Informal Caregiving Among Faculty at a Large Academic Health Sciences University in the United States: an Opportunity for Policy Changes.

Objective: This article aims to determine the prevalence of caregiving among faculty at a large academic health sciences institution, to examine the effect of gender and other demographic and professional covariates on caregiving status, and to explore caregiver-generated policy recommendations.

Method: A cross-sectional, mixed-methods survey was collected from June through August 2018. Participants were faculty within one of the institution's health professional schools (dentistry, medicine, nursing, or pharmacy) receiving at least 50% salary from the institution.

Faculty knowledge, actions, and perceptions of sponsorship: an institutional survey study.

Background: Women and underrepresented in medicine and the health sciences (URiM) faculty face inequities in advancement. Career sponsorship may be a remedy. Few studies have described sponsorship in academic medicine and none across an institution.

Developing faculty leadership from 'within': a 12-year reflection from an internal faculty leadership development program of an academic health sciences center.

Most academic health sciences centers offer faculty leadership development programs (LDPs); however, the outcomes of LDPs are largely unknown. This article describes perspectives from our 12-year experience cultivating a formal faculty LDP within an academic health center and longitudinal outcomes of our LDP. Responding to faculty concerns from University of California San Francisco's (UCSF) 2001 Faculty Climate Survey, UCSF established the UCSF-Coro Faculty Leadership Collaborative (FLC) in 2005.

Safety and Efficacy of Rituximab: Experience of a Single Multiple Sclerosis Center.

Objectives: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated disease of the central nervous system. B cells play an important pathogenic role in MS. Rituximab (RTX), a B-cell depleting drug, has been used to treat MS and neuromyelitis optica (NMO).

Evidence-Based Guideline: Treatment of Convulsive Status Epilepticus in Children and Adults: Report of the Guideline Committee of the American Epilepsy Society.

Context: The optimal pharmacologic treatment for early convulsive status epilepticus is unclear.

Objective: To analyze efficacy, tolerability and safety data for anticonvulsant treatment of children and adults with convulsive status epilepticus and use this analysis to develop an evidence-based treatment algorithm.

Data Sources: Structured literature review using MEDLINE, Embase, Current Contents, and Cochrane library supplemented with article reference lists.

SOX11 identified by target gene evaluation of miRNAs differentially expressed in focal and non-focal brain tissue of therapy-resistant epilepsy patients.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that post-transcriptionally control the expression of their target genes via RNA interference. There is increasing evidence that expression of miRNAs is dysregulated in neuronal disorders, including epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder characterized by spontaneous recurrent seizures. Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is a common type of focal epilepsy in which disease-induced abnormalities of hippocampal neurogenesis in the subgranular zone as well as gliosis and neuronal cell loss in the cornu ammonis area are reported.

Delayed recurrence of intracranial chordoma.

Purpose: Although a chordoma is extremely rare, it commonly presents with ocular symptoms, often impacting one or more cranial nerves.

Case Report: The authors describe a unique case of rapidly developing intracranial chordoma that recurred 9 years after the original mass was successfully diagnosed and treated. It is noteworthy that, although the tumor originated within the cranium at the base of the skull, it presented primarily with clinical signs of a unilateral orbital mass because of tumor extension.

De novo mutations in epileptic encephalopathies.

Epileptic encephalopathies are a devastating group of severe childhood epilepsy disorders for which the cause is often unknown. Here we report a screen for de novo mutations in patients with two classical epileptic encephalopathies: infantile spasms (n = 149) and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (n = 115). We sequenced the exomes of 264 probands, and their parents, and confirmed 329 de novo mutations.

The epilepsy phenome/genome project.

Background: Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that affects approximately 50 million people worldwide. Both risk of epilepsy and response to treatment partly depend on genetic factors, and gene identification is a promising approach to target new prediction, treatment, and prevention strategies. However, despite significant progress in the identification of genes causing epilepsy in families with a Mendelian inheritance pattern, there is relatively little known about the genetic factors responsible for common forms of epilepsy and so-called epileptic encephalopathies.

Treatment of status epilepticus: an international survey of experts.

Background: As part of the development of the Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) Status Epilepticus (SE) Guidelines, the NCS SE Writing Committee conducted an international survey of SE experts.

Methods: The survey consisted of three patient vignettes (case 1, an adult; case 2, an adolescent; case 3, a child) and questions regarding treatment. The questions for each case focused on initial and sequential therapy as well as when to use continuous intravenous (cIV) therapy and for what duration.

Guidelines for the evaluation and management of status epilepticus.

Status epilepticus (SE) treatment strategies vary substantially from one institution to another due to the lack of data to support one treatment over another. To provide guidance for the acute treatment of SE in critically ill patients, the Neurocritical Care Society organized a writing committee to evaluate the literature and develop an evidence-based and expert consensus practice guideline. Literature searches were conducted using PubMed and studies meeting the criteria established by the writing committee were evaluated.

