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Transplant Cell Ther 2021 Jun 18. Epub 2021 Jun 18.

University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Division of Nephrology, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Section of Pediatric Oncology/BMT, Departments of Oncology or Pediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine.

Background: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and cellular therapy (CT) exploit the therapeutic potential of manipulated or unmanipulated hematopoietic cells to treat diseases. While initially dedicated to the treatment of hematological malignancies and disorders, its efficacy is currently being investigated in several diseases and cancers. Indications are currently booming. Read More

Crit Rev Anal Chem 2021 Jun 21:1-16. Epub 2021 Jun 21.

Departamento de Farmácia, Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

Analytical results are often used in scientific research, industrial and clinical applications to support decision making. Despite all efforts to ensure the reliability of analytical results (including method validation, internal quality control, use of certified reference materials, proficiency tests, and ISO 17025 accreditation), there will always be an uncertainty associated with the measured value. The measurement uncertainty expresses the quality of the analytical result and allows the comparability between analytical results or between the measured value and the specification limit(s). Read More

Reumatol Clin 2021 Jun 17. Epub 2021 Jun 17.

Departamento de Salud Alicante-Sant Joan d'Alacant, Sant Joan d'Alacant, Alicante, España; Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche, Alicante, España; Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC), Alicante, España.

Background And Objective: Axial spondyloarthritis is an immune-mediated disease with a high cost, diagnostic delay and associated complications that makes it a particularly important condition. This work aims to establish a certification standard (SpACE Project) for monographic consultations in its diagnosis and treatment.

Materials And Methods: Qualitative study of consensus, through the technique of the nominal group. Read More

J Public Health Res 2021 Jun 16. Epub 2021 Jun 16.

Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is a major problem in Indonesia, placing Indonesia among the three major countries with the highest TB cases in the world. In addition, reporting of TB data from health service facilities, especially hospitals, is still weak. Since the implementation of Directly Observed Treatment Shortcourse (DOTS) in hospitals in 1995, the number of new TB case reports from hospitals is still low. Read More

Biomed Spectrosc Imaging 2020 28;9(3-4):89-102. Epub 2020 Dec 28.

Advanced Medical Imaging Center and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, U.S.A.

Objective: The objective of this study is to demonstrate the potential of utilizing mid-energy x-rays for in-line phase-sensitive breast cancer imaging by phantom studies.

Methods: The midenergy (50-80kV) in-line phase sensitive imaging prototype was used to acquire images of the contrast-detail mammography (CDMAM) phantom, an ACR accreditation phantom, and an acrylic edge phantom. The low-dose mid-energy phase-sensitive images were acquired at 60 kV with a radiation dose of 0. Read More

Med J Aust 2021 Jun 20. Epub 2021 Jun 20.

University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.

Introduction: Type 1 diabetes presents significant challenges for optimal management. Despite intensive glycaemic control being the standard of care for several decades, glycaemic targets are infrequently achieved and the burden of complications remains high. Therefore, the advancement of diabetes management technologies has a major role in reducing the clinical and economic impact of the disease on people living with type 1 diabetes and on health care systems. Read More

Hum Resour Health 2021 Jun 19;19(1):75. Epub 2021 Jun 19.

School of Medical Sciences, VU Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Background: Quality of training is determined through programs' compliance with accreditation standards, often set for a number of years. However, perspectives on quality of training within these standards may differ from the clinicians' perspectives on quality of training. Knowledge on how standards relate to clinicians' perspectives on quality of training is currently lacking yet is expected to lead to improved accreditation design. Read More

J Med Imaging Radiat Oncol 2021 Jun 19. Epub 2021 Jun 19.

Radiation Oncology Centre, Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, Singapore City, Singapore.

