Pairing medical students on the wards: A multi-site analysis of pairing effect on clerkship performance.

Background: Medical students are often paired together on clinical teams during their clerkships. While this practice has multiple potential positive effects, evidence suggests that most students feel that their evaluation is impacted by the other student. This perception negatively impacts the learning environment.

Patterns of Over-the-counter Lightening Agent Use among Patients with Hyperpigmentation Disorders: A United States-based Cohort Study.

Over-the-counter (OTC) lightening agents are commonly used to treat hyperpigmentation disorders. We sought to determine the characteristics, trends, and preferences of patients with hyperpigmentation disorders seeking OTC agents in the United States. The study was a cross-sectional study of consecutive patients with a disorder of hyperpigmentation seen in a United States-based outpatient dermatology clinic.

Factors Influencing Helmet Use, Head Injury, and Hospitalization Among Children Involved in Skateboarding and Snowboarding Accidents.

Context: Up to 75% of skateboarders and snowboarders admitted to the hospital sustain head injuries. It is unclear why not all children and teenagers wear helmets while snowboarding and skateboarding given the protection they afford.

Objectives: To report on the prevalence of, and factors associated with, skateboarding and snowboarding in injured children and to explore factors that influence helmet use, head injury, and hospitalization in this sample.

Safe and Effective Implementation of Telestroke in a US Community Hospital Setting.

Context: There is substantial hospital-level variation in use of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Telestroke services can bring neurologic expertise to hospitals with fewer resources.

Objective: To determine whether implementation of a telestroke intervention in a large integrated health system would lead to increased tPA utilization and would change rates of hemorrhagic complications.

Emergency Care of Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Integrated Health System.

Context: Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is underutilized for treatment of acute ischemic stroke.

Objective: To determine whether the probability of tPA administration for patients with ischemic stroke in an integrated health care system improved from 2009 to 2013, and to identify predictors of tPA administration.

Design: Retrospective analysis of all ischemic stroke presentations to 14 Emergency Departments between 2009 and 2013.

Environmental risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease.

Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic immunologically mediated diseases that often have a relapsing-remitting course in young persons. Genetic-risk polymorphisms explain less than one third of the heritability of disease. Epidemiologic and laboratory data suggest that environmental factors play a significant role in influencing the risk and natural history of disease.