Variation in Mentions of Race and Ethnicity in Notes in Intensive Care Units Across a Health Care System.

Background: Social constructs like race can affect how patients are perceived and impact care. This study investigated whether mentions of race in notes for critically ill patients differed according to patients' race.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included intensive care unit notes for adults (≥18 years old) admitted to any of 6 intensive care units at University of California, San Francisco, from 2012 through 2020.

Mortality and Function After Widowhood Among Older Adults With Dementia, Cancer, or Organ Failure.

Importance: The widowhood effect, in which mortality increases and function decreases in the period following spousal death, may be heightened in older adults with functional impairment and serious illnesses, such as cancer, dementia, or organ failure, who are highly reliant on others, particularly spouses, for support. Yet there are limited data on widowhood among people with these conditions.

Objective: To determine the association of widowhood with function and mortality among older adults with dementia, cancer, or organ failure.

A Functional Restoration Program for Active Duty Service Members With Chronic Pain: Examining the Impact of Co-occurring PTSD on Treatment Response.

Introduction: Standard medical intervention for chronic pain may be less effective in the presence of co-occurring PTSD. Functional restoration programs (FRPs), which combine psychological interventions and progressive exercise rehabilitation, represent an alternative to standard medical intervention for chronic pain. The objective of the current study is to evaluate a FRP serving Active Duty Service Members with chronic pain and to examine whether co-occurring PTSD symptoms are associated with differential treatment response.

Resilience, Survival, and Functional Independence in Older Adults Facing Critical Illness.

Background: Older adults surviving critical illness often experience new or worsening functional impairments. Modifiable positive psychological constructs such as resilience may mitigate post-intensive care morbidity.

Research Question: Is pre-ICU resilience associated with: (1) post-ICU survival; (2) the drop in functional independence during the ICU stay; or (3) the trend in predicted independence before vs after the ICU stay?

Study Design And Methods: This retrospective cohort study was performed by using Medicare-linked Health and Retirement Study surveys from 2006 to 2018.

One-Year Recovery Among Survivors of Prolonged Severe COVID-19: A National Multicenter Cohort.

Objectives: Understanding the long-term effects of severe COVID-19 illness on survivors is essential for effective pandemic recovery planning. Therefore, we investigated impairments among hospitalized adults discharged to long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) for prolonged severe COVID-19 illness who survived 1 year.

Design: The Recovery After Transfer to an LTACH for COVID-19 (RAFT COVID) study was a national, multicenter, prospective longitudinal cohort study.

Case report: First criminal conviction of dog fighting in Brazil: an international network organization.

Although banned in several countries worldwide, dog fighting has remained a challenge, particularly on criminal investigation, recognition, and prosecution. Besides animal cruelty, dog fighting has been controlled mostly by criminal organizations and accompanied by illegal gambling and drug trafficking. While such competitions may be impaired by advances of legislation on animal welfare and media coverage, international organized crime has been migrating to less regulated and enforced countries.

Measuring Implicit Bias in ICU Notes Using Word-Embedding Neural Network Models.

Background: Language in nonmedical data sets is known to transmit human-like biases when used in natural language processing (NLP) algorithms that can reinforce disparities. It is unclear if NLP algorithms of medical notes could lead to similar transmissions of biases.

Research Question: Can we identify implicit bias in clinical notes, and are biases stable across time and geography?

Study Design And Methods: To determine whether different racial and ethnic descriptors are similar contextually to stigmatizing language in ICU notes and whether these relationships are stable across time and geography, we identified notes on critically ill adults admitted to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), from 2012 through 2022 and to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital (BIDMC) from 2001 through 2012.

Mental Health Predictors of Response to Standard Medical Intervention at a Military Pain Specialty Clinic.

Introduction: Chronic pain among active duty service members can negatively impact operational readiness and contributes to significant health care costs within military treatment facilities. Response to standard medical intervention (SMI) for chronic pain is highly variable. The objective of the current study was to examine whether mental health indicators predict individual variation in response to SMI for chronic pain in a military pain specialty clinic.

Negativity and Positivity in the ICU: Exploratory Development of Automated Sentiment Capture in the Electronic Health Record.

