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Aims: To describe a reflexive account of a mental health nurse as researcher undertaking a mixed methods study as part of a doctoral degree, with women in a secure forensic hospital. Design: A discursive paper that draws upon the primary author's experience of dual roles as a mental health nurse and a novice researcher, and relevant literature pertaining to positionality and reflexivity in the context of conducting mixed methods research. Methods: A mixed methods study was conducted within a secure forensic hospital in Australia, to identify factors associated with the frequency and duration of seclusion for women and, to explore their experiences of seclusion. Notes and a reflective diary were used to demonstrate the reflexive approach and strategies used throughout the study design and data collection stages of the research. Results: Women in the secure forensic hospital setting often have complex histories and experiences and are considered a vulnerable group, which can add additional challenges when undertaking research with this population. As a doctoral student with clinical experience in mental health undertaking research in the forensic hospital setting with women, positionality and the connection with reflexivity requires exploration to understand self and the influence on research. This understanding along with identified strategies to enhance reflexivity, supports the management of the dual nurse as researcher roles to enhance all stages of the research process. Conclusion: Doctoral nursing candidates undertaking clinical research in their area of clinical practice and at the location of previous employment, may experience challenges in relation to identity and the dichotomy of roles. Further challenges can be posed when research involves complex populations and/or controversial practices. Support to balance role conflict and maintain reflexivity is critical to understanding the role of self in research and to enhance credibility. Implications for the Profession and/or Clinical Practice: Women are a complex, yet minority population in forensic mental health settings, however the numbers of women being admitted to services is increasing. Future research may consider the use of the strategies explored here to enhance the reflexive process, and support future researchers in this field to conduct research that aims to support an often‐misheard population to better support health outcomes. Patient or Public Involvement: There was no patient or public contribution to this paper, however the study in which this paper is based on, is grounded in the experience of patients (women). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As a result of the ten years (2012-2022) work under the critical revision of the genera of Reticulariaceae, a set of papers was published. Collection data of hundreds of specimens, used as a material for these studies, were provided as supplements of corresponding papers, but remained unpublished in biodiversity databases. New information: Here, we represent an occurrence dataset "Barcoded Reticulariaceae of the World", published in GBIF. It includes data on 523 myxomycete collections (including 36 types) gathered from five continents and spanning 24 countries. The dataset encompasses 43 distinct species and one subspecies of myxomycetes, including rare, endemic, and recently-described taxa. Species included to the database mainly belong to the genera Alwisia, Lycogala, Reticularia, Siphoptychium, Thecotubifera and Tubifera (Reticulariaceae), but as well Lindbladia and Licaethalium (Cribrariaceae). Nearly all of the research material, with the exception of several old collections, underwent molecular barcoding, primarily involving the 18S rDNA gene, but also the elongation factor 1α gene and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene. For those sequences that are stored in the NCBI GenBank, accession numbers are provided in the dataset. Newly-described species make up a significant part of the studied herbarium collections; many of them can be characterised as common for their region. A particularly high level of taxonomic novelty is observed in Australia, which may be explained by the endemism of the local myxomycete biota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than a decade, the Financial Technology (FinTech) industry has been growing, and it has reshaped how payments were made and brought new financial service products to the market. FinTech has created innovative disruptions to traditional, long-established financial institutions (e.g., banks and investment firms) in financial services markets. The worldwide blooming of FinTech has caused universities around the globe to teach their students (particularly those in the IT and finance disciplines) about practical and contemporary knowledge on FinTech. This paper discusses our recent survey study to investigate the status quo of offering FinTech education and training by Australian universities. Our study involved two rounds of online data collection (one in November 2021 and the other one in June 2022) from 41 sample universities in Australia. Among our various findings, we observed that, although Australian universities are increasingly aware of the importance of and the demand for FinTech studies, FinTech has still not yet become a mainstream study discipline. This observation indicates that, in Australia, FinTech studies have generally gone through the inception stage and entered the growth stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) is a well-established framework for systematically identifying key factors influencing the implementation of programs. To enhance the classification of existing CFIR definitions, as well as its +2/-2 scoring system, this study incorporated the views of relevant experts to: i) improve how themes are scored; and ii) utilise more information regarding the frequency with which themes are identified. This structured, frequency-based approach to the CFIR's scoring process has been trialled as the CFIR-frequency (CFIR-f). Researchers thematically analysed semi-structured interview data from four groups of policy and program experts (N = 24) delivering two family-based therapies in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Themes identified by less than 50% were excluded from further analysis. Themes identified by 50% or more of expert participants in the four groups were classified as enablers or barriers using clearly defined criteria. Each theme was allocated a score according to how many experts identified it as an enabler or barrier, and then mapped back onto the latest adaptation of the CFIR comprising 67 constructs. The CFIR-f successfully determined three enablers of, and six barriers to, implementation. Enablers included the family-based therapy programs, therapist training and participant monitoring systems. Barriers included referral, data collection and staffing difficulties, NSW adaptation issues and the suitability and safety of the programs for Aboriginal families. The same enablers and barriers were identified using both the CFIR-f and the original scoring approach, and the identified themes were successfully mapped to almost all CFIR constructs (65/67). This paper proposes a more frequency-based approach to CFIR's scoring process (the CFIR-f). By specifically utilising the frequency with which these barriers and enablers are identified, the CFIR-f engenders a list of ranked themes that service providers and policymakers can use to inform their decisions about program modification and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia there is limited understanding of the scale and nature of energy hardship or poverty. Energy poverty remains a concept with no clear definition and therefore no clear objectives, targets, metrics for data collection nor institutions to monitor and report on. Europe, in the last decade, has gone from limited public recognition of, and policy action on, energy poverty, to now having sophisticated quantitative measurement and monitoring tools, and institutional governance arrangements that promote transparency and accountability. In this paper, drawing on the European experience, we focus attention upon the measures and indicators of energy poverty and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. We propose institutional options for understanding and tackling these problems in the context of Australia's energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To describe clinic management and referral pathways among adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) aged > 25 years attending a public outpatient diabetes service. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of people with T1D aged > 25 years seen by endocrinologists in one Australian urban public outpatient in 2017. Electronic and paper medical records were reviewed using a dataset adapted from the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence 2015 guidelines. Results: Among the 111 people with T1D (mean age 41 ± 13 years, 55% men, mean body mass index 27.1 ± 5.6 kg/m2), mean HbA1c was 8.1 ± 1.9% (66 ± 19 mmol/mol) (lower than the Australian National Diabetes Audit: 8.5%/69 mmol/mol) with 25.5% meeting the guideline target of < 53 mmol/mol (7.0%). Most people had seen a diabetes educator (80.2%) or dietitian (73.0%) and had complication screening. Complication rates were high (nephropathy 20.4%, retinopathy 27.4%, peripheral neuropathy 30.1%, ischaemic heart disease/acute infarction 10.5%). Overall, 27% of referrals occurred following an acute inpatient admission or emergency department presentation and 13% for management of diabetes in pregnancy. Conclusions: A high proportion of people with T1D accessed public specialist care either during pregnancy or after a largely avoidable acute glycaemia-related hospital presentation. Subsequent care was in line with national specialist standards. This area has a "wait for acute event" rather than "complication prevention" model of care, associated with under-referral to the local multidisciplinary specialist service. Understanding how widespread this model of care is, and ways to reduce its prevalence, are urgently required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature speaks of a 'deluge' of scientific and research data and the importance of