Improving care for individuals with serious infections who inject drugs.

Background: Hospitalizations for serious infections requiring long-term intravenous (IV) antimicrobials related to injection drug use have risen sharply over the last decade. At our rural tertiary care center, opportunities for treatment of underlying substance use disorders were often missed during these hospital admissions. Once medically stable, home IV antimicrobial therapy has not traditionally been offered to this patient population due to theoretical concerns about misuse of long-term IV catheters, leading to discharges with suboptimal treatment regimens, lengthy hospital stays, or care that is incongruent with patient goals and preferences.

Mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 transmission at a large public university.

In Fall 2020, universities saw extensive transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among their populations, threatening health of the university and surrounding communities, and viability of in-person instruction. Here we report a case study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where a multimodal "SHIELD: Target, Test, and Tell" program, with other non-pharmaceutical interventions, was employed to keep classrooms and laboratories open. The program included epidemiological modeling and surveillance, fast/frequent testing using a novel low-cost and scalable saliva-based RT-qPCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 that bypasses RNA extraction, called covidSHIELD, and digital tools for communication and compliance.

Multidisciplinary treatment of opioid use disorder in primary care using the collaborative care model.

: Treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) is highly effective, but access is limited and care is often fragmented. Treatment in primary care can improve access to treatment and address psychiatric and physical co-morbidities in a holistic, efficient, and non-stigmatizing way. The Collaborative Care Model (CCM) of behavioral health integration into primary care has been widely disseminated and shown to improve outcomes and lower costs when studied for depression, but its use in treating substance use disorders has not been well documented.

Multi-level Influences on Breast Cancer Screening in Primary Care.

Background: Use of breast cancer screening is influenced by factors associated with patients, primary care providers, practices, and health systems.

Objective: We examined the relative effects of these nested levels on four breast cancer screening metrics.

Design: A web-based survey was completed at 15 primary care practices within two health systems representing 306 primary care providers (PCPs) serving 46,944 women with a primary care visit between 1/2011-9/2014.

Impact of numeracy on understanding of prostate cancer risk reduction in PSA screening.

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer in men of average risk remains controversial. Patients' ability to incorporate risk reduction data into their decision-making may depend on their numeracy. We assessed the impact of patients' numeracy on their understanding of the risk reduction benefits of PSA screening.

Alignment of breast cancer screening guidelines, accountability metrics, and practice patterns.

Objectives: Breast cancer screening guidelines and metrics are inconsistent with each other and may differ from breast screening practice patterns in primary care. This study measured breast cancer screening practice patterns in relation to common evidence-based guidelines and accountability metrics.

Study Design: Cohort study using primary data collected from a regional breast cancer screening research network between 2011 and 2014.

Responses to a Decision Aid on Prostate Cancer Screening in Primary Care Practices.

Introduction: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing remains controversial, with most guidelines recommending shared decision making. This study describes men's PSA screening preferences before and after viewing a decision aid and relates these preferences to subsequent clinician visit content.

Methods: Men were recruited from two health systems in 2009-2013.

Use of a web-based survey to facilitate shared decision making for patients eligible for cancer screening.

Objective: Our aim was to facilitate shared decision making (SDM) during preventive visits by utilizing a web-based survey system to offer colorectal cancer (CRC) and prostate cancer screening decision aids (DAs) to appropriately identified patients prior to the visit.

Methods: Patients completed a web-based questionnaire before their preventive medicine appointment. Age- and gender-appropriate patients completed additional questions to determine eligibility for CRC or prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening.

Strategies for distributing cancer screening decision aids in primary care.

Objective: Decision aids (DAs) have been shown to facilitate shared decision making about cancer screening. However, little data exist on optimal strategies for dissemination. Our objective was to compare different decision aid distribution models.