Implementation of a Checklist Tool to Improve Understanding of Rapid Response Team Protocols.

Rapid response teams (RRT) are multidisciplinary teams activated to assess patients outside of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and require a shared framework for approaching a deteriorating patient. In this project, we aimed to improve the understanding of RRT protocols through the development and implementation of the RRT Huddle Checklist. This quality improvement project took place from 2019 to 2022.

Count Me In: patient-partnered research to address disparities for rare cancer patients.

Background: Approximately 25% of cancer patients are diagnosed with rare cancers and face unique challenges. Decentralized patient-partnered research efforts, like Count Me In provide an avenue for patients to participate in research that overcomes key barriers to address disparities in rare cancer research to accelerate discovery.

Objectives: Projects in metastatic breast cancer (The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project; MBCproject) and angiosarcoma (The Angiosarcoma Project; ASCproject) highlight disparities that exist for all cancer patients and underscore those that are compounded for rare cancer patients.

Engaging survivor and oncologist stakeholders to develop a patient-reported outcome assessment to use as a component of survivorship care.

Purpose: Incorporating patient-reported outcomes (PROs) into survivorship care may improve the comprehensiveness of follow-up. The objective was to engage stakeholders to develop a PRO assessment of survivors' symptoms and concerns for use during breast cancer follow-up.

Methods: We convened patient and oncologist stakeholder advisory groups to develop an initial PRO assessment including survivorship domains of importance, measurement instruments, and clinically significant thresholds, and revise the assessment based on feedback from community focus groups and two rounds of iterative pilot testing with survivors.

Studying bats using a One Health lens: bridging the gap between bat virology and disease ecology.

Accumulating data suggest that some bat species host emerging viruses that are highly pathogenic in humans and agricultural animals. Laboratory-based studies have highlighted important adaptations in bat immune systems that allow them to better tolerate viral infections compared to humans. Simultaneously, ecological studies have discovered critical extrinsic factors, such as nutritional stress, that correlate with virus shedding in wild-caught bats.

Determinants of the serum potassium concentration in chronic kidney disease.

Background: If C is creatinine clearance, a surrogate for glomerular filtration rate (GFR), the serum potassium concentration (K) is the sum of E/C and TR/C, which are amounts of potassium excreted and (net) reabsorbed per volume of filtrate (K = E/C + TR/C). We investigated changes in E/C, TR/C, and K through the stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Materials And Methods: We performed a retrospective study of 452 patients with CKD stages G1 - 5.