Alberta Health Services

Ultraprocessed Food Intake and Adiposity, Vascular Brain Injury, and Cognition in Middle-Aged Adults

Importance Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) account for a substantial and increasing proportion of dietary intake in Canada. Although UPFs are consistently associated with adiposity and cardiometabolic disease, their associations with subclinical vascular brain injury (VBI) and cognit...

Correlation of seasonal influenza rates with hospital-acquired Clostridioides difficile rates: Implications for research and interventions for prevention

Introduction: Hospital-acquired Clostridioides difficile infection (HA-CDI) rate variability can create challenges for assessing interventions that might improve rates. We therefore sought to assess whether seasonal trends in HA-CDI could be related to influenza rates by examinin...

Canadian Paramedic User Requirements for Speech Recognition Aided Documentation

Objective: Developing technology may assist paramedics in the competing tasks of providing life-saving care and accurately documenting that care. The objective of this study was to identify and classify paramedic user requirements for speech recognition (SR)-aided documentation....

Comparing Cardiac Genetic Testing Pathways: Impacts on Access, Informed Choice, and Decisional Satisfaction

Abstract Background Mainstreaming genetic testing has emerged as a strategy to improve access and reduce wait times for patients who may benefit from genetic testing. Ensuring patients fully grasp the implications of testing when formal genetic counselling is not provided, remain...

A Scoping Review of Psychological Distress Outcomes in NICU Healthcare Providers

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a demanding work environment that provides medical care for acutely ill and premature infants while supporting parents experiencing significant stress and psychological distress. This scoping review is the first to examine quantitative r...

Association Between the Number of US Food and Drug Administration–Warned Anesthetic Exposures and Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient at Age 3 Years in Very Preterm Infants

Abstract In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that general anesthetics and sedative agents in children younger than 3 years may impair neurodevelopment. Very preterm infants could be especially vulnerable because of brain immaturity. We examined the associati...

Leadership for climate-resilient healthcare: insights from an ATACH technical meeting

Introduction Climate change is increasingly recognised as both a public health emergency and a systemic stressor on healthcare systems. While many healthcare organisations have articulated ambitious climate and sustainability commitments, progress is frequently constrained by gap...

Patient-physician sex concordance and real-world disparities in cancer treatment practices and outcomes in medical oncology

The impact of sex inequities in healthcare may be magnified in medical oncology, where patients and physicians often navigate life-limiting illnesses and intensive treatments. We examined the associations among patient-physician sex concordance, treatment practices, and cancer ou...

Protective Role of Donor KIR B Haplotype in Cytomegalovirus Reactivation Following T-Cell-Depleted Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation is a major complication after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Natural killer (NK) cells help control CMV through killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) and their HLA ligands, but donor-derived CMV-specific T...

Novel Indicators for Monitoring Rheumatoid Arthritis Care Quality: A Delphi Consensus Process to Determine Rheumatoid Arthritis-Specific Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions

Objectives Ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) constitute a set of medical conditions where access to high quality outpatient healthcare services prevents or reduces costly acute care interactions for exacerbations of these diseases. Hospitalizations for ACSCs serve as i...