Let’s Play Ball: COVID-19 Graduated Return to Play Guidlelines [Blog]

The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) resulted in suspension of youth, academic and professional sport in New Zealand, and around the world. Following resumption of domestic and international competition there have been several reports of an increased number of athletes testing positive for COVID-19 after returning to competition (1). In light of these concerns, it is essential that sporting organisations provide ‘informative, consistent and specific guidance for safe return to training and competition’ (2), delivered in context to the sport. This blog presents an overview of the Basketball New Zealand COVID-19 Graduated Return to Play (GRTP) Guidelines and is written to assist athletes resume safe training ahead of return to competition that promotes health and performance in an easy-to-follow GRTP infographic

The Application and Integration of Evidence-Based Best Practice Standards to Healthcare Simulation Design : A Scoping Review

Studies of simulation-based education report students are satisfied with simulated learning and that simulation effectively improves their psychomotor skills and knowledge. Yet, quality in the design, delivery, and execution of simulation learning is reported as inconsistent. Simulation learning activities need to be appropriately designed and delivered utilizing rigorous frameworks and best practice standards to assure learner preparedness. The Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice were designed to address this issue and support multiple disciplines through 10 Standards of Best Practice, with criterion for each, and a Glossary of Terms. This review reports that very few articles clearly articulate how simulation activities tangibly align to the standards and criterion, making it difficult for simulation educators to design and deliver consistently high-quality simulation-based education, aligned to best practice standards

A response to the call for evidence on 'Establishing a pro-innovation approach to regulating AI” on behalf of the Regulation and Functionality nodes of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Network (TAS)

We welcome the Government’s proposal to develop a new, coherent regulatory strategy for AI. While it maintains a sectoral focus, the development of cross-sector and cross-application principles and governance structures has the potential to create legal certainty, foster public acceptance, and facilitate responsible development of generic AI tools that are currently left unregulated. Our submission intends to discuss various aspects of the proposal, including: the design and enforcement of the regulatory framework; the context-driven and cross-sectoral principles’ approach, and the coordination between regulatory bodies for coherence and monitoring. Our submission will use medical device regulation for AI as enabled medical devices (AIaMD) as a sector-specific example to illustrate our recommendations. We have structured our response around the six questions in the consultation

Type 2 diabetes, depressive symptoms and trajectories of cognitive decline in a national sample of community-dwellers: a prospective cohort study

We examined the individual and synergistic effects of type 2 diabetes and elevated depressive symptoms on memory and executive function trajectories over 10 and eight years of follow-up, respectively. Our sample comprised 10,524 community-dwellers aged ≥50 years in 2002±03 from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. With respect to memory (word recall), participants with either diabetes or elevated depressive symptoms recalled significantly fewer words compared with those free of these conditions (reference category), but more words compared with those with both conditions. There was a significant acceleration in the rate of memory decline in participants aged ≤50±64 years with both conditions (-0.27, 95% CI, -0.45 to -0.08, per study wave), which was not observed in those with either condition or aged ≥65 years. With respect to executive function (animal naming), participants aged 65 years with diabetes or those with elevated depressive symptoms named significantly fewer animals compared with the reference category, while those with both conditions named fewer animals compared with any other category. The rate of executive function decline was significantly greater in participants with both conditions (-0.54, 95% CI, -0.99 to -0.10; and ±0.71, 95% CI, -1.16 to -0.27, per study wave, for those aged 50±64 and ≥65 years, respectively), but not in participants with either condition. Diabetes and elevated depressive symptoms are inversely associated with memory and executive function, but, individually, do not accelerate cognitive decline. The co-occurrence of diabetes and elevated depressive symptoms significantly accelerates cognitive decline over time, especially among those aged 50±64 years

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P < 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men