Temporal multimorbidity patterns and cluster identification: a longitudinal analysis of administrative data.

Background: Multimorbidity is analytically and clinically complex, involving multiple interactions between diseases each with unique implications for health. Identifying disease co-occurrence patterns at the population level could aid in disease prevention, management, and care delivery.

Methods: Here, we analyzed multimorbidity patterns using linked administrative data from a longitudinal cohort of 1,347,820 individuals with multimorbidity over 20 years in British Columbia, Canada.

Clinical Trial Design Approach to Auditing Language Models in Health Care Setting.

Purpose: Rapid advancements in natural language processing have led to the development of sophisticated language models. Inspired by their success, these models are now used in health care for tasks such as clinical documentation and medical record classification. However, language models are prone to errors, which can have serious consequences in critical domains such as health care, ensuring that their reliability is essential to maintain patient safety and data integrity.

Trends and inequalities in multimorbidity from 2001/2002 to 2019/2020: A population-based study in British Columbia.

Background: Multimorbidity is a significant challenge for health care systems worldwide. There are limited data, particularly in a Canadian context, on multimorbidity prevalence and incidence, and how these differ by multimorbidity complexity, sex, age, and neighbourhood income quintile.

Methods: This study included administrative data from residents of British Columbia, Canada, from 2001/2002 to 2019/2020.

Classifying Tumor Reportability Status From Unstructured Electronic Pathology Reports Using Language Models in a Population-Based Cancer Registry Setting.

Purpose: Population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) collect data on all new cancer diagnoses in a defined population. Data are sourced from pathology reports, and the PBCRs rely on manual and rule-based solutions. This study presents a state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) pipeline, built by fine-tuning pretrained language models (LMs).

Addressing Inequity in Spatial Access to Lung Cancer Screening.

Background: The successful implementation of an equitable lung cancer screening program requires consideration of factors that influence accessibility to screening services.

Methods: Using lung cancer cases in British Columbia (BC), Canada, as a proxy for a screen-eligible population, spatial access to 36 screening sites was examined using geospatial mapping and vehicle travel time from residential postal code at diagnosis to the nearest site. The impact of urbanization and Statistics Canada's Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation were examined.

Age-Specific Trends of Invasive Cervical Cancer Incidence in British Columbia, Canada, 1971-2017.

This study examined invasive cervical cancer (ICC) incidence trends in British Columbia (BC) by age and stage-at-diagnosis relative to World Health Organization ICC elimination targets (4 per 100,000 persons). Incident ICC cases (1971-2017) were obtained from the BC Cancer Registry. Annual age-standardized incidence rates (ASIRs) per 100,000 persons were generated using the direct method.

Evaluation of the Association Between Sociodemographic Status and Breast Screening Volumes During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Provincial, Population-Based Organized Breast Screening Program.

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the association between patient sociodemographic status and breast screening volumes (BSVs) during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large, population-based breast screening program that serves a provincial population of over 5 million. All patients who completed breast screening between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2021 were eligible to participate. An average of 3 annual periods between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2020 were defined as the pre-COVID period while the period between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 was defined as the COVID-impacted period.

Agreement between self-report and administrative health data on occurrence of non-cancer chronic disease among participants of the BC generations project.

Population-based studies of non-cancer chronic disease often rely on self-reported data for disease diagnosis, which may be incomplete, unreliable and suffer from bias. Recently, the British Columbia Generations Project (BCGP;  = 29,736) linked self-reported chronic disease history data to a Chronic Disease Registry (CDR) that applied algorithms to administrative health data to ascertain diagnoses of multiple chronic diseases in the Province of British Columbia. For the 10 diseases captured by both self-report and the CDR, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, myocardial infarction, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and stroke, we calculated Cohen's kappa coefficient to examine concordance of chronic disease status (i.

Small area disease mapping of cancer incidence in British Columbia using Bayesian spatial models and the smallareamapp R Package.

