Genomics, Health Disparities, and Missed Opportunities for the Nation’s Research Agenda
The completion of the Human Genome Project occurred at a time of increasing public attention to health disparities. In 2004, Sankar and colleagues1 suggested that this coincidental timing resulted in an inappropriate emphasis... read more
How Well Do Leapfrog Safe Practices Scores Correlate with Hospital Compare Ratings and Penalties
Hospital quality scores are publicly available, but the extent to which they reflect patient safety remains controversial. This study compared measures from the Leapfrog Group, which incorporates mandatory publicly reported... read more
A Letter to a Young Emergency Doctor
When I was starting out, I was told there were three types of doctors doing emergency medicine: missionaries, adrenaline junkies, and fools. I was all three. Now that I’m burning out at the other end of my career, I have... read more
Data Authorship as an Incentive to Data Sharing
Data from well-designed and well-executed research not only are useful for the original purpose and secondary analyses by the original researchers but also can be repurposed for a variety of applications, including independent... read more
Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines: 2016 Update
Ludwig Lin, MD, speaks with Mitchell M. Levy, MD, MCCM, about the release of the "Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock: 2016," presented at the 46th Critical Care Congress... read more
Physician Burnout Is A Public Health Crisis: A Message To Our Fellow Health Care CEOs
The consequences of physician burnout are significant, and threaten our U.S. health care system, including patient safety, quality of care, and health care costs. Costs are impacted by burnout in direct ways (e.g. turnover,... read more
Gastric Acid Suppression and Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection
This meta-analysis examines the association between recurrent Clostridium difficile infection and use of gastric acid suppressant medications. Meta-analyses of observational studies suggest that patients who receive gastric... read more
Placebo Plus Usual Treatment Achieves Clinically Significant Back Pain Relief
A placebo of a pill added to treatment as usual for chronic low back pain resulted in clinically significant improvements in patients who were informed about the placebo beforehand, according to a new study from Portugal. All... read more
Rules of thumb for writing research articles
The paper provides 'rules of thumb' for writing research articles (RA) and getting them published. These were discussed during the "Scientific writing course" organized for ITC PhD students by Cressie... read more
Learning to talk about death should start early in doctors' careers
At first glance, physicians’ poor understanding of death and the process of dying is baffling, since they are supposed to be custodians of health across the lifespan. Look deeper, though, and it may reflect less the attitudes... read more
This doctor beat burnout by doing these 5 things
Burnout syndrome is a state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. I burned out early. Right out of fellowship, I no longer wanted to be a doctor. The grueling hours, my grumpy... read more
Utility and diagnostic accuracy of bedside lung ultrasonography during MET activations for respiratory deterioration
We investigated the feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasonography during medical emergency team (MET) activations for respiratory deterioration. The ultrasound exam was completed in 49/50 (98%) patients enrolled... read more
Addition of vitamin B12 to exercise training improves cycle ergometer endurance in advanced COPD patients
Vitamin B12 is essential in the homocysteine, mitochondrial, muscle and hematopoietic metabolisms, and its effects on exercise tolerance and kinetics adjustments of oxygen consumption (V'O2p) in rest-to-exercise transition... read more
7 Ways To Instantly Increase Your IV Success Rate
Stop making excuses for missed IV starts! Hit the vein on the first attempt with these 7 ways to instantly improve your IV success rate. To Instantly Improve Your IV Success Rate, Improve Your Tourniquet Skill. Oftentimes,... read more
Digital tools should not adversely affect the doctor-patient relationship
For years at Partners HealthCare, we’ve been remotely monitoring patients with congestive heart failure, using a combination of vital signs, patient-reported symptoms (the digital component) and a nurse call center run... read more
Perceived safety and value of inpatient "very important person" services
Providing care to "very important person" (VIP) patients can pose unique moral and value-based challenges for providers. No studies have examined VIP services in the inpatient setting. Through a multi-institutional... read more
Mechanical Ventilation: Which Patients Benefit from High PEEP?
Among patients with hypoxaemia after cardiac surgery, the use of an intensive alveolar recruitment strategy compared with a moderate recruitment strategy resulted in less severe pulmonary complications during the hospital... read more
