Research shows that highly educated individuals have at least 20 graphomotor features associated with clock drawing with hands set for '10 after 11' (Davoudi et al., 2021). Research has yet to understand clock drawing features in individuals with fewer years of education. In the current study, we compared older adults with < 8 years of education to those with > 9 years of education on number and pattern of graphomotor feature relationships in the clock drawing command condition.

Participants age 65+ from the University of Florida (UF) and UF Health (N= 10,491) completed both command and copy conditions of the digital Clock Drawing Test (dCDT) as a part of a federally-funded investigation. Participants were categorized into two education groups: < 8 years of education (n= 304) and > 9 years of education (n= 10,187). Propensity score matching was then used to match participants from each subgroup (n= 266 for each subgroup) on the following demographic characteristics: age, sex, race, and ethnicity (n= 532, age= 74.99±6.21, education= 10.41±4.45, female= 42.7%, non-white= 32.0%). Network models were derived using Bayesian Structure Learning (BSL) with the hill-climbing algorithm to obtain optimal directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) from all possible solutions in each subgroup for the dCDT command condition.

Both education groups retained 13 of 91 possible edges (14.29%). For the < 8 years of education group (education= 6.65±1.74, ASA= 3.08±0.35), the network included 3 clock face (CF), 7 digit, and 3 hour hand (HH) and minute hand (MH) independent, or “parent,” features connected to the retained edges (BIC= -7395.24). In contrast, the > 9 years of education group (education= 14.17±2.88, ASA= 2.90±0.46) network retained 1 CF, 6 digit, 5 HH and MH, and 1 additional parent features representing the total number of pen strokes (BIC= -6689.92). Both groups showed that greater distance from the HH to the center of the clock also had greater distance from the MH to the center of the clock [ßz(< 8 years)= 0.73, ßz(> 9 years)= 0.76]. Groups were similar in the size of the digit height relative to the distance of the digits to the CF [ßz(< 8 years)= 0.27, ßz(> 9 years)= 0.56]. Larger HH angle was associated with larger MH angle across groups [ßz(< 8 years)= 0.28, ßz(> 9 years)= 0.23].

Education groups differed in the ratio of dCDT parent feature types. Specifically, copy clock production in older adults with < 8 years of education relied more heavily on CF parent features. In contrast, older adults with > 9 years of education relied more heavily on HH and MH parent features. Individuals with < 8 years of education may more infrequently present the concept of time in the clock drawing command condition. This study highlights the importance of considering education level in interpreting dCDT scores and features.

Research shows that highly educated individuals have at least 20 graphomotor features associated with clock drawing with hands set for '10 after 11' (Davoudi et al., 2021). Research has yet to understand clock drawing features in individuals with fewer years of education. In the current study, we compared older adults with < 8 years of education to those with > 9 years of education on number and pattern of graphomotor feature relationships in the clock drawing copy condition.

Participants age 65+ from the University of Florida (UF) and UF Health (N= 10,491) completed command and copy digital Clock Drawing Tests (dCDT) as a part of a federally-funded investigation. Participants were categorized into two groups: < 8 years of education (n= 304) and > 9 years of education (n= 10,187). Propensity score matching was used to match participants from each subgroup (n= 266 for each subgroup) on the following: age, sex, race, and ethnicity (n= 532, age= 74.99±6.21, education= 10.41±4.45, female= 42.7%, non-white= 32.0%). Network models were derived using Bayesian Structure Learning (BSL) with the hill-climbing algorithm to obtain optimal directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) from all possible solutions in each subgroup for the dCDT copy condition.

