WMJ : official publication of the State Medical Society of Wisconsin最新文献

Background: When unanticipated and/or poor patient outcomes occur, clinicians frequently experience guilt, anger, psychological distress, and fear, which can be intensified by traditional morbidity and mortality conferences.

Methods: The Pediatric Event Review and Learning (PEaRL) curriculum was developed to discuss unanticipated and/or poor patient outcomes and foster support while highlighting foundational safety concepts. Pre- and post-implementation evaluations of quarterly cased-based sessions were completed.

Results: All respondents endorsed that unanticipated and/or poor patient outcomes affected their mood, well-being, and functioning. Post-implementation of the PEaRL curriculum, significantly more respondents endorsed existence of a safe environment and structured format to discuss these outcomes, as well as feeling more supported.

Discussion: The PEaRL curriculum provides a valuable opportunity for trainees and experienced clinicians alike to explore and discuss unanticipated and/or poor patient outcomes while addressing key patient safety principles.

Introduction: Traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) is a devastating event that can cause permanent loss of function or disability. Time to surgical decompression of the spinal cord affects outcomes and is a critical principle in management of tSCI. One of the major determinants of time to decompression is transport time. To date, no study has compared the neurological outcomes of tSCI patients transported via ground/ambulance versus air/helicopter.

Objective: This retrospective cohort study sought to assess the association of the mode of transport on the neurological outcomes of tSCI patients.

Methods: Data from 46 ground transport and 29 air transport patients with tSCI requiring surgical decompression were collected. Outcomes were assessed by the change in American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) grade from admission to discharge. Additionally, the utilization of air versus ground transport was assessed based on the distance from the admitting institution.

Results: Among the transport groups, there were no significant differences (PP  < 0.05) in patient demographics. Helicopter transport patients demonstrated higher rates of AIS grade improvement (P  = 0.004), especially among AIS grade A/grade B patients (P   = 0.02; P   = 0.02, respectively), compared to the ambulance transport group. Additionally, within the cohort of patients undergoing decompression within 0 to 12 hours, helicopter transport was associated with higher AIS grade improvement (P  = 0.04) versus the ambulance transport group. Helicopter transport was used more frequently at distances greater than 80 miles from the admitting institution (P  = 0.01).

Conclusions: This study suggests that helicopter transport of tSCI patients requiring surgical decompression was associated with improved neurological outcomes compared to patients transported via ambulance.

Introduction: In presenting this case of tick-borne illness in a patient with known disseminated blastomycosis, we aim to discuss the clinical reasoning and decision-making process when treating a septic presentation in a complex patient with multiple exposures and risk factors, from identifying and addressing the most devastating differentials to selecting appropriate empiric anti-infective regimens.

Case presentation: We present the case of a 60-year-old male with a medical history of diastolic heart failure, cirrhosis, sarcoidosis, hypertension, splenectomy, and recently diagnosed disseminated blastomycosis, who developed sepsis following a recent tick exposure.

Discussion: While a review of the literature revealed a paucity of cases of coexisting fungal and tick-borne illness, each is independently well-studied. Several reported commonalities exist between Blastomyces and Anaplasma, including endemic regions and at-risk populations.

Background: Many rural-urban indexes are utilized in cancer research. This variation introduces inconsistencies between studies. Recommendations on index use have prioritized geographical unit over feasibility of inclusion in analysis. We evaluated rural-urban indexes and recommend one for use to increase comparability across studies.

Methods: We assessed 9 US rural-urban indexes regarding their respective rural and urban code ranges; geographical unit, land area, and population distributions; percent agreement; suitability for analysis; and integration feasibility for national, state, and local cancer research. We referenced 1569 Wisconsin Pancreatic Cancer Registry patients to demonstrate how index choice affects patient categorization.

