Perspectives from patients with chronic lung disease on a telehealth-facilitated integrated palliative care model: a qualitative content analysis study.

Background: Chronic lung disease affects nearly 37 million Americans and often results in significant quality of life impairment and healthcare burden. Despite guidelines calling for palliative care (PC) integration into pulmonary care as a vital part of chronic lung disease management, existing PC models have limited access and lack scalability. Use of telehealth to provide PC offers a potential solution to these barriers.

Perspectives of people in Philadelphia who use fentanyl/heroin adulterated with the animal tranquilizer xylazine; Making a case for xylazine test strips.

Background: Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer increasingly detected in those who have died of an opioid overdose in Philadelphia, PA and elsewhere. Despite an increasing presence of xylazine in the local fentanyl/heroin drug market and its association with ulcers, there are few perspectives about xylazine from people who use drugs and no data about the utility of a hypothetical xylazine test strip.

Methods: Between January to May 2021 in Philadelphia, PA, people who used fentanyl/heroin and had previously used fentanyl test strips were queried about xylazine and hypothetical xylazine test strips.

Pilot testing fentanyl test strip distribution in an emergency department setting: Experiences, lessons learned, and suggestions from staff.

Objectives: Fentanyl test strips (FTSs) are increasingly used to address fentanyl contamination of the illicit drug supply by testing a drug for the presence of fentanyl, allowing people who use drugs (PWUD) to engage in overdose prevention. While emergency departments (EDs) have implemented various harm reduction strategies for PWUD, to date distribution of FTSs in EDs is limited and not evaluated. Thus, we sought to explore ED staff experiences distributing FTSs.

"I'm Going to Be Good to Me": Exploring the Role of Shame and Guilt in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

Objective: People with type 2 diabetes are likely to experience shame or guilt as they navigate through their disease. Previous research has shown that feelings of shame and guilt often exist within the clinician-patient relationship, often as a result of the complex care regimen required to achieve treatment goals. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore patients' experiences of shame and guilt in type 2 diabetes management and the impact their clinicians have on these experiences.

"If I had them, I would use them every time": Perspectives on fentanyl test strip use from people who use drugs.

Introduction: Fentanyl contamination in the illicit drug supply has contributed to a significant increase in overdose deaths in the United States. Fentanyl test strips (FTS), which can detect the presence of fentanyl in drugs, are increasingly given to people who use drugs (PWUD) as an overdose prevention intervention. No studies to date have described PWUD's perspectives from a real-world setting about ideal FTS program characteristics.

"You can't go wrong being safe": Motivations, patterns, and context surrounding use of fentanyl test strips for heroin and other drugs.

Background: Unintentional drug overdose fatalities due to fentanyl contamination continue to increase. Fentanyl test strip (FTS) use has emerged as a valuable harm reduction strategy to detect the presence of fentanyl in drugs. However, motivation for FTS uptake and context surrounding use have not been well characterized in the literature.

"Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for you": How resident physicians communicate diagnostic uncertainty to patients during emergency department discharge.

Objective: To describe how emergency medicine resident physicians discuss diagnostic uncertainty during a simulated ED discharge discussion.

Methods: A secondary content analysis of simulated clinical encounter audiotapes completed by emergency medicine residents across two sites.

Results: When discussing lack of diagnosis, residents explained the evaluation revealed no cause for symptoms, noted concerning diagnoses that were excluded, and acknowledged both symptoms and patients' feelings.

Living Through the Pandemic: The Voices of Persons With Dementia and Their Caregivers.

Social-distancing guidelines from the COVID-19 pandemic have potential to compound morbidity in persons with dementia (PwD) and increase caregiver burden. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews between August-November 2020 to explore the impact of COVID-19 on PwD and caregivers. Conventional qualitative content analysis was used.