Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND: Assessing left ventricular function is a common indication for echocardiography. It generally requires expert echocardiographer estimation and is somewhat subjective and prone to reader discordance. Mitral annular plane systolic excursion (MAPSE) has been suggested as a surrogate measurement for left ventricular function. The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy of MAPSE for predicting left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) on the basis of a large cohort of consecutive echocardiograms. METHODS: The study design was a retrospective analysis of 600 two-dimensional echocardiographic studies performed in a single laboratory. MAPSE measurement was performed by an untrained observer and compared with the EF as determined by an expert echocardiographer. The first 300 studies served as a calibration cohort to establish an algorithm for predicting EF on the basis of MAPSE measurement. The following 300 studies served as a verification cohort to test the accuracy of the established algorithm. RESULTS: Using the first 300 studies, an algorithm was developed to predict EF. Cutoff values for normal EF (>/=11 mm for women and >/=13 mm for men) and severely reduced EF (<6 mm for men and women) were identified. For the intermediate-range MAPSE values, a gender-specific regression equation was calculated to generate a predicted EF. Using this algorithm, predicted EFs were determined for the 300 patients in the verification cohort. By comparing the predicted EF and the expert-reported EF, positive and negative predictive values, sensitivity (73%-92%), specificity (81%-100%), and accuracy (82%-86%) of MAPSE for predicting EF were calculated. CONCLUSIONS: MAPSE measurement by an untrained observer was found to be a highly accurate predictor of EF.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a nutrition curriculum and explore the influence of medical students' own nutrition practices on its impact. METHODS: An anonymous survey was given to first-year medical students attending a required course immediately prior to and 2 weeks after a 2-hour interactive nutrition curriculum intervention in a large private urban medical school in New York, New York. Main outcomes included self-reported nutrition counseling confidence, ability to assess diet, and nutrition knowledge measured using 4-point Likert scales. RESULTS: One hundred eleven students completed surveys pre-curriculum (69%) and 121 completed them post-curriculum (75%). The authors found overall pre-post differences in dietary assessment ability (2.65 vs 3.05, P < .001) and counseling confidence (1.86 vs 2.22, P < .001). In addition to the curricular impact, students' nutrition-related behaviors and attitudes were positively associated with outcomes. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: A nutrition curriculum for medical students improves students' nutrition counseling-related confidence, knowledge, and skills even when controlling for personal nutrition-related behaviors.

Deliberate practice is an important skill-training strategy in emergency medicine (EM) education. Learning curves display the relationship between practice and proficiency. Forgetting curves show the opposite, and demonstrate how skill decays over time when it is not reinforced. Using examples of published studies of deliberate practice in EM we list the properties of learning and forgetting curves and suggest how they can be combined to create experience curves: a longitudinal representation of the relationship between practice, skill acquisition, and decay over time. This framework makes explicit the need to avoid a piecemeal, episodic approach to skill practice and assessment in favor of more emphasis on what can be done to improve durability of competence over time. The authors highlight the implications for both educators and education researchers.

OBJECTIVE: To refine the Physician Documentation Quality Instrument (PDQI) and test the validity and reliability of the 9-item version (PDQI-9). METHODS: Three sets each of admission notes, progress notes and discharge summaries were evaluated by two groups of physicians using the PDQI-9 and an overall general assessment: one gold standard group consisting of program or assistant program directors (n=7), and the other of attending physicians or chief residents (n=24). The main measures were criterion-related validity (correlation coefficients between Total PDQI-9 scores and 1-item General Impression scores for each note), discriminant validity (comparison of PDQI-9 scores on notes rated as best and worst using 1-item General Impression score), internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha), and inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)). RESULTS: The results were criterion-related validity (r = -.678 to .856), discriminant validity (best versus worst note, t = 9.3, p = .003), internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alphas = .87-.94), and inter-rater reliability (ICC = .83, CI = .72-.91). CONCLUSION: The results support the criterion-related and discriminant validity, internal consistency reliability, and inter-rater reliability of the PDQI-9 for rating the quality of electronic physician notes. Tools for assessing note redundancy are required to complement use of PDQI-9. Trials of the PDQI-9 at other institutions, of different size, using different EHRs, and incorporating additional physician specialties and notes of other healthcare providers are needed to confirm its generalizability.