Genetic support for a drug target has been shown to increase the probability of success in drug development, with the potential to reduce attrition in the pharmaceutical industry alongside discovering novel therapeutic targets. It is therefore important to maximise the detection of genetic associations that affect disease susceptibility. Conventional statistical methods such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS) only identify some of the genetic contribution to disease, so novel analytical approaches are required to extract additional insights.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvidence is steadily mounting that attribute-based models offer a more accurate description of intertemporal choices than traditional alternative-based models. Among the attribute-based models, the tradeoff model offers the broadest coverage of research findings, but at the cost of considerable complexity: There now are various instantiations of the model dealing with partially overlapping universes of choice options and preference patterns. Moreover, there are reports of preference patterns in intertemporal decisions about monetary losses that contradict all attribute-based models proposed so far.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Effective strategies are needed to curtail overuse that may lead to harm.
Objective: To evaluate the effects of clinician decision support redirecting attention to harms and engaging social and reputational concerns on overuse in older primary care patients.
Design: 18-month, single-blind, pragmatic, cluster randomized trial, constrained randomization.
Influenza vaccination rates are low. Working with a large US health system, we evaluated three health system-wide interventions using the electronic health record's patient portal to improve influenza vaccination rates. We performed a two-arm RCT with a nested factorial design within the treatment arm, randomizing patients to usual-care control (no portal interventions) or to one or more portal interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate if nudges delivered by text message prior to an upcoming primary care visit can increase influenza vaccination rates.
Design: Randomized, controlled trial.
Setting: Two health systems in the Northeastern US between September 2020 and March 2021.
Background: Unnecessary testing and treatment of common conditions in older adults can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. The primary objective of this study was to develop and pilot test a set of clinical decision support (CDS) alerts informed by social psychology to address overuse in three areas related to ambulatory care of older adults.
Methods: We developed three electronic health record (EHR) CDS alerts to address overuse and pilot tested them from January 17, 2019 to July 17, 2019.
Policymakers and business leaders often use peer comparison information-showing people how their behavior compares to that of their peers-to motivate a range of behaviors. Despite their widespread use, the potential impact of peer comparison interventions on recipients' well-being is largely unknown. We conducted a 5-mo field experiment involving 199 primary care physicians and 46,631 patients to examine the impact of a peer comparison intervention on physicians' job performance, job satisfaction, and burnout.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The CDC estimates that over 40% of Urgent Care visits are for acute respiratory infections (ARI), more than half involving inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions. Previous randomized trials in primary care clinics resulted in reductions in inappropriate antibiotic prescribing, but antibiotic stewardship interventions in telehealth have not been systematically assessed. To better understand how best to decrease inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for ARIs in telehealth, we are conducting a large randomized quality improvement trial testing both patient- and physician-facing feedback and behavioral nudges embedded in the electronic health record.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe identification of novel inhaled p38α/β mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) (MAPK14/11) inhibitors suitable for the treatment of pulmonary inflammatory conditions has been described. A rational drug design approach started from the identification of a novel tetrahydronaphthalene series, characterized by nanomolar inhibition of p38α with selectivity over p38γ and p38δ isoforms. SAR optimization of is outlined, where improvements in potency against p38α and ligand-enzyme dissociation kinetics led to several compounds showing pronounced anti-inflammatory effects (inhibition of TNFα release).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInflammopharmacology
August 2022
Background: Nrf2 regulates cellular antioxidant defence in lung cells, including epithelial cells and alveolar macrophages (AM). The Nrf2/Keap-1 pathway can be modulated by activators with different modes of action; electrophilic compounds and protein-protein interaction (PPI) inhibitors. We assessed Nrf2 and Keap-1 protein and gene levels in COPD compared to controls and the effect of Nrf2 activators on COPD AM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Pers Soc Psychol
February 2022
People differ in their lay theories about how and why the financial well-being of individuals changes over time or varies between individuals. We introduce a measure of Causal Attributions of Financial Uncertainty-the CAFU scale-and find that such attributions can be described reliably along three distinct dimensions, respectively capturing the extent to which changes in financial well-being are perceived to be: (a) knowable and within individuals' control due to individual factors such as effort ("Rewarding"); (b) knowable and outside of individuals' control due to factors such as favoritism and discrimination ("Rigged"); and (c) inherently unpredictable and determined by chance events ("Random"). In a sample representative of the U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Inappropriate polypharmacy, prevalent among older patients, is associated with substantial harms.
Objective: To develop measures of high-risk polypharmacy and pilot test novel electronic health record (EHR)-based nudges grounded in behavioral science to promote deprescribing.
Design: We developed and validated seven measures, then conducted a three-arm pilot from February to May 2019.
Background: High levels of opioid prescribing in the United States has resulted in an alarming trend in opioid-related harms. The objective of Trial 2 of the Application of Economics & Social psychology to improve Opioid Prescribing Safety (AESOPS-2) is to dampen the intensity and frequency of opioid prescribing in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation to "go low and slow". We aim to accomplish this by notifying clinicians of harmful patient outcomes, which we expect to increase the mental availability of risks associated with opioid use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Overtesting and treatment of older patients is common and may lead to harms. The Choosing Wisely campaign has provided recommendations to reduce overtesting and overtreatment of older adults. Behavioral economics-informed interventions embedded within the electronic health record (EHR) have been shown to reduce overuse in several areas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Since the advent of COVID-19, accelerated adoption of systems that reduce face-to-face encounters has outpaced training and best practices. Electronic consultations (eConsults), structured communications between PCPs and specialists regarding a case, have been effective in reducing face-to-face specialist encounters. As the health system rapidly adapts to multiple new practices and communication tools, new mechanisms to measure and improve performance in this context are needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adult influenza vaccination rates are low. Tailored patient reminders might raise rates.
Objective: Evaluate impact of a health system's patient portal reminders: (1) tailored to patient characteristics and (2) incorporating behavioral science strategies, on influenza vaccination rates among adults.
Objectives: In a large health system, we evaluated the effectiveness of electronic health record patient portal reminders in increasing pediatric influenza vaccination rates.
Methods: We conducted an intention-to-treat randomized clinical trial of 22 046 children from 6 months to <18 years of age in 53 primary care practices. Patients (or parent and/or proxies) who were active portal users were randomly assigned to receive reminder messages framed as gains or losses or no messages.
High acceptance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines is instrumental to ending the pandemic. Vaccine acceptance by subgroups of the population depends on their trust in COVID-19 vaccines. We surveyed a probability-based internet panel of 7832 adults from December 23, 2020-January 19, 2021 about their likelihood of getting a COVID-19 vaccine and the following domains of trust: an individual's generalized trust, trust in COVID-19 vaccine's efficacy and safety, trust in the governmental approval process and general vaccine development process for COVID-19 vaccines, trust in their physician about COVID-19, and trust in other sources about COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany Americans fail to get life-saving vaccines each year, and the availability of a vaccine for COVID-19 makes the challenge of encouraging vaccination more urgent than ever. We present a large field experiment ( = 47,306) testing 19 nudges delivered to patients via text message and designed to boost adoption of the influenza vaccine. Our findings suggest that text messages sent prior to a primary care visit can boost vaccination rates by an average of 5%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF