Faculty Bibliography

Kaplan-Meier analysis of time to first all-cause readmission over 12 months among older adults with ischemic heart disease randomized to 3 months of mobile health cardiac rehabilitation (mHealth-CR) or usual care. There was no significant difference in time to first readmission between groups (log-rank P = 0.26).

Penicillin allergy labels are common and clinically consequential. Approximately 10% of patients report a penicillin allergy, yet most are not truly allergic and can safely receive beta-lactams. In the inpatient setting, these labels drive use of broader-spectrum agents, contributing to increased healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance, longer hospital stays, and higher costs. Recent evidence supports delabeling as a key antimicrobial stewardship strategy. The PEN-FAST clinical decision rule enables identification of low-risk patients suitable for streamlined evaluation. The PALACE randomized trial demonstrated that, among low-risk adults, direct oral penicillin challenge is noninferior to traditional skin testing and associated with very low rates of adverse reactions. This narrative review summarizes current evidence on epidemiology, mechanisms, risk stratification, and delabeling strategies, and provides practical recommendations for integrating penicillin allergy delabeling into routine clinical practice.

INTRODUCTION/UNASSIGNED:Recent federal funding cuts have created pauses in admissions, hiring, and execution of research studies at academic medical centers internationally. These monetary reductions have also impacted allowances for non-essential faculty travel. As a result, faculty may now be faced with challenges in how they obtain professional development. METHODS/UNASSIGNED:A cross-sectional, exploratory study was implemented to discover the impact of funding cuts on faculty travel for professional development opportunities, as well as strategies medical educators are using to mitigate the current landscape. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:Findings indicate that faculty now must use alternative methods to obtain professional development and that institutional guidance is lacking in how to do so. DISCUSSION/UNASSIGNED:Authors provide concrete action steps for faculty to take amidst this challenge to remain engaged in professional development.

BACKGROUND:Starting a pediatric subspecialty fellowship presents numerous challenges to trainees. Virtual Symposium of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology of New York (v-SYMPHONY), an educational collaborative organized by 18 pediatric hematology-oncology (PHO) programs, initiated an annual bootcamp in 2022 aimed at easing the transition from pediatric residency to PHO fellowship. METHODS:The bootcamp consisted of virtual clinical lectures and fellow-led panels, which were created with input from diverse program leadership, educators, and past fellows using Kern's six-step module of curriculum development. It was offered to incoming fellows, first in the NY/NJ/CT region, and subsequently expanded nationally. RESULTS:Over 4 years (2022-2025), 147 pediatric residents completed this virtual bootcamp. The number of residents attending the live sessions increased from 19 in 2022 to 62 in 2025. Forty-four participants completed pre- and post-bootcamp surveys over this period, which showed significant improvement in both self-reported medical knowledge and preparedness and reported a decrease in transition to fellowship anxiety scores. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:These results highlight the need and benefits of a standardized orientation program that can be delivered virtually to ease the transition of PHO trainees from residency to fellowship. Such a standardized curriculum is feasible, adaptable, and potentially scalable to a national level.

OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:Chronic hepatitis C can complicate the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD), especially among racial and ethnic minority patients. This study explores racial and ethnic differences in the prevalence of hepatitis C and inpatient mortality among patients admitted to the hospital primarily for a CAD event in the USA. METHODS:An observational analysis was conducted using data from the 2016 to 2021 National Inpatient Sample, including 1,946,182 CAD patients, of whom 7426 (0.38%) had chronic hepatitis C. We performed weighted logistic regressions to analyze the relationship between race and ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and other races) regarding the prevalence of hepatitis C and inpatient mortality, adjusting for patient sociodemographic characteristics and comorbidities. RESULTS:Non-Hispanic Black patients had the highest prevalence of hepatitis C (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.48-1.67) and Hispanic patients with underlying hepatitis C had the highest in-hospital mortality (aOR = 1.56, 95% CI 1.11-2.20) compared to non-Hispanic White patients and other racial groups. CONCLUSIONS:We found significant racial and ethnic differences in the prevalence of hepatitis C and mortality among patients with underlying chronic hepatitis C admitted primarily for CAD events in the USA. This disparity may exist due to lower rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment, higher severity and prevalence of underlying health conditions, poorer healthcare access and insurance coverage, and a higher rate of alcohol use and cirrhosis progression in minority populations.

OBJECTIVE:Capturing a habitual event is often required to determine the etiology of events during video-EEG (vEEG) monitoring. vEEG studies that fail to capture a habitual event are typically considered non-diagnostic. In this study, we evaluated the clinical impact of non-diagnostic vEEG studies. METHODS:We identified non-diagnostic vEEG studies from a cohort of epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) admissions. Patients were followed longitudinally in the outpatient clinic.Clinical impact was assessed by evaluating changes in diagnosis and antiseizure medication (ASM) management at EMU discharge and at the last clinic follow-up. RESULTS:Patients were categorized according to referral indication: (I) spell clarification in individuals with paroxysmal events (n = 10); (II) event differentiation in patients with epilepsy (n = 16); (III) reassessment of a prior epilepsy diagnosis (n = 20); and (IV) classification of seizure or epilepsy type (n = 18). Following EMU admission, one patient in Group I was diagnosed with seizures, while the prior epilepsy diagnosis was withdrawn in eight patients in Group III. At EMU discharge, ASM reduction was most frequent in Group III (11/20), whereas ASM escalation was most common in Group II (7/16). By the last clinic follow-up, two additional patients had been diagnosed with seizures. Further ASM escalation occurred in 14 patients: two in Group I, three in Group II, three in Group III, and six in Group IV. SIGNIFICANCE/CONCLUSIONS:Non-diagnostic vEEG studies can still provide meaningful diagnostic insight. Subsequent management strategies varied substantially depending on the indications for EMU admission and the clinical context.

OBJECTIVE:Spinal meningiomas (SMs) are common primary spinal tumors for which surgery is considered the first-line treatment when safe and feasible. The ability to extrapolate the tumor grade from preoperative imaging may significantly inform early patient expectation-setting regarding recurrence. Building on radiomics studies in cranial meningiomas, the authors aimed to construct a benchmark radiomics model to preoperatively identify the histological grade of SMs. METHODS:Institutional surgical records from May 2012 to November 2025 were queried for pathology-confirmed meningiomas below the foramen magnum, with preoperative contrast-enhanced imaging available for segmentation. SMs were classified as low-grade (WHO grade 1) and high-grade (WHO grade 2 tumors and grade 1 tumors with atypia). Tumors were manually segmented, and features were extracted using the PyRadiomics software package. An ensemble model of k-nearest neighbors, random forest, and support vector machine classifiers was trained using nested cross-validation on a subset of 10 features to differentiate tumor grades. Clinical data for the cohort were also extracted, and disease control in an adjunctive clinical series was assessed. RESULTS:Seventy-four patients were included in radiomics analysis, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.879 and a mean F1 score of 0.748. The model's top 5 features were all texture features that differed significantly (p < 0.05) across low- and high-grade SMs. These included measures of tumor textural and contrast-enhancement heterogeneity, with overlap with features reported in radiomics models for histological grading of intracranial meningiomas. Fifty-five patients with a median radiographic follow-up of 22.2 (range 1.9-86.4) months remained for clinical analysis after exclusion of patients with less than 1 month of follow-up and syndromic meningiomas. Four recurrences occurred at a median of 20.8 (range 1.8-41.8) months. High-grade tumor pathology did not significantly impact progression-free survival (p = 0.682, log-rank test; Cox regression high vs low grade hazard ratio [HR] 0.62, 95% CI 0.06-6.11, p = 0.685). Subtotal resection was associated with poorer progression-free survival than gross-total resection (p = 0.004, log-rank test; Cox regression subtotal vs gross-total resection HR 10.62, 95% CI 1.46-77.05, p = 0.019). These findings remain contextualized within a relatively limited follow-up window and small recurrence event count, suggesting a need to characterize the interplay between tumor grade and extent of resection as drivers of local disease control in SMs. CONCLUSIONS:A preoperative radiomics model can stratify high-grade SMs using open-source tools applied to single-institution data.

BACKGROUND:Public awareness of concussion has grown significantly over the past 2 decades, driven largely by media coverage of sports-related injuries. This has paralleled a rise in traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related emergency department visits, underscoring the need for specialized concussion care centers. Despite this, most existing programs focus on sports or pediatric populations, leaving critical care gaps. RECENT FINDINGS/RESULTS:The NYU Langone Concussion Center was established in 2013 to address these gaps by providing interdisciplinary care for both sports-related and non-sports-related concussions. Approximately 60% of cases seen at the center are not sports related. This article outlines the center's inception, operational model, patient demographics, and evolution over the past decade. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE/CONCLUSIONS:Lessons learned from the NYU Langone model offer valuable guidance for developing comprehensive concussion programs that can serve diverse urban populations. Key strategies include cross-specialty collaboration, flexible infrastructure, and systems-level integration to address heterogeneous mechanisms of injury and outcomes.