Sports Injury Prevention in Danbury, CT

Sports Injuries, especially overuse injuries, cause a significant amount of morbidity and public health cost, especially for young athletes. Importantly, many of these injuries can be prevented with proper training and some novel approaches to warm-up and training. To address this concern, I worked with Orthopedic Specialists of CT and the athletic trainers at Danbury High School to come up with some educational materials for patients on effective ways to prevent sports medicine injuries.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1353/thumbnail.jp

Willingness To Donate Blood During the Summer

Introduction. Each year donation rates fall in the summer months straining blood banks’ capacities to meet local demands. In hopes of identifying factors to increase summer donations, our study investigated donor reported barriers which influence summer donations habits.Methods. An anonymous 16 question survey investigating various donation factors was administered across multiple American Red Cross (ARC) donation centers in Vermont. Questions addressed donor demographics, frequency of blood donation, preference in appointment making modalities including smartphone app use, summer travel habits, willingness to donate during vacation, and factors that deter donors from donating on vacation.Results. A total of 292 surveys were received. Survey respondents across multiple demographic groups cited similar barriers to summer donation, namely “Too busy” (27.5 %) and “Traveling is a time for me to relax.” (30.6 %). Of the respondents who travel in the summer, very few reported donating while traveling (3.4 %). Summer donation rates between summertime travelers (36.5 %) and non-travelers (36.4 %) were essentially equivalent. The most preferred methods of scheduling appointments were via ARC website (45.6 %) and phone (28.4%). Willingness to use the ARC app was highest among respondents ages of 18 to 34 (45-55%) and lowest among ages 55 and older (13-15%). Of respondents with no prior knowledge of summer seasonal shortages (22 %), 2/3rds indicated newfound motivation to donate.Conclusion. Regardless of travel, increasing awareness of summer shortages may increase summer donations. Use of donor websites and smartphone apps may be instrumented as part of recruitment efforts.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1239/thumbnail.jp

Novel approach to prehospital stroke screening using a smartphone application

Cerebrovascular disease continues to be one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States and worldwide. Large vessel occlusion strokes (LVOS) – defined as an occlusion of at least one of the major arteries in the brain – are associated with a worse outcome and prognosis. Patients with LVOS may have better outcomes with direct transport by emergency medical services (EMS) to comprehensive stroke centers (CSCs) capable of performing endovascular thrombectomy (EVT), rather than initial transport to a local Emergency Department (ED) that cannot perform this procedure. A need exists for a methodology for EMS to accurately identify patients with a high probability of LVOS and triage to the most appropriate destination hospital in order to shorten times to definitive endovascular treatments, improve patient outcomes and save costs in a rural EMS system. FAST-ED is a smartphone application that was designed specifically to stratify patients based on their likelihood of LVOS, and has been shown to be as accurate in predicting LVOS as NIHSS – the existing standard of practice – while being easier to use. Our multidisciplinary team at UVMMC has created and delivered a comprehensive training program to EMS personnel on the background of stroke care and the use of FAST-ED as a stroke severity scale. Since December 1st, EMS providers have been performing a FAST-ED score for each stroke alert they encounter, which is then repeated by the ED physician, and we will be comparing these scores. Our hypothesis is that EMS providers, in a rural EMS system, can utilize the FAST-ED scale via a smartphone application to accurately identify patients with a high probability of large vessel occlusion strokes, when compared to the scores found by physicians upon arrival to the Emergency Department