capturing and managing it for use beyond its original creating community, purpose, and time. Data value increases as it is interconnected, networked, shared, used, and re-used. This paper extends the conversation about data sharing to 'wild data': that is, data generated and held outside of 'academic' or 'professional' science, as in the case of environmental voluntary groups (EVGs). Currently, important data generated by these groups are likely to be inaccessible to the academic community, or any community or body outside those often-small EVGs. Although large quantities of data are often generated by EVGs, management of these data may be poor or non-existent; and quality control of data may be haphazard and spasmodic. This article reports on a pilot project which explored the data sought, generated, stored, and shared by members of EVGs. The project also investigated members' views about data management and sharing for the future. Finally, as Australian university libraries are at the forefront of research and practice to promote the better management of data created by research, the paper also explores whether there might be a collaborative role for university libraries in the management of wild data [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Despite the usefulness of quantitative research, qualitative research methodologies are equally needed to allow researchers to better understand the important social and environmental factors affecting food choice and eating habits. The present paper contributes insights from narrative inquiry, a well-established qualitative methodology, to a food-related doctoral research study. The connections between food shoppers and the producer, family, friends and others in the food system, between eaters and the earth, and how these connections affect people's meaning-making of food and pathways to food citizenship, were explored in the research.Design: The research used narrative inquiry methodology and focus groups for data collection.Setting: Five different food-ways in the Canberra region of Australia were selected for the present research; that is, community gardens, community-supported agriculture, farmers' markets, fresh food markets and supermarkets.Subjects: Fifty-two people voluntarily attended eight focus groups with four to nine participants in each.Results: From a practical perspective, the present paper offers a guide to the way in which narrative inquiry has been applied to one research project. The paper describes the application of narrative inquiry methodology, revealing the important place of narratives in generating new knowledge. The paper further outlines how phased narrative analysis can lead to a defensible and rigorous interpretive framework grounded in the data generated from people's stories and meaning-making.Conclusions: We argue that individual, social and system change will not be possible without further rigorous qualitative studies to inform and complement the empirical basis of public health nutrition practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data collection for fresh-water regions of The Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program (EHMP), in southeast Queensland, Australia, involves the sampling of over 130 sites among 19 catchments twice per year and has been ongoing for over ten years. The sampling design was derived following an exhaustive process of indicator and site selection to develop a composite indicator that represented aquatic ecosystem health. After 13 years of implementation, there was an interest in identifying redundancies in sampling to reduce sampling costs without making a substantial impact on the integrity of the program and its capacity to report on ecosystem health. This paper focuses on identifying a subset of sites and times that could be removed from sampling with a minimal impact on the subsequent ecosystem health scores. Herein, Mixed models are employed to assess a variance structure from which optimality criteria are utilized to identify the scheme. Integer programs are then used to ensure specific practical constraints are observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient-reported outcome (PRO) data is central to the delivery of quality health care. Establishing sustainable, reliable and cost-efficient methods for routine collection and integration of PRO data into health information systems is challenging. This protocol paper describes the design and structure of a study to develop and pilot test a PRO framework to systematically and longitudinally collect PRO data from a cohort of lung cancer patients at a comprehensive cancer centre in Australia.Methods: Best-practice guidelines for developing registries aimed at collecting PROs informed the development of this PRO framework. Framework components included: achieving consensus on determining the purpose of the framework, the PRO measures to be included, the data collection time points and collection methods (electronic and paper), establishing processes to safeguard the quality of the data collected and to link the PRO framework to an existing hospital-based lung cancer clinical registry. Lung cancer patients will be invited to give feedback on the PRO measures (PROMs) chosen and the data collection time points and methods. Implementation of the framework will be piloted for 12 months. Then a mixed-methods approach used to explore patient and multidisciplinary perspectives on the feasibility of implementing the framework and linking it to the lung cancer clinical registry, its clinical utility, perceptions of data collection burden, and preliminary assessment of resource costs to integrate, implement and sustain the PRO framework. The PRO data set will include: a quality of life questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ-C30) and the EORTC lung cancer specific module (QLQC-LC-13). These will be collected pre-treatment (baseline), 2, 6 and 12 months post-baseline. Also, four social isolation questions (PROMIS) will be collected at baseline.Discussion: Identifying and deciding on the overall purpose, clinical utility of data and which PROs to collect from patients requires careful consideration. Our study will explore how PRO data collection processes that link to a clinical data set can be developed and integrated; how PRO systems that are easy for patients to complete and professionals to use in practice can be achieved, and will provide indicative costs of developing and integrating a longitudinal PRO framework into routine hospital data collection systems.Trial Registration: This study is not a clinical trial and is therefore not registered in any trial registry. However, it has received human research ethics approval (LNR/16/PMCC/45). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To report the qualitative findings of the inaugural survey of sonographer skill‐teaching practices in Australia using the SonoSTePs tool. Method: A national cross‐sectional survey of all qualified sonographers registered with the Australian Sonographer Accreditation Registry. A mix of quantitative and qualitative data was collected. This paper reports on a content analysis of the qualitative data relating to factors that impact on teaching. Results: A total of 528 respondents provided a range of qualitative data in five extended text questions. Five key themes emerged from the analysis: limited protected teaching time; perceived skill complexity; learner skill level and credentials; avoiding overwhelming the learner; and patient well‐being and their willingness to be scanned. Novel teaching interactions between the educator and the student sonographer were identified. Information was provided to learners at four time‐points across the continuum of clinical practice performance. The type, quantity and purpose of the information provided by the educator to the learner differed at each of these four time‐points and included the following: (i) pre‐task clarification, guidance and practice norms; (ii) in‐task verbal information and scanning support; (iii) post‐task support and information; and (iv) end‐task or terminal feedback. Conclusion: This is the first published study which reports the push and pull factors affecting pedagogical approaches to teach and learn complex scanning skills. These results provide a corpus of new knowledge, and the first analysis and review, about the pedagogical findings related to teaching scanning skills for clinical practice. This study provides a basis for further research and practice improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaining accurate information on illicit drug use and policing in real-world settings is a challenge. This study examines the utility of a smartphone app ('Going Out In Sydney') to prospectively follow up illicit drug use and policing encounters at music festivals and licensed entertainment precincts in Sydney, Australia. In all, 38 regular festival and licensed entertainment venue attendees used the app to log nights out over a 3-month period, including (1) where they went (eg, festival, nightclub), (2) the prevalence of illicit drug use, and (3) the incidence and nature of police encounters. A survey and interview were then conducted about the utility of the app. The app enabled rich data collection (n = 353 entries) about illicit drug use and policing at both target settings. Follow-up surveys indicated that most participants were extremely satisfied with the ease of use of the app and privacy afforded, and compared with other data collection modes, such as paper-based logs and online surveys, rated the app the most desirable method of data collection. This suggests smartphone apps may be a viable option for future studies on illicit drug use and policing of drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recognition of the aging population and the importance of health-supporting urban environments, including urban green spaces, to maintain well-being, scholars and policymakers have increasingly investigated the associations between urban green spaces and the well-being of older people. However, few studies specifically investigate minority older groups such as those with diverse cultural backgrounds, and many studies often ignore the design attributes of green spaces which may contribute to the well-being of those in such groups. In order to address these gaps, this