Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVES/UNASSIGNED:This study evaluates and enhances language access services for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) patients in a large urban health system by integrating interpreter services into the Electronic Health Record (EHR), aiming to reduce care disparities and improve the digital experience for both patients and clinicians. MATERIALS AND METHODS/UNASSIGNED:Using a descriptive evaluation approach, the project assessed barriers to interpreter service usage and developed solutions informed by stakeholder engagement. Emphasis was placed on interfacing the EHR with the vendor platform, using existing devices, tracking utilization, ensuring cost-effectiveness, and implementing the solution across multiple hospitals and outpatient settings. RESULTS DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION/UNASSIGNED:After implementation, audio and video interpreter service use rose significantly, with calls increasing from an average of 9700 calls per month in 2022 to over 68 176 calls per month by the end of 2024. Over 14 000 clinicians used the service for more than 121 077 unique patients. Average waiting times for the top ten languages fell below 30 seconds, and user satisfaction was high, with an average interpreter rating of 4.9. Conclusion: The EHR-integrated interpreter service has improved language service access, reduced waiting times and enhanced user satisfaction, marking noteworthy progress in overcoming language barriers and potentially decreasing healthcare disparities for LEP populations. We plan to assess the impact on patient outcomes.

Prior literature has shown inequities in patient-clinician interactions experienced by individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP) with underlying pain-related stigmatization and invalidation. Yet, there is a notable gap in understanding how these inequities intersect with multiple systems of oppression, including racism and sexism. This qualitative study examined intersectional perspectives and experiences of patient-clinician interactions among individuals with CLBP. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after the participants engaged in simulated enhanced or limited patient-clinician interactions as part of an experimental study. Participants were asked to compare the simulated patient-clinician interaction to their real-life patient-clinician interactions for their CLBP. The study included 50 participants with CLBP for at least three months and half the days in the past six months. Participants were Black and multi-racial women (n=14), Black and multi-racial men (n=12), non-Hispanic White women (n=12), and non-Hispanic White men (n=12). A basic qualitative approach with principles from constructivist grounded theory and intercategorical intersectional research were used to propose three core categories when describing inequities in patient-clinician interactions: higher-level systems (subcategories: institutional, community, macro-level), the patient-clinician interaction (subcategories: being taken seriously, person-centered care), and effects of the patient-clinician interaction (subcategories: indirect, direct effects). Inequities were identified across all categories, disproportionately affecting Black and multi-racial women. Black and multi-racial women also distinctly shared a wider range of both positive and negative patient-clinician interactions and effects from these interactions, and potential pathways to more equitable care. These findings highlight the need for multi-level interventions to promote more equitable care for individuals with CLBP. PERSPECTIVE: This qualitative study examined intersectional perspectives and experiences of patient-clinician interactions among individuals with CLBP. Multiple intersecting systems shaped inequities in patient-clinician interactions. Black and multi-racial women shared the broadest range of patient-clinician interactions, distinctly discussed intersecting systems of oppression, and highlighted pathways to more equitable care.

AIM(S)/OBJECTIVE:To determine common and distinct factors experienced by nurses working in acute care settings during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN/METHODS:An online qualitative descriptive study with eight open-ended questions and a comprehensive demographic profile administered via the Qualtrics XM survey software. METHODS:Thirteen countries formed teams and led online data collection in their respective countries through various approaches. The data collection period occurred between January 1, 2021, and February 28, 2022. Descriptive thematic analysis was conducted in English (with translation), Spanish, and Korean to analyse the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics summarised the responses to the demographic profile. RESULTS:Worldwide, a final sample size of n = 1814 produced 6483 qualitative data points for analysis. The results identified ongoing occupational risk factors for nurses during the pandemic's second year, including mental health issues, yet showed some improvements in access to personal protective equipment and resources. Four themes emerged from the qualitative analysis, highlighting role changes, living states, and insights into the implementation of pandemic response measures. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Despite individual occupational risks nurses described, structural factors associated with healthcare delivery produced common nursing experiences during the pandemic. Additionally, at least two distinct stages of pandemic response implementation were demarcated by treatment availability (e.g., vaccine development). IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE/UNASSIGNED:There is potential for common pandemic response policies for nurses, centered on specific factors, such as the increased provision of mental health support services by healthcare organisations. IMPACT/CONCLUSIONS:This study helped determine the common and distinct work experiences during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses simultaneously experienced increased workload, role changes, perpetual fear and fatigue, daily hostility, and chaos in the implementation of pandemic responses. The results will impact nurses and those they serve along with future pandemic response policies. REPORTING METHOD/UNASSIGNED:We have adhered to the SRQR reporting guidelines. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION/UNASSIGNED:This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct, or reporting.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:Menu labels were federally mandated in May 2018, but the authors are not aware of any work that has evaluated the impact of the national rollout of this legislation in restaurants using a comparison group to account for potential bias. METHODS:Using synthetic control methods, Taco Bell restaurants that implemented menu labels after nationwide labeling (n=5,060 restaurants) were matched to restaurants that added calorie labels to menus after local labeling legislation (and prior to nationwide labeling). The effect of menu labeling on calories purchased per transaction after nationwide labeling between groups (i.e., "later-treated" and "early-treated" restaurants) was estimated using a two-way fixed effects regression model, with time modeled as relative month from implementation and fixed effects for calendar month and restaurant. RESULTS:In the baseline period, average calories per transaction was 1,242 (SD=178) in the national menu labeling group and 1,245 (SD=183.9) in the comparison group, with parallel trends between groups. Difference-in-differences model results indicated that transactions from restaurants in the national menu labeling group included 7.4 (95% CI: 7.3, 7.5) more calories than was predicted based on the trend in the comparison group. Average number of total transactions per month decreased ∼2% more in the national menu labeling group relative to the comparison group. CONCLUSIONS:Negligible changes were observed in calories purchased and number of transactions in restaurants that added calorie labels due to national legislation, above and beyond secular changes. Other strategies may be necessary to promote meaningful decreases in daily calories purchased in restaurants going forward.

