Addressing evidence needs during health crises in the province of Quebec (Canada): a proposed action plan for rapid evidence synthesis.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the rapid availability of evidence to respond in a timely manner to the needs of practice settings and decision-makers in health and social services. Now that the pandemic is over, it is time to put in place actions to improve the capacity of systems to meet knowledge needs in a situation of crisis. The main objective of this project was thus to develop an action plan for the rapid syntheses of evidence in times of health crisis in Quebec (Canada).

MicroRNA signature for early prediction of knee osteoarthritis structural progression using integrated machine and deep learning approaches.

Objective: Conventional methodologies are ineffective in predicting the rapid progression of knee osteoarthritis (OA). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) show promise as biomarkers for patient stratification. We aimed to develop a miRNA prognosis model for identifying knee OA structural progressors/non-progressors using integrated machine/deep learning tools.

Development of 3D-Printable Albumin-Alginate Foam for Wound Dressing Applications.

In this article, a method to develop 3D printable hybrid sodium alginate and albumin foam, crosslinked with calcium chloride mist is introduced. Using this method, highly porous structures are produced without the need of further postprocessing (such as freeze drying). The proposed method is particularly beneficial in the development of wound dressing as the printed foams show excellent lift-off and water absorption properties.

Occupational exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields and brain tumor risk: Application of the INTEROCC job-exposure matrix.

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF, 100 kHz to 300 GHz) are classified by IARC as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B). This study evaluates the potential association between occupational RF-EMF exposure and brain tumor risk, utilizing for the first time, a RF-EMF job-exposure matrix (RF-JEM) developed in the multi-country INTEROCC case-control study. Cumulative and time-weighted average (TWA) occupational RF-EMF exposures were estimated for study participants based on lifetime job histories linked to the RF-JEM using three different methods: (1) by considering RF-EMF intensity among all exposed jobs, (2) by considering RF-EMF intensity among jobs with an exposure prevalence ≥ the median exposure prevalence of all exposed jobs, and (3) by considering RF-EMF intensity of jobs of participants who reported RF-EMF source use.

Joint-trajectories of clinical severity, social functioning and cannabis use in first-episode psychosis: A 5-year longitudinal study in 2 urban early intervention services.

Cannabis use is associated with increased psychosis incidence alongside worse outcomes. The role of cannabis may be complex, vary across patients and over time. Yet, few have examined the longer-term trajectories of cannabis use, symptoms and functioning and their inter-relationships.

Perceptions and engagement of patients with chronic conditions on the use of medical cannabis: a scoping review.

Context: Studies generally focus on one type of chronic condition and the effect of medical cannabis (MC) on symptoms; little is known about the perceptions and engagement of patients living with chronic conditions regarding the use of MC.

Objectives: This scoping review aims to explore: (1) what are the dimensions addressed in studies on MC that deal with patients' perceptions of MC? and (2) how have patients been engaged in developing these studies and their methodologies? Through these objectives, we have identified areas for improving future research.

Methods: We searched five databases and applied exclusion criteria to select relevant articles.

Advancements in 3D-printable polysaccharides, proteins, and synthetic polymers for wound dressing and skin scaffolding - A review.

This review investigates the most recent advances in personalized 3D-printed wound dressings and skin scaffolding. Skin is the largest and most vulnerable organ in the human body. The human body has natural mechanisms to restore damaged skin through several overlapping stages.

Image reconstruction using UNET-transformer network for fast and low-dose PET scans.

Introduction: Low-dose and fast PET imaging (low-count PET) play a significant role in enhancing patient safety, healthcare efficiency, and patient comfort during medical imaging procedures. To achieve high-quality images with low-count PET scans, effective reconstruction models are crucial for denoising and enhancing image quality. The main goal of this paper is to develop an effective and accurate deep learning-based method for reconstructing low-count PET images, which is a challenging problem due to the limited amount of available data and the high level of noise in the acquired images.

Employee-Driven Innovation in Health Organizations: Insights From a Scoping Review.

Background: Employee-driven innovation (EDI) occurs when frontline actors in health organizations use their firsthand experience to spur new ideas to transform care. Despite its increasing prevalence in health organizations, the organizational conditions under which EDI is operationalized have received little scholarly attention.

Methods: This scoping review identifies gaps and assembles existing knowledge on four questions: What is EDI in health organizations and which frontline actors are involved? What are the characteristics of the EDI process? What contextual factors enable or impede EDI? And what benefits does EDI bring to health organizations? We searched seven databases with keywords related to EDI in health organizations.

Risk factors for the long-term incidence and progression of knee osteoarthritis in older adults: role of nonsurgical injury.

Background: For one of the most chronic medical conditions, osteoarthritis, uncertainties remain on the impact of injury chronology, the role of repeat injury on the incidence/progression of this disease and the need for knee arthroplasty.

