Journey mapping as a novel approach to healthcare: a qualitative mixed methods study in palliative care.

Background: Journey mapping involves the creation of visual narrative timelines depicting the multidimensional relationship between a consumer and a service. The use of journey maps in medical research is a novel and innovative approach to understanding patient healthcare encounters.

Objectives: To determine possible applications of journey mapping in medical research and the clinical setting.

The International Family Study of Nonsyndromic Orofacial Clefts: Design and Methods.

Background: The majority of research to understand the risk factors of nonsyndromic orofacial clefts (NSOFCs) has been conducted in high-income populations. Although patients with NSOFCs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at the highest risk of not receiving care, global health infrastructure allows innovative partnerships to explore the etiologic mechanisms of cleft and targets for prevention unique to these populations.

Methods: The International Family Study (IFS) is an ongoing case-control study with supplemental parental trio data designed to examine genetic, environmental, lifestyle, and sociodemographic risk factors for NSOFCs in 8 LMICs (through August 2020).

Progression to Severe Hypernatremia in Hospitalized General Medicine Inpatients: An Observational Study of Hospital-Acquired Hypernatremia.

Hypernatremia can be community or hospital-acquired, and there may be specific factors unique to the hospital environment, such as intravenous fluid treatment, which contribute to hypernatremia. The aim of this study was to determine the factors associated with the progression from moderate to severe hospital-acquired hypernatremia among patients admitted under general medicine. In this retrospective, single-center cohort study (2012 to 2017), we used ICD-10 coding and medical records to identify adult patients who developed moderate hypernatremia and followed them for progression to severe hypernatremia.

Prevalence and severity of menopause symptoms among perimenopausal and postmenopausal women aged 30-49 years in Gulele sub-city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Background: Menopause is a natural phenomenon occurring as women approach middle-age. It is characterized by declining of ovarian function and onset of the last menstrual period and subsequent 12-month cessation of menstruation. Due to a growing aging population and longer life expectancies, sub-Saharan African women will spend a significant portion of their lives in postmenopause.

Paternal Risk Factors for Oral Clefts in Northern Africans, Southeast Asians, and Central Americans.

While several studies have investigated maternal exposures as risk factors for oral clefts, few have examined paternal factors. We conducted an international multi-centered case-control study to better understand paternal risk exposures for oral clefts (cases = 392 and controls = 234). Participants were recruited from local hospitals and oral cleft repair surgical missions in Vietnam, the Philippines, Honduras, and Morocco.

Parental risk factors for oral clefts among Central Africans, Southeast Asians, and Central Americans.

Background: Several lifestyle and environmental exposures have been suspected as risk factors for oral clefts, although few have been convincingly demonstrated. Studies across global diverse populations could offer additional insight given varying types and levels of exposures.

Methods: We performed an international case-control study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (133 cases, 301 controls), Vietnam (75 cases, 158 controls), the Philippines (102 cases, 152 controls), and Honduras (120 cases, 143 controls).

The Global Surgery Partnership: An Innovative Partnership for Education, Research, and Service.

Problem: An estimated two billion people worldwide lack access to adequate surgical care. Addressing surgical disparities requires both immediate relief efforts and long-term investments to improve access to care and surgical outcomes, train the next generation of surgical professionals, and expand the breadth of formative research in the field. While models exist for establishing short-term surgical missions in low- and middle-income countries, far less focus has been placed on models for multi-institutional partnerships that support the development of sustainable solutions.

Genetic risk factors for orofacial clefts in Central Africans and Southeast Asians.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for orofacial clefts have identified several susceptibility regions, but have largely focused on non-Hispanic White populations in developed countries. We performed a targeted genome-wide study of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in exons using the Illumina HumanExome+ array with custom fine mapping of 16 cleft susceptibility regions in three underserved populations: Congolese (87 case-mother, 210 control-mother pairs), Vietnamese (131 case-parent trios), and Filipinos (42 case-mother, 99 control-mother pairs). All cases were children with cleft lip with or without cleft palate.