IMPORTANCE/UNASSIGNED:Hospital course (HC) summarization represents an increasingly onerous discharge summary component for physicians. Literature supports large language models (LLMs) for HC summarization, but whether physicians can effectively partner with electronic health record-embedded LLMs to draft HCs is unknown. OBJECTIVES/UNASSIGNED:To compare the editing effort required by time-constrained resident physicians to improve LLM- vs physician-generated HCs toward a novel 4Cs (complete, concise, cohesive, and confabulation-free) HC. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS/UNASSIGNED:Quality improvement study using a convenience sample of 10 internal medicine resident editors, 8 hospitalist evaluators, and randomly selected general medicine admissions in December 2023 lasting 4 to 8 days at New York University Langone Health. EXPOSURES/UNASSIGNED:Residents and hospitalists reviewed randomly assigned patient medical records for 10 minutes. Residents blinded to author type who edited each HC pair (physician and LLM) for quality in 3 minutes, followed by comparative ratings by attending hospitalists. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES/UNASSIGNED:Editing effort was quantified by analyzing the edits that occurred on the HC pairs after controlling for length (percentage edited) and the degree to which the original HCs' meaning was altered (semantic change). Hospitalists compared edited HC pairs with A/B testing on the 4Cs (5-point Likert scales converted to 10-point bidirectional scales). RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:Among 100 admissions, compared with physician HCs, residents edited a smaller percentage of LLM HCs (LLM mean [SD], 31.5% [16.6%] vs physicians, 44.8% [20.0%]; P < .001). Additionally, LLM HCs required less semantic change (LLM mean [SD], 2.4% [1.6%] vs physicians, 4.9% [3.5%]; P < .001). Attending physicians deemed LLM HCs to be more complete (mean [SD] difference LLM vs physicians on 10-point bidirectional scale, 3.00 [5.28]; P < .001), similarly concise (mean [SD], -1.02 [6.08]; P = .20), and cohesive (mean [SD], 0.70 [6.14]; P = .60), but with more confabulations (mean [SD], -0.98 [3.53]; P = .002). The composite scores were similar (mean [SD] difference LLM vs physician on 40-point bidirectional scale, 1.70 [14.24]; P = .46). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE/UNASSIGNED:Electronic health record-embedded LLM HCs required less editing than physician-generated HCs to approach a quality standard, resulting in HCs that were comparably or more complete, concise, and cohesive, but contained more confabulations. Despite the potential influence of artificial time constraints, this study supports the feasibility of a physician-LLM partnership for writing HCs and provides a basis for monitoring LLM HCs in clinical practice.

Objectives Improve concordance between patient end-of-life preferences and code status orders by incorporating data from a state registry with Clinical Decision Support (CDS) within the electronic health record (EHR) to preserve patient autonomy and ensure that patients receive care that aligns with their wishes. Methods Leveraging a Health Information exchange (HIE) interface between the New York State Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (eMOLST) registry and the EHR of our academic health system, we developed a bundled CDS intervention that displays eMOLST information at the time of code status ordering and provides an in-line alert when providers enter a resuscitation order discordant with wishes documented in the eMOLST registry. To evaluate this intervention, we performed a segmented regression analysis of an interrupted times series to compare percentage of discordant orders before and after implementation among all hospitalizations for which an eMOLST was available. Results We identified a total of 3648 visits that had an eMOLST filed prior to inpatient admission and a code status order placed during admission. There was a statistically significant decrease of discordant resuscitation orders of -5.95% after the intervention went live, with a relative risk reduction of 25%, [95% CI: -9.95%, -1.94%, p=0.009] in the pre- and post-intervention period. Logistic regression model after adjusting for co-variates showed an average marginal effect of -5.12% after the intervention [CI =-9.75%, -0.50%, p=0.03]. Conclusions Our intervention resulted in a decrease in discordant resuscitation orders. This study demonstrates that accessibility to eMOLST data within the provider workflow supported by CDS can reduce discrepancies between patient end-of-life wishes and hospital code status orders.

