North Carolina's Perinatal Health Equity Collective promotes the implementation of the 2022-2026 Perinatal Health Strategic Plan, building off its 2016-2020 predecessor. Through its overarching goals, the plan recognizes that reducing perinatal health inequities requires improving health care, strengthening families and communities, and addressing social, racial, and economic inequities across the life-course.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Pharmacists oversee parenteral drug preparation and administration in hospitals, clinics, infusion centers, and home infusion settings. Infusion-related phlebitis (IRP), the most common complication of intravenous infusion therapy, significantly impacts therapeutic outcomes, patient satisfaction, cost of care, and provider workload. Here we review the major etiologies of IRP and describe potential pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions for preventing and managing the condition as well as for improving vascular access health in multiple-drug administration settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe microbiome is the collection of commensal microorganisms along with their genomes inhabiting the human body. Despite the many known beneficial effects of these microbes on human health, the 2016 ACPE Standards for Doctor of Pharmacy curricula describe Medical Microbiology in Appendix 1 with a pathogen-centered focus. Over the last twenty years, evolving biotechnology has enabled a deeper understanding of the microbiome in the context of both wellness and disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Synchrotron Radiat
September 2022
Serial synchrotron crystallography enables the study of protein structures under physiological temperature and reduced radiation damage by collection of data from thousands of crystals. The Structural Biology Center at Sector 19 of the Advanced Photon Source has implemented a fixed-target approach with a new 3D-printed mesh-holder optimized for sample handling. The holder immobilizes a crystal suspension or droplet emulsion on a nylon mesh, trapping and sealing a near-monolayer of crystals in its mother liquor between two thin Mylar films.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr D Struct Biol
August 2022
Protein crystals grown in microfluidic droplets have been shown to be an effective and robust platform for storage, transport and serial crystallography data collection with a minimal impact on diffraction quality. Single macromolecular microcrystals grown in nanolitre-sized droplets allow the very efficient use of protein samples and can produce large quantities of high-quality samples for data collection. However, there are challenges not only in growing crystals in microfluidic droplets, but also in delivering the droplets into X-ray beams, including the physical arrangement, beamline and timing constraints and ease of use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn EMS mutagenesis screen was conducted in to identify growth control mutants. The multi-institution Fly-CURE consortium phenotypically characterized the mutant using the system which displayed a mutant lethal phenotype with reduced head development, and darkened ocular tissue. Complementation mapping was conducted to identify the affected gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) registries do not all use the same patient-reported outcome measures, limiting comparisons and preventing pooling of data for meta-analysis. Our objective was to create a statistical crosswalk to convert cohort and registry mean Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Scores (KOOS) to International Knee Documentation Committee-Subjective Knee Form (IKDC-SKF) scores and vice versa to allow these comparisons.
Methods: Data from 3 ACL registries were pooled (n = 14,412) and were separated into a training data set (70% of the sample) or a validation data set (30% of the sample).
To provide an educator-friendly travel guide for supporting pharmacy students' lifelong journey to professional identity formation. In contrast to professionalism, which has emphasized externally visible behaviors, professional identity focuses on the internalization of the attitudes, standards, and behavioral norms of a profession, such that one "thinks, acts, and feels" like a member of that profession. Identity, whether personal or professional, is continuously developed in part during interactions with others and in response to internal and external feedback on those interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Propofol is an intravenous sedative used in many patient populations and care settings. Although generally considered safe and effective, the drug has historically been avoided in patients with reported allergies to egg, soy, and/or peanut on the basis of the manufacturer's prescribing information. Concerns exist for potential adverse events, increased medication costs, reduced efficacy, and risk of medication errors when using alternative agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProfessional identity formation (PIF) involves internalizing and demonstrating the behavioral norms, standards, and values of a professional community, such that one comes to "think, act and feel" like a member of that community. Professional identity influences how a professional perceives, explains, presents and conducts themselves. This report of the 2020-2021 AACP Student Affairs Standing Committee (SAC) describes the benefits of a strong professional identity, including its importance in advancing practice transformation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 2019-2020 Student Affairs Standing Committee addressed charges related to professional identity formation (PIF) in order to set direction and propose action steps consistent with Priority #3.4 of the AACP Strategic Plan, which states "Academic-practice partnerships and pharmacist-involved practice models that lead to the progress of Interprofessional Practice (IPP) are evident and promoted at all colleges and schools of pharmacy." To this end, the committee was charged to 1) outline key elements of PIF, 2) explore the relationship between formal curricular learning activities and co- or extra-curricular activities in supporting PIF, 3) determine the degree to which there is evidence that strong PIF is embedded in student pharmacists' educational experience, and 4) define strategies and draft an action plan for AACP's role in advancing efforts of schools to establish strong PIF in pharmacy graduates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To determine concordance between an explicit protocolized assessment of the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale and an assessment performed during usual care nursing practice.
