Faculty Bibliography

Introduction: The role of medical students in catalyzing and leading curricular change in US medical schools is not well described. Here, American Medical Association student and physician leaders in the Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative use qualitative methods to better define student leadership in curricular change.Methods: The authors developed case studies describing student leadership in curricular change efforts. Case studies were presented at a national medical education workshop; participants provided worksheet reflections and were surveyed, and responses were transcribed. Kotter's change management framework was used to categorize reported student roles in curricular change. Thematic analysis was used to identify barriers to student engagement and activators to overcome these barriers.Results: Student roles spanned all eight steps of Kotter's change management framework. Barriers to student engagement were related to faculty (e.g. view student roles narrowly), students (e.g. fear change or expect faculty-led curricula), or both (e.g. lack leadership training). Activators were: (1) recruiting collaborative faculty, staff, and students; (2) broadening student leadership roles; (3) empowering student leaders; and (4) recognizing student successes.Conclusions: By applying these activators, medical schools can build robust student-faculty partnerships that maximize collaboration, moving students beyond passive educational consumption to change agency and curricular co-creation.

AIM/OBJECTIVE:This paper seeks to describe best practices for conducting cross-language research with individuals who have a language barrier. DESIGN/METHODS:Discussion paper. DATA SOURCES/METHODS:Research methods papers addressing cross-language research issues published between 2000-2017. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING/CONCLUSIONS:Rigorous cross-language research involves the appropriate use of interpreters during the research process, systematic planning for how to address the language barrier between participant and researcher and the use of reliably and validly translated survey instruments (when applicable). Biases rooted in those who enter data into "big data" systems may influence data quality and analytic approaches in large observational studies focused on linking patient language preference to health outcomes. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Cross-language research methods can help ensure that those individuals with language barriers have their voices contributing to the evidence informing healthcare practice and policies that shape health services implementation and financing. Understanding the inherent conscious and unconscious biases of those conducting research with this population and how this may emerge in research studies is also an important part of producing rigorous, reliable, and valid cross-language research. IMPACT/CONCLUSIONS:This study synthesized methodological recommendations for cross-language research studies with the goal to improve the quality of future research and expand the evidence-base for clinical practice. Clear methodological recommendations were generated that can improve research rigor and quality of cross-language qualitative and quantitative studies. The recommendations generated here have the potential to have an impact on the health and well-being of migrants around the world.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) effectively prevent recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, it is unknown which agents should be used to prevent recurrent VTE and which patients with unprovoked VTE should receive extended anticoagulation. We therefore sought to compare the efficacy and safety among DOACs for secondary prevention of VTE. We also determined a risk-adapted threshold for initiating extended anticoagulation based on the likelihood of VTE recurrence (without treatment) and bleeding (with treatment) in patients with unprovoked VTE. METHODS:Our systematic review of randomized controlled trials compares extended anticoagulation with DOACs to another DOAC, aspirin, or placebo for the prevention of recurrent VTE. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Registry of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in October 2018. Our outcomes of interest were VTE recurrence, major bleeding, and all clinically relevant bleeding. We used network meta-analysis to make indirect comparisons among DOACs. We populated the threshold decision-analytic model with data from our meta-analysis to determine the risk of VTE recurrence above which the benefits of extended anticoagulation outweigh the harms compared with no treatment. RESULTS:We included four, high-quality, randomized trials comprising 8386 participants. Low-dose apixaban, full-dose apixaban, low-dose rivaroxaban, full-dose rivaroxaban, and dabigatran reduce VTE recurrence compared with placebo (RR = 0.19, 95% CI, 0.12-0.31; RR = 0.20, 95% CI, 0.12-0.32; RR = 0.08, 95% CI, 0.03-0.27; RR = 0.14, 95% CI, 0.06-0.35; RR = 0.19, 95% CI, 0.09-0.40, respectively). No DOACs increased major bleeding risk compared with placebo. A VTE recurrence risk above 0.3% to 0.4% at approximately 1 year is the threshold to treat a patient with unprovoked VTE with extended anticoagulation (with any DOAC). CONCLUSIONS:All DOACs exhibit comparable efficacy for the prevention of recurrent VTE. Given that the risk of VTE recurrence is much higher than the calculated threshold for treatment, extended thromboprophylaxis should be considered in all patients with unprovoked VTE who do not have increased bleeding risk.