Evolving a national clinical trials learning health system.

Clinical trials generate key evidence to inform decision making, and also benefit participants directly. However, clinical trials frequently fail, often struggle to enroll participants, and are expensive. Part of the problem with trial conduct may be the disconnected nature of clinical trials, preventing rapid data sharing, generation of insights and targeted improvement interventions, and identification of knowledge gaps.

Variation and Correlation in Postoperative Imaging After Shockwave Lithotripsy and Ureteroscopy by Treatment Modality: Results of a Statewide Clinical Registry.

Objective: To understand how patient, practice/urologist-level factors impact imaging after ureteroscopy (URS) and shockwave lithotripsy (SWL).

Methods: Using the Reducing Operative Complications from Kidney Stones (ROCKS) clinical registry from the Michigan Urological Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MUSIC), we identified patients undergoing URS and SWL between 2016-2019. Frequency and modality of 60-day postoperative imaging was assessed.

Perceptions of quality of communication in family interactions in neurocritical care.

Objective: Given the challenges of patient-provider communication in neurocritical care lacking robust decision-making tools on prognostication, we investigated concordance in perceptions of communication among participants in family discussions and assess the different domains of communication that affect these perceptions.

Methods: Prospective observational study conducted over 4 months in a tertiary-level academic medical center neurocritical care unit. Our study involved family discussions regarding plan of care for admitted patients observed by a neutral observer.

Plasmonic Nanoparticles with Quantitatively Controlled Bioconjugation for Photoacoustic Imaging of Live Cancer Cells.

Detection and imaging of single cancer cells is critical for cancer diagnosis and understanding of cellular dynamics. Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) provides a potential tool for the study of cancer cell dynamics, but faces the challenge that most cancer cells lack sufficient endogenous contrast. Here, a type of colloidal gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are physically fabricated and are precisely functionalized with quantitative amounts of functional ligands (i.