This cross-sectional survey study evaluates the influence of international observerships organised by the coalition of healthcare professionals from academic institutions—the Ukrainian Alliance for Medical Exchange and Development (UA-MED)—on the professional development, knowledge transfer and clinical practice improvement of Ukrainian healthcare professionals during the war.

A total of 263 international observerships were facilitated for 204 Ukrainian medical professionals across the institutions in the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia during 2022–2024. To assess the impact of these observerships, a survey was administered focusing on overall satisfaction, procedural knowledge gained and challenges faced when implementing new techniques on return. The primary outcome was the success score, defined as a composite score of implementing new procedures, initiating quality improvement projects and knowledge dissemination efforts.

A total of 128 medical professionals from 45 Ukrainian institutions who completed 138 observerships in 27 institutions abroad participated in the survey (response rate of 62.7%). Observers varied by profession: surgeons (32.8%), radiation oncologists (14.8%), medical oncologists (11.7%), anaesthesiologists (11.7%) and others. Observerships lasted a median of 4 weeks; 74.1% included conference attendance. The average success and satisfaction scores were 6.5/10 and 9.3/10, respectively.

The majority (92.7%) reported a shift in perception of how to practise medicine and 75.5% implemented new procedures on returning to Ukraine. Encouraged to disseminate knowledge, participants provided informal training to colleagues (67.3%), prepared presentations for their institutions (65.5%) and national conferences (32.7%), incorporated learnt materials into educational lectures (39.1%) and engaged in all the activities above (15.5%).

The international observerships played an important role in enhancing the reported skills and knowledge of Ukrainian healthcare professionals during the war. Improvements were reported in clinical practice, medical education and the implementation of new procedures. The success of these observerships underscores the potential for similar programmes in other low-income and middle-income countries/upper-middle-income countries.

Existing psychological and pharmacological interventions for young people at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis have shown benefit in at least delaying the transition to psychosis, but they have limited benefit for comorbid disorders or social dysfunction, which are prominent for those at UHR. We developed a moderated online social therapy platform (named Momentum) including: (1) transdiagnostic therapeutic interventions targeting social functioning, depression, generalised anxiety and social anxiety; (2) a moderated, peer-led online community and (3) specialised human support from clinicians, career consultants and peer workers. The aim of this trial is to determine whether, in addition to treatment as usual (TAU), Momentum, a 12-month digital intervention, informed by the complex intervention framework, is superior to 12 months of TAU in improving social functioning in UHR young people.

The study design is a prospective, parallel group, rater-masked randomised controlled trial. We will recruit young people aged 14–27 years, meeting one or more UHR for psychosis criteria. Participants are randomly assigned to the condition using randomly permutated blocks with a 1:1 allocation ratio. Participants are stratified by age (

Melbourne Health Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/42964/MH-2018) provided ethics approval for this study. Findings will be made available through scientific journals and forums and to the public via social media and the Orygen website. De-identified individual participant data will be available after publication for 3 years via the Health Data Australia catalogue (https://www.researchdata.edu.au/health). Requests must include a methodologically sound proposal. Specific conditions of use may apply and will be specified in a data sharing agreement (or similar) that the requester must agree to before access is granted. Supplementary material including study protocol, informed consent material and statistical analysis plan will also be available.

Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (ANZCTR), ACTRN12619001411134.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited condition, affecting approximately 150 000 people worldwide. Physical activity (PA) is an integral component in the management of CF. However, it is estimated that only a third of young people (with and without CF) achieve UK Chief Medical Officer guideline recommended levels of activity. The aim of this research was to use the person-based approach to develop an intervention supporting families with young people (aged 6–12 years) with CF to incorporate PA as a sustainable habit in their lives to increase the likelihood of sustained PA levels going into adolescence and adulthood.

Using the person-based approach, intervention content was created and iteratively adapted. This was initially guided by relevant literature; the guiding principles, logic model and preliminary content were developed via co-production with patient and public involvement (PPI) representatives (n=8) with lived experience of CF. The intervention was further refined/optimised using qualitative think-aloud and retrospective interviews, the results of the preliminary evaluation are reported. Think-aloud interviews were rapidly analysed using a table of changes analysis and used to inform adaptations to content. Retrospective interviews were analysed thematically.

Community settings in the UK.

Participants included six families with a child with CF aged between 6 years and 12 years old.

Intervention content consisted of nine sections and was delivered as a printable PDF file. Informed by the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour framework and self-determination theory, content focused on promotion of PA as a family activity that is fun, enjoyable, quick and achievable. It promoted ‘movement to make you feel good"’ and in short bursts of activity. Promotion of PA as medicine was avoided. The final intervention was considered to be engaging and acceptable.

Qualitative methods and PPI facilitated the development of a family-focused intervention supporting the integration of PA into daily life. This was viewed as acceptable and engaging among families of people with CF. Future research now needs to explore the effectiveness of the intervention for increasing PA behaviour.

Although flow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood neutrophil myeloperoxidase expression can accurately rule out myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS), it lacks reliability and efficiency due to the practical limitations of laboratory-developed liquid reagent-based assays. This study aimed to quantify the agreement and comparative discriminatory accuracy between a single-use flow cytometric lyophilised reagent tube (BD Lyotube Stain 468) and its laboratory-developed liquid reagent counterpart.

Cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study of two index tests against a reference diagnosis.

A university hospital in France.

Consecutive adult patients with an indication for bone marrow aspiration due to suspected MDS and unexplained peripheral blood cytopenia.

MDS confirmed by cytomorphological evaluation of the bone marrow aspirate performed in duplicate by experienced haematopathologists blinded to the index test.

Of 103 participants enrolled between July 2020 and August 2021, 37 had MDS (prevalence, 36%). The median intra-individual robust coefficient of variation (RCV) for myeloperoxidase expression was 30.9% using the BD Lyotube Stain 468 and 31.2% using the laboratory-developed liquid reagent assay, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.94 (95% CI 0.91 to 0.96). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.83 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.90) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.73 to 0.89), respectively. Using a prespecified threshold of 30.0%, the corresponding sensitivity estimates were 89% (95% CI 75% to 97%) and 95% (95% CI 82% to 99%).

BD Lyotube Stain 468 performs as well as its laboratory-developed liquid reagent counterpart for the quantification of myeloperoxidase expression by peripheral blood neutrophils. It may obviate the need for invasive bone marrow aspiration in up to 40% of patients with suspected MDS.

NCT04399018.