Storytelling workshop to encourage stakeholder engagement with the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer.

Storytelling can enhance stakeholder engagement and support the implementation of the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization's (PAHO) Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer, which aims to improve care globally for children with cancer. The Initiative aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, addressing health, education, inequalities and international collaboration. This report describes the design and implementation of a workshop that used storytelling through film to encourage stakeholders in national cancer control plans to engage with the Initiative in its focal countries in Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Assessing the governance environment for private sector engagement in health in Africa: Results from a multi-country survey.

Background: The role of the private sector in health is clear in many countries but engagement can be improved. The World Health Organization (WHO) developed a global strategy in 2020 focused on engaging the private sector in health service delivery through governance in mixed health systems and detailed six governance behaviours to guide its Member States. To operationalise these global ideas into practice, the Regional Office for Africa conducted a multi-country study to understand perceptions around the six governance behaviours.

Medium-term Outcomes in Pediatric Heart Transplant Recipients Managed Using a Steroid Avoidance Immune Suppression Protocol.

Background: Short-term outcomes using steroid avoidance immune suppression are encouraging in pediatric heart transplant (HT) recipients at low risk of antibody-mediated rejection. We assessed medium-term outcomes in pediatric HT recipients initiated on a steroid avoidance protocol at our institution using surveillance biopsies.

Methods: All primary HT recipients during 2006-2020 who did not have a donor-specific antibody were eligible for immune suppression consisting of 5-d Thymoglobulin/steroid induction followed by a tacrolimus-based, steroid-free regimen.

Integrative Enhancer Discovery Reveals a New Model of Enhancer Organization.

Enhancers possess both structural elements mediating promoter looping and functional elements mediating gene expression. Traditional models of enhancer-mediated gene regulation imply genomic overlap or immediate adjacency of these elements. We test this model by combining densely-tiled CRISPRa screening with nucleosome-resolution Region Capture Micro-C topology analysis.

Periodontal disease is not associated with risk of inflammatory bowel disease: Results from two prospective cohort studies in the US.

Aim: To examine the relationship between periodontal disease and tooth loss and risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 86,602 women from the Nurses' Health Study (1992-2016) and 50,349 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2016) with available data on periodontal disease and tooth loss. Cases of IBD were initially reported by participants and then confirmed by medical record review.

Promoting health equity through poverty alleviation policy: Factors associated with receipt of the 2021 U.S. Child Tax Credit in a nationwide sample.

Introduction: The 2021 temporary expansion of the U.S. Child Tax Credit (CTC) was a potent policy that addressed poverty as a critical social determinant of health.

New onset postoperative depression after major surgery: an analysis from a national claims database.

Background: Postoperative depression is not well characterised. We investigated the incidence of postoperative depression with the hypothesis that after controlling for confounders, new onset depression would vary significantly by surgical type.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Optum Clinformatics Datamart.

First-Pass Success of Intubations Using Video Versus Direct Laryngoscopy in Children With Limited Neck Mobility.

Objective: It is not clear whether video laryngoscopy (VL) is associated with a higher first-pass success rate in pediatric patients with limited neck mobility when compared with direct laryngoscopy (DL). We sought to determine the association between the laryngoscopy method and first-pass success.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we examined intubation data extracted from 2 prospectively collected, multicenter, airway management safety databases (National Emergency Airway Registry and the National Emergency Airway Registry for children), obtained during the years 2013-2018 in the emergency department.

Trajectories and correlates of poor mental health in India over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: a nation-wide survey.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had large impacts on mental health; however, most existing evidence is focused on the initial lockdown period and high-income contexts. By assessing trajectories of mental health symptoms in India over two years, we aim to understand the effect of later time periods and pandemic characteristics on mental health in a lower-middle income context.

Methods: We used data from the Real-Time Insights of COVID-19 in India (RTI COVID-India) cohort study (N=3,662).

Clinical phenotypes and outcomes in children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome across SARS-CoV-2 variant eras: a multinational study from the 4CE consortium.

Background: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a severe complication of SARS-CoV-2 infection. It remains unclear how MIS-C phenotypes vary across SARS-CoV-2 variants. We aimed to investigate clinical characteristics and outcomes of MIS-C across SARS-CoV-2 eras.

State of the science and future directions for research on HIV and cancer: Summary of a joint workshop sponsored by IARC and NCI.

An estimated 38 million people live with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) worldwide and are at excess risk for multiple cancer types. Elevated cancer risks in people living with HIV (PLWH) are driven primarily by increased exposure to carcinogens, most notably oncogenic viruses acquired through shared transmission routes, plus acceleration of viral carcinogenesis by HIV-related immunosuppression. In the era of widespread antiretroviral therapy (ART), life expectancy of PLWH has increased, with cancer now a leading cause of co-morbidity and death.

