Faculty Bibliography

"When we read or hear a poem that's truly effective," says [Rafael Campo], "we feel what the speaker is feeling. We experience an entire immersion of ourselves in another's consciousness." So opens Campo's prize-winning poem, "Morbidity and Mortality Rounds." It's an immersion into the maw of death. I've read textbooks and articles about facing death, but they don't capture the essence of the experience the way these few lines do. Every doctor and nurse will recognize "when I look at you, I see myself laid bare." It's the fierce existential tie between caregiver and patient. Campo's newest book of poetry, "Alternative Medicine," will be published this fall. "A good poem engulfs us," says Campo, "takes hold of us physically. Its concision and urgency demand the participation of another in order to achieve completeness, to attain full meaning. In these ways, it's not so different from providing the best, most compassionate care to our patients."

Some doctors said they had never learned the proper procedures, or were too busy to fill out the documents correctly. Because of restrictions in duty hours, many resident doctors had to enter a cause even though they did not know the patients -- they just assumed care through transfers at the end of work shifts. Particularly disturbing is that most doctors said they had no formal training in filling out death certificates, either in medical school or in their residency programs. Since the study was conducted -- in spring 2010, based on respondents' experience in the preceding three years -- the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene says it has been a national leader in improving the quality of death certificate information

BACKGROUND:The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated US health system to implement the patient-centered medical home. The Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) initiative (implemented 2010-2014) aims to achieve team based care, improved access, and care management for more than 5 million primary care patients nationwide. OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:To describe PACT and evaluate interim changes in PACT-related care processes. STUDY DESIGN/METHODS:Data from the VHA Corporate Data Warehouse were obtained from April 2009 (pre- PACT) to September 2012. All patients assigned to a primary care provider (PCP) at all VHA facilities were included. METHODS:Nonparametric tests of trend across time points. RESULTS:VHA increased primary care staff levels from April 2010 to December 2011 (2.3 to 3.0 staff per PCP full-time equivalent). In-person PCP visit rates slightly decreased from April 2009 to April 2012 (53 to 43 per 100 patients per calendar quarter; P < .01), while in-person nurse encounter rates remained steady. Large increases were seen in phone encounters (2.7 to 28.8 per 100 patients per quarter; P < .01), enhanced personal health record use (3% to 13% of patients enrolled), and electronic messaging to providers (0.01% to 2.3% of patients per quarter). Post hospitalization follow-up improved (6.6% to 61% of VA hospital discharges), but home telemonitoring (0.8% to 1.4% of patients) and group visits (0.2 to 0.65 per 100 patients per quarter; P < .01) grew slowly. CONCLUSIONS:Thirty months into PACT, primary care staff levels and phone and electronic encounters have greatly increased; other changes have been positive but slower.

BACKGROUND:Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare disease with a poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Mitotane is considered the standard first-line therapy with only 30% of the patients showing objective tumour response. Defining predictive factors for response is therefore of clinical importance. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been implicated in the development of one-third of all malignancies. EGFR pathway members in ACC have been investigated, however, without available clinical data and relation to survival. METHODS:In this study, mutation status of EGFR and downstream signalling pathways was evaluated in 47 ACC patients on mitotane using direct sequencing, a TaqMan allele-specific assay and immunohistochemistry. Archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumour tissue was used for all analyses. Patient data were obtained anonymously, after coupling with the collected tumour tissue. RESULTS:One BRAF, two EGFR TK domain (c.2590> A, p.864A>T) and 11 TP53, but no PIK3CA or KRAS, mutations were found. No relationship was found between mutation status, immunostaining and mitotane response or survival. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:In conclusion, our data suggest that the role of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors in ACC is limited. Treatment with EGFR monoclonal antibodies on the other hand might be beneficial for a larger group of patients. The possible efficacy of this therapy in ACC should be evaluated in future trials.

Object In patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), the tuber-to-brain proportion (TBP) is a marker of seizure severity and cognitive function. However, few studies have quantified the TBP. Furthermore, authors of these studies have measured the TBP at only a single time point, despite the fact that tuber cells were found to express proliferation markers, suggesting that they may be dynamic lesions. Authors of the present study used a semi-automated tuber segmentation program to determine whether the TBP changes over time. Methods Axial FLAIR MR images were retrospectively identified for patients with TSC who had undergone imaging at the authors' institution between February 1998 and June 2009. Using FireVoxel software, the TBP was measured for each patient at a minimum interval of 2 years. Results Twelve patients meeting the study inclusion criteria were identified. The mean TBP was 1.88% (range 0.38%-3.70%). Eight patients demonstrated minimal changes and 3 patients demonstrated small increases in TBP. The remaining patient exhibited a decrease of 1.00%, which correlated with a visible decrease in the size of 2 cerebellar lesions. Conclusions Semi-automated brain segmentation is a valuable tool in the longitudinal study of tubers. A subset of patients with TSC, particularly those with cerebellar lesions, may exhibit changes in the TBP over time.

Rates of nonmedical exemptions from school immunizations are increasing and have been associated with resurfacing clusters of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles. Historically, state-level school immunization policies successfully suppressed such diseases. We examined state immunization exemption regulations across the United States. We assessed procedures for exempting schoolchildren and whether exemption rates were associated with the complexity of the procedures. We also analyzed legal definitions of religious objections and state legislatures' recent modifications to exemption policies. We found that states with simpler immunization exemption procedures had nonmedical exemption rates that were more than twice as high as those in states with more-complex procedures. We also found that the stringency of legal definitions of religious exemptions was not associated with exemption procedure complexity. Finally, we found that although there were more attempts by state legislatures to broaden exemptions than to tighten them in 2011-13, only bills tightening exemptions passed. Policy makers seeking to control exemption rates to achieve public health goals should consider tightening nonmedical exemption procedures and should add vaccine education components to the procedures by either mandating or encouraging yearly educational sessions in schools for parents reluctant to have their children vaccinated.

BACKGROUND: The association between C-reactive protein (CRP) and cardiovascular (CV) mortality by gender has not been previously described using a data set that is representative of the US population. METHODS: We used Cox proportional hazards models to explore gender differences in CRP-associated mortality via the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III 1988-1994 linked to the National Death Index with mortality follow-up through 2006. We examined CV mortality as well as all-cause mortality hazards. RESULTS: The final sample size included a total of 13,878 individuals (7,364 women and 6,514 men) with a median follow up of 18.2 years. All models controlled for race, age, smoking, high-density lipoprotein, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, waist circumference, and total cholesterol. Men with a CRP >3.0 mg/L relative to those with a CRP