The < 8 years of education group (education= 6.65±1.74, ASA= 3.08±0.35), retained 12 of 91 possible edges (13.19%, BIC= -7775.50). The network retained 2 clock face (CF), 5 digit, and 5 hour hand (HH) and minute hand (MH) independent, or “parent,” features connected to the retained edges. In contrast, the > 9 years of education group (education= 14.17±2.88, ASA= 2.90±0.46) network retained 15 of 91 possible edges (16.48%, BIC= -8261.484). The network retained 2 CF, 6 digit, 4 HH and MH, and an additional 3 total stroke parent features. Both groups showed that greater distance from the HH to the clock center also had greater distance from the MH to the clock center (ßz= 0.73, both). Groups were similar in digit width size relative to digit height [ßz(< 8 years)= 0.72, ßz(> 9 years)= 0.74]. Digit height size related to CF area [ßz(< 8 years)= 0.44, ßz(> 9 years)= 0.62] and CF area related to the digit distance to the CF across groups [ßz(< 8 years)= 0.39, ßz(> 9 years)= 0.46]. Greater distance from the MH to the clock center was associated with smaller MH angle [ßz(< 8 years)= -0.35, ßz(> 9 years)= -0.31], whereas greater digit misplacement was associated with larger MH angle across groups [ßz(< 8 years)= 0.14, ßz(> 9 years)= 0.29].

Education groups differed in the ratio of dCDT parent feature types. Specifically, copy clock production in older adults with < 8 years of education relied more evenly across CF, digit, and MH and HH parent features. In contrast, those with > 9 years of education differed in the additional reliance on total stroke parent features. Individuals with < 8 years of education may more heavily rely upon visual referencing when copying a clock. This study highlights the importance of considering education level in interpreting dCDT scores and features.

A standardised multi-site approach to manage paediatric post-operative chylothorax does not exist and leads to unnecessary practice variation. The Chylothorax Work Group utilised the Pediatric Critical Care Consortium infrastructure to address this gap.

Over 60 multi-disciplinary providers representing 22 centres convened virtually as a quality initiative to develop an algorithm to manage paediatric post-operative chylothorax. Agreement was objectively quantified for each recommendation in the algorithm by utilising an anonymous survey. “Consensus” was defined as ≥ 80% of responses as “agree” or “strongly agree” to a recommendation. In order to determine if the algorithm recommendations would be correctly interpreted in the clinical environment, we developed ex vivo simulations and surveyed patients who developed the algorithm and patients who did not.

The algorithm is intended for all children (<18 years of age) within 30 days of cardiac surgery. It contains rationale for 11 central chylothorax management recommendations; diagnostic criteria and evaluation, trial of fat-modified diet, stratification by volume of daily output, timing of first-line medical therapy for “low” and “high” volume patients, and timing and duration of fat-modified diet. All recommendations achieved “consensus” (agreement >80%) by the workgroup (range 81–100%). Ex vivo simulations demonstrated good understanding by developers (range 94–100%) and non-developers (73%–100%).

The quality improvement effort represents the first multi-site algorithm for the management of paediatric post-operative chylothorax. The algorithm includes transparent and objective measures of agreement and understanding. Agreement to the algorithm recommendations was >80%, and overall understanding was 94%.

This study examined longitudinal associations between performance on the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure–Developmental Scoring System (ROCF-DSS) at 8 years of age and academic outcomes at 16 years of age in 133 children with dextro-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA).

The ROCF-DSS was administered at the age of 8 and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, First and Second Edition (WIAT/WIAT-II) at the ages of 8 and 16, respectively. ROCF-DSS protocols were classified by Organization (Organized/Disorganized) and Style (Part-oriented/Holistic). Two-way univariate (ROCF-DSS Organization × Style) ANCOVAs were computed with 16-year academic outcomes as the dependent variables and socioeconomic status (SES) as the covariate.

The Organization × Style interaction was not statistically significant. However, ROCF-DSS Organization at 8 years was significantly associated with Reading, Math, Associative, and Assembled academic skills at 16 years, with better organization predicting better academic performance.

Performance on the ROCF-DSS, a complex visual-spatial problem-solving task, in children with d-TGA can forecast academic performance in both reading and mathematics nearly a decade later. These findings may have implications for identifying risk in children with other medical and neurodevelopmental disorders affecting brain development.

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is effective for most patients with a social anxiety disorder (SAD) but a substantial proportion fails to remit. Experimental and clinical research suggests that enhancing CBT using imagery-based techniques could improve outcomes. It was hypothesized that imagery-enhanced CBT (IE-CBT) would be superior to verbally-based CBT (VB-CBT) on pre-registered outcomes.

