Physician communication impacts patient outcomes. However, communication skills, especially around difficult conversations, remain suboptimal, and there is no clear way to determine the validity of entrustment decisions. The aims of this study were to 1) describe the development of a simulation-based mastery learning (SBML) curriculum for breaking bad news (BBN) conversation skills and 2) set a defensible minimum passing standard (MPS) to ensure uniform skill acquisition among learners.
Innovation
An SBML BBN curriculum was developed for fourth-year medical students. An assessment tool was created to evaluate the acquisition of skills involved in a BBN conversation. Pilot testing was completed to confirm improvement in skill acquisition and set the MPS.
Outcomes
A BBN assessment tool containing a 15-item checklist and six scaled items was developed. Students' checklist performance improved significantly at post-test compared to baseline (mean 65.33%, SD = 12.09% vs mean 88.67%, SD = 9.45%, P < 0.001). Students were also significantly more likely to have at least a score of 4 (on a five-point scale) for the six scaled questions at post-test. The MPS was set at 80%, requiring a score of 12 items on the checklist and at least 4 of 5 for each scaled item. Using the MPS, 30% of students would require additional training after post-testing.
Comments
We developed a SBML curriculum with a comprehensive assessment of BBN skills and a defensible competency standard. Future efforts will expand the mastery model to larger cohorts and assess the impact of rigorous education on patient care outcomes. 相似文献
Introduction: Effective treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) requires suppression of the underlying inflammation. Measurement of such inflammation, the disease activity, is mandatory to target treatment and maximize outcomes. However, this is not as straightforward as it may seem.
Areas covered: The many tools developed to measure disease activity in RA, from composite scores and patient-reported outcomes, to laboratory markers and imaging are discussed, with a focus on their utility in guiding therapy and assessing response. The complex issues in measuring disease activity in RA, whether in clinical trials or normal clinical practice, and in the context of national guidelines and recommendations, available time, and resources are considered.
Expert commentary: The key to effective management of RA is the rapid suppression of inflammation, ideally to remission, with maintenance of such remission. The aim is to prevent disability and maximize quality of life. Central to this is the ability to determine disease activity (potentially open to suppression) as opposed to damage (irreversible). A variety of measures are currently available, allowing better assessment of response to treatment. In the future, the development of predictive biomarkers allowing targeting of drugs may revolutionize this field and render the tools of today redundant. 相似文献
To develop a Vaccine Confidence Index (VCI) that is capable of detecting variations in parental confidence towards childhood immunizations centered on trust and concern issues that impact vaccine confidence.
Methods
We used a web-based national poll of 893 parents of children <7?years in 2016 to assess the measures created for the Emory VCI (EVCI). EVCI measures were developed using constructs related to vaccine confidence identified by the U.S. National Vaccine Advisory Committee (i.e., “Information Environment”, “Trust”, “Healthcare Provider”, “Attitudes and Beliefs”, and “Social Norms”). Reliability for EVCI was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Using the variables related to each of the constructs, we calculated an overall EVCI score that was then assessed against self-reported childhood vaccine receipt using chi-square and the Cochrane-Armitage trend tests.
Results
Respondents’ EVCI scores could range from 0 to 24, and the full range of values was observed in this sample (Mean?=?17.5 (SD 4.8)). EVCI scores were significantly different (p?≤?0.006 for all comparisons) between parents who indicated their child(ren) received routinely recommended vaccines compared with parents who indicated they had delayed or declined recommended immunizations. There was also a significant, consistent association between higher EVCI scores and greater reported vaccine receipt.
