Epigenetic tuning of PD-1 expression improves exhausted T cell function and viral control.

PD-1 is a key negative regulator of CD8 T cell activation and is highly expressed by exhausted T cells in cancer and chronic viral infection. Although PD-1 blockade can improve viral and tumor control, physiological PD-1 expression prevents immunopathology and improves memory formation. The mechanisms driving high PD-1 expression in exhaustion are not well understood and could be critical to disentangling its beneficial and detrimental effects.

Arriving at correct conclusions: the importance of association, causality, and clinical significance.

Declaring that a causal and not solely a correlative relation exists between a risk factor and a disease creates significant implications for patients and physicians. No matter the forum, when investigators or clinicians make such a claim, it is essential to explain how this determination was made so that appropriate recommendations are made in all areas of our professional practice. When we review the medical literature it is similarly crucial to understand this distinction between causality and association.

Interprofessional collaboration: three best practice models of interprofessional education.

Interprofessional education is a collaborative approach to develop healthcare students as future interprofessional team members and a recommendation suggested by the Institute of Medicine. Complex medical issues can be best addressed by interprofessional teams. Training future healthcare providers to work in such teams will help facilitate this model resulting in improved healthcare outcomes for patients.

A historical overview of interdisciplinary family health: a community-based interprofessional health professions course.

The Interdisciplinary Family Health course at the University of Florida Health Science Center is a course for beginning health profession students designed to teach core values, such as community-based family health, health promotion and disease prevention, and teamwork in the context of home visits. In addition, the course provides a valuable service to volunteer families by helping them identify useful community resources, and by formulating wellness care plans for prevention of illness and stabilization of chronic illness. In this article, the authors describe the historical development of the course, which began as a grant-supported pilot course for 20 medical students in 1996.

Evaluating evidence-based medicine skills during a performance-based examination.

Purpose: To measure students' competencies in evidence-based medicine (EBM) skills [clinical decision making using evidence from published literature (content) and in transmitting clinical information to patients (communication)] within the context of a performance-based examination (PBE).

Method: In 2002-03, under the direction of a Performance-Based Examination Oversight Committee, 16 EBM queries were developed for a pair of third-year PBEs. At the last station of the PBE, the standardized patient (SP) for that station asked a clinical EBM question relating to their "disease process.

Evaluation of access, a primary care program for indigent patients: inpatient and emergency room utilization.

We analyzed the impact of a program that provides indigent patients with free primary care on inpatient admissions, emergency room (ER) visits, and resulting charges in 91 patients before and after admittance into the program. There was a decrease in ER visits after enrolling in the program (1.89 versus 0.

Community-based education and problem solving: the Community Health Scholars Program at the University of Florida.

Background: Although many medical schools understand and support the need for community service as part of educational training, this goal has been difficult to operationalize.

Description: The Community Health Scholars program, a joint effort between the Area Health Education Center and the University of Florida, places 1st-year medical students in clinical settings with underserved populations, both rural and urban. The stated goal of the experience is to solve a problem identified by the communities as well as provide exposure to community practice and environment.