paper explores how green spaces influence the well-being of older Chinese immigrants. This case study analyzes how older Chinese immigrants interact with green spaces on the Gold Coast, Australia, and adopts the value of place as a conceptual framework to understand the relationship. Two qualitative methods, namely, in-depth interviews and travel diaries, were used to collect data. The results show that parks, as a place, play a crucial role in older Chinese immigrants' ability to undertake outdoor activities. The relationship between green spaces and well-being can be classified into two themes. The first theme is concerned with how older Chinese immigrants perceive and experience green spaces. This finding indicates that green spaces can fulfill their values of keeping healthy, maintaining active lifestyles, and being social, all of which benefit well-being. The second theme relates to daily activities undertaken within green spaces. Issues of accessibility and personal preferences regarding activities complicate the relationship between green spaces and well-being. Good accessibility to green spaces is congruent with older Chinese immigrants' values of being physically active, while difficulties in conducting preferred activities counteract these values which then generate negative perceptions of green spaces. Overall, there is great potential for understanding how personal values can inform the design of inclusive green spaces for minority or less mobile groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: Contouring has become an increasingly important aspect of radiation therapy due to inverse planning, and yet is extremely time-consuming. To improve contouring efficiency and reduce potential inter-observer variation, the atlas-based auto-segmentation (ABAS) function in Velocity was introduced to ICON cancer centres (ICC) throughout Australia as a solution for automatic contouring. Methods: This paper described the implementation process of the ABAS function and the construction of userdefined atlas sets and compared the contouring efficiency before and after the introduction of ABAS. Results: The results indicate that the main limitation to the ABAS performance was Velocity's sub-optimal atlas selection method. Three user-defined atlas sets were constructed. Results suggested that the introduction of the ABAS saved at least 5 minutes of manual contouring time (P < 0.05), although further verification was required due to limitations in the data collection method. The pilot rollout adopting a 'champion' approach was successful and provided an opportunity to improve the user-defined atlases prior to the national implementation. Conclusion: The implementation of user-defined ABAS for head and neck (H&N) and female thorax patients at ICCs was successful, which achieved at least 5 minutes of efficiency gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online probability-based panels often apply two or more data collection modes to cover both the online and offline populations with the aim of obtaining results that are more representative of the population of interest. This study used such a panel to investigate how necessary it is, from the coverage error standpoint, to include the offline population by mixing modes in online panel survey research. This study evaluated the problem from three different perspectives: undercoverage bias, bias related to survey item topics and variable characteristics, and accuracy of online-only samples relative to nationally representative benchmarks. The results indicated that attitudinal, behavioral, and factual differences between the online and offline populations in Australia are, on average, minor. This means that, considering that survey research commonly includes a relatively low proportion of the offline population, survey estimates would not be significantly affected if probabilitybased panels did not mix modes and instead were online only, for the majority of topics. The benchmarking analysis showed that mixing the online mode with the offline mode did not improve the average accuracy of estimates relative to nationally representative benchmarks. Based on these findings, it is argued that other online panels should study this issue from different perspectives using the approaches proposed in this paper. There might also be an argument for (temporarily) excluding the offline population in probability-based online panel research in particular country contexts as this might have practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The platelet count is an established marker of cancer. In healthy populations, platelet count varies by age and sex; despite that variation, a single reference range is used. This study aimed to identify age- and sex-specific upper thresholds for platelet count at which cancer should be considered in primary care, using audits of primary care-based clinical data in England, Canada, and Australia. Across all three cohorts, there was a clear upwards trend in cancer incidence with increasing platelet count for both sexes and at all age groups. The appropriate threshold will vary by country and will depend on local healthcare needs and priorities. As colorectal and lung cancers predominate, initial investigation may target these sites. Further investigation, depending on the patient's symptoms, could be CT imaging, endoscopy, or CA125. The platelet count, a component of the full blood count, has been identified as a useful diagnostic marker for cancer in primary care. The reference range for the platelet count is 150 to 400 or 450 × 109/L; this range does not account for natural variation in platelet count by age and sex. This study used three primary care cohorts from England, Canada, and Australia. Patients aged 40 years and over with a full blood count were included and stratified by age (in 10-year bands), sex, (male/female), and platelet count group. Cancer incidence within one year of the test date was estimated from linked registry data. In all three countries, there was a clear upwards trend in cancer incidence with increasing platelet count for both sexes and at all age groups. Lung and colorectal were the most common sites. These results have important implications for the international application of this work; analysis of local health datasets will be crucial to determining appropriate thresholds. Appropriate upper thresholds will depend on local populations, healthcare needs, and priorities. Further research is needed to assess the likely impact of new recommendations on the healthcare system, on cancer outcomes, and patient benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates e-collaboration impacts across organizations in Australia and Hong Kong. The two regions were selected because of diversity in geographical dispersion and cultural differences. A myriad of e-collaboration activities were included in the study. Data collected and analyzed from 73 organizations in Australia and 94 organizations in Hong Kong suggests that there are no significant differences in the level of electronic support for collaboration activities in both the regions. However, significant differences were detected in the perceived impacts of e-collaboration between the two study regions. Interestingly, there was high level of agreement on ranking of ecollaboration activities and perceived e-collaboration impacts in both the regions. Implications of our findings for practice and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In a previous paper, we had assumed that the risk of screen-detected breast cancer mostly reflects inherent risk, and the risk of whether a breast cancer is interval versus screen-detected mostly reflects risk of masking. We found that inherent risk was predicted by body mass index (BMI) and dense area (DA) or percent dense area (PDA), but not by non-dense area (NDA). Masking, however, was best predicted by PDA but not BMI. In this study, we aimed to investigate if these associations vary by tumor characteristics and mode of detection.Methods: We conducted a case-control study nested within the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study of 244 screen-detected cases matched to 700 controls and 148 interval cases matched to 446 controls. DA, NDA and PDA were measured using the Cumulus software. Tumor characteristics included size, grade, lymph node involvement, and ER, PR, and HER2 status. Conditional and unconditional logistic regression were applied as appropriate to estimate the Odds per Adjusted Standard Deviation (OPERA) adjusted for age and BMI, allowing the association with BMI to be a function of age at diagnosis.Results: For screen-detected cancer, both DA and PDA were associated to an increased risk of tumors of large size (OPERA ~ 1.6) and positive lymph node involvement (OPERA ~ 1.8); no association was observed for BMI and NDA. For risk of interval versus screen-detected breast cancer, the association with risk for any of the three mammographic measures did not vary by tumor characteristics; an association was observed for BMI for positive lymph nodes (OPERA ~ 0.6). No associations were observed for tumor grade and ER, PR and HER2 status of tumor.Conclusions: Both DA and PDA were predictors of inherent risk of larger breast tumors and positive nodal status, whereas for each of the three mammographic density measures the association with risk of masking did not vary by tumor characteristics. This might raise the hypothesis that the risk of breast tumours with poorer prognosis, such as larger and node positive tumours, is intrinsically associated with increased mammographic density and not through delay of diagnosis due to masking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Workplace violence is endemic, destructive, and escalating in frequency and severity in healthcare. There is a paucity of research on workplace violence in regional and remote hospital emergency departments (EDs). Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the perpetrator and situational characteristics associated with violent incidents in the ED across five regional and remote Australian sites. Method: This study audited hospital summary data, incident reports, and medical records for a 12-month period in 2018 to examine the perpetrator and situational characteristics of workplace violence incidents in five regional and remote Australian EDs. Results: Violent incidents were evenly spread throughout the week and across shifts. Most incidents were triaged as urgent, occurred within the first 4 hr, and had multidisciplinary involvement. Almost one in every six incidents resulted in an injury. Perpetrators of violence were predominantly young and middle-aged males and almost always patients, with most presenting with mental and behavioral disorders, or psychoactive substance use. Conclusions: Understanding the characteristics of perpetrators of violence can help in seeking to tailor interventions to reduce further violent behaviors. These findings carry implications for optimizing patient care, staff safety and resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:This paper approaches evidence-informed practice from the perspective of evidence-informed policy-making. Using the findings of a recent study of evidence-use by educational policy-makers to raise questions about evidence-use by educational practitioners, it seeks to explore what such a study might tell us about how to understand and improve evidence-use by educational practitioners. Purpose:The paper aims, therefore, to identify potential connections, shared insights and common issues between evidence-use in policy and evidence-use in practice. It does this by focusing on two specific areas: the nature of the evidence (i.e.whatevidence is used) and the nature of the use (i.e.howevidence is used). The paper outlines what was found about each of these aspects of evidence-use in policy, and then considers what questions and issues these findings might raise for evidence-use in educational practice. Sample:The empirical study on which this paper is based was an in-depth study of the use of evidence within educational policy development in Australia. It focused on the development of three specific education policies within one Australian state education department and involved interviews with 25 policy-makers who were actively involved in the development of these policies. Design and methods:The policy-based study involved the following data collection processes: (i) in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 policy-makers who were involved in the development of the selected policies; (ii) documentary analysis of policy documents, background research reports and other relevant papers relating to the selected policies; (iii) unstructured observation (where possible) of meetings and events connected with the development of the selected policies; and (iv) feedback from 40 wider policy staff who took part in a verification workshop to discuss the project’s emerging findings. Findings:Drawing on the findings from the original policy study, two areas of potential connection to evidence-use in practice are explored. First, in relation to ‘varieties of evidence and uses’, the negotiation of diverse evidence types and the potential for using evidence in multiple and varied ways appear to be features of evidence-use that are common to educational policy-makers as well as educational practitioners. Secondly, in relation to ‘narrowness of evidence sources’, there is potential for both policy-makers and practitioners to use a narrow (rather than broad) selection of evidence, due to a tendency to work with certain evidence types as a starting point (e.g. performance data) and a tendency to draw on certain evidence sources more frequently (e.g. well-known, familiar research sources). Conclusions:This paper emphasises: (i) the need for more integrated (or joined-up) understandings of evidence-use across contexts of practice and contexts of policy; (ii) the importance of continued efforts to understand and represent evidence-use more effectively within educational practices; and (iii) the value of paying careful attention to the quality and qualities of evidence-use within and across the different settings of educational practice and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol-related facial trauma is an increasingly prominent social problem and health hazard. Interpersonal violence (IPV) is often implicated in these trauma presentations and the facial skeleton frequently targeted. This paper examines the characteristics of admitted patients with alcohol-related facial fractures.Methods: Electronic data of patients assessed or treated for facial fractures from January 2012 to December 2014 at Western Health was obtained through the Clinical Record Department. Variables analysed include patient age and gender, fracture site(s), alcohol involvement, country of birth, injury mechanism and surgical intervention.Results: Of 659 patient records analysed, 18% presentations had alcohol involvement. In the alcohol group, 88% were male, 44% in the 20-34 year age group, 41% suffered nasal fractures, 65% presented following IPV and 60% required surgery. Thirty-seven per cent of patients were non-Australians. Alcohol involvement was significantly correlated with gender, age group and fracture sites but not with surgical intervention or ethnic origin.Conclusions: A binge drinking culture has contributed to prevalence of alcohol-related trauma. This study reports alcohol involvement in facial fractures to have high predilection for gender, age group of patients and fracture location. Facial trauma frequently necessitates surgical intervention. Educational programmes should be implemented to raise awareness of this potentially preventable health burden among health providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of growing global tendencies of anti-globalization and de-globalization, emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) are suffering from a trust deficit and multiple liabilities of foreignness in leading economies. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the coping strategies of EMNEs towards the challenging institutional environment in host countries. It adopts a qualitative approach, conducting longitudinal multiple cases studies among MNE subsidiaries and employing interviews as the main method of data collection. The findings reveal that EMNEs are not passive recipients of the adverse institutional environment and adopt institutional adaptation as the only response strategy. Given that a single strategy cannot be effective, they have developed both proactive and protective strategies to handle the multiple liabilities of foreignness and trust deficit. This study can help EMNEs gain a better understanding of the dominance effect and develop more effective measures to manage challenging institutional environments in host countries. Given that interactions between institutional environments and firm-level strategies of MNEs remain under-researched, this study advances understanding of strategies and behaviours of MNEs in host countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To review the application of telehealth guidelines developed by Bondini et al for clinicians to determine patient suitability for telehealth in an outpatient Chronic Wound Service, including the proportion of patients suitable for telehealth, type and mode of telehealth encounters. Retrospective, random convenience sample of patients attending the Chronic Wound Service in 2021. Fifty‐six patients were included, most with leg/foot wounds (93%), median age 74 [54–84], 64% male. Four patients at admission and 19 patients at review met criteria for telehealth. Six percent of encounters were telehealth; phone‐only (82%), unscheduled nursing reviews (77%) in patients with healing wounds. Thirty patients (54%) received at least one telehealth encounter. Telehealth occurred 35.6 days later in the admission than face‐to‐face encounters (p < 0.05, 95% CI 14.9–56.3). There was a significant relationship between patients receiving telehealth and meeting telehealth suitability criteria on reviews (X2 (1) = 19.6*, p < 0.001). Eighteen percent of patients required wound‐related hospitalisation during their outpatient admission. Telehealth guidelines identified patients suitable for telehealth, although the proportion of patients was small. Telehealth was mostly utilised for nurse‐led telephone calls in patients with improving wounds. Future research into use of telephone review for clinical standards of wound care is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population health data, collected worldwide in an effort to monitor mortality and morbidity of mothers and babies, namely, perinatal data, are mandated at a federal level within Australia. The data are used to monitor patterns in midwifery, obstetric and neonatal practice, health outcomes, used for research purposes, funding allocation and education. Accuracy in perinatal data is most often reported via quantitative validation studies of perinatal data collections both internationally and in Australia. These studies report varying levels of accuracy and suggest researchers need to be more aware of the quality of data they use. This article presents findings regarding issues of concern identified by midwives relating to their perceptions of how technology affects the accuracy of perinatal data records. Perinatal data records are perceived to be more complete when completed electronically. However, issues regarding system functionality, the inconsistent use of terminology, lack of data standards and the absence of clear, written records contribute to midwives’ perceptions of the negative influence of technology on the quality of perinatal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study aimed at developing an improved understanding of the support needs of international students. Using a case study approach at one Australian university, a three stage data collection process was adopted: interviews with key support service providers in the university, student focus groups, and a large-scale survey. Emphasis was placed on identifying the issues that are significant to international students in terms of their study experience, the services they consider as valuable and the factors that contribute to take-up. The findings reveal that, while most respondents felt that the range of support services provided is appropriate, current services could be improved by offering a more student-centred service structure and delivery. Issues identified as influencing service use include the institutional culture, perceived importance and awareness of services, the quality of