Virtual reality (VR) offers the prospect of a safe and effective adjunct therapeutic modality to promote mental health and reduce distress from symptoms in palliative care patients. Common physiological and psychological symptoms experienced at the end of life may impact the person’s participation in day-to-day activities that bring them meaning. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of VR interventions on occupational participation and distress from symptoms.

To describe the stimulus, results, and learnings from a single-site pilot study of virtual reality therapy in a specialist palliative care setting.

Participants engaged in a VR session lasting from 9 to 30 minutes related to coping with pain, inner peace and mindfulness, adventure, and bucket list.

The pilot prospective quantitative observational cohort study was conducted from November 2021 through March 2022 using a pre-post VR intervention research design. Quantitative data was collected using patient-rated assessments and a wireless pulse oximeter. Occupational performance, satisfaction, and distress symptoms were measured using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration Symptom Assessment Scale (PCOC SAS). The intervention and study design adhered to international guidelines.

Ten participants engaged in the VR interventions. Data showed significantly improved occupational performance and satisfaction scores (p < .001), decreases in PCOC SAS distress from pain (p = .01), fatigue (p < .001), and heart rate (p = .018). No adverse side effects were observed.

Outcomes included an analysis of virtual reality’s effectiveness to alleviate symptom burden and increase occupational participation for palliative care patients. Of specific interest to the research team was the application of virtual reality in a community–based and inpatient palliative care context to supplement allied health services and its feasibility of integration into standard palliative care.

VR therapy showed positive improvements in the participants’ occupational performance, satisfaction, and distress from pain and fatigue.

Food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) are an important resource to improve population health; however, little is known about the types of strategies to disseminate them. This study sought to describe dissemination strategies and content of dissemination plans that were available for FBDG.

A cross-sectional audit of FBDG with a published English-language version sourced from the United Nations FAO repository. We searched for publicly available dissemination strategies and any corresponding plans available in English language. Two authors extracted data on strategies, which were grouped according to the Model for Dissemination Research Framework (including source, audience, channel and message). For guidelines with a dissemination plan, we described goals, audience, strategies and expertise and resources according to the Canadian Institute for Health Research guidance.

FBDG from fifty-three countries mostly from high-income (n 28, 52·8 %), and upper-middle income (n 18, 34 %) areas were included.

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The source of guidelines was most frequently health departments (79·2 %). The message included quantities and types of foods, physical activity recommendations and 88·7 % included summarised versions of main messages. The most common channels were infographics and information booklets, and the main end-users were the public. For twelve countries (22·6 %), we were able to source an English-language dissemination plan, where none met all recommendations outlined by the Canadian Institute for Health Research.

The public was the most frequently identified end-user and thus most dissemination strategies and plans focused on this group. Few FBDG had formal dissemination plans and of those there was limited detailed provided.

Despite three decades of research, gaps remain in meeting the needs of people with dementia and their family/friend carers as they navigate the often-tumultuous process of driving cessation. This paper describes the process of using a knowledge-to-action (KTA) approach to develop an educational web-based resource (i.e. toolkit), called the Driving and Dementia Roadmap (DDR), aimed at addressing some of these gaps.

Aligned with the KTA framework, knowledge creation and action cycle activities informed the development of the DDR. These activities included systematic reviews; meta-synthesis of qualitative studies; interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders; development of a Driving and Dementia Intervention Framework (DD-IF); and a review and curation of publicly available resources and tools. An Advisory Group comprised of people with dementia and family carers provided ongoing feedback on the DDR’s content and design.

The DDR is a multi-component online toolkit that contains separate portals for current and former drivers with dementia and their family/friend carers. Based on the DD-IF, various topics of driving cessation are presented to accommodate users’ diverse stages and needs in their experiences of decision-making and transitioning to non-driving.

