Lower limb kinematics and physiological responses to prolonged load carriage in untrained individuals.

The aim of this study was to simultaneously assess the changes in physiology, and kinematic and spatiotemporal features of gait, during prolonged load carriage in individuals without load carriage experience. Eleven males, representative of new military recruits, walked for 120 min at 5.5 km h(- 1), 0% grade, on a motorised treadmill while carrying a 22 kg load. The load ( ≤ 30% body mass) was distributed over a weighted vest, combat webbing and replica model firearm, to reflect a patrol order load. Oxygen consumption and heart rate increased throughout the trial; however, apart from a minor increase in step length, there were no changes in the kinematic or spatiotemporal parameters, despite an increase in perceived exertion and discomfort. These data suggest that individuals with no experience in load carriage are able to maintain normal gait during 2 h of fixed speed walking, while carrying a patrol order load ≤ 30% body mass.

Predictors of clinician use of Australia's national health information exchange in the emergency Department: An analysis of log data.

OBJECTIVE: This study explores patient and context related factors associated with use of Australia's national personally controlled Health Information Exchange (HIE), My Health Record, by emergency department (ED) clinicians. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis explored secondary routinely-collected data including all patients who presented (between August 2019-2021) to the ED at a not-for-profit hospital in Melbourne. Presentation data were linked to the HIE access log-data, and human resources data. The primary outcome indicated HIE access by an ED pharmacist, doctor or nurse, within 3 days of the patient presenting to the ED, or not. Nine variables were explored with logistic regression, representing patient (gender, age, diagnosis) and other factors (presentation time, arrival method, referral, acuity/triage, length of stay, admitted into hospital). RESULTS: HIE is accessed in 17.43% of patient presentations to the ED, led by pharmacists (15.60%). Overall, as demonstrated in themultivariable analysis, increased HIE access was associated with increasing age, with the biggest effect for 75-84-year old's (odd's ratio 26.15; 95% confidence interval 15.37-44.50), when compared to < 4 years of age. HIE access was also significantly and positively associated with patients who were later admitted into hospital from theED (4.96; 4.61-5.34). CONCLUSION: The results suggest users of HIE in the ED employ the system to meet their needs, but not for all patients. To maximise value derived from HIE use, clinicians should target system access for patients where the benefit of accessing the record outweighs the cost - this research suggests that is for patients who are older in age and are likely to be admitted, potentially linked to greater condition complexity. If the use of a HIE is to improve the provision of care in the ED, the key stakeholders governing patient information within the HIE need to focus on improving clinician recording behaviours for older people and those suffering from complex medical conditions. Doctors and nurses lag behind with respect to the use of the HIE by pharmacists. Therefore, a focus on encouraging HIE engagement across these clinician groups is drastically required.

Organisational best practices for advancing women in leadership: protocol for a systematic literature review.

INTRODUCTION: Evidence-based approaches for achieving gender equity for women in leadership are lacking. Current efforts are of limited effectiveness, especially in healthcare. This work occurs in the context of an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council funded partnership to advance women in healthcare leadership. Partners include government, professional colleges and healthcare organisations with national reach and international links. Here we present a protocol for a systematic review, aiming to capture evidence on effective organisational strategies across multiple sectors with comparable challenges in advancing women in leadership. The aim of the review is to learn from other sectors and analyse the evidence to inform implementation in the health sector. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A systematic search will be performed on Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO and SCOPUS databases to identify studies since 2000, reflecting a major shift in the global gender equality agenda with the development of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals. Titles and abstracts will be screened to assess eligibility; data extraction, quality assessment (using the Critical Appraisal Skill Programme checklist) and synthesis of outcomes will be performed. Outcomes will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework. Studies in English using quantitative or qualitative design, which investigate organisational practices in any sector, for advancing women in leadership, and report on one or more measurable outcomes (eg, capacity-building, incidence of promotion) will be included. Findings will be analysed, themes will be extracted and results will be described. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval is not required. To our knowledge, this review will be the first to provide a comprehensive synthesis of available evidence on organisational practices for advancing women in leadership from the last two decades. Findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and disseminated at conferences and meetings. Through a large-scale funded partnership, this work will inform practice, linking to international initiatives. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020162115; International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews.

