Overdose prevention activities led by local public health departments, 2019-2023.

Background: Drug overdose deaths in the United States increased to historic levels in recent years, with provisional estimates indicating more than 111,000 deaths in the 12 months ending July 2023. In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Overdose Prevention in collaboration with the National Association of City and County Health Officials, funded local health departments (LHDs) to work on overdose prevention activities. This paper aims to: 1) describe the overdose prevention activities that LHDs implemented during the four eighteen-month funding cycles; 2) identify programmatic successes and areas of opportunity for LHDs to consider when implementing future overdose prevention activities; and to 3) inform policy considerations and future overdose prevention programming at the local level.

Border Health Training for Family Physicians: Is There a Need and Interest?

Background And Objectives: The United States-Mexico border has unique health care challenges due to a range of structural factors. Providers must be trained to address these barriers to improve health outcomes. Family medicine as a specialty has developed various training modalities to address needs for specific content training outside of core curriculum.

Evaluation of a transitions clinic to bridge emergency department and primary care.

Background: Suboptimal transitions from the emergency department (ED) to ambulatory settings contribute to poor clinical outcomes and unnecessary nonurgent ED utilization. Care transition clinics (CTCs) are a potential solution by providing ED follow-up and facilitating the bridge to longer-term primary care.

Objective: The objective was to evaluate the implementation of an ED transitions clinic on 30-day ED revisits and hospital readmissions.

Intensive physical therapy after emergency laparotomy: Pilot phase of the Incidence of Complications following Emergency Abdominal surgery Get Exercising randomized controlled trial.

Background: Postoperative pneumonia and delayed physical recovery are significant problems after emergency laparotomy. No randomized controlled trial has assessed the feasibility, safety, or effectiveness of intensive postoperative physical therapy in this high-risk acute population.

Methods: The internal pilot phase of the Incidence of Complications after Emergency Abdominal Surgery: Get Exercising (ICEAGE) trial was a prospective, randomized controlled trial that evaluated the feasibility, safety, and clinical trial processes of providing intensive physical therapy immediately following emergency laparotomy.

The Impact of Local Education and Resource Distribution on Maternal Health Behaviors.

Introduction: Community forum participants voted for an education and resource distribution program (using a baby box) to help reduce local infant mortality. Although multiple sites have implemented similar programs, there is limited peer-reviewed literature about outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective pre- and immediate post-survey design with an intervention (video and written education and resource distribution) in between was utilized with a follow-up survey.

Evaluation of a Genetics Education Program for Health Interpreters: A Pilot Study.

Health Interpreters enable effective communication between health practitioners and patients with limited knowledge of the predominant language. This study developed and evaluated a training session introducing Health Interpreters to genetics. The online training was delivered multiple times as a single 2-h session comprising lectures and activities.

Online training of behavioral health providers for primary care practice.

Many behavioral health providers have not received training in primary care practice during their education. Since 2007, the online Certificate in Primary Care Behavioral Health course has been completed by thousands of behavioral health providers. An evaluation of the course assessed whether learner's baseline confidence in their abilities to address behavioral health concerns in primary care settings changed over time, whether learning outcomes for live offerings of the course differed from asynchronous offerings, and whether learning outcomes for psychologists and social workers differed.

Assessing Goals-of-Care Documentation during the COVID-19 Patient Surge in an Academic Safety-Net Medical Center.

It is paramount that clinicians assess and document patients' priorities to guide goal-concordant interventions, especially during a public health crisis. Retrospective chart review. Academic safety-net medical center in central Massachusetts, United States.

Oral health curriculum evaluation tool (OHCET) for primary care training programs.

Background: Primary care training schools and programs lack a validated tool to assess their oral health curriculum, and researchers lack a tool to compare oral health curricula across programs/schools and different disciplines.

Objective: This study describes the process and results of creating a 15-item oral health curriculum evaluation tool (OHCET).

Methods: Three-phased development of the OHCET from 2018 to 2020 including (a) Delphi group/tool development; (b) tool pilot test; and (c) tool validation/cognitive interviews.

The Rapid Mood Screener (RMS): a novel and pragmatic screener for bipolar I disorder.

Objective: Depressive episodes and symptoms of bipolar I disorder are commonly misdiagnosed as major depressive disorder (MDD) in primary care. The novel and pragmatic Rapid Mood Screener (RMS) was developed to screen for manic symptoms and bipolar I disorder features (e.g.

Status of Oral Health Training in U.S. Primary Care Programs: A Qualitative Study to Define Characteristics and Outcomes.

With increasing recognition of the important relationship between oral and systemic health, non-dental health professions schools and programs are now teaching their students about oral health in various ways. This study built on surveys of medical schools, primary care residency and fellowship programs, and other health professions programs conducted by the authors in 2017, which found some had made significant progress in integrating oral health into primary care training, while others lagged behind. The aim of the current study was to better understand the characteristics and climate of oral health education in non-dental health professions schools by conducting interviews with leaders of programs who had self-identified in the surveys as having a robust oral health curriculum.

