Building new standards to prevent harm from medication errors in children with cancer

• Children with cancer receive many medications outside the hospital administered by their caregivers.
• The study by Walsh et al. shows the number and types of medication errors in these patients. The study includes data from three different centers.
• Importantly, the study shows the types of errors that cause harm. The authors describe how the harmful errors can be prevented.
• We suggest ways these results can be used to identify which patients and families will benefit from additional attention. Providing more help at clinic and in the home may help prevent harmful medication errors in children with cancer.

     

Patient characteristics,anaesthetic workload and techniques in the UK: an analysis from the 7th National Audit Project (NAP7) activity survey

Detailed contemporary knowledge of the characteristics of the surgical population, national anaesthetic workload, anaesthetic techniques and behaviours are essential to monitor productivity, inform policy and direct research themes. Every 3–4 years, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, as part of its National Audit Projects (NAP), performs a snapshot activity survey in all UK hospitals delivering anaesthesia, collecting patient-level encounter data from all cases under the care of an anaesthetist. During November 2021, as part of NAP7, anaesthetists recorded details of all cases undertaken over 4 days at their site through an online survey capturing anonymous patient characteristics and anaesthetic details. Of 416 hospital sites invited to participate, 352 (85%) completed the activity survey. From these, 24,177 reports were returned, of which 24,172 (99%) were included in the final dataset. The work patterns by day of the week, time of day and surgical specialty were similar to previous NAP activity surveys. However, in non-obstetric patients, between NAP5 (2013) and NAP7 (2021) activity surveys, the estimated median age of patients increased by 2.3 years from median (IQR) of 50.5 (28.4–69.1) to 52.8 (32.1–69.2) years. The median (IQR) BMI increased from 24.9 (21.5–29.5) to 26.7 (22.3–31.7) kg.m^–2. The proportion of patients who scored as ASA physical status 1 decreased from 37% in NAP5 to 24% in NAP7. The use of total intravenous anaesthesia increased from 8% of general anaesthesia cases to 26% between NAP5 and NAP7. Some changes may reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the anaesthetic population, though patients with confirmed COVID-19 accounted for only 149 (1%) cases. These data show a rising burden of age, obesity and comorbidity in patients requiring anaesthesia care, likely to impact UK peri-operative services significantly.     

Hypofractionated Concomitant Chemoradiation in Inoperable Locally Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Report on 100 Patients and a Systematic Review

Aims

Concomitant chemoradiation is the standard of care in patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to analyse the survival outcome and toxicity data of using hypofractionated chemoradiation.

Evolving Radiotherapy Techniques in Paediatric Oncology

Aims

Childhood cancer is rare and survival of childhood cancer has increased up to 80% at 5 years after diagnosis. Radiotherapy is an important element of the multimodal treatment concept. However, due to growing tissue, children are particularly sensitive to radiation-related side-effects and the induction of secondary malignancies. However, radiotherapy techniques have continuously progressed. In addition, modern treatment concepts have been improved in order to minimise long-term effects. Today, radiotherapy is used for various tumour types in childhood, such as sarcomas and tumours of the central nervous system.

The journeys of three ASPIRE winning medical schools toward excellence in student assessment

Abstract

Introduction: ASPIRE Excellence Awards in Student Assessment are offered to medical schools with innovative and comprehensive assessment programmes adjudged by international experts, using evidence-based criteria.

The journeys of three ASPIRE-winning medical schools toward “assessment excellence” are presented. These schools include Aga Khan University Medical College (AKU-MC), Pakistan, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIUSOM), USA, and University of Leeds School of Medicine, UK.

Methods: The unfolding journeys highlighting achievements, innovations, and essential components of each assessment programme were compared to identify differences and commonalities.

Results: Cultural contextual differences included developed-versus-developing country, east-west, type of regulatory bodies, and institutional-versus-national certifying/licensing examinations, which influence curricula and assessments.

In all, 12 essential commonalities were found: alignment with institutional vision; sustained assessment leadership; stakeholder engagement; communication between curriculum and assessment; assessment-for-learning and feedback; longitudinal student profiling of outcome achievement; assessment rigor and robustness; 360° feedback from-and-to assessment; continuous enrichment through rigorous quality assurance; societal sensitivity; influencing others; and a “wow factor.”

Conclusions: Although the journeys of the three medical schools were undertaken in different cultural contexts, similar core components highlight strong foundations in student assessment. The journeys continue as assessment programmes remain dynamic and measurement science expands. This article may be helpful to other institutions pursuing excellence in assessment.     

The role of “improv” in health professional learning: A scoping review

Background: The use of improvizational theater (“improv”) in health professional education (“medical improv”) is an emerging field. However, optimal curricular design features and learning outcomes have not yet been systematically described.

Objective: To synthesize evidence on learning outcomes and curricular design elements of improvizational theater training in health professions education.

Methods: A literature search with keywords “Improv” and “Improvisational Theatre” was undertaken in January 2016 in Ovid MEDLINE, CINHAL, EMBASE, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and ERIC, with an accompanying gray literature search. Four authors coded and achieved consensus on themes relating to curricular design elements and learning outcomes, which were mapped onto the CanMEDS framework.

Results: Seven articles met inclusion criteria. Key curricular design features included (i) facilitators with dual clinical and theater expertise; (ii) creating a low-stakes environment; and (iii) engaging in debrief to highlight clinical relevance. Improv curricula were found to impact most CanMEDS roles, including: Medical Expert (comfort with uncertainty); Leader (team management); Scholar (feedback, self-reflection); Communicator (empathy, active listening, non-verbal communication); Collaborator (culture of trust); and Professional (resiliency and confidence). Mechanisms by which improv may promote acquisition of these professional competencies, and the utility of improv in areas such as interprofessional team development, leadership, and wellness and resiliency are discussed.     

