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Frailty has emerged as an important prognostic marker of adverse outcomes after cardiac surgery, but evidence regarding its ability to predict quality of life after cardiac surgery is currently lacking. Whether frail patients derive the same quality of life benefit after cardiac surgery as patients without frailty remains unclear. This systematic review will include interventional studies (RCT and others) and observational studies evaluating the effect of preoperative frailty on quality-of-life outcomes after cardiac surgery amongst patients 65 years and older. Studies will be retrieved from major databases including the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, and Medline. The primary exposure will be frailty status, independent of the tool used. The primary outcome will be change in quality of life, independent of the tool used. Secondary outcomes will include readmission during the year following the index intervention, discharge to a long-term care facility and living in a long-term care facility at one year. Screening, inclusion, data extraction and quality assessment will be performed independently by two reviewers. Meta-analysis based on the random-effects model will be conducted to compare the outcomes between frail and non-frail patients. The evidential quality of the findings will be assessed with the GRADE profiler. The findings of this systematic review will be important to clinicians, patients and health policy-makers regarding the use of preoperative frailty as a screening and assessment tool before cardiac surgery. OSF registries (https://osf.io/vm2p8).

Heart failure remains a substantial cause of morbidity and mortality in women. We examined the sex differences in heart failure incidence, mortality and hospital admission in a population-based cohort. All Ontario residents who were diagnosed with heart failure in an ambulatory setting between Apr. 1, 2009, and Mar. 31, 2014, were included in this study. Incident cases of heart failure were captured through physician billing using a validated algorithm. Outcomes were mortality and hospital admission for heart failure within 1 year of the diagnosis. Probability of death and hospital admission were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method. The hazard of death was assessed using a multivariable Cox proportional hazard model. A total of 90 707 diagnoses of heart failure were made in an ambulatory setting during the study period (47% women). Women were more likely to be older and more frail, and had different comorbidities than men. The incidence of heart failure decreased during the study period in both sexes. The mortality rate decreased in both sexes, but remained higher in women than men. The female age-standardized mortality rate was 89 (95% confidence interval [CI] 80–100) per 1000 in 2009 and 85 (95% CI 75–95) in 2013, versus male age-standardized mortality rates of 88 (95% CI 80–97) in 2009 and 83 (95% CI 75–91) in 2013. Conversely, the rates of incident heart failure hospital admissions after heart failure diagnosis decreased in men and increased in women. Despite decreases in overall heart failure incidence and mortality in ambulatory patients, mortality rates remain higher in women than in men, and rates of hospital admission for heart failure increased in women and declined in men. Further studies should focus on sex differences in health-seeking behaviour, medical therapy and response to therapy to provide guidance for personalized care.

Acute aortic syndrome (AAS) is a life-threatening emergency, accounting for 1/2000 presentations of acute chest or back pain to the emergency department. It is a clinical spectrum of diagnoses including aortic dissection, intramural hematoma and penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer at any location along the aorta. Here, Ohle et al discuss the guideline on the diagnostic evaluation of patients with suspected AAS.

ObjectiveTo determine the role of patient demographics, care domains and self-perceived health status in the analysis and interpretation of results from the Canadian Patient Experience Survey–Inpatient Care.DesignCross-sectional survey.SettingSingle large Canadian two campus tertiary care academic centre.ParticipantsRandom sampling of hospital patients postdischarge.Intervention and main outcome measuresLogistic regression models were developed to analyse topbox scoring on four questions of global care (rate experience, recommend hospital, rate hospital, overall helped). Means of each composite domain were correlated to the four overall scores at the patient level to determine Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients which were plotted against the overall (hospital) domain score for the key driver analysis.ResultsTopbox scoring was decreased with worse degrees of perceived physical and mental health in all four global questions (p<0.05). Female gender and higher levels of education were associated with worse scoring on rate experience, recommend hospital and rate hospital (p<0.001). Whereas there was a significant difference between hospital departments in unadjusted measures, these differences were no longer evident after adjustment with patient covariates. Key driver analysis identified person-centred care, care transition and the domain related to emergency admission as areas of highest potential for improvement.ConclusionsGlobal measures of overall care are influenced by patient-perceived physical and mental health. Caution should be exercised in using patient-satisfaction surveys to compare performance between different healthcare provision entities, as apparent differences could be explained by variation in patient mix rather than variation in performance.

