Advancing advocacy for evidence-based opioid stewardship.

Opioids are frequently prescribed for postsurgical and acute pain management for both adults and children. However, research has shown that overprescription and improper handling of these medications contribute to problematic substance use, dependency, and overdose among the pediatric population. Despite increased awareness and efforts to mitigate the opioid epidemic, challenges persist, including inconsistent prescribing practices, inadequate education on safe disposal practices, gaps in prescription monitoring systems, and barriers to naloxone availability.

Comparing Provider and Adolescent Estimates of Postoperative Opioid Use.

Introduction: Most adolescents report unused opioids after surgery. Current interventions compare opioid prescribing between surgeons without capturing actual patient-reported use.

Methods: We recruited pediatric surgery residents, fellows, advanced practitioners, and surgeons from four surgical divisions at a tertiary care children's hospital.

Role of feasibility and pilot studies in randomised controlled trials: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To assess the value of pilot and feasibility studies to randomised controlled trials (RCTs) funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme. To explore the methodological components of pilot/feasibility studies and how they inform full RCTs.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

MENOS4 trial: a multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) of a breast care nurse delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) intervention to reduce the impact of hot flushes in women with breast cancer: Study Protocol.

Background: Women who have been treated for breast cancer may identify vasomotor symptoms, such as hot flushes and night sweats (HFNS), as a serious problem. HFNS are unpleasant to experience and can have a significant impact on daily life, potentially leading to reduced adherence to life saving adjuvant hormonal therapy. It is known that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is effective for the alleviation of hot flushes in both well women and women who have had breast cancer.

CONFIRM: a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial investigating the effect of nivolumab in patients with relapsed mesothelioma: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Mesothelioma is an incurable, apoptosis-resistant cancer caused in most cases by previous exposure to asbestos and is increasing in incidence. It represents a growing health burden but remains under-researched, with limited treatment options. Early promising signals of activity relating to both PD-L1- and PD-1-targeted treatment in mesothelioma implicate a dependency of mesothelioma on this immune checkpoint.

Correction to: Understanding Plain English Summaries: A Comparison of two Approaches to Improve the Quality of Plain English Summaries in Research.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s40900-017-0064-0.].

The Tyneside Pegboard Test: development, validation, and observations in unilateral cerebral palsy.

Aim: The aims of this study were twofold: first, to develop and validate a timed test of unimanual and bimanual dexterity suitable for those with disability affecting hand function; second, to explore relationships between unimanual and bimanual completion times.

Method: We developed the Tyneside Pegboard Test (TPT), an electronically timed test with three peg sizes, incorporating an asymmetrical bimanual task. Nine hundred and seventy-four participants (455 males, 519 females; age range 4-80y) provided normative data.

Understanding Plain English summaries. A comparison of two approaches to improve the quality of Plain English summaries in research reports.

Plain English Summary: There is a need for the authors of research reports to be able to communicate their work clearly and effectively to readers who are not familiar with the research area. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), along with a number of other funding bodies and journals, require researchers to write short lay summaries, often termed plain English summaries (PESs), to make research accessible to the general public. Because many researchers write using technical, specialised language, particularly in scientific reports, writing PESs can be challenging.

Social media and anatomy education: Using twitter to enhance the student learning experience in anatomy.

Neuroanatomy is a difficult subject in medical education, with students often feeling worried and anxious before they have even started, potentially decreasing their engagement with the subject. At the University of Southampton, we incorporated the use of Twitter as a way of supporting students' learning on a neuroanatomy module to evaluate how it impacted upon their engagement and learning experience. The #nlm2soton hashtag was created and displayed (via a widget) on the university's virtual learning environment (VLE) for a cohort of 197 Year 2 medical students studying neuroanatomy.

Effect of parent-delivered action observation therapy on upper limb function in unilateral cerebral palsy: a randomized controlled trial.

Aim: To determine whether home-based, parent-delivered therapy comprising action observation (AO) and repeated practice (RP) improves upper limb function more than RP alone in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP).

Design: single-blinded parallel-group randomized controlled trial with 1:1 allocation comparing AO+RP (intervention) with RP alone (control).

Randomization: computer-generated, with allocation concealment by opaque sequentially-numbered envelopes.

Bridging a yawning chasm: EEG investigations into the debate concerning the role of the human mirror neuron system in contagious yawning.

Ongoing debate in the literature concerns whether there is a link between contagious yawning and the human mirror neuron system (hMNS). One way of examining this issue is with the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure changes in mu activation during the observation of yawns. Mu oscillations are seen in the alpha bandwidth of the EEG (8-12 Hz) over sensorimotor areas.