Faculty Bibliography

Introduction Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare cancer that commonly spreads to the liver, lungs and lymph nodes. Bone metastases are infrequent. Objective The aim of this report was to describe the clinical characteristics, survival perspective, prognostic factors and frequency of adverse skeletal-related events (SREs) in patients with ACC who developed bone metastasis. Methods This is a retrospective, observational, multicenter, multinational study of patients diagnosed with bone metastases from ACC who were treated and followed up in three European countries (France, Italy and The Netherlands) and one center in the United States. Results Data of 156 patients were captured. The median overall survival was 11 months. SREs occurred in 47% of patients: 17% bone fractures, 17% spinal cord compression, 1% hypercalcemia, 12% developed more than one SRE. In multivariate analysis, cortisol hypersecretion was the only prognostic factor significantly associated with a higher mortality risk (hazard ratio (HR) 2.24, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.19-4.23, P = 0.013) and with the development of a SREs (of border line significance). The administration of antiresorptive therapies (bisphosphonates and denosumab) was associated with a lower risk of death, even if not significant, and their survival benefit appeared confined in patients attaining serum mitotane levels within the therapeutic range. Conclusion Bone metastases in ACC patients are associated with poor prognosis and high risk of SREs. Cortisol hypersecretion was the only prognostic factor suggesting a potential benefit from antisecretory medications. The therapeutic role of bisphosphonates and denosumab to improve patient outcome deserves to be tested in a prospective clinical trial.

Background: Health equity can broadly be defined as giving people the opportunities and resources needed to maximize health regardless of socially determined circumstances. SDoH are economic and social conditions that lead to differences in health status. We practice medicine at a mission driven safety-net hospital and provide care to patients with uncontrolled type 2 IDDM. Understanding not only these patients' SDoH barriers, but also their preferences for assistance, is the first step in providing equitable help.
Method(s): We used surveys and interviews to learn about 3 themes: SDoH barriers that impacted the ability to care for one's diabetes, desirable service features of any assistance program, and the types of services patients feel are needed.
Result(s): We learned that 84% of patients had > 1 barrier to health care access, 54% were unable to pay for > 1 essential item when it was needed, 53% reported > 1 barrier in their built environment, 47% reported > 1 issue with health literacy, and 37% shared that they only saw or talked to someone that they cared about or felt close to < 2 times per week. In the process of defining SDoH barriers, we also learned about unhealthy behavior patterns: 69% of patients have inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption, 57% get no leisure-time physical activity, 48% sometimes or often miss a day of checking their blood sugar, 35% sometimes or often miss doses of their medications and 30% are unable to follow up with their doctor in the time frame they are given. Despite their obstacles, patients felt that they didn't need " help". While they did share preferences on desirable service features, they volunteered very little regarding desirable types of services. Their lack of suggestions on service features was a finding in and of itself, warranting further exploration. In the end, we gauged interest in currently available resources at our hospital and in NYC, as well as our team's ideas for potential new programs to tackle some of the unhealthy behavior patterns we learned about (see types of services below). The service features that were a priority for any assistance program were: doctor knows about the program (86%), cost (87%), program is in-person (83%), program sends reminders (74%), program is a group class (74%), program is close to home (70%). In terms of types of services, 70% of patients want to learn about Farmer's markets as a source to eat more produce, 65% want to use the pedometer program we are developing and up to 45% want to use Bellevue's new Diabetes Patient Navigator program for assistance with barriers to health care access, taking diabetes medications, and checking blood sugar.
Conclusion(s): Patients with uncontrolled type 2 IDDM at our safety-net hospital have significant SDoH barriers, multiple service feature preferences, and are interested in programs currently available and under development. Understanding patient preferences for assistance is a key step in creating solutions that provide equity for underserved patients in need