Physicians' and pharmacists' use of My Health Record in the emergency department: results from a mixed-methods study.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore pharmacists' and physicians' perceptions of use, barriers to use and the healthcare outcomes associated with use of Australia's national personally controlled electronic health record-known as My Health Record-in the emergency department. METHODS: A mixed methods approach was deployed, including surveys and individual semi-structured interviews. All physicians and pharmacists who work in the emergency department at Cabrini Health (a non-for-profit healthcare provider in Victoria, Australia) were invited to participate. Due to the timing of elective blocks, physician trainees were excluded from interviews. RESULTS: A total of 40 emergency medicine clinicians responded to the survey. Over 50% (n = 22) of all respondents had used My Health Record in the emergency department at least once. A total of 18 clinicians participated in the semi-structured interviews, which led to the identification of three themes with multiple sub-themes regarding My Health Record: (1) benefits; (2) effectiveness; and; (3) barriers. CONCLUSION: Participants reported My Health Record use in the emergency department delivers efficiencies for clinicians and has a heightened utility for complex patients, consistent with previous research conducted outside of the Australian setting. Barriers to use were revealed: outdated content, a lack of trust, a low perception of value, no patient record and multiple medical record systems. The participants in this study highlighted that training and awareness raising is needed in order to improve My Health Record use in the emergency department, a need stressed by physician's. Further observational research is required to explores meaningful MHR use at scale.

Advancing women in healthcare leadership: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of multi-sector evidence on organisational interventions.

BACKGROUND: Women are underrepresented in healthcare leadership, yet evidence on impactful organisational strategies, practices and policies that advance women's careers are limited. We aimed to explore these across sectors to gain insight into measurably advancing women in leadership in healthcare. METHODS: A systematic review was performed across Medline via OVID; Medline in-process and other non-indexed citations via OVID; PsycINFO and SCOPUS from January 2000 to March 2021. Methods are outlined in a published protocol registered a priori on PROSPERO (CRD42020162115). Eligible studies reported on organisational interventions for advancing women in leadership with at least one measurable outcome. Studies were assessed independently by two reviewers. Identified interventions were organised into categories and meta-synthesis was completed following the 'ENhancing Transparency in REporting the synthesis of Qualitative research' (ENTREQ) statement. FINDINGS: There were 91 eligible studies from 6 continents with 40 quantitative, 38 qualitative and 13 mixed methods studies. These spanned academia, health, government, sports, hospitality, finance and information technology sectors, with around half of studies in health and academia. Sample size, career stage and outcomes ranged broadly. Potentially effective interventions consistently reported that organisational leadership, commitment and accountability were key drivers of organisational change. Organisational intervention categories included i) organisational processes; ii) awareness and engagement; iii) mentoring and networking; iv) leadership development; and v) support tools. A descriptive meta-synthesis of detailed strategies, policies and practices within these categories was completed. INTERPRETATION: This review provides an evidence base on organisational interventions for advancing women in leadership across diverse settings, with lessons for healthcare. It transcends the focus on the individual to target organisational change, capturing measurable change across intervention categories. This work directly informs a national initiative with international links, to enable women to achieve their career goals in healthcare and moves beyond the focus on barriers to solutions.

Use of My Health Record by Clinicians in the Emergency Department: An Analysis of Log Data.

Objectives: Leverage log data to explore access to My Health Record (MHR), the national electronic health record of Australia, by clinicians in the emergency department. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using secondary routinely-collected data. Log data pertaining to all patients who presented to the emergency department between 2019 and 2021 of a not-for-profit hospital (that annually observes 23,000 emergency department presentations) were included in this research. Attendance data and human resources data were linked with MHR log data. The primary outcome was a dichotomous variable that indicated whether the MHR of a patient was accessed. Logistic regression facilitated the exploration of factors (user role, day of the week, and month) associated with access. Results: My Health Record was accessed by a pharmacist, doctor, or nurse in 19.60% (n = 9,262) of all emergency department presentations. Access was dominated by pharmacists (18.31%, n = 8,656). All users demonstrated a small, yet significant, increase in access every month (odds ratio = 1.07, 95% Confidence interval: 1.06-1.07, p ≤ 0.001). Discussion: Doctors, pharmacists, and nurses are increasingly accessing MHR. Based on this research, substantially more pharmacists appear to be accessing MHR, compared to other user groups. However, only one in every five patients who present to the emergency department have their MHR accessed, thereby indicating a need to accelerate and encourage the adoption and access of MHR by clinicians.