Community-Academic Partnership: Intervention to Prepare Community Members for the End-of-Life Journey.

Despite research findings that rural Appalachians prefer to die at home, few people access palliative and hospice care services, and many report limited knowledge about palliative/end-of-life care resources. A community-academic partnership was formed to address this need. Train-the-trainer workshop and materials were co-developed.

A Shared Decision-making Tool for Drug Interactions Between Warfarin and Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs: Design and Usability Study.

Background: Exposure to life-threatening drug-drug interactions (DDIs) occurs despite the widespread use of clinical decision support. The DDI between warfarin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is common and potentially life-threatening. Patients can play a substantial role in preventing harm from DDIs; however, the current model for DDI decision-making is clinician centric.

Severe sepsis in older adults.

Severe sepsis may be underrecognized in older adults. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to review special considerations related to early detection of severe sepsis in older adults. Normal organ changes attributed to aging may delay early detection of sepsis at the time when interventions have the greatest potential to improve patient outcomes.

Consensus recommendations for systematic evaluation of drug-drug interaction evidence for clinical decision support.

Background: Healthcare organizations, compendia, and drug knowledgebase vendors use varying methods to evaluate and synthesize evidence on drug-drug interactions (DDIs). This situation has a negative effect on electronic prescribing and medication information systems that warn clinicians of potentially harmful medication combinations.

Objective: The aim of this study was to provide recommendations for systematic evaluation of evidence for DDIs from the scientific literature, drug product labeling, and regulatory documents.

Proposed methods and endpoints for defining and assessing adverse environmental impact (AEI) on fish communities/populations in Tennessee River reservoirs.

Two multimetric indices have been developed to help address fish community (reservoir fish assemblage index [RFAI]) and individual population quality (sport fishing index [SFI]) in Tennessee River reservoirs. The RFAI, with characteristics similar to the index of biotic integrity (IBI) used in stream fish community determinations, was developed to monitor the existing condition of resident fish communities. The index, which incorporates standardized electrofishing of littoral areas and experimental gill netting for limnetic bottom-dwelling species, has been used to determine residential fish community response to various anthropogenic impacts in southeastern reservoirs.

Interpretation of digital mammograms: comparison of speed and accuracy of soft-copy versus printed-film display.

Purpose: To compare the speed and accuracy of the interpretations of digital mammograms by radiologists by using printed-film versus soft-copy display.

Materials And Methods: After being trained in interpretation of digital mammograms, eight radiologists interpreted 63 digital mammograms, all with old studies for comparison. All studies were interpreted by all readers in soft-copy and printed-film display, with interpretations of images in the same cases at least 1 month apart.