Effects of a multicentre teamwork and communication programme on patient outcomes: results from the Triad for Optimal Patient Safety (TOPS) project.

Background: Improving communication between caregivers is an important approach to improving safety.

Objective: To implement teamwork and communication interventions and evaluate their impact on patient outcomes.

Design: A prospective, interrupted time series of a three-phase

Intervention: a run-in period (phase 1), during which a training programme was given to providers and staff on each unit; phase 2, which focused on unit-based safety teams to identify and address care problems using skills from phase 1; and phase 3, which focused on engaging patients in communication efforts.

Republished paper: Improving safety culture on adult medical units through multidisciplinary teamwork and communication interventions: the TOPS Project.

Aim: The goal of this project was to improve unit-based safety culture through implementation of a multidisciplinary (pharmacy, nursing, medicine) teamwork and communication intervention.

Method: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was used to determine the impact of the training with a before-after design.

Results: Surveys were returned from 454 healthcare staff before the training and 368 staff 1 year later.

Improving safety culture on adult medical units through multidisciplinary teamwork and communication interventions: the TOPS Project.

Aim: The goal of this project was to improve unit-based safety culture through implementation of a multidisciplinary (pharmacy, nursing, medicine) teamwork and communication intervention.

Method: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was used to determine the impact of the training with a before-after design.

Results: Surveys were returned from 454 healthcare staff before the training and 368 staff 1 year later.

Brimonidine hypersensitivity when switching between 0.2% and 0.15% formulations.

Purpose: To investigate hypersensitivity rates in patients switched from brimonidine-purite 0.15% to generic brimonidine 0.2%, and to then investigate hypersensitivity rates to re-initiated brimonidine-purite 0.

Pathogenic involvement of neuropeptides in anxiety and depression.

Anxiety and depression are highly prevalent disorders of mood posing significant challenges to individuals and society. Current evidence indicates no single neurobiological determinant underpins these conditions and an integrated approach in both research and treatment is expedient. Basic, behavioral, and clinical science indicates various stress-responsive neuropeptides in the neuroendocrine, autonomic, and behavioral pathophysiology of stress-related disorders including anxiety and depression.

AHRQ's hospital survey on patient safety culture: psychometric analyses.

Objective: This project analyzed the psychometric properties of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) including factor structure, interitem reliability and intraclass correlations, usefulness for assessment, predictive validity, and sensitivity.

Methods: The survey was administered to 454 health care staff in 3 hospitals before and after a series of multidisciplinary interventions designed to improve safety culture. Respondents (before, 434; after, 368) included nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and other hospital staff members.

Understanding herb and dietary supplement use in patients with epilepsy.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of herb and dietary supplement use and to provide a comprehensive analysis of factors influencing the use of these products in patients with epilepsy.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study using self-administered questionnaires in a selected group of patients who were receiving care at a tertiary epilepsy center. Logistic regression was used to measure the association between the demographic variables and herb and dietary supplement use.

A multidisciplinary teamwork training program: the Triad for Optimal Patient Safety (TOPS) experience.

Introduction: Communication and teamwork failures are a common cause of adverse events. Residency programs, with a mandate to teach systems-based practice, are particularly challenged to address these important skills.

Aim: To develop a multidisciplinary teamwork training program focused on teaching teamwork behaviors and communication skills.

Drug withdrawals in the United States: a systematic review of the evidence and analysis of trends.

There have been a number of highly publicized safety-based drug withdrawals in the United States in recent years. We conducted a review of drugs withdrawn since 1993 and examined trends in drug withdrawals. Our objective was to determine the frequency and characteristics of withdrawn drugs and trends since 1993, and to discuss the implications of the findings.

Ocular Response Analyzer in subjects with and without glaucoma.

Purpose: The Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) is a newly introduced tonometer that uniquely measures and then integrates corneal biomechanical data into its intraocular pressure (IOP) estimates in an effort to improve accuracy of IOP assessment. This study was devised to investigate whether ORA-derived IOP and corneal biomechanical variables might be useful in discriminating between subjects with and without primary open-angle glaucoma (GLC).

Methods: All patients seen in the Albuquerque VAMC eye clinic over a 10-week period who demonstrated acceptable ORA signal profiles were retrospectively identified.

Clinical connexions.

The past decade of scientific research has seen a proliferation of information regarding the identification and biophysical properties of gap junctions and their constituents, connexin proteins. Advances in biological research techniques have elucidated a ubiquitous distribution and dynamic regulation of connexins and gap junctions. The gap junction is the primary component of the electrical synapse that couples cells together morphologically and functionally.