Inequities in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccination Rates Among Adolescents in Massachusetts: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionately affected more socioeconomically disadvantaged persons and areas. We sought to determine how certain sociodemographic factors were correlated to adolescents' COVID-19 vaccination rates in towns and cities ("communities") in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Methods: Data on COVID-19 vaccination rates were obtained over a 20-week period from 30 March 2021 to 10 August 2021.

Improving Rates of Influenza Vaccination Through Electronic Health Record Portal Messages, Interactive Voice Recognition Calls and Patient-Enabled Electronic Health Record Updates: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Clinical decision support (CDS), including computerized reminders for providers and patients, can improve health outcomes. CDS promoting influenza vaccination, delivered directly to patients via an electronic health record (EHR) patient portal and interactive voice recognition (IVR) calls, offers an innovative approach to improving patient care.

Objective: To test the effectiveness of an EHR patient portal and IVR outreach to improve rates of influenza vaccination in a large multispecialty group practice in central Massachusetts.

Can the diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease be excluded without a bimanual examination?

Now that urine-based tests are available for detection of Chlamydia and gonorrhea, we sought to determine whether history alone could be used to exclude pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and thus preclude a bimanual examination. The study design was a retrospective chart review. The study population included females aged 15-24 years diagnosed with PID.

Changes in brain natriuretic peptide and norepinephrine over time and mortality and morbidity in the Valsartan Heart Failure Trial (Val-HeFT).

Background: Neurohormones are considered markers of heart failure progression. We examined whether changes in brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and norepinephrine (NE) over time are associated with corresponding changes in mortality and morbidity in the Valsartan Heart Failure Trial.

Methods And Results: Plasma BNP and NE were measured before randomization and during follow-up in approximately 4300 patients in the Valsartan Heart Failure Trial.

Internal thoracic artery grafts for the entire heart at a mean of 12 years.

Background: There is consensus today that the long-term results of bypassing the left anterior descending artery with an internal thoracic artery (ITA) graft are superior to those of a saphenous vein graft. Our hypothesis for this study was that three-vessel revascularization with only ITA grafts would also give excellent results.

Methods: Using our previously described techniques to enhance the length of ITA grafts by skeletonization and high mediastinal mobilization, we were able to perform tension-free, three-vessel revascularization using only ITA grafts in 125 (83%) of a consecutive series of 150 patients with three-vessel occlusive coronary disease.

Self-designing two-stage trials to minimize expected costs.

In the design of clinical trials, the sample size for the trial is traditionally calculated from estimates of parameters of interest, such as the mean treatment effect, which can often be inaccurate. However, recalculation of the sample size based on an estimate of the parameter of interest that uses accumulating data from the trial can lead to inflation of the overall Type I error rate of the trial. The self-designing method of Fisher, also known as the variance-spending method, allows the use of all accumulating data in a sequential trial (including the estimated treatment effect) in determining the sample size for the next stage of the trial without inflating the Type I error rate.

Epidemic crack cocaine use linked with epidemics of genital ulcer disease and heterosexual HIV infection in the Bahamas: evidence of impact of prevention and control measures.

Background: Epidemic freebase/crack cocaine use began in the Bahamas in 1982, closely followed by epidemics of genital ulcer disease (GUD) and HIV infection. Numbers of new clients receiving ambulatory treatment for cocaine use in Nassau peaked in 1984.

Goal: To assess interrelations among epidemics of crack use, GUD, and HIV infection.