Introduction: There is an increasing interest in small area analyses in cancer surveillance; however, technical capacity is limited and accessible analytical approaches remain to be determined. This study demonstrates an accessible approach for small area cancer risk estimation using Bayesian hierarchical models and data visualization through the smallareamapp R package.

Materials And Methods: Incident lung (N = 26,448), female breast (N = 28,466), cervical (N = 1,478), and colorectal (N = 25,457) cancers diagnosed among British Columbia (BC) residents between 2011 and 2018 were obtained from the BC Cancer Registry.

The BC Generations Project as a Tumor Tissue Resource for Cancer Research.

Population-based cohort studies can be a resource for tumor specimens, annotated with demographic, lifestyle, and health history data, that support innovative studies of cancer. Our aim was to establish and test a process for accessing tumor samples, held at pathology laboratories around British Columbia (BC), for participants of the BC Generations Project (BCGP). Through the BC Cancer Registry, we identified pathology reports for 1100 (93%) of the 1180 incident solid cancer cases diagnosed in BCGP as of 2019.

The Path to Eliminating Cervical Cancer in Canada: Past, Present and Future Directions.

Cervical cancer remains a common cancer affecting women in Canada. While cervical cancer incidence and mortality in Canada have declined for several decades due to the success of organized, provincial cervical cancer screening programs, further decreases will require enhancement of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention efforts. The present commentary provides a historical overview of cervical cancer trends in Canada, presents current statistics on cervical cancer incidence, mortality and survival, and discusses future directions in relation to cervical cancer elimination.

Sociodemographic characteristics of women with invasive cervical cancer in British Columbia, 2004-2013: a descriptive study.

Background: Although cancer screening has led to reductions in the incidence of invasive cervical cancer (ICC) across Canada, benefits of prevention efforts are not equitably distributed. This study investigated the sociodemographic characteristics of women with ICC in British Columbia compared with the general female population in the province.

Methods: In this descriptive study, data of individuals 18 years and older diagnosed with ICC between 2004 and 2013 were obtained from the BC Cancer Registry.

Stomach Cancer Incidence and Mortality Trends among Circumpolar Nations.

Background: Stomach cancer incidence and mortality rates are declining across circumpolar nations, but the burden may not be distributed equally across subpopulations, including Indigenous peoples. Our objective was to examine stomach cancer incidence and mortality trends across circumpolar populations.

Methods: Cancer incidence and mortality data from 1999-2016 were obtained from the Canadian Cancer Registry, Canadian Vital Statistics, CDC WONDER, NORDCAN, Northwestern Russian cancer registries, and National Cancer Reports.

Current State of Geospatial Methodologic Approaches in Canadian Population Oncology Research.

Geospatial analyses are increasingly used in population oncology. We provide a first review of geospatial analysis in Canadian population oncology research, compare to international peers, and identify future directions. Geospatial-focused peer-reviewed publications from 1992-2020 were compiled using PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar.

Differences in colorectal cancer screening rates across income strata by levels of urbanization: results from the Canadian Community Health Survey (2013/2014).

Objective: Canadian colorectal cancer screening rates differ across income strata. In the United States, disparities across income strata worsen in rural areas. In Canada, differences in screening across income strata have not been explored by levels of urbanization.

Cancer mortality in Yukon 1999-2013: elevated mortality rates and a unique cancer profile.

Background: Although cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, cancer in the North has been incompletely described.

Objective: To determine cancer mortality rates in the Yukon Territory, compare them with Canadian rates, and identify major causes of cancer mortality.

Design: The Yukon Vital Statistics Registry provided all cancer deaths for Yukon residents between 1999-2013.

Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Among South Asians Living in British Columbia, Canada: A Distinct Clinical Phenotype.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) incidence is increasing among low-risk populations. This study examined a cohort of Canadian South Asian (SA) children with IBD to determine if their disease course differed from non-SA (NSA) children.

Methods: Children of SA ethnicity diagnosed with IBD between 1997 and 2012 were identified and compared with NSA children.