Background: To bolster medical student wellbeing and combat burnout, the NYU School of Medicine (NYUSOM) implemented a longitudinal resiliency curriculum coupled with a wellbeing self-assessment tool. We qualitatively studied the impact of this curriculum on knowledge, self-awareness, and behaviors related to wellbeing and resiliency.
Method(s): The MD AWARE curriculum was launched in August 2017 for the NYUSOM class of 2020. Six sessions were implemented at critical junctions of their training. Each session includes a short lecture, followed by a small group activity led by trained facilitators. At the start of each session, students complete an anonymous online self-assessment adapted from three validated assessment tools measuring different aspects of wellbeing and burnout. Students immediately receive scores with explanations and benchmarks of each and then debrief in their small group. After each MD AWARE session, students completed a retrospective pre/post evaluation survey. Focus Groups (FG) were held in December 2017 (after Sessions 1& 2) to gain richer insight into the impact of the curriculum and self-assessment tool. A purposeful sampling strategy with maximal variation was employed to recruit participants; 10 students participated in each FG. Qualitative data was gathered through the surveys and the FG. The FG were recorded and transcribed. Each FG had 2 project staff members and post-session debriefing. Member-checking was also used. Responses were subsequently coded and analyzed by two experienced faculty members (a third colleague assisted in theme triangulation). An iterative data analysis strategy was applied. Throughout the analysis, an audit trail, frequent memo writing and a reflexivity journal was maintained.
Result(s): Themes: Community Building: Connecting with another student it was helpful for my wellbeing Skill and Knowledge Acquisition and Application: The main sort of takeaway is you need to be aware of (Burnout) and if you need help there are resources Importance of Faculty Development: I think that a prep session between those who designed the curriculum and those who facilitate the small-groups could go a long way towards creating the environment I imagine was originally intended Value of Refection: The score didn't add much It was more about the act of answering the questions than the number that came out of it NYU Administration Values Medical Student Wellbeing: Just the fact that NYU has this program and is making it part of orientation already speaks volumes about its priorities: that we matter
Conclusion(s): Thematic analysis of the impact of MD AWARE indicated that it provides concrete information on resources available to the students. Additionally, the students value both protected time with their peers and for self-refection. Lastly, although care must to be taken in selecting faculty to facilitate the small groups, the mere existence of the longitudinal curriculum signaled that the NYUSOM administration values medical student wellbeing

Needs and Objectives: In the changing landscape of healthcare, physicians must be adaptive, visionary and evidence-based in their approach to care Medical education must be adjusted to allow learners to gain skills that prepare them to function effectively in this new paradigm. In order to meet these needs, we developed a community based curriculum with emphasis on transitions of care, population health and innovation of care. Setting and Participants: Curriculum was developed as part of a new NYU Internal Medicine Residency Community Health Track, housed at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, a community based, academic teaching hospital. Ambulatory training is based at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone, a network of FQHCs. Both the hospital and FQHCs serve a vulnerable, diverse community in south Brooklyn. To date we have recruited one class of 10 interns. As of July 2020 we anticipate having a full track consisting of 30 residents. Description: Our first year curriculum aims to develop a framework for thinking about community health introducing key concepts such as population-based care, novel delivery of care, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Early in their training, residents completed a community assessment using observational data, interviews and census track data. These assessments paired with collaboration with CHW and community organizations gave them first hand exposure to our area's specific challenges and gaps in care. The residents began to develop skills in home care by working with an interdisciplinary team of doctors, nurses and CHWs. Additionally, they participated in a transitions of care workshop, examining their own hospital patients who had been readmitted and identifying best practices for hospital discharge. Evaluation: A multi-method evaluation plan is essential as we evaluate and strengthen the curriculum. Qualitative feedback is gathered at regular intervals throughout the year along with surveys of trainees. Initial Results suggest that curricula is well-received by residents. Aggregated longitudinal educational data including resident self-report, 360^oevaluations and performance-based assessment, (OSCEs, USP visits) will contribute to program evaluation. The most important outcome will be how these trainees practice once they have graduated. We plan to use postgraduate surveys to judge the impact of the curriculum. Discussion/Reflection/Lessons Learned: We adapted curriculum to focus on our particular community and created innovative programs to improve the population's health. Essential to these accomplishments was our partnership with learners and our reliance on their feedback to guide curriculum development. Allowing trainees to explore their interests has lead to visionary projects. We have learned that by being flexible and adapting to the learners' needs and interests we can serve our community in deeper ways than we had initially anticipated. However, structural limitations of the clinic coupled with institutional changes resulted in a slower time frame for clinical adaptations

