An Overview of Pedagogical Approaches to Caries-Control Medications in Canadian Dental and Dental Hygiene Programs.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate pedagogical approaches and perceived barriers to teaching about caries-control medications, particularly silver diamine fluoride (SDF), in Canadian undergraduate dental and dental hygiene programs. METHODS: In summer 2018, a 9-item questionnaire was distributed to all 10 dental schools and 32 dental hygiene programs in Canada. It enquired about the types of caries-control medications used, teaching methods and perceived barriers to instruction on managing active caries with SDF. METHODS: In summer 2018, a 9-item questionnaire was distributed to all 10 dental schools and 32 dental hygiene programs in Canada. It enquired about the types of caries-control medications used, teaching methods and perceived barriers to instruction on managing active caries with SDF. RESULTS: The response rate was 80% (n = 8) from dental schools and 72% (n = 23) from dental hygiene programs. All curricula included information about conventional caries-control medications: fluoride, silver nitrate and povidone iodine. In all programs, instruction regarding SDF was predominantly didactic: 93% of programs presented lectures on SDF and 30% of programs included clinical teaching and use of SDF in primary dentition only. The lack of consensus on clinical protocols outlining the number and frequency of SDF applications to arrest caries was cited by 43% of the programs as a barrier to clinical teaching. CONCLUSION: There is some variation across Canada in pedagogical approaches to caries-control medications and the inclusion of SDF in curricula. Poorly defined clinical protocols were reported as the main barrier to didactic and clinical use of SDF in undergraduate dental education programs.

Community as the teacher on issues of social responsibility, substance use, and queer health in dental education.

INTRODUCTION: In order to foster dental and dental hygiene practices that are inclusive, sensitive to diversity, equitable, and without prejudice, a call to broadly teach cultural diversity within dental and dental hygiene education has been made. The research question of this study was "to what extent can an interactive and open dialogue about substance use, queer health, and social responsibility foster transformative learning?" METHODS: A collaborative and interdisciplinary project engaged the community as a teacher over the Summer and Fall of 2019 to address issues of substance use, queer health, and social responsibility and was delivered to 55 first-year undergraduate dental and 23 third-year dental hygiene students over three educational sessions. Dental and dental hygiene students were asked to reflect, in writing, on each session using between 200 and 400 words. Textual information from students' self-reflections and from the community's feedback were analyzed thematically for content (e.g., codes and themes). RESULTS: In total, 128 written reflections-for an average of 42 reflections per session-were gathered and analyzed interactively by the authors. Three major themes emerged: feeling privileged, breaking stereotypes, and coalescing learning. Feedback from the participating community members highlighted changes to be implemented in these sessions in the future, including more opportunities for small group activities in class. CONCLUSIONS: The three major themes that emerged from the thematic analysis of the self-reflections and community member feedback (feeling privileged, breaking stereotypes, and coalescing leaning) further highlighted the impact of community-driven curricula on students' learning in regard to substance use, queer health, and social responsibility. Further work is critical to understand the impact of such a pedagogy on students' practices once they leave their undergraduate programs.

Meta-analysis of interventions to reduce door to needle times in acute ischaemic stroke patients.

BACKGROUND: Door-to-needle time (DTN) has an important impact on thrombolysis and reperfusion outcomes in the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke. This systematic review is a critical synthesis of studies evaluating DTN reduction strategies. METHOD: Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL, ProQuest dissertations and LILACS were used as bibliographic databases for primary literature. CIHI, Health Quality Council of Alberta, Health Quality Ontario and websites of heart and stroke associations in Canada, USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand were used as sources of grey literature. Searched reports were screened by title and abstract, and full texts were located for review. Articles quality was evaluated using National Institute of Health's Study Quality Assessment tools. Methods for improving DTN were categorised under 13 DTN reduction strategies, primarily adapted from the Target: Stroke Phase II recommendations, and including two additional categories: Strategies not encompassed by any Target: Stroke recommendation, and Combinations of Interventions. RESULTS: 96 studies (4 randomised control trials, 1 review, 91 observational pre/post studies) were included in the review. All strategies and interventions resulted in a reduction of DTN. Approaches using combinations of interventions were the most effective at reducing DTN (33.77% DTN reduction, standard mean difference=1.857, 95% CI=1.510-2.205), and were more effective than approaches using only a single strategy (p=0.040). DTN reduction was associated with the duration of the DTN reduction programme at each facility (p=0.006). INTERPRETATION: The greatest reductions in DTN were observed when implementing combinations of DTN reduction strategies, although there was no significant advantage to implementing more than two strategies simultaneously. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: 42016036215.

Patient Outcomes With Use of Computed Tomography Angiography in Acute Ischemic Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives It remains uncertain whether computed tomography angiography (CTA) in ischemic strokes and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) benefits patient outcomes beyond those eligible for endovascular therapy. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the use of CTA against other imaging modalities for recurrent stroke, mortality, disability, emergency department (ED) revisits, or changes in management in ischemic stroke and TIA. (PROSPERO: 349590) Methods MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL were searched. We included studies evaluating CTA against non-CTA imaging modalities for outcomes of interest in ischemic stroke or TIA. Two reviewers extracted data and assessed study quality. Data were pooled by the generic inverse variance method. Heterogeneity was assessed using Cochran's Q statistic and quantified by I2. Quality of the evidence was assessed by GRADE. Results We found 12 eligible cohort studies involving 17,481 patients, and no eligible RCTs. No changes were detected in recurrent stroke, mortality, or disability when CTA was compared against pooled imaging modalities, nor compared to non-contrast computed tomography (NCCT) alone. The evidence for each outcome was graded as low quality to very low quality. Conclusions CTA use was not associated with significant reductions in recurrent stroke, mortality, or disability in ischemic stroke and TIA patient compared with other imaging modalities. More high-quality studies are needed.

Effectiveness of hospital avoidance interventions among elderly patients: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: Older patients with complex care needs and limited personal and social resources are heavy users of emergency department (ED) services and are often admitted when they present to the ED. Updated information is needed regarding the most effective strategies to appropriately avoid ED presentation and hospital admission among older patients. METHODS: This systematic review aimed to identify interventions that have demonstrated effectiveness in decreasing ED use and hospital admissions in older patients. We conducted a comprehensive literature search within Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from database inception to July 2019 with no language restrictions. Interventional study designs conducted in populations of 65 years and older were included. Primary outcomes were ED visits and hospital admissions. Secondary outcomes included hospital readmission, mortality, cost, and patient-reported outcomes. RESULTS: Of 7,943 citations reviewed for eligibility, 53 studies were included in our qualitative synthesis, including 26 randomized controlled trials (RCT), 8 cluster-RCTs, and 19 controlled before-after studies. Data characterization revealed that community-based strategies reduced ED visits, particularly those that included comprehensive geriatric assessments and home visits. These strategies reported decreases in mean ED use (for interventions versus controls) ranging from -0.12 to -1.32 visits/patient. Interventions that included home visits also showed reductions in hospital admissions ranging from -6% to -14%. There was, however, considerable variability across individual studies with respect to outcome reporting, statistical analyses, and risk of bias, which limited our ability to further quantify the effect of these interventions. CONCLUSION: Various interventional strategies to avoid ED presentations and hospital admissions for older patients have been studied. While models of care that include comprehensive geriatric assessments and home visits may reduce acute care utilization, the standardization of outcome measures is needed to further delineate which parts of these complex interventions are contributing to efficacy. The potential effects of multidisciplinary team composition on patient outcomes also warrant further investigation.