Early-life participation in cognitively stimulating activities and risk of depression and anxiety in late life.

Background: Early-life stressful experiences are associated with increased risk of adverse psychological outcomes in later life. However, much less is known about associations between early-life positive experiences, such as participation in cognitively stimulating activities, and late-life mental health. We investigated whether greater engagement in cognitively stimulating activities in early life is associated with lower risk of depression and anxiety in late life.

A self-supervised deep learning method for data-efficient training in genomics.

Deep learning in bioinformatics is often limited to problems where extensive amounts of labeled data are available for supervised classification. By exploiting unlabeled data, self-supervised learning techniques can improve the performance of machine learning models in the presence of limited labeled data. Although many self-supervised learning methods have been suggested before, they have failed to exploit the unique characteristics of genomic data.

Comparing apples to apples: Exploring public reporting of congenital cardiac surgery outcomes based on common congenital heart operations.

Objective: We sought to simplify reporting of outcomes in congenital heart surgery that compares well-defined patient groups and accommodates multiple stakeholder needs while being easily understandable.

Methods: We selected 19 commonly performed congenital heart surgeries ranging in complexity from repair of atrial septal defects to the Norwood procedure. Strict inclusion/exclusion criteria ensured the creation of 19 well-defined diagnosis/procedure cohorts.

Ethnic differences of genetic risk and smoking in lung cancer: two prospective cohort studies.

Background: The role of genetic background underlying the disparity of relative risk of smoking and lung cancer between European populations and East Asians remains unclear.

Methods: To assess the role of ethnic differences in genetic factors associated with smoking-related risk of lung cancer, we first constructed ethnic-specific polygenic risk scores (PRSs) to quantify individual genetic risk of lung cancer in Chinese and European populations. Then, we compared genetic risk and smoking as well as their interactions on lung cancer between two cohorts, including the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) and the UK Biobank (UKB).

Validating a model for predicting breast cancer and nonbreast cancer death in women aged 55 years and older.

Background: To support mammography screening decision making, we developed a competing-risk model to estimate 5-year breast cancer risk and 10-year nonbreast cancer death for women aged 55 years and older using Nurses' Health Study data and examined model performance in the Black Women's Health Study (BWHS). Here, we examine model performance in predicting 10-year outcomes in the BWHS, Women's Health Initiative-Extension Study (WHI-ES), and Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) and compare model performance to existing breast cancer prediction models.

Methods: We used competing-risk regression and Royston and Altman methods for validating survival models to calculate our model's calibration and discrimination (C index) in BWHS (n = 17 380), WHI-ES (n = 106 894), and MEC (n = 49 668).

Determining Critical Topics for Undergraduate Surgical Education in Rwanda: Results of a Modified Delphi Process and a Consensus Conference.

Background Developing a contextually appropriate curriculum is critical to train physicians who can address surgical challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. An innovative modified Delphi process was used to identify contextually optimized curricular content to meet sub-Saharan Africa and Rwanda's surgical needs. Methods Participants were surgeons from East, Central, Southern, and West Africa and general practitioners with surgical experience.

A Multiyear Survey Evaluating Clinician Electronic Health Record Satisfaction.

Objectives: We assessed how clinician satisfaction with a vendor electronic health record (EHR) changed over time in the 4 years following the transition from a homegrown EHR system to identify areas for improvement.

Methods: We conducted a multiyear survey of clinicians across a large health care system after transitioning to a vendor EHR. Eligible clinicians from the first institution to transition received a survey invitation by email in fall 2016 and then eligible clinicians systemwide received surveys in spring 2018 and spring 2019.

Comparative Politics, Political Settlements, and the Political Economy of Health Financing Reform Comment on "Health Coverage and Financial Protection in Uganda: A Political Economy Perspective".

Nannini et al analyze barriers to national health insurance reforms in Uganda using a political economy approach primarily rooted in stakeholder analysis. This approach is valuable, not only for its clear description of the interest-based politics at play, but also for its extension of stakeholder analysis to include consideration of the role of ideas and institutions in the policy process. However this analysis, and others like it, could be further strengthened by adding insights from two different sources.

Associations of U.S. state-level COVID-19 policies intensity with cannabis sharing behaviors in 2020.

Background: Cannabis use before the COVID-19 pandemic for many involved sharing prepared cannabis for inhalation, practices that were less prevalent during the pandemic. State-level COVID-19 containment policies may have influenced this decrease. This study examined the extent to which the intensity of state-level COVID-19 policies were associated with individual-level cannabis sharing.