Publications by authors named "Schoen M"

Increasing pressures on traditional sources of water have accelerated the adoption of water reuse throughout the world. A key consideration for communities pursuing water reuse is understanding the amount of treatment that is needed to ensure adequate human health protection. Several U.

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Assessment of comorbid diseases is essential to clinical research and may risk-stratify patients for mortality independent of established methods such as the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). In a retrospective study of U.S.

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  • Socioeconomic deprivation negatively affects access to timely surgical care and quality measures for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) among Veterans in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).
  • A study analyzed 9,704 Veterans with stage I NSCLC, revealing that those from areas of high socioeconomic deprivation were less likely to receive essential preoperative evaluations and timely surgery compared to those from less deprived areas.
  • Post-surgery, Veterans in high deprivation areas had a higher risk of 30-day hospital readmission and were less likely to meet recommended care quality standards than their counterparts with lower deprivation levels.
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  • - Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death in American men, but early detection and treatment can be curative; advanced stages like mCRPC pose significant mortality risks.
  • - This study examined how different medications (abiraterone and enzalutamide) affect the survival duration of patients with mCRPC, using machine learning to analyze patient demographics and health data.
  • - Findings revealed that veterans treated with enzalutamide had an average increase of approximately 60 days in survival compared to those treated with abiraterone, highlighting the potential for tailored treatment strategies.
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Background: Currently, there is no consensus on how to comprehensively assess comorbidities in lung cancer patients in the clinical setting. Prescription medications may be a preferred comorbidity assessment tool and provide a simple mechanism for predicting postoperative outcomes for lung cancer. We examined the relationship between prescription medications and postoperative outcomes for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

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Background: In patients with diabetes and monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance (MGUS), the impact of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists on the natural history of MGUS is unknown. We aimed to assess the association of GLP-1 receptor agonist use in the progression of MGUS to multiple myeloma in patients with diabetes.

Methods: This is a population-based cohort study of veterans diagnosed with MGUS from 2006 to 2021 with a prior diagnosis of diabetes.

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  • * Experts in the field gathered to discuss and improve the language surrounding this disease to make it less intimidating.
  • * The goal is to establish a clearer and more accurate way to define the nomenclature related to advanced prostate cancer for better patient understanding.
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A new accessory was developed to allow implantation of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) without requiring an anastomosis to the ascending aorta. The accessory combines the LVAD inflow and outflow into a dual-lumen device. Initial prototypes encountered reduced pump performance in vitro, but a second-generation prototype successfully addressed this issue.

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Background: Lung cancer screening guidelines were introduced in the United States in 2013, with variable implementation. This study evaluated temporal diagnostic trends in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) diagnosis since the introduction of these guidelines.

Methods: This retrospective cohort analysis used data from the Veterans Administration Corporate Data Warehouse and the National Cancer Database.

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A 65-year-old man had uneventful cataract surgery in the right eye with a toric diffractive intraocular lens (IOL) placed fully within the capsule bag. On postoperative day 1 and week 1, the IOL was well positioned and his eye was healing normally. The plan was to proceed with cataract surgery in the left eye in the near future.

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Background/aim: With new therapies for metastatic prostate cancer, patients are living longer, increasing the need for better understanding of the impact of comorbid disease. Prescription medications may risk-stratify patients independent of established methods, such as the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and guide treatment selection.

Patients And Methods: In a nationwide retrospective study of US Veterans, we used multivariable logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard modeling to evaluate the association between number and class of prescription medications and overall survival (OS) with age, race, body-mass index, prostate specific antigen (PSA), and Charlson comorbidities as covariates in veterans treated for de novo metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) between 2010-2021.

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Background: Non-variceal hemorrhage in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) increases morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. There are limited data on risk factors for non-variceal hemorrhage in the CLD population. The aim of this study was to assess the predictive value of various clinical and laboratory parameters for non-variceal hemorrhage in CLD patients.