A randomized controlled trial of IE-CBT v. VB-CBT for social anxiety was completed in a community mental health clinic setting. Participants were randomized to IE (n = 53) or VB (n = 54) CBT, with 1-month (primary end point) and 6-month follow-up assessments. Participants completed 12, 2-hour, weekly sessions of IE-CBT or VB-CBT plus 1-month follow-up.

Intention to treat analyses showed very large within-treatment effect sizes on the social interaction anxiety at all time points (ds = 2.09–2.62), with no between-treatment differences on this outcome or clinician-rated severity [1-month OR = 1.45 (0.45, 4.62), p = 0.53; 6-month OR = 1.31 (0.42, 4.08), p = 0.65], SAD remission (1-month: IE = 61.04%, VB = 55.09%, p = 0.59); 6-month: IE = 58.73%, VB = 61.89%, p = 0.77), or secondary outcomes. Three adverse events were noted (substance abuse, n = 1 in IE-CBT; temporary increase in suicide risk, n = 1 in each condition, with one being withdrawn at 1-month follow-up).

Group IE-CBT and VB-CBT were safe and there were no significant differences in outcomes. Both treatments were associated with very large within-group effect sizes and the majority of patients remitted following treatment.

Recent investigations now suggest that cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is impaired in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and may underpin part of the disease’s neurovascular component. However, our understanding of the relationship between the magnitude of CVR, the speed of cerebrovascular response, and the progression of AD is still limited. This is especially true in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is recognized as an intermediate stage between normal aging and dementia. The purpose of this study was to investigate AD and MCI patients by mapping repeatable and accurate measures of cerebrovascular function, namely the magnitude and speed of cerebrovascular response (τ) to a vasoactive stimulus in key predilection sites for vascular dysfunction in AD.

Thirty-three subjects (age range: 52–83 years, 20 males) were prospectively recruited. CVR and τ were assessed using blood oxygen level-dependent MRI during a standardized carbon dioxide stimulus. Temporal and parietal cortical regions of interest (ROIs) were generated from anatomical images using the FreeSurfer image analysis suite.

Of 33 subjects recruited, 3 individuals were excluded, leaving 30 subjects for analysis, consisting of 6 individuals with early AD, 11 individuals with MCI, and 13 older healthy controls (HCs). τ was found to be significantly higher in the AD group compared to the HC group in both the temporal (p = 0.03) and parietal cortex (p = 0.01) following a one-way ANCOVA correcting for age and microangiopathy scoring and a Bonferroni post-hoc correction.

The study findings suggest that AD is associated with a slowing of the cerebrovascular response in the temporal and parietal cortices.

Simulation plays an integral role in the Canadian healthcare system with applications in quality improvement, systems development, and medical education. High-quality, simulation-based research will ensure its effective use. This study sought to summarize simulation-based research activity and its facilitators and barriers, as well as establish priorities for simulation-based research in Canadian emergency medicine (EM).

Simulation-leads from Canadian departments or divisions of EM associated with a general FRCP-EM training program surveyed and documented active EM simulation-based research at their institutions and identified the perceived facilitators and barriers. Priorities for simulation-based research were generated by simulation-leads via a second survey; these were grouped into themes and finally endorsed by consensus during an in-person meeting of simulation leads. Priority themes were also reviewed by senior simulation educators.

Twenty simulation-leads representing all 14 invited institutions participated in the study between February and May, 2018. Sixty-two active, simulation-based research projects were identified (median per institution = 4.5, IQR 4), as well as six common facilitators and five barriers. Forty-nine priorities for simulation-based research were reported and summarized into eight themes: simulation in competency-based medical education, simulation for inter-professional learning, simulation for summative assessment, simulation for continuing professional development, national curricular development, best practices in simulation-based education, simulation-based education outcomes, and simulation as an investigative methodology.

This study summarized simulation-based research activity in EM in Canada, identified its perceived facilitators and barriers, and built national consensus on priority research themes. This represents the first step in the development of a simulation-based research agenda specific to Canadian EM.