Race and Intention to Breastfeed are the Strongest Predictors of Exclusive Breastfeeding: a Retrospective Study.

Introduction: Racial disparities exist in maternal and neonatal care including breastfeeding (BF). The purpose of this study is to assess factors associated with BF success by race with a specific focus on pre-birth BF plan and time duration from birth until initiation of skin-to-skin contact and from birth to the first feed or breastfeed.

Methods: A database query of our electronic medical records was performed for all patients who had a vaginal delivery that met our study criteria.

A Web-Based Reporting System for Reviewing Local Practice Patterns of Anesthesiologists Derived from the Electronic Medical Record.

After completion of training, anesthesiologists may have fewer opportunities to see how colleagues practice, and their breadth of case experiences may also diminish due to specialization. We created a web-based reporting system based on data extracted from electronic anesthesia records that allows practitioners to see how other clinicians practice in similar cases. One year after implementation, the system continues to be utilized by clinicians.

A System to Improve Compliance with Electrocardiography Electrode Expiration Tracking.

Background: Electrocardiography (ECG) electrodes require special expiration tracking after the manufacturer's packaging is opened. Compliance with this requirement, however, can be inconsistent. The authors tested the efficacy of a device that provides for expiration tracking of bulk-packaged electrodes to improve compliance.

Visual Analytics to Leverage Anesthesia Electronic Health Record.

Background: Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning supported by interactive visual interfaces called dashboards. In this report, we describe our experience addressing the challenges in visual analytics of anesthesia electronic health record (EHR) data using a commercially available business intelligence (BI) platform. As a primary outcome, we discuss some performance metrics of the dashboards, and as a secondary outcome, we outline some operational enhancements and financial savings associated with deploying the dashboards.

System for Storage, Dispensing, and Tracking Expiration of Electrocardiography Electrodes.

Electrocardiography electrodes have expiration dates that are foreshortened once the manufacturer's packaging is opened. A system is described for storing and dispensing these perishable electrodes while tracking their new expiration date for safety and regulatory purposes.

Self-reported Race/Ethnicity and Intraoperative Occult Hypoxemia: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Pulse oximetry is ubiquitous in anesthesia and is generally a reliable noninvasive measure of arterial oxygen saturation. Concerns regarding the impact of skin pigmentation and race/ethnicity on the accuracy of pulse oximeter accuracy exist. The authors hypothesized a greater prevalence of occult hypoxemia (arterial oxygen saturation [Sao2] less than 88% despite oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry [Spo2] greater than 92%) in patients undergoing anesthesia who self-reported a race/ethnicity other than White.

Analysis of urgent/emergent conversions from monitored anesthesia care to general anesthesia with airway instrumentation.

Background: Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC) is an anesthetic service involving the titration of sedatives/analgesics to achieve varying levels of sedation while avoiding general anesthesia (GA) and airway instrumentation. The goal of our study was to determine the overall incidence of conversion from MAC to general anesthesia with airway instrumentation and elucidate reasons and risk factors for conversion.

Methods: In this retrospective observational study, all non-obstetric adult patients who received MAC from July 2002 to July 2015 at Mount Sinai Hospital were electronically screened for inclusion via a clinical database.

Intraoperative Cardiac Arrest During Adult Liver Transplantation: Incidence and Risk Factor Analysis From 7 Academic Centers in the United States.

Background: Intraoperative cardiac arrest (ICA) has a reported frequency of 1 in 10,000 anesthetics but has a much higher estimated incidence in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Single-center studies of ICA in OLT are limited by small sample size that prohibits multivariable regression analysis of risks.

Methods: Utilizing data from 7 academic medical centers, we performed a retrospective, observational study of 5296 adult liver transplant recipients (18-80 years old) between 2000 and 2017 to identify the rate of ICA, associated risk factors, and outcomes.

Efficacy and Usability of a Novel Barrier Device for Preventing Injection Port Contamination: A Pilot Simulation Study.

Contamination of intravenous (IV) ports and stopcocks has been associated with postoperative infections. We tested the usability and efficacy of a novel passive shielding device to prevent such contamination even in the absence of hand hygiene or port disinfection. In a desktop setting with deliberately contaminated hands, qualitative port contamination was detected after 5/60 (8.

An Automated Critical Event Screening and Notification System to Facilitate Preanesthesia Record Review.

Background: Anesthesia information management systems make prior anesthesia records readily available for review when patients return for a subsequent procedure but may create a problem of too much documentation to review in a limited amount of time. We implemented a screening tool to facilitate the identification of critical documentation for review.

Methods: An algorithm was developed to electronically search prior anesthesia records for predefined critical events and flag records containing these events.

Ventilator Data Extraction with a Video Display Image Capture and Processing System.

Medical hardware and software device interoperability standards are not uniform. The result of this lack of standardization is that information available on clinical devices may not be readily or freely available for import into other systems for research, decision support, or other purposes. We developed a novel system to import discrete data from an anesthesia machine ventilator by capturing images of the graphical display screen and using image processing to extract the data with off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software.

A Real-Time Decision Support System for Anesthesiologist End-of-Shift Relief.

A decision support system using recent data about work hours and real-time data about relief events was developed to guide anesthesiologist end-of-shift relief decisions in an effort to promote a relief order that prioritized relief for those who had recently worked later than others. After system implementation, there were fewer deviations from this idealized order of relief, and early relief was more evenly distributed.

Intraoperative non-record-keeping usage of anesthesia information management system workstations and associated hemodynamic variability and aberrancies.

Background: Anesthesia information management system workstations in the anesthesia workspace that allow usage of non-record-keeping applications could lead to distraction from patient care. We evaluated whether non-record-keeping usage of the computer workstation was associated with hemodynamic variability and aberrancies.

Methods: Auditing data were collected on eight anesthesia information management system workstations and linked to their corresponding electronic anesthesia records to identify which application was active at any given time during the case.

Invasive and concomitant noninvasive intraoperative blood pressure monitoring: observed differences in measurements and associated therapeutic interventions.

Background: Noninvasive (NIBP) and intraarterial (ABP) blood pressure monitoring are used under different circumstances and may yield different values. The authors endeavored to characterize these differences and hypothesized that there could be differences in interventions associated with the use of ABP alone ([ABP]) versus ABP in combination with NIBP ([ABP+NIBP]).

Methods: Simultaneous measurements of ABP and NIBP made during noncardiac cases were extracted from electronic anesthesia records; the differences were subjected to regression analysis.