The Radiation Oncology Department at The National Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiology (RANZCR) has had a well-established relationship that began as a partnership to grow a pool of local radiation oncologists to meet a nation's demand for radiotherapy services. This journey has surpassed its initial aims and now has produced a generation of radiation oncologists leading a national cancer institute. We recount the history and progress of this partnership here, as well as the unique success of its product; the only RANZCR-accredited radiation oncology training site outside of Australia and New Zealand since 2002. Read More

J Gen Intern Med 2021 Jun 18. Epub 2021 Jun 18.

National Clinician Scholars Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.

Background: To increase diversity and inclusion in graduate medical education, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) issued a revision to their Common Program Requirements during the 2019-2020 academic year mandating that all residency programs must have policies and practices to achieve appropriate diversity among trainees and faculty.

Objective: To explore the perspectives of internal medicine program directors (PDs) and associate program directors (APDs) on the ACGME diversity standard.

Design: Qualitative study of internal medicine residency program leadership from academic and community programs across the USA. Read More

J Am Soc Cytopathol 2021 May 29. Epub 2021 May 29.

Department of Laboratory Medicine, System Director of Cytopathology, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Pennsylvania.

Introduction: Cytopathology is one of the most sought-after fellowships within pathology, with a lower fellowship vacancy rate compared with most other subspecialties. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) actively tracks annual program data for cytopathology fellowship programs, and evaluating this longitudinal data looking at trends in programs and positions over the past 10 years could provide insights into the future of cytopathology and its training programs.

Methods: Data obtained from the ACGME was examined in detail for all ACGME-accredited cytopathology fellowship programs over the past decade (2011-2021). Read More

Biochem Med (Zagreb) 2021 Jun;31(2):020712

Department of Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.

Introduction: Effective implementation and continual compliance with ISO 15189:2012 require ongoing commitment and active involvement of laboratory staff. Our aim was to assess attitudes regarding accreditation implementation by conducting a survey in three Croatian accredited medical laboratories.

Materials And Methods: An anonymous survey consisting of 34 questions was distributed either electronically or in a paper form a week prior to scheduled annual audits. Read More

J Environ Health 2020 Nov;83(4):20-25

National Environmental Health Association.

Internships are an essential component of preparing prospective college graduates for entering the practice-based field of environmental health (EH). EH professionals continually encounter events or hazards of high complexity and impact, and many experienced EH professionals are expected to retire within the next several years. Efforts are needed to ensure a supply of highly qualified and prepared graduates is available to sustain and strengthen the EH workforce. Read More

Rev Sci Tech 2021 Jun;40(1):227-237

The World Organisation for Animal Health Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals, Chapter 1.1.1. Read More

Indian J Public Health 2021 Apr-Jun;65(2):110-115

Assistant Professor, Department of Travel and Tourism Management, Govinda Pai Memorial Government College, Kasaragod, Kerala, India.

Background: Accreditation has become a benchmark for health-care organizations that require huge investment and effort. The impact of accreditation in health-care delivery needs to be assessed.

Objectives: The study aimed to assess the impact of accreditation on the quality of public healthcare delivery in primary and secondary healthcare settings in Kerala. Read More

BMC Med Educ 2021 Jun 15;21(1):346. Epub 2021 Jun 15.

Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA.

Background: Despite significant teaching responsibilities and national accreditation standards, most residents do not receive adequate instruction in teaching methods. Published reports of residents-as-teachers programs vary from brief one-time exposures to curricula delivered over several months. A majority of interventions described are one or two-day workshops with no clear follow-up or reinforcement of skills. Read More

J Clin Ethics 2021 ;32(2):127-148

Seattle Children's Research Institute, 1900 Ninth Ave., M/S JMB-6, Seattle, Washington 98101 USA.

Clinical ethics training programs are responsible for preparing their trainees to be competent ethics consultants worthy of the trust of patients, families, surrogates, and healthcare professionals. While the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) offers a certification examination for healthcare ethics consultants, no tools exist for the formal evaluation of ethics trainees to assess their progress toward competency. Medical specialties accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) use milestones to report trainees' progress along a continuum of professional development as a means of "operationalizing and implementing" medical competencies. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Jun 14;11(1):12441. Epub 2021 Jun 14.

Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, Bilbao, Spain.

This paper presents a novel machine learning approach to perform an early prediction of the healthcare cost of breast cancer patients. The learning phase of our prediction method considers the following two steps: (1) in the first step, the patients are clustered taking into account the sequences of actions undergoing similar clinical activities and ensuring similar healthcare costs, and (2) a Markov chain is then learned for each group to describe the action-sequences of the patients in the cluster. A two step procedure is undertaken in the prediction phase: (1) first, the healthcare cost of a new patient's treatment is estimated based on the average healthcare cost of its k-nearest neighbors in each group, and (2) finally, an aggregate measure of the healthcare cost estimated by each group is used as the final predicted cost. Read More

J Surg Educ 2021 Jun 11. Epub 2021 Jun 11.

Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Electronic address:

Objective: Integrated thoracic surgery residency program (IP) applicants often complete away rotations to stand out from the objective standard criteria. Little is known about the perceptions of these rotations. We aimed to examine the perceptions of value, cost, and expectations of away rotations among IP applicants and program directors. Read More

Chest 2021 Jun 11. Epub 2021 Jun 11.

Professor and Associate Dean for Curriculum, Department of Medical Education and Clinical Sciences, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University, Spokane, Washington.

Background: Despite the growing role of simulation in procedural teaching, bronchoscopy training is largely experiential and occurs during patient care. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) sets a target of 100 bronchoscopies to be performed during pulmonary fellowship. Attending physicians must balance fellow autonomy with patient safety during these clinical teaching experiences. Read More

AEM Educ Train 2021 Jul 8;5(3):e10575. Epub 2021 Feb 8.

Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine Yale University School of Medicine New Haven Connecticut USA.

Background: Pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellowships recruit trainees from both pediatric and emergency medicine (EM) residencies. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) defines separate training pathways for each. The 2015 PEM milestones reflect a combination of subcompetencies from the two residencies. Read More

AEM Educ Train 2021 Jul 14;5(3):e10564. Epub 2020 Dec 14.

Division of Emergency Medicine The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Philadelphia PA USA.

Background: In the emergency department (ED), residents and attendings may have a short-term relationship, such as a single shift. This poses challenges to learner assessment, instructional strategy selection, and provision of substantive feedback. We implemented a process for residents to identify goals for ED shifts; characterized residents' goals; and determined how goal identification affected learning, teaching, and feedback. Read More

Pan Afr Med J 2021 19;38:290. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

University of Zambia, School of Health Sciences, Lusaka, Zambia.

Pediatr Crit Care Med 2021 Jun 14. Epub 2021 Jun 14.

Division of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology, Department of Neurology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Division of Child and Adolescent Neurology, Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Department of Neurology, Division of Pediatric Neurology, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI. Department of Child Neurology, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Division of Neurology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Pediatric Neurology Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Hospital Universitari Son Espases, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma, Spain. Section of Neurology and Developmental Neuroscience, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. Division of Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH. Department of Neurology and Pediatrics, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA. Center for Neuroscience, Children's National Medical Center, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC. Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Children's Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO. Ruth D. & Ken M. Davee Pediatric Neurocritical Care Program, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL. Division of Pediatric Neurology, Washington University Medical Center, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO. Section of Pediatric Critical Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX. Division of Child Neurology, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center, Columbia University, New York, NY. Division of Pediatric Neurology, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Division of Pediatric Neurology, Duke University Medical Center, Duke University, Durham, NC. Department of Neurology, Division of Pediatric Neurology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Center for Integrative Brain Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA. Department of Pediatrics, Nationwide Children's Hospital, The Ohio State University. Columbus, OH. Department of Pediatrics, Division Pediatric Neurology, Neuro-Critical Care Program, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR. Division of Critical Care, Departments of Neurology, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Critical Care and Pediatrics, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, The University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. Department of Child Health, University of Arizona College of Medicine and Barrow's Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ.

