Reducing High-flow Nasal Cannula Overutilization in Viral Bronchiolitis.

Introduction: Heated high-flow nasal cannula (HHFNC) therapy for bronchiolitis has become increasingly prevalent without evidence that this therapy impacts patient outcomes. Lack of criteria for appropriate use may lead to overutilization, resulting in increased costs without patient benefit. Our primary aim was to decrease use of HHFNC in patients with bronchiolitis over one season.

The bronchiolitis severity score: An assessment of face validity, construct validity, and interobserver reliability.

Objective: To assess face validity, interobserver reliability, and the ability to discriminate escalations of care within 24-h of admission (late rescues) for the bronchiolitis severity score (BSS) for children hospitalized for acute bronchiolitis.

Hypotheses: The BSS will yield variable face validity, have clinically relevant interobserver reliability (kappa > 0.7), and distinguish late rescues during hospitalization.

Pediatric asthma severity scores distinguish suitable inpatient level of care for children admitted for status asthmaticus.

To determine if the Pediatric Asthma Severity Score (PASS) can distinguish "late-rescues" (transfer to the pediatric intensive care unit [PICU] within 24-hours of general pediatric floor admission), "PICU readmissions" (readmission within 24-h after transfer to a lower inpatient level of care), and unplanned 30-day hospital readmission in children admitted with status asthmaticus. We performed a single center, retrospective cohort study in 328 children admitted for asthma exacerbation aged 5-18 years from May 2015 to October 2017. We sought to determine if PASS values preceding admission from the emergency department or transfer to the general pediatric unit will be greater in children with late rescues and PICU readmissions and if a cutoff PASS values exist to discriminate these events prior to intrafacility transfer.

A pilot, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of pregabalin (Lyrica) in the treatment of essential tremor.

We performed a pilot, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of pregabalin (PGB, Lyrica), an antiepileptic agent, in treating essential tremor (ET). Twenty two patients with ET were randomly assigned to receive PGB or placebo. PGB was initiated at 50 mg/day and was escalated by 75 mg/day every 4 days to a maximum dose of 600 mg/day.

Evaluation of a summer research institute in behavioral health for undergraduate students.

Because of the need for additional researchers in the interdisciplinary field of behavioral health services research, the Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida developed and pilot tested a summer research institute for undergraduate students. Participants completed a 6-week program in which they developed a research project with a mentor and participated in a research seminar. The long-term objectives of the program were to attract promising students to the field and encourage them to pursue careers in behavioral health services research; short-term goals of the program were to strengthen participants' research skills and knowledge, provide an intensive and enjoyable learning experience, and positively impact participants' intentions to pursue graduate education in behavioral health.