Screening for frequent hospitalization risk among community-dwelling older adult between 2016 and 2023: machine learning-driven item selection, scoring system development, and prospective validation.

Background: Screening for frequent hospitalizations in the community can help prevent super-utilizers from growing in the inpatient population. However, the determinants of frequent hospitalizations have not been systematically examined, their operational definitions have been inconsistent, and screening among community members lacks tools. Nor do we know if what determined frequent hospitalizations before COVID-19 continued to be the determinant of frequent hospitalizations at the height of the pandemic.

Virtual Home Care for Patients With Acute Illness.

Importance: Recent evolutions in clinical care and remote monitoring suggest that some acute illnesses no longer require intravenous therapy and inpatient hospitalization.

Objective: To describe outcomes of patients receiving care in a new, outpatient, virtual, home-based acute care model called Safer@Home.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective cohort analysis, conducted from September 1, 2022, through August 31, 2023, included 2466 patients treated at a safety net hospital in Los Angeles County for 10 core illnesses and 24 other acute illnesses for which patients are commonly hospitalized.

Investigating the impact of severe maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection on infant DNA methylation and neurodevelopment.

Maternal infections during pregnancy can increase the risk to offspring of developing a neurodevelopmental disorder. Given the global prevalence and severity of infection with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the objective of this study was to determine if in utero exposure to severe maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection alters infant neurodevelopmental outcomes at 12 months and to identify potential biological markers of adverse infant outcomes. Mother-infant dyads exposed to severe SARS-CoV-2 infection (requiring hospitalization) during pregnancy and age and sociodemographic matched control dyads were recruited from Monash Medical Centre, Australia in 2021/22 and prospectively assessed over 12 months.

Cigarette Smoking and its Association with Primary Open Angle Glaucoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Purpose: To systematically assess the association between cigarette smoking and development of Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) in the general adult population. Heterogeneity will be explored appropriately.

Methods: Outcomes of glaucoma, OAG and POAG were explored in adults who were current, former, and never cigarette smokers.

2023 Inaugural Healthcare Delivery Science: Innovation and Partnerships for Health Equity Research (DESCIPHER) Symposium.

Introduction: This article provides an overview of presentations and discussions from the inaugural Healthcare Delivery Science: Innovation and Partnerships for Health Equity Research (DESCIPHER) Symposium.

Methods: The symposium brought together esteemed experts from various disciplines to explore models for translating evidence-based interventions into practice.

Results: The symposium highlighted the importance of disruptive innovation in healthcare, the need for multi-stakeholder engagement, and the significance of family and community involvement in healthcare interventions.

Underserved groups could be better considered within population-based eye health surveys: a methodological study.

Objectives: In pursuit of health equity, the World Health Organization has recently called for more extensive monitoring of inequalities in eye health. Population-based eye health surveys can provide this information, but whether underserved groups are considered in the design, implementation, and reporting of surveys is unknown. We conducted a systematic methodological review of surveys published since 2000 to examine how many population-based eye health surveys have considered underserved groups in their design, implementation, or reporting.

Plan-do-study-act (PDSA) interventions to improve real-world endoscopy unit productivity.

The Plan-Do-Study Act (PDSA) ramp is a framework that uses initial small changes to build consensus and momentum for subsequent, iterative process improvement. Our aim was to study its impact on endoscopy unit efficiency and throughput. Following a granular time-and-motion analysis to evaluate baseline performance (phase 1) we instituted successive interventions and measured their impact on core efficiency metrics including procedure volume and turnover time (phases 2-3).

Impact of Environment on Pain among the Working Poor: Making Use of Random Forest-Based Stratification Tool to Study the Socioecology of Pain Interference.

Pain interferes with one's work and social life and, at a personal level, daily activities, mood, and sleep quality. However, little research has been conducted on pain interference and its socioecological determinants among the working poor. Noting the clinical/policy decision needs and the technical challenges of isolating the intricately interrelated socioecological factors' unique contributions to pain interference and quantifying the relative contributions of each factor in an interpretable manner to inform clinical and policy decision-making, we deployed a novel random forest algorithm to model and quantify the unique contribution of a diverse ensemble of environmental, sociodemographic, and clinical factors to pain interference.

The Limited Utility of Routine Pathologic Examination of Ganglion Cyst Excision From the Hand and Digits.

Background: It is routine practice at many institutions to send surgically excised ganglion cysts for pathologic analysis. This adds significant cost to the procedure with questionable benefit. The purpose of this study was to determine the necessity of routine pathologic examination of ganglion cysts excised from the hand.

Extending the Operational Lifetime of Electrochemiluminescence Devices by Installing a Floating Bipolar Electrode.

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) holds significant promise for the development of cost-effective light-emitting devices because of its simple structure. However, conventional ECL devices (ECLDs) have a major limitation of short operational lifetimes, rendering them impractical for real-world applications. Typically, the luminescence of these devices lasts no longer than a few minutes during operation.

Centering disability visibility in reproductive health care: Dismantling barriers to achieve reproductive equity.