Objectives: To develop proof-of-concept algorithms using alternative approaches to capture provider sentiment in ICU notes.

Design: Retrospective observational cohort study.

Setting: The Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring of Intensive Care III (MIMIC-III) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) deidentified notes databases.

The Epidemiology of Smoking in Older Adults: A National Cohort Study.

Background: Older smokers account for the greatest tobacco-related morbidity and mortality in the USA, while quitting smoking remains the single most effective preventive health intervention for reducing the risk of smoking-related illness. Yet, knowledge about patterns of smoking and smoking cessation in older adults is lacking.

Objective: Assess trends in prevalence of cigarette smoking between 1998 and 2018 and identify patterns and predictors of smoking cessation in US older adults.

Attitudes toward deprescribing among older adults with dementia in the United States.

Background: People with dementia (PWD) take medications that may be unnecessary or harmful. This problem can be addressed through deprescribing, but it is unclear if PWD would be willing to engage in deprescribing with their providers. Our goal was to investigate attitudes toward deprescribing among PWD.

Incidence of potentially disruptive medical and social events in older adults with and without dementia.

Background: Potentially disruptive medical, surgical, and social events-such as pneumonia, hip fracture, and widowhood-may accelerate the trajectory of decline and impact caregiving needs in older adults, especially among people with dementia (PWD). Prior research has focused primarily on nursing home residents with dementia. We sought to assess the incidence of potentially disruptive events in community-dwelling people with and without dementia.

Analysis of clinical symptoms, radiological changes and pulmonary function data 4 months after COVID-19.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ranges from asymptomatic disease to respiratory failure and requires invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). Data about the sequelae after infection are scarce. The study aims to describe the prevalence of symptoms, pulmonary function tests (PFTs), and radiological changes after four months of follow-up.

[Association between high vitamin B12 levels and one year mortality in older people admitted to the hospital].

Background: Supplementation of vitamin B12 in older adults is a common practice to avoid vitamin B12 insufficiency. However, there is a paucity of information about the effects of cobalamin excess.

Aim: To asses any potential effects of high levels vitamin B12 on mortality on adults aged ≥ 65 years admitted to an internal medicine service.

A simultaneous blow-up problem arising in tumor modeling.

Although macrophages are part of the human immune system, it has been remarkably observed in laboratory experiments that decreasing its number can slow down the tumor progression. We analyze through a recently mathematical model proposed in the literature, necessary conditions for aggregation of tumor cells and macrophages. In order to do so, we prove the possibility of having blow-up in finite time.

Comparison of two identification and susceptibility test kits for spp and in amniotic fluid of patients at high risk for intra-amniotic infection.

and are the most common microorganisms found in the amniotic fluid of patients at risk for preterm delivery. However, culture techniques for genital mycoplasms require special conditions, are barely considered as part of the evaluation of suspected intra-amniotic infection (IAI) and the results are available within 2 and 7 days. The objectives of this study are to validate the use of two commercially available kits (Mycoplasma IES y MYCOFAST RevolutioN) for the identification of spp.

Preoperative oral antibiotic prophylaxis reduces Pseudomonas aeruginosa surgical site infections after elective colorectal surgery: a multicenter prospective cohort study.

Background: Healthcare-associated infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa are associated with poor outcomes. However, the role of P. aeruginosa in surgical site infections after colorectal surgery has not been evaluated.

Rifampin Resistance in Staphylococci after Rifaximin Intake for Surgical Prophylaxis in Elective Colorectal Surgery.

The aim of our study was to determine whether rifampin resistance emerges in human skin staphylococci after oral intake of rifaximin for surgical prophylaxis. Rifampin-resistant staphylococci appeared on the skin of 32 out of 74 patients (43.2%) two weeks after prophylactic treatment with rifaximin.

Prospective Cohort Study of Single-Day Doxycycline Therapy for Mediterranean Spotted Fever.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the results of single-day doxycycline therapy for Mediterranean spotted fever (MSF). This is a prospective cohort study of cases with confirmed MSF treated with the single-day doxycycline regimen in a teaching hospital from 1990 to 2015. Patients received two oral doses of 200 mg of doxycycline for 1 day.