Publications by authors named "Emma Collins"

Study Objective: To investigate the prevalence and clinical appearance of ocular abnormalities in a US and Canadian population of cats registered with the Companion Animal Eye Registry (CAER) between 2013 and 2023.

Methods: All complete (131) feline CAER exam forms from 2013 to 2023 in the OFA database, were reviewed. Available pedigrees of cats included in this study were also investigated.

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Over-reliance on pyrethroid insecticides in insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) has imposed significant selection pressure for the evolution of insecticide resistance among major malaria vector species. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country with the second highest malaria burden globally, pyrethroid resistance is pervasive, but there is a paucity of information regarding the molecular mechanisms driving resistance. A clear understanding of the specificity of resistance mechanisms to individual insecticides and the likelihood of selecting for cross-resistance mechanisms is crucial for the development of new vector control tools.

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Vector-borne diseases exert a considerable toll on global health. The efficacy of vector control strategies is being threatened by the emergence and spread of insecticide resistance worldwide. In this study, we collected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes from five regions of Puerto Rico to investigate their insecticide resistance phenotypes and genotypes.

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Aim: To explore the perspectives and experiences of maternity care providers regarding obstetric violence across low-, middle-, and high-income countries.

Design: An integrative review of the literature.

Methods: A systematic literature search in CINAHL, Medline (via Ovid), SCOPUS, and the Cochrane Library was conducted from 2014 to 2024.

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Background: The COVID-19 Clinical Neuroscience Study (COVID-CNS) was a large UK research initiative investigating the clinical features, outcomes and biological mechanisms behind neurological and psychiatric complications from COVID-19. Through partnerships and patient enrolment, the study aimed to inform patient care and treatment selection to improve outcomes.

Methods: Here, we evaluate the methodologies and results yielded from patient and public involvement (PPI) efforts within COVID-CNS, an important element of the research cycle which introduces patient perspectives and enhances research relevance.

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Healthcare is continuously evolving to adapt to a changing world and nurses have an essential role in introducing innovative practice as part of continuous quality improvement (QI). For nurses who want to put forward a proposal for change, drafting a clear and convincing business case is a useful skill to have. This article provides advice to nurses who are new to QI on how to draft a business case to support small-scale change in their practice setting.

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Background: Remote hypertension management programs have emerged as potential solutions to improve poor rates of blood pressure (BP) control. The Continual Versus Occasional Blood Pressure (COOL-BP) Study investigated the feasibility and efficacy of using a cuffless wrist BP monitor in a remote hypertension (HTN) program.

Methods: COOL-BP was a prospective single-arm study within a larger HTN management program at Mass General Brigham (MGB).

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A majority of patients with heart failure (HF) do not receive adequate medical therapy as recommended by clinical guidelines. One major obstacle encountered by population health management (PHM) programs to improve medication usage is the substantial burden placed on clinical staff who must manually sift through electronic health records (EHRs) to ascertain patients' eligibility for the guidelines. As a potential solution, the study team developed a rule-based system (RBS) that automatically parses the EHR for identifying patients with HF who may be eligible for guideline-directed therapy.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a rapid global uptake by healthcare practitioners, including nurses, of digital health to support the healthcare needs of their communities. This increase in the use of technology has impacted nurses, although there is a lack of research that explores nurses' concerns internationally, and this is equally true for New Zealand. We report the qualitative results from two surveys with New Zealand nurses, one in 2020 (n = 220) and the second in 2022 (n = 191), about their concerns of using digital technologies.

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Vector control in the Bijagós Archipelago of Guinea-Bissau currently relies on pyrethroid insecticide-treated nets. However, data on insecticide resistance in Guinea-Bissau is limited. This study identified deltamethrin resistance in the Anopheles gambiae sensu lato complex on Bubaque island using WHO tube tests in November 2022.

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Rationale and key points This article explains how to implement compassionate leadership in nursing teams. Compassionate leadership is an approach that aims to empower and support staff through four main behavioural principles - attending, understanding, empathising and helping. • Compassionate leadership can be practised by all nurses, irrespective of their role or position, and with individuals or groups.

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Article Synopsis
  • Anopheles melas, a lesser-known malaria-carrying mosquito, was studied for its population genetics in the Bijagós Archipelago, with the first whole-genome sequencing of this species in the area.
  • A total of 30 individual mosquitoes were sequenced, revealing no insecticide resistance mutations commonly found in other malaria mosquitoes, but some structural variations in relevant genes.
  • The findings also indicated two distinct genetic groups among the An. melas populations based on mitochondrial DNA, highlighting the need for further research to clarify their role in malaria transmission.
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Background And Objective: The Yorkshire Kidney Screening Trial (YKST) assessed the feasibility of adding abdominal noncontrast computed tomography (NCCT) to lung cancer screening to screen for kidney cancer and other abdominal pathology.