Access to comprehensive and culturally competent reproductive health care is essential for individuals and communities to realize and achieve health and well-being, as one prefers. The disability community represents a diverse group of individuals with a wide spectrum of functional, physical, sensory, and/or neurodivergent abilities. Existing barriers to reproductive health care are a consequence of environmental and attitudinal barriers, not from the disabilities themselves.

Implantable Multi-Cross-Linked Membrane-Ionogel Assembly for Reversible Non-Faradaic Neurostimulation.

Neural interfaces play a major role in modulating neural signals for therapeutic purposes. To meet the demand of conformable neural interfaces for developing bioelectronic medicine, recent studies have focused on the performance of electrical neurostimulators employing soft conductors such as conducting polymers and electronic or ionic conductive hydrogels. However, faradaic charge injection at the interface of the electrode and nerve tissue causes irreversible gas evolution, oxidation of electrodes, and reduction of biological ions, thus causing undesired tissue damage and electrode degradation.

Risk factor-based screening compared to universal screening for gestational diabetes mellitus in marginalized Burman and Karen populations on the Thailand-Myanmar border: An observational cohort.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) contributes to maternal and neonatal morbidity. As data from marginalized populations remains scarce, this study compares risk-factor-based to universal GDM screening in a low resource setting. This is a secondary analysis of data from a prospective preterm birth cohort.

A Proactive Outreach Strategy Using a Local Area Code to Refer Unassisted Smokers in a Safety Net Health System to a Quitline: A Pragmatic Randomized Trial.

Introduction: Proactive outreach offering tobacco treatment is a promising strategy outside of clinical settings, but little is known about factors for engagement. The study objective is to examine the impact of caller area code in a proactive, phone-based outreach strategy on consenting low-income smokers to a quitline e-referral.

Aims And Methods: This pragmatic randomized trial included unassisted adult smokers (n = 685), whose preferred language was English or Spanish, in a Los Angeles safety-net health system.

The use of technology for online learning among older adults in Hong Kong.

The use of technology to facilitate better living and learning is gaining popularity worldwide. More and more older adults are technology users and participating in online learning. While there is ample research examining the factors affecting older adults' behavioural intention to use technology more generally, less is known about their views of using technology in online learning environments.

Advance directives in Hong Kong: moving forward to legislation.

Background: An advance directive (AD) is a legal statement indicating the form of healthcare the patient would like to receive at a future time when he/she is no longer mentally competent to make decisions. As there are increased concerns to respect the preferences of medical treatment of patients suffering from terminal illnesses, AD receives more attention and recognition in healthcare settings. However, Hong Kong has neither statue nor direst case law on the legal status of AD.

A rare case of breast squamous cell carcinoma and literature review.

Introduction: Breast Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) is quite a rare tumour that the features portray squamous cell differentiation.

Presentation Of Case: We report a case of a 56-year-old female presented left breast lump that had been increasing in size for a 7 months duration associated with nipple retraction for one week. Ultrasound breast was done and revealed a large mixed echo density mass lesion in the left breast at 12 o'clock, 2cm from the nipple and measuring 4.

Breast horn; A rare case presentation.

Introduction: Breast Cutaneous Horn is a rare case whereby they are basically just nodules composed of keratin projecting above the surface the skin.

Presentation Of Case: A 63-year-old lady, para 6 presented with a horn like growth for the past 2 years associated with itchiness. The horn increased in size to about a length of 5 cm associated with on and off itchiness over the horn.

eHealth Tools That Assess and Track Health and Well-being in Children and Young People: Systematic Review.

Background: eHealth tools that assess and track health outcomes in children or young people are an emerging type of technology that has the potential to reform health service delivery and facilitate integrated, interdisciplinary care.

Objective: The aim of this review is to summarize eHealth tools that have assessed and tracked health in children or young people to provide greater clarity around the populations and settings in which they have been used, characteristics of digital devices (eg, health domains, respondents, presence of tracking, and connection to care), primary outcomes, and risks and challenges of implementation.

Methods: A search was conducted in PsycINFO, PubMed or MEDLINE, and Embase in April 2020.

Predictors of the intention to use traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) using extended theory of planned behavior: a cross-sectional study among TCM users in Hong Kong.

Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine are available and have a long history in Hong Kong. Little is known on the intention to use TCM in Hong Kong. In this study, the intention to use TCM was examined by the extended theory of planned behavior.

Establishing a research informatics program in a public healthcare system: a case report with model documents.

While much is known about governance models for research informatics programs in academic medical centers and similarly situated cancer centers, community and public health systems have been less well-characterized. As part of implementing an enterprise research governance framework, leaders in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services established a research informatics program, including research data warehousing. The strategy is focused on high-priority, patient-centered research that leverages the investment in health IT and an efficient, sustained contribution from 2 affiliated Clinical Translational Sciences Institutes.

Risk factors and impact of COVID-19-related clinic closures on the detection of gastrointestinal parasites in dogs, a cross-sectional study.

Infections with endoparasites, especially gastrointestinal helminths, are a common finding in client-owned dogs. The Community Practice section at the Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center (OSU-VMC) follows Companion Animal Parasite Council, American Animal Hospital Association, and American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines for parasitology by recommending annual fecal analyses for dogs and prescribing year-round, broad-spectrum parasite preventatives. There is increasing interest in determining if parasite occurrence is changing in client-owned dogs.