A New Routine Immunity Score (RIS2020) to Predict Severe Infection in Solid-Organ Transplant Recipients.

BACKGROUND Infection is a cause of morbidity and mortality in solid-organ transplantation (SOT). We evaluated a new score that is applied during the first month after transplantation. The score comprises biomarkers of innate and acquired immunity to predict infections in SOT.

Acceptability and feasibility of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Southeast Asia: A scoping review.

Background: The availability of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in Southeast Asia remains limited compared to regions like Western Europe or North America. Additionally, little is known about how key populations in Southeast Asia perceive the use of PrEP as a prevention tool for HIV. This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the literature on the acceptability and feasibility of HIV PrEP programs in Southeast Asia.

Factors influencing emergency medicine worker shift satisfaction: A rapid assessment of wellness in the emergency department.

Objectives: In emergency medicine (EM), the interplay of wellbeing and burnout impacts not only patient care, but the health, productivity, and job satisfaction of EM healthcare workers. The study objective was to use a rapid assessment tool to identify factors that impact EM worker satisfaction, or "wellness," while on shift in the emergency department (ED) and the association with role and level of satisfaction.

Methods: This prospective descriptive study utilized a QR-code-based electronic survey instrument that included a 7-point Likert shift satisfaction score.

Hypertriglyceridemia-Induced Acute Pancreatitis Exacerbated by Combined Oral Contraceptive Use: A Case Report.

Acute pancreatitis can be induced by a vast variety of etiologies including its more common causes such as cholelithiasis and alcohol abuse, but in certain cases it can also be secondary to hypertriglyceridemia. Additionally, combined oral contraceptive use can enhance the severity of hypertriglyceridemia-induced acute pancreatitis (HTG-AP). The data between this association is much more limited than the more common causes of acute pancreatitis.

The Diagnostic Accuracy of First-Year Ophthalmology Residents on Call: Considerations for Postgraduate Year 2 (PGY-2) Standardizations of Call Structure.

Background Ophthalmology is a unique specialty with limited exposure during medical school. To improve the transition to ophthalmology residency, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) announced in 2017 that all ophthalmology residency programs would move to a combined post-graduate year (PGY) 1 year with mandatory integration by 2023. Currently, there are no standardized guidelines from the American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) or the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to address ophthalmology resident competence prior to becoming the primary contact for inpatient and emergency room (ER) consultations as a PGY-2.

Mechanistic Insights into the Synthesis of Nickel-Graphene Nanostructures for Gas Sensors.

Toxic gases are used in different types of industries and thus, present a potential health hazard. Therefore, highly sensitive gas sensing materials are essential for the safety of those operating in their environments. A process involving electrospinning polymer solutions impregnated with transition metal ions are developed to yield nanofibers that are annealed to form graphitic carbon / nickel nanoparticle-based fibers for gas sensing applications.

How to HEEAL: A Patient and Peer-Centric Simulation Curriculum for Medical Error Disclosure.

Introduction: Medical errors are an unfortunate certainty with emotional and psychological consequences for patients and health care providers. No standardized medical curriculum on how to disclose medical errors to patients or peers exists. The novel HEEAL (honesty/empathy/education/apology-awareness/lessen chance for future errors) curriculum addresses this gap in medical education through a multimodality workshop.

Intranasal Versus Intravenous Dexamethasone to Treat Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Randomized Multicenter Clinical Trial.

Background: SARS-CoV2 induces flu-like symptoms that can rapidly progress to severe acute lung injury and even death. The virus also invades the central nervous system (CNS), causing neuroinflammation and death from central failure. Intravenous (IV) or oral dexamethasone (DXM) reduced 28 d mortality in patients who required supplemental oxygen compared to those who received conventional care alone.

Stakeholder engagement does not guarantee impact: A co-productionist perspective on model-based drought research.

Stakeholder engagement has become a watchword for environmental scientists to assert the societal relevance of their projects to funding agencies. In water research based on computer simulation modelling, stakeholder engagement has attracted interest as a means to overcome low uptake of new tools for water management. An increasingly accepted view is that more and better stakeholder involvement in research projects will lead to increased adoption of the modelling tools created by scientists in water management.

Assessment of Gender Bias During Paramedic-Physician Handoffs.

Objective Gender bias against female physicians has been frequently demonstrated and associated with negative feelings toward their careers. Gender bias has also been demonstrated in prehospital clinical care. However, potential gender bias during paramedic-physician handoffs has not been studied.

Insect collecting bias in Arizona with a preliminary checklist of the beetles from the Sand Tank Mountains.

Background: The State of Arizona in the south-western United States supports a high diversity of insects. Digitised occurrence records, especially from preserved specimens in natural history collections, are an important and growing resource to understand biodiversity and biogeography. Underlying bias in how insects are collected and what that means for interpreting patterns of insect diversity is largely untested.