Objectives: To explore, in an older adult population, how nonsurgical knee injuries relate to osteoarthritis incidence/progression and the weight of independent risk factors for arthroplasty.

Design: A cohort study design evaluates the long-term impact of injuries on knee osteoarthritis outcomes.

Accounting for antihypertensive medication in Mendelian randomization studies of blood pressure: methodological considerations in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Background: Mendelian randomization (MR) studies investigating determinants of blood pressure (BP) do not account for antihypertensive medication consistently, which may explain discrepancies across studies. We performed an MR study of the association between body mass index (BMI) and systolic BP (SBP) using five methods to account for antihypertensive medication and evaluated their impact on the estimation of the causal effect and on the assessment of the invalidity of the instruments used in MR.

Methods: Baseline and follow-up data on 20 430 participants from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Comprehensive cohort (2011-2018) were used.

Magnetic resonance imaging assessments for knee segmentation and their use in combination with machine/deep learning as predictors of early osteoarthritis diagnosis and prognosis.

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent and disabling disease that can develop over decades. This disease is heterogeneous and involves structural changes in the whole joint, encompassing multiple tissue types. Detecting OA before the onset of irreversible changes is crucial for early management, and this could be achieved by allowing knee tissue visualization and quantifying their changes over time.

Clinician perspectives on providing telepsychiatry services to young adults with first-episode psychosis during COVID-19.

Background: Telepsychiatry has the potential to facilitate access to mental health services for young people with first-episode of psychosis (FEP); however, limited attention has been given regarding the perceptions of mental health providers in this regard.

Objective: To assess service providers' perceptions on the use of telepsychiatry and changes over time.

Methods: Longitudinal survey (conducted at two time points) of 26 service providers, including physicians, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, and peer support workers, recruited from a specialized program for FEP providing telepsychiatry services through REACTS (videoconferencing platform).

Association of low-density neutrophils with lung function and disease progression in adult cystic fibrosis.

Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) neutrophils fail to eradicate infection despite their massive recruitment into the lung. While studies mostly focus on pathogen clearance by normal density neutrophils in CF, the contribution of low-density neutrophil (LDNs) subpopulations to disease pathogenesis remains unclear.

Methods: LDNs were isolated from whole blood donations of clinically stable adult CF patients and from healthy donors.

A pilot randomized controlled trial evaluating outdoor community walking for knee osteoarthritis: walk.

Objectives: To determine the feasibility of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) examining outdoor walking on knee osteoarthritis (KOA) clinical outcomes and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) structural changes.

Method: This was a 24-week parallel two-arm pilot RCT in Tasmania, Australia. KOA participants were randomized to either a walking plus usual care group or a usual care control group.

Use of technology to provide mental health services to youth experiencing homelessness: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Despite the importance to address mental health issues as early as possible, youth experiencing homelessness (YEH) often lack prompt and easy access to health services. Recently, there has been a surge of studies focusing on leveraging technology to improve access to mental health services for YEH; however, limited efforts have been made to synthesise this literature, which can have important implications for the planning of mental health service delivery. Thus, this scoping review aims to map and synthesise research on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to provide mental health services and interventions to YEH.

Impact of Noise Exposure on Risk of Developing Stress-Related Metabolic Effects: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Exposure to noise can increase biological stress reactions, which may increase adverse health effects, including metabolic disorders; however, the certainty in the association between exposure to noise and metabolic outcomes has not been widely explored. The objective of this review is to evaluate the evidence between noise exposures and metabolic effects.

Materials And Methods: A systematic review of English and comparative studies available in PubMed, Cochrane Central, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases between January 1, 1980 and December 29, 2021 was performed.

The Liver Tumor Segmentation Benchmark (LiTS).

In this work, we report the set-up and results of the Liver Tumor Segmentation Benchmark (LiTS), which was organized in conjunction with the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) 2017 and the International Conferences on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) 2017 and 2018. The image dataset is diverse and contains primary and secondary tumors with varied sizes and appearances with various lesion-to-background levels (hyper-/hypo-dense), created in collaboration with seven hospitals and research institutions. Seventy-five submitted liver and liver tumor segmentation algorithms were trained on a set of 131 computed tomography (CT) volumes and were tested on 70 unseen test images acquired from different patients.

Impact of Noise Exposure on Risk of Developing Stress-Related Obstetric Health Effects: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Exposure to noise can increase biological stress reactions and that could increase the risk of stress-related prenatal effects, including adverse obstetric outcomes; however, the association between exposure to noise and adverse obstetric outcomes has not been extensively explored. The objective of this review was to evaluate the evidence between noise exposures and adverse obstetric outcomes, specifically preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and gestational hypertension.

Materials And Methods: A systematic review of English language, comparative studies available in PubMed, Cochrane Central, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases between January 1, 1980 and December 29, 2021 was performed.