The utility of bandemia in prognostication and prediction of mortality in sepsis.

Bandemia, defined as a band count >10%, is indicative of underlying infection and is increasingly being used for early detection of sepsis. While an absolute band level has been linked to worse outcomes, its trend has not been extensively studied as a prognostic marker. In this study, we assessed patients admitted to the ICU with sepsis or septic shock and evaluated the correlation between bandemia trends and clinical trajectory among these patients.

Virtual Residency Interviews: A Survey of Anesthesiology Program Director Perspectives Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused a rapid pivot from in-person to virtual residency interviews across the United States. We present a survey we conducted about the attitudes and opinions of anesthesiology program directors with regard to the 2021 virtual interview process.

Methods: This was a 13-question online survey disseminated to 142 anesthesiology residency program directors in February 2021, asking them to compare the most recent interview cycle to their experience with prior cycles.

Overcoming Communication Barriers: An evaluation of communication devices for healthcare providers wearing powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs).

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increased use of Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs), by health care providers to mitigate the risk of viral transmission, especially for aerosol-generating procedures. In this study, we evaluate communication devices that could be used concurrently with PAPRs to promote improved communication.

Methods: We tested two devices, a Bluetooth earpiece and a throat microphone that operated over mobile networks, against a control scenario in a simulated operating room environment with participants donning PAPRs.

Hospital-Based Health Care Worker Perceptions of Personal Risk Related to COVID-19.

Background: Health care workers treating Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients face significant stressors such as caring for critically ill and dying patients, physically demanding care requiring new degrees of personal protective equipment use, risk of contracting the disease, and putting loved ones at risk. This study investigates the stress impact from COVID-19 exposure and how nurses and medical providers (eg, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants) experience these challenges differently.

Methods: An electronic, self-administered questionnaire was sent to all hospital staff over 6 weeks surveying exposure to COVID-19 patients and degree of stress caused by this exposure.

COVID-19 Intubation Safety: A Multidisciplinary, Rapid-Cycle Model of Improvement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the health care industry to develop dynamic protocols to maximize provider safety as aerosolizing procedures, specifically intubation, increase the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2. The authors sought to create a quality improvement framework to ensure safe practices for intubating providers, and describe a multidisciplinary model developed at an academic tertiary care facility centered on rapid-cycle improvements and real-time gap analysis to track adherence to COVID-19 intubation safety protocols. The model included an Intubation Safety Checklist, a standardized documentation template for intubations, obtaining real-time feedback, and weekly multidisciplinary team meetings to review data and implement improvements.

A Novel, Web-Based Quality Improvement Platform to Address ACGME CLER Requirements.

Background: In 2014, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) formally mandated trainee (resident and fellow) participation in health care quality improvement (QI) projects as one of the Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Pathways to Excellence. Subsequent national reviews showed large variations in how QI education is conducted, as well as a significant mismatch between educational and organizational goals.

Objective: We developed a web-based platform to engage trainees in QI that better aligned with best practice methodology and matched identified institutional priorities.

Integrating Adverse Event Reporting Into a Free-Text Mobile Application Used in Daily Workflow Increases Adverse Event Reporting by Physicians.

Adverse event (AE) reporting is a key component of patient safety and physicians are known to underreport. The authors hypothesized that integrating AE reporting into a mobile application used in daily physician workflow would increase physician reporting of AEs. After integrating AE reporting into a free-text mobile application used for daily workflow, the change in AE reporting by physicians was analyzed using Mann-Whitney tests.

Evaluation of Knowledge Acquisition with a Practice Management Course for Anesthesiology Residents: A Pilot Study.

Unlabelled: Physicians routinely rely on nontechnical skills-including leadership ability, managerial skills and financial considerations-when delivering patient care. Efficient practice management is a commonplace expectation of attending anesthesiologists, but there is no uniform residency training to foster the expertise required to succeed in this endeavor. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a novel practice management course for anesthesiology residents.

Sustained Attention in Auditory and Visual Monitoring Tasks: Evaluation of the Administration of a Rest Break or Exogenous Vibrotactile Signals.

Objective: Performance and mental workload were observed for the administration of a rest break or exogenous vibrotactile signals in auditory and visual monitoring tasks.

Background: Sustained attention is mentally demanding. Techniques are required to improve observer performance in vigilance tasks.

Novel use of videolaryngoscopy to remove a foreign body.

We present a case where a C-MAC video laryngoscope was used to remove a duodenal stent that was inadvertently dislodged in the patient's proximal oesophagus during an interventional radiology procedure, causing upper airway obstruction. Using the C-MAC and a pair of Magill forceps, we were able to successfully remove the stent. Video feed allowed for further communication between us and the ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeons.

Strategies to combat auditory overload during vehicular command and control.

Strategies to combat auditory overload were studied. Normal-hearing males were tested in a sound isolated room in a mock-up of a military land vehicle. Two tasks were presented concurrently, in quiet and vehicle noise.

Diversity is what you want it to be: how social-dominance motives affect construals of diversity.

We propose that diversity is a malleable concept capable of being used either to attenuate or to enhance racial inequality. The research reported here suggests that when people are exposed to ambiguous information concerning an organization's diversity, they construe diversity in a manner consistent with their social-dominance motives. Specifically, anti-egalitarian individuals broaden their construal of diversity to include nonracial (i.

The Independent LifeStyle Assistant: lessons learned.

The Independent LifeStyle Assistant (I.L.S.

Age differences in visual search for traffic signs during a simulated conversation.

The effects of divided attention were examined in younger adults (M = 23 years) and older adults (M = 64 years) who searched for traffic signs in digitized images of traffic scenes. Sign search was executed under single-task and dual-task conditions in scenes containing either small or large amounts of visual clutter. For both age groups, clutter and the secondary task had additive effects on search accuracy, speed, and oculomotor involvement.

Varied-mapping conjunction search: evidence for rule-based learning.

Five experiments were carried out to examine whether top-down processes can aid search, even when targets and distractors are variably mapped. Experiments 1a and 1b determined that effortless VM search can be obtained in Contrast Polarity X Orientation and Color X Orientation conjunction search when one feature dimension remains consistently mapped across blocks. Experiment 2 showed that efficient VM search is possible when both dimensions are variably mapped.

Age differences in feature selection in triple conjunction search.

Younger and older participants were trained in a triple conjunction visual search task to examine age differences in the development of proficient performance. For the first 8 days, participants searched for a target defined by its contrast polarity, shape, and orientation. On Days 9 through 16, the target identity was switched to one defined by opposing feature values.

Plasticity of feature-based selection in triple-conjunction search.

Two experiments examined the disruption of feature-based selection in triple-conjunction search at multiple target transfers. In Experiment 1, after 10 training sessions, a new target possessing previous distractor features was introduced. This produced disruption in RT and fixation number, but no disruption in feature-based selection.

Age, skill transfer, and conjunction search.

Ten younger and ten older adults were provided with 16 sessions of conjunction search under consistent mapping, where target and distractors remain constant in identity. The target and one distractor were reversed after every fourth session. After the first four training sessions, on target-present trials, display size slopes were near zero for both age groups.