Conclusions
We developed EVCI to reliably measure parental vaccine confidence, with individuals’ scores linked to parental vaccine-related attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. As such, EVCI may be a useful tool for future monitoring of both population and individual confidence in childhood immunization. 相似文献
This study aimed at deriving occupational thresholds of toxicological concern for inhalation exposure to systemically-acting organic chemicals using predicted internal doses. The latter were also used to evaluate the quantitative relationship between occupational exposure limit and internal dose. Three internal dose measures were identified for investigation: (i) the daily area under the venous blood concentration vs. time curve, (ii) the daily rate of the amount of parent chemical metabolized, and (iii) the maximum venous blood concentration at the end of an 8-hr work shift. A dataset of 276 organic chemicals with 8-hr threshold limit values-time-weighted average was compiled along with their molecular structure and Cramer classes (Class I: low toxicity, Class II: intermediate toxicity, Class III: suggestive of significant toxicity). Using a human physiologically-based pharmacokinetic model, the three identified dose metrics were predicted for an 8-hr occupational inhalation exposure to the threshold limit value for each chemical. Distributional analyses of the predicted dose metrics were performed to identify the percentile values corresponding to the occupational thresholds of toxicological concern. Also, simple linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between the 8-hr threshold limit value and each of the predicted dose metrics, respectively. No threshold of toxicological concern could be derived for class II due to few chemicals. Based on the daily rate of the amount of parent chemical metabolized, the proposed internal dose-based occupational thresholds of toxicological concern were 5.61?×?10?2 and 9?×?10?4 mmol/d at the 10th percentile level for classes I and III, respectively, while they were 4.55?×?10?1 and 8.5?×?10?3 mmol/d at the 25th percentile level. Even though high and significant correlations were observed between the 8-hr threshold limit values and the predicted dose metrics, the one with the rate of the amount of chemical metabolized was remarkable regardless of the Cramer class (r2 = 0.81; n = 276). The proposed internal dose-based occupational thresholds of toxicological concern are potentially useful for screening-level assessments as well as prioritization within an integrated occupational risk assessment framework. 相似文献
Evidence of pre-operative resting state functional magnetic resonance (RS-fMRI) validation by correlating it with clinical pre-operative status in brain tumor patients is scarce. Our aim was to validate the functional relevance of RS-fMRI by investigating the association between RS-fMRI and pre-operative motor and language function performance in patients with brain tumor.
Materials and methods
Sixty-nine patients with brain tumors were prospectively recruited. Patients with tumors near precentral gyrus (n?=?49) underwent assessment for apparent (paresis) and subtle (finger tapping) deficits. Patients with left frontal tumors in the vicinity of the inferior frontal gyrus (n?=?29) underwent assessment for gross (aphasia) and mild language (phonological verbal fluency) deficits. RS-fMRI results were extracted by spatial independent component analysis (ICA).
Results
Motor group: paretic patients showed significantly (P?=?0.01) decreased BOLD signal in ipsilesional precentral gyrus when compared to contralesional one. Significantly (P?<?0.01) lower BOLD signal was also observed in ipsilesional precentral gyrus of paretics when compared with the non-paretics. In asymptomatic patients, a strong positive correlation (r?=?0.68, P?<?0.01) between ipsilesional motor cortex BOLD signal and contralesional finger tapping performance was observed. Language group: patients with aphasia showed significantly (P?=?0.01) decreased RS-fMRI BOLD signal in left BA 44 when compared with non- aphasics. In asymptomatic patients, a strong positive correlation (r?=?0.72, P?<?0.01) between BA 44 BOLD signal and phonological fluency performance was observed.
Conclusions
Our results showed that RS-fMRI BOLD signal of motor and language networks were significantly affected by the tumors implying the usefulness of the method for assessment of the underlying functions in brain tumors patients. 相似文献
Precision Medicine is becoming the new paradigm in healthcare as it enables better resources allocation, treatment optimization with a potential side-effects reduction and consequent impact on quality of life and survival. This revolution is being catalyzed by liquid biopsy technologies, which provide prognostic and predictive information for advanced cancer patients, without the analytical and procedural drawbacks of tissue-biopsy. In particular, circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is gaining momentum as a clinically feasible option capable to capture both spatial and temporal tumor heterogeneity.Several techniques are currently available for ctDNA extraction and analysis, each with its preferential case scenarios and preanalytical implications which must be taken into consideration to effectively support clinical decision-making and to better highlight its clinical utility.Aim of this review is to summarize both analytical developments and clinical evidences to offer a comprehensive update on the deployment of ctDNA in breast cancer’s (BC) characterization and treatment. 相似文献