An effective approach to tackling complex health policy challenges. Using a clinical microsystems approach and rethinking codesign.

That people with serious mental illness have poor physical health and face a significant life expectancy gap compared with the general population is well known. Despite considerable policy focus in some countries, the gap in life expectancy remains. Tackling complex and persistent health problems such as this requires a systems-based approach, recognising the complexity of interacting components and their effects on the problem and on each other and applying collaborative analysis, design and implementation by those with knowledge of and expertise in the problem and the context.

A PSA SNP associates with cellular function and clinical outcome in men with prostate cancer.

Genetic variation at the 19q13.3 KLK locus is linked with prostate cancer susceptibility in men. The non-synonymous KLK3 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs17632542 (c.

Insights From the Development of a Dynamic Consent Platform for the Australians Together Health Initiative (ATHENA) Program: Interview and Survey Study.

Background: Dynamic consent has the potential to address many of the issues facing traditional paper-based or electronic consent, including enrolling informed and engaged participants in the decision-making process. The Australians Together Health Initiative (ATHENA) program aims to connect participants across Queensland, Australia, with new research opportunities. At its core is dynamic consent, an interactive and participant-centric digital platform that enables users to view ongoing research activities, update consent preferences, and have ongoing engagement with researchers.

Environmental triggers of pemphigus vulgaris and bullous pemphigoid: a case control study.

Background: Previous case-control studies have suggested that environmental factors including exposure to pesticides and organic materials, diet and medications have an important role in the pathogenesis of pemphigus vulgaris. These studies lacked geographical population controls and had less than three controls per case.

Objective: To identify environmental and occupational risk factors associated with the development of pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and bullous pemphigoid (BP).

Efficacy of Stand-Alone Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion With PEEK Cages, BMP-2, and Allografts for Treating Discogenic Low Back Pain: Assessing Clinical and Radiographic Outcomes.

Background: Chronic low back pain secondary to degenerative disc disease is a significant public health issue worldwide, contributing to substantial health care burdens and patient disability. Anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) has emerged as a promising surgical solution, offering benefits such as disc height restoration, reduced neural compression, and improved spinal alignment. This study evaluates the efficacy of stand-alone ALIF using polyetheretherketone (PEEK) cages, structural femoral head allografts, and recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) in treating discogenic low back pain caused by degenerative disc disease.

Meal Timing and Anthropometric and Metabolic Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Importance: Meal timing strategies, such as time-restricted eating (TRE), reducing meal frequency, or altering calorie distribution across the day, have gained interest for their potential to enhance weight loss and metabolic health, particularly in managing chronic diseases, yet their long-term benefits are not known.

Objective: To evaluate the association between meal timing strategies (≥12 weeks) and anthropometric and metabolic indicators.

Data Sources: Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane CENTRAL were searched from inception to October 17, 2023.

Omnivore, vegan and vegetarian diet quality associations with depressive symptoms: A comparative cross-sectional analysis of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.

Background: Depressive symptoms are experienced by >350 million people globally. Research suggests that a diet rich in plant foods could be protective against depressive symptoms, but vegans and vegetarians who eat a predominant plant-based diet are known to have higher depressive symptoms than omnivores.

Methods: This study aims to explore a secondary analysis of the association between diet quality and depressive symptoms in women born between 1973 and 1978 who follow vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore diets from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health at baseline (1996) and at three time points (2000, 2003 and 2009).

Internal evaluation of medical programs is more than housework: A scoping review.

Purpose: The aim of this scoping review was to explore current program evaluation practices across various medical schools.

Methods: We conducted searches in MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Elsevier) and ERIC (ed.gov) for original research and review articles related to medical education evaluation with key words evaluation, program, medical education, pre-registration, framework, curriculum, outcomes, evaluation, quality.

Methodological approaches in 16S sequencing of female reproductive tract in fertility patients: a review.

Background: The female genital tract microbiome has become a particular area of interest in improving assisted reproductive technology (ART) outcomes with the emergence of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. However, NGS assessment of microbiomes currently lacks uniformity and poses significant challenges for accurate and precise bacterial population representation.

Objective: As multiple NGS platforms and assays have been developed in recent years for microbiome investigation-including the advent of long-read sequencing technologies-this work aimed to identify current trends and practices undertaken in female genital tract microbiome investigations.

Understanding the well-being of residents in Chinese Continuing Care Retirement Communities-a case of Shanghai.

Introduction: China is one of the world's fastest-aging countries. Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) have emerged as a viable option for accommodating and serving older adults. However, Chinese CCRCs are still in the early stages, and comprehensive research on resident well-being is still deficient.

A randomized clinical trial of emotional freedom techniques for chronic pain: Live versus self-paced delivery with 6-month follow-up.

Background: Chronic pain represents a major global healthcare crisis, and current treatments are limited in effectiveness and safety. Emotional freedom techniques (EFTs) show promise as a potential psychological treatment.

Methods: The current study investigated the effect of a randomized clinical trial of EFT for chronic pain in a sample of 147 adult chronic pain sufferers (89.

Pre-referral ultrasound for cryptorchidism: Still common, still not necessary.

Aim: Evidence-based guidelines do not recommend imaging in cryptorchidism, but anecdotally most referrals include an ultrasound report. We aimed to assess the frequency, utility and burden of imaging in children referred with presumptive disorders of testicular descent, and to assess trends over a 7-year period before and after local and international guidelines have been introduced.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of children referred to the Queensland Children's Hospital for anomalies of testicular descent between 2015-2017 and 2023-2024.

Assessment of communication skills in health professions education; Ottawa 2024 consensus statement.

Despite the increasing inclusion of communication skills in accreditation standards and an increase in time dedicated to teaching these skills, communication is often regarded as a separate skill and is therefore, not consistently represented in overall systems of assessment in Health Professions Education (HPE). The ascendence of competency-based medical education, programmatic assessment, artificial intelligence, and widespread use of telehealth, alongside changing patient expectations warrant an update in thinking about the assessment of communication skills in health professions education. This consensus statement draws on existing literature, expert pinion, and emerging challenges to situate the assessment of communication skills in the contemporary health professions education context.

Involvement of pentraxin-3 in the development of hypertension but not left ventricular hypertrophy in male spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Hypertension drives the development of concentric left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). However, the relative contribution of pentraxin-3 (PTX-3), a novel marker for inflammatory cardiovascular disease, in the hypertrophic response to pressure overload has not been adequately elucidated. We investigated the role of PTX-3 in the development of LVH in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), untreated and treated with either captopril (an ACE inhibitor) or hydralazine (a non-specific vasodilator).

Toward diversification of acute stressors and precision stress research: A stage 2 Registered Report validating a reward-salient stress task in emerging adults.

Stress is one of, if not the, most ubiquitously studied risk factor across the health sciences. This is unlikely to change given that the primary drivers of mortality and disability are chronic, stress-mediated illnesses (often highly comorbid with psychopathology). We argue that an important limitation of stress research is the consistency with which the Trier Social Stress Test is used when the research questions are not specific to social stress.

Parent concerns prior to an assessment of autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review.

When a parent has concerns about their child's development, there is a lag between seeking and receiving health information. When waiting, parents may speculate about a possible diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, but it is unclear what types of concerns might drive this speculation. To determine the types of concerns parents may have before their child is assessed, we conducted a systematic review that explored parent concerns before an autism spectrum disorder assessment.