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  • - The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of using quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) for enhancing public health protection through modeling infectious disease risks.
  • - A recent workshop gathered 41 QMRA experts to outline crucial research priorities such as improving methods, harmonizing environmental monitoring, and integrating different scientific approaches.
  • - Key recommendations include building a collaborative research community, enhancing data collection efforts, and ensuring sustainable funding to support the advancement of QMRA for global health policies.
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This study establishes site-specific risk-based threshold (RBT) concentrations for sewage-associated markers, including Bacteroides HF183 (HF183), Lachnospiraceae Lachno3 (Lachno3), cross-assembly phage (CrAssphage), and pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), utilizing quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) for recreational estuarine waters (EW). The QMRA model calculates a RBT concentration corresponding to a selected target illness risk for ingestion of EW contaminated with untreated sewage. RBT concentrations were estimated considering site-specific decay rates and concentrations of markers and reference pathogen (human norovirus; HNoV), aiding in the identification of high-risk days during the swimming season.

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Objective: Adequate intraoperative lymph node (LN) assessment is a critical component of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) resection. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) recommend station-based sampling minimums agnostic to tumor location. Other institutions advocate for lobe-specific LN sampling strategies that consider the anatomic likelihood of LN metastases.

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Objective: Although early diagnosis and treatment prevent the severe impairments associated with untreated phenylketonuria (PKU), individuals with early treated PKU (ETPKU) nonetheless experience significant neurocognitive and psychological sequelae, including difficulties in working memory (WM) and increased risk of anxiety. The primary objective of the present study was to examine the extent to which anxiety may moderate the relationship between ETPKU and WM performance.

Method: A sample of 40 adults with ETPKU and a demographically comparable sample of 40 healthy adults without PKU completed a comprehensive assessment of WM performance and anxiety symptomatology.

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Background: Lung function is routinely assessed prior to surgical resection for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Further assessment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using inhaled COPD medications to determine disease severity, a readily available metric of disease burden, may predict postoperative outcomes and overall survival (OS) in lung cancer patients undergoing surgery.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated clinical stage I NSCLC patients receiving surgical treatment within the Veterans Health Administration from 2006-2016 to determine the relationship between number and type of inhaled COPD medications (short- and long-acting beta2-agonists, muscarinic antagonists, or corticosteroids prescribed within 1 year before surgery) and postoperative outcomes including OS using multivariable models.

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Importance: Recent data suggest that local treatment with radical prostatectomy or radiation may improve survival outcomes in men with advanced prostate cancer. However, evidence is lacking on treatment-related adverse effects among men with advanced prostate cancer.

Objective: To assess the association of local treatment on treatment-related adverse effects among men diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.

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Purpose: To evaluate the safety and refractive outcomes of eyes after intraocular lens (IOL) iris suture fixation (ISF).

Setting: Private practice, Los Angeles, California.

Design: Nonrandomized and unmasked retrospective chart review.

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  • - The study aims to create and validate machine learning (ML) models that use natural language processing (NLP) to confirm diagnoses of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and multiple myeloma (MM) from electronic health records (EHRs) in the Veterans Health Administration.
  • - Researchers analyzed 36,044 EHR documents through various ML classifiers and found that the support vector machine (SVM) model performed best, achieving high scores in diagnosing MGUS and MM, with recall rates of 98.8% and 100%, respectively.
  • - The NLP-assisted model not only accurately confirmed diagnoses but also closely matched the dates of diagnosis with a high degree of accuracy and has the
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Influenza A virus (IAV) causes significant morbidity and mortality in the United States and has pandemic potential. Identifying IAV epidemic patterns is essential to inform the timing of vaccinations and nonpharmaceutical interventions. In a prospective, longitudinal study design, we measured IAV RNA in wastewater settled solids at 163 wastewater treatment plants across 33 states to characterize the 2022-2023 influenza season at the state, health and human services (HHS) regional, and national scales.

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