An Expanded Role for the Medical Assistant in Primary Care: Evaluating a Training Pilot.

Introduction: The patient-centered medical home model stresses the importance of team-based care as a foundation to improving care, costs, and patient experience. Medical assistants (MAs) are being used as key care team members even as traditional educational programs may not equip them for this new way of working.

Methods: This paper describes an on-the-job, predominantly virtual training program aimed at building care teams by redefining the role of the MA and fostering team-based functioning.

Experiences of RNs Who Voluntarily Withdraw From Their RN-to-BSN Program.

Background: The number of RN-to-baccalaureate nursing (BSN) programs is increasing; however, nurses continue to voluntarily withdraw at higher rates than expected.

Method: A Heideggerian hermeneutic approach was used to interpret the meaning of the experience of RNs, who voluntarily withdraw from their baccalaureate nursing programs. The research aims were to generate a comprehensive understanding of (a) the experiences of RN-to-BSN noncompleters, (b) the meaning noncompleters ascribe to the experience of dropping out, and (c) the interplay between factors that influence dropout decisions.

Qualitative Methods in Patient-Centered Outcomes Research.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), created to fund research guided by patients, caregivers, and the broader health care community, offers a new research venue. Many (41 of 50) first funded projects involved qualitative research methods. This study was completed to examine the current state of the science of qualitative methodologies used in PCORI-funded research.

Defective mitochondrial fusion, altered respiratory function, and distorted cristae structure in skin fibroblasts with heterozygous OPA1 mutations.

Deleterious consequences of heterozygous OPA1 mutations responsible for autosomal dominant optic atrophy remain a matter of debate. Primary skin fibroblasts derived from patients have shown diverse mitochondrial alterations that were however difficult to resolve in a unifying scheme. To address the potential use of these cells as disease model, we undertook parallel and quantitative analyses of the diverse reported alterations in four fibroblast lines harboring different OPA1 mutations, nonsense or missense, in the guanosine triphosphatase or the C-terminal coiled-coil domains.

Characteristics of clinical and electrophysiological pattern of Charcot-Marie-Tooth 4C.

To describe the clinical and electrophysiological features evoking CMT4C, an autosomal recessive (AR) form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) due to mutations in the SH3TC2 gene, we screened the coding sequence of SH3TC2 gene in 102 unrelated patients with a demyelinating or intermediate CMT and a family history compatible with an AR transmission. We identified among this cohort 16 patients carrying two mutations in the SH3TC2 gene, but medical records finally analyzed 14 patients. We report clinical, electrophysiological, and molecular data of 14 patients (9 men, 5 women) with CMT4C.