A standardised method for improving patient education material readability for orthopaedic trauma patients.

Purpose: While the National Institutes of Health and American Medical Association recommend patient education materials (PEMs) should be written at the sixth-grade reading level or below, many patient education materials related to traumatic orthopaedic injuries do not meet these recommendations. The purpose of this study is to create a standardised method for enhancing the readability of trauma-related orthopaedic PEMs by reducing the use of ≥ three syllable words and reducing the use of sentences >15 words in length. We hypothesise that applying this standardized method will significantly improve the objective readability of orthopaedic trauma PEMs.

Readability of spine-related patient education materials: a standard method for improvement.

Purpose: Orthopaedic patient education materials (PEMs) have repeatedly been shown to be well above the recommended reading level by the National Institute of Health and American Medical Association. The purpose of this study is to create a standardized method to improve the readability of PEMs describing spine-related conditions and injuries. It is hypothesized that reducing the usage of complex words (≥ 3 syllables) and reducing sentence length to < 15 words per sentence improves readability of PEMs as measured by all seven readability formulas used.

Analysis of Inflammatory Signaling in Human Middle Ear Cell Culture Models of Pediatric Otitis Media.

Objectives/hypothesis: Cell culture models are valuable tools for investigation of the molecular pathogenesis of diseases including otitis media (OM). Previous study indicates that age-, sex-, and race-associated differences in molecular signaling may impact disease pathophysiology. Currently, a singular immortalized middle ear epithelial (MEE) cell line exists, HMEEC-1, derived from an adult without known middle ear disease.

Attenuation of Helper T Cell Capacity for TH1 and TH17 Differentiation in Children With Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infection.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infect children with increasing frequency worldwide. Using blood and lymph node tissue from children with NTM lymphadenitis, and uninfected lymph node tissue from community controls, we evaluated helper T (TH) cells in functional assays of TH1/TH17 differentiation and measured the concentration of their associated cytokines at the site of infection. Circulating TH cells from infected children were attenuated in their TH1/TH17 differentiation capacity and expressed less interferon γ and interleukin 17 after polyclonal stimulation.

Detection of pepsin and IL-8 in saliva of adult asthmatic patients.

Asthma and gastric reflux disease are widespread and often coexisting diseases with complex interactions, leading some to suspect that asthma symptoms of patients with reflux may improve with anti-reflux therapy. The objective of this study was to determine whether pepsin in saliva, indicative of airway reflux, could be detected in patients with asthma of varying severity and test the requirement of citric acid as a pepsin preservative. Saliva samples were collected in the clinic (with/without citric acid) and upon waking the following morning from 25 asthmatic patients.

Rapid Prototyping of Polymer-Based Rolled-Up Microfluidic Devices.

This work presents the simple and rapid fabrication of a polymer-based microfluidic prototype manufactured by rolling up thin films of polymer. The thin films were fabricated via a casting method and rolled up around a center core with the aid of plasma activation to create a three-dimensional (3D) spiral microchannel, hence reducing the time and cost of manufacture. In this work, rolled-up devices with single or dual fluidic networks fabricated from a single or two films were demonstrated for heat sink or heat exchanger applications, respectively.

Out-of-pocket spending in the last five years of life.

Background: A key objective of the Medicare program is to reduce risk of financial catastrophe due to out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures. Yet little is known about cumulative financial risks arising from out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures faced by older adults, particularly near the end of life.

Design: Using the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS) cohort, we conducted retrospective analyses of Medicare beneficiaries' total out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures over the last 5 years of life.

Out-of-pocket health care expenditures at the end of life.

Background: A key objective of the Medicare program is to reduce risk of financial catastrophe due to out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures. Yet little is known about cumulative financial risks arising from out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures faced by older adults, particularly near the end of life.

Design: Using the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS) cohort, we conducted retrospective analyses of Medicare beneficiaries’ total out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures over the last 5 years of life.