Quantifying the Time to Administer Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy: A Missed Opportunity to Compensate for the Value of Infectious Diseases.

Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) relies on substantial uncompensated provider time. In this study of a large academic OPAT program, the median amount of unbilled OPAT management time was 27 minutes per week, per OPAT course. These data should inform benchmarks in pursuing novel payment approaches for OPAT.

Methodologic challenges and lessons learned through conducting a hospital-based Salmonella Javiana case-control study.

Objective: Determine the food(s) most likely contaminated by Salmonella Javiana associated with a salmonellosis outbreak involving 2 hospitals in North Carolina that were within 50 miles of each other in November 2021.

Methods: A 2:1 matched case-control study was conducted. Food histories were obtained from hospital food orders and potential confounder covariates were collected from patient medical records.

Impact of COVID-related policies on gunshot wound assault hospitalizations in the United States: a statewide time series analysis.

Background: The CDC recently reported that firearm homicide rates in the United States increased in 2020, particularly among Black/African American individuals and men 25-44 years old. It is unclear whether firearm hospitalizations also increased, and more importantly, what impact the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-related policies had. Using the North Carolina Trauma Registry, a statewide registry of trauma admissions to eighteen North Carolina hospitals, we calculated weekly GSW hospitalization rates from 1/2019 to 12/2020, overall and stratified by race-ethnicity, age, and sex.

Effect of Stay-at-Home orders and other COVID-related policies on trauma hospitalization rates and disparities in the USA: a statewide time-series analysis.

Background: To combat the coronavirus pandemic, states implemented several public health policies to reduce infection and transmission. Increasing evidence suggests that these prevention strategies also have had a profound impact on non-COVID healthcare utilization. The goal of this study was to determine the impact of a statewide Stay-at-Home order and other COVID-related policies on trauma hospitalizations, stratified by race/ethnicity, age, and sex.

Outcomes With a Mobile Digital Health Platform for Patients Undergoing Spine Surgery: Retrospective Analysis.

Background: Digital health solutions have been shown to enhance outcomes for individuals with chronic medical illnesses, but few have been validated for surgical patients. The digital health platform ManageMySurgery (MMS) has been validated for spine surgery as a feasible method for patients along their surgical journey through in-app education and completion of patient-reported outcomes surveys.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the rates of 90-day emergency room (ER) visits, readmissions, and complications in patients undergoing spine surgery using MMS compared to patients using traditional perioperative care alone.

Effect of Stay-at-Home Orders and Other COVID-Related Policies on Trauma Hospitalization Rates and Disparities in the United States: A Statewide Time-Series Analysis.

Background: To combat the coronavirus pandemic, states implemented several public health policies to reduce infection and transmission. Increasing evidence suggests that these prevention strategies also have had a profound impact on non-COVID healthcare utilization. The goal of this study was to determine the impact of a statewide Stay-at-Home and other COVID-related policies on trauma hospitalizations, stratified by race/ethnicity, age, and sex.

Feasibility study of a novel digital health platform for patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

Introduction: Despite abundant evidence indicating that digital health solutions improve outcomes in chronic medical conditions, there are few validated solutions for acute surgical episodes. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a less invasive alternative to open surgery that is becoming more prevalent. We assessed the feasibility of ManageMySurgery (MMS), a smartphone application that combines patient education and outcomes tracking for patients undergoing TAVR procedures.

Mobile Health Application for Patients Undergoing Breast Cancer Surgery: Feasibility Study.

Purpose: Contemporary breast cancer surgery often requires hospital stays of 1 day or less, presenting challenges to delivery of high-quality care. Without sufficient time for proper education and guidance, patients may delay seeking care, experience anxiety, or seek unnecessary care, leading to poorer outcomes and increased costs. To address this, we evaluated the feasibility of a planning-, outcomes-, and analytics-based mobile health application called Manage My Surgery (MMS) for patients undergoing elective breast cancer surgery.

A Smartphone App With a Digital Care Pathway for Patients Undergoing Spine Surgery: Development and Feasibility Study.

Background: There is a great unmet clinical need to provide patients undergoing spinal surgery and their caregivers with ongoing, high-quality care before and after surgery in an efficiency-focused health care environment.

Objective: The objective of this study is to design, develop, and evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of a novel planning-, outcomes-, and analytics-based smartphone app called ManageMySurgery (MMS) in patients undergoing elective spine surgery (MMS-Spine).

Methods: The development process of the MMS app was conducted over 2 sequential stages: (1) an evidence-based intervention design with refinement from surgeon and patient feedback and (2) feasibility testing in a clinical pilot study.