Results: Six indexes categorized rural and urban areas. Indexes agreed on binary rural-urban designation for 88.8% of the US population. As ternary variables, they agreed for 83.4%. For cancer registry patients, this decreased to 73.4% and 60.4% agreement, respectively. Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) performed the best in differentiating metropolitan, micropolitan, and rural counties; availability for retrospective and prospective studies; and continuous coding for analysis.

Conclusions: Urban/rural patient categorization changed with index selection. We conclude that RUCC is an appropriate and feasible rural-urban index to include in cancer research, as it is standardly available in national cancer registries, can be matched to patient's county of residence for local research, and it had the least amount of fluctuation of the indices analyzed. Utilizing RUCC as a continuous variable across studies with a rural-urban component will increase reproducibility and comparability of results and eliminate rural-urban index choice as a potential source of discrepancy between studies.

Introduction: The minority tax in academic medicine can be defined as the additional responsibilities placed on underrepresented in medicine (URiM) faculty, staff, and students in the name of diversity. Often this looks like participating in additional diversity committees, recruitment efforts, and mentorship activities. These extra responsibilities often are not recognized, not included in promotions, and take time from other clinical, research, and traditional scholarly responsibilities.

Objectives: There is a significant gap in the literature examining the experiences of URiM-identifying faculty and students in relation to the minority tax. Our goal was to do a quality improvement project to explore this gap through interviewing URiM-identifying faculty and conducting focus groups with URiM-identifying students, with the goal of making recommendations to help reduce the minority tax burdens to this community.

Methods: A scoping literature review on the minority tax burden in academic medicine was used to inform the development of questions to use in focus groups of URiM University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH) students and interviews of URiM UWSMPH faculty members. After development of a facilitation guide, we conducted three 1-hour focus groups with 14 students who identified as URiM and did eight 30-minute interviews with faculty who identified as URiM. A codebook was generated using inductive analysis after reviewing transcripts. Coding was performed independently with 2 separate coders in order to ensure inter-coder reliability.

Results: Ninety-one percent of students and 62.5% of faculty endorsed experiencing the minority tax at UWSMPH. Faculty also reported increasing feelings of support due to UWSMPH programs that support URiM faculty. Students reported the minority tax being central to their role as URiM students. Both students and faculty reported that the additional burdens of the minority tax took time away from traditional scholarly activities that were essential for promotion (faculty) or residency (students).

Conclusions: The minority tax burden experienced by URiM faculty and students may negatively affect their careers, as they note spending more time on activities that may not be valued for promotion. It is essential to address these burdens in order to achieve equity within the medical institution.

Introduction: COVID-19 ended in-person communication training workshops at our institution, so we sought to provide a way for family medicine residents to hone their telephone and audio-visual skills online.

Methods: We developed a 2-hour online workshop where residents practiced delivering serious news to family members via telephone or videoconferencing call and measured participant confidence via pre-, post-, and 6-month surveys.

Results: Participant confidence in delivering serious news via telephone and videoconferencing increased. Sustained confidence at 6-month follow-up was not confirmed.

Discussion/conclusions: Offering an online opportunity to practice delivering serious news by telephone or videoconferencing call appears to be a successful way to bolster confidence. Participants found using realistic scenarios and discussion of best practices most helpful.

The constellation of fevers accompanied by headache and vomiting is a red flag for clinicians that appropriately triggers evaluation for meningitis and other life-threatening diagnoses. When symptoms persist even after these conditions are ruled out, patient care becomes more challenging. We present the case of a 6-year-old male with a history of autism spectrum disorder who presented with 6 months of headaches and associated vomiting and intermittent fevers with negative infectious workup despite cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis. Serial neuroimaging and laboratory evaluation ultimately led to a diagnosis of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD) presenting as aseptic meningitis. The clinical and radiographic findings of MOGAD are widely variable and overlap with several other inflammatory conditions, which makes diagnosis challenging. This case highlights the importance of recognizing this rare MOGAD presentation as an infectious meningitis mimic.