Guided by the KTA framework that involved a systematic and iterative process of knowledge creation and translation, the resulting person-centered, individualized and flexible DDR can bring much-needed support to help people with dementia and their families maintain their mobility, community access, and social and emotional wellbeing during and post-driving cessation.

Communities of practice can facilitate the sharing and translation of knowledge. BRAINSPaN is a multidisciplinary community of practice of clinicians, researchers and students in the brain impairment field that was launched in Australia in June 2017. We aimed to investigate the impact of BRAINSPaN on multidisciplinary collaboration and on knowledge, skills and confidence in domains of practice of interest to members.

We surveyed BRAINSPaN members over three time points at 1-month (n = 117), 7-months (n = 69) and 14-months (n = 46) post-launch. Content analysis of posts to the BRAINSPaN listserv was also conducted to identify their purpose and content.

Increasing access to new research findings and increasing interaction with others in the brain impairment field were the two main goals for survey respondents’ participation in BRAINSPaN. At 7- and 14-months post-launch, these were also the most commonly achieved goals and most frequently cited benefits of BRAINSPaN participation. Cognitive rehabilitation and behaviour management were the most frequently reported practice domains of interest, as well as being two of the five most common topics of BRAINSPaN posts over the survey period. There was a significant increase in self-reported knowledge for participants’ top two domains of interest, but no change in skills or confidence.

BRAINSPaN has the potential to serve as a vehicle for the sharing and translation of knowledge in the brain impairment field. Combining other forms of dissemination with communities of practice, such as workshops and clinical mentoring, may be needed to also influence the development of skills and confidence in practice areas.

To satisfy requirements for continuing professional education, workforce demand for access to large-scale continuous professional education and micro-credential-style online courses is increasing. This study examined the Knowledge Translation (KT) outcomes for a short (2 h) online course about support at night for people living with dementia (Bedtime to Breakfast), delivered at a national scale by the Dementia Training Australia (DTA).

A sample of the first cohort of course completers was re-contacted after 3 months to complete a KT follow-up feedback survey (n = 161). In addition to potential practice impacts in three domains (Conceptual, Instrumental, Persuasive), respondents rated the level of Perceived Improvement in Quality of Care (PIQOC), using a positively packed global rating scale.

Overall, 93.8% of the respondents agreed that the course had made a difference to the support they had provided for people with dementia since the completion of the course. In addition to anticipated Conceptual impacts (e.g., change in knowledge), a range of Instrumental and Persuasive impacts were also reported, including workplace guidelines development and knowledge transfer to other staff. Tally counts for discrete KT outcomes were high (median 7/10) and explained 23% of the variance in PIQOC ratings.

Online short courses delivered at a national scale are capable of supporting a range of translation-to-practice impacts, within the constraints of retrospective insight into personal practice change. Topics around self-assessed knowledge-to-practice and the value of positively packed rating scales for increasing variance in respondent feedback are discussed.

Conferences are designed for knowledge translation, but traditional conference evaluations are inadequate. We lack studies that explore alternative metrics to traditional evaluation metrics. We sought to determine how traditional evaluation metrics and Twitter metrics performed using data from a conference of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP).

This study used a retrospective design to compare social media posts and tradition evaluations related to an annual specialty conference. A post (“tweet”) on the social media platform Twitter was included if it associated with a session. We differentiated original and discussion tweets from retweets. We weighted the numbers of tweets and retweets to comprise a novel Twitter Discussion Index. We extracted the speaker score from the conference evaluation. We performed descriptive statistics and correlation analyses.

Of a total of 3,804 tweets, 2,218 (58.3%) were session-specific. Forty-eight percent (48%) of all sessions received tweets (mean = 11.7 tweets; 95% CI of 0 to 57.5; range, 0–401), with a median Twitter Discussion Index score of 8 (interquartile range, 0 to 27). In the 111 standard presentations, 85 had traditional evaluation metrics and 71 received tweets (p > 0.05), while 57 received both. Twenty (20 of 71; 28%) moderated posters and 44% (40 of 92) posters or oral abstracts received tweets without traditional evaluation metrics. We found no significant correlation between Twitter Discussion Index and traditional evaluation metrics (R = 0.087).

