JMIR research protocols
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JMIR research protocols · Jan 2015
Using Social Media While Waiting in Pain: A Clinical 12-Week Longitudinal Pilot Study.
Chronic pain places an enormous burden on health care systems. Multidisciplinary pain management services are well documented as an effective means to improve patient outcomes. However, waiting lists to access these services are long and outcomes deteriorate. Innovative solutions such as social media are gaining attention as a way to decrease this burden and improve outcomes. It is a challenge to design research that demonstrates whether social media are acceptable to patients and clinically effective. ⋯ Results suggest that with refinements, this study design can be implemented successfully when conducting a larger social media study. At present, comment cannot be made on what effect using social media can have on patients on hospital waiting lists, nor whether those who use social media while waiting in pain achieve better outcomes from eventual participation in a chronic pain program. Long-term follow-up should be included in future studies to answer this. Future research should focus on multicenter randomized controlled trials, involving patients in the intervention design for improved participation and outcomes and for evidence to be sound.
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JMIR research protocols · Jan 2015
QuickSilver: A Phase II Study Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging Criteria to Identify "Good Prognosis" Rectal Cancer Patients Eligible for Primary Surgery.
Recently, two nonrandomized, prospective cohort studies used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess the circumferential resection margin to identify "good prognosis" rectal tumors eligible for primary surgery and have reported favorable outcomes. ⋯ It is expected that the results of this study will show that use of MRI criteria to identify "good prognosis" rectal cancers eligible for primary surgery will be safe (ie, positive margin less than 10%). Therefore, these results will have significant potential to change the current management of rectal cancer in North America and result in improved quality of life for rectal cancer patients and survivors, while reducing overall health care costs.
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JMIR research protocols · Jan 2015
Implementation and Evaluation of a Wiki Involving Multiple Stakeholders Including Patients in the Promotion of Best Practices in Trauma Care: The WikiTrauma Interrupted Time Series Protocol.
Trauma is the most common cause of mortality among people between the ages of 1 and 45 years, costing Canadians 19.8 billion dollars a year (2004 data), yet half of all patients with major traumatic injuries do not receive evidence-based care, and significant regional variation in the quality of care across Canada exists. Accordingly, our goal is to lead a research project in which stakeholders themselves will adapt evidence-based trauma care knowledge tools to their own varied institutional contexts and cultures. We will do this by developing and assessing the combined impact of WikiTrauma, a free collaborative database of clinical decision support tools, and Wiki101, a training course teaching participants how to use WikiTrauma. WikiTrauma has the potential to ensure that all stakeholders (eg, patients, clinicians, and decision makers) can all contribute to, and benefit from, evidence-based clinical knowledge about trauma care that is tailored to their own needs and clinical setting. ⋯ We expect that this study will add important and unique evidence about the effectiveness, safety, and cost savings of using collaborative platforms to adapt knowledge implementation tools across jurisdictions.
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JMIR research protocols · Jan 2015
Normothermic versus hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass in children undergoing open heart surgery (thermic-2): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
During open heart surgery, patients are connected to a heart-lung bypass machine that pumps blood around the body ("perfusion") while the heart is stopped. Typically the blood is cooled during this procedure ("hypothermia") and warmed to normal body temperature once the operation has been completed. The main rationale for "whole body cooling" is to protect organs such as the brain, kidneys, lungs, and heart from injury during bypass by reducing the body's metabolic rate and decreasing oxygen consumption. However, hypothermic perfusion also has disadvantages that can contribute toward an extended postoperative hospital stay. Research in adults and small randomized controlled trials in children suggest some benefits to keeping the blood at normal body temperature throughout surgery ("normothermia"). However, the two techniques have not been extensively compared in children. ⋯ We believe this to be the first large pragmatic study comparing clinical outcomes during normothermic versus hypothermic bypass in complex open heart surgery in children. It is expected that this work will provide important information to improve strategies of cardiopulmonary bypass perfusion and therefore decrease the inevitable organ damage that occurs during nonphysiological body perfusion.
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JMIR research protocols · Jan 2015
The effectiveness of technology-based strategies to promote engagement with digital interventions: a systematic review protocol.
Digital interventions provide effective and potentially cost-effective models for improving health outcomes as they deliver health information and services that are widely disseminated, confidential, and can be tailored to needs of the individual user. Digital interventions have been used successfully for health promotion, mental health, and for enabling self-management of long-term conditions. However, their effectiveness is limited by low usage rates, with non-engagement a major challenge. Hence, it is crucial to find effective strategies to increase user engagement with digital interventions. ⋯ The review findings will inform researchers and digital intervention providers about optimal use of technology-based strategies to promote engagement with digital interventions.