IMPORTANCE/OBJECTIVE:Patients with poor glycaemic control have a high risk for major cardiovascular events. Improving glycaemic monitoring in patients with diabetes can improve morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVE:To assess the effectiveness of a patient portal message in prompting patients with poorly controlled diabetes without a recent glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) result to have their HbA1c repeated. DESIGN/METHODS:A pragmatic, randomised clinical trial. SETTING/METHODS:A large academic health system consisting of over 350 ambulatory practices. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS:Patients who had an HbA1c greater than 10% who had not had a repeat HbA1c in the prior 6 months. EXPOSURES/METHODS:A single electronic health record (EHR)-based patient portal message to prompt patients to have a repeat HbA1c test versus usual care. MAIN OUTCOMES/RESULTS:The primary outcome was a follow-up HbA1c test result within 90 days of randomisation. RESULTS:The study included 2573 patients with a mean (SD) HbA1c of 11.2%. Among 1317 patients in the intervention group, 24.2% had follow-up HbA1c tests completed within 90 days, versus 21.1% of 1256 patients in the control group (p=0.07). Patients in the intervention group were more likely to log into the patient portal within 60 days as compared with the control group (61.2% vs 52.3%, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS:Among patients with poorly controlled diabetes and no recent HbA1c result, a brief patient portal message did not significantly increase follow-up testing but did increase patient engagement with the patient portal. Automated patient messages could be considered as a part of multipronged efforts to involve patients in their diabetes care.

Inflammation is the body's response to infection, trauma or injury and is activated in a coordinated fashion to ensure the restoration of tissue homeostasis and healthy physiology. This process requires communication between stromal cells resident to the tissue compartment and infiltrating immune cells which is dysregulated in disease. Clinical innovations in patient diagnosis and stratification include measures of inflammatory activation that support the assessment of patient prognosis and response to therapy. We propose that (i) the recent advances in fast, dynamic monitoring of inflammatory markers (e.g., cytokines) and (ii) data-dependent theoretical and computational modeling of inflammatory marker dynamics will enable the quantification of the inflammatory response, identification of optimal, disease-specific biomarkers and the design of personalized interventions to improve patient outcomes - multidisciplinary efforts in which biomedical engineers may potentially contribute. To illustrate these ideas, we describe the actions of cytokines, acute phase proteins and hormones in the inflammatory response and discuss their role in local wounds, COVID-19, cancer, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and aging, with a central focus on cardiac surgery. We also discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in tracking and modulating inflammation in clinical settings.

AIM/OBJECTIVE:To describe the self-reported mental health of nurses from 35 countries who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. BACKGROUND:There is little occupationally specific data about nurses' mental health worldwide. Studies have documented the impact on nurses' mental health of the COVID-19 pandemic, but few have baseline referents. METHODS:A descriptive, cross-sectional design structured the study. Data reflect a convenience sample of 9,387 participants who completed the opt-in survey between July 31, 2022, and October 31, 2023. Descriptive statistics were run to analyze the following variables associated with mental health: Self-reports of mental health symptoms, burnout, personal losses during the pandemic, access to mental health services, and self-care practices used to cope with pandemic-related stressors. Reporting of this study was steered by the STROBE guideline for quantitative studies. RESULTS:Anxiety or depression occurred at rates ranging from 23%-61%, with country-specific trends in reporting observed. Approximately 18% of the sample reported experiencing some symptoms of burnout. The majority of nurses' employers did not provide mental health support in the workplace. Most reported more frequently engaging with self-care practices compared with before the pandemic. Notably, 20% of nurses suffered the loss of a family member, 35% lost a friend, and 34% a coworker due to COVID-19. Nearly half (48%) reported experiencing public aggression due to their identity as a nurse. CONCLUSIONS:The data obtained establish a basis for understanding the specific mental health needs of the nursing workforce globally, highlighting key areas for service development. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING POLICY/CONCLUSIONS:Healthcare organizations and governmental bodies need to develop targeted mental health support programs that are readily accessible to nurses to foster a resilient nursing workforce.

This paper is an examination of the relationship between continuity of care with home health physical therapists following hospitalization and the likelihood of readmission. We conducted a retrospective cohort study. Using rehospitalization as the dependent variable, a continuity of care indicator variable was analyzed with a multivariable logistic regression. The indicator variable was created using the Bice-Boxerman Index to measure physical therapist continuity of care. The mean of the index (0.81) was used to separate between high continuity (0.81 or greater) of care and low continuity of care (lower than 0.81). The sample included 90,220 patients, with data coming from the linking of the Outcome Assessment and Information Set (OASIS) and an administrative dataset. All subjects lived in the NYC metro area. Inclusion criteria was a patient's admission to their first home health care site following discharge occurring between 2010 and 2015, and individuals who identified as Male or Female. In comparison to low continuity of physical therapy, high continuity of physical therapy significantly decreased hospital readmissions (OR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.71-0.76, p ≤ .001, AME = -4.28%). Interpersonal continuity of physical therapy care has been identified as a key factor in decreasing readmissions from the home care setting. The research suggests an increased emphasis in preserving physical therapist continuity following hospitalization should be explored, with the potential to reduce hospital readmissions.