We found no correlation between traditional evaluation metrics and Twitter metrics. However, in many sessions with and without traditional evaluation metrics, audience created real-time tweets to disseminate knowledge. Future conference organizers could use Twitter metrics as a complement to traditional evaluation metrics to evaluate knowledge translation and dissemination.

Journals use social media to increase the awareness of their publications. Infographics show research findings in a concise and visually appealing manner, well suited for dissemination on social media platforms. We hypothesized that infographic abstracts promoted on social media would increase the dissemination and online readership of the parent research articles.

Twenty-four articles were chosen from the six issues of CJEM published between July 2016 and June 2017 and randomized to infographic or control groups. All articles were disseminated through the journal’s social media accounts (Twitter and Facebook). Control articles were promoted using a screen capture image of each article’s abstract on the journal’s social media accounts. Infographic articles were promoted similarly using a visual infographic. Infographics were also published and promoted on the CanadiEM.org’s website and social media channels. Abstract views, full-text views, and the change in Altmetric score were compared between groups using unpaired two-tailed t-tests.

There were no significant differences in the groups at baseline. Abstract views (mean, 95% CI) were higher in the infographics (379, 287-471) than the control group (176, 136-215, p<0.001). Mean change in Altmetric scores was higher in the infographics (26, 18-34) than in the control group (3, 2-4, p<0.0001). There was no difference in full-text views between the infographics (50, 0-101) and control groups (25, 18-32).

The promotion of CJEM articles using infographics on social media and the CanadiEM.org website increased Altmetric scores and abstract views. Infographics may have a role in increasing awareness of medical literature.

The application of evidence-informed practice in emergency medicine (EM) is critical to improve the quality of patient care. EM is a specialty with a broad knowledge base making it daunting for a junior resident to know where to begin the acquisition of evidence-based knowledge. Our study’s objective was to formulate a list of “top papers” in the field of EM using a Delphi approach to achieve an expert consensus.

Participants were recruited from all 14 specialty EM programs across Canada by a nomination process by the program directors. The modified Delphi survey consisted of three study rounds, each round sent out via email. The study tool was piloted first with McMaster University’s specialty EM residents. During the first round, participants individually listed top papers relevant to EM. During the two subsequent rounds, participants ranked the papers listed in the first round, with a chance to adjust ranking based on group responses.

A total of eight EM specialty programs responded with 30 responses across the three rounds. There were 119 studies suggested in the first round, and, by the third round, a consensus of>70% agreement was reached to generate the final list of 29 studies.

We produced, via an expert consensus, a list of top studies relevant for Canadian EM physicians in training. It can be used as an educational resource for junior residents as they transition into practice.

Sepsis, a common, time-sensitive condition, is sometimes not identified at emergency department (ED) triage. The use of early warning scores has been shown to improve sepsis-related screening in other settings.

Our objective was to elucidate nurse and physician perceptions with the Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS) in combination with the Canadian Triage Acuity Scale.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses, resident physicians and attending physicians to explore perceived feasibility, utility, comfort, barriers, successes, opportunities and accuracy. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used. Transcripts were coded into thematic coding trees.

The twelve participants did not value the HEWS in the ED because they felt it was not helpful in identifying critically ill patients. We identified five themes; knowledge of sepsis and HEWS, utility of HEWS in emergency triage, utility of HEWS at the bedside, utility in communicating acuity and deterioration, and feasibility and accuracy of data collection. We also found 9 barriers and 7 enablers to the use of early warning score in the ED.

In our emergency departments, we identified potential barriers to implementation of an early warning score. A pre-existing expertise and lexicon related to critically ill patients lessens the perceived utility of an EWS in the ED. Understanding these cultural barriers needs to be addressed through change theory and implementation science.