From Student to Teacher: Medical Student Perceptions of Teaching Children and a Novel Application of the One Minute Preceptor

Background: As students progress through medical school, the student assumes teaching roles, but without formal training regarding how to teach. Methods: We administered surveys to 1st, 2nd and 4th year medical students asking about perceptions of teaching. The surveys were completed in the Fall (2019) and again in late Spring (2020). In the interim, students were given the opportunity to teach 5th graders during an outreach program. We gave the medical student volunteers a brief interactive session about the One Minute Preceptor (OMP) as a tool to teach the children. In the Spring survey, medical students who used the OMP were also asked about its utility in the pediatric setting. Results: Seventy-four students completed survey 1 and, of these, 51 completed the follow-up survey. Mean age was 24-27; 57% were female. Across both surveys, ?70% were comfortable with and felt they understood their role as a teacher of trainees, peers, and patients. However, <50% felt they knew any teaching method or had a plan for improving teaching skills. All felt that teaching was an important medical skill. Six students completed OMP training and the outreach program. All felt the OMP was useful to teach key points, provide feedback, and involve the learner. They also all felt the OMP should be taught in medical school. Conclusion: Medical students believe it is important to learn teaching skills. The OMP may be a useful addition to the medical school curriculum to help medical students teach in doctor-patient settings across ages and group sizes

First case of minimal change nephrotic syndrome resolving with antifungal therapy for isolated pleural cryptococcal infection

We report the case of a 71-year-old male with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus who presented with lower extremity edema and acute renal failure. He was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome secondary to minimal change disease (MCD). Treatment with steroids was withheld due to concern for hyperglycemia in the context of his poorly controlled diabetes mellitus. A week after discharge, he was subsequently re-hospitalized four times within a month with pleural effusions, dyspnea, and fever. Work up revealed isolated pleural cryptococcosis, demonstrated on two separate admissions. There was neither evidence of disseminated disease nor immunocompromising condition. Immunosuppression was not initiated for the treatment of MCD in the setting of poorly controlled diabetes and active infection. After six months of treatment with fluconazole 400 mg/day, the nephrotic syndrome, renal failure, and cryptococcal pleuritis resolved. This case is the first to our knowledge of isolated pleural cryptococcosis associated with nephrotic syndrome. The patient’s course lends further support to the hypothesis that there may be causal relationship between cryptococcosis and nephrotic syndrome

Renal Function and Death in Older Women: Which eGFR Formula Should We Use?

Background. The Berlin Initiative Study (BIS) eGFR equations were developed specifically for aged populations, but their predictive validity compared to standard formulae is unknown in older women. Methods. In a prospective study of 1289 community-dwelling older women (mean age 79.5 years), we compared the performance of the BIS1 SCr-based equation to the CKD-EPIcr and the BIS2 SCr- and Scysc-based equation to the CKD-EPIcr,cysc to predict cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Results. Prevalence of specific eGFR category (i.e., ≥75, 60–74, 45–59, and <45) according to eGFR equation was 12.3%, 38.4%, 37.3%, and 12.0% for BIS1; 48.3%, 27.8%, 16.2%, and 7.8% for CKD-EPIcr; 14.1%, 38.6%, 37.6%, and 9.6% for BIS2; and 33.5%, 33.4%, 22.0%, and 11.1% for CKD-EPIcr,cysc, respectively. Over 9±4 years, 667 (51.8%) women died. For each equation, women with eGFR <45 were at increased risk of mortality compared to eGFR ≥75 [adjusted HR (95% CI): BIS1, 1.5 (1.1–2.0); CKD-EPIcr, 1.7 (1.3–2.2); BIS2, 2.0 (1.4–2.8); CKD-EPIcr,cysc, 1.8 (1.4–2.3); p-trend <0.01]. Net reclassification analyses found no material difference in discriminant ability between the BIS and CKD-EPI equations. Results were similar for cardiovascular death. Conclusions. Compared to CKD-EPI, BIS equations identified a greater proportion of older women as having CKD but performed similarly to predict mortality risk. Thus, the BIS equations should not replace CKD-EPI equations to predict risk of death in older women

Association of Increased Urinary Albumin With Risk of Incident Clinical Fracture and Rate of Hip Bone Loss: the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study.

Prior studies suggest that increased urine albumin is associated with a heightened fracture risk in women, but results in men are unclear. We used data from Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS), a prospective cohort study of community-dwelling men aged ≥65 years, to evaluate the association of increased urine albumin with subsequent fractures and annualized rate of hip bone loss. We calculated albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) from urine collected at the 2003-2005 visit. Subsequent clinical fractures were ascertained from triannual questionnaires and centrally adjudicated by review of radiographic reports. Total hip BMD was measured by DXA at the 2003-2005 visit and again an average of 3.5 years later. We estimated risk of incident clinical fracture using Cox proportional hazards models, and annualized BMD change using ANCOVA. Of 2982 men with calculable ACR, 9.4% had ACR ≥30 mg/g (albuminuria) and 1.0% had ACR ≥300 mg/g (macroalbuminuria). During a mean of 8.7 years of follow-up, 20.0% of men had an incident clinical fracture. In multivariate-adjusted models, neither higher ACR quintile (p for trend 0.75) nor albuminuria (HR versus no albuminuria, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.65 to 1.20) was associated with increased risk of incident clinical fracture. Increased urine albumin had a borderline significant, multivariate-adjusted, positive association with rate of total hip bone loss when modeled in ACR quintiles (p = 0.06), but not when modeled as albuminuria versus no albuminuria. Macroalbuminuria was associated with a higher rate of annualized hip bone loss compared to no albuminuria (-1.8% more annualized loss than in men with ACR &lt;30 mg/g; p &lt; 0.001), but the limited prevalence of macroalbuminuria precluded reliable estimates of its fracture associations. In these community-dwelling older men, we found no association between urine albumin levels and risk of incident clinical fracture, but found a borderline significant, positive association with rate of hip bone loss. © 2016 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licenseBackground: Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide. Methods: A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study—a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3·85 [95% CI 2·58–5·75]; p<0·0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63·0% vs 82·7%; OR 0·35 [0·23–0·53]; p<0·0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer. Interpretation: Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised. Funding: National Institute for Health and Care Research