Mortality in hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 patients with contemporaneous bacterial and fungal infections.

Background: The interplay between SARS-CoV-2 and contemporaneous bacterial or fungal culture growth may have crucial implications for clinical outcomes of hospitalized patients. This study aimed to quantify the effect of microbiological culture positivity on mortality among hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we included adult hospitalized patients from OPTUM COVID-19 specific data set, who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within 14 days of hospitalization between 01/20/2020 and 01/20/2022.

Navigating the future: machine learning's role in revolutionizing antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control.

Purpose Of Review: This review examines the current state and future prospects of machine learning (ML) in infection prevention and control (IPC) and antimicrobial stewardship (ASP), highlighting its potential to transform healthcare practices by enhancing the precision, efficiency, and effectiveness of interventions against infections and antimicrobial resistance.

Recent Findings: ML has shown promise in improving surveillance and detection of infections, predicting infection risk, and optimizing antimicrobial use through the development of predictive analytics, natural language processing, and personalized medicine approaches. However, challenges remain, including issues related to data quality, model interpretability, ethical considerations, and integration into clinical workflows.

Risk factors for healthcare-associated candidemia in adults hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Analyzing data from a national deidentified electronic health record-based data set using a matched case-control study design, we found that antibiotic use and severity of illness were independent risk factors for healthcare-associated candidemia in adult patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Interleukin-6 inhibitor and corticosteroid use were not independent risk factors.

Identifying the Optimal Look-back Period for Prior Antimicrobial Resistance Clinical Decision Support.

Background: Lack of consensus on the appropriate look-back period for multi-drug resistance (MDR) complicates antimicrobial clinical decision support. We compared the predictive performance of different MDR look-back periods for five common MDR mechanisms (MRSA, VRE, ESBL, AmpC, CRE).

Methods: We mapped microbiological cultures to MDR mechanisms and labeled them at different look-back periods.

Structure and Funding of Clinical Informatics Fellowships: A National Survey of Program Directors.

Background: In 2011, the American Board of Medical Specialties established clinical informatics (CI) as a subspecialty in medicine, jointly administered by the American Board of Pathology and the American Board of Preventive Medicine. Subsequently, many institutions created CI fellowship training programs to meet the growing need for informaticists. Although many programs share similar features, there is considerable variation in program funding and administrative structures.

Limited Clinical Utility of Routine Mycobacterial Cultures for the Management of Diabetic Foot Infections.

Mycobacterial infections of the foot and ankle are uncommon. In a cohort of 2340 patients with diabetic foot infection (DFI) in a region with increased prevalence of mycobacterial disease, we identified no clinically significant positive cultures over a 3-year period. Routine mycobacterial culture of DFIs is of limited clinical utility.

Assessing Racial and Ethnic Bias in Text Generation for Healthcare-Related Tasks by ChatGPT.

Large Language Models (LLM) are AI tools that can respond human-like to voice or free-text commands without training on specific tasks. However, concerns have been raised about their potential racial bias in healthcare tasks. In this study, ChatGPT was used to generate healthcare-related text for patients with HIV, analyzing data from 100 deidentified electronic health record encounters.

Risk Factors for SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Severe Outcomes Among People With Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Cohort Study.

Background: Studies on COVID-19 in people with HIV (PWH) have had limitations. Further investigations on risk factors and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection among PWH are needed.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study leveraged the national OPTUM COVID-19 data set to investigate factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 positivity among PWH and risk factors for severe outcomes, including hospitalization, intensive care unit stays, and death.

Analyzing an Emerging Pandemic on Twitter: Monkeypox.

Background: Social media platforms like Twitter provide important insights into the public's perceptions of global outbreaks like monkeypox. By analyzing tweets, we aimed to identify public knowledge and opinions on the monkeypox virus and related public health issues.

Methods: We analyzed English-language tweets using the keyword "monkeypox" from 1 May to 23 July 2022.

Reaching Populations at Risk for HIV Through Targeted Facebook Advertisements: Cost-Consequence Analysis.

Background: An undiagnosed HIV infection remains a public health challenge. In the digital era, social media and digital health communication have been widely used to accelerate research, improve consumer health, and facilitate public health interventions including HIV prevention.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate and compare the projected cost and efficacy of different simulated Facebook (FB) advertisement (ad) approaches targeting at-risk populations for HIV based on new HIV diagnosis rates by age group and geographic region in the United States.

Blastomycosis Presenting With Acute Airway Obstruction From a Retropharyngeal Abscess and Complicated by Severe Hypokalemia During Posaconazole Therapy: A Case Report and Review of Literature.

We report a case of cervical blastomycosis with associated paravertebral involvement and severe spinal canal stenosis in a 48-year-old patient presenting with acute airway obstruction from a retropharyngeal abscess. Our case was also complicated by severe hypokalemia that developed during the blastomycosis treatment course with posaconazole and which improved after discontinuation and replacement therapy. After 12 months of blastomycosis-targeted therapy, our patient had complete resolution of clinical, laboratory, and radiological findings of blastomycosis.

Simulating Facebook Advertisements to Establish Cost per New HIV Diagnosis Using Routine and Targeted Models in a Local Population.

Background: Undiagnosed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection remains a public health challenge. We explore Facebook (FB) advertisement (Ads) cost per new HIV diagnosis using non-targeted Ads, a routine testing model against targeted Ads, and a focused testing model in Texas.

Methods: On 14 October 2021, we created (without launching) Texas-based, USD 10 targeted (using criteria matching HIV populations at risk) and non-targeted FB Ads for 10 days.

The Politicization of Ivermectin Tweets During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: We explore the ivermectin discourse and sentiment in the United States with a special focus on political leaning through the social media blogging site Twitter.

Methods: We used sentiment analysis and topic modeling to geospatially explore ivermectin Twitter discourse in the United States and compared it to the political leaning of a state based on the 2020 presidential election.

Results: All modeled topics were associated with a negative sentiment.