Publications

125 Toward the Translation of Rectal Intensity Modulated Brachytherapy for Feasibility and Safety Studies
Jonathan Kalinowski
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Radiotherapy and Oncology (published)
doi.org
163 Evaluating the Inter-Observer Variability in the Delineation of Rectal Lesions in Endoscopy Images
A. Thibodeau-Antonacci
Corey Miller
L. Weishaupt
Aurélie Garant
T. Vuong
P. Nicolaï
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Radiotherapy and Oncology (published)
doi.org
181 RapidBrachyTG43: A TG-43 Parameter and Dose Calculation Module for RapidBrachyMCTPs
Jonathan Kalinowski
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Radiotherapy and Oncology (published)
doi.org
186 Diffusion of 220RN and 212PB in Diffusing Alpha-Emitter Radiation Therapy Dosimetry with Geant4
Victor Daniel Díaz Martínez
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Radiotherapy and Oncology (published)
doi.org
192 Investigation of the Dose Properties and Source to Source Variabilities in Xoft Source Model S7500
A. Esmaelbeigi
Jonathan Kalinowski
T. Vuong
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Radiotherapy and Oncology (published)
doi.org
241 Reduction of Metal Artifacts in 7T MRI for Pre-Clinical Diffusing Alpha-Emitting Radiation Therapy Rectal Studies
Mélodie Cyr
Behnaz Behmand
N. Chabaytah
Joud Babik
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Radiotherapy and Oncology (published)
doi.org
256 Patient-Specific Pre-Treatment Nuclei Size Distribution is of Significance for Post Radiation Therapy Locoregional Recurrence and Survival Outcomes
Yujing Zou
Magali Lecavalier-Barsoum
Manuela Pelmus
Farhad Maleki
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Radiotherapy and Oncology (published)
doi.org
259 Development of a Cost-Efficient Scintillation-Fiber Detector for Use in Automated Synthesis of Positron Emission Tomography Radiotracers
Hailey Ahn
Liam Carroll
Robert Hopewell
I-Huang Tsai
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Radiotherapy and Oncology (published)
doi.org
Impact of a vaccine passport on first-dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage by age and area-level social determinants in the Canadian provinces of Québec and Ontario: an interrupted time series analysis
Jorge Luis Flores Anato
Huiting Ma
Mackenzie A. Hamilton
Yiqing Xia
Sam Harper
David Buckeridge
Marc Brisson
Michael P. Hillmer
Kamil Malikov
Aidin Kerem
Reed Beall
Caroline E Wagner
Étienne Racine
Stefan Baral
Ève Dubé
Sharmistha Mishra
Mathieu Maheu-Giroux
In Canada, all provinces implemented vaccine passports in 2021 to increase vaccine uptake and reduce transmission in non-essential indoor sp… (see more)aces. We evaluate the impact of vaccine passport policies on first-dose COVID-19 vaccination coverage by age, area-level income and proportion racialized. We performed interrupted time-series analyses using vaccine registry data linked to census information in Québec and Ontario (20.5 million people ≥12 years; unit of analysis: dissemination area). We fit negative binomial regressions to weekly first-dose vaccination, using a natural spline to capture pre-announcement trends, adjusting for baseline vaccination coverage (start: July 3 rd ; end: October 23 rd Québec, November 13 th Ontario). We obtain counterfactual vaccination rates and coverage, and estimated vaccine passports’ impact on vaccination coverage (absolute) and new vaccinations (relative). In both provinces, pre-announcement first-dose vaccination coverage was 82% (≥12 years). The announcement resulted in estimated increases in vaccination coverage of 0.9 percentage points (p.p.;95%CI:0.4-1.2) in Québec and 0.7 p.p. (95%CI:0.5-0.8) in Ontario. In relative terms, these increases correspond to 23% (95%CI:10-36%) and 19% (95%CI:15-22%) more vaccinations. The impact was larger among people aged 12-39 (1-2 p.p.). There was little variability in the absolute impact by area-level income or proportion racialized in either province. In the context of high baseline vaccine coverage across two provinces, the announcement of vaccine passports led to a small impact on first-dose coverage, with little impact on reducing economic and racial inequities in vaccine coverage. Findings suggest the need for other policies to further increase vaccination coverage among lower-income and more racialized neighbourhoods and communities. Vaccine passport policies increased COVID-19 vaccination coverage by approximately 1 percentage point (19 to 23% increase in vaccinations) in Québec and Ontario, Canada. Although vaccine passport policies increased vaccination coverage, absolute gains were limited in the context of high prior vaccine coverage. Vaccine passports had little impact on reducing economic and racial inequities in vaccine coverage.
2023-08-31
CMAJ Open (published)
doi.org
Integrating equity, diversity and inclusion throughout the lifecycle of AI within healthcare: a scoping review protocol
Milka Nyariro
Elham Emami
Pascale Caidor
S. A. Rahimi
2023-08-31
BMJ Open (published)
doi.org
Online Bayesian Optimization of Nerve Stimulation
Lorenz Wernisch
Tristan Edwards
Antonin Berthon
Olivier Tessier-Larivière
Elvijs Sarkans
Myrta Stoukidi
Pascal Fortier-Poisson
Max Pinkney
Michael Thornton
Catherine Hanley
Susannah Lee
Joel Jennings
Ben Appleton
Phillip Garsed
Bret Patterson
Buttinger Will
Samuel Gonshaw
Matjaž Jakopec
Sudhakaran Shunmugam
Jorin Mamen … (see 4 more)
Aleksi Tukiainen
Guillaume Lajoie
Oliver Armitage
Emil Hewage
In bioelectronic medicine, neuromodulation therapies induce neural signals to the brain or organs modifying their function. Stimulation devi… (see more)ces, capable of triggering exogenous neural signals using electrical wave forms, require a complex and multi-dimensional parameter space in order to control such wave forms. Determining the best combination of parameters (wave form optimization, or dosing) for treating a particular patient’s illness is therefore challenging. Comprehensive parameter searching for an optimal stimulation effect is often infeasible in a clinical setting, due to the size of the parameter space. Restricting this space, however, may lead to sub-optimal therapeutic results, reduced responder rates, and adverse effects. As an alternative to a full parameter search, we present a flexible machine learning, data acquisition and processing framework for optimizing neural stimulation parameters requiring as few steps as possible using Bayesian optimization. Such optimization builds a model of the neural and physiological responses to stimulations enabling it to optimize stimulation parameters and to provide estimates of the accuracy of the response model. The vagus nerve innervates, among other thoracic and visceral organs, the heart, thus controlling heart rate and is therefore ideal for demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach. Main results. The efficacy of our optimization approach was first evaluated on simulated neural responses, then applied to vagus nerve stimulation intraoperatively in porcine subjects. Optimization converged quickly on parameters achieving target heart rates and optimizing neural B-fibre activations despite high intersubject variability. An optimized stimulation waveform was achieved in real time with far fewer stimulations than required by alternative optimization strategies, thus minimizing exposure to side effects. Uncertainty estimates helped avoiding stimulations outside a safe range. Our approach shows that a complex set of neural stimulation parameters can be optimized in real-time for a patient to achieve a personalized precision dosing.
2023-08-31
bioRxiv (preprint)
doi.org
PP02  Presentation Time: 4:39 PM
Maryam Rahbaran
Jonathan Kalinowski
James Man Git Tsui
Joseph DeCunha
Kevin Croce
Brian Bergmark
Philip Devlin
S. Enger
2023-08-31
Brachytherapy (published)
doi.org