Use of Virtual Interactive Patient Encounters to Prepare First-Year Medical Students for Clinical Practice.

Problem: With the dissolution of the Step 2 Clinical Skills exam, medical programs have a greater responsibility to teach and assess clinical skills in the preclerkship years. Clinical teaching this early has traditionally been avoided because of insufficient integration with biomedical sciences, curricular time constraints, and concerns about overwhelming novice learners with clinical learning objectives. To overcome these barriers, the authors created a clinical framework for the biomedical science curriculum by integrating a series of virtual interactive patient (VIP) videos.

Text Messaging and Home Blood Pressure Monitoring for Patients with Uncontrolled Hypertension: Proposal for a Feasibility Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: A decrease in blood pressure, even modestly (ie, 2 mmHg), lowers cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Low patient adherence to antihypertensive medication is the most significant modifiable patient-related barrier to achieving controlled blood pressure. Preliminary studies have shown that SMS text messaging and home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) can be effective in promoting medication adherence and blood pressure control.

A Long-Term Study of Persistent Sézary Syndrome: Evidence for Antigen Shift by Multiparameter Flow Cytometry and Its Significance in Overall Survival.

Sézary syndrome (SS) is a peripheral T-cell lymphoma characterized by erythroderma, diffuse lymphadenopathy, and circulating neoplastic T cells, which classically show a helper T-cell immunophenotype with loss of CD7 and CD26. Flow cytometry is often used to identify and enumerate populations of Sézary cells in the peripheral blood; however, the significance and frequency of antigen shift over time is unclear. In this article, we follow the immunophenotype of the neoplastic T-cell population from 28 patients with SS across 415 flow cytometry studies.

An integrated flow cytometry analysis of 286 mature B cell neoplasms identifies CD13 as a useful marker for diagnostic subtyping.

Introduction: CD13 is a myeloid associated antigen, which may be expressed by a subset of B cell lymphomas; however, the significance of its expression along with other B cell associated antigens is not well characterized.

Methods: Two hundred and eighty-six mature B cell neoplasms with flow cytometric analysis performed at the time of diagnosis were identified. Expression of CD13, CD45, CD19, CD20, CD5, CD10, CD38, CD22, CD23, FMC7, and kappa and lambda light chains was assessed for each case and correlated with clinicopathologic features.

Opioid Prescribing for the Treatment of Acute Pain in Children on Hospital Discharge.

Background: The epidemic of nonmedical use of prescription opioids has been fueled by the availability of legitimately prescribed unconsumed opioids. The aim of this study was to better understand the contribution of prescriptions written for pediatric patients to this problem by quantifying how much opioid is dispensed and consumed to manage pain after hospital discharge, and whether leftover opioid is appropriately disposed of. Our secondary aim was to explore the association of patient factors with opioid dispensing, consumption, and medication remaining on completion of therapy.