Mid North Coast LHD Staff Publications August - December 2022

Congratulations to Mid North Coast LHD staff who published in 2022

Ashraf, S., S. Ashraf, M. Ashraf, M. A. Imran, L. Kalsoom, U. N. Siddiqui, I. Farooq, R. Akmal, M. K. Akram, S. Ashraf, M. Ghufran, N. Majeed, Z. Habib, S. Rafique, Z. U. Abdin, S. Arshad, M. S. Shahab, S. Ahmad, H. Zheng, A. R. Mirza, S. Zulfiqar, M. I. Anwar, A. Humayun, T. Mahmud, Q. A. Saboor, A. Ahmad, M. Ashraf and M. Izhar (2022). "Honey and Nigella sativa against COVID-19 in Pakistan (HNS-COVID-PK): A multicenter placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial." Phytother Res. 

Australian, N. New Zealand Vascular Trial, S. J. Aitken, B. Allard, N. Altaf, N. Atkinson, O. Aziz, R. Battersby, R. Benson, J. L. Chambers, G. Charlton, C. Coleman, J. A. Dawson, A. Dean, B. S. Dhal, R. Fitridge, J. Gan, J. Hanna, A. T. Hattam, M. Hein, K. Hon, S. Khoo, J. Kilby, B. Kuang, K. W. Leong, E. Lim, J. N. Liu, D. N. McClure, S. Mehta, J. L. Moss, J. Muller, K. Musicki, S. Nandhra, M. J. Papanikolas, F. P. Pineda, F. Pond, N. Ravintharan, T. Richards, H. Saeed, C. N. Selvaraj, G. Singh, Y. Sivakumaran, B. M. Stavert, E. Suthers, R. Tang, V. C. Varley, T. M. Vasudevan, U. G. Vo, T. Wagner, J. Wang and J. Wong (2022). "Frail patients having vascular surgery during the early COVID-19 pandemic experienced high rates of adverse perioperative events and amputation." ANZ Journal of Surgery 92(9): 2305-2311.

Brooks, C., P. Gadre, A. May and M. McGee (2022). "Pacing in Regional Australia: An Audit of Two Recently-Developed Device Implantation Programs Across Two Regional Centres in New South Wales." Heart Lung and Circulation 31(Supplement 3): S126.

Davidson, S. R. E., S. J. Kamper, R. Haskins, M. O'Flynn, K. Coss, J. P. Smiles, A. Tutty, J. Linton, J. Bryant, M. Buchanan and C. M. Williams (2022). "Low back pain presentations to rural, regional, and metropolitan emergency departments." Australian Journal of Rural Health 30(4): 458-467.

Edwards, K., D. Cowan and S. Brunero (2022). "Perspective: Coping with Covid-19: An isolation risk assessment and management guideline for healthcare staff." Int J Ment Health Nurs. 

Flemington, T., M. Lock, J. Shipp, D. Hartz, B. Lonne and J. A. Fraser (2021). "Cultural Safety and Child Protection Responses in Hospitals: a Scoping Review." International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice 4(1): 5-33.

Gibbons, E., M. Hoffmann, J. Westhuyzen, A. Hodgson, B. Chick and A. Last (2022). "Clinical evaluation of deep learning and atlas-based auto-segmentation for critical organs at risk in radiation therapy." J Med Radiat Sci.

Gleadhill, C., K. Bolsewicz, S. R. E. Davidson, S. J. Kamper, A. Tutty, E. Robson, P. V. Da Silva, B. Donald, K. Dooley, J. Manvell, N. Manvell, A. Delbridge and C. M. Williams (2022). "Physiotherapists' opinions, barriers, and enablers to providing evidence-based care: a mixed-methods study." BMC Health Services Research 22(1): 1382.

Gohel, D., B. Lambert, D. Law, J. Waites, D. Henderson and T. Stewart (2022). "Characteristics of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians Requiring Urgent Percutaneous Coronary Intervention at a Regional Hospital." Heart Lung and Circulation 31(Supplement 3): S280.

Cristal Study Group, C. S., V. S. Sidhu, T. L. Kelly, N. Pratt, S. E. Graves, R. Buchbinder, S. Adie, K. Cashman, I. Ackerman, D. Bastiras, R. Brighton, A. W. R. Burns, B. H. Chong, O. Clavisi, M. Cripps, M. Dekkers, R. de Steiger, M. Dixon, A. Ellis, E. C. Griffith, D. Hale, A. Hansen, A. Harris, R. Hau, M. Horsley, D. James, O. Khorshid, L. Kuo, P. Lewis, D. Lieu, M. Lorimer, S. MacDessi, P. McCombe, C. McDougall, J. Mulford, J. M. Naylor, R. S. Page, J. Radovanovic, M. Solomon, R. Sorial, P. Summersell, P. Tran, W. L. Walter, S. Webb, C. Wilson, D. Wysocki and I. A. Harris (2022). "Effect of Aspirin vs Enoxaparin on Symptomatic Venous Thromboembolism in Patients Undergoing Hip or Knee Arthroplasty: The CRISTAL Randomized Trial." JAMA 328(8): 719-727.

