An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Introduction of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in an Urban Academic Primary Care Center.

Introduction Limited guidance exists for primary and urgent care ultrasound applications. This study sought to identify the most useful applications for providers in these clinical settings, to create and implement a structured interdisciplinary point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum, and to assess the effectiveness of the course.  Methods This prospective cohort study took place at an urban academic medical center.

Developing pharmacy services in a home hospital program: The Mayo Clinic experience.

Purpose: Home hospital programs are rapidly becoming a more common patient care model in the market. The impact on hospital pharmacy practices is not well defined. This article describes the development of pharmacy services in a home hospital program in an attempt to help other organizations create their own home hospital pharmacy programs.

Evaluation of BCG Vaccination and Plasma Amyloid: A Prospective, Pilot Study with Implications for Alzheimer's Disease.

BCG vaccine has been used for 100 years to prevent tuberculosis. Not all countries, including the United States, adopted the initial World Health Organization recommendation to use BCG. Moreover, many Western countries that had routinely used BCG have discontinued its use.

Effect of a Statewide Controlled-Substance Monitoring Requirement on the Opioid Prescribing Practice for Treatment of Acute Pain.

Background: The US government affirmed the opioid epidemic as a public health emergency in late 2017. Prior to that, as part of the Heroin, Opiate, Prevention, and Education (HOPE) Agenda, the state of Wisconsin enacted 2015 Wisconsin Act 266. This law, which went into effect April 1, 2017, requires prescribers to review data from the state's enhanced Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (ePDMP) before issuing an opioid prescription, in order to reduce inappropriate prescriptions and, ultimately, decrease opioid overuse.

Aligning Formulary Restrictions Across a Health System and Improving Access to and Clarity of Medication Restrictions.

Background: In 2013, formulary medications were aligned among the three hospitals within our health system. However, as formulary medication restrictions were not aligned, the three hospitals continued to have inconsistent medication restrictions. This led to confusion among prescribers and pharmacists about which medications were restricted, what the restrictions were, and where to access information about the restrictions.

The Missing Link: Evolving Accessibility To Formulary-Related Information.

Background: Formulary management is a key component to ensuring the safe, effective, and fiscally responsible use of medications for health systems. One challenge in the formulary management process is making the most relevant formulary information easily accessible to practitioners involved in medication therapy decisions at the point of care. In September 2014, Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin (F&MCW) implemented a commercial formulary management tool (CFMT) to improve accessibility to the recently aligned health-system formulary.