Publications by authors named "Alan M Hall"

Thiamine-responsive megaloblastic anaemia (TRMA) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterised by the clinical triad of megaloblastic anaemia, sensorineural hearing loss and diabetes mellitus (DM) in young patients. We present a case of a young man with type 1 DM who presented with pancytopenia of unclear aetiology, initially attributed to a COVID-19 infection. After obtaining a bone marrow biopsy and pursuing genetic testing, two pathogenic variants of the SLC19A2 gene consistent with TRMA were discovered in this patient.

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Background: The clinical demands for hospitalist groups have grown at academic medical centers, without similar growth of teaching opportunities for faculty. Traditional resident teaching teams are often crowded with learners which can limit acting intern (or subintern) patient encounters. Medical students are often placed on nonresident teaching teams, although there are few studies on learner experience on a nonresident teaching team model.

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Background: Narrative written feedback given to students by faculty often fails to identify areas for improvement and recommended actions to lead to this improvement. When these elements are missing, it is challenging for students to improve and for medical schools to use narrative feedback in promotion decisions, to guide coaching plans and to pass on meaningful information to residency programs. Large-group faculty development has improved narrative written feedback, but less is known about individualised faculty development to supplement large-group sessions.

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Objectives: Acknowledging that a successful career in hospital medicine (HM) requires specialized skills, residency programs have developed hospital medicine-focused education (HMFE) programs. Surveys of Internal Medicine residency leaders have described HMFE curricula but are limited to that specialty and lack perspectives from early career hospitalists (ECHs) who recently completed this training. As such, we surveyed multispecialty ECHs to evaluate their preferences for HMFE and to identify gaps in standard residency training and career development that HMFE can bridge.

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Objective: There is limited data available about factors which promote competence with procedures in medical students. Specifically, the relationship between procedural clinical experience and performance on an assessment is unclear. We sought to determine whether a correlation exists between the amount and type of clinical experience with a procedure and student performance on a standardized assessment of that procedure.

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Objective: To examine associations between bedside rounding (BSR) and other rounding strategies (ORS) with resident evaluations of teaching attendings and self-reported attending characteristics.

Methods: Faculty from three academic medical centers who attended resident teaching services for ≥4 weeks during the 2018-2019 academic year were invited to complete a survey about personal and rounding characteristics. The survey instrument was iteratively developed to assess rounding strategy as well as factors that could affect choosing one rounding strategy over another.

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The primary goal of this study was to assess current maintenance intravenous fluid (mIVF) prescribing practices of pediatric hospitalists after the release of the American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Practice Guideline (AAP CPG), specifically assessing the rates of various isotonic vs. hypotonic solutions used in discrete age groups and in common clinical scenarios associated with anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) excess and hyponatremia. We hypothesized that isotonic fluids would be selected in most cases outside of the neonatal period.

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Objective: To evaluate current practices in naloxone prescribing upon hospital discharge.

Design: Electronic cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Academic medical center.

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Despite rapidly growing interest in Hospital Medicine (HM), no prior research has examined the factors that may be most beneficial or detrimental to candidates during the HM hiring process. We developed a survey instrument to assess how those involved in the HM hiring process assess HM candidate attributes, skills and behaviors. The survey was distributed electronically to nontrainee physician Society of Hospital Medicine members.

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Persistent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia can be difficult to treat, with growing adult literature supporting the combination of ceftaroline and daptomycin for these patients. Here, we report a pediatric patient with persistent MRSA bacteremia with associated cellulitis, fasciitis, myositis, and a deep venous thrombosis causing septic pulmonary emboli. After being unable to clear the bacteremia on vancomycin and then daptomycin monotherapy, the bacteremia cleared quickly with rapid clinical improvement after the addition of ceftaroline to daptomycin.

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