Elevated care at home: An alternative to traditional levels of care.

Background: Elevated care at home (ECH) is a novel in-home care model supporting early hospital discharge and providing an alternative to institutional postacute care.

Objectives: This study compares patient characteristics, mortality, and readmission outcomes of hospitalized patients who transitioned to ECH to patients who transitioned to skilled nursing facilities (SNF) and skilled home health services (SHH).

Methods: A retrospective study of patients between May 2020 and January 2022 transitioned from the hospital to ECH, SNF, or SHH.

Imaging Surveillance of Hypervascular Liver Lesions in Non-Cirrhotic Patients.

A consensus surveillance protocol is lacking for non-cirrhotic patients with hypervascular liver lesions presumed to represent hepatocellular adenomas. Patients with hypervascular liver lesions <5 cm not meeting criteria for focal nodular hyperplasia or hepatocellular carcinoma underwent surveillance with contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 6, 12, and 24 months after baseline imaging. If lesions remained stable or decreased in size, then surveillance imaging was discontinued.

Neoadjuvant interferon-based chemoradiation for borderline resectable and locally advanced pancreas cancer: a Phase II pilot study.

Objectives: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is a viable treatment strategy for patients with pancreatic cancer. This study was conducted to evaluate the Virginia Mason Protocol (5-fluorouracil, cisplatin, interferon-α and radiation) given in the neoadjuvant setting for the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

Methods: A Phase II pilot study evaluating interferon-based neoadjuvant CRT in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer was performed.

The robotic Whipple: operative strategy and technical considerations.

Advances in robotic surgery have allowed the frontiers of minimally invasive pancreatic surgery to expand. We present a step-by-step approach to the robotic Whipple procedure. The discussion includes port setting and robotic docking, kocherization and superior mesenteric vein identification, portal dissection, releasing the ligament of Treitz, uncinate dissection, and reconstruction.

Multi-institutional tumor banking: lessons learned from a pancreatic cancer biospecimen repository.

Clinically annotated pancreatic cancer samples are needed for progress to be made toward developing more effective treatments for this deadly cancer. As part of a National Cancer Institute-funded program project, we established a biospecimen core to support the research efforts. This article summarizes the key hurdles encountered and solutions we found in the process of developing a successful multi-institution biospecimen repository.