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:The long-term associations between zero, minimal coronary artery calcium (CAC) and cause-specific mortality are currently unknown, particularly after accounting for competing risks with other causes of death. METHODS:We evaluated 66,363 individuals from the CAC Consortium (mean age 54 years, 33% women), a multi-center, retrospective cohort study of asymptomatic individuals undergoing CAC scoring for clinical risk assessment. Baseline evaluations occurred between 1991 and 2010. RESULTS:Over a mean of 12 years of follow-up, individuals with CAC = 0 (45% prevalence, mean age 45 years) had stable low rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) death, cardiovascular disease (CVD) death (ranging 0.32 to 0.43 per 1000 person-years), and all-cause death (1.38-1.62 per 1000 person-years). Cancer was the predominant cause of death in this group, yet rates were also very low (0.47-0.79 per 1000 person-years). Compared to CAC = 0, individuals with CAC 1-10 had an increased multivariable-adjusted risk of CVD death only under age 40. Individuals with CAC>10 had multivariable-adjusted increased risks of CHD death, CVD death and all-cause death at all ages, and a higher proportion of CVD deaths. CONCLUSIONS:CAC = 0 is a frequent finding among individuals undergoing CAC scanning for risk assessment and is associated with low rates of all-cause death at 12 years of follow-up. Our results support the emerging consensus that CAC = 0 represents a unique population with favorable all-cause prognosis who may be considered for more flexible treatment goals in primary prevention. Detection of any CAC in young adults could be used to trigger aggressive preventive interventions.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:Reports suggest that up to 50% of women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer (BC) do not complete the recommended 5 years of adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET). We examined the impact of an outreach program at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) on adherence and discontinuation of AET among patients who initiated AET. METHODS:We assembled a retrospective cohort of all KPNC patients diagnosed with HR+, stage I-III BC initiating AET before (n = 4287) and after (n = 3580) implementation of the outreach program. We compared adherence proportions and discontinuation rates before and after program implementation, both crude and adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, education, income, and stage. We conducted a pooled analysis of data from six Cancer Research Network (CRN) sites that had not implemented programs for improving AET adherence, using identical methods and time periods, to assess possible secular trends. RESULTS:In the pre-outreach period, estimated adherence in years 1, 2, and 3 following AET initiation was 75.2%, 71.0%, and 67.3%; following the outreach program, the estimates were 79.4%, 75.6%, and 72.2% (p-values < .0001 for pairwise comparisons). Results were comparable after adjusting for clinical and demographic factors. The estimated cumulative incidence of discontinuation was 0.22 (0.21-0.24) and 0.18 (0.17-0.19) at 3 years for pre- and post-outreach groups (p-value < .0001). We found no evidence of an increase in adherence between the study periods at the CRN sites with no AET adherence program. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Adherence and discontinuation after AET initiation improved modestly following implementation of the outreach program.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer are the two leading causes of death in smokers. Lung cancer screening is recommended in a large proportion of smokers. We examined the implication of coronary artery calcium (CAC) score (quantitative and qualitative) for cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), and cancer mortality risk prediction among current smokers. METHODS:We included current smokers without known heart disease from the CAC Consortium. Cox regression (for all-cause mortality) and Fine-and-Gray competing-risk regression (for CVD, CHD, and cancer mortality) models, adjusted for traditional CVD risk factors, were used to assess the association between CAC and each mortality outcome, with CAC as a continuous (log2-transformed) or categorical variable (CAC = 0, CAC = 1-99, CAC = 100-399, and CAC ≥400). We used number of vessels with CAC as a surrogate for the qualitative measure of CAC and mortality outcomes. Analyses were repeated for lung cancer screening-eligible population (defined as ever smokers with >30 pack years smoking history) (n = 1,149). Hazard ratios (HR) for all-cause mortality and Subdistribution HRs (sHR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported. RESULTS:Over a median of 11.9 years (25th-75th percentile: 10.2-13.3) of follow-up, of 5,147 current smokers (mean age 52.5 ± 9.4, 32.4% women) 337 died (102 of CVD, 54 of CHD, and 123 of cancer). A doubling of CAC score was associated with increased HRs of all-cause mortality (1.10 (1.06-1.14)), and sHRs for CVD (1.15 (1.07-1.24)), CHD (1.26 (1.11-1.42)) and cancer mortality (1.06 (1.00-1.13)). Those with CAC ≥400 had increased sHR of CVD (3.55 (1.70-7.41)), CHD (8.80 (2.41-32.10)), and cancer mortality (1.85 (1.07-3.22)), compared with those with CAC = 0. A diffuse CAC pattern significantly increased the risk of all-cause, CVD, and CHD mortality among smokers. Results were consistent for the lung cancer screening-eligible population. CONCLUSIONS:Qualitative and quantitative CAC scores can prognosticate risk of all-cause, CVD, CHD, and cancer mortality beyond traditional risk factors among all smokers as well as those eligible for lung cancer screening.

We present a patient with acute myeloid leukemia and prolonged, severe neutropenia who developed fulminant Clostridioides difficile infection refractory to medical therapy and was high-risk for surgical intervention. He was treated with fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for life-saving cure. The patient had subsequent clinical improvement, however, developed multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia 2 days post-procedure. We describe subsequent investigation of this event that found this bacteremia was not related to the donor stool administered during FMT. This case adds to the literature that FMT could be considered in heavily immunocompromised patients with fulminant Clostridioides difficile infection where maximal medical therapy has been ineffective and surgery may carry an excessively high mortality risk.