Research Design: In an urban, safety-net hospital, intensive care nurses previously trained in sedation assessment recorded a bedside Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale assessment, while study investigators used an explicit script to perform the assessment at a similar time point. Kappa indices determined concordance of the assessments.
Objective: To determine whether the addition of perturbation training to a secondary injury prevention program reduces the rate of second anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury compared to the prevention program alone.
Design: Single-blinded randomized controlled trial.
Methods: Thirty-nine female athletes who intended to return to cutting/pivoting sports were enrolled 3 to 9 months after primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR).
Objectives: (1) To assess prognostic factors for patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and physical activity 2 to 10 years after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) or anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, and (2) to assess differences in prognostic factors between patients treated with ACLR and with rehabilitation alone.
Design: Prognosis systematic review.
Literature Search: Systematic searches were performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus.
Background: The selection of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) is essential for obtaining meaningful information to treat a patient, determine a plan of care, and make clinical decisions; however, the process of selecting PROMs for clinical care is difficult, with the need to balance these multiple factors. Variation makes it difficult to compare data across providers and studies.
Hypothesis/purpose: The purpose was to determine the responsiveness of 4 PROMs via effect size and the presence of a ceiling effect in the 5 years after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR).
We used treatment for alcohol withdrawal syndrome as an objective surrogate marker to investigate the relationship between alcohol-related health outcomes and home neighborhood alcohol outlet density and alcohol advertising density. Mixed effects logistic regression examined whether alcohol outlet density or alcohol advertisement density within either one-quarter mile or one-half mile of individuals' home address was associated with treatment for alcohol withdrawal. Adjusted models showed outlet and advertising density, particularly off-sale outlet density within one-quarter mile of the home, increased the risk of hospital admission for alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AOR = 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoupling microfluidics with microscopy has emerged as a powerful approach to study at cellular resolution the dynamics in plant physiology and root-microbe interactions (RMIs). Most devices have been designed to study the model plant at higher throughput than conventional methods. However, there is a need for microfluidic devices which enable studies of root development and RMIs in woody plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAttributes of rigor and quality and suggested best practices for qualitative research design as they relate to the steps of designing, conducting, and reporting qualitative research in health professions educational scholarship are presented. A research question must be clear and focused and supported by a strong conceptual framework, both of which contribute to the selection of appropriate research methods that enhance trustworthiness and minimize researcher bias inherent in qualitative methodologies. Qualitative data collection and analyses are often modified through an iterative approach to answering the research question.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) are not uniformly good and are worse among young female athletes. Developing better rehabilitation and return-to-sport training programs and evaluating their outcomes are essential.
Purpose: (1) Test the effect of strength, agility, plyometric, and secondary prevention (SAPP) exercises with and without perturbation training (SAPP + PERT) on strength, hops, function, activity levels, and return-to-sport rates in young female athletes 1 and 2 years after ACLR and (2) compare 2-year functional outcomes and activity levels among young female athletes in the Anterior Cruciate Ligament Specialized Post-Operative Return-to-Sports (ACL-SPORTS) trial to homogeneous cohorts who completed criterion-based postoperative rehabilitation alone (Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network [MOON]) and in combination with extended preoperative rehabilitation (Delaware-Oslo).
Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am
March 2019
This update presents evidence for new antiplatelet therapies including modified P2Y inhibitors and a new class of thromboxane antagonists. Discussed are emerging data on established antihyperlipidemic medications that support an additional antiplatelet effect. Current information about the effectiveness of several bleeding reversal agents is discussed, and the concept of personalized antiplatelet therapy, wherein selection of an antiplatelet therapy is based on genetic factors or laboratory testing that predict response to therapy and risk of adverse effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the terrestrial ecosystem, plant-microbe symbiotic associations are ecologically and economically important processes. To better understand these associations at structural and functional levels, different molecular and biochemical tools are applied. In this study, we have constructed a suite of vectors that incorporates several new elements into the rhizosphere stable, broad-host vector pME6031.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Digital pupillometry (DP) accurately and precisely measures pupillary responses. Little is known about using DP to measure the sedative effect of isolated propofol administration.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 19 adults undergoing moderate sedation with propofol during which we measured pupillary changes using DP.
Relocation of large numbers of critically ill patients between hospitals is sometimes necessary and the risks associated with relocation may be high. In the setting of adherence to an interhospital intensive care unit (ICU) relocation protocol, we aimed to determine whether the interhospital relocation of all ICU patients in a single day is associated with changes in vital signs, device removal, and worse clinical outcomes. We conducted a prospective, observational, cohort study of all critically ill adults admitted to a tertiary medical center's ICUs on the day of a planned hospital relocation and exposed to interhospital ICU relocation compared with unexposed critically ill adults.
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