information provided about those services, ease of access, timeliness of service provision and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Key incident monitoring and management system program (KIMMS) program collects data for 19 quality indicators (QIs) from Australian medical laboratories. This paper aims to review the data submitted to see whether the number of errors with a higher risk priority number (RPN) have been reduced in preference to those with a lower RPN, and to calculate the cost of these errors. Materials and methods: Data for QIs from 60 laboratories collected through the KIMMS program from 2015 until 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. The results for each QI were averaged for the four-year average and coefficient of variation. To review the changes in QI frequency, the yearly averages for 2015 and 2018 were compared. By dividing the total RPN by 4 and multiplying that number by the cost of recollection of 30 AUD, it was possible to assign the risk cost of these errors. Results: The analysis showed a drop in the overall frequency of incidents (6.5%), but a larger drop in risk (9.4%) over the period investigated. Recollections per year in Australia cost the healthcare industry 27 million AUD. If the RPN data is used, this cost increases to 66 million AUD per year. Conclusions: Errors with a higher RPN have fallen more than those with lower RPN. The data shows that the errors associated with phlebotomy are the ones that have most improved. Further improvements require a better understanding of the root cause of the errors and to achieve this, work is required in the collection of the data to establish best-practice guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate a technological solution in the form of an App to implement and measure person-centredness in nursing. The focus was to enhance the knowledge transfer of a set of person-centred key performance indicators and the corresponding measurement framework used to inform improvements in the experience of care.Design: The study used an evaluation approach derived from the work of the Medical Research Council to assess the feasibility of the App and establish the degree to which the App was meeting the aims set out in the development phase. Evaluation data were collected using focus groups (n = 7) and semi-structured interviews (n = 7) to capture the impact of processes experienced by participating sites.Setting: The study was conducted in the UK and Australia in two organizations, across 11 participating sites.Participants: 22 nurses from 11 sites in two large health care organizations were recruited on a voluntary basis.Intervention: Implementing the KPIs and measurement framework via the APP through two cycles of data collection.Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome was to establish feasibility in the use of the App.Results: The majority of nurse/midwife participants found the App easy to use. There was broad consensus that the App was an effective method to measure the patient experience and generated clear, concise reports in real time.Conclusions: The implementation of the person-centred key performance indicators using the App enhanced the generation of meaningful data to evidence patient experience across a range of different clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate public willingness to share sensitive health information for research, health policy and clinical practice. Methods: A total of 1,003 Australian respondents answered an online, attribute-driven, survey in which participants were asked to accept or reject hypothetical choice sets based on a willingness to share their health data for research and frontline-medical support as part of an integrated health system. The survey consisted of 5 attributes: Stakeholder access for analysis (Analysing group); Type of information collected; Purpose of data collection; Information governance; and Anticipated benefit; the results of which were analysed using logistic regression. Results: When asked about their preference for sharing their health data, respondents had no preference between data collection for the purposes of clinical practice, health policy or research, with a slight preference for having government organisations manage, govern and curate the integrated datasets from which the analysis was being conducted. The least preferred option was for personal health records to be integrated with insurance records or for their data collected by privately owned corporate organisations. Individuals preferred their data to be analysed by a public healthcare provider or government staff and expressed a dislike for any private company involvement. Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that Australian consumers prefer to share their health data when there is government oversight, and have concerns about sharing their anonymised health data for clinical practice, health policy or research purposes unless clarity is provided pertaining to its intended purpose, limitations of use and restrictions to access. Similar findings have been observed in the limited set of existing international studies utilising a stated preference approach. Evident from this study, and supported by national and international research, is that the establishment and preservation of a social license for data linkage in health research will require routine public engagement as a result of continuously evolving technological advancements and fluctuating risk tolerance. Without more work to understand and address stakeholder concerns, consumers risk being reluctant to participate in data-sharing and linkage programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study the effectiveness of oral presentation as an assessment tool in a Finance subject. Assessment data collected from a postgraduate Finance subject in an Australian university over a period of five years from 2005 to 2009 was analysed statistically to determine the relation between students' performance in oral presentation and other forms of assessments. The sample consists of assessment records of 412 students and 98 group presentations. From the study of correlations between oral presentations and other assessments, it is concluded that students perform better in written assessments compared to oral assessment. The study of effect of gender on students' performance leads to the conclusion that female students perform better than male students in all forms of assessments except oral presentations where male students perform better although difference between males and females in oral presentation is not very large. The study of students' performance based on their nationality leads to the conclusion that domestic students perform better than international students in all forms of assessments. Based on the study of student' performance in oral presentation, it is found that students did well in the development of content of presentations, quality of their analysis, group coordination and organisation of presentation. There is however a general tendency to treat group work as a sum of parts instead of treating the group work as a single task. This study is limited by the fact that effectiveness of oral presentation is studied in only one Finance subject. This study makes an original contribution to the literature as the effectiveness of oral assessment in Finance subject is being studied for the first time. The conclusions arrived in this paper have many implications for policies and practice of learning and teaching in Finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is strong international evidence documenting inequities in cancer care for migrant populations. In Australia, there is limited information regarding cancer equity for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) migrant populations, defined in this study as migrants born in a country or region where English is not the primary language. This study sought to quantify and compare cancer treatment, survivorship, and service utilisation measures between CALD migrant and Australian born cancer populations. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted utilising electronic medical records at a major, tertiary hospital. Inpatient and outpatient encounters were assessed for all individuals diagnosed with a solid tumour malignancy in the year 2016 and followed for a total of five years. Individuals were screened for inclusion in the CALD migrant or Australian born cohort. Bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were used to compare treatment, survivorship, and service utilisation measures. Sociodemographic measures included age, sex, post code, employment, region of birth and marital status. Results: A total of 523 individuals were included, with 117 (22%) in the CALD migrant cohort and 406 (78%) in the Australian-born cohort. CALD migrants displayed a statistically significant difference in time from diagnosis to commencement of first treatment for radiation (P = 0.03) and surgery (P = 0.02) and had 16.6 times higher odds of declining recommended chemotherapy than those born in Australia (P = 0.00). Survivorship indicators favoured CALD migrants in mean time from diagnosis to death, however their odds of experiencing disease progression during the study period were 1.6 times higher than those born in Australia (P = 0.04). Service utilisation measures displayed that CALD migrants exhibited higher numbers of unplanned admissions (P = < 0.00), longer cumulative length of those admissions (P = < 0.00) and higher failure to attend scheduled appointments (P = < 0.00). Conclusion: This novel study has produced valuable findings in the areas of treatment, survivorship, and service utilisation for a neglected population in cancer research. The differences identified suggest potential issues of institutional inaccessibility. Future research is needed to examine the clinical impacts of these health differences in the field of cancer care, including the social and institutional determinants of influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This article aimed to provide a snapshot of demographics and professional characteristics of nursing and midwifery workforce in Australian primary health care (PHC) settings during 2015–2019 and factors that influenced their decisions to work in PHC. Design: Longitudinal retrospective