Nurse and Social Worker Palliative Telecare Team and Quality of Life in Patients With COPD, Heart Failure, or Interstitial Lung Disease: The ADAPT Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Many patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure (HF), and interstitial lung disease (ILD) endure poor quality of life despite conventional therapy. Palliative care approaches may benefit this population prior to end of life.

Objective: Determine the effect of a nurse and social worker palliative telecare team on quality of life in outpatients with COPD, HF, or ILD compared with usual care.

Differences in VA and Non-VA Pulmonary Nodules: All Evaluations Are not Created Equal.

Background: Indeterminate pulmonary nodules present a common challenge for clinicians who must recommend surveillance or intervention based on an assessed risk of malignancy.

Patients And Methods: In this cohort study, patients presenting for indeterminate pulmonary nodule evaluation were enrolled at sites participating in the Colorado SPORE in Lung Cancer. They were followed prospectively and included for analysis if they had a definitive malignant diagnosis, benign diagnosis, or radiographic resolution or stability of their nodule for > 2 years.

Access Site Selection and Outcomes for Chronic Total Occlusion Percutaneous Coronary Interventions: Insights from the VA CART Program.

Background: There has been increasing use of transradial access (TRA) for non-chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). There are limited data on TRA for CTO PCI. The objectives of this study were to assess the temporal trends in the use of TRA versus transfemoral access (TFA), identify procedural and lesion characteristics associated with the use of TRA and TFA, and evaluate the association of access site with procedural complications and technical success among veterans undergoing attempted CTO PCI.

Integrated Biomarkers for the Management of Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodules.

Patients with indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPNs) at risk of cancer undergo high rates of invasive, costly, and morbid procedures. To train and externally validate a risk prediction model that combined clinical, blood, and imaging biomarkers to improve the noninvasive management of IPNs. In this prospectively collected, retrospective blinded evaluation study, probability of cancer was calculated for 456 patient nodules using the Mayo Clinic model, and patients were categorized into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups.

Nurse-led triage of new sleep referrals is associated with lower risk of potentially contraindicated sleep testing: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: The volume of specialty care referrals often outstrips specialists' capacity. The Department of Veterans Affairs launched a system of referral coordination to augment our workforce, empowering registered nurses to use decision support tools to triage specialty referrals. While task shifting may improve access, there is limited evidence regarding the relative quality of nurses' triage decisions to ensure such management is safe.