Interdisciplinary Pain Board for Managing Patients with Palliative Care Needs and Substance Use Disorder: A Pilot Study.

Patients with cancer-related pain and concurrent substance use disorder (SUD) present a unique set of challenges for palliative care clinicians. A structured forum for interdisciplinary collaboration is needed to effectively manage this complex population. Describe the feasibility and acceptability of a palliative care Complex Pain Board (CPB), an interdisciplinary team meeting to provide concrete care recommendations for patients with cancer-related pain and concurrent SUD and/or psychosocial complexity.

Development of PharmPAL: A Collaborative Practice Pharmacy Clinic in Ambulatory Palliative Care.

Background: Increased access to interprofessional palliative care is needed in ambulatory oncology settings. To achieve this, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute launched a collaborative drug therapy management clinic, PharmPAL, where credentialed advanced practice pharmacists lead independent patient visits.

Methods: As part of a pilot project focused on clinical innovation, we analyzed PharmPAL referrals and pharmacist interventions between July 2020 and June 2021.

The uptake of foil from needle and syringe provision services and its role in smoking or snorting heroin among people who inject drugs in Scotland.

Background: In the UK, legislation was implemented in 2014 allowing needle and syringe provision (NSP) services to offer foil to people who inject drugs (PWID) to encourage smoking rather than injecting. This paper aims to examine the association between foil uptake and smoking or snorting heroin among PWID. This is the first large scale national study to examine foil uptake and smoking or snorting heroin among PWID post legislative change.

Hearing and vestibular deficits in the Coch(-/-) null mouse model: comparison to the Coch(G88E/G88E) mouse and to DFNA9 hearing and balance disorder.

Two mouse models, the Coch(G88E/G88E) or "knock-in" and the Coch(-/-) or "knock-out" (Coch null), have been developed to study the human late-onset, progressive, sensorineural hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction known as DFNA9. This disorder results from missense and in-frame deletion mutations in COCH (coagulation factor C homology), encoding cochlin, the most abundantly detected protein in the inner ear. We have performed hearing and vestibular analyses by auditory brainstem response (ABR) and vestibular evoked potential (VsEP) testing of the Coch(-/-) and Coch(G88E/G88E) mouse models.

Regional public health cost estimates of contaminated coastal waters: a case study of gastroenteritis at southern California beaches.

We present estimates of annual public health impacts, both illnesses and cost of illness, attributable to excess gastrointestinal illnesses caused by swimming in contaminated coastal waters at beaches in southern California. Beach-specific enterococci densities are used as inputs to two epidemiological dose-response models to predict the risk of gastrointestinal illness at 28 beaches spanning 160 km of coastline in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. We use attendance data along with the health cost of gastrointestinal illness to estimate the number of illnesses among swimmers and their likely economic impact.

The flow cytometric crossmatch and early renal transplant loss.

Data from this retrospective study indicate that a positive two-color T and/or B cell flow cytometric crossmatch (FCXM) is predictive of early renal allograft loss (less than 2 months) in cadaveric kidney donor recipients who had a negative crossmatch by the antihuman globulin complement-dependent cytotoxicity technique. Among 90 cadaveric kidney donor recipients (67 primary, 23 regrafts), 14 (8 primary, 6 regrafts) lost their renal allografts within 2 months, and 10 of the 14 were FCXM positive and HLA sensitized. The remaining 76 allografts survived beyond 2 months, 12 of which were FCXM-positive.

Serological identification of thymocyte differentiation antigens.

We have examined subfractions of human thymocytes for the expression of novel differentiation antigens. Non-HLA alloantisera procured from multiparous women served as antibody probes. Thymocytes from five individuals were sequentially separated by discontinuous Percoll density gradient centrifugation and a peanut agglutinin (PNA) panning technique.