Considerations for the Treatment of Sexual and Gender Minority Individuals in Colon and Rectal Surgery.

Sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) experience critical barriers to health care access and have unique health care needs that are often overlooked. Given the rise in individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, colorectal surgeons are likely to care for increasing numbers of such individuals. Here, we discuss key barriers to health care access and research among SGM populations and outline approaches to address these barriers in clinical practice.

Developing a Bilingual Health Education Program to Identify and Address Healthcare Misinformation in a Border Community.

El Paso Health Education and Awareness Team (EP-HEAT®) is a bilingual program focused on increasing health awareness and dispelling health-related misinformation in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

Access to Primary Care Telemedicine and Visit Characterization in a Pediatric, Low-Income, Primarily Latino Population: Retrospective Study.

Background: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has been widely integrated into primary care pediatrics. While initial studies showed some concern for disparities in telemedicine use, telemedicine uptake for pediatric patients in a low-income, primarily Latino community over a sustained period has yet to be described.

Objective: We aimed to assess the relationship between demographics, patient portal activation, and telemedicine visits, as well as characterize diagnoses addressed in telemedicine, in a low-income, primarily Latino population over time.

Regional Anesthesia With Pectoral Blocks as a Non-inferior Approach for Mastectomy Analgesia: A Quality Improvement Study.

Introduction Breast cancer is one of the most common female malignancies in the United States and often necessitates surgical interventions that carry a substantial risk of postoperative pain. Pectoral nerve blocks have emerged as a simpler alternative for providing regional perioperative analgesia to the chest wall in breast cancer surgery. This retrospective study evaluated the impact of implementing a novel regional anesthesia protocol centering on the use of pectoral nerve blocks for patients undergoing radical mastectomy at a small regional hospital in Spartanburg, South Carolina.