volumes of longitudinal data in electronic medical records from diverse patients, primary care is primed for disruption by artificial intelligence (AI) technology. With AI applications in primary care still at an early stage in Canada and most countries, there is a unique opportunity to engage key stakeholders in exploring how AI would be used and what implementation would look like.

Objective: To identify the barriers that patients, providers, and health leaders perceive in relation to implementing AI in primary care and strategies to overcome them.

3D dose prediction for Gamma Knife radiosurgery using deep learning and data modification.

Purpose: To develop a machine learning-based, 3D dose prediction methodology for Gamma Knife (GK) radiosurgery. The methodology accounts for cases involving targets of any number, size, and shape.

Methods: Data from 322 GK treatment plans was modified by isolating and cropping the contoured MRI and clinical dose distributions based on tumor location, then scaling the resulting tumor spaces to a standard size.

Pediatric and adult Out-of-Hospital cardiac arrest incidence within and near public schools in British Columbia: Missed opportunities for Systematic AED deployment strategies.

Background: Systematic automated external defibrillator(AED) placement in schools may improve pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest(OHCA) survival. To estimate their utility, we identified school-located pediatric and adult OHCAs to estimate the potential utilization of school-located AEDs. Further, we identified all OHCAs within an AED-retrievable distance of the school by walking, biking, and driving.

OpenKBP-Opt: an international and reproducible evaluation of 76 knowledge-based planning pipelines.

To establish an open framework for developing plan optimization models for knowledge-based planning (KBP).Our framework includes radiotherapy treatment data (i.e.

Strategies for lung- and diaphragm-protective ventilation in acute hypoxemic respiratory failure: a physiological trial.

Background: Insufficient or excessive respiratory effort during acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) increases the risk of lung and diaphragm injury. We sought to establish whether respiratory effort can be optimized to achieve lung- and diaphragm-protective (LDP) targets (esophageal pressure swing - 3 to - 8 cm HO; dynamic transpulmonary driving pressure ≤ 15 cm HO) during AHRF.

Methods: In patients with early AHRF, spontaneous breathing was initiated as soon as passive ventilation was not deemed mandatory.

An Anesthesia Block Room Is Financially Net Positive for a Hospital Performing Arthroplasty.

Introduction: Regional anesthesia is increasingly used in total joint arthroplasty (TJA). It has shown efficiency benefits as it allows parallel processing of patients in a dedicated block room (BR). However, granular quantification of these benefits to hospital operations is lacking.

Inverse optimization on hierarchical networks: an application to breast cancer clinical pathways.

Clinical pathways are standardized processes that outline the steps required for managing a specific disease. However, patient pathways often deviate from clinical pathways. Measuring the concordance of patient pathways to clinical pathways is important for health system monitoring and informing quality improvement initiatives.

Incremental gains in response time with varying base location types for drone-delivered automated external defibrillators.

Introduction: Drone-delivered automated external defibrillators (AEDs) may reduce delays to defibrillation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs). We sought to determine how integration of drones and selection of drone bases between emergency service stations (i.e.

Outcomes in patients with and without disability admitted to hospital with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Disability-related considerations have largely been absent from the COVID-19 response, despite evidence that people with disabilities are at elevated risk for acquiring COVID-19. We evaluated clinical outcomes in patients who were admitted to hospital with COVID-19 with a disability compared with patients without a disability.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study that included adults with COVID-19 who were admitted to hospital and discharged between Jan.

Utilization and cost-effectiveness of school and community center AED deployment models in Canadian cities.

Background: The optimal locations and cost-effectiveness of placing automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCAs) in urban residential neighbourhoods are unclear.

Methods: We used prospectively collected data from 2016 to 2018 from the British Columbia OHCA Registry to examine the utilization and cost-effectiveness of hypothetical AED deployment in municipalities with a population of over 100 000. We geo-plotted OHCA events using seven hypothetical deployment models where AEDs were placed at the exteriors of public schools and community centers and fetched by bystanders.

Moderating effects of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest characteristics on the association between EMS response time and survival.

Background: Although several Utstein variables are known to independently improve survival, how they moderate the effect of emergency medical service (EMS) response times on survival is unknown.

Objectives: To quantify how public location, witnessed status, bystander CPR, and bystander AED shock individually and jointly moderate the effect of EMS response time delays on OHCA survival.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study was a secondary analysis of the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Epistry-Cardiac Arrest database (December 2005 to June 2015).

Implications for cardiac arrest coverage using straight-line versus route distance to nearest automated external defibrillator.

Aim: Quantifying the ratio describing the difference between "true route" and "straight-line" distances from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) to the closest accessible automated external defibrillator (AED) can help correct likely overestimations in AED coverage. Furthermore, we aimed to examine to what extent the closest AED based on true route distance differed from the closest AED using "straight-line".

Methods: OHCAs (1994-2016) and AEDs (2016) in Copenhagen, Denmark and in Toronto, Canada (2007-2015 and 2015, respectively) were identified.