Hayes, K., V. Dos Santos, M. Costigan and D. Morante (2022). "Extension, austerity, and emergence: Themes identified from a global scoping review of non-urban occupational therapy services." Aust Occup Ther J. 

Hayes, K., V. Dos Santos, M. Costigan and D. Morante (2022). "Profile of occupational therapy services in non-urban settings: A global scoping review." Aust Occup Ther J.

Hong, A. M., H. Lo, A. Lawless, D. Zhou, S. Bae, M. Phillips, F. Maclean, J. Desai, J. Mar, S. Lazarakis, D. Pryor and S. R. Thompson (2022). "The benefit for radiotherapy at specialised sarcoma centres: A systematic review and clinical practice guidelines from the Australia and New Zealand Sarcoma Association." Radiother Oncol 177: 158-162.

Lakeman, R., J. Hurley, K. Campbell, C. Hererra, A. Leggett, R. Tranter and P. King (2022). "High fidelity dialectical behaviour therapy online: Learning from experienced practitioners." International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 31(6): 1405-1416.

Mah, B. L. and K. Larkings (2022). "Association between poor sleep for infants to two years and subsequent mental health symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis." Journal of Child Health Care 26(3): 461-478.

Pan, B., N. J. Aherne, T. P. Shakespeare, M. Grossmann and P. K. K. Wong (2022). "Bone health assessment with dual energy X-ray absorptiometry in men with high-risk prostate carcinoma commencing adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy." Reports of Practical Oncology and Radiotherapy 27(4): 677-683.

Roos, D., B. Ramsay, L. Sullivan and P. Sundaresan (2022). "Impact of Radiation Oncology Research Grants Awarded by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists Using the "Payback Framework"." International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics 114(2): 198-202. 

Salindera, S. and M. Brennan (2020). "Development of the 'People-Processes-Paradigm' critical analysis tool for mortality and morbidity reviews: improving understanding of systems factors." ANZ J Surg 90(6): 984-990.

Tatt Toh Jw Bsc, M. F. P., M. D. Hui N Bsc, M. F. Collins G Mbbs and M. D. M. M. M. S. Phan K Bsc (2022). "Survival outcomes associated with Lynch syndrome colorectal cancer and metachronous rate after subtotal/total versus segmental colectomy: Meta-analysis." Surgery.

Urquhart, L., K. Roberts Dunghutti, C. Gibbs Muruwari, K. Fisher, L. J. Brown and K. Duncanson (2022). "Experiences of co-designing research about a rural Aboriginal well-being program: Informing practice and policy." Aust J Rural Health.

Year 4 of COVID-19 in Australia

 As Australia fights the most recent COVID-19 wave, Aussies will be hoping 2023 is the year the pandemic "ends", the year when figuring out exposure risks, decisions on mask use, missing out on social events due to that little tickle in the throat, can all be put behind us.

Medical experts say it's vital the community understands that isn't the case — but there are some things that could make this year a bit easier than the past three.

In 2022, the highly infectious Omicron variant made its arrival felt in Australia's pandemic, seeing cases rise steeply.

Australia has seen thousands of COVID-19 deaths in 2022, making the the tolls from 2020 and 2021 seem insignificant.

Chart: ABC News  Source: covidlive.com.au  Get the data

The surge in cases, peaking in July 2022, has put a huge amount of pressure on health systems, COVID-19 cases requiring hospitalisation increased and in turn the nations healthcare workers are forced to isolate as they too become infected. Cases requiring hospitalisation were down at the beginning of November but the end of the year saw cases on the rise again due to new variants emerging in the past 3 months.

Chart: ABC News  Source: covidlive.com.au  Get the data

The emphasis needs to be on the basics to reduce the spread of the virus. A key difference in 2022 was the shift from imposed restrictions to personal responsibility. Australia has gone from an extremely high perception on risk to a point where some people are complacent and to not appreciate that risk still exists in the community.

Strategies that everyone can put in place : Meeting up outdoors if possible, ventilating indoor spaces well, using a mask in high-risk settings such as busy shopping malls or supermarkets, keeping up-to-date with vaccines and staying home if you are unwell.

COVID-19 is evolving but so are our vaccines. 

The trend in evolution at the moment is that the virus is becoming more transmissible but not more severe. The danger is when a variant emerges that is more severe resulting in higher hospitalisation and mortality. 

Let's each do our bit to make a safer Australia.

Read more here "What will Australia's fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic look like?"