This feasibility study aims to develop and test a new model of practice in Australia using digital technologies to enable pharmacists to monitor early signs and symptoms of medicine-induced harms in residential aged care.

Thirty residents will be recruited from an aged care facility in South Australia. The study will be conducted in two phases. In phase I, the study team will work with aged care software providers and developers of digital technologies (a wearable activity tracker and a sleep tracking sensor) to gather physical activity and sleep data, as well as medication and clinical data from the electronic medication management system and aged care clinical software. Data will be centralised into a cloud-based monitoring platform (TeleClinical Care (TCC)). The TCC will be used to create dashboards that will include longitudinal visualisations of changes in residents’ health, function and medicine use over time. In phase II, the on-site pharmacist will use the centralised TCC platform to monitor each resident’s medicine, clinical, physical activity and sleep data to identify signs of medicine-induced harms over a 12-week period.

A mixed methods process evaluation applying the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) evaluation framework will be used to assess the feasibility of the service. Outcome measures include service reach, changes in resident symptom scores (measured using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System), number of medication adverse events detected, changes in physical activity and sleep, number of pharmacist recommendations provided, cost analysis and proportion of all pharmacists’ recommendations implemented at 4-week, 8-week and 12-week postbaseline period.

Ethical approval has been obtained from the University of South Australia’s Human Research Ethics Committee (205098). Findings will be disseminated through published manuscripts, conference presentations and reporting to the study funder.

ACTRN12623000506695.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the communication challenges and successes that people with ostomies experienced during their healthcare encounters.

We conducted semistructured interviews of people with ostomies. Interviews focused on important social situations and health communication strategies for managing these situations. We transcribed interviews and coded them to create themes.

Participants were eligible to participate if they were above the age of 18 and have had an ostomy for at least a year. 27 people participated in the study.

The study was conducted in a university setting.

Interviews with ostomates surfaced several themes related to ostomate needs. Participants benefited from communication that was open, thorough and had a positive outlook on ostomies. Participants found patient–clinician communication to be challenging when there was a lack of knowledge surrounding ostomy care, communication was unclear or inadequate, and when clinicians had a negative outlook on ostomies.

Findings from this project are intended to amplify existing patient and clinician education materials and to inform the creation of a communication guide specifically for the ostomy context.

To assess public perceptions of the effectiveness of e-cigarette regulations in minimising use among adolescents and those who have never smoked. Specifically, we explored (1) perceived effectiveness of current regulations relating to e-cigarettes and (2) ideas for further regulations that could reduce use.

Focus groups (n=16) were conducted with Australian adolescents (14–17 years), young adults (18–24 years) and adults (25–39 years). Groups were stratified by age, gender and e-cigarette use status. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Focus groups were conducted in-person in two major Australian cities.

Groups lacked a comprehensive understanding of e-cigarette regulations in Australia. When informed of these regulations, half of the groups considered the prescription model for nicotine e-cigarette products to be effective when enforced appropriately. Almost all groups considered access to non-nicotine products problematic. All groups suggested a range of demand reduction regulations, including plain packaging, health warnings, flavour restrictions and increased vape-free areas. Most groups (predominantly those who had never vaped) also recommended supply reduction regulations such as banning all e-cigarettes. The need for supply reduction measures to include addiction and mental health supports was discussed.

The regulations recommended by participants largely align with those that are to be introduced in Australia, indicating that these reforms are likely to be accepted by the public. Ensuring these reforms are complemented by formal supports for young people experiencing nicotine dependence and related mental health concerns is critical.

Assessment of near work-induced transient myopia (NITM) is important for permanent myopia development and progression. Atropine eye drop has been reported to be beneficial in reducing initial NITM and slowing down myopic progression. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of 0.01% atropine in treating NITM and its possible association with the progression of refractive change in Chinese myopic children.

The study is designed as a parallel assignment prospective, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial conducted at He Eye Specialist Hospital in Shenyang, China. One hundred fifty participants will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive 0.01% atropine or placebo eye drop once nightly bilaterally for 1 year. Initial NITM, cycloplegic refraction, axial length, best-corrected visual acuity, intraocular pressure and pupil diameter will be measured at baseline, 4 weeks, 12 weeks, 24 weeks, 36 weeks and 48 weeks. Visual Function Questionnaire will be administered at baseline and each follow-up visit. Adverse events also will be monitored and documented at each subsequent follow-up visit.

A parallel assignment prospective, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of 0.01% atropine for near work-induced transient myopia and myopic progression registered on 10 September 2023. Ethics approval number: IRB (2023) K025.01. The study’s findings will be shared regardless of the effect’s direction.

NCT06034366.

In population-based research, disease ascertainment algorithms can be as accurate as, and less costly than, performing supplementary clinical examinations on selected participants to confirm a diagnosis of a neurocognitive disorder (NCD), but they require cohort-specific validation. To optimise the use of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) to understand the epidemiology and burden of NCDs, the CLSA Memory Study will validate an NCD ascertainment algorithm to identify CLSA participants with these disorders using routinely acquired study data.

Up to 600 CLSA participants with equal numbers of those likely to have no NCD, mild NCD or major NCD based on prior self-reported physician diagnosis of a memory problem or dementia, medication consumption (ie, cholinesterase inhibitors, memantine) and/or self-reported function will be recruited during the follow-up 3 CLSA evaluations (started August 2021). Participants will undergo an assessment by a study clinician who will also review an informant interview and make a preliminary determination of the presence or absence of an NCD. The clinical assessment and available CLSA data will be reviewed by a Central Review Panel who will make a final categorisation of participants as having (1) no NCD, (2) mild NCD or, (3) major NCD (according to fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria). These will be used as our gold standard diagnosis to determine if the NCD ascertainment algorithm accurately identifies CLSA participants with an NCD. Weighted Kappa statistics will be the primary measure of agreement. Sensitivity, specificity, the C-statistic and the phi coefficient will also be estimated.

Ethics approval has been received from the institutional research ethics boards for each CLSA Data Collection Site (Université de Sherbrooke, Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia Health Research Ethics Board, University of Manitoba, McGill University, McGill University Health Centre Research Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Victoria, Élisabeth Bruyère Research Institute of Ottawa, University of British Columbia, Island Health (Formerly the Vancouver Island Health Authority, Simon Fraser University, Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board).

The results of this work will be disseminated to public health professionals, researchers, health professionals, administrators and policy-makers through journal publications, conference presentations, publicly available reports and presentations to stakeholder groups.