Proxy-reported outcomes accurately reflect objective patient-reported outcomes in older adult patients with traumatic orthopaedic injuries.

Background: Older adults make up an increasing portion of orthopedic trauma care. Proxy reports are particularly valuable when patients face difficulties formulating answers due to pre-existing or temporary cognitive impairment, and provide critical insights into patient well-being.

Questions/purposes: This study examines the agreement between patient- and proxy-reported outcome measures across various health domains of older adult orthopedic trauma patients, including those with mild cognitive impairment.

Health Care Spending Increases and Value in South Korea.

Importance: Health care spending in South Korea (hereafter Korea) nearly doubled from 2010 to 2019. However, little is known about the drivers and effectiveness of these spending increases in terms of changes in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs).

Objectives: To evaluate the factors contributing to changes in health care spending and DALYs and estimate the value of health care spending from 2010 to 2019 in Korea.

General Surgery Residents Competence and Autonomy in Core Vascular Surgery Procedures.

Objective: As vascular surgery has become increasingly sub-specialized, the scope of vascular care that general surgeons can be trained to provide has come into question. Thus, we sought to understand the competence and autonomy of general surgery residents (GSR) in core vascular surgery procedures.

Design: Three core operations in vascular surgery were identified: lower extremity (LE) amputations, arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation, and LE embolectomy and thrombectomy (thromboembolectomy).

Consistent direction despite wavering policy: reductions in resident physician extended duration shifts over 20 years.

We examined data from 17,498 physicians-in-training who reported on 92,662 months of work over a 20 year study interval that included three major revisions to work hour limits. Extended duration shifts (≥24 hours; EDS) are much less common than they used to be. On average, first-year resident physicians (PGY1s) currently work a total of 4 EDS per year and 3 EDS per month during months in which any EDS are worked.

Detection, quantification, and characterization of airborne Aspergillus flavus within the corn canopy.

Aflatoxin contamination of corn can occur when developing kernels are infected by the plant pathogen Aspergillus flavus. One route of infection is from airborne conidia. We executed a series of experiments within the corn canopy during two growing seasons and in two states to document the abundance and dynamics of the airborne A.