survey. Methods: Longitudinal data that were collected from a descriptive workforce survey were retrieved retrospectively. After collation and cleaning, data from 7066 participants were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS version 27.0. Results: The majority of the participants were female, aged between 45 and 64 years old and working in general practice. There was a small yet steady increase in the number of participants in the 25–34 age group and a downward trend in the percentage of postgraduate study completion among participants. While factors perceived most/least important to their decision to work in PHC were consistent during 2015–2019, these factors differed among different age groups and postgraduate qualification holders. This study's findings are both novel and supported by previous research. It is necessary to tailor recruitment and retention strategies to nurses/midwives' age groups and qualifications to attract and retain highly skilled and qualified nursing and midwifery workforce in PHC settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The external auditory canal's unique anatomical characteristics made the presence of foreign bodies (FBs) a clinical challenge, particularly in rural settings without ready access to tertiary care and specialist intervention. Aims: Our study surveys the experience in aural FBs surgical management in a rural Australian tertiary center. It proposes a safe, easy, and affordable technique to remove stones from the ear canal. Methods: We have completed a 10-year retrospective surgical chart review, including 474 patients (52 adults and 428 children) requiring surgical management to remove aural FBs at the Royal Darwin Hospital, Northern Territory, Australia. We surveyed for patient demographics, foreign-body description, complications, location, and removal attempts. We identified what factors determine the need for surgical management and propose a technique for a safe, uncomplicated, and affordable removal of stones from the ear canal after applying this method in a small subgroup. Results: The most common FBs requiring surgery in children were stones. A predominance in the Aboriginal population from remote communities was found, leading to a nasal bridle magnet technique to remove stones in rural settings. This method reduces the number of extraction attempts of the most frequent FB found in children's ears, aiming to minimize complications, negative experiences, and health cost. Conclusion: Contrary to international literature, stones were found to be the most common FB in remote aboriginal populations. The proposed technique reduces the number of extraction attempts of the most frequent FB found in children's ears, aiming to minimize complications, negative experiences, and health cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Chronic pain is experienced by one in five Australians and is estimated to be the nation's third most costly health problem. In 2013, a chronic pain treatment outcomes registry was established, with the goals of evaluating treatment of chronic pain in multidisciplinary centers, establishing a benchmarking system to drive quality improvement and providing answers to important questions regarding types of treatment ("dose," intensity, and response) and which treatment is appropriate for different patients. This paper describes the development and the first-phase implementation of the registry. Methods.A minimum data set of primarily patient-rated measures was developed for use within pain management services. Governance structures and protocols for data collection were established, and software and resources created, to support pain management services. Results. Data collection commenced in 21 centers in Australia and is being implemented in over 20 others across Australia and New Zealand within the first two years. Feedback in the initial phase has already resulted in improvements to the software and reports, as well as minor changes to the data set. Centers have submitted high-quality data describing the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients referred to specialist pain services. Conclusions. The electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration has been established for Australasia and is strongly supported by specialist societies and consumer groups. The next phase will increase the proportion of follow-up data in order to realize the registry's goals of evaluation, benchmarking, and research to improve outcomes and services for patients experiencing persistent pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The 2019/2020 Australian landscape fires (bushfires) resulted in prolonged extreme air pollution; little is known about the effects on breastfeeding women and their infants. This study aimed to examine the impact of prolonged landscape fires on infant feeding methods and assess the concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and elements in breast milk samples. Methods: From May – December 2020, women with asthma, who were feeding their infants during the fires, were recruited from an existing cohort. Data on infant feeding and maternal concern during the fires were retrospectively collected. Breast milk samples were collected from a sample of women during the fire period and compared with samples collected outside of the fire period for levels of 16 PAHs (gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry), and 20 elements (inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry). Results: One-hundred-and-two women who were feeding infants completed the survey, and 77 provided 92 breast milk samples. Two women reported concern about the impact of fire events on their infant feeding method, while four reported the events influenced their decision. PAHs were detected in 34% of samples collected during, versus no samples collected outside, the fire period (cross-sectional analysis); specifically, fluoranthene (median concentration 0.015 mg/kg) and pyrene (median concentration 0.008 mg/kg) were detected. Women whose samples contained fluoranthene and pyrene were exposed to higher levels of fire-related fine particulate matter and more fire days, versus women whose samples had no detectable fluoranthene and pyrene. Calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, sulphur, and copper were detected in all samples. No samples contained chromium, lead, nickel, barium, or aluminium. No statistically significant difference was observed in the concentration of elements between samples collected during the fire period versus outside the fire period. Conclusions: Few women had concerns about the impact of fire events on infant feeding. Detection of fluoranthene and pyrene in breast milk samples was more likely during the 2019/2020 Australian fire period; however, levels detected were much lower than levels expected to be related to adverse health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The paper introduces a deep learning-based approach for real-time detection and insights generation about one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in Australia - Pollen allergy. The popular social media platform is used for data collection as cost-effective and unobtrusive alternative for public health monitoring to complement the traditional survey-based approaches.Methods: The data was extracted from Twitter based on pre-defined keywords (i.e. 'hayfever' OR 'hay fever') throughout the period of 6 months, covering the high pollen season in Australia. The following deep learning architectures were adopted in the experiments: CNN, RNN, LSTM and GRU. Both default (GloVe) and domain-specific (HF) word embeddings were used in training the classifiers. Standard evaluation metrics (i.e. Accuracy, Precision and Recall) were calculated for the results validation. Finally, visual correlation with weather variables was performed.Results: The neural networks-based approach was able to correctly identify the implicit mentions of the symptoms and treatments, even unseen previously (accuracy up to 87.9% for GRU with GloVe embeddings of 300 dimensions).Conclusions: The system addresses the shortcomings of the conventional machine learning techniques with manual feature-engineering that prove limiting when exposed to a wide range of non-standard expressions relating to medical concepts. The case-study presented demonstrates an application of 'black-box' approach to the real-world problem, along with its internal workings demonstration towards more transparent, interpretable and reproducible decision-making in health informatics domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is Australia's national drug subsidy program. This paper provides a practical guide to researchers using PBS data to examine prescribed medicine use. Findings: Excerpts of the PBS data collection are available in a variety of formats. We describe the core components of four publicly available extracts (the Australian Statistics on Medicines, PBS statistics online, section 85 extract, under co-payment extract). We also detail common analytical challenges and key issues regarding the interpretation of utilisation using the PBS collection and its various extracts. Conclusions: Research using routinely collected data is increasing internationally. PBS data are a valuable resource for Australian pharmacoepidemiological and pharmaceutical policy research. A detailed knowledge of the PBS, the nuances of data capture, and the extracts available for research purposes are necessary to ensure robust methodology, interpretation, and translation of study findings into policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, sophisticated risk stratification models have been developed using routinely collected data from large organisations that provide care in both community and hospital settings. This paper outlines a simple approach in the Australian context, where federal and state governments have separate data for community and hospital care, with limited opportunities for data linkage. On the NSW Central Coast, just north of Sydney, the Central Coast Local Health District, CCLHD, is embarking on a 10 year program to integrate primary health and social care for vulnerable older people in the community. A key action is to provide integrated care for people at greatest risk of some deterioration in their health state. Practice