Improving Patient Safety Communication in Residency Programs by Incorporating Patient Safety Discussions Into Rounds.

Background: Engaging residents in patient safety and quality improvement initiatives is sometimes difficult. The primary goal of the current study was to develop a standardized learning experience designed to facilitate patient safety discussions during rounds.

Methods: Residents who were on inpatient rotations during a 2-month period in 2014 were exposed to patient safety discussions on rounds.

Graduate Medical Education as a Lever for Collaborative Change: One Institution's Experience with a Campuswide Patient Safety Initiative.

Background: The 2013 closure of a public hospital in Baton Rouge, LA transformed graduate medical education (GME) at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center (OLOL). Administrators were tasked with incorporating residents into patient safety and quality improvement initiatives to fulfill regulatory obligations. This report outlines our experiences as we built these patient safety and quality improvement initiatives in a rapidly expanding independent academic medical center.

Smartphones in medicine: emerging practices in an academic medical center.

Advances in mobile phone technology now provide a myriad of resources to physicians' fingertips. However, the medical profession continues to struggle with potential for misuse of these devices. There is a need for better understanding of physicians' uses of smartphones in order to establish guidelines for appropriate and professional behavior.

Lack of T cells in Act1-deficient mice results in elevated IgM-specific autoantibodies but reduced lupus-like disease.

Act1 is a negative regulator of B-cell activation factor of the TNF family (BAFF) and CD40L-induced signaling. BALB/C mice lacking Act1 develop systemic autoimmunity resembling systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjögren's syndrome (SjS). SLE and SjS are characterized by anti-nuclear IgG autoantibody (ANA-IgG) production and inflammation of peripheral tissues.

Acute lithium intoxication: properly directing an index of suspicion.

Lithium is known for its efficacy and toxicity. Toxic effects have been characterized even with therapeutic levels. Most physicians will at some point be faced with a patient with altered mental status and no records of his or her history.

MyD88 functions as a negative regulator of TLR3/TRIF-induced corneal inflammation by inhibiting activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase.

The adaptor molecule MyD88 is necessary for responses to all Toll-like receptors except TLR3 and a subset of TLR4 signaling events, which are mediated by the adaptor molecule TRIF. To determine the role of TRIF in host inflammatory responses, corneal epithelium of C57BL/6, TLR3(-/-), TRIF(-/-), and MyD88(-/-) mice was abraded and stimulated with the synthetic TLR3 ligand poly(I:C). We found that poly(I:C) induced a pronounced cellular infiltration into the corneal stroma, which was TLR3- and TRIF-dependent.

Activation of toll-like receptor (TLR)2, TLR4, and TLR9 in the mammalian cornea induces MyD88-dependent corneal inflammation.

Purpose: Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which recognize microbial products, have an important role in the host innate immune response. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether activation of these receptors leads to development of keratitis and to assess the role of the common adaptor molecule myeloid differentiation factor-88 (MyD88).

Methods: Corneal epithelium of C57BL/6, TLR2(-/-), TLR9(-/-), and MyD88(-/-) mice was abraded and treated with Pam(3)Cys, LPS, or CpG DNA, which bind TLR2, -4, and -9, respectively, and neutrophil recruitment to the corneal stroma, development of corneal haze, and chemokine production were measured.