The Role of the Microbiome in First Episode of Psychosis.

The relationship between the gut-brain-microbiome axis has gained great importance in the study of psychiatric disorders, as it may represent a new target for their treatment. To date, the available literature suggests that the microbiota may influence the pathophysiology of several diseases, including psychosis. The aim of this review is to summarize the clinical and preclinical studies that have evaluated the differences in microbiota as well as the metabolic consequences related to psychosis.

Closing the gender gap in medicine: the impact of a simulation-based confidence and negotiation course for women in graduate medical education.

Background: Currently, 75-80% of the medical workforce worldwide consists of women. Yet, women comprise 21% of full professors and less than 20% of department chairs and medical school deans. Identified causes of gender disparities are multifactorial including work-life responsibilities, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, bias, lack of confidence, gender differences in negotiation and leadership emergence, and lack of mentorship, networking, and/or sponsorship.

Cholestatic syndrome as a presentation of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. A pediatric case report.

Cholestatic jaundice is due to an alteration in conjugated bilirubin secretion; a possible cause is an al- tered bile flow resulting from an obstruction of the extrahepatic bile duct. A lymphoma is the third most common neoplasm in pediatrics, while pancreatic tumors are rare and mostly benign. The clinical mani- festations of retroperitoneal tumors are not very specific and are usually late, so a high level of clinical suspicion is required.

Demographics, Diagnoses, Drugs, and Adjuvants in Patients on Chronic Opioid Therapy vs. Intermittent Use in a Tertiary Pediatric Chronic Pain Clinic.

Anywhere from 11.6% to 20% of pediatric and adolescent patients treated for chronic pain are prescribed opioids, but little is known about these patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of patients on chronic opioid therapy (COT) and what therapies had been utilized prior to or in conjunction with COT.

Immunization Status and the Management of Febrile Children in the Pediatric Emergency Department: What Are We Doing?

Objectives: Widespread Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae immunization has decreased occult bacteremia and bacterial meningitis rates. Practice has evolved in pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) to favor fewer diagnostic tests for and empiric treatment of invasive bacterial infection. We lack evidence-based guidance on evaluation and treatment of unimmunized (UnI) or underimmunized (UnderI) febrile children.

Effect of a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum on emergency department soft tissue management.

Background: Pediatric emergency department (ED) visits for superficial skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) have steadily been increasing and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) continues to be an effective modality to improve management and shorter ED length of stays (LOS).

Objective: We sought to determine the impact of a soft tissue POCUS curriculum on POCUS utilization, ED LOS, and cost-effectiveness.

Methods: This was a retrospective pre- and post-interventional study of pediatric patients aged 0 to 17 years.

Identification of Bias in Ordering Further Imaging in Ethnic Groups With Indeterminate Ultrasound for Appendicitis.

Background Recent studies have shown a higher incidence of complications from acute appendicitis in Hispanic populations. Hispanic ethnicity alone has been shown to be a risk factor. In contrast, one study found little evidence of racial disparities in complication rates.

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Faculty Response to Point-of-Care Ultrasound Credentialing Curriculum.

Objectives: As point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) continues to evolve in pediatric emergency medicine (PEM), new protocols and curricula are being developed to help establish the standards of practice and delineate training requirements. New suggested guidelines continue to improve, but a national standard curriculum for training and credentialing PEM providers is still lacking. To understand the barriers and perception of curriculum implementation for PEM providers, we created an ultrasound program at our institution and observed attitudes and response to training.

Muddying the muddle in the middle even more.

In an Evolutionary Anthropology article Roksandic et al. (2022) propose a new middle Pleistocene hominin species H. bodoensis to replace a "poorly defined" Homo heidelbergenis.

Disparities in outcomes among patients diagnosed with cancer in proximity to an emergency department visit.

A suspected diagnosis of cancer in the emergency department (ED) may be associated with poor outcomes, related to health disparities, however data are limited. This is a retrospective observational cohort of the Indiana State Department of Health Cancer Registry, and the Indiana Network for Patient Care. First time cancer diagnoses appearing in the registry between January 2013 and December 2017 were included.

Clozapine Long-Term Treatment Might Reduce Epigenetic Age Through Hypomethylation of Longevity Regulatory Pathways Genes.

Long-term studies have shown significantly lower mortality rates in patients with continuous clozapine (CLZ) treatment than other antipsychotics. We aimed to evaluate epigenetic age and DNA methylome differences between CLZ-treated patients and those without psychopharmacological treatment. The DNA methylome was analyzed using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip in 31 CLZ-treated patients with psychotic disorders and 56 patients with psychiatric disorders naive to psychopharmacological treatment.