change. Aim: To assess the utility of routinely collected hospital data for risk stratification. In the first year of the program, the risk is defined as a person with a high risk of being hospitalised in the next 12 months. Target Population: The Central Coast area of New South Wales, Australia, has a population of about 330,000 people, with 19% aged 65 years and over. Each year, about 10,000 people of this age have at least one unplanned hospital admission to a CCLHD hospital. There are over 400 General Practitioners, GPs, on the Central Coast, working from about 100 practice locations - with some solo practices to large group practices, operating as separate small business entities. People do not register for a GP, though nearly all people by 75 years of age have a regular GP. General practices also vary by the number and age profile of the patients they see in a year. Key Findings: The analysis of 5 years of hospital data demonstrated patterns in service delivery for the older age group eg for each year's cohort of 10,000 people with at least one admission, about 2700 people (27%) have at least one hospital admission in the following year. Knowing each person's nominated GP allowed some exploration of patterns of service use by GP. Some GPs had few patients admitted each year, and some GPs had many. It is likely this variability reflects differences in practice profiles of age distribution. There was consistency in these patterns of service use by GP over time, and also by general practice. The analysis of comorbidities allowed categorisation of the age group into those with 2 or more comorbidities - about 3500 people from a one year cohort have 2 or more chronic diseases. For this group of 3500 people, about 1500 people, or 40%, have a hospital admission in the following year. This approach was used to identify a small number of general practices in a low socio-economic status area, with an initial total cohort of about 600 people for a proof of concept of integrated care. Discussion: A risk stratification model needs to be linked with an effective intervention to improve the health of a population. Regression to the mean, when assessing whether a trial worked - it is important to have an understanding of patterns of service delivery over time, if they exist. Analysing hospital data, by general practice, allows contemporaneous analyses of other practices with similar activity and socio-economic profiles for comparison. Risk stratification models and c-statistics - the c-statistic is a useful measure of goodness of fit available for some regression models. It is not the only measure, and others should be considered. This approach using hospital data does not have a goodness of fit measure per se. Positive Predictive Value - Of equal importance is how well the model works when it is applied to the population of interest. If a model selects 100 people considered at high risk of hospitalisation, and 25 people are actually admitted to hospital, this represents a positive predictive value, PPV, of 25%. The PPV is influenced by the underlying risk of hospitalisation in your target population. Our 40% prediction of hospitalisation can be compared with the PPV of other risk stratification models. Conclusion: Further work is underway to apply a regression model to hospital data to facilitate comparisons with other risk stratification models reported in the literature, and quantify the incremental gains from increasingly sophisticated approaches to patient selection. Further work will also explore the gains from linking hospital data with primary care data. Using hospital data compares well with other models, and is an easily transferable, low tech approach to patient selection. A series of criteria for patient selection is a familiar way of doing business in many clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine outcomes and prognostic features of patients admitted with emphysematous pyelonephritis (EPN) at a regional tertiary centre. Materials and Methods: Nineteen patients with EPN were identified between January 2007 and December 2019. Patients were grouped into two "mild" (grade I or II); and "severe" (grade III or IV) based on their Huang and Tseng classification. The two groups were compared using Fisher's Exact tests to determine prognostic features associated with poor outcome, defined as extensive surgical intervention or death. Results: Thirteen patients had mild disease and six patients had severe disease. 69% of patients had ureteric obstruction, 58% were diabetic, 26% were thrombocytopaenic, and there was a female predominance (12:7). Poor outcomes were significantly more common in patients with severe disease (83%), versus mild disease (8%) (p<0.0001). Half of the patients managed with sole medical management died (two of four patients) and only two patients required escalation to extensive surgical management, both of whom survived. Overall mortality during admission was 19%; encompassing three of six patients with severe disease (50%) and one of thirteen patients with mild disease (8%). Conclusion: EPN is dangerous, requiring prompt recognition and intervention, and is of increasing importance given the aging population and increased prevalence of comorbidities associated with the disease. This study of the largest recorded cohort of patients with EPN in Australia it was found that poor outcomes were significantly more common in patients with high radiological-grade disease, and severe thrombocytopaenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decades have seen rapid changes in societal attitudes and policy surrounding members of the LGBTIQ community, however this community continues to experience adverse social and economic outcomes relative to their cisgendered heterosexual counterparts. Understanding the LGBTIQ data landscape is essential to promote scholarship in this space and highlight avenues for future data collection. Here I provide an overview of the 17 national data surveys in Australia that capture information on either sexual or gender diversity and are either repeated or longitudinal samples. For each dataset, I provide details on questions pertaining to sexual and gender diversity, indicative sample sizes and age ranges, scope of survey, and data custodians. Altogether, I find thatcollection of information on sexual and gender diverse (SGD) populations in Australia is poor and terminology varies widely. Only seven datasets capture information on both sexual and gender diversity and, of these, none are nationally representative, and only one is a longitudinal sample. Altogether, this review highlights the need for large‐scale, representative and longitudinal data capture of SGD populations in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Clinical quality registries (CQRs) monitor compliance against optimal practice and provide feedback to the clinical community and wider stakeholder groups. Despite a number of CQRs having incorporated the patient perspective to support the evaluation of healthcare delivery, no recommendations for inclusion of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in CQRs exist. The aim of this study was to develop a core set of recommendations for PROMs inclusion of in CQRs.Method: An online two-round Delphi survey was performed among CQR data custodians, quality of life researchers, biostatisticians and clinicians largely recruited in Australia. A list of statements for the recommendations was identified from a literature and survey of the Australian registries conducted in 2019. The statements were grouped into the following domains: rationale, setting, ethics, instrument, administration, data management, statistical methods, and feedback and reporting. Eighteen experts were invited to participate, 11 agreed to undertake the first online survey (round 1). Of these, nine experts completed the online survey for round 2.Results: From 117 statements presented to the Delphi panel in round 1, a total of 72 recommendations (55 from round 1 and 17 from round 2) with median importance (MI) ≥ 7 and disagreement index (DI) < 1 were proposed for inclusion into the final draft set and were reviewed by the project team. Recommendations were refined for clarity and to read as stand-alone statements. Ten overlapped conceptually and, therefore, were merged to reduce repetition. The final 62 recommendations were sent for review to the panel members for their feedback, which was incorporated into the final set.Conclusion: This is the first study to develop preliminary recommendations for PROMs inclusion in CQRs. Recommendations for PROMs implementation are critically important for registries to assure meaningful PROMs data capture, use, interpretation, and reporting to improve health outcomes and healthcare value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of the first three waves of data collection for Ten to Men: The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health (TTM). TTM is Australia's first national and representative longitudinal study of men aged 10–55 years who resided in private dwellings at recruitment. Findings address knowledge gaps and build the evidence base on male health to inform policy and program development. This article provides an update on the study's progress; it details the study's broad methodology and provides a brief overview of the measures available, potential uses and how data can be accessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automated collection of data (e.g., through sensor networks) has led to amassive increase in the quantity of environmental and other data available. The sheer quantity of data and growing need for real-time ingestion of sensor data (e.g., alerts and forecasts from physical models) means that automated Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) is necessary to ensure that the data collected is fit for purpose. Current automated QA/QC approaches provide assessments based upon hard classifications of the gathered data; often as a binary decision of good or bad data that fails to quantify our confidence in the data for use in different applications. We propose a novel framework for automated data quality assessments that uses Fuzzy Logic to provide a continuous scale of data quality. This continuous quality scale is then used to compute error bars upon the data, which quantify the data uncertainty