Diagnostic accuracy of eHealth literacy measurement tools in older adults: a systematic review.

Background: In Canada, virtual health care rapidly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is substantial variability between older adults in terms of digital literacy skills, which precludes equitable participation of some older adults in virtual care. Little is known about how to measure older adults' electronic health (eHealth) literacy, which could help healthcare providers to support older adults in accessing virtual care.

Care gaps in achieving cholesterol targets in people with diabetes: A population-based study in a universal health care setting.

Aims: Statins are first line therapy in people with diabetes. Little is known about real-world statin intensity use and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels achieved. We aimed to describe statin intensity used, achievement of LDL-C targets, and factors associated with achieving targets among adults with diabetes.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis patients: A scoping review.

Background: The clinical syndrome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) peritoneal dialysis (PD) peritonitis is poorly understood. Whether local tuberculosis (TB) patterns modify the clinical syndrome, and what factors associate with poor outcomes is also unknown.

The prevalence of anxiety in adult-onset isolated dystonia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background And Purpose: Clinically relevant anxiety and anxiety disorders are commonly associated with adult-onset isolated dystonia, contributing substantially to quality-of-life impairment in patients with this movement disorder. However, the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and disorders in adult-onset isolated dystonia remains unclear. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of anxiety symptoms/disorders in adult-onset isolated dystonia.

Diagnostic accuracy of virtual cognitive assessment and testing: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background/objectives: Virtual (i.e., telephone or videoconference) care was broadly implemented because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Description of a Multi-faceted COVID-19 Pandemic Physician Workforce Plan at a Multi-site Academic Health System.

Background: The evolving COVID-19 pandemic has and continues to present a threat to health system capacity. Rapidly expanding an existing acute care physician workforce is critical to pandemic response planning in large urban academic health systems.

Intervention: The Medical Emergency-Pandemic Operations Command (MEOC)-a multi-specialty team of physicians, operational leaders, and support staff within an academic Department of Medicine in Calgary, Canada-partnered with its provincial health system to rapidly develop a comprehensive, scalable pandemic physician workforce plan for non-ventilated inpatients with COVID-19 across multiple hospitals.

Hospital Initiated Injectable Opioid Agonist Therapy for the Treatment of Severe Opioid Use Disorder: A Case Series.

Background: Across North America, there is an unprecedented opioid overdose epidemic. Approximately 15% of individuals with severe opioid use disorder (OUD) do not benefit from opioid agonist therapy (OAT) such as buprenorphine/naloxone or methadone and are considered treatment refractory. Of those who inject, injectable OAT (iOAT), with hydromorphone or diacetylmorphine, offered in community settings has demonstrated improved retention to treatment and decreased nonprescription opioid use.

Clinical and microbiological characteristics of bloodstream infections due to AmpC β-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae: an active surveillance cohort in a large centralized Canadian region.

Background: The objective of this study was to describe the clinical and microbiological characteristics of bloodstream infections (BSIs) due to AmpC producing Enterobacteriaceae (AE) in a large centralized Canadian region over a 9-year period.

Methods: An active surveillance cohort design in Calgary, Canada.

Results: A cohort of 458 episodes of BSIs caused by AE was assembled for analysis.

Beyond Trisomy 21: Additional Chromosomal Anomalies Detected through Routine Aneuploidy Screening.

Prenatal screening is often misconstrued by patients as screening for trisomy 21 alone; however, other chromosomal anomalies are often detected. This study aimed to systematically review the literature and use diagnostic meta-analysis to derive pooled detection and false positive rates for aneuploidies other than trisomy 21 with different prenatal screening tests. Non-invasive prenatal testing had the highest detection (DR) and lowest false positive (FPR) rates for trisomy 13 (DR: 90.

A review of the anterior visual pathway model and the study of vitamin D in demyelinating disease.

In recent years, theories about the anti-inflammatory properties of vitamin D in demyelinating disease have been well substantiated by human studies examining relapse reduction, MRI lesion activity and risk of MS conversion. However, the evidence that vitamin D may protect against neurodegeneration has not been established as of yet, and comes with the challenges of a manageable target over a manageable time period. Such challenges might be overcome by the anterior visual pathway (AVP) model of the central nervous system, which allows the non-invasive study (e.

Economic evaluation of increasing population rates of cardiac catheterization.

Background: Increasing population rates of cardiac catheterization can lead to the detection of more people with high risk coronary disease and opportunity for subsequent revascularization. However, such a strategy should only be undertaken if it is cost-effective.

Methods: Based on data from a cohort of patients undergoing cardiac catheterization, and efficacy data from clinical trials, we used a Markov model that considered 1) the yield of high-risk cases as the catheterization rate increases, 2) the long-term survival, quality of life and costs for patients with high risk disease, and 3) the impact of revascularization on survival, quality of life and costs.

A multi-region assessment of population rates of cardiac catheterization and yield of high-risk coronary artery disease.

Background: There is variation in cardiac catheterization utilization across jurisdictions. Previous work from Alberta, Canada, showed no evidence of a plateau in the yield of high-risk disease at cardiac catheterization rates as high as 600 per 100,000 population suggesting that the optimal rate is higher. This work aims 1) To determine if a previously demonstrated linear relationship between the yield of high-risk coronary disease and cardiac catheterization rates persists with contemporary data and 2) to explore whether the linear relationship exists in other jurisdictions.