Background: Emergency department (ED) care decisions often hinge on the result of a diagnostic test. Frequently there is a lag time between a test result becoming available for review, and physician decision-making based on that result. Push notifications to physician smartphones have demonstrated improvement in this lag time in chest pain patients, but have not been studied in other ED patients. We implemented a system by which ED providers can subscribe to electronic alerts when test results are available for review via a smartphone or smartwatch push notification, and hypothesized that this would reduce the time to make clinical decisions. Method(s): This was a retrospective, multicenter, observational study in three emergency departments of an urban health system. We assessed push notification impact on time to disposition or time to follow-up order in six clinical scenarios of interest: chest x-ray (CXR) to disposition, basic metabolic panel (BMP) to disposition, urinalysis (UA) to disposition, respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) to disposition, hemoglobin (Hb) to blood transfusion order, and D-dimer to computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) order. All adult ED patients during a one-year period of push notification availability were included in the study. The primary outcome was median time from result availability to disposition order or defined follow-up order. Median times with interquartile ranges were determined in each scenario and the Mann Whitney (Wilcoxon) test for unpaired data was used to determine statistical significance. Result(s): During the study period there were 6,115 push notifications from 4,183 eligible ED encounters (2.7% of all ED encounters). All six scenarios studied were associated with a decrease in median time from test result availability to patient disposition, or from test result availability to follow-up order, when push notifications were employed: CXR to disposition (24 minutes, p<0.01), BMP to disposition (12 minutes, p<0.01), UA to disposition (50 minutes, p<0.01), RPP to disposition (43 minutes, p<0.01), D-dimer to CTPA (8 minutes, p<0.01), Hb to blood transfusion (19 minutes, p=0.73). Conclusion(s): Implementation of a push notification system for test result availability in the ED was associated with a decrease in lag time between test result availability and physician decision-making

Background: Identifying and recruiting patients for clinical research remain major challenges for researchers. EHRs are playing larger roles in recruitment, from helping identify cohorts to alerting clinicians about potentially eligible patients. One major issue around using EHRs for recruitment is understanding the best way to manage the amount and type of messaging patients receive. Because research-related communications is a relatively new area, few institutions have set policies in this area. Before setting policy at NYU Langone Health, we chose to survey our patient population to better gauge their beliefs and to obtain data that would help us formulate a policy that aligns with patients' actual preferences rather than their hypothetical concerns.
Method(s): The NYU School of Medicine IRB determined that this project was exempt from review. We developed a 10-question survey in our institution's RedCAP system. The survey was developed with input from our institutional Research Governance Group, who gave input on both content and wording of the questions. We then obtained a random sample of 20,000 adult, active MyChart (our Epic patient portal) users, and sent a survey invitation to 10,000 patients per week for two weeks. The survey was completely anonymous, and the invitation contained a direct link to the RedCap survey. We closed the survey after 3 weeks.
Result(s): We received 2157 responses to the survey. 61.7% of respondents were female, 83% were white, and 11% identified as Hispanic/Latino. 2/3 of patients were within the 46-75 age range. 72% of patients responded that they would be interested in participating in research studies, and 87% of all patients responded that they would be interested in receiving research-related messages. Responses about limits on the number of messages that patients receive were nearly evenly split, with 46% responding that there should not be a limit on the number of research-related messages received, and 39% responding that there should be a limit. Over 90% wanted the option to opt-out of receiving further messages with each invitation. Opinion about the " right" number of research-related messages that a patient could receive in a particular time period was mixed, but were nearly evenly split between 1-2 times a month and no limit on messages.
Conclusion(s): Developing and distributing the survey through the patient portal was a relatively straightforward process and was relatively quick to implement after institutional approval. Our survey revealed engaged patients who are interested in finding out more about research, and who wish to have input into and control over the number and types of research-related messages they receive. Performing a similar survey in a larger, more diverse population would help give a more accurate picture of broader patient preferences. Digital messaging can be an effective tool for research-related communications, and could be added to the current toolbox of general recruitment techniques

BACKGROUND:Cardiovascular disease accounts for more than half of all deaths in the hemodialysis (HD) population. Although much of this mortality is associated with fluid overload (FO), FO is difficult to measure, and many HD patients have significant pulmonary congestion despite the absence of clinical presentation. Cohort studies have observed that FO, as measured by bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS), correlates with mortality. Other studies have observed that lower sodium intake is associated with less fluid-related weight gain, improved hypertension, and survival. Whether sodium intake influences FO in HD patients as measured by BIS is not known. OBJECTIVE:The aims of the study were to determine the feasibility of assessing the impact of sodium restriction on body fluid composition as measured by BIS among patients with three levels of sodium intake and to determine if there are statistical and/or clinical differences in BIS measures across sodium intake groups. METHODS:We used a double-blinded randomized controlled trial design with three levels of sodium restriction, 2,400 mg per day, 1,500 mg per day, and unrestricted (control group), to test our aims. Forty-two HD patients from a tertiary acute care academic institution associated with three urban DaVita dialysis centers were enrolled. Participants remained in the inpatient center for 5 days and 4 nights and were randomly assigned to sodium intake groups. Body fluid composition was measured with BIS. RESULTS:Recruitment, enrollment, and retention statistics supported the feasibility of the study design. Regression analyses showed that there were no statistically significant differences among sodium intake groups on any of the outcomes. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS:Our data suggest the need for additional research into the effects of sodium restriction on body fluid composition.