and provide a more meaningful measure of the data's fitness for purpose in a particular application compared with hard quality classifications. The design principles of the framework are presented and enable both data statistics and expert knowledge to be incorporated into the uncertainty assessment. We have implemented and tested the framework upon a real time platform of temperature and conductivity sensors that have been deployed to monitor the Derwent Estuary in Hobart, Australia. Results indicate that the error bars generated from the Fuzzy QA/QC implementation are in good agreement with the error bars manually encoded by a domain expert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Clinical registry participation is a measure of healthcare quality. Limited knowledge exists on Australian hospitals' participation in clinical registries and whether this registry data informs quality improvement initiatives. Objective To identify participation in clinical registries, determine if registry data inform quality improvement initiatives, and identify registry participation enablers and clinicians' educational needs to improve use of registry data to drive practice change. Methods A self-administered survey was distributed to staff coordinating registries in seven hospitals in New South Wales, Australia. Eligible registries were international-, national- and state-based clinical, condition-/disease-specific and device/product registries. Results Response rate was 70% (97/139). Sixty-two (64%) respondents contributed data to 46 eligible registries. Registry reports were most often received by nurses (61%) and infrequently by hospital executives (8.4%). Less than half used registry data 'always' or 'often' to influence practice improvement (48%) and care pathways (49%). Protected time for data collection (87%) and benchmarking (79%) were 'very likely' or 'likely' to promote continued participation. Over half 'strongly agreed' or 'agreed' that clinical practice improvement training (79%) and evidence–practice gap identification (77%) would optimize use of registry data. Conclusions Registry data are generally only visible to local speciality units and not routinely used to inform quality improvement. Centralized on-going registry funding, accessible and transparent integrated information systems combined with data informed improvement science education could be first steps to promote quality data-driven clinical improvement initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to assess the associations between newborn thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) concentration, a marker of iodine nutrition in early life, and childhood neurodevelopment and growth using data collected from two pregnancy studies, one in a borderline iodine-deficient setting (DHA to Optimize Mother Infant Outcome (DOMInO) Study) and one in an iodine-sufficient setting (Pregnancy Iodine and Neurodevelopment in Kids (PINK) Study). TSH data were obtained from routine newborn screening. Neurodevelopment was assessed at 18 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, third edition (Bayley-III). Weight, height and head circumference were measured at 18 months. In total, 1467 children were included in the analysis. Comparing the highest with the lowest TSH quartile, the mean differences (MD) in the Bayley-III scores ranged from −2·0 (95 % CI −4·7, 0·7) to −2·2 (95 % CI −5·8, 1·3) points in DOMInO and 1·0 (95 % CI −1·6, 3·6) to 2·0 (95 % CI −0·4, 4·4) points in PINK in the cognitive, language and motor scales; the MD in the anthropometric z scores ranged from −0·01 (95 % CI −0·5, 0·5) to −0·5 (95 % CI −0·9, −0·1) in both studies. A 1 mIU/l increase in TSH was associated with −0·3 (95 % CI −0·9, 0·2) point and 0·2 (95 % CI −0·3, 0·7) point changes in the mean cognitive score in the DOMInO and PINK, respectively. A null association between TSH and growth was also observed in both studies. Longitudinal studies that utilise newborn TSH data and examine neurodevelopmental outcomes at later ages are warranted, as neurodevelopmental assessments in older children are more predictive of later achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fauna surveys are traditionally manual, and hence limited in scale, expensive and labour‐intensive. Low‐cost hardware and storage mean that acoustic recording now has the potential to efficiently build scale in terrestrial fauna surveys, both spatially and temporally.With this aim, we have constructed the Australian Acoustic Observatory. It provides a direct and permanent record of terrestrial soundscapes through continuous recording across Australian ecoregions, including those periodically subject to fire and flood, when manual surveys are dangerous or impossible.The observatory comprises 360 permanent listening stations deployed across Australia. Groups of four sensors are deployed at each of 90 sites, placed strategically across ecoregions, to provide representative datasets of soundscapes. Each station continuously records sound, resulting in year‐round data collection. All data are made freely available under an open access licence.The Australian Acoustic Observatory is the world's first terrestrial acoustic observatory of this size. It provides continental‐scale environmental monitoring of unparalleled spatial extent, temporal resolution and archival stability. It enables new approaches to understanding ecosystems, long‐term environmental change, data visualization and acoustic science that will only increase in scientific value over time, particularly as others replicate the design in other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Despite Australia's National Cervical Screening Program, Indigenous women have a disproportionately high burden of cervical cancer. We describe temporal and area-level patterns in prevalence of histologically conformed high-grade cervical abnormalities (hHGA) among cytologically screened women by Indigenous status. Methods: This was a population-based study of 2,132,925 women, aged 20–69, who underwent cervical screening between 2008 and 2017, in Queensland, Australia. Of these, 47,136 were identified as Indigenous from linked hospital records. Overall patterns in hHGA prevalence by Indigenous status were quantified using prevalence rate ratios (PrRR) from negative binomial models. Bayesian spatial models were used to obtain smoothed prevalence estimates of hHGA across 528 small areas compared to the state average. Results are presented as maps and graphs showing the associated uncertainty of the estimates. Results: Overall, screened Indigenous women had significantly higher hHGA prevalence than non-Indigenous women. However, the magnitude of the difference reduced over time (p < 0.001). Adjusted for age and area-level variables, Indigenous women had 36% higher hHGA prevalence (PrRR 1.36, 95% confidence interval [1.21–1.52]) than non-Indigenous women between 2013 and 2017. The overall effect of age decreased over time (p = 0.021). Although there was evidence of moderate spatial variation in 10-year prevalence estimates for both groups of women, the high levels of uncertainty for many estimates, particularly for Indigenous women, limited our ability to draw definitive conclusions about the spatial patterns. Conclusions: While the temporal reduction in Indigenous: non-Indigenous differential in hHGA prevalence is encouraging, further research into the key drivers of the continuing higher risk among Indigenous women is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding human movement patterns at local, national and international scales is critical in a range of fields, including transportation, logistics and epidemiology. Data on human movement is increasingly available, and when combined with statistical models, enables predictions of movement patterns across broad regions. Movement characteristics, however, strongly depend on the scale and type of movement captured for a given study. The models that have so far been proposed for human movement are best suited to specific spatial scales and types of movement. Selecting both the scale of data collection, and the appropriate model for the data remains a key challenge in predicting human movements. We used two different data sources on human movement in Australia, at different spatial scales, to train a range of statistical movement models and evaluate their ability to predict movement patterns for each data type and scale. Whilst the five commonly-used movement models we evaluated varied markedly between datasets in their predictive ability, we show that an ensemble modelling approach that combines the predictions of these models consistently outperformed all individual models against hold-out data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability of fisheries extends beyond environmental aspects. Broad information is today sought for decision-making and by many stakeholders. Here, a framework recently developed to comprehensively report on sustainability issues relevant to fisheries, the Australian Fisheries Healthcheck, was used to compare five crustacean trawl fisheries from Australia and Europe. Indicators covered 51 different aspects of sustainability in 24 sub-categories related to ecological, economic, social and ethical, governance, and external (e.g. climate, contaminants) dimensions. We found that data availability did not vary greatly between fisheries, but the indicator outcomes did. Furthermore, while environmental sustainability has received most attention in assessments to date, the associated indicators had the least publicly available data. Another finding was that eco-certification and high performance on several governance indicators did not necessarily equate to sustainability. For future international comparisons, challenges include identifying comparable and cost-effective metrics for indicators derived from different data collection strategies. Commencing holistic reporting on broader sustainability is important since the data provided (i) are sought by stakeholders; (ii) enable improved availability of empirical data for research on the effectiveness of different governance modes; (iii) can illustrate trade-offs between different dimensions of sustainability, and (iv) build trust in the fishery system as producers of sustainable food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]