Severe sepsis: variation in resource and therapeutic modality use among academic centers

BACKGROUND: Treatment of severe sepsis is expensive, often encompassing a number of discretionary modalities. The objective of the present study was to assess intercenter variation in resource and therapeutic modality use in patients with severe sepsis. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 1028 adult admissions with severe sepsis from a stratified random sample of patients admitted to eight academic tertiary care centers. The main outcome measures were length of stay (LOS; total LOS and LOS after onset of severe sepsis) and total hospital charges. RESULTS: The adjusted mean total hospital charges varied from $69 429 to US$237 898 across centers, whereas the adjusted LOS after onset varied from 15.9 days to 24.2 days per admission. Treatments used frequently after the first onset of sepsis among patients with severe sepsis were pulmonary artery catheters (19.4%), ventilator support (21.8%), pressor support (45.8%) and albumin infusion (14.4%). Pulmonary artery catheter use, ventilator support and albumin infusion had moderate variation profiles, varying 3.2-fold to 4.9-fold, whereas the rate of pressor support varied only 1.92-fold across centers. Even after adjusting for age, sex, Charlson comorbidity score, discharge diagnosis-relative group weight, organ dysfunction and service at onset, the odds for using these therapeutic modalities still varied significantly across centers. Failure to start antibiotics within 24 hours was strongly correlated with a higher probability of 28-day mortality (r(2 )= 0.72). CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate moderate but significant variation in resource use and use of technologies in treatment of severe sepsis among academic centers. Delay in antibiotic therapy was associated with worse outcome at the center level

Whole Genome Sequencing in Personalized Oncology - Poster

Poster presented at Health RI conference about 'Whole Genome Sequencing in Personalized Oncology' covering rationale, goals, data flow, workflow, and relevance to HEALTH-RI

Stresses of COVID-19 and Expectations for the Future Among Women: A Cross Cultural Analysis According to the Femininity/Masculinity Dimension

The COVID-19 pandemic created stressors and uncertainty, particularly for women. This international study explored whether the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s stressful experiences and future expectations is associated with Hofstede’s cultural dimension of femininity/masculinity, which refers to the cultural constructions of gender role differences. In total, 1218 women from 15 countries varying in cultural femininity/masculinity provided narrative data by answering open-ended questions via an online survey. Data were analysed using mixed methods, starting with thematic content analysis followed by logistic regression analyses. The findings from the regression analysis indicate that many stresses and expectations that were mentioned in the narratives were unrelated to the cultural femininity/masculinity. However, women from masculine cultures more often expressed disorientation, while women from feminine cultures more often wrote about negative emotions. Additionally, women from masculine cultures had more future expectations regarding daily activities, while women from feminine cultures had more expectations regarding social activities, work and economic revival, and universal social issues. The pandemic seems to confront women in both types of culture with similar challenges. The differences between women from feminine versus masculine cultures indicate that increased societal participation and responsibilities of women in feminine cultures was associated with negative affect during the pandemic, but they also propelled plentiful expectations for the future “after COVID-19”

Photographs of HMEC-1 spheroids. Part of article "Computational Screening of Tip and Stalk Cell Behavior Proposes a Role for Apelin Signaling in Sprout Progression”

This data set contains microscopic photographs of in vitro cultures of Human Microvascular Endothelial Cells (HMEC-1) spheroids used to test role of Apelin and its receptor in angiogenic sprouting. It is used to test a hypothesis developed using computational modeling of angiogenesis. Images in TIFF format, as used for the image analysis. The archive also includes the output files of the NeuronJ plugin to ImageJ (file extension ".NDF") as well as XML-files containing microscopy settings.The dataset set is part of the publication "Computational Screening of Tip and Stalk Cell Behavior Proposes a Role for Apelin Signaling in Sprout Progression”

Data underlying the publication: Using robot technology to analyze forces and torques in tooth removal

This dataset can be used to reproduce results from the ‘Using robot technology to analyze forces and torques in tooth removal’ paper as written by ‘van Riet’ et al. It contains 6-axis Force and Torques data from 110 succesful tooth removal experiments. Experiments were performed using a measurement setup with a compliant robot arm at its heart.  Because of the latter, the directions of the forces and torques is also deductable. In the readme file a table can be found that explains the different directions. Other parameters that can be found in this dataset are complications and lengthiness of the procedure. </p

Does diabetes mellitus as a comorbid condition affect the health-related quality of life in prostate cancer survivors?: Results of a population-based observational study [Dataset]

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