Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESN) Mississippi Research Opportunities

CPESN, or Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network, is a clinically integrated network that allows pharmacies to aggregate and pursue contracts from payers as a group rather than as individual entities. Being a part of a clinically integrated network allows member pharmacies to engage with one another to improve the quality of patient care and offer value to payers through enhanced services while lowering pharmacy costs. CPESN USA consists of over 50 local networks, including CPESN Mississippi. Currently, there are 61 pharmacies that have joined CPESN Mississippi and have met the Minimum Standards to offer Comprehensive Medication Reviews, Medication Synchronization Programs, Immunizations, Medication Reconciliation, Personal Medication Record, and Face-to-Face Patient Access.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/pharm_annual_posters_2024/1002/thumbnail.jp

Playing to our Strengths: An Academic/Health Department Collaboration to Facilitate Public Protections Against Tuberculosis

Background: Economic modeling and analysis can facilitate evidence-based policy and practice. Such analyses may exceed the technical capacity and mission of public health agencies, yet may be critical to sustain health protections such as tuberculosis (TB) control. The net effect of TB prevention is incompletely understood, hampering objective value judgments of national TB elimination policies. This may promote inefficiencies and threaten individual and public health protections. We describe how a HRSA-funded Texas Public Health Training Center (TPHTC) coordinated specialized analytical skills with the needs of a state public health department to create a user-friendly tool to inform planning and resource allocation; and to identify risks, benefits, opportunities, and value in the context of Texas’ Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) TB control programs. Methods: Key informants within TDSHS and faculty from the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) and its associated TPHTC collaborated to develop a combined health, cost, and outcome model to answer questions of interest to TDSHS. The model incorporates standard techniques, TB specific logic and data, and Texas specific population, epidemiologic, and programmatic data into a Microsoft Excel platform. Outcome measures include 2013 USD costs from a public agency perspective and health losses denominated in Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) (but not assigned a dollar value). Outcomes represent the 10-year accrued net present value (NPV) of variable costs associated with each incident TB case. The model used only publicly available, non-confidential data. Results: Under current public TB prevention and control practices we estimate public spending for acute medical care and health losses for Texas’ 1325 TB cases in 2011 will exceed a NPV $100,000,000 and 4800 QALYs by 2022; societal costs would likely be much higher. Public TB control is relatively cost effective and preserves 3.7 QALYs/case averted at$54,000/QALY. Implications: Partnerships between academic institutions and public health departments offer the potential to produce the economic analyses needed for judicious use of public resources. We used accessible methods, data, and technology to create a model to analyze the relative value of public TB control in Texas as well as to identify potential efficiencies within activities. Our analysis suggests public efforts against latent TB infection effectively and efficiently mitigate some of the substantial health and cost impact of TB to Texas. Most of TB’s burden remains, however, and more careful targeting of prevention by risk promises rich rewards

Messaging, Marketing, and Identity: Content Analysis of Waterfowl Hunting Videos

Abstract Media has been documented to significantly impact children and adolescents’ behavior, attitudes, cultural norms, identity development, and normative behaviors. We conducted a content analysis of three waterfowl hunting videos to determine what images and words were being conveyed to hunters, and a mail survey of Illinois waterfowl hunters to test how age may influence viewing of waterfowl hunting media. In particular, we hypothesized that: 1) age will influence whether hunters have watched waterfowl hunting media, and 2) age will influence how often hunters watch them. Overall, 82% of waterfowl hunters had watched waterfowl hunting media. Age influenced whether hunters, and how often hunters, had watched them; younger hunters were more likely to have watched the media and watched them significantly more often. Media watching also influenced hunters’ expectations, their identity as a waterfowl hunter, and their perception of the number of birds they harvest when compared to others. Results suggest that media influences waterfowl hunters’ expectations, identity, and behavior, all of which play an important role in how we will manage for waterfowl hunters in the future

Sitagliptin as combination therapy in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus

The American Diabetes Association and The European Association for the Study of Diabetes recommend metformin as the initial agent of choice in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Unfortunately, most patients require multiple medications to obtain glycemic control. One of the newest additions to the antidiabetic armamentarium is the class of drugs known as dipeptidyl-peptidase IV (DPP-IV) inhibitors. This novel approach focuses on harnessing the beneficial effects of GLP-1, an incretin hormone released from the gut postprandially. The first DPP-IV inhibitor approved in the United States was sitagliptin. It has been studied in both monotherapy and combination therapy. Combination studies with metformin realize a hemoglobin A1c reduction of 0.65%–1.1%. The combination of the two has a modest positive effect on body weight with the convenience of an oral route of administration. It has also been shown to be highly tolerable, efficacious and with little risk of hypoglycemia. This review will focus on combination therapy with sitagliptin with emphasis on combination with metformin

That\u27s My Voice! Participation and Democratic Citizenship in the Early Childhood Classroom

This paper shares a participatory action research study conducted by a team of researchers at a university laboratory school in collaboration with three classroom teachers and 60 preschoolers. The team engaged in this research in order to examine the ways in which school personnel could generate more authentic community service experiences with, rather than simply for, children. Findings illustrate that with the support of adults, children generated ways to address issues, discussed their ideas with adults, reflected on their actions, and understood that their voices were being heard beyond the school community. With this increased participation, young people were able to show and exercise crucial skills and dispositions for democratic citizenship

Transport Test Problems for Radiation Detection Scenarios

This is the final report and deliverable for the project. It is a list of the details of the test cases for radiation detection scenarios

Acceptance and commitment therapy for symptom interference in metastatic breast cancer patients: a pilot randomized trial

PURPOSE: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in women worldwide. With medical advances, metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients often live for years with many symptoms that interfere with activities. However, there is a paucity of efficacious interventions to address symptom-related suffering and functional interference. Thus, this study examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of telephone-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for symptom interference with functioning in MBC patients. METHODS: Symptomatic MBC patients (N = 47) were randomly assigned to six telephone sessions of ACT or six telephone sessions of education/support. Patients completed measures of symptom interference and measures assessing the severity of pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. RESULTS: The eligibility screening rate (64%) and high retention (83% at 8 weeks post-baseline) demonstrated feasibility. When examining within-group change, ACT participants showed decreases in symptom interference (i.e., fatigue interference and sleep-related impairment; Cohen's d range = - 0.23 to - 0.31) at 8 and 12 weeks post-baseline, whereas education/support participants showed minimal change in these outcomes (d range = - 0.03 to 0.07). Additionally, at 12 weeks post-baseline, ACT participants showed moderate decreases in fatigue and sleep disturbance (both ds = - 0.43), whereas education/support participants showed small decreases in these outcomes (ds = - 0.24 and - 0.18 for fatigue and sleep disturbance, respectively). Both the ACT and education/support groups showed reductions in depressive symptoms (ds = - 0.27 and - 0.28) at 12 weeks post-baseline. Group differences in all outcomes were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: ACT shows feasibility and promise in improving fatigue and sleep-related outcomes in MBC patients and warrants further investigation

Enteric bacterial pathogen detection in southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) is associated with coastal urbanization and freshwater runoff

Although protected for nearly a century, California’s sea otters have been slow to recover, in part due to exposure to fecally-associated protozoal pathogens like Toxoplasma gondii and Sarcocystis neurona. However, potential impacts from exposure to fecal bacteria have not been systematically explored. Using selective media, we examined feces from live and dead sea otters from California for specific enteric bacterial pathogens (Campylobacter, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, C. difficile and Escherichia coli O157:H7), and pathogens endemic to the marine environment (Vibrio cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus and Plesiomonas shigelloides). We evaluated statistical associations between detection of these pathogens in otter feces and demographic or environmental risk factors for otter exposure, and found that dead otters were more likely to test positive for C. perfringens, Campylobacter and V. parahaemolyticus than were live otters. Otters from more urbanized coastlines and areas with high freshwater runoff (near outflows of rivers or streams) were more likely to test positive for one or more of these bacterial pathogens. Other risk factors for bacterial detection in otters included male gender and fecal samples collected during the rainy season when surface runoff is maximal. Similar risk factors were reported in prior studies of pathogen exposure for California otters and their invertebrate prey, suggesting that land-sea transfer and/or facilitation of pathogen survival in degraded coastal marine habitat may be impacting sea otter recovery. Because otters and humans share many of the same foods, our findings may also have implications for human health