Learning Objective #1: Recgonizing hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) in septic patients with ferritin levels greater than 20,000 CASE: A 35-year-old woman with a history of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) complicated by nephrolithiasis presented with four days of fever and a sore throat. She was febrile to 103.1, blood pressure 99/62, and heart rate 100. WBC was 12, Hgb 8.6, creatinine 1.8, AST 304, ALT 92, and HIV, streptococcus, mononucleosis and EBV IgM testing were all negative. Urinalysis was consistent with a UTI, she was admitted, and started on antibiotics. A CTscan of the abdomen revealeda right, staghorn calculi with surrounding, ill-defined lesions in the parenchyma. Urology placed a right nephrostomy tube which drained frank pus. Other work-up revealed an LDH of 2,502, triglycerides of 474, ferritin of 31,000. An Interleukin 2 Receptor (CD25) soluble test was sent but bone marrow biopsy was deferred given improvement in clinical symptoms and laboratory data. Twelve days into her admission, the patient clinically deteriorated. Lactate was elevated to 5.7, LFTs and LDH began to rise, and ferritin was 24,000 from a nadir of 8,000. Repeat triglycerides were 1,210. She was transferred to the intensive care unit for septic shock, placed on vasopressors and was subsequently intubated. A bone marrow biopsy revealed histiocytosis in a scattered and cluster pattern and hemophagocytosis and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) was diagnosed. Treatment with dexamethasone and etoposide was initiated on day fourteen based on the modified HLH 94 protocol. Her CD25 soluble test later came back elevated. She was weaned of vasopressors, extubated and completed chemotherapy inpatient. She was discharged three months after presentation. IMPACT/DISCUSSION: HLH is a rare, life-threating condition characterized by excessive immune activation that is most common in the pediatric population but can occur at any age. There are pre-disposing genetic defects and/or an immunological trigger such as infection, malignancy or rheumatologic disorder that have been linked to the development of HLH. Most commonly infectious HLH is reported in viral infections-commonly EBV-but it is possible the diagnosis is being overlooked in bacterial infections that lead to sepsis. It is easy in sepsis to attribute cytopenia and rising LFTs to end organ damage from the sepsis itself, making it difficult to distinguish from HLH. Infection itself is also commonly associated with high ferritin levels making it even more difficult to distinguish from HLH. Without treatment, patients often only survive a few months and overall mortality is as high as 75%. Appropriate, early treatment have shown remission rates up to 71%.
Conclusion(s): Thus, this case report exemplifies the importance of investigating HLH as a possible contributor to end-organ damage in septic shock when extremely high ferritins are noted. Mortality is high in patients with HLH which makes timely diagnosis of the utmost importance

Background: Electronic health record (EHR) documentation may contribute to burnout, especially for those with substantial clinical effort. We assessed whether clinical effort is associated with working in the EHR after work hours.
Method(s): We included all ambulatory physicians in a medicine specialty continuously practicing at any NYU Langone Health Faculty Group Practice site between May 1 and October 31, 2018. We quantified minutes logged into the EHR on days without scheduled appointments, and minutes logged into the EHR 30 minutes before and after appointments on days with scheduled appointments. We termed this time " work after work." We categorized physicians by their average number of days with appointments per week. Data were analyzed using SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). We calculated least squares means of fixed effects to account for heterogeneous variances, and compared means using Tukey's multiple comparison test. This study met institutional review board criteria for quality improvement work.
Result(s): We included 300 physicians, of whom 28.6% were general internists. The average physician had 3 days/week with scheduled appointments, spent 114.9 min in the EHR on days without appointments, and spent 21.7 min in the EHR after work hours on days with appointments. Time spent in the EHR on days without appointments increased with the number of appointment days per week (14.7 min/unscheduled day for 1 day/week vs. 193.8 min/unscheduled day for > 4 days/week, p< 0.001). Time spent in the EHR after hours on days with scheduled appointments did not significantly differ (Table 1).
Conclusion(s): All ambulatory physicians spend a substantial amount of time working in the EHR after hours and on unscheduled days (including weekends), but physicians with more clinical time were disproportionately burdened. The most clinically active spent an average of 2.8 hours in the EHR each unscheduled day. These findings add to concerns about EHR usability and documentation burden, particularly for busier clinicians. Our institution is now building dashboards to track work after work, offloading tasks to ancillary team members to reduce physician work burden, and exploring whether outliers would benefit from personalized technical assistance and training. Work after work analyses could be employed elsewhere to motivate similar improvements