Specialty Box Program: Implementing Tailored Food Boxes to Serve the Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Although food pantries play a key role in addressing food insecurity across the United States, the usual methods of getting food to people in need were severely challenged during the COVID-19 crisis. Chronic disease, lack of transportation, and food insecurity are social determinants that amplify health disparities at higher rates among racial and ethnic minorities throughout the greater Charlotte, North Carolina, area. Loaves & Fishes, a local network of food pantries, partnered with RAO Community Health to develop and support the sustainability of the Specialty Box Program which provides whole grains and foods low in sodium, sugar, and fat to people with chronic disease.

Cost saving, patient centered algorithm for progenitor cell mobilization for autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Administration of plerixafor with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) mobilizes CD34+ cells much more effectively than G-CSF alone, but cost generally limits plerixafor use to patients at high risk of insufficient CD34+ cell collection based on low peripheral blood (PB) CD34+ counts following 4 days of G-CSF. We analyzed costs associated with administering plerixafor to patients with higher day 4 CD34+ cell counts to decrease apheresis days and explored the use of a fixed split dose of plerixafor instead of weight-based dosing. We analyzed 235 patients with plasma cell disorders or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who underwent progenitor cell mobilization and autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) between March 2014 and December 2017.

Higher Incidence of Hemorrhagic Cystitis Following Haploidentical Related Donor Transplantation Compared with Matched Related Donor Transplantation.

Hemorrhagic cystitis (HC) is a common and important complication of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Reactivation of BK virus is its most common cause. The more intense immunosuppressive regimens administered to recipients of grafts from alternative donors have been reported to account for the increased susceptibility to HC in this population.