Retention of Physician Assistants within a Specialty after Completion of a Postgraduate Training Program

Background: The advantages of a specialized training program have led to over 84 postgraduate training programs for Physician Assistants (PAs) covering over 25 specialties. Employee lateral mobility is more prevalent within the PA profession, which allows PA providers to switch between medical specialties. The versatility of PAs promotes higher turnover rates compared to physician counterparts. These high turnover rates can result in increased institutional burden. Postgraduate PA programs provide pre-employment exposure to more in-depth medical training, enabling a well-rounded knowledge base of the PA’s roles and responsibilities, minimizing turnover rates. Purpose: The goal of this survey study is to identify PA graduates’ perceptions of their retention rate, job satisfaction within a given specialty, factors influencing a PA’s decision to change their specialty, and specialty preparation provided by postgraduate training programs and specific educational training. Methods: A mixed method design was utilized to survey both program directors and graduates of PA postgraduate training programs. Results: Of the 398 postgraduate program graduates, 196 (49%) accepted a job within the institution where they trained. Across all postgraduate training programs, 87% of graduates have not changed their specialty since program completion. Ninety-six percent of respondents felt their postgraduate training gave them an accurate preview of employment in their specialty of interest, and all postgraduates would recommend a postgraduate training program to a new PA graduate

Methylome Analysis and Epigenetic Changes Associated with Menarcheal Age

CAD received funding from EU-Europe aid grant CRIS 2009/223–507.The EPIC cohort is supported by the Europe Against Cancer Program of the European Commission (SANCO). The individual centres also received funding from: Denmark (Danish Cancer Society); France (Ligue centre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle Ge´ne´rale de l’Education Nationale, and Institut National de la Sante´ et de la Recherche Me´dicale (INSERM)); Greece (Hellenic Ministry of Health, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Hellenic Health Foundation); Germany (German Cancer Aid, German Cancer Research Center, and Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Grant 01-EA-9401)); Italy (Italian Association for Research on Cancer and the National Research Council); The Netherlands (Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS), Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR), LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, and Dutch ZON (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF)); Spain (Health Research Fund (FIS) of the Spanish Ministry of Health (Exp 96/0032) and the participating regional governments and institutions); Sweden (Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Scientific Council, and Regional Government of Skane); and the United Kingdom (Cancer Research UK and Medical Research Council UK and Breast Cancer Campaign). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Modeling in Pediatric Drug Development, and the Importance of Standardized Scaling of Clearance.

Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PKPD) modeling is important in the design and conduct of clinical pharmacology research in children. During drug development, PKPD modeling and simulation should underpin rational trial design and facilitate extrapolation to investigate efficacy and safety. The application of PKPD modeling to optimize dosing recommendations and therapeutic drug monitoring is also increasing, and PKPD model-based dose individualization will become a core feature of personalized medicine. Following extensive progress on pediatric PK modeling, a greater emphasis now needs to be placed on PD modeling to understand age-related changes in drug effects. This paper discusses the principles of PKPD modeling in the context of pediatric drug development, summarizing how important PK parameters, such as clearance (CL), are scaled with size and age, and highlights a standardized method for CL scaling in children. One standard scaling method would facilitate comparison of PK parameters across multiple studies, thus increasing the utility of existing PK models and facilitating optimal design of new studies