Objectives: To characterize the pediatric super-refractory status epilepticus population by describing treatment variability in super-refractory status epilepticus patients and comparing relevant clinical characteristics, including outcomes, between super-refractory status epilepticus, and nonsuper-refractory status epilepticus patients.

Design: Retrospective cohort study with prospectively collected data between June 2011 and January 2019.

Setting: Seventeen academic hospitals in the United States. Read More

EJNMMI Phys 2021 Jun 12;8(1):46. Epub 2021 Jun 12.

German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Partner Site Freiburg, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.

Background: Radiomics analysis usually involves, especially in multicenter and large hospital studies, different imaging protocols for acquisition, reconstruction, and processing of data. Differences in protocols can lead to differences in the quantification of the biomarker distribution, leading to radiomic feature variability. The aim of our study was to identify those radiomic features robust to the different degrading factors in positron emission tomography (PET) studies. Read More

J Neurosurg Spine 2021 Jun 11:1-8. Epub 2021 Jun 11.

1Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.

Objective: Although fellowship training is becoming increasingly common in neurosurgery, it is unclear which factors predict an academic career trajectory among spinal neurosurgeons. In this study, the authors sought to identify predictors associated with academic career placement among fellowship-trained neurological spinal surgeons.

Methods: Demographic data and bibliometric information on neurosurgeons who completed a residency program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education between 1983 and 2019 were gathered, and those who completed a spine fellowship were identified. Read More

Perspect Med Educ 2021 Jun 11. Epub 2021 Jun 11.

North York General Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Background: Continuity of care (CoC) is integral to the practice of comprehensive primary care, yet research in the area of CoC training in residency programs is limited. In light of distributed medical education and evolving accreditation standards, a rigorous understanding of the context and enablers contributing to CoC education must be considered in the design and delivery of residency training programs.

Approach: At our preceptor-based community academic site, we developed a system-resident-preceptor (SRP) framework to explore factors that influence a resident's perception regarding CoC, and established variables in each area to enhance learning. Read More

Support Care Cancer 2021 Jun 10. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

Cancer Research and Analytics, Cancer Care Alberta, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, AB, Canada.

Purpose: Cancer-related biopsychosocial distress is highly prevalent across the cancer care continuum. The implementation of screening patients for biopsychosocial distress has become a standard of practice in cancer care. With the presence of COVID-19, clinical care has shifted from in-person care to virtual care in many instances. Read More

Neurosurgery 2021 Jun 10. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Background: Within the literature, there has been limited research tracking the career trajectories of international medical graduates (IMGs) following residency training.

Objective: To compare the characteristics of IMG and US medical school graduate (USMG) neurosurgeons holding academic positions in the United States and also analyze factors that influence IMG career trajectories following US-based residency training.

Methods: We collected data on 243 IMGs and 2506 USMGs who graduated from Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited neurosurgery residency programs. Read More

Am Surg 2021 Jun 10:31348211025752. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

419963HonorHealth, Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center, Scottsdale, AZ, USA.

Background: Work hour restrictions have been imposed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education since 2003 for medical trainees. Many acute care surgeons currently work longer shifts but their preferred shift length is not known.

Methods: The purpose of this study was to characterize the distribution of the current shift length among trauma and acute care surgeons and to identify the surgeons' preference for shift length. Read More

Am J Clin Pathol 2021 Jun 10. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

Department of Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore.

Objectives: We examined the false acceptance rate (FAR) and false rejection rate (FRR) of varying precision verification experimental designs.

Methods: Analysis of variance was applied to derive the subcomponents of imprecision (ie, repeatability, between-run, between-day imprecision) for complex matrix experimental designs (day × run × replicate; day × run). For simple nonmatrix designs (1 day × multiple replicates or multiday × 1 replicate), ordinary standard deviations were calculated. Read More