The impact of deliberate reflection with WISE-MD™ modules on surgical clerkship students' critical thinking: a prospective, randomized controlled pilot study.

Purpose: Critical thinking underlies several Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)-defined core entrustable professional activities (EPAs). Critical-thinking ability affects health care quality and safety. Tested tools to teach, assess, improve, and nurture good critical-thinking skills are needed.

ICEAGE (Incidence of Complications following Emergency Abdominal surgery: Get Exercising): study protocol of a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised controlled trial testing physiotherapy for the prevention of complications and improved physical recovery after emergency abdominal surgery.

Background: Postoperative complications and delayed physical recovery are significant problems following emergency abdominal surgery. Physiotherapy aims to aid recovery and prevent complications in the acute phase after surgery and is commonplace in most first-world hospitals. Despite ubiquitous service provision, no well-designed, adequately powered, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial has investigated the effect of physiotherapy on the incidence of respiratory complications, paralytic ileus, rate of physical recovery, ongoing need for formal sub-acute rehabilitation, hospital length of stay, health-related quality of life, and mortality following emergency abdominal surgery.

Oral Health Training in Osteopathic Medical Schools: Results of a National Survey.

Context: Oral health is a critical aspect of overall health, yet many vulnerable communities struggle to access regular dental care and instead seek urgent treatment from physicians. In addition to addressing the consequences of untreated dental disease, physicians are in an ideal position to provide preventive and referral dental services to patients. Osteopathic physicians make up a substantial portion of the physician workforce and can play a central role in increasing oral health care provision in medical settings.

An Update of Oral Health Curricula in US Family Medicine Residency Programs.

Background And Objectives: National initiatives have encouraged oral health training for family physicians and other nondental providers for almost 2 decades. Our national survey assesses progress of family medicine residency programs on this important health topic since our last survey in 2011.

Methods: Family medicine residency program directors (PDs) completed an online survey covering various themes including number of hours of oral health (OH) teaching, topics covered, barriers, evaluation, positive influences, and program demographics.

qPCR assays for and (Dinophyceae) identified from Alaskan waters and a review of species-specific molecular assays.

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) poses a serious health threat in Alaska and prevents effective utilization of shellfish resources by subsistence and recreational harvesters. Substantial economic losses also affect shellfish growers during PSP events. The toxins responsible for PSP are produced by dinoflagellates in the genus Despite the persistent threat posed by PSP and the long history of shellfish toxicity research, there is still confusion concerning the species that cause PSP in Alaska.

Can scribes boost FPs' efficiency and job satisfaction?

Purpose: Research in other medical specialties has shown that the addition of medical scribes to the clinical team enhances physicians' practice experience and increases productivity. To date, literature on the implementation of scribes in primary care is limited. To determine the feasibility and benefits of implementing scribes in family medicine, we undertook a pilot mixed- method quality improvement (QI) study.

Case diagnosis and characterization of suspected paralytic shellfish poisoning in Alaska.

Clinical cases of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) are common in Alaska, and result from human consumption of shellfish contaminated with saxitoxin (STX) and its analogues. Diagnosis of PSP is presumptive and based on recent ingestion of shellfish and presence of manifestations consistent with symptoms of PSP; diagnosis is confirmed by detection of paralytic shellfish toxins in a clinical specimen or food sample. A clinical diagnostic analytical method using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was used to evaluate the diagnosis of saxitoxin-induced PSP (STX-PSP) in 11 Alaskan patients using urine specimens collected between June 2010 and November 2011.

Evaluating One Strategy for Including Reflection in Medical Education and Practice.

Background And Objectives: Reflective writing in medicine allows for the opportunity to analyze, interpret, and learn from clinical experiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the beneficial effects of reflective reading and writing for a department using a weekly listserve.

Methods: The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School sends out a weekly reflective writing story written by its members to celebrate clinical/teaching success.

Primary immunodeficiency diseases: an update on the classification from the international union of immunological societies expert committee for primary immunodeficiency.

We report the updated classification of primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) compiled by the Expert Committee of the International Union of Immunological Societies. In comparison to the previous version, more than 30 new gene defects are reported in this updated version. In addition, we have added a table of acquired defects that are phenocopies of PIDs.

NF1 is a critical regulator of muscle development and metabolism.

There is emerging evidence for reduced muscle function in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). We have examined three murine models featuring NF1 deficiency in muscle to study the effect on muscle function as well as any underlying pathophysiology. The Nf1(+/-) mouse exhibited no differences in overall weight, lean tissue mass, fiber size, muscle weakness as measured by grip strength or muscle atrophy-recovery with limb disuse, although this model lacks many other characteristic features of the human disease.