Cardiology electronic consultation (e-consult) use by primary care providers at VA medical centres in New England.

Introduction: E-consultations (e-consults) were implemented at VA medical centers to improve access to specialty care. Cardiology e-consults are among the most commonly requested, but little is known about how primary care providers (PCPs) use cardiology e-consults to access specialty care.

Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of 750 patients' medical charts with cardiology e-consults requested by medical providers (October 2013-September 2015) in the VA New England Healthcare System.

Comparing smartphone camera adapters in imaging post-operative cataract patients.

Introduction The goal of this study is to compare image quality and clinical confidence for managing post-operative cataract patients based on anterior segment smartphone images obtained in real-world settings using four types of adapters: (a) macro lens (ML), (b) ML with augmented light-emitting diode (LED) illumination (ML-LED), (c) no adapter (NA) and (d) slit lamp (SL) adapter. Methods Anterior segment images were obtained from 190 eyes after cataract surgery using an eight-megapixel iPhone 6 smartphone camera with four adapters: ML, ML-LED, NA, and SL. Smartphone images were subjectively rated by ophthalmologists as acceptable or not acceptable for: (a) image quality for evaluating the anterior segment structures and (b) reader confidence in clinically managing post-operative patients based on smartphone images.

Rising Obesity Prevalence and Weight Gain Among Adults Starting Antiretroviral Therapy in the United States and Canada.

The proportion of overweight and obese adults in the United States and Canada has increased over the past decade, but temporal trends in body mass index (BMI) and weight gain on antiretroviral therapy (ART) among HIV-infected adults have not been well characterized. We conducted a cohort study comparing HIV-infected adults in the North America AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD) to United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) controls matched by sex, race, and age over the period 1998 to 2010. Multivariable linear regression assessed the relationship between BMI and year of ART initiation, adjusting for sex, race, age, and baseline CD4(+) count.