Methods: A prospective diagnostic study offered abdominal NCCT to 55-80-yr-old ever-smokers attending a UK randomised lung cancer screening trial (May 2021 to October 2022). The exclusion criteria were dementia, frailty, previous kidney/lung cancer, and computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and thorax within previous 6 and 12 mo, respectively.

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Robust diagnostic tools and surveillance are crucial for malaria control and elimination efforts. Malaria caused by neglected Plasmodium parasites is often underestimated due to the lack of rapid diagnostic tools that can accurately detect these species. While nucleic-acid amplification technologies stand out as the most sensitive methods for detecting and confirming Plasmodium species, their implementation in resource-constrained settings poses significant challenges.

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Background: Vector control based on indoor residual spraying (IRS) is one of the main components of the visceral leishmaniasis (VL) elimination programme in India. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was used for IRS until 2015 and was later replaced by the synthetic pyrethroid alpha-cypermethrin. Both classes of insecticides share the same target site, the voltage-gated sodium channel (Vgsc).

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International collaboration is crucial in the field of nursing informatics research to enhance our ability to conduct globally relevant research that informs policy and practice. In this case study we describe how we have established an international research collaboration to evaluate nurses' experiences of technology use during the pandemic. We firstly describe how the collaboration was created and the successes associated with our work, before highlighting the facilitators to make an international collaboration work.

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The World Health Organisation considers that digital health can play a vital role in strengthening health systems, including increasing equity in access to health services; however, to realise the benefits of digital health this subject needs to be included in nursing education. In New Zealand the recent establishment of the centralised Te Pūkenga Institute of Skills and Technology allows for the creation of a common unified curriculum for entry to nursing programmes among the community-based tertiary education providers. Expertise to advise on the digital health component of the curriculum was sought from the New Zealand nursing and midwifery informatics group and this group's contribution is reported here.

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The use of technology in nursing has increased, most notably since the Covid-19 pandemic which highlighted benefits of digital health in nursing practice. Understanding the enablers and barriers associated with nurses' use of digital technology is important as these can impact adoption and engagement. To understand the factors that impacted New Zealand nurses' use of technology a national online survey was undertaken in August 2022.

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Aedes aegypti is vector of many arboviruses including Zika, dengue, yellow fever, West Nile, and Chikungunya. Its control efforts are hampered by widespread insecticide resistance reported in the Americas and Asia, while data from Africa is more limited. Here we use publicly available 729 Ae.

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Background: Obstetric violence, including unconsented interventions, coercion and disrespect, violates human rights; impacting the physical and psychosocial health of women. The perspective and experience of midwives related to obstetric violence have been explored in low and middle-income countries, with limited research into the experience of midwives in high income nations.

Aim: To explore Australian midwives' perspectives of obstetric violence.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in rapid changes aimed at reducing disease transmission in maternity services in Australia. An increase in personal protective equipment (PPE) in the clinical and community setting was a key strategy. There was variation in the type of PPE and when it was to be worn in clincial practice.

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Background: Several SGLT2i (sodium-glucose transport protein 2 inhibitors) and GLP1-RA (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) reduce cardiovascular events and improve kidney outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes; however, utilization remains low despite guideline recommendations.

Methods: A randomized, remote implementation trial in the Mass General Brigham network enrolled patients with type 2 diabetes with increased cardiovascular or kidney risk. Patients eligible for, but not prescribed, SGLT2i or GLP1-RA were randomly assigned to simultaneous virtual patient education with concurrent prescription of SGLT2i or GLP1-RA (ie, Simultaneous) or 2 months of virtual education followed by medication prescription (ie, Education-First) delivered by a multidisciplinary team driven by nonlicensed navigators and clinical pharmacists who prescribed SGLT2i or GLP1-RA using a standardized treatment algorithm.

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The plant macronutrient phosphorus is a scarce resource and plant-available phosphate is limiting in most soil types. Generally, a gene regulatory module called the phosphate starvation response (PSR) enables efficient phosphate acquisition by roots and translocation to other organs. Plants growing on moderate to nutrient-rich soils need to co-ordinate availability of different nutrients and repress the highly efficient PSR to adjust phosphate acquisition to the availability of other macro- and micronutrients, and in particular nitrogen.

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Background: To reduce transmission risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, 'telehealth' (health care delivered via telephone/video-conferencing) was implemented into Australian maternity services. Whilst some reports on telehealth implementation ensued, there was scant evidence on women and midwives' perspectives regarding telehealth use.

Methods: A qualitative study was conducted in Australia during 2020-2021 using two data sources from the Birth in the Time of COVID-19 (BITTOC) study: i) interviews and ii) surveys (open-text responses).

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