Can We Discharge Dynamically Risk-Stratified Low-Risk (Excellent Response to Treatment) Thyroid Cancer Patients After 5 Years of Follow-Up?

Aims

The 2014 British Thyroid Association thyroid cancer guidelines recommend lifelong follow-up of thyroid cancer patients. This is probably unnecessary, can cause patient anxiety, is time consuming and places significant demand on National Health Service resources. It has been suggested that low-risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients could be discharged to primary care once they are 5 years from diagnosis and treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential safety of this practice.

Bypass Surgery or Stenting for Left Main Coronary Artery Disease in Patients With Diabetes

Background

The randomized EXCEL (Evaluation of XIENCE versus Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery for Effectiveness of Left Main Revascularization) trial reported a similar rate of the 3-year composite primary endpoint of death, myocardial infarction (MI), or stroke in patients with left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD) and site-assessed low or intermediate SYNTAX scores treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Whether these results are consistent in high-risk patients with diabetes, who have fared relatively better with CABG in most prior trials, is unknown.

Retrospective Analysis Using Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Modeling and Simulation Offers Improvements in Efficiency of the Design of Volunteer Infection Studies for Antimalarial Drug Development

Volunteer infection studies using the induced blood stage malaria (IBSM) model have been shown to facilitate antimalarial drug development. Such studies have traditionally been undertaken in single‐dose cohorts, as many as necessary to obtain the dose‐response relationship. To enhance ethical and logistic aspects of such studies, and to reduce the number of cohorts needed to establish the dose‐response relationship, we undertook a retrospective in silico analysis of previously accrued data to improve study design. A pharmacokinetic (PK)/pharmacodynamic (PD) model was developed from initial fictive‐cohort data for OZ439 (mixing the data of the three single‐dose cohorts as: n = 2 on 100 mg, 2 on 200 mg, and 4 on 500 mg). A three‐compartment model described OZ439 PKs. Net growth of parasites was modeled using a Gompertz function and drug‐induced parasite death using a Hill function. Parameter estimates for the PK and PD models were comparable for the multidose single‐cohort vs. the pooled analysis of all cohorts. Simulations based on the multidose single‐cohort design described the complete data from the original IBSM study. The novel design allows for the ascertainment of the PK/PD relationship early in the study, providing a basis for rational dose selection for subsequent cohorts and studies.

Study Highlights

• WHAT IS THE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE ON THE TOPIC?

☑ Volunteer infection studies are routinely used in antimalarial drug development to generate early pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic data for compounds.

• WHAT QUESTION DID THIS STUDY ADDRESS?

☑ Can in silico analyses be used to suggest improvements to volunteer infection study designs?

• WHAT DOES THIS STUDY ADD TO OUR KNOWLEDGE?

☑ Multiple dose adaptive trial designs can potentially reduce the number of cohorts needed to establish the dose‐response relationship in volunteer infection studies.

• HOW MIGHT THIS CHANGE CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY OR TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE?

☑ Real time data analyses can be used to recommend doses for adaptive volunteer infection studies.

Volunteer infection studies using the induced blood stage malaria (IBSM) model have been recognized as a valuable system for defining the key pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) relationships for dose selection in antimalarial drug development. ¹ , ² , ³ , ⁴ , ⁵ , ⁶ , ⁷ In such studies, healthy volunteers are inoculated intravenously with a given quantity (with small variability) of Plasmodium‐infected red cells. Parasitemia is then followed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction until a prespecified treatment threshold is reached when the test drug is administered. Parasite and drug concentrations are then measured. These studies are conducted prior to phase II dose‐response (D‐R) trials and can be included in an integrated first‐in‐human study protocol, or after completion of the first‐in‐human PK and safety study. IBSM studies have been typically designed as flexible multiple cohort studies where each volunteer of one cohort receives a single dose of the same amount of drug (“single dose per cohort”). ² , ³ , ⁴ , ⁵ After each cohort, a decision is made to stop or to add a cohort to test a lower or higher dose based on the response observed in the previous cohorts.For the multiple single‐dose‐per‐cohort design, the starting dose is typically selected based on safety and PK information from a phase I single ascending dose (SAD) study and, more recently, on preclinical data from a severe combined immunodeficient mouse model, with the dose selected on the basis of being best able to inform the D‐R relationship, rather than aiming for cure. This approach, where a single dose is tested in all subjects of the initial cohort, risks missing the dose likely to be most informative for defining the PK/PD relationship.An alternative approach is to spread a range of doses across a smaller number of subjects within the initial cohort and use PK/PD models developed based on data from this cohort to support dose selections of subsequent cohorts and studies. Using data from a previous study, ² we undertook an in silico investigation of such an adaptive study design, aiming to reduce the number of subjects exposed to inefficacious doses, and to establish a D‐R relationship. This multiple‐dose‐groups‐per‐cohort design, referred to as the “2‐2‐4” design, is contrasted with the already implemented study design depicted in Figure  1 .Open in a separate windowFigure 1Comparison of standard and adaptive designs of IBSM studies. A/B/C, dose levels to be selected during the progress of the study based on pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic results of the initial cohort; CHMI, controlled human malaria infection; D‐R, dose‐response; IBSM, induced blood stage malaria infection; n, number of subjects at each dose.The objectives of this retrospective analysis were to: (i) compare PK/PD parameter estimates from the initial cohort of the 2‐2‐4 study design with the prior results from the data of the full study and (ii) propose a preliminary workflow to establish D‐R early in an IBSM study, and use modeling and simulation (M&S) to support dose selections for subsequent cohorts and later phase clinical trials.