Opportunities to engage health system leaders in whole systems approaches to physical activity in England

Background: Physical activity plays an important role in maintaining good health and wellbeing, non-communicable disease prevention and can improve healthcare outcomes. Some progress is being made on incorporating physical activity into routine care, but less on engaging health system leaders in the ‘whole systems’ approaches which are increasingly recognised as important for addressing complex public health challenges such as physical inactivity. This commentary builds upon the findings of a recent study and aims to identify opportunities for engaging National Health Service (NHS) systems leaders in whole systems approaches to physical activity. Opportunities for action in England: Pockets of good practice exist from which lessons can be learned, but there are systemic issues that discourage and create barriers, and a need for meaningful engagement, leadership and action at national, regional and local levels. National and regional actors like Sport England, NHS England, health professional bodies, Active Partnerships, the Local Government Association and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities can encourage and support government and the NHS to change policy drivers, culture and practices. Emerging opportunities include the 2021 White Paper Integration and Innovation, development of local integrated care systems, leadership from health charities and investment in non-clinical interventions (‘social prescribing’). At local level, public health and physical activity specialists and other organisations have a key role as champions and facilitators of local whole systems approaches and engagement of local NHS leaderships. Finally, although whole systems action is about collaborative leadership, individual champions of physical activity can make a difference in influencing NHS leaders at every level towards whole systems working

Magnetic Flux Density Sensor Analysis

Undergraduate Basi

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Treatment Outcomes in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

Background. Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is rare, accounting for 1-2% of thyroid malignancies. Median survival is only 3-10 months, and the optimal therapeutic approach has not been established. This study aimed to evaluate outcomes in ATC based on treatment modality. Methods. Retrospective review was performed for patients treated at a single institution between 1990 and 2015. Demographic and clinical covariates were extracted from the medical record. Overall survival (OS) was modeled using Kaplan Meier curves for different treatment modalities. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to assess the relationships between treatment and disease characteristics and OS. Results. 28 patients with ATC were identified (n = 16 female, n = 12 male; n = 22 Caucasian, n = 6 African-American; median age 70.9). Majority presented as Stage IVB (71.4%). Most patients received multimodality therapy. 19 patients underwent local surgical resection. 21 patients received locoregional external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) with a median cumulative dose of 3,000 cGy and median number of fractions of 16. 14 patients received systemic therapy (n = 11 concurrent with EBRT), most commonly doxorubicin (n = 9). 16 patients were never disease free, 11 patients had disease recurrence, and 1 patient had no evidence of disease progression. Median OS was 4 months with 1-year survival of 17.9%. Regression analysis showed that EBRT (HR: 0.174; 95% CI: 0.050–0.613; p=0.007) and surgical resection (HR: 0.198; 95% CI: 0.065–0.598; p=0.004) were associated with improved OS. Administration of chemotherapy was not associated with OS. Conclusions. Anaplastic thyroid cancer patients receiving EBRT to the thyroid area/neck and/or surgical resection had better OS than patients without these therapies, though selection bias likely contributed to improved outcomes since patients who can undergo these therapies tend to have better performance status. Prognosis remains poor overall, and new therapeutic approaches are needed to improve outcomes

Global Sustainability: An Authentic Context for Energy Education

Reimagining energy education involves moving beyond the basics of energy use, conservation, and efficiency toward a more robust exploration of energy. This exploration should address energy access and equity, the impacts of energy choices, and personal attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors related to sustainable energy solutions. One approach to encourage this evolution is to use a learning context that inspires educators and students to delve deeply and methodically into the social, economic, and environmental interconnections of energy issues—in other words, to learn about energy within the context of global sustainability. In this article, we share Facing the Future’s definition of global sustainability education (GSE), explain why GSE is an effective context for energy education, and use Facing the Future’s newest energy curriculum to demonstrate how GSE can be employed to develop engaging and rigorous interdisciplinary energy curriculum

The effect of monocular and binocular cataract blur on postural stability among older adults

Purpose: First-eye cataract surgery can reduce the rate of falls among older adults, yet the effect of second-eye surgery on the rate of falling remains unclear. The present study investigated the effect of monocular and binocular simulated cataract blur on postural stability among older adults.\ud Methods: Postural stability was assessed on 34 healthy older adults (mean 68.2 years, SD 3.5) with normal vision, using a portable force platform (BT4, HUR Labs, Finland) which collected data on centre of pressure (COP) displacement. Stability was assessed on firm and foam surfaces under four binocular viewing conditions using Vistech filters to simulate cataract blur: [1] best-corrected vision both eyes; [2] blur over non-dominant eye, [3] blur over dominant eye and [4] blur over both eyes. Binocular logMAR visual acuity, Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity and stereoacuity were also measured under these viewing conditions and ocular dominance measured using the hole-in-card test. Generalized estimating equations with an exchangeable correlation structure examined the effect of the surface and vision conditions on postural stability.\ud Results: Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity were significantly reduced under monocular and binocular cataract blur compared to normal viewing. All blur conditions resulted in loss of stereoacuity. Binocular cataract blur significantly reduced postural stability compared to normal vision on the firm (COP path length; p=0.013) and foam surface (anterior-posterior COP RMS, COP path length and COP area; p<0.01). However, no significant differences in postural stability were found between the monocular blur conditions compared to normal vision, or between the dominant and non-dominant monocular blur conditions on either the firm or foam surfaces.\ud Conclusions: Findings indicate that binocular blur significantly impairs postural stability, and suggests that improvements in postural stability may justify first-eye cataract surgery, particularly during somatosensory disruption. Postural stability was not significantly impaired in the monocular cataract blur conditions compared to the normal vision condition, nor was there any effect of ocular dominance on postural stability in the presence of monocular cataract blur