Errors in clinical decision-making contribute to approximately half of in-hospital adverse events. The steep learning curve when students transition to residents is particularly susceptible to increased errors. Decision-making skills are a major contributor to preparedness for residency and educators agree that decision-making should be purposefully taught and tested. Despite this, little structured assessment of decision-making currently exists. This innovation report describes the development and piloting of the MedsOnCall (MOC) Pager App, a simulated pager program designed as a learning and assessment tool for senior medical students and junior residents to practice safe clinical decision-making as they transition between these two roles. Learners are randomly \"paged\" by the app about a list of virtual patients. To answer, they must integrate pertinent patient information efficiently. Learners then receive a page-management question that further probes their decision-making skills by asking them to consider the urgency and their level of confidence when determining the virtual patient's needs. The pilot version of the app was successfully alpha-tested in 2016 and 2017 with twenty fourth year medical students at our institution. Subjectively, students greatly enjoyed using the MOC Pager app to practice answering pages in a safe environment. The app was then adapted for the National Cardiac Surgery Bootcamp in 2017 for use by first-year residents. With demonstrated success as a pilot project, our group aims to rebuild the app for customizable use by multidisciplinary learners anywhere in the world simultaneously. We also plan to collect validity evidence, integrate in-app feedback capability, and disseminate the app on multiple platforms.

There is little evidence to support patient-centered outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease. To derive patient-defined adverse cardiovascular and noncardiovascular events (PACE) through a consensus-based process. This pan-Canadian, consensus-based, qualitative study used an iterative Delphi method to achieve consensus within a 35-member panel consisting of patients with cardiovascular diseases and their caregivers and clinicians. The process included 4 rounds of online questionnaires, followed by an in-person final consensus meeting. Data analysis was performed in September 2019. Defining PACE as a 5-item composite outcome. Thirty-five potential panelists consented to participate, including 11 clinicians (8 men [73%]) and 24 patients and caregivers (13 men [54%]). Twenty-nine (83%), 28 (80%), 26 (74%), and 23 (66%) of the panelists participated in each of respective the online rounds. A shortlist of 11 patient-defined items was further refined at the in-person meeting, which 20 of the panelists attended. The PACE definition that was decided through the consensus process was a composite of severe stroke necessitating hospitalization for 14 days or longer or inpatient rehabilitation, ventilator dependence, new onset or worsening heart failure, nursing home admission, or new onset dialysis. This study defined PACE as a versatile, patient-centered outcome through a consensus process with input from patients, caregivers, and clinicians. Given the paucity of patient-centered outcomes in cardiovascular research, PACE may be considered as a potential outcome after methodological evaluation of its reliability.

Background Temporary pacemaker wires are placed in the majority of patients after cardiac surgery. There is no information on mechanical factors related to wire removal. Methods Clinical information related to temporary wire use and removal was prospectively collected from a large cardiac surgical unit over one year. Measurements of maximal tension that nurses and doctors would apply to remove temporary wires was determined using a hand-held portable scale. In a prospective trial, patients ( n  = 41) had their wires extracted in series to the portable scale to determine the maximal tension required for safe removal. Results Ventricular wires were placed in 86.5 % of patients during the observed year. Pacing facilitated weaning from CPB in over 15 % of patients and pacer dependence was seen in 2.1 %. No patients suffered major complications after wire removal. There was no difference in the tension that physicians or nurses would apply to comfortably extract temporary wires. In the prospective trial, there was no difference in the tension required for removal of atrial or ventricular wires (atrial 18.3 ± 17.9 oz versus 14.5 ± 14.2 oz, p  = 0.430). There were no patient factors that correlated with the degree of resistance and there was no significant difference between the tension required to remove wires with (21.0 ± 22.5 oz) or without (14.1 ± 5.1 oz) an atrial button. Conclusions Temporary epicardial wire removal is innocuous and was not associated with any complications. In some patients tension required for safe removal exceeded 20 ounces. Strategies to standardize wire removal may prevent complications and may minimize unnecessary wire retention.

Patient experience (PE) is recognized as a key component in the quality of health-care delivery. Public reporting of hospital, division, and physician-specific PE results has added to the momentum of adopting strategies to augment this metric of care. The Ottawa Hospital embarked on a journey to improve PE as a pillar of its quality improvement plan. This article demonstrates the efforts of a single surgery department from one large urban center to improve in-hospital PE in the rapidly changing environment of medicine and surgery. A multidisciplinary group within the department and a focus group of previous surgical inpatients were organized to address immediate challenges related to inpatient PE issues. We identified concrete strategies to optimize pain control, perceptions of patient respect and dignity, perceptions of surgeon availability, discharge medication understanding, and overall experience. Also, we identified a need in our department for timely patient feedback, improved communication styles in our staff and trainees, and an internal curriculum offering additional training for our staff and residents. We anticipate that the current results would be of significant interest to other departments wishing to optimize their PE profile as part of the ongoing quality improvement process at hospitals across North America.